Few things bring cinephiles joy quite like spending the weekend holed up in a movie theater, devouring the latest big-screen debuts. But how does one choose what to see? Well, that's where we come in.
Obviously, there will be certain movies throughout the year that feel like must-sees just because everyone is talking about them ( Swiss Army Man is about an actual farting corpse; The BFG is Steven Spielberg's return to making delightfully magical kids movies). But if you want to be a more discerning moviegoer, you can visit this cheat sheet. Here we'll give you the lowdown on new releases — and the critics' verdicts on them. Then you'll be able to determine which one is right for you.
This post will be continually updated, so don't forget to check back!
Florence Foster Jenkins
Starring: Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg, Rebecca Ferguson
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer:87%
Synopsis: An opera-loving heiress seeks a career in the art, despite her terrible singing voice.
What’s The Word: Come for Meryl, stay for Meryl. Little White Lies’ David Jenkins praised Hugh Grant for giving an enjoyable performance in a movie that’s mostly cheese: “Underwhelming though it may be, the film isn’t a complete write-off. And that is largely down to the superb performance by Grant, an expertly stirred and shaken cocktail of self-interest, self-loathing, and grudging empathy,” Jenkins wrote. Meryl Streep is not bad, but the movie falls into a common pattern she's no stranger to: Streep is the bright spot in what is otherwise a dud. “It is, as so many Streep movies seem to be these days, a wonderful performance in a movie that isn’t quite as good as she is,” wrote Moira Macdonald for The Seattle Times. At the A.V. Club, Katie Rife had a suggestion to turn Florence Foster Jenkins into something more impressive: “If Frears and screenwriter Nicholas Martin had retreated further inward still, to explore how and why Florence got to the point where her whole life became an elaborate white lie, this could have been a great film. Instead, it’s just a feel-good one.”
Released August 12
Pete’s Dragon
Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Oakes Fegley, Karl Urban
Rated: PG
Tomatometer:85%
Synopsis: A boy and his dragon best friend go on the adventure of a lifetime.
What’s The Word: The childhood classic gets the modern-day revisitation it deserves. “As with its equally charming The Jungle Book back in April, the Mouse House has skillfully rummaged through its mothballed back catalog and given a 21st-century makeover to one of its lesser, goofier titles, with magical results,” wrote EW ’s Chris Nashawaty. At Brooklyn Magazine, Jesse Hassenger likened it to a “kiddie [Terrence] Malick” film. Pete’s Dragon ’s labor for love was too visible, wrote Will Leitch at The New Republic: “It works and works to move us because there’s an empty story at its core.”
Released August 12
Sausage Party
Starring: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera
Rated: R
Tomatometer:85%
Synopsis: Anthropomorphic foodstuffs try to escape to freedom after being purchased at a grocery store.
What’s The Word: It’s grossly goofy, but has an underlying philosophical premise. The love-love relationship between toys and tots in Toy Story is upended here, suggests A.O. Scott at The New York Times. “[ Sausage Party has the] intellectual rigor of a project that probably didn’t require it. I went in expecting an earnest critique of the industrial food system, or an impassioned plea for ethical vegetarianism. Okay, not really. But I certainly didn’t anticipate a movie so full of…thought,” Scott wrote. At Las Vegas Weekly, Josh Bell echoed Scott's sentiments about the movie’s offbeat intellect, calling it “the atheist equivalent of a VeggieTales movie.”
Released August 12th
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Little Men
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Alfred Molina, Theo Taplitz
Rated: PG
Tomatometer: 95%
Synopsis: A young boy’s new friendship is in jeopardy when his parents raise the rent of his new pal’s mother’s store.
What’s the Word: It’ll sneak up on you with its sincerity. “[Director Ira] Sachs, a clear-eyed humanist, honors all his characters' pained perspectives,” wrote Alan Scherstuhl for Village Voice.
At Christianity Today, Alissa Wilkinson praised the film's depiction of the quiet awkwardness of growing up: “ Little Men captures that Brooklyn perfectly while quietly meditating on some universal experiences: the anxiety of discovering who you are as you grow up; the trouble of preserving friendships when the things that kept you together fall apart; the fraught parent-child relationship where nobody is really to blame.”
The Film Stage’s Dan Schindel suggested that L i ttle Men 's power comes from the contrast of adult and child friendships: “The contrast between the straightforwardness of these kids and the roiling, mixed emotions of the adults is simple, even archetypal, and it works.”
