Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–The Christophers (Theaters)
–Exit 8 (Theaters)
–Faces of Death (Theaters)
–Hunting Matthew Nichols (Theaters)
–You, Me & Tuscany (Theaters)
TV
–Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair Series Premiere (April 10 on Hulu)
–Euphoria Season 3 Premiere (April 12 on HBO)
–The 1% Club Season Premiere (April 13 on FOX)
–The Quiz with Balls (April 13 on FOX) – Game Show Season is in full swing.
–Margo’s Got Money Troubles Series Premiere (April 15 on Apple TV) – Elle Fanning plays Margo.
Music
-Holly Humberstone, Cruel World
-Joe Jackson, Hope and Fury
-Snoop Dogg, 10 Til’ Midnight
Which one’s “You” and which one’s “Me”? (CREDIT: Giulia Parmigiani/Universal Pictures)
Starring: Halle Bailey, Regé-Jean Page, Marco Calvani, Lorenzo de Moor, Aziza Scott, Isabella Ferrari, Stefania Casini, Stella Pecollo, Paolo Sassanelli, Nia Vardalos
Director: Kat Coiro
Running Time: 105 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Plenty of Playful Innuendo
Release Date: April 10, 2026 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: Aspiring young cook Anna (Halle Bailey) hasn’t been feeling very aspirational lately. Her mom (who always encouraged her dreams) recently passed away, and her bank account is running dry. She’s been making ends meet as a housesitter for fancy rich folk in the Big Apple, but she has a plane ticket to Italy that her mom bought her that’s just waiting to be redeemed if she ever wants to re-stoke her culinary ambitions. Then a chance encounter with a globetrotting Italian fellow named Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor) leads her to actually go through with that plan. Alas, she doesn’t exactly have anywhere to stay, so she just makes herself at home in Matteo’s empty Tuscan villa. Once his family discovers her, she pretends to be Matteo’s fiance, but that charade soon becomes even more untenable once she starts catching feelings for Matteo’s cousin Michael (Regé-Jean Page). And he’s not the only one who’s charmed, as pretty much the entire family instantly falls in love with her.
What Made an Impression?: A Warm Embrace:You, Me & Tuscany isn’t shy about showing off its assets (within the bounds of a PG-13 rating). If you’re feeling good about yourself in Italian wine country, why not let the sun dapple your exposed skin? That’s certainly the philosophy that Anna and Michael (and pretty much everyone else in Tuscany) seems to be operating under. And I’m not just talking about sensual openness. Despite all the lies, these characters cannot help but let the truest depths of their warm personalities shine through. Bailey has never been a more winning screen presence, and the whole experience is one wonderful big hug of a movie. The Long and Winding (and Confusing and Regretful) Road: At one point, someone offers Anna advice in the form of what may very well be You, Me & Tuscany‘s thesis statement: sometimes making the wrong choice leads to the right choice. On the one hand, that’s mighty wise counsel, as we shouldn’t let ourselves be held back indefinitely by our mistakes. Instead, we should give ourselves the grace to move forward. However, in the context of the narrative, this runs the risk of excusing a whole lot of deception. If I were on my own Tuscan villa vacation and thus had a whole bunch of free time, I could expand my analysis about this conflict into a 5,000-10,000-word essay. For now, I’ll conclude that the emphasis on forgiveness makes for a sufficiently heartwarming message. Have a Seat and Get Comfy:Y,M&T may be just as credulity-stretching as any other wish-fulfillment rom-com, and its understanding of Italian culture may be only slightly less broad than the Mario movies, but it’s just charming enough to get away with all that. I’ve already sung the praises of the leads and the extended family, and now it’s time to underscore all that by also mentioning Anna’s confidante. Or actually confidantes, plural, since she’s lucky enough to have two of them. First, there’s her pregnant best friend Claire (Aziza Scott), who stays back in the States and basically plays the same part that Lil Rel Howery did in Get Out. And then on the ground in Italy, there’s taxi driver Lorenzo (Marco Calvani), who basically becomes Anna’s personal chauffeur in his cozy little Fiat. He’s the audience surrogate character, assuming that you love love as much as the most devoted rom-com devotee. If you’re always pulling for the fairy tale to actually happen, but you also always offer a shoulder to cry on if it doesn’t work out, then you’ll appreciate what Lorenzo (and this whole movie, in fact), has to offer.
