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Top 20 January Picks

We've got your start to the year covered, with 20 hand-picked films arriving at the cinema, on DVD and available to Watch Online. Whether you're someone who likes to go to the pictures, or stay in or even if you don't know where to begin, this handy list offers a leg-up for film lovers, so start planning your monthly viewing right here.

The Top 20

The Road

Released: To Watch Online from January 1

Striding across a bleached, post-apocalyptic landscape, Viggo Mortensen jealously guards a rather important person – his son – from all manner of evils. It’s hard to tear your eyes away from John Hillcoat’s (The Proposition) tense, harrowing adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel, and it’s hard to shake ‘what-would-I-have-done?’ thoughts from your head afterwards.

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The Next Three Days

Released: In cinemas January 5

When Elizabeth Banks has a blazing row with her boss, and he winds up rather dead not long afterwards, all the evidence leaves Banks in prison and husband Russell Crowe desperately trying to prove her innocence. And when that falls short, in this Paul Haggis (Crash) directed crime thriller, Crowe does what we’d all do in the same circumstances, and begins plotting a jailbreak.

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127 Hours

Released: In cinemas January 7

Even after all the Slumdog heroics, this eye-watering true story may well be Danny Boyle’s best film yet. James Franco gets the goblin off his back with an outdoorsy, actorly turn as real-life mountain-climber Aron Ralston, who bounds off on a canyoneering jaunt in Utah, and gets pinned by a boulder. Out of sight. Miles from anywhere. Having told no-one where he was going…

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The King’s Speech

Released: In cinemas January 7

Colin Firth does the stutter rap as George VI, elevated to the throne of England when big bro Edward VIII clears off with Mrs Simpson in 1936. Public speaking makes him nervous, and mangle every word he utters. So George’s wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), hires speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) to work some unorthodox magic. Clear some space on the mantelpiece, Colin.

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The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Released: To Watch Online from January 7

In only his second directorial offering since Chopper (2000), Andrew Dominik crafts a brooding, atmospheric western-noir about the downfall of the infamous Missouri outlaw. Brad Pitt is superb as Jesse James, leading a strong cast that includes Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell and Sam Shepard, and it’s available to Watch Online, at no extra cost, as part of your subscription.

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Precious

Released: To Watch Online from January 8

Nominated for six Oscars and winner of two of them, this intense drama is powerfully rendered but no easy watch. Mo’Nique grabbed a Best Supporting Actress Award for playing the dysfunctional mother of Precious (Gabourey Sidibe), who suffers all manner of long-term abuse growing up in a Harlem ghetto, fighting for her own survival and that of her kids too.

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The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Released: To Watch Online from January 10

A US remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is in the works with David Fincher at the helm and Daniel Craig starring (due in December), but this is the start of the original Swedish mystery thriller trilogy written by the late Stieg Larsson – and we’re very pleased to make it available to Watch Online, at no extra cost, as part of your package.

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The Girl Who Played With Fire

Released: On DVD January 10

The second instalment of Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium Trilogy’ reunites the unlikely duo of misfit computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and investigative journo Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) as they delve into a sex-trafficking ring. The plot very definitely thickens in this unconventional and often very disturbing mystery thriller.

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Blue Valentine

Released: In cinemas January 14

This Golden Globe-nominated drama is a inside-and-out study of Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams), flipping back and forth in the timeline of their relationship to examine all aspects of their marriage – the passion, the sweetness, the passage of time, and the damage and erosion that can occur. A date movie for the emotionally secure – tissues are strongly recommended.

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Conviction

Released: In cinemas January 14

Based on the true story of Betty Anne Waters, unemployed single mum Hilary Swank sees her volatile brother, Sam Rockwell, imprisoned for murder. Convinced of his innocence, she hits the books in an effort to get qualified, investigate his case, and root out the truth. A lengthy process allowing for some serious acting, under the eye of director Tony Goldwyn (the nasty chap in Ghost).

