Welcome to See/Hear, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important cultural happenings, pop and otherwise. Every month, we round up the biggest upcoming movie, TV and album releases, ask some cool people to tell us what they’ve been into lately, make you a playlist we guarantee you’ll have on heavy rotation and recommend a classic (or unduly overlooked) piece of pop culture that we think is worth revisiting.
MOVIES
Mickey 17
in theaters March 7
Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Bong Joon-ho is back with his highly anticipated follow-up to 2019’s Parasite. Mickey 17 is an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s 2022 sci-fi novel Mickey7, and it stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, a disposable clone worker known as an “expendable,” who does dangerous work he’s not expected to survive and then gets a new body reprinted every time he dies. He’s on his 17th one when he returns to his colony only to learn that Mickey 18 has already accidentally been generated and chaos, presumably, ensues. Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette round out the cast.
Black Bag
in theaters March 14
Sometimes a movie doesn’t need a particularly groundbreaking concept to rope us in. A spy thriller starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, directed by Steven Soderbergh? Sold.
Opus
in theaters March 14
Ayo Edebiri plays Ariel Ecton, a journalist who gets sent to cover a listening party for the new album by Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich), a famous musician who fell off the grid for 30 years and started a cult. It’s a premise that feels both funny and creepy, and it remains to be seen how well the movie will toe that line, but with a strong cast that also includes Tony Hale, Juliette Lewis and The White Lotus‘s Murray Bartlett, it seems promising.
The Actor
in theaters March 14
Produced by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Duke Johnson (Anomalisa), The Actor is a mystery about a New York actor with amnesia who gets stranded in a small town in Ohio in the 1950s. Paul Cole (Andre Holland) must piece together his identity and figure out how to get home. Gemma Chan, Fabien Frankel, Joe Cole and Tracey Ullman also star.
The Alto Knights
in theaters March 21
Some things never get old, and Robert De Niro starring in mafia movies is definitely one of them. De Niro pulls double duty in The Alto Knights, playing both Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. The two 1950s mob bosses are at war, and Genovese orders a hit on Costello. Costello is wounded and decides to retire from organized crime — something that’s easier said than done. Debra Messing and The Sopranos‘s Michael Rispoli and Kathrine Narducci also star.
Bob Trevino Likes It
in theaters March 21
Lily Trevino (Barbie Ferreira of Euphoria fame) uses Facebook to search for her estranged father, only to find herself accidentally corresponding with a different man who has the same name. John Leguizamo plays that Bob Trevino.
Magazine Dreams
in theaters March 21
For a long time, it looked like Magazine Dreams would never see the light of day, thanks to Jonathan Majors’s domestic violence charges. The movie earned Oscar buzz for Majors when it first debuted at Sundance back in 2023, but will audiences be able to stomach seeing him as a violent, ‘roided-up aspiring bodybuilder knowing that he’s currently serving a 52-week in-person domestic violence intervention program in real life?
Death of a Unicorn
in theaters March 28
We love a good horror-comedy, and this one looks extremely promising. Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega play a father and daughter who accidentally hit and kill a unicorn with their car. Eventually, they discover they can exploit the creature’s supernatural curative properties — but not before the dead unicorn’s mate shows up to exact its revenge.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
in theaters March 28
Tim Key plays Charles, a lottery winner who uses his wealth to isolate himself on a remote island and reunite his favorite band in this British comedy that earned some buzz when it debuted at Sundance this year. Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan play the estranged bandmates and former lovers who begrudgingly come back together to collect their paycheck.
TV/STREAMING
The 97th Academy Awards
March 2 at 7 p.m. EST, ABC and Hulu
Will Anora take home Best Picture? Will The Substance finally bring some long-overdue awards recognition to the horror genre? Will Timothée Chalamet beat Adrian Brody and deliver another refreshingly honest speech? For the first time in a long time, there’s some actual suspense over who will be victorious at the Oscars. Conan O’Brien serves as this year’s host.
Celtics City
March 3 at 9 p.m. ET, Max
This six-part docuseries from Celtics superfan Bill Simmons tells the story of the NBA’s winningest franchise, from its inception all the way through its 2024 title run. It features never-before-seen footage and interviews with Celtics legends like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale as well as current players like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Deli Boys
March 6, Hulu
This 10-episode comedy centers around two Pakistani-American brothers, Raj and Mir (played by Saagar Shaikh and Asif Ali), who are inadvertently sucked into their father’s criminal enterprise when he dies and they take over his convenience store.
