New York [US], March 28: From Anne Hathaway in a gothic drama about a pop superstar to Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in an "excruciatingly awkward" indie black comedy, these are the films to watch at the cinema and stream at home this month.
1. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Video game adaptations are often notorious flops, but 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie is one of the highest grossing films ever made.
Unsurprisingly, the sequel is here, featuring the original star-studded voice cast: Chris Pratt and Charlie Day are Mario and Luigi, two plumbers who are zapped into another dimension; Anya Taylor-Joy is Princess Peach, ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom; and Jack Black is a fire-breathing turtle monster, Bowser.
The new cast-members include Brie Larson as Rosalina, a princess from outer space - and, appropriately, Larson is a diehard fan of the games.
"I threw my first boyfriend out of my house because I was trying to beat the final level in Super Mario Galaxy," Larson said on her official YouTube channel. "He said I was taking it too seriously, so I threw him out."
Released on 1 April internationally
2. The Drama
Zendaya and Robert Pattinson star in this indie black comedy as the loved-up Emma and Charlie.
A week away from their wedding day, they make the mistake of playing a drunken game of "what's the worst thing you've ever done" with their best friends (Alana Haim and Mamoudou Athie).
When Emma's confession shocks Charlie, the subsequent days of writing speeches and posing for photographs are excruciatingly awkward.
But the film's studio, A24, has kept quiet about what exactly Emma's misdemeanour was.
"We want the audience to go through the same experience as the characters in the movie, where they get to be surprised by something," said writer-director Kristoffer Borgli in The Hollywood Reporter.
"So we're trying to hold that reveal. Don't read reviews, don't go online, try to go in with nothing. I think that's the best way to see the movie."
Released internationally on 1 to 3 April
3. You, Me & Tuscany
Like Letters to Juliet (2010) and When in Rome (2010), You, Me & Tuscany is one of those American romantic comedies that serve just as well as Italian tourism adverts.
Halle Bailey, from the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, plays Anna, an aspiring cook.
When her life in New York collapses, she breaks into a villa in the scenic Tuscan countryside, and pretends to be the absent owner's new fiancee.
The trouble with this ruse - aside from being immoral and illegal - is that Anna then falls in love with the villa owner's cousin, Rege-Jean Page.
No, it's not going to be the year's most hard-hitting film, but You, Me & Tuscany offers sun-drenched escapism galore.
"I truly wanted to be a part of this project," said Bailey, "because when I read the script, I was like, 'This is a movie I want to watch with my sister. This is a movie (where) I want to be with my girls on the couch.'"
Released internationally on 9 and 10 April
4. Outcome
Timothee Chalamet may be regretting his comments about ballet and opera, but it could have been worse.
In Outcome, a dark comedy co-written and directed by Jonah Hill, the world's biggest film star (Keanu Reeves) is recorded saying something terrible.
His lawyer (Hill) and crisis-management team scramble to save his reputation, while the star himself has to think about all the people he has upset.
Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, and David Spade co-star, and there's a cameo from Martin Scorsese, playing himself.
But Hill insists that you don't have to be a Hollywood celebrity to relate to its protagonist.
"The movie uses fame as a metaphor for what we all go through living on social media," he said at an Apple TV press event, as reported by TechRadar.
"Social media has made us obsessed with what people we don't know think of us, instead of caring about what the people who care about us think of us."
Released on 10 April on Apple TV+
5. Lee Cronin's The Mummy
No, this Mummy film has nothing to do with the swashbuckling Brendan Fraser / Rachel Weisz franchise, which is about to be brought back from the dead.
Nor does it have anything to do with 2017's disastrous The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, which is probably for the best.
As the title suggests, this particular tale of the Egyptian undead is written and directed by Lee Cronin, the maker of Evil Dead Rise, who once again puts a small family in a deeply creepy situation.
Produced by horror maestros James Wan and Jason Blum, it features Jack Reynor and Laia Costa as a couple whose young daughter vanishes in Cairo.
Eight years later, she is found in the desert. but she isn't the girl she used to be.
The film is "one part Poltergeist and one part Seven", Cronin told IGN.
"It's not even a reinvention of mummy lore. It's looking into darker places and doing something different with what we think we might already know."
6. Eagles of the Republic
There's much debate at the moment about whether films and politics should mix, but the hero of Tarik Saleh's Eagles of the Republic can't keep them apart.
Fares plays George Fahmy, a revered Egyptian cinema idol whose past blockbusters include The First Egyptian in Space.
When a government official asks George to star in a biopic of the country's president, the actor knows that he has to accept, or else his son's life will be in danger.
But when he falls for the official's wife, a sly showbiz satire curdles into a gripping and sometimes horrifying conspiracy thriller.
The big winner at this year's Guldbagge Awards (the Swedish Oscars), The Eagles of the Republic is "a satire with a dissident energy and a dark denouement", says Phil de Semlyen in Time Out.
"It's an Armando Iannucci-esque send-up of something deadly serious."
Released on 17 April in the US
7. Mother Mary
Mother Mary is a gothic drama about a pop superstar (Anne Hathaway) who asks an estranged old friend (Michaela Coel) to design a spectacular dress for her.
Their collaboration somehow leads to a seance and an exorcism, but, beyond that, even the film's writer-director seems unsure of what's going on.
David Lowery, who made such atmospheric fantasies as The Green Knight and A Ghost Story, shot the film in 2023 and 2024, so it's taken a long time to reach cinemas.
"I'm in the edit right now and I have been wondering, 'What is this movie?'" Lowery said at the Melbourne International Film Festival back in August 2024.
"I know what I set out to make and that is indeed what I've made, but it is so wild. It is a movie I am sure will provoke a lot of strong feelings, in every possible direction."
The songs sung by Hathaway in the concert sequences are by Jack Antonoff, FKA Twigs and Charli XCX, so the soundtrack should be worth the wait, anyway.
Released on 17 April in the US and 24 April in the UK
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation
