Just yesterday, our team at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival put the finishing touches on their coverage. As per usual, it looked like an amazing time to be at the world’s biggest annual celebration of cinema as an art form. (Of course, don’t forget, the business is always lurking nearby.) We eagerly await those titles to make their way to cinemas so the rest of us boring old regular moviegoers can get in on the fun.
However, there’s plenty of choices coming to cinemas this month to consider, but most of them fit comfortably into the summer release mold, whether they are big behemoth blockbusters or intimate indie dramedies. So dive in, take a look at what’s worth leaving the house for this month, and do remember to be a kind and courteous audience for whatever you end up seeing. Thanks for reading.
“Wonder Woman”
Synopsis: Before she was Wonder Woman she was Diana, Princess of the Amazons, trained warrior. When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, she leaves home to fight a war to end all wars, discovering her full powers and true destiny.
What You Need To Know: Our EIC penned a thoughtful essay yesterday regarding Rotten Tomatoes and its effect on blockbuster box office. Naturally, his C+ review of “Wonder Woman,” one of the least enthusiastic out there for the latest in the DCEU mega franchise, featured prominently. “The foundations of these stories are largely built as black and white sagas, but that doesn’t pardon the movie’s lack of complexity or excuse its shallowness. Yet it’s the DCEU’s best film, but as we know, that’s not saying a lot,” he wrote. Regardless of our more mixed take on the movie, it’s getting overall strong notices from critics and is looking to be one of this summer’s bigger hits. Sounds like lead Gal Gadot and the filmmaking team have done right by this character, and maybe even saved Warner Bros’ hopes for their massive comic book universe in the process.
Release Date: June 2nd
“It Comes At Night”
Synopsis: Secured within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son, but this will soon be put to test when a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.
What You Need To Know: Boutique indie distributor du jour A24 is riding the high from recent awards and box office success, and they’ve got another title that looks likely to capture audience and critics’ enthusiasm with the latest from Trey Edward Shults, whose debut “Krisha,” is a must-watch. Taking the nightmarish family dynamics and naturally shifting to a more direct horror genre piece, “It Comes At Night” looks fantastic. Critics at the recent Overlook Film Festival in Oregon we’re gifted with a premiere screening of the film, where it was received very positively. Look out for our review coming soon. Regardless, for many of us, this is already one of the highlights of the Summer.
Release Date: June 9th
“The Book Of Henry”
Synopsis: Single suburban mother Susan Carpenter works as a waitress at a diner, alongside feisty family friend Sheila. Taking care of everyone and everything in his own unique way is Susan’s older son Henry, age 11. Her younger son Peter is a playful 8-year-old. The family next door, which includes Henry’s classmate Christina, has a dangerous secret, and Henry has devised a surprising plan to help.
What You Need To Know: With just one proper feature under his belt — “Safety Not Guaranteed” — director Colin Trevorrow got called up to the big leagues to make a “Jurassic World.” It went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2015, and essentially set the filmmaker up for a long and storied career. But before he gets into the director’s chair for “Star Wars: Episode 9,” he’s gone off and made the much smaller, personal “The Book of Henry,” which by the looks of the trailers could come off as a potentially disastrous tonal mishmash or is just a poorly condensed version of the movie itself. Scripted by Gregg Hurwitz, the film stars Jaeden Lieberher as a young boy who concocts an elaborate plan to save a neighbor (Maddie Ziegler) from her abusive stepfather (Dean Norris), enlisting his mother (Naomi Watts) and little brother (“Room” breakout Jacob Tremblay) in the scheme.
Release Date: June 16th (Limited)
“Rough Night”
Synopsis: A group of friends is horrified when the male stripper they hired for a wild bachelorette party in Miami winds up dead.
What You Need To Know: So, “Very Bad Things: The (Female) Redux?” Maybe so, if the trailers are accurate. But also, “Rough Night,” starring Scarlett Johansson, Zoë Kravitz, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer and Kate McKinnon as friends doing the bachelorette party thing in Miami when a male stripper is accidentally killed, looks indebted to recent huge comedies like “Bridesmaids,” “Bad Moms” and “The Hangover.” We do hope some new avenues are explored in this one, but the cast is excellent and this looks like a good time. It could be a breakout hit.
Release Date: June 16th
“Transformers: The Last Knight”
Synopsis: Humans and Transformers are at war, Optimus Prime is gone. The key to saving our future lies buried in the secrets of the past, in the hidden history of Transformers on Earth.
What You Need To Know: So, uh, yeah, the fifth Michael Bay-directed “Transformers” movie everybody. Yay? Mark Wahlberg is back and… eh, whatever, you know what to expect by now, right? Robots smashy-smashy and splosions ya’ll!
Release Date: June 21st
