The thermostat is starting to rise again in the northern hemisphere, which means we’re about to get hit with a torrent of new movies for the summer season! That officially kicks off for me on Thursday night with a press screening of Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3, the movie occupying the traditional first opening weekend of May that ushers in the change of seasons.
I’m slightly more sanguine about this year’s offering than usual — maybe it’s because the comic-book fare is primarily constituted of franchises I don’t mind, and I’m at least curious about most big titles. (Though I’ve never been a big fan of the Fast franchise, I’m glad others derive so much joy from it!) And after seeing far fewer Sundance titles this year, I’ve got a lot more ground to cover this summer.
You’ve likely been saturated by trailers for some of the big titles by now, so you don’t need me to tell you that there’s a new Indiana Jones movie coming by now. My hope is to put ten titles that might be flying slightly under your radar at this point, even if they are coming from a big studio. Don’t let Nicole Kidman down!
SOME CAVEATS
I am not double-dipping by including anything from my 2023 most anticipated list, which includes:
You Hurt My Feelings, May 26 (trailer)
Asteroid City, June 16 (trailer)
No Hard Feelings, June 23 (trailer)
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning - Part I, July 14 (trailer)
Barbie, July 21 (trailer)
Oppenheimer, July 21 (trailer)
Passages, August 4 (trailer)
Challengers, August 11
Untitled Please Don’t Destroy Comedy, August 18
I am also not going to include anything I’ve seen at festivals or advanced screenings and would recommend to you, which includes:
Sanctuary, May 19 (trailer)
After Sherman, June 2 (review)
Theater Camp, July 14 (Sundance capsule)
Dreamin’ Wild, August 4 (review)
The Eternal Memory, August 11 (Sundance capsule)
Scrapper, August 25 (Sundance capsule)
The schedule does still seem very light, especially at the end of the summer given how much is still undated. (Whenever you’re ready, NEON, take your time!) But two that do seem likely for summer bows based on IndieWire’s summer movie preview are Bottoms and Problemista, both acclaimed out of SXSW last month.
With that said, onto the show…
The Starling Girl, May 12
Contemporary religious dramas always get me excited for various personal reasons, but I’m particularly excited for The Starling Girl based on the trailer. The good Christian girl behaving badly drama is nothing new, but the shadings of the fallout from her affair with an indie-fied Hot Priest ™️ (played by Bill Pullman’s son Lewis, best known as Bob from Top Gun: Maverick) seems to also have some fascinating shadings around the communal shame from exercising sexual agency. Time for Eliza Scanlen, the littlest of Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, to get big!
Past Lives, June 2
The buzz on Past Lives out of Sundance alone was enough to shoot it to the top of my watchlist — plenty of critics said it was all but guaranteed a spot on their top 10 list for 2023. But then THIS TRAILER! I saw it before Spring Breakers, of ALL things, and it gave me all sorts of feelings before experiencing an entirely different set of stimuli.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, June 2
Fine, one Marvel movie … but only the one that has an actual sense of visual style and imagination! I was a big fan of how the first animated Spider-Verse film bent the rules of the medium to recreate the aesthetic and imagination of a comic book, and I’m curious to see how they continue building on that strong start in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Blue Jean, June 9
I missed this one at Venice, but all my British compatriots raved about this quiet stunner of a native drama. Be on the lookout for this to start breaking stateside over the summer, especially from what I’ve heard is a real powerhouse performance from star Rosy McEwen as a lesbian schoolteacher trying to keep her job in the wake of new anti-LGBT legislation targeting educators in Thatcherite England.
The Blackening, June 16
The self-aware horror comedy has seen better days — I haven’t been near as impressed by the new Scream series, and few self-aware scary movies have ever come close to approximating the original ‘90s game-changer. The trailer for The Blackening hints at something that’s subversive and clever … or, at the very least, just hilarious. I love a good communal laugh and look forward to seeing this one with a big crowd.
Elemental, June 16
I know Pixar hasn’t quite been on its A-game recently (or at least, not in the movies they’ve seen fit to release theatrically). But I’m hopeful that Elemental will be a good and original movie for them to help get the mojo back. It can’t just be sequels from hereon out, and the studio does need to start developing a new generation of storytellers now that Pete Docter (Up, Inside Out) is running the studio. It was a rough start for Peter Sohn with The Good Dinosaur, but this one looks a bit better!
Joy Ride, July 7
This trailer has me a bit skeptical, but a visiting friend did tell me he had a blast watching Joy Ride at SXSW. I can easily see that being a case of festival overhype, but I’m willing to give anything with Academy Award nominee (!) Stephanie Hsu a chance. Besides, we’re in need of a Hangover-style original rowdy romp to revive the theatrical comedy. Why can’t it be this?
Afire, July 14
German director Christian Petzold is one of the most curious talents working on the international stage right now, with no two movies seeming the same. He follows the Casablanca remix Transit and the mythological mermaid tale Undine with Afire, a youthful drama that seems to have ecological undertones. It debuted to raves at this year’s Berlin Film Festival and certainly appears to be an evocative, energizing film.
Talk to Me, July 28
Is this the new A24 summer scarefest to follow in the footsteps of Hereditary or Midsommar? The trailer for Talk to Me certainly seems to portend something eerie and excellent. Sundance reviews would also suggest the same. I swear, though, if something happens to the dog in the trailer…
War Pony, July 28
I was beginning to worry we’d never see War Pony, the winner of the Camera d’Or prize for the best first feature at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The story of coming-of-age and criminality set against the backdrop of a Native American reservation certainly seems interesting on its own merits. But it’s also fascinating to me because it’s co-directed by Riley Keough (Zola, TV’s Daisy Jones and the Six) stemming from friendships she made filming my beloved American Honey. Andrea Arnold hive stays winning!
You can always keep up with my film-watching in real-time on the app Letterboxd. I’ve also compiled every movie I’ve ever recommended through this newsletter via a list on the platform as well.
Somehow stumbled upon the cast recording of the recent West End revival of Cabaret, and Jessie Buckley’s rendition of “Maybe This Time” hints at what I perceive as some fascinating character choices with Sally Bowles. Sorry to have missed this.
How have I gone so long on this earth without knowing that *NSYNC did a cover of “That Thing You Do!” … and it’s great?!?
For those like me who operate at the junction of branding and binging, you might enjoy this chat with the people who rebranded HBO Max to … Max. If you’ve wondered why it’s joining the sea of streaming apps relying on the color blue, this is for you.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall just hit its 15-year anniversary, and Andy Crump makes a good case at Men’s Health for why Jason Segel hanging dong was revolutionary — and still sadly exceptional.
Alissa Wilkinson at Vox has a great explainer for what’s potentially coming in a pending writers’ strike.
This was a fun one: for Slant Magazine, I talked to composer Nicholas Britell. You probably know him best as the man behind the Succession theme — and that did come up! — but our main point of conversation with his eclectic, experimental work on the latest adaptation of Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen.
For Decider, I said skip it to Broken Lizard’s new stoner comedy Quasi (on Hulu).
You can keep track of all the freelance writing I’ve done this year through this list on Letterboxd.
Maybe this week, at long last, subscribers…
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall