Movie Talk: I Care a Lot, Cherry, The Father, and The United States vs. Billie Holiday

On this episode of Why Watch That:

FIRST LOOK

I Care a Lot 

Website: Netflix

Synopsis: Poised with sharklike self-assurance, Marla Grayson (Academy Award nominee Rosamund Pike) is a professional, court-appointed guardian for dozens of elderly wards whose assets she seizes and cunningly bilks through dubious but legal means. It’s a well-oiled racket that Marla and her business-partner and lover Fran (Eiza González) use with brutal efficiency on their latest “cherry,” Jennifer Peterson (two-time Academy Award winner Dianne Wiest) — a wealthy retiree with no living heirs or family. But when their mark turns out to have an equally shady secret of her own and connections to a volatile gangster (Golden Globe winner Peter Dinklage), Marla is forced to level up in a game only predators can play — one that’s neither fair, nor square.

Release Date: February 19, 2021

Directed by: J Blakeson

Screenplay by: J Blakeson

Starring: Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza González, Chris Messina, and Alicia Witt, with Isiah Whitlock Jr. and Dianne Wiest

Distributor: Netflix

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Thriller

Running Time: 1 hour 58 minutes

Rated R

SNEAK PEEKS

The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Website: Hulu

Synopsis: The legendary Billie Holiday, one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, spent much of her career being adored by fans across the globe. Beginning in the 1940's in New York City, the federal government targeted Holiday in a growing effort to escalate and racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial and heart-wrenching ballad, "Strange Fruit." Led by Oscar® nominated director Lee Daniels and introducing Grammy® nominated singer-songwriter Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday unapologetically presents the icon's complicated, irrepressible life. Screenplay writer Suzan-Lori Parks, the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, pens this intimate tale of a fierce trailblazer whose defiance through music helped usher in the civil rights movement.

Release Date: Available on Hulu February 26, 2021

Directed by: Lee Daniels

Screenplay by: Suzan-Lori Parks

Starring: Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne, Garrett Hedlund, Miss Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Evan Ross, Tyler James Williams, Tone Bell, and Erik LaRay Harvey

Distributor: Hulu

Genre: Biography, Drama, Music

Running Time: 2 hours 10 minutes

Rated R

Cherry

Website: Apple TV+

Synopsis: “Cherry” follows the wild journey of a disenfranchised young man from Ohio who meets the love of his life, only to risk losing her through a series of bad decisions and challenging life circumstances. Inspired by the best-selling novel of the same name, “Cherry” features Tom Holland in the title role as an unhinged character who drifts from dropping out of college to serving in Iraq as an Army medic and is only anchored by his one true love, Emily (Ciara Bravo). When Cherry returns home a war hero, he battles the demons of undiagnosed PTSD and spirals into drug addiction, surrounding himself with a menagerie of depraved misfits. Draining his finances, Cherry turns to bank robbing to fund his addiction, shattering his relationship with Emily along the way. Brought to the screen in bold, gritty fashion by visionary directors Anthony and Joe Russo, “Cherry” is a darkly humorous, unflinching coming-of-age story of a man on a universal quest for purpose and human connection.

Release Date: In select theaters on Friday, February 26, 2021 and globally on Apple TV+ on Friday, March 12, 2021

Directed by: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

Screenplay by: Angela Russo-Otstot and Jessica Goldberg

Starring: Tom Holland, Ciara Bravo, Jack Reynor, Michael Rispoli, Jeff Wahlberg, Forrest Goodluck, and Michael Gandolfini

Distributor: Apple TV+

Genre: Crime, Drama

Running Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

Rated R

The Father 

Website: Sony Pictures Classics

Synopsis: Anthony is 80, mischievous, living defiantly alone and rejecting the carers that his daughter, Anne, encouragingly introduces. Yet help is also becoming a necessity for Anne; she can’t make daily visits anymore and Anthony's grip on reality is unravelling. As we experience the ebb and flow of his memory, how much of his own identity and past can Anthony cling to? How does Anne cope as she grieves the loss of her father, while he still lives and breathes before her? THE FATHER warmly embraces real life, through loving reflection upon the vibrant human condition; heart-breaking and uncompromisingly poignant – a movie that nestles in the truth of our own lives.

Release Date: In theaters in LA and New York February 26, 2021; In theaters nationwide March 12, 2021; Available on Premium VOD March 26, 2021

Directed by: Florian Zeller

Screenplay by: Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller

Based on the play “The Father” by Florian Zeller

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Rufus Sewell, Imogen Poots, and Olivia Williams

Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Genre: Drama

Running Time: 1 hour 37 minutes

Rated PG-13

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