New in Theaters This Week for 03/30/18



Welcome to a recurring feature here at The Nerd Mentality. As movie lovers, we often scramble to find all the films coming out in a given week. We thought we would take some of the guesswork out of it for our readers. We’ll be showcasing both wide and limited releases. So sit back watch some trailers and you might find something new to go watch this weekend. These films are what’s New in Theaters This Week for 03/30/18, shown in totally random order, because why not? Showtimes are linked on the titles so you can see if it is playing near you.

From filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes the science fiction action adventure Ready Player One, based on Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name, which has become a worldwide phenomenon. The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.

When ‘Lady’ Sandra Abbott (Academy Award nominee Imelda Staunton, Maleficent, Vera Drake) discovers that her husband of forty years is having an affair with her best friend she seeks refuge in London with her estranged, older sister Bif (Celia Imrie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Bridget Jones’ Baby). The two could not be more different – Sandra is a fish out of water next to her outspoken, serial dating, free-spirited sibling. But different is just what Sandra needs at the moment, and she reluctantly lets Bif drag her along to a community dance class, where gradually she starts finding her feet and romance as she meets her sister’s friends, Charlie (Timothy Spall), Jackie (Joanna Lumley) and Ted (David Hayman).

What happens when you lose the foundation of your family? In the wake of a husband and father’s death, the family members he leaves behind find themselves adrift—and in danger of drifting apart—as they each try to find meaning in a world without the man who held them together. Mother Suzanne (Andie MacDowell) tentatively seeks companionship—but her attempts at dating only drive a wedge between her and older son Nicholas (Chris O’Dowd), whose own relationship with his girlfriend is disintegrating. Meanwhile, younger son Chris (James Adomian) deals with grief in his own complicated—and increasingly worrying—way. What plays out between the trio is a beautifully observed, powerfully emotional journey that speaks to the strength of family ties.

A faithful wife (Taraji P. Henson) tired of standing by her devious husband (Lyriq Bent) is enraged when it becomes clear she has been betrayed. Directed by Tyler Perry.

This entirely African American-conceived and produced ensemble drama is the result of a collaboration of a pair of pioneering Black artists: writer Ishmael Reed and filmmaker Bill Gunn, who wrote and directed the underground classic Ganja & Hess and wrote the screenplay for Hal Ashby’s The Landlord. Originally intended to air on public television in 1980, it went unseen for decades; the original tapes have been carefully restored by Kino Lorber and the film is now available in its full-length version for the very first time!

After serving 20 years for the crime of essentially being in the wrong place at the wrong time, 38-year-old Chris (Jay Duplass) is granted early parole thanks largely to the tireless advocacy of Carol (Edie Falco), his former high-school teacher. As he struggles with the challenges of navigating the modern world as an ex-con, and with a fraught relationship with his brother Ted (Ben Schwartz), Chris ends up confessing his romantic love for Carol — a love that, given her marital status, Carol cannot reciprocate. Or can she? Carol longs for something her husband no longer provides. Meanwhile, Carol’s daughter Hildy (Kaitlyn Dever) befriends Chris, finding a kindred spirit in this awkward, tormented older guy.

Vic Edwards (Burt Reynolds) was the biggest star in Hollywood, a college football legend turned stunt double turned leading man. Now, in his eighties, he’s convinced by an old friend (Chevy Chase) to accept an invitation to receive a Lifetime Achievement award at a two-bit film festival in Nashville. The trip launches him on both a hilarious fish-out-of-water adventure and an unexpectedly poignant journey into his past.

Senna Berges (Sharon Stone), a free-spirited fashion designer lives on the edge. Despite attempts by her strong-willed mother (Ellen Burstyn), to get her to settle down, Senna charts a chaotic path marked by missed career opportunities and casual hookups with younger men. Senna seems destined for a life of disappointment. Then one day, everything changes…Everything. At her 46th birthday, Senna meets Adam (Tony Goldwyn), a charismatic lawyer who connects with her in the most powerful and profound way. True to form, Senna screws up and happiness is not to be. But when Senna and Adam serendipitously reunite a year later at her 47th birthday party, Senna’s luck changes with the opportunity to find true love again.

A battle-hardened army officer goes in search of his ex-lover’s child who is mysteriously kidnapped. He goes deep into the underbelly of Goa, facing off against drug lords, menacing Russian henchmen, and blood thirsty animals. Daring stunts, chase sequences, air strikes, bomb blasts and other large-scale action sequences with a bona-fide, larger than life approach, truly making the film a spectacle.

