There are at least
35 new movies coming out in the month of March. I'm sure that isn't a record,
but it's a lot. By my count, only 8 of those movies are getting a wide release
(~1000+ screens). When all is said and done, I'll maybe see a dozen of these movie before I die. Most of
these movies won't be worth talking about. So, I'm going to do yet another
redesign of my Monthly Preview posts. As is, these posts have the worst
"time spent" to "post usefulness" ratio of anything I do,
and I'd like to correct that. This new structure fits with what I like to do
anyway: It's a monthly top 10. It's the 10 movies that I'm most excited about
in a given month. No one really wants to hear my take on the latest Tyler Perry
Madea movie that I have no desire to see, so I'll spare you from that. Plus, in
months like February and December, I might actually get a chance to see some
daylight if I do it this way. Yes, the list will be ranked. No, I
don't expect it to remain in the same order once I've seen the movies. Yes,
there will be months when it's more than 10. No, I don't think it'll
ever be less than 10. Maybe in September. That month is brutal.
Brie Larson can't remember her past on Earth and now
is bulked up with superpowers for fighting alien invaders.
Working For It: I'll watch Brie Larson in anything. The recent wave of
90s nostalgia is still charming and not yet annoying to me. Marvel keeps
finding other actors I love who haven't been in one of there movies yet. This
one brings in Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Ben Mendelsohn, and others. The 90s
setting also allows them to bring back some old favorites like Clark Gregg's
Agent Coulson. At the end of the day, I've bought into the Marvel machine, so
I'm excited for another enjoyable, imperfect installment in the MCU.
Working Against It: As much as I love Brie Larson, I'm not sold on her in
this role yet. Granted, the trailers haven't told me much about the character
at all. As impressive as it is, I'm still unnerved by Marvel's de-aging
technology, so 1995 Samuel L. Jackson is going to be a little weird. Really, I
just want to know more about this movie, because it just feels like filler
before Avengers: Endgame so far.
2. Us (Mar 22)
A family is terrorized by a doppelganger family that
shows up in the middle of the night.
Working For It: Get Out was very enjoyable. Jordan Peele is back
with another movie in the same vein, only this one has Lupita Nyong'o: an
upgrade by any measure.
Working Against It: I think the movie will be fine, but suspect this won't
be embraced the way Get Out was. Get Out was such an delicate
balancing act that it's hard for me to believe any filmmaker could pull it off
a second time. Hopefully, I'm wrong.
3. Dumbo (Mar 29)
You know, circus, flying elephant, big ears. This
time it's live-action.
Working For It: Disney's batting average with these live-action remakes
has been high enough that I'm seeing this almost regardless of anything I hear
about it beforehand. I'm curious about the adult cast. Eva Green constantly
milks good performances out of bad roles*. Collin Farrell has rejuvenated his career in the last few years. Alan Arkin and Michael Keaton bring some "old
man charm". Danny DeVito is almost too obvious for this kind of movie.
Working Against It: It's been a while since Tim Burton directing a film was
considered a strength, even though this is right up his alley. Disney is
pushing these Live-Action remakes so hard (Aladdin and The Lion King
are both less than 6 months away as well) that something is bound to flop hard.
Given that I disliked the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland and Dumbo
is a lesser animated classic, this movie looks like the most likely failure.
*Seriously, what she did in that 300 sequel hasn't been praised as much as it
deserves.
4. Apollo 11 [Limited] (Mar 1)
A documentary about the Apollo 11 mission using
footage of the mission to tell the story.
Working For It: I like when documentaries are able to tell stories with only the footage, which Apollo
11 apparently does. Along with last year's First Man, it looks to bring
the human perspective to this massive undertaking.
Working Against It: After First Man, this seems a little soon for an
Apollo 11 documentary (although I realize both were undoubtedly made now to
honor the 50 year anniversary). From what I hear, you need to go into this doc
with some knowledge of the mission to begin with. Since there's no narration,
you need some context.
