Month: April 2025

NEW MOVIES: April 24-30, 2025, “The Accountant 2,” “Until Dawn,” “The Legend of Ochi,” “Another Day in America”

THE ACCOUNTANT 2

THE ACCOUNTANT 2

The Accountant 2 is a 2025 American action thriller film directed by Gavin O’Connor and written by Bill Dubuque.[2] It is the sequel to The Accountant (2016). Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and J. K. Simmons reprise their roles from the previous film, with Daniella Pineda joining the cast.

The film premiered at the South by Southwest Festival on March 8, 2025, to positive reviews from critics. It will be theatrically released on April 25, 2025, in the United States by Amazon MGM Studios through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and internationally by the original film’s domestic distributor, Warner Bros. Pictures.[3][4][5][6][7] A third film is in development.[8]

Premise

“When unknown assassins kill someone close to her, Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina is forced to contact Christian Wolff to solve the murder. With the help of his estranged but highly lethal brother Brax, Chris applies his brilliant mind and less-than-legal methods to piece together the unsolved puzzle. As they get closer to the truth, the trio draws the attention of some of the most ruthless killers alive, all intent on putting a stop to their search.”[9]

Cast

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UNTIL DAWN

UNTIL DAWN

Until Dawn is a 2015 interactive drama survival horror game developed by Supermassive Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. In it, players assume control of eight young adults who must survive on Blackwood Mountain when their lives are threatened. The game features a butterfly effect system in which players must make choices that may change the story. All playable characters can survive or die, depending on the choices made. Players explore the environment from a third-person perspective and find clues that may help solve the mystery.

Until Dawn was originally planned as a first-person game for the PlayStation 3‘s motion controller, PlayStation Move, but the motion controls were dropped when it became a PlayStation 4 game. The story was written by Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick, who sought to create the video game equivalent of a slasher film. The development team took inspiration from various sources. These include the movies Evil Dead II and Poltergeist, and video games Heavy Rain, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill. To ensure the game was scary, the team used a galvanic skin response test to measure playtesters’ fear levels when playing it. Jason Graves composed the soundtrack and Guerrilla Games‘ Decima game engine was used for the graphics. Several noted actors, including Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere, Meaghan Martin, Brett Dalton, Jordan Fisher, Nichole Sakura, and Peter Stormare, provided motion capture and voice acting.

 

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THE LEGEND OF OCHI

THE LEGEND OF OCHI

The Legend of Ochi (/ˈoʊtʃi/) is a 2025 American fantasy adventure film written and directed by Isaiah Saxon in his feature film debut. The film stars Helena Zengel, Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson, and Willem Dafoe.

A24 released it in limited theaters in the United States on April 18, 2025, before a wide release on April 25.

Premise

In a secluded northern village in Carpathia, a farm girl named Yuri is taught not to go outside after dark and to fear the reclusive creatures known as the Ochi. But when she discovers a lost and injured baby Ochi, she sets off on a journey to return it to its family.[5]

Cast

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ANOTHER DAY IN AMERICA

ANOTHER DAY IN AMERICA

Based on true events, Another Day in America is a dark, radical comedy-drama that revolves around an ensemble of distinct characters going through a post-pandemic day in an American office. It’s not business as usual — it’s personal. It’s cultural guerrilla warfare, navigating the pains of disenfranchisement, misogyny, racism, perversion, and mental illness. They are at a tipping point, making things even more painful, damaging, and dangerous. Another Day in America focuses on its polarized society, fueled by our dependence on online internet culture, a culture that is quickly changing yet is anchored by a profoundly violent and painful history.

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4/22/2025 #TheAccountant2 #UntilDawn #TheLegendofOchi #AnotherDayinAmerica

NEW MOVIES: April 17-23, 2025, “Sinners,” “Sneaks,” “The Wedding Banquet,” “Evicted!”

SINNERS

SINNERS

Sinners is an upcoming American period supernatural horror film written, produced, and directed by Ryan Coogler. Set in the 1930s in the Southern United States, the film stars Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as twin brothers who return to their hometown but face greater evil.  [4]The film also features Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, Li Jun Li, and Delroy Lindo.

