By John Corrado

New releases for the week of March 28th, 2025.

Theatrical Releases:

Bob Trevino Likes It (Limited Release): This winner of the SXSW Audience Award in 2024 stars Barbie Ferreira stars as a young woman who becomes estranged from her father (French Stewart), and befriends a man with the same name as him (played by John Leguizamo) through Facebook. Ferreira and Leguizamo deliver engaging performances, and the film works as a surprisingly tender portrait of an unlikely friendship, drawn from writer-director Tracie Laymon’s own life. (Full Review)

The Penguin Lessons (Limited Release): Steve Coogan stars in this enjoyable dramedy as a British teacher in Argentina, who rescues and befriends an orphaned penguin. It’s based on a true story, which has been crafted into a gentle crowdpleaser by The Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo, and carried by Coogan who brings his usual dry humour to the role. (TIFF 2024 Review)

Village Keeper (Limited Release): The feature debut of Canadian writer-director Karen Chapman focuses on a single mother (played by Olunike Adeliyi) living in a cramped apartment in Toronto’s Lawrence Heights neighbourhood. It’s up for seven Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture. (TIFF 2024 Review)

More Releases: A Working Man (Wide), The Woman in the Yard (Wide), Death of a Unicorn (Limited), The Chosen: Last Supper Part 1 (Limited), Day of Reckoning (Limited), Misericordia (TIFF Lightbox), Việt and Nam (TIFF Lightbox)

Streaming Releases:

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip (Disney+): This road trip comedy serves as a loose spinoff of the 2014 Disney film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, centred around a Latino family. Alexander Garcia (Thom Nemer) is the accident-prone protagonist, who goes on a seemingly cursed RV road trip with his parents (Eva Longoria and Jesse Garcia), older sister (Pauline Chávez) and grandma (Rose Portillo). Cheech Marin rounds out the cast as the proudly Mexican grandpa. Aside from the title and main character’s name, it has little in common with the earlier film or the original Judith Viorst children’s books, including a new storyline involving an ancient family curse and a Mexican idol. But it’s a slightly better than expected streaming comedy, with some good messages about family and embracing your heritage. Fine for kids.

More Releases: Holland (Prime Video), The Life List (Netflix), Born Hungry (CBC Gem)