5. The Kid [Limited] (Mar 8)
The story of Billy the Kid vs. Sheriff Pat Garrett
from the perspective of a young boy trapped in the middle of it all.
Working For It: I'm increasingly a fan of Westerns. The cast (Dane
DeHaan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawk,) is far better than I would
have expected for such a small movie. That's probably tied to the fact that
D'Onofrio directed it (his first in 9 years).
Working Against It: Hawke, Pratt, D'Onofrio. Did they just film this as soon
as The Magnificent Seven wrapped? Did they already have the costumes and
sets then decide they might as well get some more use out of them? I'm not
expecting much out of this except that it looks like Chris Pratt is having some
weird-ball fun, which we don't get to see as much from him these days.
6. The Beach Bum [Limited] (Mar 29)
Matthew McConaughey is a, well, beach bum.
Working For It: Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers has grown on me
over the years. He appears to be applying the same basic formula to
McConaughey's work in Surfer, Dude. I love that McConaughey got
respectable longer enough to get an Oscar and now is back to doing the crazy
shit that's closer to who he really is. This movie has another fun and weird
cast. I don't really know what the movie is going to be about, but I assume it
will start out really funny then get really dark.
Working Against It: The reason that I haven't gone back and watched more of
Harmony Korine's movies after how much I liked Spring Breakers is that
most of his movies scare me. That guy can get dark is some really disturbing
ways.
7. Greta (Mar 1)
A young woman befriends an older woman who turns out
to be a stalker of some sort.
Working For It: Chloe Grace Moretz vs. Isabelle Hupert. It's from the
director of The Crying Game and Byzantium, so there's a European
touch to this that intrigues me. It has Maika Monroe too. I haven't seen much
of her since the ID4 sequel.
Working Against It: I worry that the trailer has spoiled too much of the
twistiness.
8. Five Feet Apart (Mar 15)
Two teens with severe and isolating illnesses fall
in love.
Working For It: It's impressive how quickly Haley Lu Richardson has shot
up my board of actors to look out for. She's entirely the reason I'd consider
seeing this The Fault in Our Stars knock off.
Working Against It: As I said, without Richardson, it's a movie with little
else that interests me, including a lot of teenage melodrama.
9. Hotel Mumbai (Mar 22)
Terrorists take over an Indian hotel. The assorted
hostages try to survive and escape.
Working For It: This is the sort of ensemble cast thriller that I could
lose an afternoon to in the days of channel surfing. I like Dev Patel, Armie
Hammer, Jason Isaac, and Nazanin Boniadi. I don't recognize most of the names
of the largely Indian cast, but I wouldn't mind an introduction to them.
Working Against It: First time director. Versatile writer. I could see some
tonal issues balancing the human stakes with the sensationalism. I assume this
will be a mess, but there's plenty of room for it to prove me wrong.
10. Triple Threat [Limited] (Mar 22)
Assassins are hired to kill a billionaire's daughter
and one man (or maybe a small group) must fend them off.
Working For It: It has Iko Uwais, which immediately gets me thinking
about The Raid movies. If this is like The Raid movies, then I'd
love to watch it.
Working Against It: This probably isn't The Raid. While the director
is a stuntman and that was part of the appeal of the John Wick movies*,
he's directed over a dozen movies. I've heard of none of them. That suggests
the whole won't match the sum of its parts.
*Different director for John Wick but both directors used to be stunt men.
Other Nationwide Releases
Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral (Mar 1) I'm just not a Madea fan. I've actually
grown to like Tyler Perry a lot as a performer and celebrity in general, but
I've hated all of his Madea movies that I've seen.
Wonder Park (Mar 15) Despite my love of theme parks (Disney ones, in particular)
this animated fantasy amusement park movie doesn't have me at all curious.
Unplanned (Mar 29) The advertising is going a little more nuanced than the
Gosnell movie last year, but the budget: moral righteousness ratio is still out
of whack.
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