Graphic: The A.V. Club
For HBO Max subscribers, February might offer more than pricey chocolates and teddy bears. (We wouldn’t turn those down, though. It’s been a shitty year.) Next month will spark the 2021 wave of Warner Bros. film premieres, starting with
Judas And The Black Messiah. Starring LaKeith Stanfield, Daniel Kaluuya, and Jesse Plemmons, the historical drama follows Bill O’ Neal, who infiltrates the Black Panthers on behalf of the FBI. Kaluuya transforms as revolutionary Fred Hampton in a role that is generating early buzz and controversy in equal measure. As for a premiere on the entirely opposite end of the Serious Spectrum,
HBO Max has unveiled its February 2021 movie and TV highlights, including two Warner Bros. theatricals premiering in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day.
Lee a Bafta outstanding British film nominee with his low-budget debut feature
God’s Own Country steps up to bigger scale and cast names with this 1840s-set drama about real-life English fossil hunter Mary Anning. Oscar and triple Bafta winner Kate Winslet stars opposite multiple Oscar and Bafta nominee Saoirse Ronan in a fictionalised romantic drama that was selected for Cannes, Telluride and Toronto, and released by Neon in the US. Producers Iain Canning and Emile Sherman of See Saw Films won the best picture Oscar for
The King’s Speech.
Another Round Awarded the Cannes 2020 official selection label before its Toronto world premiere,
(1992)
Itâs the one Fincher doesnât like to talk about (and the only one that heâs actively disowned) but the directorâs first film is far from forgettable. Ranked alongside the other chapters in the series, Fincherâs
Alien sequel actually stands up better than most â with an industrial punk aesthetic that came straight out of MTV and Sigourney Weaverâs best performance as Ripley. Itâs a mess, for sure, but you canât blame the guy dragged in at the last minute to try and rescue it. Saddled with someone elseâs half-finished script and pressured into a ridiculous shooting schedule with near constant studio interference, itâs a testament to Fincher that the film came out half as good as it did.