Released August 5
Suicide Squad
Starring: Will Smith, Joel Kinnaman, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Cara Delevingne, Viola Davis
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer:28%
Synopsis: A group of DC Comics supervillains form a team and embark on a life-or-death mission.
What’s the Word: The only thing worse than the movie is Twitter's mansplain-y, zealous pushback against many female film critics unafraid to call out the movie’s flaws.
" Suicide Squad shows DC Comics’ greatest flaw," wrote Britton Peele for the Dallas Morning News: “While [Marvel] has given most of their biggest characters room to breathe on their own before throwing them together in crossover films, DC films keep trying to go too far too fast. Suicide Squad doesn't give audiences enough time to fall in love with one character before shoving the next one in front of them.”
Suicide Squad ’s stellar cast makes its script’s cliches all the more obvious. “Smith and Robbie try to inject Suicide Squad with the attitude it needs to work, but their best efforts can’t save such a murky and, frankly, lame script,” wrote Lauren Chval for RedEye.
At RogerEbert.com, Christy Lemire called it simply “massive, messy and noisy.” The movie has one highlight, though: Viola Davis. “Watching her cut and chew a steak with villainous relish, you realize she’s all you wanted the movie to be — all it could have been: a venomous, sensuous, dark, comedic delight,” wrote K. Austin Collins for The Ringer. “She’s proof DC can make it work.”
Released August 5th
Nerve
Starring: Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Juliette Lewis
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer: 60%
Synopsis: Teens Vee and Ian get sucked into a dangerous and high-stakes internet game.
What’s the Word: It’s a fine — if preachy — and fun reminder that Emma Roberts needs to break out of the YA world and that Dave Franco is more charming than his big brother.
“Though Roberts is miscast as a wallflower... Nerve taps into the rush of realizing strangers think you’re cool,” wrote Amy Nicholson for MTV News. Though the freewheeling action never lets up, there's a larger message that doesn't quite stick.
“A moral gray area turns into a sermon and the movie doesn’t give you enough to think about to keep you from pulling out your phone afterward,” wrote Lauren Chval for RedEye Chicago.
At the Boston Globe, Ty Burr was less forgiving of the movie’s multiple plot holes: “You don’t even mind that Roberts (who’s 25) and Franco (who’s 31) are much too old for their roles. Plus, it’s nice to see Samira Wiley — Poussey of Orange Is the New Black — show up like a visitor from Planet Grown-Up as a hacker queen.”
Released July 29
Bad Moms
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Jada, Pinkett-Smith
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 60%
Synopsis: A group of stressed-out moms decide to let loose and forgo responsibilities in favor of self-indulgence.
What’s the Word: Oof. “The dad minds behind Bad Moms don’t seem to understand, or be terribly curious about, the minds of mothers,” suggested Slate’s Dana Stevens. “They’re happy to affirm the apparently bedrock truth that all moms are deep down indefatigable tigresses, neurotically over invested in maximizing both their children’s self-actualization and their Ivy League prospects.” It shouldn’t go undiscussed that this is a movie about moms directed by dudes. “It chills the bone to imagine all the women who can’t get their movies made, while Jon Lucas and Scott Moore… get a healthy budget, a four-star cast, and the chance to not only write but direct a film that aims to give voice to overworked moms the world over. Yes, really,” wrote Flavorwire’s Jason Bailey. At the New York Times, Manohla Dargis had a different take: the movie tries too hard to bank on the middle aged-women-saying-dick genre, but it’s still got female friendship at its core. “It’s the women’s shared, near-orgiastic pleasure in their freedom and friendship... There’s nothing genuinely transgressive about their behavior; they’re just drunk, happy and together.”
Released July 29
The Land
Starring: Moises Arias, Jorge Lendeborg Jr, Erykah Badu, Rafi Gavron, Machine Gun Kelly
Rated: NR
Tomatometer:64%
Synopsis: A group of teens accidentally become involved with a drug queenpin, risking their lives and friendships.
What’s the Word: It’s a big summer for Cleveland, and The Land taps into the city’s unique vibe. Steven Caple Jr. is the latest contemporary of Creed director Ryan Coogler to deserve a big studio’s support. “Caple emphasizes the desperation that breeds street crime, and he never tries to puff his kids up into heroes. They're just kids who feel insulted by the few prospects that seem available to them,” wrote Alan Scherstuhl for Village Voice. At Guff.com, Fred Toppel compared the movie to Goodfellas, and I hope he’s not still sore from that reach. He got something right: “ The Land is a crime film that is also a love letter to Cleveland culture.” One standout to watch: star and rapper Ezzy, whose voice shines on the track “Goodbye ” — a good end of summer song reminiscent of "old Kanye West."