You, Me & Tuscany is Recommended If You Like: Wine, Bread, Pasta, Spontaneity, Tomatoes, Soil, Sandwiches
Starring: Zazie Beetz, Patricia Arquette, Myha’la, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton, Heather Graham, Angus Sampson, James Remar
Director: Kirill Sokolov
Running Time: 94 Minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: March 27, 2026 (Theaters)
They Will Kill You primarily takes place in a hotel, so I can’t help but ask: Would I like to live in Hotel TWKY (even if just for a little bit)? Well, its calling card isn’t exactly promising, as it’s apparently built on a foundation of human sacrifice. So that’s not great. Even worse, it lets in hardly any natural light. I suppose that making my way through such hardships could build character. But life is already hard enough on its own!
As Yoshi as They Wanna Be (CREDIT: Nintendo and Illumination)
Starring: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Benny Safdie, Donald Glover, Brie Larson, Issa Rae, Luis Guzmán, Kevin Michael Richardson, Glen Powell
Directors: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Rating: PG for The Typical Peril
Release Date: April 1, 2026 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: The Mario Brothers are headed to outer … space! After subduing their iconic archvillain Bowser (Jack Black) in their initial Illuminated big screen adventure, Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) team up with a few new friends, like the dino-esque, tongue-heavy Yoshi (Donald Glover) and daredevil pilot Fox McCloud (Glen Powell). Then there’s the mysterious adoptive mother to a brood of squeaky-voiced star creatures, Rosalina (Brie Larson), who may just have a connection to the Mario brothers’ good buddy Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy). Getting to Rosalina is also a key part of the plan of the scrappy Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), who’s trying to retrieve his father and pull him back into the family business.
What Made an Impression?: Where’s My Controller?: After the massive success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it’s no surprise that my biggest takeaway from The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is pretty much exactly the same. Which is to say: why not just play the games? The character designs and graphics are essentially identical, and the plot (such as it is) is just a series of jumps and flips into the power-ups of the Nintendo-verse. This outing felt at least a little different to me, as it’s primarily based on a game that was released at a time when I wasn’t playing too much. But different doesn’t necessarily mean exciting. An Egg of an Idea: To get real with it, a Super Mario movie doesn’t really need to have a full-on plot to succeed. At least that’s how I feel based on the one part of this movie that I did unequivocally enjoy: a brief sequence in which Yoshi bops around town to the tune of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize.” If there could have been more of those diversions that offered a clear rush of imagination, then I would have been satisfied. Banana?: One other thing that I kinda, sorta liked (or at least explicitly noticed) was a crew of blue-and-yellow robots that some quick googling tells me are probably Gearmos. Their color scheme in this movie is inescapably reminiscent of fellow Illumination crew the Minions. I don’t know if that reference was intentional, but any reminder of a much better cinematic franchise was welcome to get through this profoundly straightforward enterprise.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is Recommended If You: Spend all your time hitting your head against boxes and hoping that a star or flower will pop out of it
Oh, how alive it is to feel to be dead! (CREDIT: Warner Bros./Screenshot; Cartuna x DWECK)
The Bride!
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Matthew Maher, Zlatko Burić, Jeannie Berlin, Julianne Hough, Louis Cancelmi, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Steve Purcell, Ego Nwodim, Nichole Sakura, Meryl Streep, Vanessa Bayer, Demetri Martin, Joe Spano, Eric Edelstein, Lori Alan, Karen Huie
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Running Time: 126 Minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: March 6, 2026 (Theaters)
Dead Lover
Starring: Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Leah Doz, Lowen Morrow
Director: Grace Glowicki
Running Time: 84 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Release Date: March 20, 2026 (Theaters)
Whoa, hey, two wacky romances inspired by Frankenstein coming out within a few weeks of each other? One of them’s a major studio release, while the other’s a super-independent low-budget scamp. What do you think about that? Well, here’s what I think about that!
