Opening This Week: THE DRAMA, Romantic Tension, THE STRANGER, Classic Updated

Perhaps I'm missing something. Our guide to genre fare opening this week in movie theaters is quite slender, though I should note that two arthouse films that opened in limited release last weekend, Yes and Kontinental '25, will be expanding this week.

In any event, here are three releases we'll be reviewing in the next few days.

The Drama
The film opens Friday, April 3, only in movie theaters, via A24 Films.

Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as a couple getting married doesn't really sound like it would be our cup of tea. Yet director Kristoffer Borgli doesn't make ordinary movies that hew to the usual usual -- see, for example, our own Theodoor Steen on a music video by the director and behold the very odd Nicolas Cage-starring Dream Scenario. So, our hopes are cautiously raised.

Official synopsis: "A happily engaged couple is put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails."

Look for our review later this week.

The Stranger
The film opens Friday, April 3, only in movie theaters, via Music Box Films. Visit the official site for locations.

We have such admiration for François Ozon that we will be publishing an interview with him, conducted at the Venice Film Festival last year, along with republishing our review by Martin Tsai from the festival premiere, as well as a new review by Dustin Chang that looks at the film from a different angle. It's François Ozon week at Screen Anarchy!

Official synopsis: "Meursault (Benjamin Voisin) works as a clerk at an office in Algiers during the French colonial occupation. A modest man who keeps to himself, Meursault finds his routine upended by the sudden death of his mother.

"At her funeral, he faces scrutiny from all corners for his failure to perform his grief. Meursault's reputation for otherworldly detachment carries over to all aspects of his life, from his tentative romance with Marie (Rebecca Marder) to his indifference to professional advancement. As Meursault gets swept up in a cycle of escalating reprisals among his neighbors, tensions come to a head when he murders an Arab man on the beach. A Frenchman may offer many defenses for shooting an Arab in Algeria, but Meursault's refusal of excuse or remorse shakes colonial society to its core.

"Photographed in sterling, sensuous black-and-white, François Ozon's new take on Albert Camus's classic novel of existentialist ennui is a landmark of adaptation, simultaneously faithful to the text and dedicated to discovering fresh perspectives in the margins."

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
The film opens Wednesday, April 1, only in movie theaters, via Universal Pictures. Visit the official site for locations.

It's a s-l-o-w week for new releases, obviously. Or else we're just gluttons for punishment.

When I saw The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023, I wrote our review: "Ill-conceived and poorly executed, the animated movie mashes together adaptations of several video game ideas to make a hash of them all." For a change, another reviewer took mercy on me; look for our review later this week.

Official synopsis: "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is an animated film based on the world of Super Mario Bros., and follows The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which was released in 2023 and earned more than $1.3 billion worldwide."

Opening This Week celebrates the cinematic experience, in movie theaters and at home.