Released July 29
Equity
Starring: Anna Gunn, James Purefoy, Alysia Reiner, Craig Bierko
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 79%
Synopsis: An Investment banker’s career is threatened by a Silicon Valley company’s IPO.
What’s the Word: Some scenes are stunted, but overall it’s nice to see a movie about finance that isn’t about a collapse or playboys. “ Equity is bracing, witty and suspenseful, a feminist thriller sharply attuned to the nuances of its chosen milieu,” wrote A.O. Scott for the New York Times. There’s a sense that some scenes aren’t quite working, but that performances are exciting enough. “As a thriller spinning around a high-profile Silicon Valley IPO, the screenplay by Amy Fox is mechanical, the plot more contrived than charged under Meera Menon’s lackluster direction,” wrote Sheri Linden for the Los Angeles Times. “But as a study of endurance and self-preservation in the face of persistent double standards, the movie clicks.” Maybe it shouldn’t be seen as only a movie about finance or billion dollar deals, because it’s real depth comes from its treatment of sexism: “The idea (and intentions) of Equity are spot on—we’ve never really been shown in this type of movie how the everyday sexism in business is brought to bear among women in this particular world. While the film isn’t subtle about what it’s doing, it never quite screams the subtext either,” wrote Splice Today’s Stephen Silver.
Released July 29
Indignation
Starring: Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, Tracy Letts
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 79%
Synopsis: Based on the novel by Philip Roth. In 1951, a young Jewish man disillusioned with his identity becomes obsessed with a girl in his class.
What’s the Word: Don’t expect this to be the truest adaptation of Roth’s book, as director James Schamus adds a heavy layer of romantic thriller, according to Kenji Fujishima. This might finally be the turn to flex Lerman’s significant acting skills, according to A.V. Club’s Esther Zuckerman: “The film’s centerpiece scene is a lengthy face-to-face between Marcus and the school’s Dean Caudwell (Tracy Letts). Letts is solid, doing a variation on a familiar strict administrator, but the moment belongs to Lerman. It’s exhilarating to watch Marcus’ politeness slip away as he grapples with authoritarianism.” The acting is great, wrote Nigel M. Smith for The Guardian, but “unfortunately, on the whole, Schamus’ debut feels too self-aware to fully engage.”
Released July 29
Miss Sharon Jones!
Starring: Sharon Jones, The Dap-Kings
Rated: NR
Tomatometer:92%
Synopsis: The singer works on releasing a new album while treating her pancreatic cancer.
What’s the Word: Sharon Jones is a marvel to behold, but the camera lags behind in keeping up with her energy. “When she bounds onstage with a holler and a howl — and diction that nails every last word to the melody — it’s clear she deserves that exclamation point in the title,” wrote Jeannette Catsoulis for the New York Times. “Is the film about her recovery from cancer, her history as a performer, her relationship with her band, her managers, her southern roots?” asked Scout Tafoya at Brooklyn Magazine. “Kopple believes the meager rations of each will amount to a banquet. That it still provides a window into Jones’s soul is a testament to the soul legend’s ability to tell her own story in her singing, dancing and talking honestly and with feeling.” Still, suggested Consequence of Sound’s Dan Caffrey, “Kopple and Jones prove, the struggle itself can be just as inspiring as survival.”
Released July 29
Jason Bourne
Starring: Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Julia Stiles, Tommy Lee Jones
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer: 54%
Synopsis: With his memory restored, Jason Bourne evades capture by the CIA and seeks to learn the truth about his past.
What’s the Word: We the people need more Julia Stiles, and maybe we need more Matt Damon. But do we really need more Jason Bourne? “Five films in, it could just be that the Bourne model—all the globetrotting silliness of 007, but with a gritty, geopolitical veneer—has started to look dispiritingly like a rigid formula,” suggested the A.V. Club’s A.A. Dowd. It also wastes Matt Damon, according to Seattle Times ’ Moira Macdonald: “The movie gets lost in its focus on flash and speed, and forgets about the man — and the fine, quiet actor — at its center.” The loss of the kneecap-kicking charm of the earlier films might be due to a change in writers. “ Jason Bourne 's screenplay is credited to Greengrass and Christopher Rouse, a film editor with no other writing credits. That's how clunkers like ‘We both want to take down the corrupt institutions that control society!’ make it into a major motion picture,” wrote NPR’s Chris Klimek.
