With the bulk of the vast winter wasteland offerings now in the rearview mirror, it’s time for studios to begin their slow rollout towards the more lucrative, higher-profile summer season.
March 7
‘Eephus’Sharing its title with an unorthodox, high-arching pitch, this fictional baseball drama is set in a small New England town and is centered on an amateur team preparing to play their final game in a soon to be demolished stadium. (Music Box Films)
The long-in-coming, hotly-anticipated follow-up to his magnum opus “Parasite,” filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s sci-fi comedy looks like a cross between “Catch 22” and “Edge of Tomorrow.” Robert Pattinson stars as Mickey, a financially broke and resigned man who volunteers to be an “expendable:” a disposable worker on a planet being colonized in the distant future. (Warner Bros.)
This fact-based sports drama from director Rod Lurie (“The Contender”) stars Michael Chiklis (“The Shield”) as Mike Flynt, a 59-year-old man who became a Division III college football player. (Freestyle Releasing)
Based on the 2009 book of the same name and directed by rock singer Ash Avildsen (Reflux), this biographical drama centers on the life and career of 20th-century female wrestling pioneer Mildred Burke. The cast includes Josh Lucas, Walton Goggins, Francesca Eastwood, and Emily Bett Rickards as Burke. (Sumerian Pictures)
The latest effort from Egyptian-born Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan isn’t quite the third film adaptation of the Oscar Wilde 1893 play “Salome,” but it’s close. Amanda Seyfried stars as a theater director who begins to relive a past trauma while preparing a stage adaptation of “Salome.” (XYZ Releasing)
March 10
‘American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden’March 14
‘Black Bag’Written by David Koepp and directed by Steven Soderbergh, this throwback espionage thriller stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as married spies. One of them has been ordered to kill the other, something that, obviously, gives a whole new meaning to “until death do us part.” The supporting cast includes James Bond alumni Naomie Harris and Pierce Brosnan. (Focus Features)
This comedic action thriller looks very interesting. For his second movie in as many months, Jack Quaid (“Companion”) stars as Nathan, a banker with a rare (nonfictional) disorder: the inability to feel physical pain. After his girlfriend (Amber Midthunder) is kidnapped and held for ransom, Nathan decides to go full-tilt “Die Hard” in order to save her. (Paramount)
Based on the graphic novel of the same name, this sci-fi dramedy from the Anthony and Joe Russo (multiple Marvel movies) is about an orphaned teenager (Millie Bobby Brown) on a cross-country trek with a robot in search of her long lost brother. The impressive cast also includes Chris Pratt, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Jason Alexander, Brian Cox, and Billy Bob Thornton. (Netflix)
