Mixed-breed dogs are on the run in the Hungarian drama ‘White God.’
Hard to believe entertainment industry pundits now refer to the end of March as the last calm weekend before the summer blockbuster onslaught. Yet, Furious 7 lands next Friday with Avengers: Age of Ultron on its coattails. Until the non-stop action begins, this weekend belongs to laughs with Will Ferrell leading Kevin Hart and Alison Brie in the high concept, lowdown buddy comedy Get Hard. Ferrell plays a white-collar criminal who hires Hart’s character to make him “hard” before he’s sent away for his financial crimes.
DreamWorksAnimation and 20th Century Fox pull a page from Disney’s visiting alien classic Lilo & Stitch for the cartoon comedy Home. Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin and Jennifer Lopez supply the celebrity voices.
The art house horror It Follows expands nationwide after a successful platform opening from RADiUS-TWC. Check out its Original Feed review.
A24 opens the Noah Baumbach comedy While We’re Young, a tale of two creative couples bonding despite their age differences, starring Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried.
The most unusual release belongs to period drama Serena, starring box office stars Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper as newlyweds in 1920s North Carolina. Lawrence and Cooper are normally attached to major studio releases but Serena, from Magnolia Pictures, opens in limited art houses and streams via VOD and iTunes.
The art house film worth seeking out is director/co-writer Kornél Mundruczó’s White God, also from Magnolia Pictures, about mixed breed dogs leading a revolt in Hungary after a government tax on mixed breeds go into effect.
IFC Films releases two films this weekend. Director Lone Scherfig’s drama The Riot Club opens in select cinemas and VOD. Sam Claflin, Max Irons and Natalie Dormer star in this drama about affluent Oxford University students behaving badly.
Gerard Depardieu and Jacqueline Bisset partner with indie vet Abel Ferrara for Welcome to New York, a drama inspired by the recent sex scandal by French diplomat Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
I must confess that the combustible pairing of Ferrara and Depardieu make the Get Hard collaboration of Ferrell and Hart utterly forgettable.