The Movie Waffler 10 Movies You Must See in April | The Movie Waffler

10 Movies You Must See in April

nomadland
Our pick of April's UK/ROI new releases.

With a bit of luck April will be the last month without cinemas in the UK and Ireland, but until then there's plenty coming to VOD and streaming platforms to tide you over until your return to your local arthouse or multiplex.

April gives us not one but two movies from Chloé Zhao - along with her Oscar favourite Nomadland we get the belated UK/ROI release of her debut Songs My Brothers Taught Me. Speaking of belated releases, Palm Springs and Run finally make their way over here, along a couple of tasty horror treats and the acclaimed Sound of Metal.

Here are the 10 movies we're most excited to see in April.


Godzilla vs Kong

Godzilla vs Kong (April 1st, VOD)
The first three installments of Warner Bros' Godzilla/Kong franchise produced mixed results, with Gareth Edwards' enjoyable Godzilla followed up by the mediocre Kong: Skull Island and the awful Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Now with cinema's two biggest titans clashing, let's hope we get a movie as big as its tasty titular bout promises.


run

Run (April 2nd, Netflix)
From the director of the hit 2018 thriller Searching, Aneesh Chaganty, comes Run, in which Sarah Paulson plays a domineering mother who keeps her wheelchair bound daughter (Kiera Allen) isolated from the outside world. Where the action of Searching played out entirely on a laptop screen, Run sees Chaganty employ more traditional filmmaking in this psychological thriller.


the night

The Night (April 2nd, VOD)
Iranian filmmaker Kourosh Ahari's directorial debut The Night has the distinction of being the first US-produced film to receive distribution in Iran for over four decades. The film stars Shabab Hossein and Niousha Jafarian as a young Iranian couple living in the US who spend a night in a creepy old hotel where they and their infant daughter are menaced by a malevolent presence that forces them to confront their past.


Rose: A Love Story

Rose: A Love Story (April 5th, VOD)
Editor Jennifer Sheridan's directorial debut Rose: A Love Story is the latest movie to infuse horror elements (in this case vampirism) into British social realist cinema. Sophie Rundle and Matt Stokoe play Rose and Sam, a young couple living an isolated existence in the woods. When an uninvited guest arrives, Rose's previously quashed bloodlust begins to rise to the surface.


Palm Springs

Palm Springs (April 9th, Amazon Prime Video)
Premiering a year ago in the US on Stateside only streaming service Hulu, director Max Barbakow's highly acclaimed sci-fi-comedy Palm Springs finally arrives on this side of the pond. The latest movie to employ a Groundhog Day style time loop premise, the film stars Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti as a pair of guests forced to repeatedly relive their friends' wedding day, falling for one another in the process.




A Common Crime

A Common Crime (April 9th, VOD)
Writer/director Francisco Márquez's Argentinian thriller A Common Crime stars Elisa Carricajo in an acclaimed turn as a woman who becomes racked with guilt when a young man she refused to help is murdered by the police.


Songs My Brothers Taught Me

Songs My Brothers Taught Me (April 9th, MUBI)
Along with the arrival of Chloé Zhao's Oscar favourite Nomadland, April gives us the UK/ROI premiere of her 2015 debut. Filmed on a Lokata reservation in South Dakota, Songs My Brothers Taught Me is centred on the relationship between a teenage boy and his younger sister and established Zhao's reputation as a chronicler of rural American working class life.


Sound of Metal

Sound of Metal (April 12th, Amazon Prime Video)
Director Darius Marder's Sound of Metal, which he co-wrote with his brother Abraham, stars Riz Ahmed in an Oscar nominated performance as a heroin addicted Heavy Metal drummer slowly losing his sense of hearing. With the help of his bandmate and girlfriend (Olivia Cooke), he begins to adapt to a new way of life. Marder implements sign language and innovative sound design to tell this story.


Nomadland

Nomadland (April 30th, Disney+)
Following her acclaimed depictions of rural American working class life Songs My Brothers Taught Me and The Rider, filmmaker Chloé Zhao is hitting the road with Frances McDormand for Nomadland. Inspired by journalist Jessica Bruder’s 2017 non-fiction book 'Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century', Nomadland sees McDormand play an aging woman forced to live a nomadic life in her van following the economic collapse of her Nevada company town. As with Zhao's previous films, Nomadland features amateur performers playing versions of themselves.


Without Remorse

Without Remorse (April 30th, Amazon Prime Video)
With films like Subbura and Sicario 2: Soldado, director Stefano Sollima has proven himself the equal of his father, speghetti western supremo Sergio, when it comes to helming gritty action. This Tom Clancy adaptation, scripted by Taylor Sheridan, stars Michael B. Jordan as a Navy SEAL seeking revenge for his wife's murder.