From web-based diversions to archaeological excursions, this summer film season is filled with releases in a variety of genres. Our writers, who search each month for the hottest picks in horror, international, sci-fi, action and kids’ movies, have scoured the summer calendar to find the films that grab their attention.
Horror
“Host,” Rob Savage’s terrifying 2020 found-footage film about a possessed online seance, will go down as a pandemic-inspired horror flick.
That’s why I can’t wait to see what the British director does with a bigger budget and a Stephen King short story as inspiration, when his new film, ‘The Boogeyman’ hits theaters on June 2. Sophie Thatcher stars as a young woman who battles a supernatural entity invading the house that feeds on the suffering of its victims.
As much as I wish Patrick Wilson would return to Broadway — he’d nail ‘The Right Girl’ from ‘Follies’ — I’m glad to see he’s returning to horror with ‘Insidious: The Red Door,’ the fifth film in the franchise. , which opens in theaters July 7. Not only is Wilson reprising his role as Josh Lambert, father of a now college-aged son, but he’s also making his directorial debut. Color me curious. — ERIK PIEPENBURG
This summer will see the release of new films from some of the masters of world cinema – I recommend Christian Petzold’s ‘Afire’, Claire Simon’s ‘Our Body’ and Pietro Marcello’s ‘Scarlet’ – but I’m also looking forward to some of the first feature films. films arrive after being awarded at film festivals.
“Falcon Lake” (June 2), by Canadian actress Charlotte Le Bon, is a new entry in the summer’s best genre: the coming-of-age film. The film adapts “A Sister”, the acclaimed graphic novel by Bastien Vivès, about a teenager who has his first brush with desire and heartache while on vacation.
“Girlfriends and Girlfriends” (June 28), from Spanish filmmaker Zaida Carmona, promises a boldly queer riff on another classic theme of the season: breaking up and making up (many times, to sultry trailer) . What better to do in the heat and laziness of summer than to find love, and maybe yourself too? — DEVIKA GIRISH
It’s hard to be interested in science fiction and not be curious about how peculiar filmmaker—in every sense of the word—Wes Anderson is going to approach the genre in “Asteroid City” (June 16).
Set in 1955, the film brings together students and parents attending a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention in a desert town on Asteroid Day. The occasion is the annual commemoration of a meteorite that hit the region thousands of years earlier – a possible fragment has long been thought to have come from “the hypothetical planet Magnavox-27”. Nothing has leaked much about the rest of the plot, but “Asteroid City,” shot in fantastically sun-bleached colors, seems to offer a humorous take on the 1950s fascination with flying saucers and visitors to the space. And of course, it looks very Andersonian in that it’s art-oriented to the max and full of stars having fun. What’s over there? I can’t wait to hear this director’s answer. — ELIZABETH VINCENTELLI
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From his boundless charisma to his rugged presence, Harrison Ford is our biggest action star – and hunky archaeologist Indiana Jones, with his bullwhip and fedora, is his biggest role. As a man always on the right side of history, he manages to embody the idealization of the American spirit while criticizing its difficult reality.
While the series showed Jones recovering holy relics of supernatural power from the Nazis in his first film, and revisited that theme in “The Last Crusade,” the fourth episode abruptly shifted to aliens and the Red Scare. This quick turn makes the latest, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate” (June 30), a fascinating opportunity: Will director James Mangold continue the otherworldly path of the previous film? Also, how is Ford going to wrap up this character? With a deep set including Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen and Antonio Banderas – and a trailer featuring a surprisingly realistic aging Ford – this return should be a sunset ride worth taking. —ROBERT DANIELS
Children’s movies
I firmly believe that Miles Morales is cooler than Peter Parker, so “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (June 2) is a sequel I was looking forward to. Oscar-winning “Into the Spider-Verse” was the first feature that caught my son’s attention. If this entertains a rambunctious preschooler, you know there’s some kind of magical chemistry going on onscreen.
Typically, a theme park-inspired movie remake wouldn’t make me sprint to a theater, but Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” (July 28) is directed by Justin Simien (“Dear White People” ), and the cast is solid. It might be a bit scary for little ones who don’t appreciate ghost stories, but for kids who enjoy Disney-level scares, it looks promising. Plus, I’ll be watching whatever LaKeith Stanfield is into. No matter how the rest of the movie plays out, you know it’s going to be gripping. — DINA GACHMAN