Released July 29
Star Trek Beyond
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Anton Yelchin
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer:86%
Synopsis: After their ship crashes on a strange planet, the crew of the Enterprise find themselves up against a new alien race.
What’s The Word: It’s exciting and interesting, able to please both hard-core Trekkies and franchise newbies. “In the barren desert of summer 2016 blockbusters, this is a lovely oasis,” wrote Film Stage’s Dan Schindel. At Slate, Dana Stevens suggested that the movie's charm derives from its liberal mining of the franchise’s history. “ Star Trek Beyond may not go where no Trek has gone before,” Stevens wrote, “but [it's] fidelity to the show's original values that will keep fans trekking to the box office.” A slight problem, suggested Flavorwire’s Jason Bailey, is that the movie doesn’t tap into Idris Elba’s full potential in his turn as a bad guy. “[We ought to wonder] what on earth the makers of Star Trek Beyond were thinking when they hired the great Idris Elba — one of the coolest, handsomest, and most inherently watchable actors on the planet — and rendered him utterly unrecognizable behind pounds of prosthetics.”
Released July 22
Don’t Think Twice
Starring: Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Kate Micucci, Mike Birbiglia
Rated: R
Tomatometer:100%
Synopsis: A member of an improv group gets a big break on an SNL -like show, and others in the troupe begin to worry that they’ll be left behind.
What’s The Word: You don't have to be an alum of a college comedy troupe to feel the movie’s deeper messages about success and jealousy in close friendships. “ Don’t Think Twice is a candid film about the division between enthusiasm and talent, the unbridled passion for an art form versus one’s actual ability,” wrote Sam Fragoso for The Wrap. The writing is smart on friendships, but Mike Birbiglia’s directing shouldn’t go unnoticed. “During the improv scenes, his camera freely roams among the performers while they conjure bits from nowhere,” wrote Andrew Lapin for NPR. “It's alternately hysterical and heartbreaking, comedy by way of John Cassavetes, who gets an appropriate shout-out.” This is a movie about the comedy industry that’s removed enough to not feel like it’s licking its own wounds, according to BuzzFeed’s Alison Willmore. “It’s tender and believable while maintaining enough distance on its material to give it form, telling a story rather than a series of anecdotes,” Willmore wrote.
Released July 22
Lights Out
Starring: Teresa Palmer, Maria Bello, Billy Burke
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer: 77%
Synopsis: A woman fights to save her little brother from a spooky creature that feeds off the darkness and is haunting their family.
What’s The Word: It’s full of jumpy scares, but also a concerning mental-illness subplot. “It’s satisfying (the audience I saw it with cheered, several times) and reasonably involving on an emotional level, even if it can’t quite find a smart or surprising way out of its depression metaphor,” wrote Brooklyn Magazine ’s Jesse Hassenger. It’s “creepiest when it stops explaining itself,” wrote The Village Voice ’s April Wolfe. At The A.V. Club, A.A. Dowd did a deep dive into the movie’s underlying narrative about mental health. “This is a movie about depression that treats the afflicted like little more than gigantic burdens on their families, right through to an ending that carries the toxic implication of that attitude to its logical conclusion,” Dowd wrote.
Released July 22
Ice Age: Collision Course
Starring: Ray Romano, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Lopez
Rated: PG
Tomatometer: 12%
Synopsis: The Ice Age crew sets off and travels to distant lands in an effort to avoid cosmic destruction.
What’s The Word: There may be more Ice Age movies than there are old white men in Congress. "This is one installment that didn't need to be made, and in a summer of fine animated fare, Ice Age: Collision Course is only for the die-hard fans and franchise completists," wrote Katie Walsh for the Los Angeles Times. At least we’re not alone in feeling the franchise fatigue: “The 37th installment in the popular computer animation franchise. Okay, actually it's only the fifth feature, but what with the shorts and TV specials and video games, it feels as if there have been so, so many more,” wrote The New York Times ’ Glenn Kenny.
Released July 22
Ghostbusters
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer:73%
Synopsis: A gender-swapped reboot that follows four paranormal investigators saving New York from ghosts and ghouls.