By January 2024, when Jordan was cast, Coogler began developing the genre film through his production company, Proximity Media. Warner Bros. Pictures acquired distribution rights the next month following a bidding war, and casting for additional roles took place in April, before filming that month. Filming wrapped in July 2024.

Sinners is scheduled to be released in the United States on April 18, 2025.[5]

Premise

Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.[6]

— Warner Bros. Pictures

Cast

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SNEAKS

SNEAKS

Sneaks is a 2025 animated sports comedy film directed by Rob Edwards and Chris Jenkins from a script by Edwards. It is Edwards’ feature directorial debut.[2][3][4]

The film features an ensemble cast, including the voices of Anthony Mackie, Martin Lawrence, Swae Lee, Chloe Bailey, Macy Gray, Ella Mai, Mustard, Roddy Ricch, Quavo, Young Miko, Amirah Hall, Kiana Ledé, Bobbito Garcia, Sam Jay, Sky Brown, Rayssa Leal, Rico Rodriguez, Keith David, Chris Paul, and Laurence Fishburne.

The film was released on Sky Cinema in the United Kingdom on March 28, 2025, and will be released theatrically in the United States on April 18.

Plot

Sneaks follows the adventures of Ty, a misguided designer sneaker who does not know life outside the comforts of his velvet-lined shoe box. After a shady collector steals his sister, Ty must venture into New York City to find and rescue her. In his adventure, Ty meets a ragtag group of footwear friends from all walks of life who help him find the courage to step outside his shoe box and find his “sole-mate.” [citation needed]

Voice cast

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THE WEDDING BANQUET

THE WEDDING BANQUET

The Wedding Banquet[3] is a 1993 romantic comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Ang Lee. The story concerns a bisexual Taiwanese immigrant man (Winston Chao, in his film debut) who marries a mainland Chinese woman (May Chin) to placate his parents (Gua Ah-leh and Lung Sihung) and get her a green card. His plan backfires when his parents arrive in the United States to plan his wedding banquet, and he has to hide the truth about his gay partner (Mitchell Lichtenstein). It was a co-production of Lee’s Good Machine production company and the Taiwanese Central Motion Picture Corporation.

Lee’s second feature film and his first to get a theatrical release in the United States, The Wedding Banquet, premiered at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Bear. It was both a critical and commercial success, winning five Golden Horse Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. It received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Foreign-Language Film, as well as six Independent Spirit Award nominations.

Together with Pushing Hands (1991) and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), all showing the Confucian family at risk and all starring the Taiwanese actor Lung Sihung, The Wedding Banquet forms what has been called Lee’s “Father Knows Best” trilogy.[4]

In 2023, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Plot

Gao Wai-Tung is a bisexual Taiwanese immigrant happily living in Manhattan with his gay Jewish partner, Simon. He has not come out to his traditionally minded parents, who live back in Taiwan, and, as he’s in his late 20s, they’ve become eager to see him get married and have a child to continue the family line. When his parents hire a dating service, Wai-Tung and Simon stall for time by inventing numerous impossible demands. They demand an opera singer while requesting that she be 5’9″, have two PhDs, and speak five languages. To their shock, the service locates a 5’8″ Chinese woman who meets all but one of their qualifications, having only a single PhD instead of two. She is very gracious when Wai-Tung explains his dilemma, as she, too, is hiding a relationship with a white man from her parents.

At Simon’s insistence, Wai-Tung decides to marry one of his tenants, Wei-Wei, a penniless artist from mainland China needing a green card. Besides helping Wei-Wei, the couple hopes this will placate Wai-Tung’s parents. To complicate matters, Mr. and Mrs. Gao announce they will visit. Before the parents arrive, Simon tells Wei-Wei everything she needs to know about Wai-Tung’s habits, body, and lifestyle, and the three hastily take down all gay imagery and décor from the house and hang Mandarin calligraphy scrolls in its place.