The Righteous Gemstones season 4
March 9 at 10 p.m. ET, Max
The Gemstone family is back for one last season of misbehavin‘. Jesse (Danny McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson) and Kelvin (Adam DeVine) have always been like a demented, alternate-universe version of Succession’s Roy siblings, and like their dramatic counterparts, they’re going out at the top of their game after four years on HBO. It pains me to think that I may never again get to see Uncle Baby Billy strutting around in a powder-blue clamshell suit. But besides the big laughs, the raunchy comedy about a dysfunctional family that runs a megachurch also has a surprising amount of heart. Last season, we saw the Gemstones put their differences aside and get closer than they’ve ever been. Will that lovefest last, or will the possibility of widower Eli (John Goodman) finding new romance tear them apart again?
Ringo & Friends at the Ryman
March 10 at 8 p.m. ET, CBS (streaming on Paramount+ the next day)
Filmed in January at Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium, this two-hour special sees the former Beatle celebrating his love of country music. Ringo is joined by Sheryl Crow, Rodney Crowell, Mickey Guyton, Emmylou Harris, Sarah Jarosz, Jamey Johnson, Brenda Lee, Larkin Poe, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, The War And Treaty, Jack White and more as they all reimagine classic Beatles tunes and some of his solo hits through a country lens.
Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney
March 12 at 10 p.m. ET, Netflix
John Mulaney’s one-off Everybody’s in LA talk show becomes a more permanent fixture at Netflix, airing live every Wednesday night for 12 weeks as Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney, starting March 12. As Mulaney put it in a statement about the show, “We will be live globally with no delay. We will never be relevant. We will never be your source for news. We will always be reckless. Netflix will always provide us with data that we will ignore.”
The Wheel of Time season 3
March 13, Prime Video
Back in 2023, our own Alex Lauer praised the second season of The Wheel of Time for the way it did the impossible and turned things around for the series, noting that “the first season was completely forgettable, while the second season inspired countdowns to each episode release.” Two years later, will season three continue that trend?
Good American Family
March 19, Hulu
This eight-episode limited series is based on the Natalia Grace saga. Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass star as parents who adopt a seven-year-old girl with dwarfism, only to eventually begin wondering if she may actually be an adult conning them.
The Residence
March 20, Netflix
It’s Knives Out meets The West Wing: Uzo Aduba stars as a detective investigating a murder in the White House residence, where all the staff and guests in attendance at a state dinner are suspects. Randall Park, Susan Kelechi Watson, Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Lee and Ken Marino also star.
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light
March 23 at 9 p.m. ET, PBS
Season one of this historical drama aired way back in 2015, and 10 years later, it’s finally back for more drama in the court of King Henry VIII. As Alex Lauer recently wrote, “To compare it to a much more popular show, Wolf Hall’s creative success is built off many of the same pillars that helped Game of Thrones thrive: dense books full of brilliant details to mine for the screen, intrigue that keeps viewers switching allegiances as the story progresses, and pitch-perfect casting (even some of the same casting: Jonathan Pryce, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Anton Lesser and Mark Gatiss appear in both shows).” Read his full take on why the British series is worth waiting a decade for here.
The Studio
March 26, Apple TV+
Hollywood loves to satirize itself, and the latest entry into the somewhat-meta genre is The Studio. Seth Rogen plays Matt Remick, the newly appointed head of the fictional Continental Studios; Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn, Ike Barinholtz and Chase Sui Wonders all have recurring roles. We can expect plenty of fun cameos, as well: Paul Dano, Zac Efron, Ron Howard, Zoe Kravitz, Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Anthony Mackie, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Adam Scott, Johnny Knoxville and Josh Hutcherson are all slated to appear as themselves.
MUSIC
Bob Mould, Here We Go Crazy
March 7
The former Hüsker Dü guitarist returns with his first new studio album in five years. “On the surface, this is a group of straightforward guitar pop songs,” Mould said in a press release. “I’m refining my primary sound and style through simplicity, brevity, and clarity. Under the hood, there’s a number of contrasting themes. Control and chaos, hypervigilance and helplessness, uncertainty and unconditional love.”
