True Detective: Night Country
Out 15 January, HBO Go
Stars: Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, John Hawkes
Two police detectives in an Alaskan town, Danvers (Foster) and Navarro (Reis), are forced to work together to solve a case when eight men from a research facility disappear into the night. Six years after another case had divided them, the detectives discover some of the missing men dead, their bodies encased in ice. Secrets and mysteries abound after they notice a familiar symbol on one victim, identical to one from the earlier case, and the pair race against time to find the murderer and save any remaining survivors.
Jodie Foster: A true screen legend
The former child star and two-time Oscar winner is back on the small screen after five decades of movie credits as a leading actress and filmmaker.
Jodie Foster is back on television, finally.
A former child model, who has had a distinguished career as an actress and filmmaker, the 61-year-old Foster is returning to a starring role on the small screen for the first time since 1975.
In the 44 years since her last role in a TV movie, she has had an incredible list of credits. In 1976 alone, she appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and four other films, among them Bugsy Malone and Freaky Friday.
She was just 13 then.
A TV commercial model at three, and an actress at five, Foster first gained prominence when she snagged an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress after playing a child prostitute opposite Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver.
For much of her early career, in the 1960s and 1970s, she worked prolifically in both television and film, appearing in movies such as Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), and doing TV work in Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Kung Fu.
Her last starring role on TV, prior to her upcoming turn in the fourth season of True Detective, was as the titular character of the 1975 television movie The Secret Life of T.K. Dearing.
After taking an unusual career break to attend college at Yale, Foster announced herself as an adult performer with the courtroom drama, The Accused (1988), for which she won the Best Actress Oscar.
She quickly won another Oscar playing the investigator Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) opposite Anthony Hopkins.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, she appeared in several successful films, including Contact, Anna and the King, Panic Room, and The Brave One.
She has since turned her hand towards directing, helming films such as 2011’s The Beaver and 2016’s Money Monster, and episodes of series including House of Cards and Black Mirror.
Recently seen in the 2023 sports biopic Nyad, Foster next plays an investigator in True Detective, when she attempts to find out what happened to eight men who vanished from a research station in Alaska.
The Goldfinger
Out in cinemas now (Available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Tony Leung, Andy Lau, Charlene Choi
When an investigator (Lau) confronts a smarmy tycoon (Leung) about an illicit scheme to swindle millions, he asks him, “You think you’ll get away with this?” The businessman smirks and says that it is entirely up to the investigator. Based on real-life events, this crime thriller focuses on the duelling ambitions of these two key characters. The tycoon Ching faces the sudden collapse of his multi-billion-dollar company after a stock market crash, while Lau is convinced that the company is a house of cards, built on corruption and conspiracy.
SAFRA members enjoy special discounts on MovieMax Member rates and Combo Sets at Shaw Theatres. For more info, go to safra.sg/promotions/shaw-theatres
I Did It My Way
Out in cinemas 11 January (Available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Andy Lau, Lam Ka Tung, Eddie Peng
Amidst stormy conditions at sea, a massive shipment of drugs headed for South America has gone missing in waters near Hong Kong. A prime suspect is a man named Lam (Lau), who seemingly leads a double life: one with a clean-cut image of an upstanding citizen, another with the brutal edge of a ruthless criminal. As the authorities circle, an undercover agent (Lam) and a police officer (Peng) struggle to pin Lam down as the shadowy mastermind behind a high-tech drug network, and law enforcement officers get killed one after another.
New Normal
Out in cinemas 25 January (Available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Lee Yoo-mi, Choi Min-ho, Choi Ji-woo
Six individuals are each experiencing his or her own personal hell. Living in and around Seoul, these people face everyday fears and “horrors” as part of their routines. They include a woman who is unable to smile (Choi Ji-woo), a lonely university student looking for love through dating apps (Choi Min-ho), a jobseeker who is also on the lookout for romance (Lee), and a middle school student who has dreams of becoming a hero. In the background of their stories, news reports raise the spectre of a serial killer targeting women living alone.
Roleplay
Out 12 January, Prime Video
Stars: Kaley Cuoco, David Oyelowo, Bill Nighy
Emma (Cuoco) and Dave (Oyelowo) are a married couple who decide to role-play and pretend not to know each other on the night of their wedding anniversary. A little harmless fun to spice up the marriage – what could go wrong? Then, Dave finds out that he really does not know his wife, who has actually been moonlighting as an international assassin. Despite her attempts to quit her secret career, she is pursued by other killers and goes on the run. After Dave decides to help, the couple have an anniversary they won’t soon forget.
Masters Of The Air
Out 26 January, Apple TV+
Stars: Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Barry Keoghan
Major Gale Cleven (Butler), Major John Egan (Turner) and Lieutenant Curtis Biddick (Keoghan) are just three of the more than 300 airmen with the 100th Bomb Group of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. Their mission, which takes their 35 aircraft deep into the heart of Europe, will force them to leave loved ones behind as they attempt to wrest air superiority from the Nazi Germany. With each bombing raid, the airmen risk getting shot down or killed, with some surviving against overwhelming odds.
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