19 Films to See in February

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor
and Keith Kimbell, Metacritic Film Editor – February 1, 2023

In the gallery on this page, our editors have selected the most interesting films debuting in North American theaters this month, listed in alphabetical order.

14 of 22 photo by Grasshoper Film

75 Pacifiction

Foreign/Drama/Thriller | Directed by Albert Serra
Opens in NY February 17 (additional cities to follow)
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After three period dramas (Story of My Death, The Death of Louis XIV, Liberté), Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra moves his particular brand of cinema to contemporary times with this mysterious 164-minute mood piece about a French government official in Tahiti named De Roller (Benoît Magimel). It’s a beguiling tropical tour led by De Roller’s navigation of the rich and powerful colonial bureaucracy through greetings, meetings, and cocktails to small talk with locals at seedy nightclubs. De Roller seeks his currency—information—trying to determine the meaning of a submarine appearing off the coast. Do the French want to begin nuclear testing off the coast of the island again? Serra’s converts know it’s not about answers but immersion.

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