The Must-See Movies of April

April 5th

The Brass Teapot (review here)
Director: Rama Mosley
Cast: Juno Temple, Michael Angarano, Alexis Bledel, Alia Shawkat, Matt Walsh, Bobby Moynihan

In these harsh economic times, there are a lot of people who would do pretty much anything to have all the money their hearts desire. That's the basic idea behind Rama Mosley's The Brass Teapot, which has charming stars Juno Temple and Michael Angarano as a struggling couple who discover an old teapot that spews forth cash every time they inflict bodily harm near it. The bigger the damage, the greater the payout. So...how far would you be willing to go?


The Company You Keep
Director: Robert Redford
Cast: Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling, Nick Nolte, Terrence Howard, Anna Kendrick, Chris Cooper

The latest political thriller from the legendary Redford has arguably the most talented ensemble he's ever put together, and looks like a solid bounce back from The Conspirator. Redford plays a former member of the domestic terrorist group The Weather Underground, who after living a quiet life for decades must go on the run after one of his colleagues is arrested for a past crime. LaBeouf plays the hot shot reporter looking to make a name for himself by exposing Redford's identity.

Evil Dead
Director: Fede Alvarez
Cast: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Elizabeth Blackmore, Jessica Lucas

"The most terrifying movie you will ever experience". That's the bold promise made by Sam Raimi, Fede Alvarez, and the folks behind the upcoming Evil Dead remake. But it's not all that surprising, as it took a lot of guts for Raimi to relaunch his 1981 classic with a fresh, young cast led by Suburgatory star, Jane Levy. The response to it out of SXSW has been extremely split, so it remains to be seen if the film can set itself apart from the original.

Jurassic Park 3D
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum

As Disney continues to rake in the cash with their numerous 3D re-releases, it only makes sense that Steven Spielberg would bring his biggest hit stomping back into theaters after a 20 year hiatus. Jurassic Park was a technical marvel back in 1993, and stands as the 20th highest grossing film of all-time, but there's a whole new generation that has yet to see those Velociraptors and Tyrannosaurs in action. Will they be willing to pay extra to see an old film with a few bells and whistles?

Simon Killer
Director: Antonio Campos
Cast: Brady Corbet, Mati Diop

After making a splash on the indie scene with 2008's Afterschool, Antonio Campos went on to produce the psychological thriller, Martha Marcy May Marlene. Now he's back behind the camera for another disturbing genre film with Simon Killer. A hit at last year's Sundance, the film stars Brady Corbet as the titular character who flees to Paris after a bad break up, only to get involved with a prostitute. As their relationship deepens, she begins to see his true nature emerge.

Trance
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson

 In the works since before he took a break to help direct the London Olympics, Trance is Danny Boyle's first film since 127 Hours and a return to the thrillers of his early career. This one is less gritty, and more of a twisty heist film wrapped in a mystery, starring James McAvoy as an art auctioneer who gets a knock on his head while helping steal a priceless work of art. Now suffering from amnesia, his gang hires a hypnotist to uncover the whereabouts of the priceless pieces.

Upstream Color (review here)
Director: Shane Carruth
Cast: Amy Seimetz, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig

Nine years after he blew our minds with the puzzling sci-fi film, Primer, Shane Carruth is back with another head scratcher. Upstream Color follows a man and woman who are drawn together by visions and the lifecycle of a seemingly immortal organism. Some responded to it positively at Sundance, while others felt Carruth's confusing film lacked any clear vision. In my review I call it a "pretentious and exhausting failure", and a complete waste of time. Others may see it differently.

April 12th

42
Director: Brian Helgeland
Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Nicole Beharie, Harrison Ford, Christopher Meloni, Lucas Black

With the arrival of the spring, that also means it's time for spring training and the start of the Major League Baseball. While the teams are preparing to take the field, 42 is set to round the bases and head for home as an early Oscar contender. Starring newcomer Chadwick Boseman as Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, the film chronicles his turbulent career as the first player to break the color barrier. With Harrison Ford as Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey, and Nicole Beharie as Robinson's wife, this promises to be more than just a run of the mill sports biopic.

Antiviral
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Cast: Caleb Landry Jones, Sarah Gadon, Malcolm McDowell

Living up to his father's famous last name and taste for creepy body horrors, Brandon Cronenberg's debut feature takes celebrity obsession to disturbing new levels. X-men: First Class co-star Caleb Landry Jones plays a doctor who sells live viruses from sick celebrities, until he gets infected with one from a popular superstar, becoming the target of her obsessed fans.

Disconnect
Director: Henry Alex Rubin
Cast: Jason Bateman, Hope Davis, Alexander Skarsgard, Frank Grillo, Andrea Riseborough, Michael Nyqvist, Paula Patton, Colin Ford

Oscar-winning Murderball director Henry Alex Rubin makes the jump to his first narrative feature, exploring the dangers of our social networking, interconnected, always-on-the-go world. Similar in structure to Paul Haggis' Crash, the film tells multiple interlocking stories of people whose lives have been affected, mostly for the worse, by going online.

Scary Movie 5
Director: Malcolm D. Lee
Cast: Ashley Tisdale, Charlie Sheen, Erica Ash, Mike Tyson, Lindsay Lohan, Heather Locklear, Terry Crews, Molly Shannon

Anna Faris may be gone, but the Scary Movie train chugs along, seven years after the last film took in nearly $180M. The successful spoof franchise targets such "recent" films as Black Swan, Inception, 127 Hours, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, while filling out the cast with reality TV stars and tabloid headliners like Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan.

