The movies you should see this month

Need for Speed

Haul the kid(s) in your life to the final few days of FIFEM, the Festival International du Film pour Enfants de Montréal. The fest runs until March 9 and highlights films aimed at the 2–15 age bracket, offering family entertainment during spring break. And let’s be honest: these types of films aren’t necessarily solely for kids.

From March 20–30, it’s FIFA—nothing to do with the World Cup, but rather the International Festival of Films on Art. This year’s fest is screening 270 films from 34 different countries, plus special events, exhibitions, installations, roundtables and master classes.

Also of note, the Cinémathèque québécoise (335 de Maisonneuve E.) will be celebrating the work of Orson Welles with a retrospective until April 22. They’ll be screening all the classics: Touch of Evil, Falstaff, Othello, Citizen Kane and more.

In mainstream world, 300 gets a sequel with 300: Rise of an Empire. Zack Snyder isn’t directing this one, but he still put his paws all over the screenplay, so it’s pretty safe to say that it’ll be more of the same (March 7). My most anticipated film of the month is Alan Partridge, starring Steve Coogan. It’s an entire film dedicated to his longstanding fictional radio and television presenter (March 7).

Better Living Through Chemistry is a drama starring Sam Rockwell as a pharmacist whose life spirals out of control (March 14). Enemy reunited Denis Villeneuve with Jake Gyllenhaal, this time to tell the story of a man trying to track down his exact look-alike after he spots him in a film. For any Breaking Bad fans who miss their regular dose of Aaron Paul, prepare for Need for Speed, an action/drama about a framed street racer fresh out of prison (March 14). Also of note on March 14 is the long-awaited Veronica Mars movie, a continuation of the popular UPN/CW show that was cancelled prematurely after its third season.

Based on Veronica Roth’s trilogy, sci-fi action flick Divergent stars Shailene Woodley as a “divergent”—a person who can’t fit into a futuristic society (March 21). While on a Muppets World Tour, Kermit the Frog gets framed in Muppets Most Wanted, also starring Tina Fey and Ricky Gervais (March 21). In Lars von Trier’s latest perverse creation, Nymphomaniac, sex addict (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg) recounts her erotic experiences (March 21). Michael Pitt and Nina Arianda play a couple who decide to rob the mafia in crime drama Rob the Mob, which is based on a true story (March 21). My second most anticipated film, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, shares the adventures of concierge Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes) and Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend (March 21).

In comedy Bad Words, Jason Bateman plays a spelling bee loser who attempts to find a loophole in order to compete as an adult (March 28). And in the biblical adventure drama Noah, directed by Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), Russell Crowe plays the titular character attempting to prepare for the apocalypse (March 28).

On March 6, the PHI Centre (407 St-Pierre) screens Jimmy P., wherein Benicio Del Toro stars as a Native American veteran suffering from psychological issues who develops a friendship with his French psychoanalyst (Mathieu Amalric). On March 14, you can catch A Field in England, about a group of deserters fleeing battle only to be captured by an alchemist searching for treasure. And on March 19, PHI presents the Japanese film Like Father, Like Son, about a wealthy business man who discovers that his biological son was switched at birth and is faced with a choice between his actual son and the boy he raised as his own. ■