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The Green Hornet

Released: In cinemas January 14

Perhaps less known than his bat, spider or super peers, The Green Hornet actually sprang from a 1930s radio show rather than the pages of a comic book. He’s seen life in a movie serial, a TV show (starring none other than Bruce Lee as Kato) and now this comedy actioner, starring Seth Rogen as the millionaire playboy and newspaper heir who dons a vigilante mask after his father is murdered.

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Black Swan

Released: In cinemas January 21

Dark passions run riot amid the pirouettes and pas de deux of the New York City ballet, as delicate flower Natalie Portman usurps resident prima ballerina Winona Ryder for the lead in Swan Lake, then finds her own position as theatre director Vincent Cassel’s top bird threatened by the sensuous Mila Kunis. Darren Aronofsky helms with trademark mood, murk and mind-gamery.

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Morning Glory

Released: In cinemas January 21

Sounding a bit like Anchorman played in the modern-day and mostly straight, veteran journo Harrison Ford finds himself plonked opposite sunny, breakfast TV co-host Diane Keaton, and he more than resents being there. Ambitious producer Rachel McAdams has her work cut out to stop the sliding ratings and get the gruff, legendary reporter to play ball. Jeff Goldblum and Patrick Wilson also star.

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NEDS

Released: In cinemas January 21

NEDS, slang for Non-Educated Delinquents, have fuelled Scottish comedians’ routines longer than chavs have in comedy stores down south. But Peter Mullan (My Name Is Joe, The Magdalene Sisters) is no stranger to raw, uncompromising filmmaking, so expect fewer laughs and no punches pulled whatsoever in this journey back through the mean streets of 70s Glasgow.

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The Other Guys

Released: On DVD January 24

In the sort of police precinct that only exists in Hollywood movies, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are partners who hit the streets after years spent pushing paper, when superstar officers Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson become somewhat indisposed. Director Adam MacKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights) gives legs to this one-joke, buddy-cop comedy, as does co-star Eva Mendes.

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Biutiful

Released: In cinemas January 28

From the director of Babel, 21 Grams and Amores Perros, you’ll be unsurprised to hear that this isn’t so jolly. A devoted single dad, Javier Bardem feels the legacy of his shady life catching up with him, and strives to provide a solid and certain future for his kids before the darkness engulfs him. It’s full of dark, emotional notes and Bardem has rarely been better, but definitely not for the easily depressed.

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Tangled

Released: In cinemas January 28

The tide of 3D animation keeps on rolling in, and Disney’s spin on the tale of Rapunzel gets this year’s clutch of stand-out cartoonery off to a great start. When self-important scoundrel Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi, from TV’s Chuck) scales a 70-foot tower, he gets rather more than he bargained for, in the shape of a curious young woman (Mandy Moore) whose lengthy coiffure has a mind of its own.

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Please Give

Released: On DVD January 31

Friends With Money director Nicole Holofcener’s fourth collaboration with Catherine Keener stars the latter as a well-off New Yorker torn between making a tidy profit in her furniture business and doing more to help the homeless. There’s also the grouchy old lady next door (and her chalk-and-cheese grand-daughters) to contend with, in this intelligent and thought-provoking comedy-drama.

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Winter’s Bone

Released: On DVD January 31

Slap bang in the middle of the US is Ozarks Mountain Country, a hard, forbidding place where poverty is rife and a girl of 17 (Jennifer Lawrence) has one week to track down her AWOL, drug-producing father, or lose the small home that shelters her two younger siblings and ailing mother. It’s harsh and unflinching and earnestly made – you might want to get a hearty bowl of soup before you sit down.

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The Town

Released: To Watch Online from January 31

Ben Affleck followed the success of his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, with a gritty crime drama set in Boston. Stepping in front of the camera too this time around, Affleck’s professional thief falls for Rebecca Hall’s bank manager after a robbery. Needless to say, it’s a ticking time bomb until she finds out his real identity. John Hamm, Jeremy Renner, and the late Pete Postlethwaite round out the cast.

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Darren Bignell