Kip Mooney
On Everything Everywhere All At Once, X And The Rest Of March 2022’s Top New Film Releases, Limited Showings And Repertory Screenings Around Dallas.
In a somewhat troubling development, there are only two wide releases this month. I’ve heard of studios clearing out for superhero movie dominance before, but this is practically unheard of. With more theaters shutting their doors (like the AMC Valley View and Alamo’s North Richland Hills location), I’m getting a little nervous.
Hopefully I’m just overreacting. Either way, there are still a lot of movies to get excited about.
Wide Release Best Bets.
The Batman.
Director: Matt Reeves.
Writers: Matt Reeves, Peter Craig.
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano.
Opens: Friday, March 4.
You might be Batman-ed out at this point, and understandably so. Since 1989, there have been six live-action Batmen. (Ben Affleck most recently suited up as the Caped Crusader.) So if you’re wondering if there are any stories left to tell in Gotham City, I’m here to tell you the answer is definitively yes. This latest iteration focuses more on Batman’s reputation as the “World’s Greatest Detective,” with a very dark – literally and thematically – tale of corruption and generational scars. It’s the best movie about Batman since The Dark Knight.
The Lost City.
Directors: Aaron Nee, Adam Nee.
Writers: Aaron Nee, Adam Nee, Oren Uziel, Dana Fox.
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Brad Pitt.
Opens: Friday, March 25.
This is clearly a Romancing the Stone rip-off. But since that’s one of the most entertaining movies of the 1980s, I’ll let it slide. Sandra Bullock plays a romance novelist who’s kidnapped by an adventure-obsessed billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe). The chiseled doofus who graces the covers her books (Channing Tatum) travels to South America to try and rescue her. Explosions and jungle dangers ensue.
Limited Release Best Bets.
After Yang.
Director: Kogonada.
Writer: Kogonada.
Cast: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H. Min, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja.
The much-anticipated follow-up to Kogonada’s Columbus earned raves at last year’s Cannes and this year’s Sundance festivals. An exploration of grief set in the near-future, expect another gorgeous but deliberately placed film with understated but exceptional performances. This film will also be available on Showtime beginning Friday, March 4.
Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Directors: Daniels.
Writers: Daniels.
Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Jenny Slate, Jamie Lee Curtis, James Hong.
Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert last collaborated on Swiss Army Man, otherwise known as, “That movie where Paul Dano rides Daniel Radcliffe’s farting corpse like a jet ski.” It was a wild but surprisingly emotional film about survival and depression. Their latest stars Michelle Yeoh as a Chinese immigrant tasked with saving the world by accessing her memories in alternate dimensions. It sounds crazy but this duo has pulled off crazier.
X.
Director: Ti West.
Writer: Ti West.
Cast: Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Mia Goth, Scott Mescudi.
Ti West has never quite lived up to the promise of his breakthrough film The House of the Devil. But I appreciate that he’s still out there writing and directing his own particular vision of horror, with diversions into Westerns and the occasional medical TV show. His latest riffs on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and ’70s porn. The very attractive cast play the cast of an adult film that sets up production on the property of a haunted house. Naturally, that doesn’t bode well for them.
Repertory Screening Best Bets.
The Conversation.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola.
Writer: Francis Ford Coppola.
Cast: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest.
Playing At: The Texas Theatre.
Showing: Saturday, March 19; Sunday, March 20.
Movies don’t get much better than this. If you’re wondering why you might not have heard of this, it’s because it came sandwiched in between Coppola’s first two Godfather films and Apocalypse Now. All in all, that’s probably the best four-movie run any director’s ever had. But this one’s quieter and more devastating than those classics. Hackman, in one of his best performances ever, stars as a surveillance expert who starts mentally unraveling when he overhears an exchange that will end in murder.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
Directors: Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone.
Writers: Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg.
Cast: Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg, Chris Redd.
Playing At: Alamo Drafthouse.
Showing: Saturday, March 19 (Richardson); Sunday, March 20 (Lake Highlands).
I was one of the few people who actually saw this in theaters during its initial run, so I can say for certain that 99 percent of you missed an uproarious in-theater experience, as this was one of the funniest movies of the last decade. These special screenings encourage audience participation, so be sure to wear your dopest outfit and be ready to sing along to the jams of the Style Boyz and Conner4Real. My personal favorite? “Equal Rights.”