Usually, February feels like entering a wormhole when it comes to news on movie releases, since many of the upcoming productions are waiting either to get selected in festivals or for the official announcement of these selections before they can kick off their promo campaigns. So, we turned to guilty pleasures, superheroes, a bit of voyeurism and … the “CODA case”.

Cosmic Sin (film SF, r. Edward Drake)

OK, maybe Cosmic Sin (who would’ve thought that there would ever be such an assertive action Sci-Fi movie as to be called just that?) goes way beyond “guilty pleasures”, but Bruce Willis and his mischievous look – probably the most important feature in his acting set – might bring a lot of memories for some of us (think about the first film you saw with Bruce Willis, that might be a good reminder of how old you really are). The trailer might suggest that Edward Drake’s film wants to try a bit of everything. We only hope that in order to save the human race it doesn’t come to sacrificing a hero willing to drop a bomb in the middle of the invaders’ lair …

The US premiere on March 12th.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (Marvel miniseries, created by Malcolm Spellman)

15 hours and four million views on Marvel Entertainment’s youtube page alone for this trailer announcing the new series with The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan, “our” Romanian), which seems to please the Marvel fans after WandaVision threw them into confusion. We have the same witty camaraderie, and Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl, who seems to have traded his homeland career for Hollywood) is just as determined to fight the superheroes until the very end, in order to avenge his family he lost in Segovia …

The miniseries premieres on March 19 on Disney+, when most of our homies will probably storm the torrent sites.

Old (film horror, r. M. Night Shyamalan)

The romance between the audiences and M. Night Shyamalan came to an end after Unbreakable, but the director went on about his work without any fuss and made some of the worst movies in the last two decades. Now the filmmaker comes to intrigue with Old, whose teaser trailer includes a combination of statements (“we were chosen for a reason”, “there is something wrong with this beach”) which have the potential to captivate the viewers. On the beach where the action takes place time moves differently, and Gael García Bernal’s character will learn about it the hard way. His family included …

The movie will be released in July.

The Nevers (HBO series, created by Joss Whedon)

Clearly, Joss Whedon finds it very difficult to stay away from creatures with supernatural abilities. The “papa” of the Avengers departed from the project in November (citing exhaustion as decision factor), not without offering all his love to this HBO production that takes us to Victorian England to witness the challenges encountered by a gang of women who, following a mysterious phenomenon, find themselves with all kinds of superpowers. “Their mission might even change the world”, the HBO synopsis purrs with excitement …

The Nevers premieres in April.

Est (drama, r. Antonio Pisu)

Three young Italian men traveling to communist Romania? How can it not arouse our curiosity? Antonio Pisu’s film was selected in the Venice Days section of the Venice Film Festival, and on Friday it was released on seven streaming platforms throughout Italy. “We are not afraid of Romania”, assert the three protagonists as they are getting closer to the border, but how long will their innocence last once they step inside the communist country? The threat becomes even more palpable on account of a secret mission: they submit to the desperate plea made by a Romanian dissident from Budapest of delivering a suitcase to his family in Romania. Since the action (inspired by real events) takes place between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of communism in Romania, Est captures our country at a time which couldn’t be more relevant for our history …

We don’t know yet when we’ll get to watch it in our cinemas, but we’ll sure be surprised if it doesn’t make it into at least one of the local festivals.

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (miniserie documentar, r. Joe Berlinger)

Netflix is not a newbie when it comes to releasing incredible documentaries that have a flair for creating a stir, and Berlinger’s film has every chance to make it into this category. The four-episode documentary follows two main lines: first, giving a rough introduction to the violent history of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, an establishment known as “Hotel Death” for the considerable string (on Wikipedia you can even find a list of the violent deaths and suicides carried out in who knows what room of the hotel) of lethal events that have taken place here over more than eight decades. Then, it presents the disappearance case of Canadian student Elisa Lam, last seen in a surveillance video taken inside one of the hotel’s elevators. The more than bizarre behavior of the student made the video go viral, leading to a massive stir among the public opinion and turning it into a high-profile case, the social phenomenon being also analyzed in the documentary. For a more chic visit to the Cecil Hotel: the music video for Where the Streets Have No Name by U2 was shot right in front of the hotel and also contains some opinions on the infamous reputation of this LA area.

Scheduled to premiere on February 10th on Netflix.

CODA (Family Movie, r. Sean Heder)

You’ll have to forgive us, but we haven’t yet found a trailer for CODA, the big winner at Sundance (even though it’s the remake of a French film), so instead, we present you this short video of deaf actress Marlee Matlin discussing the importance of authentic representation of people with disabilities on screen. However, apart from a few more current jokes, CODA doesn’t seem to say more than the original 2014 French film, the heartfelt La famille Bélier, but rather translates its essence to a different type of audience. The big difference between the two is the fact that in the original film the deaf-mute characters were played by non-disabled actors, whereas in CODA the performers are deaf-mute actors. So we’re dealing with a pressing question: what should festivals reward in the end? Originality and innovation or the inclusive message, which might come as nothing but an echo of a past film?

CODA was purchased by Apple for a record $ 25 million and will be distributed worldwide exclusively on Apple TV+.