To the Wonder
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem

The suddenly prolific Terrence Malick (two movies in two years is prolific for him) is back for another heavenly, surreal film shot with poetic style by The Tree of Life cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.  Shot entirely in France, the story centers on a man and woman who fall in love there, only to return home to his Oklahoma hometown where he reconnects with a former flame. Typical for Malick, he shot an excess of footage, much of with big names like Jessica Chastain and Rachel Weisz, and edited nearly all of it out of the film.

April 19th

Kon-Tiki
Directors: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg
Cast: Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Gustaf Skarsgård

Nominated for the Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language category,  Kon-Tiki tells the incredible story of Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 trek across the Pacific Ocean in a cheap balsa wood raft. His 101-day journey was all to prove that pre-Columbia South Americans also could have made the journey and settled in the Polynesian islands.

The Lords of Salem
Director: Rob Zombie
Cast: Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davidson, Jeffrey Daniel Phillips, Ken Foree, Patricia Quinn, Dee Wallace, Maria Conchita Alonso

Four years removed from Halloween II, Rob Zombie is venturing back into the decidedly un-mainstream, diabolical horrors that made him a genre favorite a decade ago. The Lords of Salem is ostensibly about a coven of witches who re-emerge in the present and cause havoc, but the trailers point to something more visceral and less defined.

Oblivion
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Melissa Leo

After the success of Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol, it seemed that Tom Cruise was suddenly back on top where he had spent so much of his amazing career. But the celebration was short-lived after Rock of Ages and Jack Reacher proved to be disappointments. So in order to make yet another comeback, Cruise has turned to Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski, and a science-fiction genre he hasn't tapped since War of the Worlds. Set in a distant future and a devastated Earth abandoned by humanity, Cruise plays a drone repairman who makes a discovery that proves everything he knew about the past was a lie.

April 24th

At Any Price
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Cast: Zac Efron, Dennis Quaid, Kim Dickens, Heather Graham, Clancy Brown, Maika Monroe

Known for quiet personal dramas such as Chop Shop and Goodbye Solo, Ramin Bahrani reaches for a wider audience by grabbing Zac Efron for his latest effort.  Bahrani explores the idea of the American Dream from the perspective of a Midwest farming family, led by Dennis Quaid as the father, who wants desperately for his race car driver son to take up the business. It's some of the most solid work of Efron's career, and Bahrani may find himself more of a known commodity when all is said and done. 

April 26th

Arthur Newman
Director: Dante Ariola
Cast: Colin Firth, Emily Blunt, Anne Heche

For film boasting Colin Firth and Emily Blunt as the two romantic leads, Arthur Newman has completely flown under the radar. The intriguing dark comedy follows an ex-golf pro who loses his family and career, then fakes his own death in order to get a fresh start. Blunt will play his love interest, a spirited woman who is also looking for a new lease on life.

The Big Wedding
Director: Justin Zackham
Cast: Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Topher Grace, Amanda Seyfried, Katherine Heigl, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, Ben Barnes

Justin Zackham is best known as the writer of The Bucket List, but he also directed 2001's dreadful co-ed comedy Going Greek. So it's unclear what to expect from him creatively, which is why so much emphasis has been placed on the incredible talent he's managed to assemble for The Big Wedding. Sporting a cast that once had the film eyed as a potential awards contender; expectations have been considerably lowered as footage has begun to emerge. The story has all the trappings of a dated sitcom, involving a divorced couple (De Niro and Keaton) who are forced to play married during their adopted son's wedding weekend, so as not to offend his ultra-conservative biological mother.

Mud
Director: Jeff Nichols
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Sam Shepard, Reese Witherspoon, Jacob Lofland, Michael Shannon

A lot has been made of Matthew McConaughey's career resurgence, and for very good reason. He's been on a tear like never before, and is showing a dramatic range many thought had died after A Time to Kill. Perhaps it's fortuitous that he's hooked up with the surging Jeff Nichols at this stage, as the director is looking to score his third critically-acclaimed film in a row after Shotgun Stories and Take Shelter. McConaughey stars as the titular prison escapee, who seeks aid from a pair of Alabama boys in evading the cops and reconnecting with his long-lost love.

Pain & Gain
Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Mackie, Ed Harris, Rebel Wilson, Bar Paly, Rob Corddry, Ken Jeong

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. That was basically the arrangement agreed to by Michael Bay and Paramount, as the studio agreed to finance Bay's crime-comedy Pain & Gain only if the director agreed to helm Transformers 4. It's an arrangement that seems to have turned out aces for both sides, as Bay gets to scratch an itch he's had since Bad Boys II.  And that's certainly the fast-paced, fast-talkin' tone the film is aiming for, with muscle-bound stars Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg as a pair of criminal bodybuilders. After kidnapping, robbing, and leaving for dead a rich businessman, their plans go up in smoke when the victim survives and hires an investigator to find them and get payback.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Director: Mira Nair
Cast: Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber

After gearing the bulk of her directorial career towards chronicling Indian culture in fantastic films such as The Namesake, Mississippi Masala, and the great Monsoon Wedding, Mira Nair took a big step towards the American mainstream with her Amelia Earhart biopic. Starring the usually reliable Hilary Swank, Amelia turned out to be Nair's least successful venture by far. So it's no surprise that she's turning to more familiar territory with her next film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Featuring a great cast including Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber, Martin Donovan, and Kiefer Sutherland, the story follows a Pakistani man living in America who sees his perspective drastically change after the 9/11 attacks.