DVD/Blu-ray Release Calendar: February 2018

▣ Only the Brave Trailers

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This fall drama chronicles the sacrifice of an elite crew of Prescott, Arizona firefighters who battled the June 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire, one of the deadliest wildfires in history. Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion, Tron Legacy) directs a cast that includes Miles Teller, Josh Brolin, Jennifer Connelly, Jeff Bridges, Taylor Kitsch, James Badge Dale, and Andie MacDowell.

▣ Suburbicon Trailers

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Written in part by Joel and Ethan Coen and directed by George Clooney, Suburbicon stars Matt Damon as Gardner Lodge, a husband and father who gets mixed up with the mob. The supporting cast includes Julianne Moore, Oscar Isaac, Noah Jupe, Glenn Fleshler, and Jack Conley. With all those big names, you might be tempted to think Suburbicon is—at worst—worth a look. But critics found the result hugely disappointing, complaining that it was a muddled, failed melding of (at least) two different films into one "tone-deaf" misfire.

▣ Walking Out Trailers

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The latest from brothers Alex and Andrew Smith (Winter in the Blood, The Slaughter Rule) received a warm reception when it first premiered at Sundance a year ago. In the film, 14-year-old David (Josh Wiggins) travels from Texas to hunt with his father Cal (Matt Bomer) in mountains of Montana. As the two try to connect, a series of events leaves Cal critically wounded and reliant on his son for survival.

▣ Blade of the Immortal Trailers

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Takashi Miike’s (13 Assassins) 100th film is another violent offering. An adaptation of Hiroaki Samura’s manga series, the film stars Takuya Kimura as a swordsman with Wolverine’s healing powers who agrees to help a young girl avenge her parents. It might be a little long at 140 minutes, but outsized and outlandish is what Miike does best.

▣ Roman J. Israel, Esq. Trailers

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Dan Gilroy’s somewhat disappointing follow-up to Nightcrawler stars Denzel Washington (nominated for an Academy Award) as an eccentric lawyer whose morality is tested when he chooses to join an expensive Los Angeles firm headed by Collin Farrell. The film was met with modest reviews at its TIFF premiere last fall, and Gilroy's subsequent re-edit of the film failed to change minds.

▣ Wonder Trailers

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Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) adopts R.J. Palacio‘s best-selling novel into a drama starring Jacob Tremblay as Auggie Pullman, a young boy with facial differences who bravely enters the fifth grade at his local school after previously being home-schooled by his mom (Julia Roberts). The supporting cast includes Owen Wilson, Daveed Diggs, Mandy Patinkin, and Sonia Braga.

▣ Coco Trailers

Directed by Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3) and co-directed by Adrian Molina, Pixar’s latest follows the music-loving Miguel (newcomer Anthony Gonzalez) as he and his dog, Dante, find themselves in the Land of the Dead, struggling to unlock his family’s generations-old ban on music and return home. The voice cast includes Benjamin Bratt, Gael García Bernal, Edward James Olmos, and Cheech Marin. Expect it to win an Oscar next month for best animated feature.

▣ Darkest Hour Trailers

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Oscar favorite Gary Oldman stars as Winston Churchill in a biopic that focuses on Churchill’s first term as prime minister, covering his refusal to negotiate peace with the Nazis and the subsequent inspiration he provided Britain. Directed by Joe Wright, who seems to have shaken off the critical drubbing of Pan, the film follows several other Churchill-related releases last year, including Churchill, starring Brian Cox, which dramatized his D-Day decision, and Dunkirk, which ended with one of Churchill’s famous speeches as read by Fionn Whitehead. Darkest Hour received six Oscar nominations in all, including one for best picture.

▣ Murder on the Orient Express Trailers

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Director Kenneth Branagh has assembled (and, perhaps, wasted) an impressive cast for his adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel about a group of strangers under investigation for murder on a stranded train by esteemed detective Hercule Poirot (played by Branagh himself). The suspects include characters played by Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penélope Cruz, Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Lucy Boynton, and Olivia Colman. Critics feel that the film is old-fashioned and never really builds any momentum, though it's not without style.

▣ Nocturama Trailers

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This controversial but mostly well-reviewed film from French director Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent, House of Pleasures) follows a group of teenagers as they set off a bomb attack in Paris and then hide from the authorities in a shopping mall. Reviewers have raved about Bonello’s filmmaking prowess but questioned whether he has something to say.

▣ Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Trailers

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The latest and best darkly comedic tale from writer-director Martin McDonagh (Seven Psychopaths, In Bruges) stars Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes, who posts billboards to express her displeasure with the local police department after they fail to arrest her daughter’s murderer. An escalating battle ensues between Mildred, the town's chief of police (Woody Harrelson), and his second-in-command, Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell). The film is up for six Academy Awards, and has a strong chance to duplicate its performance at the Golden Globes, where it won trophies for best picture, best screenplay (McDonagh), and best actress (McDormand).