Hamilton Leithauser, This Side of the Island
March 7
The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser co-produced his latest solo album with his wife, Anna Stumpf, and The National’s Aaron Dessner. “‘This Side of the Island’ is a song about disillusionment, acceptance, and resolve,” Leithauser wrote about the title track. “For a little context: I used to live in the far lower east side of Manhattan, and from the 1600’s all the way up to the 1970’s the ground…the actual foundation…was built out of city garbage. They’d barge it in, dump it out, pack it down, and build on it. So I figured this was a decent metaphor for the tenuous relationship I was in when I lived there; and then more broadly, for the disappointing collective identity of the country I grew up in (the good old USA—which I still do love). But sadly, in the last decade I think our country has more publicly and flagrantly celebrated an ugly side that was always there, but has now redefined our mainstream character.”
Lady Gaga, MAYHEM
March 7
She’s spent the past few years building her career as an actress in movies like A Star Is Born, House of Gucci and Joker 2, but Lady Gaga seems to be returning to her dance-pop roots with MAYHEM, her seventh studio album. She explained in a press release that the album “started as me facing my fear of returning to the pop music my earliest fans loved,” likening the process to “reassembling a shattered mirror: Even if you can’t put the pieces back together perfectly, you can create something beautiful and whole in its own new way.”
Bambara, Birthmarks
March 14
The Brooklyn-based trio returns with their first new album in five years, and if lead single “Pray to Me” is any indication, it’s a doozy. As frontman Reid Bateh said in a statement, “’Pray To Me’ is about a one-eyed man arriving at a country karaoke night with a knife in his pocket and a plan to win over a girl called Elena, the object of his obsession. His fantasy unravels, murderously, when he sees her kissing a stranger at the bar.”
Japanese Breakfast, For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women)
March 21
Based on the excellent title alone, Japanese Breakfast’s follow-up to 2021’s Jubilee is a must-listen. It’s inspired by the success of Jubilee and Michelle Zauner’s best-selling memoir, Crying in H Mart, and the way that newfound fame impacted her life. As Zauner said in a press release, “I felt seduced by getting what I always wanted. I was flying too close to the sun, and I realized if I kept going I was going to die.”
Lonnie Holley, Tonky
March 21
Lonnie Holley’s fifth studio album takes its name from his childhood nickname, inspired by the fact that he spent much of his youth in a honky-tonk. The record features contributions from Mary Lattimore, Isaac Brock, Jesca Hoop, Saul Williams and more. (Scroll down to our “Artist Recommendations” section below to read a movie recommendation from Holley as well.)
My Morning Jacket, is
March 21
My Morning Jacket’s new album features one pretty significant change: for the first time in the band’s career, frontman Jim James did not also produce it. (is was produced by Brendan O’Brien.) “Up until now I’ve never been able to let go and allow someone else to steer the ship,” James said in a press statement. “It almost felt like an out-of-body experience to step back and give control over to someone who’s far more accomplished and made so many more records than us, but in the end I was able to enjoy the process maybe more than I ever have before.”
Lucy Dacus, Forever is a Feeling
March 28
After a massive year in 2023 as a member of boygenius touring behind a Grammy-winning album, headlining Madison Square Garden and making an appearance on Saturday Night Live, Lucy Dacus had a relatively quiet 2024. This year, thankfully, she’s back, making her the first boygenius member to put out new solo music since their breakout success. (Julien Baker is scheduled to drop a new country album with Torres next month.) Forever is a Feeling, her follow-up to 2021’s Home Video, also features contributions from her bandmates (Baker and Phoebe Bridgers) as well as Hozier, Madison Cunningham, Blake Mills, Bartees Strange, Jake Finch, Collin Pastore and Melina Duterte. “I got kicked in the head with emotions,” Dacus said in the album’s press materials. “Falling in love, falling out of love… You have to destroy things in order to create things. And I did destroy a really beautiful life.”
Destroyer, Dan’s Boogie
March 28
You can currently catch Destroyer’s Dan Bejar on tour with Father John Misty, and before the end of the month, you’ll be able to hear his follow-up to 2022’s Labyrinthitis. Lead single “Bologna” features contributions from Fiver’s Simone Schmidt. “I haven’t written many songs like ‘Bologna,’” Bejar explained in press materials. “I struggled singing the first and third verses, the most important parts of the song. They needed gravity and grit. The threat of disappearing needed to be real. So I called Simone.”
