With his new sci-fi Mickey 17, celebrated director Bong Joon Ho appears to have taken the considerable filmmaking capital he earned by making the 2020 Best Picture Oscar-winner Parasite and spun it into a large-scale science-fiction comedy which, like that previous effort, elucidates on the perils of capitalism, among other modern concerns. Which is a pretty cool use of your blank check. “I love the Bong Joon Ho eating-the-rich cinematic universe,” says Fran. Me too! Journal’s Rafa Sales Ross reported from the Berlin premiere and sampled early reactions—the Futurama comparisons are highly encouraging. “If someone else tried to do it, it just wouldn’t have worked,” asserts Craig. “Probably Bong’s overall silliest movie since Barking Dogs… a cutthroat and abrasively unsubtle commentary of America’s crumbling empire and the degrading bodily autonomy of its laboring class,” summarizes Harrison. Ella Kemp attended the London premiere and interrogated the cast about which of their films feature in the most Letterboxd ’ Four Favorites. Now in theaters the world over.

Ash Avildsen—whose status as the son of Rocky, The Karate Kid and Rocky V director John G. Avildsen feels relevant here—directs Queen of the Ring, a biopic about pioneering female professional-wrestler Mildred Burke, played by Arrow-verse staple Emily Bett Rickards. “Who watches a wrestling movie and cries… this girl!” exclaims Aleader. Lyrik says it’s a film for “lovers of history. Lovers of sharing in women’s success. Lovers of costume design. Lovers of wrestling,” and concludes that there’s “no better person to take down a heel than Ms. Mildred Burke in her high heels.” Shane reckons it “captures the old-timey feel of its period and packs a huge punch.”  Now in theaters in the US and Mexico.

Prominent Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, a 1998 double Oscar nominee for The Sweet Hereafter, reunites with his Chloe lead Amanda Seyfried for Seven Veils, in which she plays a theater director mounting a production of Strauss’s opera Salome, the famous dance from which the film gets its title. Em calls it “a fever dream of a movie, fraught with shadow figures and ghosts from the past, haunting the protagonist both on and off the stage.” “Been referring to this as Toronto TÁR before watching it and I think it remains accurate post watch,” says Jjnnifr. PowWow believes it “straddles a fine line between earnest psychological study and amped-up high-camp thriller without ever losing its footing.” It’s “a haunting dreamlike tale about how art often imitates life and the pervasiveness of abuse in the industry,” according to Becca. Now in select US theaters.

New Zealand director James Ashcroft follows up his Sundance sleeper Coming Home in the Dark with another grim tale adapted from a short story by New Zealand writer Owen Marshall. In The Rule of Jenny Pen, Geoffrey Rush stars as a judge recuperating in a retirement home who is tormented by a psychotic resident played by Oscar-ceremony standout John Lithgow, here brandishing a nightmarish dementia-doll puppet on his hand. “Another hope-crushingly bleak film from James Ashcroft, but this time much weirder and freakier,” warns Kyle. “Nice to have a new evil Lithgow performance,” says Matt of the actor who provided a masterclass in villainy with cackling performances in films such as Blow Out, Ricochet, Raising Cain and Cliffhanger. Mel calls it “an impeccably acted torture chamber of a movie, with Lithgow as the self-appointed Satan in charge of nursing-home hell.” “A living nightmare put to screen,” is Solh’s assessment. Sam says it “legitimately brings to life the fear of old age.” These are all endorsements. Now in select US theaters, in Australian and New Zealand cinemas March 20.

Steven Soderbergh has been blurring the lines of the “one for me/one for them” paradigm ever since the Ocean’s days, and his new film, Black Bag, sees him back in a similarly identifiable mainstream genre space—spy movies in this case—to which he will lend his casual authenticity with the help of A-list actors. Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Regé-Jean Page and Naomie Harris lead the cast, with the first two playing married intelligence operatives whose ties are tested when one is accused of being a traitor. It’s written by A-list screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, Jurassic World Rebirth), who’s been on a run with Soderbergh lately, having also written Presence and Kimi. In US, UK and Canadian theaters March 14.

Letterboxd Four Faves veteran Jack Quaid’s slow and steady ascension to leading-man status reaches the critical action-movie step with his presence at the center of Novocaine, in which he plays a regular dude who has a unique medical disorder that means he doesn’t feel pain. When his girlfriend (Amber Midthunder) is kidnapped, he exploits his condition in his attempts to save her. The trailers play up the Nobody-esque everyman-to-unlikely-ass-kicker dynamic, and if that is required to get an original action movie into theaters these days, then I am all for it. In US and Canadian theaters March 14, the UK on March 28.

Cited by the Journal crew as one of the films to watch out for at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Opus stars Letterboxd member Ayo Edebiri (who, like Sean Baker, had a hip before it was fashionable) as a writer invited to the isolated compound of a famous pop star (John Malkovich) who has been missing for decades. A lot of isolated compounds in movies these days. Indeed, as Benji notes, “The undisclosed trilogy we all didn’t know was coming, first The Menu, then Blink Twice, and now this.” Ian calls it “aesthetically electric and pure emphatic fun balanced with unique horror elements,” while Vivek “was left wanting something more satisfying or deep from the cultural commentary.” “John Malkovich having the time of his life,” assures Gabe. In US and Canadian theaters March 14.

Adapted from a 2010 novel by Donald E. Westlake, whose books provided the basis for such classics as Point Blank, The Hot Rock and The Outfit, The Actor stars Moonlight breakout André Holland as an… actor… who finds himself stranded in a small 1950s town with no idea who he is or how he got there. Anomalisa co-director Duke Johnson evokes his stop-motion film’s aesthetics to make his live-action directorial debut, and the trailer for The Actor certainly feels Kaufman-adjacent in its sense of realities upon realities. Consider me highly intrigued. Gemma Chan, Toby Jones and Joe Cole are amongst the eclectic ing cast. In select US theaters March 14.

In the face of a growing call for re-emphasizing the theatrical experience, as articulated by both Sean Baker’s and host Conan O’Brien’s rallying cry for cinemas at the Oscars, Netflix remains steadfast in its refusal to let even its most epic-seeming movies play in a darkened auditorium. Well, if you don’t count Greta Gerwig’s Narnia films, which are increasingly appearing to be the exception that proves the rule. The stories about how much The Electric State cost are near mythic at this point, and point to a huge visual scope. But you can only watch it at home. Set in an alternate 1990s where mascot-looking robots have been forced into a cordoned-off area following an artificial-intelligence uprising, Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown venture into this “electric state” to find the latter’s brother. On Netflix March 14.