‘Challengers’ and ‘Civil War’ Bring Chaos to the Spring Movie Season

Who says April is the cruelest month? Obviously, T.S. Eliot hadn’t gone through the spring movie season. This weekend sees the release of Alex Garland’s “Civil War,” the most expensive in-house production from A24 ever and a movie that should spark debate, fervor, and loathing in equal measure. That’s what this story of a war photographer (Kirsten Dunst) trudging through an apocalyptic war-torn America is designed to do. Trenchant speculative fiction or vague political commentary? You decide.

On this week’s episode of “Screen Talk,” Ryan Lattanzio is joined by IndieWire’s Editorial Director Kate Erbland as special guest while Anne Thompson is traveling. We have now also just seen Luca Guadagnino’s ecstatic tennis love triangle “Challengers,” which should earn rapturous praise for actors Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist. Guadagnino’s first film since “Bones and All” finally opens theatrically from Amazon/MGM on April 26. It was meant as a fall 2023 release (including a planned Venice opening night premiere) before the studio pushed the film due to the strikes.

We also talk about another movie now in theaters, the horror prequel “The First Omen,” first-time feature filmmaker Arkasha Stevenson’s terrifying spin on the 20th Century Studios franchise IP. The movie has been underperforming at the box office — disappointingly, as this is a fresh horror outing with style to burn and scary, surreal imagery.

Which reminds us of another piece of horror news to emerge out of CinemaCon: Lionsgate will once again reboot “The Blair Witch Project.” Why bother? We debate this in the podcast as well.

Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.

Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.