From award-winning Belgian teen arthouse drama to the no-awards-won-at-all Creed III (or Rocky IX by any other name), Keiron Self is happy to trundle it into his wheelhouse. Here are his latest 10 new films coming out in March 2023 as spring begins to spring. Previews of all these new films can also be found in the March issue of Buzz, available to read online now.
CLOSE
A delicate study of a friendship between two 13-year-old boys that suddenly gets torn asunder, Close is an award-winning tale of childhood is humane if unforgiving. Eden Dambrine and Gustav de Waele play Leo and Remi, an inseparable couple of friends whose physical and emotional closeness is starting to draw bullying comments from schoolmates. Both living on farms and riding their bikes to school, their relationship involves them living out of each other’s houses, with Leo idolising Remi’s mother (Emilie Dequenne). Matters, though, take a turn as homophobic slurs gather weight and Leo starts distancing himself from Remi, social pressure disrupting their closeness. Tragedy, inevitably, will follow. Dhont directs with naturalistic skill, drawing out superb performances from his young leads, leading to a devastating, controversial climax, tackling uncomfortable dramatic territory to mostly moving effect.
Dir: Lukas Dhont (12A, 105 mins)
Close opens Fri 3 Mar
CREED III
The ninth cinematic offshoot from Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky, Creed III has one of its pugilists step behind the camera as well, with Michael B. Jordan not only playing Adonis Creed but co-ordinating the fisticuffs both physical and emotional. Following on from Creed II, the film finds Adonis happy and secure in life; naturally, this calm is all thrown into stormy chaos with the re-emergence of childhood friend Damian, played by Jonathan Majors. Recently released from prison, Damian wants a shot at his ex-best friend’s boxing title and to get some payback. Expect lengthy training montages, sweaty, brutal bouts and some obvious sport movie cliches, but no Sylvester Stallone. Without a Rocky, this takes the franchise forwards; whether anyone wants to see another retread of boxing movie tropes is open to question, though a killer cast should paper over the cliché cracks. Seconds out, round III.
Dir: Michael B. Jordan (12A, 116 mins)
Creed III opens Fri 3 Mar
65
High concept ahoy in this sci-fi/dinosaur mashup as Adam Driver is on an exploratory mission years in the future, only to find himself 65 million years in the past. Directed and written by A Quiet Place scribes Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, and produced by Sam Raimi, 65 has Driver show his action hero chops in a tense two-hander. Following an asteroid collision, his spaceship is knocked off course and the only passenger on board who survives is a young girl, played by Ariana Greenblatt. Now he has to try and find a way off this hostile planet peopled with dinosaurs, and with an impending sky-borne threat, the odds seem somewhat stacked against him. It’s certainly a heck of a hook, a makeshift ‘father/daughter’ against the elements including CGI dinosaurs, and with the creatives attached this should be an enjoyable, action-fuelled popcorn ride.
Dir: Scott Beck/Bryan Woods (15, 90 mins)
65 opens Fri 10 Mar
SCREAM VI
Slasher franchise Scream relocates from smalltown Woodsboro to the much larger expanse of New York for its second outing, Scream VI, under the creative guardianship of Olpin and Gillett. Their requel, 2022’s Scream V, had some shocks and surprises with no cast member being safe, and while Neve Campbell may not be returning, Courtney Cox is – but for how long? Also returning is Hayden Panettiere’s movie geek Kirby Reed, introduced in Scream 4 and resurrected at the end of the followup in some nefarious flashbackery. This installment follows Sam (Melissa Barrera) dealing with the consequences of being the offspring of the original ghost-faced killer; also returning are Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding, this time facing a more aggressive threat: a fearless murderer willing to strike on crowded subway trains as well as homes. Nasty and bloody with continuing meta moments in a new location, this should thrill its fanbase with some shocking set-pieces and whodunit vibes.
Dir: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin / Tyler Gillett (15, 123 mins)
Scream VI opens Fri 10 Mar
ALLELUJAH
Alan Bennett’s gentle play gets a gentle adaptation for the screen, it would seem. Set on the Shirley Bassey ward in a Yorkshire care home named Bethlehem, Allelujah is an ensemble comedy drama featuring some heavyweight British talent. Russell Tovey is Colin, a gay Department Of Health consultant whose dad, an ailing ex-miner played by David Bradley, is a patient there. Never able to accept his son’s sexuality, their fractious relationship plays out over the film, along with subplots involving other patients – dementia sufferer Julia Mckenzie, Judi Dench’s ex-librarian interested in scribbled notes people make in books, pompous former teacher Derek Jacobi – with Jennifer Saunders as the stern ward sister and Jesse Akele and Bally Gill the caring nurse and doctor. Destined to be soft and sentimental, it looks to be a hymn to the troubled NHS (with an added COVID section written for the screen), hopefully hammering home how important that institution is.
