.jpg)
Though they arrive between the red carpet onslaught of Oscar films and the thunderous rolling out of the big summer blockbusters, a flurry of new spring film releases feel worthy of their own fanfare. Which is why we've asked Vogue’s intrepid film critic John Powers to step in and show us all of the movies that promise to be exciting in the season ahead. His guide, below.
The Boss BabyThere will be those who say that Alec Baldwin already plays this role on Saturday Night Live, but he makes it official in this new animated film from DreamWorks, where his trademark voice—and timing—emerge from a suit-wearing, briefcase-toting toddler with ordinary parents (voiced by Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow) and a highly imaginative 7-year-old-brother (Miles Christopher Bakshi). There’s some sort of plot about a corporate executive whose evil plans Boss Baby is trying to thwart, but there will be those who say Baldwin’s already doing that on SNL, too. (March 31)
Ghost in the ShellBased on Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 anime of the same name, this live-action picture stars Scarlett Johansson as Major, a human being who (a bit like The Six Million Dollar Man, if you ever saw that ’70s chestnut) survives a crash, and is cyber-enhanced to become the perfect crime-fighting warrior. Made by Snow White and the Huntsman’s Rupert Sanders, the movie raises the question: Which will cause gaudier fireworks—the spectacular visual design, or the charges of “whitewashing” that have greeted Johansson playing a cultish Japanese heroine? (March 31)
ColossalIf boozy/nuts Emily Blunt in The Girl on the Train had started seeing Godzilla, you’d have a general sense of Nacho Vigalondo’s comic-horror thriller starring Anne Hathaway as a good-time gal with a fussbudget boyfriend (the suddenly inescapable Dan Stevens) who starts losing her grip in a big, lizard-oriented way. It’s not clear whether the movie is actually scary, but it looks like a chance for Hathaway to do what she does best—shake off her too-eager-to-please image and get a bit crazy. (April 7)
Their FinestI know it seems like a while since Hitler threw in the towel, but for filmmakers, World War II will never stop. At the opposite end from last fall’s dire Allied—and this summer’s upcoming Dunkirk—Lone Scherfig’s romantic dramedy stars Gemma Arterton (who’s the dictionary definition of statuesque) as a London secretary who gets enlisted to help write British war propaganda films with a feminine touch. There she works (and more?) with a toothsome but condescending screenwriter (Sam Claflin) and a vainglorious, fading movie idol played by Bill Nighy, who will doubtless steal every scene he’s in and leave you wishing he was in more so he could steal them, too. (April 7)
GiftedScratch Chris Evans and you won’t find Captain America but a smart, sensitive guy who wants to play more demanding roles. He does just that in this drama about a single dad who’s raising his suicided sister’s genius daughter along with help from next-door neighbor Octavia Spencer. Trouble is, his mom (Lindsay Duncan) wants to take her back and funnel the poor kid into Hogwarts, er, a high-powered program at Harvard that could ruin her life. Guess who’ll win the court case? (April 12)
The Lost City of ZBased on the best-seller by David Grann, the latest from critical darling James Gray is something of a throwback to true-life adventure tales, like Lawrence of Arabia. Bidding for stardom, Charlie Hunnam plays a British explorer who becomes obsessed with finding an ancient city in the Amazon, with help from a scruffy sidekick (Robert Pattinson) and moral support from his heroic wife back home (Sienna Miller, who deserves the Nobel Prize for Good Work in Thankless Roles). It’s hard to know what sounds riskier—heading into a jungle filled with hostile tribes, or bringing out this kind of movie in 2017? (April 14)
A Quiet PassionIf you’re like us, you’d pay to watch Cynthia Nixon do anything, and Terence Davies’s latest offers something far better than that. She stars as Emily Dickinson, whose famously reclusive existence was as painfully lonely as her poetry was brilliant. Although we suspect that she won’t be seeing any giant lizards, we don’t doubt that Nixon (and great costar Jennifer Ehle, as Dickinson’s sister) will capture the transcendence in a life that sounds scarier to us than any horror movie. (April 14)
Citizen Jane: Battle for the CityIf you’re in the mood to see a smart, brave woman take on a legendary New York developer—as, like, a metaphor and all—you won’t want to miss Matt Tyrnauer's documentary about the epic showdown between Jane Jacobs, urban theorist and activist extraordinaire, and cement-mad Robert Moses, who wanted to pave paradise and put up a parking lot. (Actually, he just wanted to flatten parts of lower Manhattan and put in highways and housing projects.) (April 21)
The CircleRemember when Silicon Valley seemed exciting, and not sinister? Those days are long gone in James Ponsoldt's adaptation of Dave Eggers’s novel about a young woman (Emma Watson) whose best friend (Karen Gillan) gets her a job at The Circle, a cultishly Google-like company run by Tom Hanks. The campus is exciting at first, but could The Circle actually be (shudder) up to no good? Tom Hanks couldn’t be evil—could he? (April 28)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2Headed up by that most likable yet unlikeliest of stars, Chris Pratt, this offbeat space sequel finds its zany crew of heroes—who include Bradley Cooper’s raccoon-ish bounty hunter, Vin Diesel’s humanoid tree, and Zoe Saldana’s green-skinned queen of kick assery—battling against awesomely powerful, resolutely un-zany villains who want to control the universe for reasons that probably won’t be explained and won’t make sense if they are. (May 5)
