New film releases this March

3 March

Music turns the world of conductor Lydia Tár inside out in writer-director Todd Field’s spellbinding TÁR, a searing and soul-enriching examination of power, and its impact and durability in today’s society. Cate Blanchett is radiantly magnificent as the groundbreaking conductor of a major German Orchestra who is at the height of her career, preparing for both a book launch and much-anticipated live performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.

Over the ensuing weeks her life begins to unravel in a singularly modern way, with a surprising twist that leaves meaningful food for thought.

“Whereas once Tár lived a life dedicated to art, she now finds herself running an institution that lays bare her own weaknesses and proclivities, proselytising her rules to others only to violate them herself with seemingly a total lack of self-awareness,” says Field of this not-to-be-missed tour de force.

Sport’s enthusiasts and fans of the Rocky and Creed films will delight in Creed III. It marks the directorial debut of Michael B. Jordan, who also stars as Adonis Creed. After dominating the boxing world, Creed has been thriving in both his career and family life. When a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy, Damian (Jonathan Majors), resurfaces after serving a long sentence in prison, he is eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring.

The face-off between former friends is more than just a fight. To settle the score, Adonis must put his future on the line to battle Damian – a fighter who has nothing to lose. Creed III marks the ninth instalment in the Rocky film series.

10 March

Survivors of the latest Ghostface killings are in for a nasty shock in Scream VI (10/4). Sisters Samantha and Tara Carpenter and twins Chad and Mindy Meeks, leaving Woodsboro behind and starting a new chapter of their lives in New York City only to again be plagued by a streak of murders by a new Ghostface killer. It marks the sixth installment in the Scream film series and serves as a direct sequel to Scream (2022).

In the heart-wrenching drama The Son, a family falls apart and tries to come back together again. A couple of years after his parents’ divorce, 17-year-old Nicholas no longer feels he can stay with his mother, Kate. He moves in with his father Peter and Peter’s new partner Beth.

Juggling work, his and Beth’s new baby, and the offer of his dream job in Washington, Peter tries to care for Nicholas as he wishes his own father had cared for him. But by reaching for the past to correct its mistakes, he loses sight of how to hold onto the Nicholas in the present.

The film stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Hugh Quarshie, and Anthony Hopkins. It is directed by Florian Zeller from a screenplay written by himself and Christopher Hampton. It is based on Zeller's 2018 stage play of the same name, which is framed as a prequel to The Father.

The British romantic comedy-drama What’s Love Got To Do With It questions ‘How do you find lasting love in today’s world?’ For filmmaker and dating app addict Zoe (Lily James), swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Emma Thompson) dismay.

For Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbour Kaz (Shazad Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage to a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films his hopeful journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger, chosen by his parents, she begins to wonder if she might have something to learn from a profoundly different approach to finding love.

In the Chinese science fiction action-adventure Wandering Earth II, humankind builds enormous engines to propel the planet to a new solar system as the sun is rapidly burning out. Directed and co-written by Frant Gwo, and starring Andy Lau, Wu Jing and Li Xuejian. The film is a prequel to the 2019 film The Wandering Earth, which is based on the short story of the same name by Liu Cixin, who serves as the film's producer.

17 March

Billy Batson and his foster siblings, who transform into superheroes by saying "Shazam!" are back in the superhero fantasy Shazam! Fury Of The Gods (17/4). The siblings are forced to get back into action and fight the Daughters of Atlas. They must stop them from using a weapon that could destroy the world.

In Elegance Bratton's deeply moving The Inspection a young, gay Black man (Jeremy Pope), rejected by his mother and with few options for his future, decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside. But even as he battles deep-seated prejudice and the gruelling routines of basic training, he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength, and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of belonging that will shape his identity and forever change his life. Highly recommended.

In the Indian Hindi-language drama Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway, an immigrant Indian mother fights the Norwegian foster care system and legal machinery to win back custody of her children. It is based on the true story of an Indian couple whose children were taken away from them by Norwegian welfare services in 2011.

24 March

The neo-noir action thriller John Wick: Chapter Four, it is the fourth instalment in the John Wick franchise and stars Keanu Reeves as John Wick, who uncovers a path to defeating the High Table, but before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into new foes.

In the Anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba - To the Swordsmith Village, a teenage boy whose entire family was brutally murdered by a demon while he was away, has to rid the world of monsters, and with the hope of potentially saving his sister, Tanjiro trains for years to become a demon hunter and protect those who can’t fight for themselves.

31 March

The local comedy chick-flick The Honeymoon unpacks the story of friendship as Noks (Tumi Morake) and Lu (Minnie Dlamini) persuade a devasted Kat (Kajal Bagwadeen) to turn what was supposed to be her honeymoon in Zanzibar into a girlfriend's getaway after her fiancé calls off the wedding the night before.

In the fantasy adventure comedy Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, a charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a long lost relic, but their charming adventure goes dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. The film has no connections to the film trilogy released between 2000 and 2012.

Guided by instinct and spectral visions, an ambitious writer and amateur historian defies the academic establishment to unearth Richard III's long-missing remains in a Leicester car park in the sensational British comedy-drama The Lost King. A feel-good film that should not be missed.

The award-winning and much-loved cinematic series Exhibition On Screen explores the lives and artworks of some of history’s most revered and celebrated artists, returns for a tenth season to select Ster-Kinekor and Cinema Nouveau cinemas. It offers a cinematic immersion into the world’s best loved art, accompanied by insights from the world’s leading historians and arts critics.

Mary Cassatt: Painting the Modern Woman introduces us to the often-overlooked Impressionist whose own career was as full of contradiction as the women she painted. She made a career painting the lives of the women around her. Her radical images showed them as intellectual, feminine, and real, which was a major shift in the way women appeared in art. Screening dates: 31 March, 01, 02 & 04 April 2023

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Read more about the latest and upcoming films: https://writingstudio.co.za/lets-go-to-the-movies/