Mr. and Mrs. Gao arrive bringing gifts and US$30,000 to hold an extravagant wedding for their son, believing he has a wealthy fiancée. Wai-Tung dares not tell his parents the truth because his father (a retired army officer) has just recovered from a stroke. As a part of the lie, Wai-Tung introduces Simon as his landlord.

The day after his parents arrive, Wai-Tung announces that he and Wei-Wei plan to be married by a Justice of the Peace. However, the heartbreak his mother experiences at the courthouse wedding, both at the arrangement and at the discovery of the low social class of Wei-Wei, moves Wai-Tung to make up for the ‘disgraceful’ wedding by accepting the offer of a magnificent wedding banquet from Mr. Gao’s former batman, who now owns a restaurant and reception hall. After the lavish banquet, a huge party of relatives and friends barges into the bridal suite for an after-party and demands that the newlyweds get in bed naked before they leave. This leads to Wei-Wei’s pregnancy. Simon is extremely upset when he finds out, provoking an argument between them and Wei-Wei, and his relationship with Wai-Tung deteriorates.

Mr. Gao suffers another stroke, and in a moment of anger after the fight, Wai-Tung admits the truth to his mother. She is shocked and insists that he not tell his father. However, the perceptive Mr. Gao has seen more than he lets on. He tells Simon that he knows about their relationship and considers Simon his son, appreciating his considerable sacrifices to be together with Wai-Tung. Mr. Gao gives Simon a hongbao, a symbolic admission of their relationship. Still, Simon promises not to let on to the others that he knows the truth, saying that without the sham marriage, he’d never have a grandchild. While en route to an appointment for an abortion, Wei-Wei decides to keep the baby and asks Simon to stay together with Wai-Tung and be the baby’s father, too.

At the airport, before the Gaos’ flight home, Mr. Gao accepts Simon and warmly shakes his hand. Mrs. Gao bids Wei-Wei a fond farewell before they board their plane, leaving the unconventional new family to figure themselves out.

Cast

 

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EVICTED!

EVICTED!

With an impending eviction hanging over their heads, freshly unemployed Maggie, gig-economy worker Will, and feuding couple Isabelle and May embark on a seemingly futile hunt for an affordable shared house. Along the way, they encounter unsanitary toilets, attic kitchens, and an alleged haunting. As Will forms an unlikely friendship with a war veteran, Isabelle hits it off with her local barista, and endless mishaps, coincidences, and hookups go awry.

The Story Mill is a fresh, new production studio crafting unique stories through visual mediums. Whether through narrative features or documentaries, we always know how to leave an impression.

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4/15/2025 #Sinners #Sneaks #TheWeddingBanquet #Evicted!

 

NEW MOVIES: April 10-16, 2025, “The Amateur,” “Drop,” “The Teacher,” “One to One: John & Yoko”

THE AMATEUR

THE AMATEUR

The Amateur is an upcoming American vigilante action spy film directed by James Hawes and written by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli, based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell, which was previously adapted into a Canadian film that same year. It stars Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, Adrian Martinez, Danny Sapani, and Laurence Fishburne.

The film is scheduled to be released in the United States by 20th Century Studios on April 11, 2025.

Premise

After Charles Heller, a CIA cryptographer, loses his wife in a London terrorist attack, he realizes his bosses will not act due to conflicting internal priorities. Having blackmailed the agency to train him as a field operative, Charles embarks on a one-man mission to hunt down his wife’s killers.[2]

Cast

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DROP

DROP

Drop is a 2025 American thriller film[2] directed by Christopher Landon and written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach. It stars Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Ben Pelletier, Gabrielle Ryan, Jeffery Self, Ed Weeks, and Travis Nelson.

Drop premiered at SXSW on March 9, 2025, and is scheduled to be released in the United States by Universal Pictures on April 11, 2025. The film has received positive reviews from critics.

