Inside Llewyn Davis (K12)

Time for another dose of the Coen brothers, after the brilliance of 2010’s western True Grit. Here, idealistic young folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) struggles to make a name for himself in the Big Apple’s Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960s. Punctuated with folk tunes crafted with regular cohort T. Bone Burnett, once again the brothers have assembled an intriguing cast. Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, F. Murray Abraham and even a bearded Justin Timberlake take a bow for this outing.

Based on the classic short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, written in 1892, Yellow Wallpaper is premiering at TEHDAS Teatteri, Turku, on Thursday 30 January.

With performances stretching through February and March, the play tells the story of a woman who is unable to fulfill her role as wife and mother in the traditional sense. Forced to undergo psychological treatment and give up her life’s passion of writing, will she break free of society’s shackles?

12 Years a Slave (K16)

Steve McQueen’s third film arrives upon a colossal wave of positive word of mouth, and some 10 Oscar nominations to boot. Here Chiwetel Ejifor takes the lead as a free black man in 1840s America, who soon finds himself sold into slavery by two white men. Based on a true story the film has been lauded by critics, seen as the ultimate in white guilt by cynics and even had its promotional posters scrutinized in Italy, when images of co-stars Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender overshadowed that of Ejifor.

Once again, the 13th annual DocPoint is kicking the year off in film festivals. Presenting the best Finnish and international documentaries of the year, the festival lands once again in the Capital Region from 28 January until 2 February. With a programme packed with over 100 films, seminars, lectures, workshops and concerts are also on the bill. From its humble beginnings, the numbers in attendance each year are in the vicinity of 30,000.

YEP, the Christmas season is soon upon us, which means that some of the year’s most anticipated flicks should be arriving in cinemas anytime soon...well, hopefully. First tentpole flick of the season sees The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (11.12) on screens around the country. While some were let down by the first instalment, nearly half a billion dollars in global box office means the LOTR machine is still chugging along nicely.