In GOD’S NOT DEAD: A LIGHT IN DARKNESS, one church is unexpectedly thrown into an epic legal battle by a state-run university that believes the congregation has outlived its usefulness and needs to go.

A heinous crime tests the complex relationship between a tenacious personal assistant and her Hollywood starlet boss. As the assistant travels across Los Angeles to unravel the mystery, she must stay one step ahead of a determined policeman and confront her own understanding of friendship, truth, and celebrity.

From the producers of ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM comes a Wall Street heist story about a still-unfolding financial crime so big, it has the power to affect all of our wallets. Investors on the fringes of the financial world feverishly seek new alternatives for high-return investments in the global markets, and have found a goldmine in China. But when one investor discovers a massive web of fraud, everything else is called into question. Jed Rothstein’s documentary rings the alarm on the need for transparency in an increasingly deregulated financial world by following those working to uncover the biggest heist you’ve never heard of.

Two respected scientists decide to quit their jobs for their biggest experiment to date – parenthood! Raising three very different children, they seek to prove that everyone has the same potential to become anything they choose.

A journalist couple invite two strangers into their idyllic village home after noticing strange military activity nearby, but what begins as an informal interview soon descends into a nightmarish fight for survival. Starring Mickey Sumner, Cian Barry, April Pearson, and Ruben Crow.

Fourplay (Parade Deck Films)

A story of friendship, love, marriage, secrets, lies that unfolds between two couples in one apartment during a Sunday brunch that will affect their lives forever.

The Great Silence (Film Movement) Restored Re-Release

On an unforgiving, snow swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious Loco (Klaus Kinski) prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. As the price on each head is collected one-by-one, only a mute gunslinger named Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) stands between the innocent refuges and the greed and corruption that the bounty hunters represent. But, in this harsh, brutal world, the lines between right and wrong are not always clear and good does not always triumph. Featuring superb photography and a haunting score from maestro Ennio Morricone, director Sergio Corbucci’s bleak, brilliant and violent vision of an immoral, honorless West is widely considered to be among the very best and most influential Westerns ever made.

When Kyle (Ross Lynch), a social outcast, happens upon a magical phone app that causes anything he posts to come true, he uses it to create his idea of the ‘perfect’ life. He even wins the affection of the two most beautiful girls in school, Dani (Olivia Holt) and Charlotte (Courtney Eaton). However, he soon learns that the life he created is far from perfect, and that being yourself, imperfections and all, is the only way to find true happiness in life.

After Louie (Freestyle Releasing LLC)

Sam is a New York artist and former AIDS activist who is disillusioned with the world around him. While dredging up buried memories and resentments to make a film about a friend he lost to AIDS, Sam gets caught up in a relationship with Braeden. At first critical of the young man for his generation’s failure to appreciate how easy they have it, Sam slowly realizes that he has much to learn about what gay life is like today.

Thanks to revelatory conversations with his inner circle of friends, King in the Wilderness unearths a stirring new perspective into Dr. King’s character, his radical doctrine of nonviolence, and his internal philosophical struggles prior to his assassination in 1968. With clarity and compassion, filmmaker Peter Kunhardt invites a sense of penetrating intimacy and insight into one of the most profound thinkers of our time.

Backyard Wilderness will surprise and entertain viewers with the unexpected wonders of nature that are right under our noses – in our own backyards. Spanning a seasonal year around a suburban home, the film displays a stunning array of unique wildlife images and behavior – all captured by cameras mounted inside dens and nests, and moving along the forest floor and pond bottom, to reveal its inhabitants in rare and breathtaking intimacy.

The following link and article below will explain better than I could, what the films entail. I was debating about whether to include it, but figured that someone might want to go see it or at least be aware of its existence.

On the heels of their recent showings as part of an extensive Al Pacino retrospective at New York City’s Quad Cinemas comes the long-delayed theatrical premiere of a pair of Pacino-helmed, stage-centric films, “Wilde Salomé” and its follow-up, “Salomé.”

This nichey, experimental duo are companion pieces for sure, so they are best seen — and discussed — in tandem and in order, even if that wasn’t necessarily Pacino’s original raison d’etre when he cobbled these projects together more than a decade ago. But what exactly was his purpose?

Hopefully, you found some interesting trailers and maybe plan to see a film you normally wouldn’t have. New in Theaters This Week for 03/30/18 brought to you by The Nerd Mentality! Check back each week by bookmarking our Now Playing tag.