Summer doesn’t officially start until about a month from now, but it has been summer at the movies since the first weekend of May. Summer at the movies is synonymous with the big budget blockbuster movies (usually superhero movies) that you’ve known were premiering this summer whether you are interested in them or not (Captain America: Civil War, X-Men Apocalypse, Ghostbusters, Star Trek Beyond). There are also some smaller scale movies coming out this summer that not everyone may be aware of, but which I think will be a nice break from epic CGI action:
May 20th
Ryan Gosling takes a break from his roles in more experimental films to star with Russell Crowe as a pair of mismatched detectives in this
action-comedy film noir set in 1970s California. The Nice Guys is written and
directed by Shane Black, who wrote the screenplays for Lethal Weapon and The
Last Boy Scout (to name a few) and has directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (another
great noir comedy about a mismatched pair of detectives) and arguably the best
Marvel movie, Iron Man 3. So far, his track record as writer/director has been
very good and, hopefully, The Nice Guys will continue his streak of clever,
quality cinema.
May 27th
This is the movie I have been looking forward to the most this
year. The films of writer-director Whit Stillman have been described as "comedies of manners”
that follow privileged WASP types, but the way I describe his movies when
recommending one to a customer at the video store is: it’s like mixing a Woody
Allen movie and a Wes Anderson movie together. His latest film, an adaptation of a Jane Austen story, is the moment when critics and fans realized that
Stillman has been making modern day Jane Austen stories this whole time. Kate
Beckinsale stars as widow Lady Susan who, while staying with her in-laws, seeks to
find a husband for her daughter, and one for herself, too. Love & Friendship
has already been released in select cities and received many positive reviews.
It opens in Austin, TX on May 27th and I can’t wait.
June 24th
This is the most hesitant I’ve been about seeing any movie
for quite a while. Writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn made one of my favorite
movies of this decade so far, Drive. He followed that up with one of the most
boring and excruciating movie experiences I’ve ever had with Only God Forgives.
I’ve watched some of his other films and it seems like Drive might be the fluke in
his filmography. However, the casting of Mad Men's Christina Hendricks got me to watch
the trailer for The Neon Demon and the trailer is pretty
intriguing. Elle Fanning stars as an aspiring model that finds herself in potentially dangerous surroundings. IMDB.com classifies this movie as Horror/Thriller and
if the coin flips one way, an intense, psychological thriller along the lines of
Black Swan might be in store; if the coin flips the other way, this movie might just be
very pretty and very frustrating. I’ll wait for reviews
for The Neon Demon come in before I venture out the theater, or just stay home and
watch Drive again. Here is the trailer, which, on its own, I highly recommend
watching.
July 15th
Bryan Cranston finds himself in the world of illegal drugs
again in The Infiltrator. This time he is on the side of the authorities, U.S.
Customs to be exact, in this movie based on the true story of a drug and money
laundering sting aimed at apprehending Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Cranston is paired with John Leguizamo and they have to go undercover in the dangerous world of the drug trade. The
trailer plays up the action, but I’m interested to see what
Cranston does with this material.
August 5th
I’m surprised The Founder isn’t being released later in the
year, during Oscar season, since this seems like a movie the Academy would look
favorably upon. Michael Keaton plays Ray Kroc, the founder (but not creator)
of McDonald’s. Kroc finds the small, but fast burger restaurant run by the McDonald brothers (played
by Nick Offerman and John Carrol Lynch) and expands their business into
a larger and larger franchise. It’s not exactly what the brothers
thought they were getting into, but Kroc is determined to make the business as
big and successful as possible, and he's not going to let anyone get in his way. The Founder has an interesting subject and a
great cast, so I am on board.
August 12th
It’s
the new Woody Allen movie, so this might as well be required viewing for me. Allen’s
last two films, Irrational Man and Magic in Moonlight, were way under par in
just about every aspect, but Allen just keeps churning out film after film and
hopefully the odds are in our favor for Café Society. As always, this Woody Allen
movie features a talented cast including Jesse Eisenberg, Steve Carell,
Kristen Stewart, Cory Stoll, and Parker Posey. Eisenberg plays a young man from
the Bronx who movies out to Hollywood to help his uncle, who is a powerful agent
(Carell), and falls in love with his uncle’s secretary (Stewart). It’s a period
film, set in 1930’s Hollywood, so even if this wasn’t a Woody Allen movie I would still be very
excited to see it in theaters.
No comments:
Post a Comment