The Drama (April 3 – Theatres)

Come for Robert Pattinson and Zendaya and stay for the devilish, disquieting story about a couple whose engagement is upended after they reveal to each other “the worst thing they’ve ever done” at a parlour game. Following up the masterfully cringy Dream Scenario, Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama, unfolds as a romantic comedy, but as its title suggests, thrills and unsettles like a sombre drama. If nothing else, RSVP for a chaotic wedding, defined by pure shock value.

Mother Mary (April 17 – Theatres)

Anne Hathaway is primed to give a tour-de-force performance in David Lowery’s deconstruction of pop stardom, Mother Mary. Billed as a multitude of loose concepts (“A Betrayal,” A Communion,” “A Prayer”) and set to the lush music of Charli xcx, FKA Twigs, and Jack Antonoff, Hathaway’s musical star vehicle is set to be one of the most ethereal, stylish, and sonically endowed experiences of the year.

Mile End Kicks (April 17 – Theatres)

In the great tradition of music films like Almost Famous and High Fidelity, Chandler Levack’s Mike End Kicks follows a young music critic in 2011 Montreal who dedicates herself to writing the next great entry in the 33 1/3 book series. Her book will centre on the now-legendary Alanis Morissette opus, Jagged Little Pill. Scurrying through frenzied concerts, wine-drunk poetry sessions, and a love triangle with members of the same rock band, Mile End Kicks is armed with enough cultural references to become the definitive music-fuelled romantic comedy of our time.

Blue Heron (April 24– Theatres)

Drawing from the same cosmic well of Charlotte Well’s Aftersun, Sophy Romvari’s semiautobiographical Blue Heron aims to reconfigure our relationship with nostalgia. Set in the late 1990s, it follows a family of six as they settle into their home on Vancouver Island, as they wrestle with various, frayed dynamics and a daughter’s attempt at reconciliation. At once, a portrait of mundane domestic life and deeply felt treatise on grief, Blue Heron might be the sleeper classic of the year.

Erupcja (April 24– Theatres)

Running a snappy 71 minutes and centring on the instant, sapphic connection between Charli xcx’s British tourist with a boyfriend and Lena Góra’s Polish tourist, Pete Ohs’ Erupcja aims to be more than the sum of its parts. One part low-budget indie and the other a moody mumblecore romance, Erupcja, like its title suggests (Polish for “eruption”), offers an intimate, technicolor explosion that opens another riotous chapter in the endless BRAT Summer.

Michael (April 24– Theatres)

Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer), the mononymous Michael details the life and complex legacy of Michael Jackson, or more plainly, The King of Pop. Starring his nephew, Jaafar Jackson, Fuqua’s film traces his lively early days with the Jackson 5 through his rise to become the creative phenom who captures the  world. In a film landscape defined by biopics, here’s hoping Michael rises above its casting gimmick to truly illuminate the mind behind the hits.

Classic Pick of the Month: Showgirls (April 1– Mubi)

Paul Verhoeven’s much-maligned classic is a rare case in which a film’s utter and exaggerated lack of taste proves to be its masterstroke, as it relishes in the same depraved, risqué realm that American consumerist culture is defined by but is too afraid to admit. In brazenly eschewing subtlety, Showgirls manifests as a deceptively earnest experience, both basking in and reflecting the misogyny baked into the heart of American industry and entertainment. Despite being a European export, Veerhoeven remains Hollywood’s greatest satirist, understanding the vulgar tenets of American imagery and mythmaking better than most Americans.