Snow on the East Coast has barely subsided, and yet we're already approaching the fourth-month-long Summer Movie Season, beginning with the latest Fast and Furious installment on April 3. While blockbusters won't fully flood multiplexes until May, plenty of promising new titles should motivate you to the theaters. And for those feeling lazier—or simply seeking more convenience—the forthcoming at-home options are similarly robust, be it through streaming or rental services. So sit back, grab a tub of popcorn, and enjoy this month's copious high-quality content.
In Theaters:
Furious 7 (April 3)
Completed after the untimely death of co-star Paul Walker, this seventh chapter in the long-running automotive-mayhem series boasts a new director (Saw and The Conjuring's James Wan), but the same type of sexy, over-the-top action–this time tinged with more than a little sadness.
Cut Bank (April 3)
A neo-noir blessed with a sterling cast that includes Liam Hemsworth, John Malkovich, Bruce Dern, Billy Bob Thornton, and Oliver Platt, Matt Shankman's crime thriller concerns a Montana teen whose efforts to escape his rural home town wind up leading to deadly trouble.
Last Knights (April 3)
Morgan Freeman and Clive Owen star in this medieval action film about a disgraced warrior who seeks to avenge his fallen master by fighting back against a corrupt ruler—a setup that sounds like exactly the right type of sword-fighting, B-movie pulp.
Ex Machina (April 10)
Arriving on a wave of phenomenal word of mouth from South by Southwest, this science-fiction story from Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine) revolves around a tech-company CEO (Oscar Isaac) who asks a programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) to visit his mountain estate and evaluate his latest project—an artificially intelligent robot beauty (Alicia Vikander).
Clouds of Sils Maria (April 10)
An intelligent, intriguing drama from international auteur Olivier Assayas, Clouds of Sils Maria focuses on a revered movie star (Juliette Binoche) who's convinced to revisit her career-making film—albeit in a different role—alongside a hot new starlet (Chloë Grace Moretz), and whose relationship with her personal assistant (a fantastic Kristen Stewart) soon takes on a strange, life-imitating-art quality.
Lost River (April 10)
Ryan Gosling's directorial debut hasn't received very strong festival notices, but we remain highly curious about his maiden behind-the-camera effort, about a single mother (Mad Men's Christina Hendricks) who must travel into a fantastical underworld in order to save her family.
True Story (April 17)
As befitting its title, this drama recounts the real-life ordeal of a disgraced New York Times journalist (Jonah Hill) who discovers that a murderer (James Franco) has, while on the run from the FBI, assumed his identity.
Child 44 (April 17)
Serial-killer thrillers are a dime a dozen, but that doesn't change the fact that the newest member of that subgenre, a Russian-set mystery from director Daniel Espinosa (Safe House), features an enticing cast headlined by Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace, and Jason Clarke.
The Water Diviner (April 24)
Russell Crowe makes his directorial debut with this epic saga about a farmer (Crowe) who—in the years following the battle of Gallipoli—travels to Turkey in search of his missing sons.
Adult Beginners (April 24)
Rose Byrne has become the queen of ribald mainstream comedy, and here she's paired with Nick Kroll (Kroll Show) in a man-child tale about a pregnant woman whose life is upended when her brother comes to stay with her and becomes her young son's nanny.
On Netflix:
Bound (April 1)
The Wachowskis hit rock bottom with this past February's outer-space fairy tale Jupiter Ascending, but their 1996 debut remains a sizzling—if overly gimmicky—film noir bolstered by the erotic rapport between its lesbian protagonists, played by Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon.
Underworld (April 1)
Kate Beckinsale works sexy-ass-kicking wonders in a black latex suit as a vampire at war with ferocious werewolves in this 2003 action-horror film.
The Quiet Ones (April 3)
Loosely based on a real-life 1972 experiment, this 2014 British horror film follows a college professor (Mad Men's Jared Harris) as he, along with a group of colleagues, attempts to scientifically create a poltergeist.
Crank (April 9)
The pinnacle of over-the-top scuzzy B-movie action, as well as possibly the finest film in the Jason Statham canon, this 2006 film involves a man who, after being poisoned, finds that he can only keep himself alive if he keeps his adrenaline racing at a constantly fevered pitch.
The Babadook (April 14, also on DVD/Blu-ray)
It's not as scary as many have proclaimed it to be, but this Australian import is nonetheless a reasonably effective Shining-ish tale about a single mother whose struggles to raise her troubled son take on sinister dimensions when a fairy tale book dubbed The Babadook mysteriously appears in her home.
Goodbye to Language (April 14)
Jean-Luc Godard's critically acclaimed latest ostensibly charts the disintegration of a couple's relationship, though it's really an aesthetically daring rumination on history, imagery, and the cinema—one that, even though it was meant to be seen in 3-D, is a can't-miss.
Hot Fuzz (April 16)
The second entry in director Edgar Wright's "Cornetto Trilogy," this riotous celebration/spoof of Bad Boys and Point Break features his favorite comedic duo, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, as cops contending with a conspiracy in a sleepy English town.
Noah (April 18)
Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic features some ridiculous third-act rock monsters. Otherwise, though, his retelling of the famous Noah's Ark story is an often-rousing epic with a commanding Russell Crowe lead performance.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (April 21)
One of last year's true discoveries, Ana Lily Amirpour's Iranian import details the unlikely romance between a young man and a burka-enshrouded girl who just so happens to be a bloodsucking creature of the night.
On DVD/Blu-Ray:
A Most Violent Year (April 7)
Last winter's most under-heralded drama is this '80s-set crime saga about a heating-oil bigwig (Oscar Isaac) who, despite the protests of his wife (Jessica Chastain) and lawyer (Albert Brooks), attempts to grow his business while steering clear of the corrupt criminality that dominates the industry.
The Immigrant (April 7)
James Grey is the finest working American director unknown to mainstream audiences, and his latest—a 1920s saga about a young immigrant (Marion Cotillard) who comes to the U.S. and is taken advantage of by a shady club owner (Joaquin Phoenix)—is a magnificent, complex period piece.
The Voices (April 7)
Ryan Reynolds is a happy-go-lucky factory worker who decides to heed his talking cat's advice to kill, Kill, KILL in this bizarre black comedy.
Maps to the Stars (April 14)
David Cronenberg's Hollywood satire sharply divided critics, but if nothing else, its sleazy, skuzzy portrait of California life features—regardless of what the Oscars believe—the finest recent performance by Julianne Moore.
Taken 3 (April 21)
Liam Neeson's signature action franchise may be getting long in the tooth, but fans will no doubt want to make sure they find out how the badass series concludes.
Everly (April 21)
Salma Hayek, in lingerie and tight-fitting tank-tops, shooting hordes of bad guys with enormous guns—need we say more?
The Gambler (April 28)
Aside from a few classroom-lecture sequences that are somewhat less than convincing, Mark Wahlberg shines as a university English professor whose gambling addiction gets him in hot water in this remake of the James Caan-headlined 1974 drama.
Inherent Vice (April 28)
Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's twisty-turny '70s Southern California mystery remains an ideally ramshackle heir to The Long Goodbye's neo-noir throne, with Joaquin Phoenix in a magnificent turn as a blissfully stoned private eye.
Nick Schager is a NYC-area film critic and culture writer with twenty years of professional experience writing about all the movies you love, and countless others that you don’t.