The LoversAzazel Jacobs’s comedy drops ordinary present-day suburbanites into the stylized plot of a 1930s comedy of remarriage. Debra Winger and Tracy Letts star as a wife and husband deep into a passionless, adultery-filled marriage. But just when both think of moving in with their current lovers (Aiden Gillan and Melora Walters), they unexpectedly rekindle their old spark. (May 5)
King Arthur: Legend of the SwordIf The Lost City of Z doesn’t prove he’s a star, Charlie Hunnam hopes that Guy Ritchie’s riff on the sword in the stone will. His Arthur is just a dude cutting up on the streets of Londinium (that’s London to us moderns) but when he pulls Excalibur from a rock, he discovers his royal nature and sets off to topple a tyrant played by Jude Law (whose smirk must be getting weary about now). Boasting wild effects and some witchy women played by the likes of Astrid Bergès-Frisbey and Hermione Corfield, this ain’t Jackie Kennedy’s idea of Camelot. (May 12)
SnatchedComedy icons collide in this story of a freewheeling young woman—surely she’s freewheeling, she’s played by Amy Schumer—who after getting dumped by her boyfriend decides to take her risk-averse mother (Goldie Hawn) on vacation to what’s supposed to be an island Eden but we’re betting isn’t. (May 12)
Alien: ConvenantNearly 40 years after Ridley Scott found a whole new style and look for sci-fi in Alien, he’s doing the sequel to that movie’s prequel, 2012’s Prometheus. Got that? In this latest installment, the crew of the spacecraft Covenant—which includes Michael Fassbender’s android, Billy Crudup’s man of faith, and Katherine Waterston’s brainy-tough science officer (shades of Ripley?)—makes its way to a planet where monstrous critters want to kill them (surprise, surprise). (May 19)
Everything, EverythingAmandla Stenberg (Rue in The Hunger Games) plays a young woman with Bubble Baby Disease: She can’t touch anything—or else. But she starts exchanging messages with the cute boy next door (Nick Robinson), and before you know it, well—can’t you already hear the sound of that bubble popping? Based on the YA novel by Nicola Yoon, Stella Meghie’s romantic drama sounds like there’s more than one fault in our stars. (May 19)
BaywatchYes, we know, we know. The ’90s TV show was sexist tripe, despite the presence of the Daniel Day-Lewis of rubbish, David Hasselhoff. But aren’t you just a little bit curious how they’ll try to turn this tired teen fantasy into something able to seem lively and un-reprehensible in 2017? This one stars Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Priyanka Chopra, and Alexandra Daddario—and enough slow-mo that it might secretly be an art movie. (May 26)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No TalesIn this latest sequel, originally subtitled “Sucking the Lemon Peel Dry,” the star formerly known as Johnny Depp reprises his role as Captain Jack Sparrow and goes in search of the trident of Poseidon. He’s surrounded by the customary array of big-name stars (Javier Bardem, Geoffrey Rush), less famous “exotic” beauties (Kaya Scodelario, Golshifteh Farahani), and more CGI than you can shake a digital stick at. While nobody’s dying to see this movie, everybody’s going to go. The last one—which people didn’t like, remember?—made a billion dollars. Remember? (May 26)
Wonder WomanFaster than Katniss Everdeen, better special effects than Xena— yes, it’s Wonder Woman, the latest superhero from the D.C. Comics stable. In case you hadn’t heard, WW’s an Amazon (literally, not metaphorically) and is played by Gal Gadot, she of the gorgeously amused smile. No doubt the WW I–centered plot, which gets her involved with a pilot played by Chris Pine, is merely an excuse for her to whomp baddies. But who cares? Wonder Woman was the only enjoyable character in last year’s dire Batman v. Superman: “Dawn of Pretension” because Gadot understands (as her costars obviously didn’t) that comic book movies are supposed to be, y’know, fun. (June 2)
The MummySometimes it seems that Tom Cruise has been around since ancient Egypt, so it’s fitting that in this franchise reboot (remember Brendan Fraser?) he comes face-to-face with an ancient princess (Sofia Boutella) who, after being mummified and entombed eons ago, springs back to life and decides to raise hell in our modern world. Complicating matters—and mashing up horror stories and historical periods—Cruise must also deal with Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, played by Russell Crowe, an actor well-known for perfecting that same role in real life. (June 9)
My Cousin RachelIn Roger Michell’s mystery romance based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, a toothsome young Englishman (played by young Englishman Sam Claflin, whose toothsomeness we’ve already mentioned) sets out to get revenge on his foxy (in every sense) cousin (Rachel Weisz). Here’s hoping that this period piece is more like The Handmaiden than Crimson Peak, which swallowed up Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain in its beautiful production design. (June 9)
Rough NightAnother of those comedies that remakes a male fantasy as a female one, this riff on Very Bad Things and The Hangover is about a group of bachelorettes—Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz—whose party gets, um, problematic when a male stripper winds up dead. Directed by Lucia Aniello, who wrote the script with Paul W. Downs (both worked on Broad City), the movie’s trailer looks so unbridled and unbridal-ed that we’re surprised they didn’t call it There Will Be Raunch. (June 16)