Unicorn Store
I’ve been waiting to see this for a long time. This made its festival premiere way back in September of 2017, and I’m glad to see that it finally got distribution. I have a feeling the anticipation for Captain Marvel was a big reason for why Netflix decided to pick this up. Either way, it looks neat, even if it seems to lean hard on the kind of twee indie quirks I see in a lot of these festival movies.
Unicorn Store will begin streaming on Netflix on April 5th.
Dora And The Lost City Of Gold
How on Earth did she survive that fall? Frankly, this looks absolutely insane, and…I’m honestly kind of here for it. I like the knife gag and the thing with the bus, there’s some genuinely funny stuff in here, mixed in with some awkwardly staged action beats, but James Bobin is a good director, so I’m hoping at the very least this will either be a pleasant surprise or a fascinating trainwreck. I certainly hope it’s good, but man, I have no idea what they’re going for here.
Dora And The Lost City Of Gold opens in theaters on August 2nd.
The Angry Birds Movie 2
OK, sure, whatever. I honestly don’t remember that much of the first film aside from generally not liking it. But it did make money, so now there’s this. I don’t have much to say about this. One positive I’ll give is that the idea of the antagonist of the first film teaming up with the good guys for the sequel is a fun idea. The execution is something we’ll have to see, but it seems like business as usual for one of these frenetic animated kids movies. I’m sure it’ll be just as forgettable as the last.
The Angry Birds Movie 2 will hit theaters on August 16th.
Mary Magdalene
Oh! I legit thought this came out last year, and I just missed it. Nope, I guess it was released in other countries, and we’re just now getting it in the States. The word on this hasn’t been good, which is unfortunate because I love what director, Garth Davis, did with his last film, Lion. And I suppose this will officially be the last score by Jóhann Jóhannsson instead of Mandy. Frankly, I find the casting to be a bit distracting, maybe that’s just from the trailer, I’m not sure. I haven’t actually read anything on this yet because I was somewhat curious, but I think it’s best I keep my expectations low.
Mary Magdalene will open in select theaters on April 12th and VOD platforms on April 19th.
Grass
While I’ve certainly heard his name thrown around as a brilliant filmmaker, I’m honestly not as familiar with the work of Hong Sangsoo as I should be. I stumbled upon this trailer for his new film, which is now getting released in the US, and I’m very interested by it. It tells me very little, but it’s the kind of trailer that just catches you off-guard, making you want to know more, plus the critical praise constantly shown on screen certainly helps as well.
Grass opens in New York on April 19th, and will expand in the following weeks.
The Perfect Date
Does Netflix like make Noah Centineo in a lab or something? Like, maybe there’s a facility where they develop impossibly cute actors for their original rom-coms or something. The gimmick here does seem pretty fun, even if you can see a lot of its conclusions coming from a mile away. I’m sure it’ll be fine as a bunch of these Netflix rom-coms have been.
The Perfect Date will hit Netflix on April 12th.