Summer movie season comes earlier every year, and 2024 is no exception. After surviving the harsh winter with nothing to warm us but a Madame Web and a Mean Girls musical, the ides of March bring a diverse batch of movies back to the cinema. Dune: Part Two, Kung Fu Panda 4, and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire are but a few of the sequel offerings from major studios, while a healthy crop of comedies, horror films, and thrillers round out a busy month.
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård, and Charlotte Rampling
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Hype, not fear, is the mind-killer. Can Dune: Part Two live up to the impossible expectations of a three-year wait and an ungodly amount of praise from early reactions? There’s only one way to find out. Dune: Part Two arrives with the difficult task of wrapping up a complicated, multi-layered story with the grandeur displayed in the series’ first, fantastically structured and executed installment. There’s an expectation that Dune Part Two won’t be simply a good movie but the best movie. It should never have been held to such a standard, but if we set our stillsuit to properly tempered excitement, we can enjoy one of the most stacked casts in recent memory riding sandworms for two-and-a-half hours.
Cast: Julio Torres, Tilda Swinton, RZA, Greta Lee and Isabella Rossellini
Director: Julio Torres
Originally slated for an August release, surrealist comedian Julio Torres’ directorial debut, Problemista, has been quietly building buzz since its premiere at SXSW in March 2023. Torres stars as Alejandro, an aspiring toymaker trapped in application limbo with Hasbro and navigating New York City’s labyrinthine immigration bureaucracy. With one month to find a sponsor for his visa, Ale takes a job with a chaotic Tilda Swinton, who needs help locating her cryogenically frozen husband’s lost paintings. It’s a story only Julio Torres could tell.
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Anna Baryshnikov, and Jena Malone
Director: Rose Glass
Is American society ready for Ed Harris’ glorious skullet? We’re about to find out. A24’s upcoming bodybuilder thriller, Love Lies Bleeding, promises “revenge gets ripped,” and judging by Katy O’Brian’s biceps in the trailer, we’re inclined to believe them. Kristen Stewart plays Lou, a gym owner trying to hide her family’s criminal history, particularly the specifics of her father (Harris), who she lovingly refers to as “a fucking psycho.” However, when Lou falls for an up-and-coming bodybuilder (O’Brian), their romance becomes a blood-drenched nightmare.
Cast: Jack Black, Awkwafina, Viola Davis, Dustin Hoffman, James Hong, Bryan Cranston, Ian McShane, Ke Huy Quan, and Ronnie Chieng
Director: Mike Michell and Stephanie Ma Stine
Old habits die hard. After a decade on ice, Dreamworks is taking Po out of retirement to capitalize on the recent string of successful Jack Black movies. Kung Fu Panda 4 sees Po (Black) ditching his destiny as the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace to squeak out some fart jokes in pursuit of a new Dragon Warrior and a new villain, the shapeshifting Chameleon (voiced by Viola Davis). The series suffers from diminishing returns overall, but there could still be some juice left in Po’s mighty skadoosh.
Cast: DeWanda Wise, Tom Payn, Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun Veronica Falcón, and Betty Buckley
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Beating John Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds to the imaginary friend punch, Imaginary looks like a new vision from the twisted minds who produced M3gan, Annabelle, and Insidious. Imaginary does not have a particularly complicated premise (though its lore already sounds exhausting). It follows a little girl who befriends a haunted teddy bear that plans to steal her away to an imaginary land of scary things. At 105 minutes, who can really complain?
Cast: Justice Smith, David Alan Grier, An-Li Bogan, Drew Tarver, Michaela Watkins, Aisha Hinds, Tim Baltz, Rupert Friend, and Nicole Byer
Director: Kobi Libii
The debut film from Kobi Libii, a comedian and a former correspondent for The Opposition With Jordan Klepper, has amassed one of the strongest comedic ensembles of the year. Between vets like Grier and rising star Drew Tarver, it’s hard to imagine not getting a few laughs from this satire about one of the Western media’s most insipid tropes. Here, Libii explores the archetype within a rom-com fantasy, with Justice Smith being invited to an underground guardian angel school where Black people are assigned white people to comfort.
Cast: Gabriel LaBelle, Conor Sherry, Nick Robinson, Mika Abdalla, and David Costabile
Director: Adam Rehmeier
It’s hard to be mad at Paramount for releasing this teen comedy about a pair of adolescent ne’er-do-wells avoiding summertime responsibility in the middle of March. While this is the kind of Superbad comedy that works best when kids are out of school for summer, it’s nice to see a major studio releasing this type of movie at all. In his first film role since his Fabelmans breakout, Gabriel LaBelle stars alongside The Terminal List’s Conor Sherry as teenage entrepreneurs in need of a summer job. Luckily, there’s no better way to keep your parents off your back than by selling beer and profanity-topped hot dogs at your public pool’s snack stand. Hilarity ensues.
