The 10 best films currently in cinemas
After the slow-motion months of January and February, March and April witnessed the heyday of many major films with the onset of spring. After April’s insane rush in the film industry, both the big studios and the lesser-known independent studios are gearing up for a big summer of movies.
Just as spring signals growth and prosperity in our seasonal calendar, it also symbolizes a new dawn for the film industry as the fruits of filmmakers’ labors begin to sprout. Before the summer movies pour in, let’s take a look at some of the standout films currently hitting theaters as April draws to a close.
Renfield
Renfeld features a duo of Nics (Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult), and their combined chemistry creates an irresistible recipe for horror comedy. Hoult plays Renfield, Dracula’s (Cage) aide, confidant, and killer; He is the man responsible for acquiring the Dark Prince’s loot. After a lifetime of submission, he is freed from the shackles of bondage and begins a life of relative normality, settling down with a lover (Awkwafina), much to Dracula’s chagrin in this hilarious twist on the vampire legend.
How to blow up a pipeline
The clear advice of How to blow up a pipelineThe creators of were the same as WWE’s when Rob Van Dam performed a five-star froggy squirt – “Don’t try that at home.” -urgent problem.
Daniel Goldhaber’s film, based on non-fiction but not technically a true story, offers a step-by-step guide to how a group of climate activists formulate a plan to blow up a Texas pipeline to scare oil conglomerates and governments alike. This is forcing those who turned a blind eye to sit up and take notice of the man-made crisis that ensued. How to blow up a pipeline is a poignant, important and critical piece of filmmaking.
Air
Directed by Ben Affleck, the film speaks of giant conglomerates that evade taxes, criminally exploit workers and burn fossil fuels when it comes to climate change Air follows the story of Sonny Vaccaro and Phil Knight, the founders of Nike, and their quest to become one of sport’s biggest rising stars.
The biographical picture chronicles Vaccaro and Knight’s attempts to enlist a young Michael Jordan as a Nike athlete and forge a partnership that extends beyond basketball. Affleck and Damon are pretty great in their performances, but when we say that, water is wet.
A Beautiful Morning (Un Beau Matin)
After a busy few years, Léa Seydoux has reprized her role as Madeleine Swann in the Bond franchise, co-starring in Wes Anderson’s lead The French Dispatchthe Parisian actor dives into French cinema Un Beau Matinor A nice morning. The French-language love drama is an ode to forbidden love under the most difficult of circumstances.
After a devastating neurodegenerative diagnosis, Sandra Kingsler must tend to her dying husband, but when a chance encounter with an old friend turns into a twisted cocktail of betrayal, passion, lust and infidelity.
Great George Foreman
You know that big strong guy who promoted the Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine? Well, he was also a world heavyweight champion and one of the pound-for-pound bests of all time. The biographical sports drama Great George Foreman documents the life and times of the boxer, as he goes from Olympic champion to world heavyweight champion to humble preacher and back again, coming out of retirement at 45 to reclaim his title after financial difficulties.
Judas and the Black Messiah‘s Khris Davis takes the lead as the incredible presence of Foreman in one hell of a knockout combo that kept the audience captivated until the final gong. Forest Whitaker stars alongside him, and the film is directed by the always interesting George Tillman, Jr. (The Hate U Give, Notorious, Soul Food).
John Wick 4
John Wick 4 is an action franchise we didn’t know we needed until Keanu Reeves, in all his stoic, rugged beauty, smashes his way through an assortment of evil forces with karate punches, fly-kicking, strangling, and gunfights. Reeves revisits his trademark famed laconic action man John Wick in a fourth installment in the franchise.
The neo-noir action thriller follows the former killer as he trots the world, dodging the increasingly prominent target in his mind and taking out those associated with the high table. John Wick 4 is the longest film in the franchise and one of the most epic action films of all time.
Turn up
Another beautifully composed film to add to A24’s increasingly glittering collection is Kelly Reichardt’s Turn up is an enigmatic satire. The quiet comedy follows the story of its disaffected protagonist, Lizzy (Michelle Williams), an artist and sculptor who balances the dramas of everyday family life with her job. While preparing for an upcoming exhibition, Lizzy deals with an irresponsible landlord, an apathetic hippie commune, a mentally ill brother and a wounded pigeon in this little gem.
are you there god it’s me margaret
The film adaptation of the novel of the same name by author Judy Blume, are you there god it’s me margaret has received quite a bit of criticism so far. The coming-of-age comedy-drama is a touching and subtly funny film about eponymous 11-year-old girl Margaret (Abby Rider Fortson) on the brink of adulthood.
Rachel McAdams shines as Margaret’s mother, and the film also stars a great Kathy Bates and Benny Safide, who chronicle young Margaret’s struggles with differing religious beliefs, being half-Jewish and half-Christian as she anticipates her first period and day wait for her to get around to wearing a bra.
Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant
Certainly a slight departure from the “apples and pears” Cockney rhymes and East London Hard Men on which he’s built a career, Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant is a more measured, restrained, and less energetic image than its predecessors. While the intrusive cheekiness of Ritchie’s other films has clearly diminished, here the director who perfected the art of storytelling still shows his unmistakable hallmarks.
Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant describes the ultimate test of friendship and loyalty between an American soldier, John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal), and an Afghan interpreter, Ahmed (Dar Salim), during the American and British occupation of Afghanistan.
other people’s children
There’s another big French film hitting theaters right now, this time in the form of Rebecca Zlotowski’s other people’s children. 40-year-old Nulliparae protagonist Rachel (Virginie Efira) lives a contented life as an independent woman with the freedom of being single with no children until she meets Ali (Roschdy Zem), a single father with whom she falls hopelessly in love. Although this love is kind of a 2-in-1 as she begins to bond with his young daughter in a motherly way.
