Calamitous Romance, Political Satire
Fashion is drama in some of the most prominent new releases, as in “Marc by Sofia” (March 20), a documentary by Sofia Coppola about Marc Jacobs, anchored by the creation and launch of his Spring 2024 collection. “The Devil Wears Prada 2” (May 1) boasts many of the same actors from the first installment—including Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci—along with new ones, such as Simone Ashley, in a comedy about a fashion magazine’s efforts to cope with new media. Boots Riley’s “I Love Boosters” (May 22) is a comedy, starring Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, and LaKeith Stanfield, about a group of shoplifters who organize against an evil designer (Demi Moore).
The season spotlights artists of many sorts, including those who work in movies. The Swedish director Tarik Saleh’s drama “Eagles of the Republic” (April 17) stars Fares Fares as a movie star who is ordered to act in a bio-pic of Egypt’s real-life President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. In the satire “Yes” (March 27), by the Israeli director Nadav Lapid, a Tel Aviv musician and composer (Ariel Bronz) is commissioned to write an anthem in praise of Israel’s destruction of Gaza. Steven Soderbergh’s “The Christophers” (April 10) stars Ian McKellen as a once acclaimed artist whose children (Jessica Gunning and James Corden) secretly hire an art restorer (Michaela Coel) to complete some of his unfinished paintings. Coel also stars in David Lowery’s “Mother Mary” (April 17) as a fashion designer who’s summoned by a fading pop star (Anne Hathaway) to create costumes for her comeback.
Romance and its calamities are perennial spectacles, including in “The Drama” (April 3), featuring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya as a couple whose engagement is menaced by a disturbing secret. Charli XCX stars in Pete Ohs’s melodrama “Erupcja” (April 17), as a British woman whose romantic getaway in Warsaw with her partner (Will Madden) is disrupted by her reunion with a friend (Lena Góra). “Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)” (April 17), the first feature by Joel Alfonso Vargas, is centered on a young Dominican American couple in the Bronx (Juan Collado and Destiny Checo) whose relationship changes as they prepare to have a child.
The fraught bonds of parents and children get a varied workout. Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha” (March 27) is a body-horror drama about a teen-age girl (Mélissa Boros) who, as a result of a tattoo, may have contracted a mysterious disease that her mother (Golshifteh Farahani), a doctor, treats. “Is God Is” (May 15), based on the play of the same name by the film’s director, Aleshea Harris, involves twin sisters, scarred in a fire, who are sent by their mother to seek revenge on their father, who started the fire. Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, and Janelle Monáe star. “Poetic License” (May 15), the first feature directed by Maude Apatow, stars her mother, Leslie Mann, as a woman who audits a poetry class at the local college and is courted by two young classmates (Cooper Hoffman and Andrew Barth Feldman).
The enduring power of history comes to the fore in Annemarie Jacir’s drama “Palestine 36” (March 20), which depicts residents of a Palestinian village who are rising up against British rule in 1936 amid the arrival of Jewish refugees from Europe; Hiam Abbass, Saleh Bakri, and Jeremy Irons star. “Two Prosecutors” (March 20), directed by Sergei Loznitsa, is set in the Soviet Union, in 1937, and dramatizes efforts to seek justice amid trumped-up charges and show trials. Andy Serkis directs an animated adaptation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” (May 1), featuring the voices of Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, and Glenn Close, among many others.—Richard Brody
The Theatre