Cast: Michael Keaton, Joanna Kulic, Marcia Gay Harden, Al Pacino, and James Marsden
Director: Michael Keaton
Tired of the over-60 action roles going to Liam Neeson, Michael Keaton directs himself as John Knox in his own retiree thriller about a hitman diagnosed with dementia. While that’s already a juicy premise, the trailer goes a step further when Knox’s son knocks on his door and asks for murder advice. Considering we’re between Keaton reclamation projects The Flash and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Knox Goes Away shows us exactly the type of pulpy story the actor would like to tell.
Cast: Paul Rudd, Mckenna Grace, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Logan Kim, Annie Potts, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, William Atherton, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Bill Murray
Director: Gil Kenan
The cast of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is so large and consists of multiple generations of ghoul cops that it’s hard to tell who the Ghostbusters even are anymore. Let alone the questions surrounding New York City’s unbelievable decision to elect former health inspector Walter Peck (Atherton) mayor. These aren’t so different from the questions left by Afterlife, but the emerging Frozen Empire doesn’t instill much confidence that the movie will be a return to form. It looks like another Ghostbusters remix replete with overwhelming Ghostbusters lore. More importantly, where the hell is Muncher?
Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Maya Rudolph, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Jim Gaffigan
Director: Enrico Casarosa
The final film in Disney’s re-releases of the pandemic Pixars, Luca finally makes its theatrical debut after its unceremonious premiere on Disney+. Jacob Tremblay stars as Luca, a teenage sea monster who explores the uncharted human world of Portorosso, Italy, with his fearless friend Alberto. As with Turning Red and Soul, this is a special week-long engagement that finally gives this trio of misfit releases their flowers.
Cast: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli
Directors: Cameron Cairnes and Colin Cairnes
Late Night With The Devil has one of the most intriguing premises of the year. A found-footage horror film of a different sort, Late Night poses as an unearthed copy of an episode of Night Owls With Jack Delroy from Halloween 1977. Delroy (Dastmalchian) invites a parapsychologist (Gordon) and her book subject, the sole survivor (Torelli) of a ritualistic suicide at a Satanic Church, onto his talk show. As implied by the title, things go horribly off-script when a certain prince of darkness makes an unexpected pop-in.
Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Simona Tabasco, Álvaro Morte, and Benedetta Porcaroli
Director: Michael Mohan
America’s It Girl, Sydney Sweeny, is ready to get right with God. In Immaculate, the upcoming religious horror film that would pair nicely with Late Night With The Devil, Sweeney plays a new nun who has come down with a case of immaculate conception. But this ain’t no manger, and there isn’t a wise man anywhere in sight. The seminary goes full Benedetta over the bundle of joy, giving Sweeney an opportunity to look scared and confused.
Cast: William Shatner
Director: Alexandre O. Philippe
There’s only one William Shatner, and his impact on popular culture is immense. Cramming all of it, from The Twilight Zone to Star Trek to T.J. Hooker to Big Bang Theory, into a single movie is a massive undertaking, and that’s before getting into the TekWar of it all. Director Alexandre O. Philippe paints a portrait of Shatner nine decades in the making. Even if it only scratches the surface, You Can Call Me Bill offers a long-overdue primer on one of American culture’s most beloved stars.
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Rachel House, Kaylee Hottle, and Brian Tyree Henry
Director: Adam Wingard
From Frozen to New, March 2024 is an Empire-heavy month. Arriving one week after Ghostbusters freezes Manhattan, Godzilla x Kong follows the American monsterverse to its inevitable, more kid-friendly destination. Now featuring a baby Kong (referred to as Mini Kong to differentiate itself from Baby Yoda, Baby Groot, and Baby Nut), the movie follows Wingard’s previous smash Godzilla x Kong. Still, arriving only three months after the transcendent Godzilla Minus One isn’t going to do this one any favors. But, hey, at least Kong has a power glove in this one. He loves the power glove. It’s so bad.
Cast: Josh O’Connor, Carol Duarte, Alba Rohrwacher, and Isabella Rossellini
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Alice Rohrwacher’s latest follows Arthur (Josh O’Connor), a British archeologist in search of a lost love. In this Italian romance, Arthur finds himself teaming up with a band of roving treasure hunters to find a magical artifact that connects the living and the dead. Surreal and romantic, La Chimera has all the makings of an Italian holiday without having to fork over a fortune for air travel.
Cast: Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan, Katherine Waterson, and Kali Reis
Director: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire
Bringing the worlds-on-fire energy of Training Day to the gritty world of FDNY paramedics, Asphalt City sees Tye Sheridan and Sean Penn barely surviving the chaotic New York streets. Director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire delivers an intense ambulance drama that looks like a cop movie that trades guns for stretchers.