It’s a quiet weekend for new indie openings amid the countdown to Oscars and among holdovers and wide release studio fare.
Mubi’s Pompei: Below the Clouds, striking black-and white portrait of life in Naples in the shadow of Vesuvius opens in New York (Film at Lincoln Center and IFC Center). The documentary by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi (Fire at Sea, Sacro GRA) world premiered at Venice last year, winning two awards including a Special Jury Prize, followed by a lively festival run including New York Film Festival and BFI London. Expands to LA and Chicago next week and additional markets throughout March.
Vesuvius most famously erupted in 79 AD but has remained active, a quiet threat as well as a straight line back into history. Pompei: Below the Clouds follows the surrounding population going about their daily lives. “Racehorses train along the shore. A teacher runs a makeshift afterschool for children and adolescents. Firemen in their command center calm the fears of the locals who call in, law enforcement tracks down tomb robbers, while in the port of Torre Annunziata, Syrian tankers unload Ukrainian grain,” reads the synopsis. “The land that skirts the gulf is a vast time machine.” Original score by Oscar winner Daniel Blumberg. At 96% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, off 23 reviews.
Very different, action thriller Protector starring Milla Jovovich opens on 1,007 screens. The first in a 10-picture deal between Bob Yari‘s Magenta Light Studios and Seoul- and L.A.-based Aanaxion Studio. Directed by Adrian Grunberg with Taken vibes, Jovovich plays Nikki, a veteran war hero who thought she’d left her violent past behind for a peaceful life with her daughter, Chloe – until Chloe is kidnapped by a human-trafficking ring that forces Nikki into the city’s criminal underworld in relentless pursuit. Matthew Modine also stars.
Horror Dolly from IFC Entertainment Group debuts at 810 theaters. Directed, co-written (with Brandon Weavil) and produced by Rod Blackhurst (Night Swim, Amanda Knox), it follows a Macy (Fabianne Therese) a young woman fighting for survival after being abducted by a deranged, monster-like figure in the woods. Billed as “a daring blend of New French Extremity and 1970s American horror,” it also stars Seann William Scott, Ethan Suplee and professional wrestler Max the Impaler.
Film Forum in NYC presents the U.S. theatrical premiere of documentary André Is an Idiot. A collaboration between director Tony Benna and his friend, the title character André Ricciardia, a successful San Francisco advertising executive who learns that he has stage 4 colon cancer at age 52. Ricciardia documents his final journey with an acerbic sense of humor, punctuated by Benna’s stop-motion animation. World premiered at Sundance 2025 where it won the Audience Award for Best U.S. Documentary and the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition. Produced by A24, Sandbox Films, Safehouse Films.
Magnolia opens TIFF-premiering thriller Heel by Jan Komasa starring Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough and Anson Boon, in 15 theaters including NYC, L.A., New Orleans, D.C., Philly, Boston, Portland, Cincinnati and Kansas City, and on VOD. Follows 19-year-old hooligan Tommy (Boon), who revels in a life of drugs, parties and violence. On a bender, he abducted by an unknown figure (Graham) and wakes to find himself chained in the basement of an isolated suburban home, where family sets out to reform him with relentless mind games. At 94% with RT critics off 36 reviews. Premiered at TIFF 2025 as Good Boy, see Deadline review.