Emotional and Exciting Movies to Watch in January

Start the new year off with five great films about fascinating people from different worlds.

From heart-stopping thrillers to historical epics to laugh-out-loud comedies, Peacock has films to kick this year off with a bang.

In the mood for a riveting thriller? | Conclave

Edward Berger’s Conclave captures the emotional events in which the College of Cardinals shuts out the world to elect a new pope in the Vatican. Confronting back-room conspiracies and scandalous secrets that could derail the process, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) must guide the church in its search for the next leader. With a supporting cast that includes John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini, the movie provides a stunning look into a world of global power few have witnessed. Nominated for six Golden Globes, Conclave “is a deftly executed and gripping tale of secrets, lies, and human ambition,” writes Hey U Guys.

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In the mood for an epic adventure? | The Northman

In The Northman, Robert Eggers crafts an eye-opening epic about betrayal, revenge, and redemption in the Viking world. A young prince (Alexander Skarsgård) forges a destiny to avenge his father (Ethan Hawke) and save his mother (Nicole Kidman) by embarking on a journey that takes him from his homeland to the mythic world of Norse Gods. Meticulously researched, the film also stars Willem Dafoe, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Björk. “History comes thundering back to life,” writes the Independent about the film’s jaw-dropping action scenes and stunning landscapes. “A cinematic saga worthy of the ancestors,” writes Empire. Egger’s latest cinematic adventure, Nosferatu, is now in theaters.

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In the mood for a mind-bending love story? | Stillwater

In Tom McCarthy’s thriller Stillwater, Matt Damon plays a father whose world is turned upside down when he moves to France to save his daughter. Accused of murder in Marseilles, Allison (Abigail Breslin) must lean on her dad, an oil worker from Oklahoma, to unravel what happened. In dealing with this foreign world and a daughter he barely knows, Damon’s character must first take a hard look at himself before he can help anyone else. The San Francisco Chronicle writes, “Audiences will come away feeling like they’ve really been somewhere, that they were moved by the people they met and expanded by the experience.”

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In the mood for a family comedy? | Half Brothers

Luke Greenfield’s Half Brothers follows two siblings—Renato (Luis Gerardo Méndez) and Asher (Connor Del Rio)—from opposite sides of the border desperate to understand why their father (Juan Pablo Espinosa) left his family in Mexico to start a new life in the United States. Unfortunately, in order to learn the truth, the two half-brothers who hate each other must take a road trip together. Writer-producer Eduardo Cisneros—whose own father left Mexico City when he was a child—told Creative Screenwriting, “After moving away from my home country, I needed to put myself in my father’s shoes to realize how much we had in common.” Full Circle Cinema writes, “Full of an abundance of heart, Half Brothers encourages us to rediscover that which means the most to us in life before it’s too late.”

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In the mood for an intimate drama? | Land

Robin Wright stars and directs Land, an inspiring story about a woman, Edee Holzer (Wright), who reacts to an unfathomably traumatic event in her life by retreating to the isolation and beauty of the Rocky Mountains. Shot in surroundings where Film Stage writes every fifth shot “will take your breath away,” the story keeps the human drama in close up as “Wright the filmmaker wrings out one of Wright the actor’s career-best performances.” As a director, Wright told Oprah Daily, “I wanted to make a film about kindness and human resilience.”

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