Perfume Genius, Glory
March 28
If lead single “It’s a Mirror” is a fair representation, we can expect great things from the new Perfume Genius album. “I wake up overwhelmed even when nothing is going on. I spend the rest of the day trying to regulate, which I prefer to do at home alone with my thoughts. But why? They are mostly bad. They also haven’t really changed for decades,” Mike Hadreas said in a press release. “I wrote ‘It’s a Mirror’ while stuck in one of these isolating loops, seeing that something different and maybe even beautiful is out there but not quite knowing how to venture out. I have a lot more practice keeping the door closed.”
YOUR MONTHLY PLAYLIST
A great walk-up song serves many purposes. It’s meant to whip the crowd into a frenzy as a player makes his grand entrance while simultaneously getting him psyched up and intimidating the opposing team. It can be a tall order, which is why the ones that manage to check all three boxes have become an iconic part of the baseball experience in the past 30 years or so.
Though the walk-up song can be traced back to 1972 with Yankees reliever Sparky Lyle taking the mound to “Pomp and Circumstance,” it didn’t really take off until the ’90s when players began requesting their own music. While bravado-heavy genres like rap and rock still tend to dominate, in recent years, players have had some fun with their picks, opting to go for a laugh instead of a flex.
To celebrate MLB Opening Day this month, we’ve rounded up the 30 best walk-up songs in baseball history. (For the purposes of this list, we’re including music played when pitchers emerge from the bullpen and warm up as well as the songs that soundtrack hitters stepping to the plate.) These aren’t fantasy picks, either; some are more iconic than others, but they’ve all actually been used by at least one MLB player in a game at some point.
ARTIST RECOMMENDATIONS
Each month, we catch up with a few musicians, actors, comedians or otherwise cool people whose opinions we respect to hear about a piece of pop culture they’re particularly excited about. This month, it’s Ezra Furman and Lonnie Holley.
Everything You Have Is Yours
“I recently saw Tatyana Tenenbaum’s documentary Everything You Have Is Yours, which is largely about an Israeli dancer/choreographer (Hadar Ahuvia) using her art to interrogate her Zionist upbringing. It’s intimate to the point of startling, and political in the most personal sense. Hadar, beautifully, looks her culture full in the face and calls out its misdeeds. The movie made me want to be a better artist, and a more fearlessly honest person in the world. Which is I think one of the main things art is for, no?”
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
“I was asked by the Bob Dylan Center to participate in their 50th anniversary celebration of his album Blood on the Tracks. I was asked to sing a song from that album and one from anywhere else in his catalog. I grew up as a child watching movies at the drive-in behind my house. And I’ve always loved movies. And Westerns. So I focused on Bob Dylan’s album of his film score to the movie Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. I love Westerns and I love Bob Dylan, so there was a lot for me there. I sang ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.’ It’s not a long song, and not as word-filled as many of his other songs, but there was so much in that song and so many ways to go with it and interpret it into my own life. It was the first time I ever sang someone else’s words. I came away a big fan of that movie and that album. I’ve been listening to that album and watching the movie.”
WORTH REVISITING
Van Morrison, Astral Weeks (1968)
Yes, the last five years or so of Van Morrison’s career have been an utter embarrassment. But that doesn’t change the fact that Morrison is responsible for some of the best albums of the 20th century, and as we begin to thaw out and creep a little closer to spring, there’s nothing I want to hear more than Astral Weeks. It’s what I always reach for on that first sunny, warm day of the year where everything feels new again and the act of transitioning from a winter coat to a light jacket makes me feel like I’ll never die.
Maybe it’s the instrumentation — the flutes, strings and that iconic harpsichord on “Cyprus Avenue” — but there’s something about Astral Weeks that just feels like spring. It’s in Morrison’s gorgeous lyrics, too, from the moment he ropes us in with the title track by asking, “If I ventured in the slipstream / Between the viaducts of your dream / Where immobile steel rims crack / And the ditch in the back roads stop / Could you find me?” (Hard to believe that the man who wrote those words would go on to pen “Why Are You On Facebook?” five decades later.) Sometimes it’s more literal — the “gardens all misty and wet with rain” that he walks through on “Sweet Thing” — but there’s also something springlike about the nostalgia that Morrison sings with while recalling his days as a young teen in Belfast on “Cyprus Avenue,” like he’s remembering a time when he, too, was green.
We may not be totally there yet — there’s always that whole “coming in like a lion” thing to contend with in March — but at some point before the end of the month, I promise, it’ll finally hit 60 degrees, those first flowers will start blooming, and it’ll be the perfect time to give this classic album another spin.
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