Denzel Washington and Liam “King Of January” Neeson kick off an uncertain year for movies

This January is lighter on schlock than normal. But then, it’s lighter on movies in general. While a few are creeping into theaters over the next four weeks, those plans could easily change between now and the day each is scheduled to open; as we’ve said pretty much every month since the pandemic started, the following list of upcoming titles could prove more generally upcoming than indicated. If it holds, audiences can expect a couple of crime-centric star vehicles, several acclaimed documentaries, and a few titles hoping to capitalize on that extended Oscar-eligibility window. Keep reading to find out what’s coming to theaters and living rooms near you in January. And before trekking out to see a movie on the big screen, please .

The horrifying murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi government—and the appalling international cover-up that followed—is the subject of this new film from playwright-turned-documentarian Bryan Fogel. As in his Oscar-winning , there’s a strong investigative element, as the filmmaker supplements the existing reporting with new interviews, laying out a timeline of disturbing events, while also offering something like a profile of the slain eponymous dissident. Reviews from Sundance described a nonfiction exposé with the urgency of a conspiracy thriller.

The Marksman represents a major branching out for director Robert Lorenz: It’s his first project that doesn’t involve Clint Eastwood, whose movies he produced from 2002 through 2014, and whom he directed in . For star Liam Neeson, though, this seems like business as usual. He plays an ex-Marine who becomes the protector of a young immigrant boy, which in this kind of movie means squaring off against a vicious drug cartel. Maybe Lorenz can bring an Eastwood-style Western vibe to Neeson’s reluctant-man-of-action persona, which between this and is getting quite a pandemic workout.

There’s not much in the way of new information in Sam Pollard’s new documentary on the FBI’s years-long surveillance campaign against the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. All the same, it’s cleanly and engrossingly assembled—a kind of shadow history of the civil rights era that lays out all the ways U.S. intelligence attempted to undermine the movement by discrediting its most prominent voice (which, of course, carries unspoken parallels to the way Black Lives Matter is demonized through propaganda). That the film doubles as an archival portrait of King himself, sneaking a few glimpses of the man behind the Great Man legacy, is all the more reason to see it.

Netflix colonizes yet another studio’s territory by going full Focus Features with an extremely British-looking adaptation of a novel about a real-life 1939 archeological excavation in Sutton Hoo that uncovered a buried ship from the 7th century. Extra prestige comes from an A-list cast: Carey Mulligan plays a landowner, while Ralph Fiennes and Lily James play archeologists. Director Simon Stone is a stage vet who also made The Daughter, an Ibsen adaptation that turned up on The A.V. Club’s list of .

Anthony Mackie has played his share of soldiers, in everything from the Oscar-winning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But he becomes a more literal killing machine in this futuristic Netflix actioner, starring as an ass-kicking military android who teams up with a young drone pilot (Damson Idris) to avert nuclear war. Quickly scanning the CV of director Mikael Håfström offers no reliable intel—he’s made both fun pulp (like ) and pure hoary garbage (). But even a knockoff Robocop might hit the spot during a long winter devoid of bona fide Hollywood blockbusters.

Darren Aronofsky’s name figures prominently into the publicity campaign for this documentary about The Villages, America’s largest retirement community. And though his producer credit on the film doesn’t guarantee any Requiem For A Dream-style meltdowns, there is a touch of darkness to the trailer, which promises an inside look at “Disneyland for retirees” through the eyes of new residents beginning to suspect that the idyllic Florida paradise may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Also vaguely Aronofsky-esque is the off-kilter imagery—one of several elements cited from Sundance, where director Lance Oppenheim’s film premiered to general praise a year ago.

Writer-director Ramin Bahrani (, ) transports his career-long fixation on classic conflict from America to India for this adaptation of the Aravind Adiga bestseller about a poor driver (Adarsh Gourav) who begins to envision more for himself than a life of servitude. Priyanka Chopra costars as one of his wealthy employers. Bahrani’s storytelling doesn’t always rise to the level of his earnest sociopolitical intentions, but he’s got a good blueprint this time: Adiga’s novel won the Booker Prize in 2008.

Jason Segel examines the more serious side of his treasured male friendships in Our Friend, where he plays a semi-slacker who steps up to help a bestie (Casey Affleck) whose wife (Dakota Johnson) receives a cancer diagnosis. This adaptation of an award-winning by Matthew Teague comes from director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, who has experience translating real life into compelling narratives with documentaries like . Our Friend got mostly positive reviews when it debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019, though some critics felt that it sanitized the honesty and intensity of Teague’s writing.

Denzel Washington’s newest crime thriller will be the second Warner Bros. title to be simultaneously released on streaming platform HBO Max, following . Washington plays a deputy sheriff clashing with a Los Angeles cop (Rami Malek) as they investigate a possible serial killer (Jared Leto). In other words, writer-director John Lee Hancock continues the dad-friendly crime-chasing of , while Washington pacifies any fans who have been waiting patiently for him to get back to his late-’90s calling of making movies like and Fallen.

On the heels of Our Friend comes another story of a close relationship faced with a terrible diagnosis. Here, Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth play longtime romantic partners visiting friends and family on a road trip, before Tucci’s character succumbs to early-onset dementia. Both Firth and Tucci have earned praise for their performances, which might be why Bleecker Street is releasing it now; late January, remember, is now within the Oscar eligibility window.