Get the lowdown on the best cinematic storytelling in groovy blood ‘n’ chainsaw romps, Italian exorcisms, Bollywood sisterhood, and scene-stealing performances in Keiron Self’s film previews for this April. Get a sneak peek of these movies by checking out the April issue of Buzz, which you can read online for free here.

AIR

Air is the tale of Nike’s reinvigoration, and of shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro: the man who secured Michael Jordan for the brand and gifted the world the Air basketball trainers gets the big screen treatment. Reteaming old muckers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, this has the latter on directing duties and co-starring as Nike CEO Phil Knight; Damon takes the lead as the dogged Vaccarro, courting Jordan’s family to get them to agree to his branding strategy. It might not seem like the most cinematic of ventures, but there is a stellar supporting cast, including Viola Davis (as Jordan’s mother), Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans and a calm Chris Tucker adding weight. The script, by Alex Convery, was on Hollywood’s Blacklist as one of the best-unproduced screenplays around, with Damon and Affleck doing a final pass before getting it greenlit. Expect a Moneyball-esque level of classy storytelling amidst the capitalism.

Dir: Ben Affleck (15, 112 mins)

Air opens Wed 5 Apr

ASSASSIN CLUB

Henry Golding, far away from Crazy Rich Asians but fresh from the action heroics of the underwhelming Snake Eyes, takes on another fisticuffs/gunplay extravaganza here in Assassin Club. Sounding like a riff on John Wick, this has Golding as an assassin tasked with killing seven people around the globe. Only problem is those seven people are also assassins out to kill him. As you can imagine, violence follows, while Daniela Melchior is his underwritten love interest whom he’s trying to protect after this one last job. Noomi Rapace looks set to chew the scenery and kick ass as Golding’s biggest threat, the vicious Falk – and Sam Neill suavely takes on the Ian McShane/M role, doing all the exposition. A Euro B-movie from experienced action film editor Camille Delamarre (Taken 2, Brick Mansions), this will no doubt proceed precisely as expected, with plenty of nonsensical action and little else.

Dir: Camille Delamarre (15, 134 mins)

Assassin Club opens Fri 14 Apr

EVIL DEAD RISE

The lo-fi horror film that turbocharged the careers of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell with its gore and thrills has entered a new realm in Evil Dead Rise. Following the splatstick of Evil Dead 2 and the apocalyptic madness of Army Of Darkness, the franchise seemed to be dead – until Fede Alavarez’s horrific 2013 reboot, and shortlived TV series Ash Vs The Evil Dead. People keep reading the Book Of The Dead, and in this sequel, the location has shifted away from the cabin in the woods to a city environment. Two estranged sisters – Ellie and Beth, played by Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan – have their reunion cut short by some demon possession. This leaves Beth caring for her sister’s child Kassie (Nell Fisher) amidst some terrifying set pieces. Combining the kineticism of the originals, visceral camerawork (and general viscera) along with chainsaw-welding, writer/director Lee Cronin seems to have captured the energy of his predecessors, blending horror with humour, flies on eyeballs, lifts full of blood, contorted bodies and one-liners. Groovy.

Dir: Lee Cronin (18, 97 mins)

Evil Dead Rise opens Fri 21 Apr

GODLAND

An epic tale that makes full use of the beauty of Iceland, Godland follows a Danish priest as he struggles to set up a new parish against great odds. Set in the late 19th century, Elliott Crosset Hove plays Lucas – a religious man who, armed with a wooden camera, aims to photograph and civilize the Icelandic people. Determined, furthermore, to travel through the country via an arduous route to get to know the landscape and its populace, he soon finds himself in trouble, annoying his guide Ragnar (Ingvar Sigurdsson). The pair see breathtaking volcanoes while enduring illness and hardship, on their way to Lucas’ parish, where he is due to create a new church. Director Pálmason certainly looks set to capture the rugged, unforgiving beauty of Iceland in a tale of culture clash and arrogance, with a generous, immersive running time that may try the patience but will hopefully reward.

Dir: Hlynur Pálmason (12A, 143 mins)

Godland opens Fri 7 Apr

MISSING

A young woman tries to find her missing mother from home using every online tool at her disposal – with thrilling results – in a film that shares its DNA with 2018’s excellent Searching. There, dad John Cho was looking for his missing daughter and trying to navigate the online world in doing so, the film never leaves anything that could not be seen on a computer screen. Missing follows the same template but with Storm Reid (recently ace in The Last Of Us) an 18-year-old, tech-savvy daughter searching for mum Nia Long, after she fails to return from a holiday in Colombia with her new boyfriend, played by Ken Leung. Utilising every internet-based source she can, from Google Translate to TikTok, and the aid of errand runner Javi (Joaquim De Almeida) on the ground in Cartagena, she closes in on what is happening amidst excessively twisty plotting. Missing should be a breezy nailbiter with a likeable lead.

