It is that time of the month where we tell you the films you don’t want to miss. These are the latest blockbusters coming to cinemas this summer.
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
Fri 2 June
Joaquim Dos Santos (Justice League Unlimited), Kemp Powers (One Night in Miami, Soul) and Justin K. Thompson direct the next technicolour chapter of the genre-bending, reality-smashing Spider-Verse saga. Miles Morales has reunited with Gwen Stacy, but suddenly, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse.
He encounters the Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the Multiverse’s very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spideys and must set out on his own to save those he loves most. Anyone can wear the mask – it’s how you wear it that makes you a hero.
THE BOOGEYMAN
Fri 2 June
Based on a 1973 short story by Stephen King, Rob Savage directs a supernatural horror to keep us all up at night. Starring Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets), Chris Messina (The Mindy Project), Vivien Lyra Blair (Obi-Wan Kenobi) and David Dastmalchian (Blade Runner 2049), it centres around the bereavement of a high school student and her little sister.
Devastated by his own pain, their father, a therapist by profession, gives them neither the support nor the affection they need from him. When a desperate patient shows up unexpectedly at their house asking for help, they bring in a terrifying entity which feeds on their greatest suffering.
STRAYS
Fri 18 Aug
It’s the holidays, and the whole family can enjoy this brilliant, animated adventure. When Reggie, a relentlessly optimistic Border Terrier, is abandoned on the mean city streets by his lowlife owner, he remains certain that it would never happen on purpose.
But once he falls in with a fast-talking, foul-mouthed Boston Terrier who loves freedom and believes owners are for suckers, Reggie finally realizes he was in a toxic relationship and begins to see Doug for the heartless sleazeball that he is. Determined to seek revenge, Reggie and some new pals embark on an epic adventure to find that former owner … and make him pay!
ASTEROID CITY
Fri 23 June
Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie and Jeff Goldblum. Wes Anderson has pulled together an astonishing ensemble cast for his latest film.
This time we’re following the transformative events occurring at an annual Junior Stargazer convention in 1955. Students and parents from across the country have gathered for this scholarly competition. A week of rest, recreation, comedy, drama and romance await them in a slightly offbeat fictional American desert town.
ELEMENTAL
Fri 7 July
Disney and Pixar transport us to a fantastical city, where fire, water, land and air residents live together. Directed by Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur) and produced by Denise Ream (Cars 2), it features the voices of Leah Lewis (The Half of It) and Mamoudou Athie (Jurassic World: Dominion).
We’re introduced to Ember, a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade. While they cannot touch each other, Ember and Wade discover how much they actually have in common. But not everyone is happy about this flourishing relationship… especially her parents who have quite robust views about non-fire elements.
SURROUNDED
Tues 20 June
Letitia Wright and Jamie Bell take us back to five years after the American Civil War. Freedwoman and former Buffalo Soldier Moses “Mo” Washington travels west to lay claim on a gold mine. It’s the summation of years of toil for her community.
This is a dangerous world for an unaccompanied Black woman, so she travels disguised as a man. After her stagecoach is ambushed by a group of murderous thieves, Mo is forced to hold legendary outlaw Tommy Walsh captive while the remaining surviving passengers seek out help. What ensues is a battle of wills, blurring the line between captor and captive, as they both try to survive the harsh western landscape.
EVERY BODY
Fri 30 June
Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning director Julie Cohen casts light on a world obsessed with gender; where intersex people are often erased entirely, in this powerful documentary. Sean Saifa Wall, Alicia Roth Weigel and River Gallo recount their individual experiences with stigma, social pressure, and – surgeries performed on them as minors.
This trio make the case for the much-needed rethinking of both archaic medical practices and binary ideas of gender and sex. A huge hit on the festival circuit, Every Body paints an intimate portrait of life in between and outside binaries and exposes how little has evolved in the way intersex people are viewed and treated.
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY
Fri 30 June
It’s another crack of the whip for Harrison Ford, as he returns to the role of everyone’s favourite heroic archaeologist for this fifth instalment of the iconic franchise. Alongside Ford are Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), Antonio Banderas (Pain And Glory), John Rhys-Davies (Raiders Of The Lost Ark), Shaunette Renee Wilson (Black Panther) and Toby Jones (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom).
In 1944, Jones prevents Jürgen Voller from obtaining a mysterious dial known as the Antikythera. A quarter century later, he becomes uneasy that the US Government has recruited former Nazis to help win the space race. Voller is now working on the moon-landing program. But is everything as it seems?
