Movies to plan for this month
Kiwi audiences can see awardwinning performances from Anthony Hopkins and Andra Day, and Michael B Jordan takes on Tom Clancy. James Croot gives the rundown on the latest releases.
Disney might have once again delayed the return of Marvel to the big screen, but there are still plenty of options for movie fans, in cinemas and at home this month. Black Widow is now set for an early July release but this month sees the return to theatres of Peter Rabbit (The Runaway, today), Mortal Kombat (April 22) and Tom and Jerry (April 15). Other titles unspooling include Eddie Izzard-headlining World War II drama Six Minutes to Midnight (April 22), Robin Wright’s directorial debut Land (April 29), critically acclaimed porcine documentary Gunda (April 15), sci-fi thriller Voyagers (April 8) and Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie’s reteaming in Wrath of Man (April 29).
Netflix’s always eclectic lineup features Idris Elba ‘‘urban western’’ Concrete Cowboy (tomorrow), Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer ‘‘buddy movie’’ Thunder Force (April 9) and German dance flick Into the Beat (April 16). Elsewhere, Neon debuts action-comedy Chick Fight and Shudder has The Power (both April 8).
However, after looking through the schedules, Stuff has come up with this list of the dozen films we’re most excited about seeing over the next four weeks.
The Banishing
(April 15, Shudder)
Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay headlines this 1930s-set horror about a young reverend, his wife and daughter who move into a manor with a horrifying secret.
‘‘Director Christopher Smith turns the screws with malevolent precision,’’ wrote The Guardian’s Cath Clarke. ‘‘Brown Findlay holds it together with her performance of Marianne as the sort of woman who marches no nonsense into the dark basement, brandishing a torch to take on the ghosts of mad monks.’’
Coded Bias
Monday, Netflix)
This documentary follows MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini after she discovers that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately. She embarks on a journey to push for the firstever American legislation against bias in algorithms.
‘‘The most clear-eyed of several recent documentaries about the perils of big tech, Coded Bias tackles its sprawling subject by zeroing in empathetically on the human costs,’’ wrote The New York Times’ Devika Girish.
The Courier
(Today, Cinemas)
Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel Brosnahan and Jessie Buckley star in this inspired-by-fact Cold War thriller about English businessman Greville Wynne, who was enlisted by the American and British spy agencies to help them defuse tensions with the Russians in the early-1960s.
‘‘At its best when it colours outside the black and white [or Communist red, as it were] lines of war and hones in on the real, fallible men and women who fight it, one quiet inglorious step at a time,’’ wrote Entertainment Weekly’s Leah Greenblatt.
The Father
(Today, Cinemas)
As impressive as his turns as Hannibal Lecter, C S Lewis and Burt Munro have been, this is undoubtedly Anthony Hopkins’ finest hours on film. He plays a man struggling with Alzheimer’s in French writer-director Florian Zeller’s adaptation of his own 2012 play.
It retains that production’s taut script and striking narrative devices and makes full use of all the cinematic trickery available (smart framing, forced perspectives, evocative music) to deliver a drama that is truly emotionally devastating.
First Cow
(April 29, Cinemas)
Based on Jon Raymond’s 2004 novel The Half-Life, director Kelly Reichardt’s (Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff) latest period drama focuses on a skilled cook who joins a group of Oregon fur trappers, but finds a true connection with a Chinese immigrant.
‘‘Fundamentally a western, it takes up questions of civilisation, solidarity and barbarism on the American frontier. And like many great westerns it critiques some of the genre’s foundational myths with bracing, beautiful rigour, including the myth of heroic individualism,’’ wrote The New York Times’ A O Scott.
Girls Can’t Surf
(April 8, Cinemas)
Jodie Cooper, Frieda Zamba, Pauline Menczer, Lisa Andersen, Pam Burridge and Wendy Botha are among the groundbreaking 1980s female surfers featured in this documentary, which recounts how they fought for equality in the previously male-dominated sport.
‘‘Knowing that significant change has finally come to the sport doesn’t diminish the potency of hearing about the horrors, struggles and rampant sexism that female surfers endured for decades,’’ wrote Concrete Playground’s Sarah Ward.
Love and Monsters
(April 14, Netflix)
The Maze Runner’s Dylan O’Brien plays Joel Dawson in this comedic fantasy adventure set seven years after Earth’s ‘‘Monsterpocalypse’’. He and the rest of humanity has been living underground since giant creatures took control of the land, but now having reconnected with his high-school girlfriend over the radio, he’s determined to make the 130-kilometre trek to get her back.
‘‘The rarest kind of movie these days: A fun, imaginative, genre-mashing adventure,’’ wrote indieWire’s David Ehrlich.
The Mitchells vs The Machines
(April 30, Netflix)
Olivia Colman, Danny McBride and Maya Rudolph are among the vocal cast for this animated adventure about a family road trip that goes awry when the world’s electronic devices come to life to stage an uprising.
With help from two friendly robots, they must now come together to save one another – and the planet – from this new technological revolution.
Nobody
(Today, Cinemas)
Bob Odenkirk is the eponymous man of mystery in this action-thriller about a seemingly mildmannered husband, whose dark secrets and special skills are unlocked after a home invasion.
‘‘A much-needed shot of adrenaline in a slate of pandemic-year movies, a gripping, gleefully brutal, and yet emotionally affecting thriller,’’ wrote San Francisco Examiner’s Jeffrey M Anderson.
Stowaway
(April 22, Netflix)
Space-set, sci-fi thriller about a mission to Mars that threatens to go off the rails when the threeperson crew discover they have an extra body onboard.
The cast includes Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Toni Collette and Shamier Anderson.
The United States vs. Billie Holiday
(April 22, Cinemas)
Having already taken home a Golden Globe, lead actor Andra Day is now up for an Oscar for her performance as the American jazz and swing music singer, whose life and career were beset by legal troubles and drug abuse.
‘‘[It] may be at times unfocused, but it’s never boring. And as always, [director Lee] Daniels rounds up the finest performers and gives them great characters to dig into,’’ wrote Time magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek.
Without Remorse
(April 30, Amazon Prime Video)
Michael B Jordan takes top billing in this adaptation of Tom Clancy’s 1993 novel about Navy Seal John Clark, who goes on a path to avenge his wife’s murder, only to find himself caught inside of a much larger conspiracy.
Also featuring among the cast are Jodie Turner-Smith, Jamie Bell and Guy Pearce.