Premise

Violet, a widowed mother, is on a date with Henry when she is terrorized by a series of anonymous messages on her phone. The caller instructs her to tell nobody and follow increasingly malicious instructions, or her younger sister, Jen, and her son, Toby, will be killed, culminating with her being told to kill Henry.[3]

The title refers to the AirDrop feature on Apple’s iPhone, which allows you to share pictures and videos with other phones within your proximity.

Cast

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THE TEACHER

THE TEACHER

The Teacher (Arabic: الأستاذ) is a 2023 drama film written and directed by British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi. It stars Saleh Bakri, Imogen Poots, and Muhammad Abed Elrahman. It premiered at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2023.

Set in the present-day West Bank in the occupied Palestinian Territories, Nabulsi described the film as a “human drama set in a political landscape” and “a story about characters that represent a severely marginalized and underrepresented people,” stating that she “needed to make this film to cope with the injustice I’ve witnessed.”[3]

Plot

Basem is a Palestinian schoolteacher who finds himself caught between his commitment to political resistance and his role as a father figure to one of his students, Adam.

Cast

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ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO

ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO

One to One: John & Yoko is a 2024 documentary film co-directed by Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards. [2]The film follows the couple of years that John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent in a Greenwich Village apartment while also tracing developments in American politics like the presidency of Richard Nixon and opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. It is centered around Lennon and Ono’s “One to One” benefit concert for the children at Willowbrook.[3] Sean Ono Lennon, son of Lennon and Ono, oversaw audio mastering for the concert footage.[4]

The film was announced on May 29, 2024.[5] It later premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 30, 2024, and was followed by showings at the Telluride Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival with distribution by Mercury Studios.  [6]On January 21, 2025, Magnolia Pictures announced their acquisition of North American rights for the film, after which they announced an April 11 release date in IMAX theaters, as well as plans for streaming releases later in the year.[4]

Synopsis

The film is centered around concert footage and audio from Lennon and Ono’s “One to One” benefit concert held at Madison Square Garden in August 1972 on behalf of children at the Willowbrook institution in Staten Island. The “One to One” benefit concerts were the only performances that Lennon performed following The Beatles‘ split in 1970.[7]

The film also follows the trajectory of their 18-month stay in a Greenwich Village apartment from 1971–1973.[8]

Background

The project began when Macdonald was presented with remastered, restored, never-before-seen footage of the “One to One” benefit concert. Macdonald then considered why the concert happened, probing further questions about Lennon and Ono’s lives and careers.[9]

Macdonald then sought to create a film around the benefit concert and the couple’s “political engagement” and their relationship with watching television.[9]

The original release of this concert is the Live in New York City album and home video in 1986.

Composition

Between clips of the “One to One” benefit concert, the film additionally cuts together video and audio recordings from television, phone calls, and other contexts from the same time, highlighting historical events such as Lennon’s failed “Free the People” tour and controversies around Ono’s relationship to Lennon and The Beatles.

The film also uses “newly transferred and restored footage” from the years Lennon and Ono spent in Greenwich Village “alongside previously unseen and unheard items from the couple’s archives, including phone calls and home movies”.[10] It additionally features a replica construction of Lennon and Ono’s apartment.[11]

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4/8/2025 #TheAmateur #Drop #TheTeacher #OneToOne:John&Yoko

 

 

 

NEW MOVIES: April 3-9, 2025, “A MineCraft Movie,” “The Luckiest Man in America,” “Psycho Therapy,” “Eric LaRue”

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

A Minecraft Movie is a 2025 American fantasy adventure comedy film based on the 2011 video game Minecraft by Mojang Studios. It was directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James, and Chris Galletta, from a story by Allison Schroeder, Bowman, and Palmer. The film stars Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, and Sebastian Hansen. In the film, four misfits are pulled through a portal into a cubic world that thrives on imagination, having no choice but to master the world while embarking on a quest with an expert crafter named Steve.

