‘Scream’ (2022) (April 11)
Resurrecting the decade-dormant “Scream” franchise without the guiding hand of the late Wes Craven was a questionable choice, and this 2022 installment from the “Ready or Not” directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, doesn’t match the ingenuity or chills of Craven’s earlier installments. But it is still an entertaining goof for fans of the series, offering up sly commentary on the epidemic of “legacy sequels” that juice up series by mixing old stars, new faces and fan-friendly Easter eggs (a formula that, in true “Scream” form, this film also embraces).
‘Hereditary’ (April 15)
The director of “Midsommar” and “Beau Is Afraid,” Ari Aster, had his breakthrough picture with this chilling slow burn of a horror thriller, in which a freak tragedy rips an already tenuous family into jagged pieces. All of the players bring their A-game, but the stunner here is Toni Collette, whose open-wound performance as a mother who is both abused and abusive would have easily netted a best actress Oscar nomination from an awards-giving body that wasn’t notoriously, reliably biased against genre movies.
‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ (April 16)
This 2022 comedy from the director Tom Gormican (who also wrote the film with Kevin Etten) sounded like Nicolas Cage’s “Being John Malkovich” — a winking meta-textual exploration of movie stardom and eccentric celebrity. And it is that, by way of its cheerful acknowledgment of Cage’s erratic career and personal peculiarities (and its clever use of the actor’s younger, wilder self as a co-star). But the film’s real pleasures come from Pedro Pascal, delightfully dim as a wealthy playboy and Cage superfan; they become an unexpectedly potent comedy team, the weirdo and the fanboy, generating laughs and good will even in the picture’s more predictable homestretch.
‘No Hard Feelings’ (April 21)
Jennifer Lawrence has always seemed a study in contrasts. She stars in tough action franchises (the “Hunger Games’ and “X-Men” movies) and serious dramas (“Silver Linings Playbook,” for which she won an Oscar) while coming off in interviews like a charming goofball who takes nothing too seriously. She finally brought that silliness to the screen with this raw, raucous and very R-rated sex comedy, starring as a luckless small-town woman who, in a moment of financial desperation, is hired to date a wealthy young virgin and, well, show him the ropes. Lawrence’s performance is fearless (she’ll do just about anything for a laugh), and she lands the story’s later, poignant turns with unsurprising ease.
Also leaving:
“Baby Driver,” “Boyz n the Hood,” “Bruce Almighty,” “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” “It,” “Molly’s Game,” “Space Jam” (4/1); “Megan Leavey” (4/8); “A Quiet Place Part II” (4/12).
