Dead of Winter

Barb (Emma Thompson) closes up her bait and tackle shop and gets in her pickup to head to Lake Hilda in remote Northern Minnesota to go ice fishing. It's an ill advised journey: the radio weatherman is advising people not to travel.

Following the hand drawn map she has, Barb struggles to find her way and stops at a remote cabin to ask for directions. The guy there is defensive but points her in the right direction.

Later while Barb fishes she witnesses something terrible happening and recognises the guy from the cabin as the perpetrator. With no mobile phone signal and now properly snowed in Barb decides to do something about it.

CW: violence and dark melancholic themes

War Machine

US Army Ranger candidate 81 (Alan Ritchson) has given up everything to complete his Ranger training and fulfil the promise he made to his brother in doing so.

As he and the other Ranger candidates face their final training scenario, which is to destroy a downed experimental weapon, they find an immensely impressive prop slightly away from the expected location.

Placing their demolition charges they think they've had an unexpectedly easy ride. The only problem is: this isn't their objective.

CW: injury detail, so much jingoistic macho hoora I think I made myself dumber just by watching it

Compliance

It's a busy night at a branch of the fast food restaurant ChickWich and it's all going wrong for franchisee Sandra (Ann Dowd). A slack employee left the freezer door ajar last night so a load of food spoiled and they've only been able to replace some of the stock. They'll have to short some of the ingredients in the sandwiches and it's rumoured a secret shopper from head office is in the area.

Now a Police Officer Daniels (Pat Healy) is on the phone saying one of her counter staff, Becky (Dreama Walker), has stolen from a customer. Officer Daniels asks Sandra to take Becky aside and check her pockets and bag.

No good will come of this.

CW: vile humiliating misogyny throughout, some nudity

Project Hail Mary

Schoolteacher Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) awakes in a dishevelled, partially amnesiac state aboard a spaceship. After yanking out the life support connections dangling from him he shambles about the vessel looking for help only to find out his two crewmates are long dead.

Grace is not an astronaut and struggles to work out what is going on, but he knows this much: it must be something to do with the phenomenon dimming Earth's sun and threatening all life. Just recently he'd been failing to come up with the words to explain this sympathetically to the children in his class.

Slowly his recollection improves but Grace has another problem: he realises he is not alone.

The Running Man (2025)

Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is a construction labourer blacklisted after numerous incidents of insufficient obedience and a tendency towards union activity. It's the not too distant future and the worst imagined predations of corporate regulatory capture and unbridled power have created a two tier society even more divided than today.

His wife is lucky to have work as a hostess in a bar but when their daughter gets sick they simply can't afford the medicine she needs.

After he pleads for his old job back and fails he resolves to audition for one of the many exploitative reality game shows that pass for entertainment. Not "The Running Man" though: that would be simply suicidal.

No good will come of this.