Air (April 5th, cinemas)
Directed by Ben Affleck from a script by Alex Convery,
Air tells the true story of Nike's ground-breaking deal with
basketball legend Michael Jordan, which led to the creation of the iconic
Air Jordan footwear brand. Affleck reunites with Matt Damon, who
plays Nike's basketball guru Scotty Vaccaro, with
Viola Davis appearing as Jordan's mother Deloris.
Lola (April 7th, cinemas)
Directed by Andrew Legge and co-written with
Angeli Macfarlane, Lola stars Emma Appleton and
Stefanie Martini as two sisters in WWII England who revive a machine
developed by their late father that allows them to receive broadcasts from
the future. Initially beguiled by 1960s and '70s music, the sisters decide
to put their machine to use in the war effort, with potentially disastrous
results.
Leonor Will Never Die (April 7th, cinemas)
Renowned Philippines stage actress Sheila Francisco makes her screen
lead role debut in writer/director Martika Ramirez Escobar's
Leonor Will Never Die. Francisco plays Leonor Reyes, once a star of
the Philippines' action cinema industry. While reading an unfinished script
she falls into a coma, and fiction and reality begin to blur.
One Fine Morning (April 14th, cinemas)
One of the best films we've seen on the 2023 festival circuit is
One Fine Morning. Written and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve (Eden;
Bergman Island), the film stars Léa Seydoux as a single mother coping with her
father's declining health while negotiating an affair with a married man.
The French star delivers what might be a career best performance.
Missing (April 21st, cinemas)
After serving as editors of the "screenlife" thriller
Searching, Will Merrick and Nick Johnson have now written and directed
a similarly themed thriller in Missing. In similar fashion to Searching, the film stars Storm Reid as a teenager who takes to the internet
to solve the mystery of her mother's (Nia Long) disappearance, with
the action playing out on the screens of her devices.
Evil Dead Rise (April 21st, cinemas)
Directed by Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground), Evil Dead Rise stars Alyssa Sutherland and
Lily Sullivan as a pair of sisters who unleash the Deadites upon
discovering the Necronomicon. This one seems to adopt the more serious tone
of Fede Alvarez's 2013 film rather than Sam Raimi's Three Stooges influenced
originals.
Pacifiction (April 21st, cinemas)
Director Albert Serra's political thriller takes a look at France's
colonial past. Benoît Magimel plays a French government official who acts as High
Commissioner to the island of Tahiti. As he indulges his pleasures in
local haunts, he finds himself confronted by rumours of nuclear testing
returning to the area.
Sick of Myself (April 21st, cinemas)
Like Joachim Trier's
The Worst Person in the World, Kristoffer Borgli's Sick of Myself is another tale
of a messy young woman negotiating life in Oslo. Kristine Kujath Thorp is outstanding as Signe, a narcissist who
poisons herself in order to gain attention. What begins as a sharp satire
of victim culture morphs into the realms of body horror.
Love According to Dalva (April 28th, cinemas)
Written and directed by Emmanuelle Nicot,
Love According to Dalva stars newcomer Zelda Samson,
who scooped the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star award at Cannes 2022
for her performance as the title character. Dalva is a 12-year-old whose
world is disrupted when she is placed into foster care. Obsessed with
growing up, she gradually learns to embrace her childhood.
Polite Society (April 28th, cinemas)
The feelgood crowd-pleaser of the 2023 winter film festival circuit is
director Nida Manzoor's uproarious feature debut. Priya Kansara plays Ria, an aspiring young stuntwoman and martial
artist. When her sister seems destined for a semi-arranged marriage, Ria
puts her skills to work in an effort to stop the wedding, resulting in a
madcap mix of dance numbers and smackdowns.