Dir: Richard Eyre (12A, 99 mins)
Allelujah opens Fri 17 Mar
PEARL
A follow-up of sorts to Ti West’s X, Pearl was shot back-to-back with the 70s set shocker in New Zealand during lockdown. This delves into the past: set in 1918 amidst the era’s major pandemic, the Spanish flu, it follows Mia Goth’s Pearl, living on a farm in rural Texas with her ill father and domineering mother. With her husband away fighting in WWI, she starts a friendship with a projectionist, before the lure of an audition for a travelling dance troupe proves strong. The film uses classic Hollywood tropes, with echoes of The Wizard Of Oz to tell a tale of growing psychological horror: the scarecrow in this film, however, has sex with Pearl rather than singing and requesting a brain. As for Pearl herself, she’s a complex, murderous character played by Goth – Ti West’s muse – with empathy and psychosis alike. The end result, it seems, disturbed even master filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who raved about its twisted strangeness and caused him sleepless nights: that alone should make this a horror to seek out.
Dir: Ti West (15, 102 mins)
Pearl opens Fri 17 Mar
SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS
The lightning-bolted Shazam returns, with Zachary Levi wearing the cape in another outing for this light-hearted superhero who, confusingly, shares vocabulary with Black Adam. Hopefully, this will be a more successful outing for the DC universe than that by-the-numbers Dwayne Johnson vehicle. Teenager Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is having problems being his alter ego, Levi’s Shazam: he’s feeling less powerful than the Flash or Aquaman, his family also have superpowers and he’s trying to keep them all together. Not so easy when you’ve got a threat from angry gods Hespera and Kalypso (Helen Mirren and Lucy Lui, no doubt adding gravitas) and need to save the world. After a succession of bland outings from DC, The Batman excepted, it feels especially necessary that Shazam! bucks the trend with a dash of absurdist humour. Levi, at least, is a likeable frontman and may be able to ensure the word ‘shazam!’ hasn’t been too tainted by the misfiring Black Adam.
Dir: David F. Sandberg (12A, 130 mins)
Shazam! Fury Of The Gods opens Fri 17 Mar
FULL TIME
The simple act of getting to a job interview on time is turned into a breakneck thriller in this drama starring Call My Agent’s Laure Calamy. She plays a put-upon single mum trying to balance work and life, leaving her kids with a nanny as she attempts to make ends meet working as a chambermaid in a swanky hotel. The opportunity for a better-paid job more suited to her skills and ambition comes up, but it will be a real challenge getting there on the week of citywide public transport strikes. She will have to get coworkers to cover for her and, crucially, make it on time for her interview. Full Time has been compared to Run Lola Run for its pulse-pounding editing, kineticism and driving music, with a winning Calamy at its centre. Traumatising for anyone who has ever run for a bus for work, this is a real everyday action film.
Dir: Eric Gravel (15, 88 mins)
Full Time opens Fri 24 Mar
A GOOD PERSON
Zach Braff, the writer/director behind comedy dramas Garden State and Wish I Was Here as well as being the lead in the long-running sitcom Scrubs, gets back behind the camera for A Good Person, a grief-riddled drama with a fabulous cast. Florence Pugh, who seems incapable of turning in a bad performance, stars as Allison, a woman with an apparently perfect life mapped out ahead of her. In love with Nathan, played by Chinaza Uche, all seems wondrous until she is involved in a car crash with her sister-in-law, Molly (Nichelle Hines), derailing happiness, relationships and leading to depression and addiction. Morgan Freeman plays Molly’s father – a model train enthusiast struggling to come to terms with his loss and connect with his granddaughter (Celeste O’Connor). Initially split by tragedy, Pugh and Freeman begin to reconnect in surprising ways. Braff has a solid track record with balancing emotion and comedy, and this looks set to continue the trend, with Pugh shining as ever.
Dir: Zach Braff (15, 129 mins)
A Good Person opens Fri 24 Mar
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4
Zen hardman Keanu Reeves returns to beating up and killing people in creative ways in yet another installment of the B-movie that came good, John Wick. Nine years ago, John Wick set out to avenge his puppy, and the Wick universe has grown considerably since then. Female assassin spinoff Ballerina, starring Ana De Armas, is planned alongside a TV series, The Continental, set around the hotel the assassins frequent. Shadowy assassination bureau The High Table are hot on the heels of Wick as he travels across the globe, the film moving to Japan where Reeves will encounter master martial artist Donnie Yen’s blind antagonist and reveal more about his chequered past. Car chases are stepped up, with some car fu alongside the – still kinetically choreographed – fist and foot fights at returning director Stahelski’s behest. This will be more of the same for Wick fans, albeit with a bigger budget and longer running time: the third John Wick made more than the first and second film combined, and this franchise shows little sign of running out of bruises.
Dir: Chad Stahelski (15, 120 mins)
John Wick: Chapter 4 opens Fri 24 Mar
words KEIRON SELF
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