When the weather outside is frightfulas it is these short, frosty daysthat's the time when a film fan like myself gets out the winter movies. It may seem perverse but, baby, when it's this cold outside I like nothing more than to shovel down to the frosty depths of my admittedly vast movie collection for some frigid weather favorites. Some of these blustery season films will be very familiar while others are more obscure. There's enough of an assortment here to keep you entertained as you hibernate until the icicles thaw ( and in between, recommendations for Valentine's Day and some great selections for Black History Month are coming down the pike ).
A few favorites from my annual Frigid Movie Fest:
For the young and young at heartLet it go ( one more time! ) with Elsa ( voiced by Idina Menzel ), Anna ( Kristen Bell ) and Kristoff ( voiced by Jonathan Groff ) in Disney's delightful 2013 animated musical and instant classic Frozen, then get your flippers tapping to "Boogie Wonderland" with the dancing penguins in 2006's Happy Feet ( and again in 2011's Happy Feet Two ).
Black comediesOh you betcha! Frances McDormand won the Best Actress Oscar as the pregnant police detective in Fargo, the Coen brothers' 1996 Minnesota-set crime thriller. The movie inspired the equally dark ( and equally fun ) 2014 FX series of the same name that is loosely ( and very cleverly ) tied to the film. Ryan Gosling gives his best performance to date in 2010's Lars and the Real Girl, the poignant and endearingly odd story of a lonely man slowly coming back to life after he forms a romantic attachment with a sex doll.
Things that go bump in the snowWhat film epicurean doesn't know Stanley Kubrick's 1980 chilly, creepy adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Shining? Unnerving, rather than scary, driven by Jack Nicholson's tremendous, scenery chewing performance, it's the story of a writer, his wife and their psychic son snowbound in a luxurious but haunted hotel high up in the Rocky Mountains. King returned to the frozen climate in the genuinely creepy miniseries Storm of the Century ( 1999 ), about a malevolent stranger who descends upon the residents of a small island just as the worst blizzard in history is striking. Creepier still is 1981's Ghost Story, John Irvin's lavish adaptation of Peter Straub's horror novel with Alice Krige as an avenging spirit determined to take out the four old men ( Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. ) who done her wrong in their wanton youth.
Trapped inside with criminalsIt's always worth revisiting Rob Reiner's 1990 Misery with Kathy Bates in her Best Actress Oscar winning role as psychotic Annie Wilkes, "number one fan" of a romance novelist played by James Caan whose obsession goes off the rails. Equally fun are the twists and turns in 1987's Dead of Winter, with Mary Steenburgen as an innocent actress caught in some deadly cat-and-mouse games while being kept a prisoner at a snowbound mansion. Harder to find but just as delightful is Patty Duke as a pregnant woman kept against her will by the woman she thinks is her mother-in-law in 1972's You'll Like My Mother.
More movies to watch when it's 10 below:
Sci-fi adventure: Snowpiercer ( 2014 ), The Day After Tomorrow ( 2004 )
Mysteries: Smilla's Sense of Snow ( 1997 ), Young Sherlock Holmes ( 1985 )
Bloodthirsty vampires: Let the Right One In ( 2008 ) and its U.S. remake, Let Me In ( 2010 ); 30 Days of Night ( 2007 )
Ravenous zombies: Dead Snow ( 2009 )
Killer aliens: The Thing ( 1951, 1982, 2011 ), Dreamcatcher ( 2003 )
Documentaries: March of the Penguins ( 2005 ), Chasing Ice ( 2013 ), Encounters at the End of the World ( 2007 )
Comedies: Groundhog Day ( 1993 ), New In Town ( 2009 )
Romance: Winter's Tale ( 2014 ), Mrs. Soffel ( 1984 )
Dramas: A Simple Plan ( 1998 ), Frozen River ( 2008 ), Winter's Bone ( 2010 )
More Groff stuff
Out actor Jonathan Groff, the multitalented cutie pie who stars in Frozen and HBO's queer-themed Looking ( now back in its second season ), starred as a cynical gay writer working as an apple picker in the offbeat 2013 indie feature C.O.G., the first movie to be adapted from the works of essayist David Sedaris.
Love is a bowtie
Love Is Strange's out writer-director Ira Sachs and the films two stars, John Lithgow and Alfred Molina, have teamed up with Tie the Knot, the seasonal collection of neckwear created by Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson and husband Justin Mikita, to promote marriage equality. The $25 brightly colored bow ties designed by Sachs and his actors pay homage to their characters and to the iconic Manhattan West Village gay bar Julius which is prominently featured in the movie. Love Is Strange is now out on Blu-ray and DVD; the ties are available exclusively at www.thetiebar.com/jtf .
Upcoming movie calendar
Highlights from films opening in Chicago, Jan. 30 and Feb. 6 ( or available online or OnDemand )
The Loft ( 1/30 )Five married men ( including out screenwriter-actor Wentworth Miller, James Marsden and "Modern Family's" Eric Stonestreet ) share the title co-op, where each brings his mistress for afternoon delightuntil a murdered woman is found there.
Mommy ( 1/30 )Out French Canadian auteur Xavier Dolan ( see interview with him in this week's WCT ) returns with a film driven by the performances of Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clement. Both actresses were stunning in previous Dolan movies —Dorval in I Killed My Mother as the mother of a difficult gay teen ( played by Dolan ) and Clement in the epic Laurence Anyways as the girlfriend of a man transitioning to female.
Seventh Son ( 2/8 )After shifting release dates multiple times over the past couple of years, this fantasy adventure a la Game of Thrones is finally arriving in theaters. Ben Barnes ( who played the bisexual, morally decadent Dorian Gray in the British version a few years back ) stars but it's the supporting cast that gives this extra interest: Jeff Bridges as a Jedi-type master and gay audience fave Julianne Moore as a vengeful witch.
Jupiter Ascending ( 2/8 )Another delayed release, this follow-up to the Wachowski siblings critically acclaimed epic Cloud Atlas is a sci-fi space opera starring Mila Kunis as a lowly janitor whose destiny is to rule Earth alongside alien entities from other worlds. Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne and British heartthrob Douglas Booth co-star.
The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: Sponge Out of Water ( 2/8 )The beloved children's character and his pals return to theaters in their second movie outing. Antonio Banderas is featured as Burger-Beard the Pirate in live-action and animated segments.
Interested in reading some of my in-depth reviews? The Best of Knight at the Movies: 2004-2014a compilation book of my film reviews from a queer perspective for Windy City Timesis available through www.knightatthemovies.com .