The 10 best films to see in cinemas in March: ‘Mickey 17’ to ‘Flow’

Bong Joon Ho heads into space for his first film since picking up Best Picture for Parasite – and he’s taking multiple Robert Pattinsons with him. Based on Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel Mickey7, the premise has Bong’s trademark pungent social commentary packed into its space suit: Pattinson’s blue-collar battler Mickey Barnes signs up as an ‘expendable’ worker whose consciousness is transplanted to his clone when he’s killed at work. The Berlin Film Festival reviews were glowing and, well, the Korean master doesn’t tend to miss. 

In cinemas Mar 7

No one embodies the Swinging Sixties more than Lesley Hornby, aka Twiggy, so Sadie Frost’s documentary should be an Austen Powers’ cheese dream of nostalgic grooviness. As well as Twiggy herself, the director has hit up an array of fellow cultural icons, from Joanna Lumley to Paul McCartney, to contribute to the story of the model, actress and pop star. Will it match last year’s excellent Anita Pallenberg doc Catching Fire for emotional honesty and candour?

In cinemas Mar 7

Legendary photographer Ernest Cole braved imprisonment and even murder to capture the horrors of apartheid in 1960s South Africa. Then he took his camera to America to repeat the trick in the segregation-era Deep South. Documentarian Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) offers a glimpse through this great political artist’s lens, drawing on some 60,000 negative and the narration of LaKeith Stanfield to give a box seat to the fight for racial justice.

In cinemas Mar 7

With his eerie charisma and offbeat intonation, John Malkovich always seems to be playing some kind of cult leader. Finally, he actually is one in this A24 horror-comedy from first-timer Mark Anthony Green. The story sends a journalist, played by The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri, into a compound overseen by the Malk’s reclusive pop star-turned-ideologue. Will she drink the Kool-Aid or keep her wits about her? Chic’s Nile Rodgers provides the tunes.

In cinemas Mar 14

Blackly funny and sparky as a kite on a power grid, British-Indian filmmaker Karan Kandhari’s feminist fable follows a loud and lairy bride (Ashok Pathak) whose new life in the big city doesn’t quite match up to expectations. Cue a raucous romp through modern-day Mumbai that’s full of wild energy, vibrant colour and bad behaviour. 

In cinemas Mar 14

Missed Millie Bobby Brown during that long Stranger Things hiatus? Good news then, because she’s back in a Netflix sci-fi epic that’s directed by Avengers: Endgame pair Joe and Anthony Russo and co-stars Chris Pratt and, judging by its oddball array of robots, looks a bit like Terminator 2 on shrooms. Brown and Pratt play a mismatched pair who set off across an A.I.-overrun America to find a missing family member. We never did get that Robopocalypse movie but this might be the next best thing. 

On Netflix Mar 14

A Steven Soderbergh thriller starring Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Pierce Brosnan and Regé-Jean Page? Written by Mission: Impossible writer David Koepp? Sign us up. Black Bag promises espionage thrills and charismatic actors betraying each other in all sorts of intriguing and sexy ways, with Blanchett and Fassbender putting a new spin on the Mr and Mrs Smith premise of jousting marrieds. Soderbergh recently delivered one of the best ghost stories in ages in Presence. Can he repeat the trick with a thriller?

In cinemas Mar 14

Cop thrillers in London, New York and LA are a dime a dozen, but when was the last time you saw one unfolding in rural India? Welcome to the surprising, hard-edged world of a compelling Hindi-language film from writer-director Sandhya Suri – a kind of Blue Steel for India’s caste system and gender politics. Shahana Goswami is a widow who inherits – literally – her husband’s gun and badge and quickly discovers the dark side of female police work.

In cinemas Mar 21

Once upon a time a Disney princess movie could be released without the internet dumping a tonne of culture war BS on it. Alas, these days Snow White has more than poisoned apples and jealous queens to worry about, with the online discourse around the film, and its star’s skin colour, grimmer than Grimm. Still, for our pound of dubiously sourced jewels, West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler makes a perfect Snow White. The jury’s still out on the CG dwarves, however. 

In cinemas Mar 21

The best animation in, well, forever is the work of a 30-year-old Latvian genius called Gints Zilbalodis. Using free, open-source software called Blender, he’s crafted an immersive, emotional and start-to-finish wondrously life-affirming survival story about a cat, a dog, a capybara, and a ring-tailed lemur banding together to survive a mysterious flood. A bumper haul of awards later, it finally splashes down in UK and Irish cinemas this month and you should round up your own posse and go see it asap.

In cinemas Mar 21