Six To See April 27-May 3, 2024

1. The Fall Guy: the new action comedy film directed by David Leitch and written by Drew Pearce. Loosely based on the 1980s TV series about stunt performers, the film stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in the lead roles with Winston Duke, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, and Stephanie Hsu in supporting roles. It follows Colt Seavers, a battered and past-his-prime action choreographer, who finds himself working on a film set with Tom Ryder, a famous actor for whom he had doubled long ago. When Tom goes missing and the film, which is being directed by Jody Moreno, Colt’s ex-girlfriend in her directing debut, is in danger of being shut down, Colt volunteers to find Tom and save Jody’s debut film. The Fall Guy had its world premiere at SXSW in March and was released in theatres on May 3 in the US and Canada. In some other countries like Belgium it was released a week earlier, so I was able to see the film earlier this week. It was a fun film to watch and a great one to see on the big screen.

2. The Idea of You: a new romantic comedy film directed by Michael Showalter and based on the novel of the same name by Robinne Lee. It stars Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine in the lead roles as Solène Marchand and Hayes Campbell. The film follows a love affair between Solène Marchand, a 40-year-old single mom, and 24-year-old Hayes Campbell, the lead singer of the hottest boyband on the planet. They meet each other after her ex-husband requests to take their teenage daughter to Coachella. The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 16 as the closing night film and was released on Prime Video on May 2.

3. Turtles All The Way Down: a new romantic drama film based on the 2017 novel of the same name by John Green. The film is directed by Hannah Marks from a screenplay by Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker, and stars Isabela Merced in the lead role as Aza Holmes, a 16-year-old with obsessive–compulsive disorder. She reconnects with her childhood crush and confronts the possibility of finding love and happiness in the face of mental illness. Also starring are Cree Cicchino, Felix Mallard, Judy Reyes, Maliq Johnson, J. Smith-Cameron, Poorna Jagannathan and Hannah Marks. The film was released on Max on May 2.

4. A Man in Full: A new drama limited series created by David E. Kelley and directed by Regina King and Thomas Schlamme. It’s based on Tom Wolfe’s novel of the same name and stars Jeff Daniels in the lead role as Charlie Croker alongside Diane Lane, William Jackson Harper, Aml Ameen, Tom Pelphrey, Sarah Jones, Jon Michael Hill, Chanté Adams, Lucy Liu, Bill Camp and Evan Roe. Business and political interests collide when Atlanta real estate mogul Charlie Croker defends his empire from those wanting to capitalize on his sudden bankruptcy and fall from grace. The series consists of six episodes and was released on Netflix on May 2.

5. The Tattooist of Auschwitz: a new historical drama series directed by Tali Shalom Ezer and based on the book of the same name by Heather Morris. The cast includes Harvey Keitel, Melanie Lynskey, Jonah Hauer-King and Anna Próchniak. The series is inspired by the real-life story of Lale and Gita Sokolov, who met while being prisoners in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during the Holocaust. We follow Lale, who was given the job of tattooing identification numbers on fellow prisoners’ arms, telling his story to Heather Morris. The series was released on May 2 on Peacock in the US, on Sky Atlantic in Italy and UK and on Stan in Australia.

6. Unfrosted: a new comedy film directed by Jerry Seinfeld, in his feature film directorial debut, from a screenplay he co-wrote with his writing team of Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, and Andy Robin. Seinfeld and Feresten also serve as producers of the film alongside Beau Beauman. The film stars an ensemble cast that includes Jerry Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, James Marsden, Jack McBrayer, Thomas Lennon, Bobby Moynihan, Maria Bakalova, Max Greenfield, Bill Burr, Dan Levy, Christian Slater, and Hugh Grant. This film is loosely based on the true story of the making of Pop Tarts and tells the story of Kellogg’s and Post Cereal competing to see if they can produce a revolutionary breakfast pastry in 1963 Michigan. The film was released on Netflix on May 3.

Bonus films:

• Tarot: a new supernatural horror film written and directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg (in their feature film directorial debut) and also co-written by Nicholas Adams. It’s based on a 1992 novel Horrorscope by Nicholas Adams and stars Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika, and Jacob Batalon. The plot centers on a group of college friends who start dying in ways that are related to their fortunes after having their tarot cards read. Before their time runs out, they have to work together to uncover the mystery. The film was first scheduled to release in theatres on May 10, but it was later moved up a week to May 3.

• Prom Dates: a new coming-of-age comedy film directed by Kim Nguyen, written by D.J. Mausner, and starring Julia Lester and Antonia Gentry in the lead roles. They play best friends Hannah and Jess, who make a pact to have the best prom ever. However, when they unexpectedly break up with their dates, they must find new dates before prom begins. Prom Dates was released on Hulu on May 3.

Bonus series:

• The Veil: a new thriller limited series written by Steven Knight and starring Elisabeth Moss, Josh Charles, Dali Benssalah, Yumna Marwan, and Alec Secareanu. Moss had to learn a British accent for this series which is about a potentially deadly game of truth and lies as two women travel from Istanbul to Paris and London, with one of them possessing a secret which the other needs to expose before thousands of lives are lost. Moss stars in the lead role as Imogen Salter, a veteran MI6 agent with a specialty in undercover work. The series premiered on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ internationally on April 30.