Our guide of what to watch at the cinemas this month.

Early Man

Director: Nick Park
Release date: March 29
Running time: 89 minutes

My first awareness of Nick Park and his plasticine characters came from late night screenings on SBS of Wallace and Gromit. In media studies, our teacher was influenced by him and when it came time to try and make our own stop-motion animation, we used Park as a reference point.

Park himself says this new film is influenced by visual effect maestro Ray Harryhausen and particularly his work animating the dinosaurs in the 1966 film One Million Years B.C.  That’s the one with Raquel Welch, wearing not much, in the lead role.

Early Man is the story of a cave man called Dug, the origins of soccer, and a football game for the (Bronze) ages.  His voice cast includes Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Miriam Margolyes, and Rob Brydon.

I feel Park’s stop-motion is an acquired taste, so if you’ve never seen his films before, it may be worth tracking down a few earlier ones to understand his style, his use of hues and particularly his pacing. Seek out Chicken Run (2000), the short film A Close Shave (1995), or The Wrong Trousers (1993) in preparation.

Impress your friends: 
The film has 273 puppets, created by 23 artists over a 30 month period but also embraces CGI effects during the large crowd sequences. “We had a policy that we would keep everything as stop-frame as possible, and it can even look a little dated,” Park says.
 Keep an eye out for animators’ fingerprints, which Park deliberately left in, in the clay characters.

Pop Aye

Director: Kirsten Tan
Release date: April 5
Running time: 1hr 44 mins

The debut feature film of Singapore-born Kirsten Tan, which premiered at Sundance and won the Best Screenplay Award, tells the story of a disillusioned architect and his long-lost elephant.

Sure, it does sound a bit quirky, but it is delivered with a warmth and realism sometimes lacking in road movies. And the dynamic between the two leads is so rewarding.

Impress your friends:
 The director was born in Singapore, lived in Thailand, then Korea, and finally New York. So the idea of a “road movie” as her first feature fits in rather nicely.

Isle of Dogs

Director: Wes Anderson
Release: April 12
Running time: 1hr 41 mins

At the 2015 Golden Globes, hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler said of director Wes Anderson
: “Per usual, Wes arrived on a bicycle made of antique tuba parts.”  It was a perfect visual encapsulating his distinctive style and quirk.  His films have a bold spectrum of colour, swift camera movements and intricate set-design that sweep you up, that which has turned Wes Anderson into an auteur.

I don’t think he’s ever put a foot wrong with his previous feature films, which include The Grand Budapest Hotel (my favourite film of 2014), Moonrise Kingdom, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and Rushmore.

Isle of Dogs is his second stop-motion animated film, after the success of 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.  It’s set in futuristic Japan where dogs are exiled on “Trash Island” due to canine flu.

Fox Searchlight’s promotion of this film includes a marvellous unconventional idea of interviews with the animated dogs themselves.

This one will definitely be worth spending your hard-earned to see at the cinemas.

Impress your friends: All the voices are recorded first, and for the human characters in the film, the audio is broken down phonetically and a mouth is made for each letter.  Come shooting time, they simply replace the mouth on the model for each word. There were 27 animators working on this film.

I Feel Pretty

Directors: Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein
Release: April 19

More power to Amy Schumer, I say. Her new film is a comedy with an obvious message around being comfortable in your own skin.  Her character, struggling with image insecurities, hits her head during an exercise class, and wakes up with fearless confidence and self-esteem.

The film has received some minor criticism around fat-shaming, but I call bullshit on that. I see nothing but a positive message that beauty and confidence are not mutual, and that confidence comes from within.
I can see this film being quite impressionable on the teenage audience.

You should be more than happy to give this film a go, particularly after Schumer’s strong performance in the 2015 comedy romance Trainwreck.

Impress your friends: The film is directed and written by writing partners Kohn and Silverstein, who gave us the Drew Barrymore film Never Been Kissed (1999).

The Song Keepers


Director: Naina Sen
Release: April 19
Running time: 1 hr, 24 mins

This film premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2017 and finally receives a wider release across most of the country.

It’s a documentary on the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir and their journey to Germany to return hymns that German missionaries gave their great-grandparents.

I’ve found the documentary genre to be the most rewarding film genre, and this is no exception.  It brings further awareness to the Indigenous culture, and the way they nurture and keep their stories and culture alive. It’s going to be hard not to be moved by the scenes of the choir singing these German hymns in their Indigenous language.

Our film industry needs to keep revealing and producing stories on the Indigenous language and history – and equally as important, distributors need to continue to make these films accessible to the wider audience.

Impress your friends:
 The director is an Indian born filmmaker who collaborated significantly with Dr G Yunupingu on his PBS documentary “Stories Through Song”, and his ABC Australian Story profile, You’re The Voice.

I Am Not A Witch

Director: Rungano Nyoni
Release: April 19
Running Time: 93 mins

Hands up if you’ve ever watched a film directed by a Zambian-born filmmaker.  Thought so. 
Well, with a significant number of blockbusters and sequels cramming the box office, why not go on a change of course and seek out this ground-breaking debut feature.

It’s the story of an eight year old girl, accused of being a witch, and exiled to a witch camp. Granted, it doesn’t sound like an upbeat way to spend an hour or so, but at the very least you should check out this bold and confident filmmaking debut. 
It won the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer and screened at Cannes.

Impress your friends:
 The director didn’t show the non-actors the script. Instead she simply told them what was going to happen in the scene and asked them how they would react. “Okay, then do that,” she  then told them.

Avengers: Infinity War

Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Release: April 25

Nothing I write about this film is going to change your mind. If you’ve seen all the previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films, then off you go.  If you haven’t, best to start back at the beginning. It is going to gross nearly $1 billion regardless of my preview.

Impress your friends:
 For fun, tell them ‘This is one with Superman in it, right?’ and enjoy the look of shock on their face.

Rhett Bartlett can be heard on ABC Radio Melbourne, and he writes obituaries for The Hollywood Reporter. You can follow him on Twitter.