Dir: Nicholas D. Johnson / Will Merrick (15, 111 mins)

Missing opens Fri 21 Apr

ONE FINE MORNING

One Fine Morning is the latest from Bergman Island director Mia Hansen-Love is another small emotional epic, following Lea Seydoux’s translator Sandra as she deals with her father’s neurodegenerative disease and finds new love. Pascal Greggory plays her philosophy professor father Georg – cruelly struck down by Benson’s Syndrome, which robs him of his mental acuity and vision, meaning he can no longer live alone. Seydoux and her mother – Georg’s ex-wife, played by Nicole Garcia – step into the breach to try and meet the challenge. As she deals with this slow-burning family decline, Seydoux finds love with Clement (Melvil Poupaud): the only trouble is he’s married with a child. Another of Hansen-Love’s acutely observed human dramas, dealing with the limbo of potential loss and potential heartbreak with Seydoux apparently on luminous form, this will be an involving empathy-fuelled drama.

Dir: Mia Hansen-Love (15, 112 mins)

One Fine Morning opens Fri 14 Apr

POLITE SOCIETY

A genre mashup from Nida Manzoor, creator of Channel 4’s excellent We Are Lady Parts, Polite Society is a martial arts-fest that blends action and comedy yet breaks fresh cinematic ground. Priya Kansara plays Ria – a Pakistani Muslim schoolgirl who, wanting to become a stuntwoman, is helped to film her action videos by older sister Lena (Ritu Arya). Lena has recently dropped out of art school and has a spiky relationship with her sister, but when Lena falls under the spell of a charming doctor, Salim (Akshay Khanna), Ria has to step in, taking fu-filled action to break up their relationship. Salim has a domineering mother, played by Nimra Bucha, to whom he is in thrall, but is there more to her than meets the eye – and much more may be at stake for the sisters. A fresh, exhilarating and funny ride seems to be on the cards, blending Bollywood, martial arts movies, societal pressures and heart in a clarion call to sisterhood.

Dir: Nida Mansoor (12A, 103 mins)

Polite Society opens Fri 28 Apr

THE POPE’S EXORCIST

Russell Crowe adds an Italian Dolmio sauce accent to The Pope’s Exorcist, a tale of demonic banishment that’s supposedly based on truth. Crowe plays Father Gabriele Amorth – the chief exorcist of the Vatican itself, performing over 100,000 exorcisms in his lifetime. He even wrote two memoirs on his experiences and now forms the central figure of The Pope’s Exorcist, under the supervision of Julius Avery, director of WWII horror Overlord. Looks like Crowe’s Love And Thunder scenery-chewing is set to continue with a ripe performance as Amorth, who after falling foul of the Vatican finds himself embroiled in a supernatural plot to get close to the Pope himself (played by Franco Nero). Expect head-twisting, vomiting, low voices, child possession and people flung around the room as Crowe battles Satan himself. Basically, all the horror tropes look set to be involved, with added Vatican cover-ups. Are you not entertained?

Dir: Julius Avery (15, 120 mins)

The Pope’s Exorcist opens Fri 7 Apr

RENFIELD

Another take on the Dracula story, with the focus switching from the Prince of Darkness himself to his manservant Renfield: a barely developed footnote in the source material, but here given personable flesh and action-hero moves by Nicholas Hoult. Renfield has been a slave to his master for 100 years, gaining superpowers vis eating bugs but still bringing Dracula victims to feast upon. Ryan Ridley’s comedic/horror script frames their workplace relationship as a toxic one, with Nicholas Cage mauling the scenery as the vampire himself, adding his unique Cage-ness to the fanged oppressor Renfield is belatedly trying to escape. Renfield’s path crosses with Awkwafina’s cop who is dealing with a murderous mobster played by Ben Schwartz, leading to a collision course pitched firmly in gory horror-comedy territory. Referencing Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula with nods to Christopher Lee’s incarnation via bloody slapstick, this supernatural rejig under the direction of The Lego Batman Movie helmer McKay should prove scarily entertaining. And Nicolas Cage as Dracula? Everyone wants to see that.

Dir: Chris McKay (15, 120 mins)

Renfield opens Fri 14 Apr

THE SUPER MARIO BROS MOVIE

Nintendo’s bouncy plumbers get another big-screen outing in a totally animated effort that will hopefully slay the memories of their last screen incarnation, the early 90s live-action offering starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo. Directed by the people behind the entertaining Teen Titans Go!, The Super Mario Bros Movie promises a more coherent vision of the 40-something adventurers. Chris Pratt controversially voices Mario, out to rescue his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) from the clutches of Bowser, given full throttle insanity by a roaring Jack Black. Along the way Mario enlists the help of Princess Peach – no longer the damsel in distress, and voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy – and the Mushroom Kingdom is explored. How a 40-year-old series of platform games can provide a satisfying narrative is open to question, but hopefully, Super Mario Bros will meet the challenge, and soon we will have a Fast & Furious Super Mario Kart…

Dir: Michael Jelenic / Aaron Horvath (PG, 92 mins)

The Super Mario Bros Movie opens Fri 7 Apr

words KEIRON SELF