They’re doing their thang (CREDIT: Sony Pictures Animation; Pixar/Screenshot)
GOAT
Starring: Caleb McLaughlin, Gabrielle Union, Aaron Pierre, Nicola Coughlan, David Harbour, Nick Kroll, Steph Curry, Jennifer Leis, Patton Oswalt, Jelly Roll, Jennifer Hudson, Sherry Cola, Eduardo Franco, Andrew Santino, Bobby Lee, Ayesha Curry, Wayne Knight, Adam Pally, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Love, Angel Reese, A’ja Wilson, Andre Igoudala, Joe La Puma, Rayaan Khan, VanVan
Director: Tyree Dillihay
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Rating: PG
Release Date: February 13, 2026 (Theaters)
Hoppers
Starring: Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, Dave Franco, Eduardo Franco, Aparna Nancherla, Tom Law, Sam Richardson, Melissa Villaseñor
Director: Daniel Chong
Running Time:
Rating: PG
Release Date: March 7, 2026 (Theaters)
There are a whole heck of a lot of talking animals in American animated movies, but somehow I don’t think I’ve ever paired two such movies together in my reviews. Or at least not intentionally, and not explicitly acknowledging it like I’m doing right now. (Feel free to fact-check me if that sounds fishy to you.) So let’s collect my thoughts about GOAT and Hoppers and determine how much they make me want me to be an animal.
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (Theaters)
–Alpha (Theaters) – Directed by Julia Ducournau.
–Forbidden Fruits (Theaters) – I didn’t give this a great review, but I’ll still recommend it, since it’s sufficiently unique.
–They Will Kill You (Theaters)
Music
-Various Artist, Help(2) (Released March 6) – A charity album with an interesting lineup.
-Courtney Barnett, Creature of Habit
-Flea, Honora
-The New Pornographers, The Former Site Of
-Raye, THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE
-Robyn, Sexistential
-Snail Mail, Ricochet
Sports
-College Basketball Crown (April 1-5 on Fox Sports and FOX) – I don’t usually pay terribly close attention to the non-March Madness college basketball tournaments, but Rutgers is in this one this year.
Starring: Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Chamberlain, Gabrielle Union
Director: Meredith Alloway
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Rating: R for Supernatural-ish Violence and a Round of Sexual Romps
Release Date: March 27, 2026 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: Clothing store employees Apple (Lili Reinhart), Cherry (Victoria Pedretti), and Fig (Alexandra Shipp) run their little corner of the mall with a unique brand of witchy energy. That mostly consists of following strict interpersonal rules of conduct, dropping performative bons mots about femininity, and hitting their sales goals. When they lure over Pumpkin (Lola Tung) from the nearby pretzel store into their circle, she at first seems like a perfectly natural addition, but soon enough she’s upsetting the status quo. As it turns out, she just might know a heck of a lot more about these fruity gals than she initially lets on. Eventually they may very well have to confront the demons from their past instead of just hanging out in their weird little bubble.
What Made an Impression?: A Foreign Object: There are certain movies that make me go, “Nobody talks like this. Nobody behaves like this. This is not how the world works.” That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In some cases, those flicks are right up my alley. But in the case of Forbidden Fruits, my reaction is instead, “Maybe there are some people who understand this language, but alas I’m not one of them.” Perhaps I will come to understand it one day, but for now it just feels like a plate of spaghetti nonsense thrown against the wall. The Quip Hit Rate: While my Overall Vibing Level with Forbidden Fruits was fairly lukewarm, I must admit that it did amuse me here and there. It’s definitely not all bad when one character drops an all-time zinger like, “My job doesn’t define me. My hotness and personality do.” Flashes of wit are definitely present. More than flashes even! Director Meredith Alloway and her co-screenwriter Lily Houghton (the latter of whom wrote the play that FF is based on) undeniably have a knack for tickling our ears, and I don’t mind giving it up for them in this department. A Turn for the Bloody:Forbidden Fruits has one of those resolutions that is liable to make everyone in a crowded theater stand up and declare in unison, “That’s where this was going? Why wasn’t that clear earlier on?!” On top of that, there’s an end credits scene that looks like it’s setting up a sequel, which is an oddly audacious move for a humble indie flick. It’s analogous to a 10-episode streaming TV season that doesn’t start moving the plot forward in any significant way until Episode 8. Before then, all we have to subsist on are Vibes.
Forbidden Fruits is Recommended If You: Wish that all movies were just a variation of The Craft
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