“The Bad Batch”
Synopsis: A dystopian love story in a Texas wasteland and set in a community of cannibals.
What You Need To Know: A dystopian cannibal love story that inspired our writer in Venice last year to consider the “Saharan expanse of quality that exists between [‘Mad Max: Fury Road‘ and ‘Southland Tales‘], find the exact midpoint and plant a flag for Ana Lily Amirpour‘s second feature ‘The Bad Batch‘.” Most of us at The Playlist are huge fans of Amirpour’s debut feature, the wonderfully strange Iranian vampire love story “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,” so even though reviews (including our own) have been decidedly mixed, we can’t wait to get in front of this one, which on paper, at least, sounds awesome. We hope that Amirpour’s gift for mixing and matching tones, styles, and genres is on display here, and the bizarre, remarkable cast— Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Diego Luna, Giovanni Ribisi, Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves — is game. I can’t wait for this one!
Release Date: June 23rd (Limited)
“The Beguiled”
Synopsis: At a girls’ school in Virginia during the Civil War, where the young women have been sheltered from the outside world, a wounded Union soldier is taken in. Soon, the house is taken over with sexual tension, rivalries, and an unexpected turn of events.
What You Need To Know: Colin Farrell‘s terrified, slightly campy howl at the end of the trailer for Sofia Coppola‘s “The Beguiled,” where he demands to know “What have you done to me, you vengeful bitches” is tantalizing enough (just what did they do to him, I wonder?), but there’s plenty more to get us in line to buy a ticket for this one, which sees the normally austere Coppola perhaps being seduced even more (after “The Bling Ring“) to genre territory. The film is a remake of the Clint Eastwood-starring, Don Siegel-directed film from 1971, recently premiered at Cannes (where Coppola won best director, only the second woman to do so in the fest’s history), and has a killer cast of women — Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst— who will get up to some nasty business with Farrell.
Release Date: June 23rd (Limited)
“The Big Sick”
Synopsis: A couple deals with their cultural differences as their relationship grows.
What You Need To Know: “This is one part disease movie, one part ‘private lives of stand-up comedians’, one part cultural assimilation saga, and one part ‘boy loses girl and learns to grow up’ tale. But because it’s all based on a true story — taken from the real-life courtship and medical melodramas of comic Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon — it feels spot-on in nearly every aspect.” That’s according to our B+ review out of Sundance, where this comedy directed by Michael Showalter (“Wet Hot American Summer“) was one of the breakout hits, bought up by Amazon for a hefty sum. Nanjiani plays basically a version of himself, while the girlfriend role is played by Zoe Kazan, whose performance is “very much in the spirit of the film, which transforms several worn indie genres into something personal and lively.”
Release Date: June 23rd (Limited)
“Okja”
Synopsis: Meet Mija, a young girl who risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend — a massive animal named Okja.
What You Need To Know: There was plenty of hubbub and ink spilled at this year’s Cannes over Netflix disrupting our cinematic norms. While that’s understandable and will continue to be a major part of the way we experience and discuss movies, it did seem to be doing a disservice to the films that made it to the festival, namely this one, the latest from brilliant South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho (with his second mostly-English language film in a row, after “Snowpiercer“) that will go to a few screens end of this month, but will largely be seen by folks at home. So while the Netflix as disruptors chatter seemed to dominate the press, let’s not forget the absolute glowing praise heaped on this film by our writer at Cannes, giving it an A grade: “This is….a perfectly cinematic and extraordinarily persuasive manifesto for anti-capitalist activism, civil resistance, traditional farming methods and, finally, full-bore vegetarianism.”
Release Date: June 28th (Limited + Netflix)
“Baby Driver”
Synopsis: After being coerced into working for a crime boss, a young getaway driver finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail.
What You Need To Know: We’re always excited for whatever Edgar Wright has cooked up, and the praise out of SXSW for his latest, “Baby Driver,” was almost deafening. Our reviewer was not immune to its charms, most of which come from the high-octane, thrilling car chases and stunt work: “The concept of the car chase suffered in limbo for too long with inexperienced directors too often cutting corners instead of respecting why films like ‘The French Connection,’ ‘Bullitt‘ and ‘Ronin‘ are still held in high regard today. Like all great students, Wright tips his hat to the teachers and refuses to phone in the camerawork on his stunts… But ‘Baby Driver’ may just rightly put a few more wallflowers onto his dance floor.” So consider us beyond ready for this to arrive.
Release Date: June 28th
“The Little Hours”
Synopsis: A young servant fleeing from his master takes refuge at a convent full of emotionally unstable nuns in the middle ages.
What You Need To Know: “It’s clear what kind of comedy ‘The Little Hours‘ is going to be in its first five minutes when a mid-14th-century Italian nun named Fernanda (played by Aubrey Plaza) returns to her convent from a long trek through the woods with the community’s donkey. A fellow nun, Genevra (Kate Micucci), peppers her with questions: Where’s she been? Why’s the donkey with her? Why is she wearing her black habit instead of her white habit? And all along, Fernanda rolls her eyes like an exasperated teen girl…or, more accurately, like an Aubrey Plaza. Finally, the handyman walks by and says hello, and Fernanda and Genevra both snap, ‘Hey, don’t you fucking talk to us!’ ” we wrote in the opening of our Sundance review.
Indeed, this film is “like a laid-back, stretched out Monty Python sketch,” anachronistic dialogue and all. It does look like fun, so here’s hoping it doesn’t wear out its welcome fast.
Release Date: June 30th (Limited)
Honorable Mentions:
We live in polarized times, so the caustic, acerbic comedy of “Beatriz At Dinner” looks like just the right ticket to make us all angry. The latest from director Miguel Arteta (“Youth In Revolt“), and penned by his “Chuck & Buck” and “The Good Girl” collaborator Mike White, tells the story of an immigrant (Salma Hayek) who butts heads with a billionaire (John Lithgow) at a fancy-pants dinner.
“The Hero” is another winner from director Brett Haley (“I’ll See You In My Dreams“), and stars irreplaceable Sam Elliot in his “best performance in a long time, and possibly ever, as Haley and co-writer Marc Basch have written a role that pushes him beyond his cowboy persona while simultaneously commenting on said persona.”
You may or may not remember that British filmmaking legend Ken Loach‘s latest film “I, Daniel Blake” walked away from Cannes 2016 with the Palme d’Or, in something of a shock victory. But now that the simple drama of a widowed man who is suddenly forced to utilize welfare and social programs, and follows his maddening journey through the system, is finally reaching screens in the US, you’ll get to see what wowed those on the Croisette.
When we saw “Band Aid” at Sundance this year, our critic noted that “the often funny and often slightly serious dramedy… might not be a complete smash, [but] it proves Hollywood studios should give [Zoe] Lister-Jones serious consideration when broadening their search for new filmmakers.”
In other wide releases coming this month that hope to make plenty of coin, there’s Tom Cruise starring in the latest iteration of “The Mummy,” mostly existing to kick off the beginning of Universal‘s Dark Universe monster movie franchise. In comedy land, there’s “The House,” starring Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler. If you’re looking for a biopic, and we now have 2Pac story “All Eyez On Me,” the inevitable ripple effect of the massive success for “Straight Outta Compton.” In more monster movie territory, there’s the latest shark attack frightener “47 Meters Down.”
Smaller dramas starring recognizable talent are coming too, mainly “Maudie,” “My Cousin Rachel,” “Megan Leavey” and “Vincent N Roxxy.” There’s also plenty of nonfiction work, so if that’s your thing take note of “Score: A Film Music Documentary,” Errol Morris‘ latest “The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography” and “Night School.”
