March movie roundup: 'Shirley,' 'Immaculate,' 'Lousy Carter,' 'The Listener' and 'Irish Wish'

Short reviews of some new movies that are out this month.

Amid my vacation, here are some capsule reviews of five movies that are out now: 

Shirley 

Shirley is a made-for-Netflix biopic about a Black political trailblazer of the past, starring a much-heralded performer in the lead role and other familiar names in all the supporting parts. That was also true of Rustin, a film that arrived late last year and bungled just about every aspect aside from Colman Domingo’s lead performance. 

But Shirley, which tells the story of the 1972 presidential candidacy of Rep. Shirley Chisholm, is much better than Rustin. Directed by veteran screenwriter John Ridley and starring Regina King as Chisholm, Shirley is not a cradle-to-grave biopic but concentrates on that presidential campaign specifically by showing she was in it to win it, rather than simply running a protest campaign. 

Like great political biopics of the past like Selma and Milk, Shirley is mainly about political strategy, drilling down into the politicking for Black delegates at the ’72 convention, whether or not Chisholm should pursue the endorsement of the Black Panther Party, and her controversial decision to visit the racist candidate George Wallace in the hospital after he was shot. 

There has been a lot of Shirley Chisholm media lately, including a documentary (Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed), the miniseries Mrs. America (when Uzo Aduba played her), and even the miniseries History of the World, Part II, when Wanda Sykes played her on a Norman Lear-like sitcom and showed the Wallace hospital moment with the Black comedian George Wallace playing the white racist politician Geoge Wallace. 

But this portrayal is my favorite. The film also stars the late Lance Reddick — in one of his final roles — as Chisholm advisor Mac Holder. 

Shirley is streaming on Netflix 

Immaculate 

No, it’s not a biopic about the inventor of The Immaculate Grid, although I would watch that movie. 

Instead, it’s a NEON horror movie starring Sydney Sweeney as a nun who… well, the title should make what happens in it pretty obvious. 

Directed by Michael Mohan, who previously directed Sweeney in the underseen erotic thriller The Voyeurs, Immaculate lifts most of its ideas from Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and many other classic horror movies. And this is one of those movies shot so dark that characters keep disappearing into the darkness. 

Sweeney is good in it, but that’s about all. I’d love to see it on a double feature with Cabrini of “2024 movies about nuns that are either approved by the church or very much not.”

Indeed, the movie has angered the sort of people who don’t know how movies are made: 

Immaculate is now in theaters. 

Lousy Carter

David Krumholtz has had a pretty big year. He played a small but pivotal role in Oppenheimer as Isador Isaac Rabi and recently had a run where he started telling wild stories on his Twitter account. 

Now, the veteran character actor has a rare starring role as a middle-aged college professor and delightful mope who finds out he’s dying. This leads to reckonings involving his mother, his ex-wife (Olivia Thirlby), and his best friend (Krumholtz’s fellow Freaks and Geeks alum Martin Starr). 

The film is all over the place, and at no point does Krumholtz indicate that he’s sick or bothered by being ill, leading up to an ending that isn’t exactly surprising. But it’s fun watching the actor riff, and I’m still laughing at the phrase “discount for group cremation,” the mortician who offers to send ashes into space then says he’s tired of people in his profession being accused of “upselling.”

Long live the Krumholtz-essance. 

Lousy Carter is now in theaters. 

 The Listener 

Steve Buscemi directed a much-loved movie in 1996 called Trees Lounge and a few movies after that, as well as quite a few episodes of The Sopranos, both before, during, and after his run as an actor on the show. 

After not directing a film for 15 years, Buscemi has returned to directing with The Listener. This new movie stars Tessa Thompson in what’s essentially a one-woman show as a helpline volunteer. Various people call in, voiced by the likes of Rebecca Hall, Alia Shawkat, Jamie Hector, and Margaret Cho, each sharing their problems, all modern and of the moment. 

The film is a gimmick, no doubt, but still a very effective one. 

The Listener is now in theaters. 

 Irish Wish 

Lindsay Lohan stars in a Netflix knockoff of a Hallmark Christmas movie, set and released on St. Patrick’s Day instead, and utterly ridiculous from beginning to end. It was determined in about 2005 that Lohan couldn’t carry a movie, which remains the case today. 

Vulture described the film as “a Crypto-Fascist, AI-Generated Harbinger of Doom.” Read that review; it’s much more entertaining than the movie. 

Irish Wish is streaming on Netflix.