Plans for a Minecraft film adaptation were announced in February 2014 when creator Markus Persson revealed that Mojang was in talks with Warner Bros. Pictures to develop the project, with Roy Lee and Jill Messick producing. During development, filmmakers Shawn Levy, Rob McElhenney, and Peter Sollett, were initially hired to direct, while writers Kieran and Michele Mulroney, Jason Fuchs, Aaron and Adam Nee, and Allison Schroeder, were attached. In April 2022, Legendary Entertainment became involved, with Hess hired as the new director and Momoa in talks to star. Further casting took place from May 2023 to January 2024. Principal photography began later that month in New Zealand and concluded in mid-April 2024.

A Minecraft Movie had its world premiere at Empire, Leicester Square in London, United Kingdom, on March 30, 2025,[3] and is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on April 4, 2025.

Premise

Four misfits—Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa), Henry (Sebastian Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers) and Dawn (Danielle Brooks)—find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll have to master this world (and protect it from evil things like piglins and zombies, too) while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, Steve (Jack Black). Together, their adventure will challenge all five to be bold and to reconnect with the qualities that make each of them uniquely creative…the very skills they need to thrive back in the real world.

— Warner Bros. Pictures[4]

Cast

Additionally, Matt Berry, Kate McKinnon, and Jemaine Clement have been cast in undisclosed roles.[13][10][14] YouTubers Valkyrae, DanTDM, Aphmau, Mumbo Jumbo, and LDShadowLady will appear in the film.[15] In addition, a reference to Technoblade is included as a tribute to him.[16]

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THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA

The Luckiest Man in America is a 2024 American drama film directed and co-written by Samir Oliveros. It stars Paul Walter Hauser, Walton Goggins, Shamier Anderson, Brian Geraghty, Patti Harrison, Haley Bennett, Damian Young, Lilli Kay, James Wolk, Shaunette Renée Wilson, David Rysdahl, Ricky Russert, David Strathairn, Johnny Knoxville, and Maisie Williams.

The film’s world premiere was scheduled for September 5, 2024, at the Toronto International Film Festival. It will be released in the United States on April 4, 2025.

Premise

Depicts the 1984 scandal orchestrated by ice cream truck driver Michael Larson when he appeared on and won the game show Press Your Luck.

Cast

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PSYCHO THERAPY

PSYCHO THERAPY

The Steve Buscemi-led black comedy Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer has been released. Directed by Turkish filmmaker Tolga Karaçelik in his English-language debut, the film follows John Magaro (Past Lives) as Keane, a writer whose crumbling marriage to Suzie (Britt Lower) is further complicated by his years-long struggle to complete a book about serial killers. His luck takes a bizarre turn when he meets Kollmick (Buscemi), an ex-murderer who offers to mentor him in the finer points of homicide.

The newly released trailer for Psycho Therapy shows things spiral further out of control when Suzie mistakes reformed serial killer Kollmick for their new marriage counselor (via Brainstorm Media). Psycho Therapy is set to premiere in New York theaters on April 4. The film will also star Ward Harton, Olli Haaskivi, and Lower’s Severance co-star Sydney Cole Alexander.

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ERIC LARUE

ERIC LARUE

Eric LaRue is a 2023 American drama film directed by Michael Shannon in his directorial debut. It was written by Brett Neveu and based on his 2002 play of the same name.

Synopsis

Janice, the mother of a high school murderer, prepares to visit her son in prison and meet a collection of bereaved local parents.

Cast

  • Judy Greer as Janice LaRue
  • Paul Sparks as Steve Calhan, a Presbyterian pastor
  • Alison Pill as Lisa, a Human Resources manager close with Ron
  • Tracy Letts as Bill Verne, motivational preacher
  • Annie Parisse as Stephanie, a grieving mother
  • Kate Arrington as Jill, a grieving mother
  • Alexander Skarsgård as Ron LaRue, Janice’s husband
  • Nation Sage Henrikson as Eric LaRue, Janice’s son and school shooter
  • Lawrence Grimm as Jack, Janice’s boss.

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4/1/2025 #AMinCraftMovie #TheLuckiestManinAmerica #PsychoTherapy #EricLaRue

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