What’s The Word: It’s 2016 and we shouldn’t be so beholden to a “classic” franchise so as not to acknowledge that women are funny. The catch with this reboot, though, is that it relies too much on the gags of the original. “The problem with all the clever, witty references to the original is that the film does not really have an identity of its own. The standout jokes are the rip-offs: a taxi-driver who “ain’t afraid of no ghosts,” a hilarious cameo from a familiar face here and there,” The Economist offered. At the Boston Globe, Ty Burr described this Ghostbusters as more of a corporate rehash than a subversive reboot: “The gender switch was a solid idea, then, and these characters might even be more fun to watch in a movie that wasn’t as beholden to its source. I’m saying I want a sequel, and maybe you should too. This one’s pretty good. But it had a chance to be great.” RogerEbert.com’s Susan Wloszczyna had the same feeling of dissatisfaction. The movie makes some inside jokes, poking fun at the anti-feminists who criticized the lady-fied version, but Wloszczyna said she “would have preferred that they simply had shut their naysayers down by producing a better movie.”
Released July 15
Café Society
Starring: Blake Lively, Steve Carell, Parker Posey, Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer: 79%
Synopsis: A young man in the 1930s goes from the Bronx to Hollywood and back, while meeting movie stars and pursuing love.
What’s The Word: Another uneven, bougie offering from Woody Allen's oeuvre, in which he gives smart, interesting actresses speaking roles and gets praised for it. Allen is known for writing some very good female characters, but he’s also written some very bad ones — witless, mysterious, empty women. Kristen Stewart makes a simple character more layered, wrote New York ’s David Edelstein. “Does Allen fill Vonnie in or is she one more of his mysterious female others? No, he doesn’t; but no, she isn’t. Stewart is alive onscreen. Her Vonnie feels all there, even if we don’t have a full picture of what’s inside.” The Young Folks’ Josh Cabrita says Allen is as his most “sleepy and sensual,” but ultimately the movie is forgettable. “ Café Society is entertaining and contains all the ingredients we love in Woody Allen films,” wrote Collider’s Talia Soghomonian. “So do we really care if it’s always stirred the same way and never shaken?” The Boston Globe 's Ty Burr offered a more meta analysis of how Café Society is really indicative of Allen's mostly lackluster career: "I think Allen’s movies appeal to our own incuriosity," Burr wrote. "For a lot of diehard fans, even audiences who may not forgive him his perceived off-screen transgressions, he remains a 'genius' on little evidence other than nostalgia and a veneer of sophistication — the jazz, the literary and cultural references, the mensch -iness — that makes us feel smart and arty without ever the risk of real challenge."
Released July 15
Equals
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Nicholas Hoult, Guy Pearce
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer:38%
Synopsis: In an emotionless future, a strange disease returns emotion to a young couple.
What’s The Word: Director Drake Doremus has done great work in the past (like 2011’s Like Crazy), but Equals rings a little hollow. “[Doremus’] vision is gorgeously styled and impeccably shot, but the movie rarely transcends symbolism; it feels less like a fully formed story than a genetically engineered hybrid of Gattaca and a feature-length fragrance ad (Detachment, by Calvin Klein),” wrote Entertainment Weekly ’s Leah Greenblatt. It’s not so different from Doremus’ previous work, suggests Flavorwire’s Jason Bailey: “The pacing in the early scenes ranges from deliberate to snoozy. But the patient world-building of those scenes is rewarded in due course, and the film ultimately finds its stride when it gets its leads together and zooms in on the intensity and desperation of their attraction.” After IndieWire’s Jessica Kiang saw it at the Venice Film Festival, she praised Stewart and Hoult’s work in a decidedly rote plot: “Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult are as good as they could possibly be in a film this wan, this involved in its own insistent winsomeness.”
Released July 15
The Infiltrator
Starring: Bryan Cranston, Diane Kruger, Benjamin Bratt, John Leguizamo
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 65%
Synopsis: A U.S. customs officer goes undercover as a shady businessman in order to infiltrate Pablo Escobar’s drug empire.
What’s The Word: High on tension, low on plot value. “Though the film feels disjointed at times, you can’t help but have fun watching Cranston’s slick turn as a hero struggling to stay good as he’s forced to break bad,” wrote Film School Rejects’ Paola Mardo. It’s not Breaking Bad, though, which is a bit of a bummer for Cranston, according to the Associated Press’ Lindsey Bahr: “ The Infiltrator, starring Cranston as an undercover agent who loses track of himself in the glamour of the lie, is not Breaking Bad, nor is it trying to be. Yet the shadow of that defining, once-in-a-lifetime role continues to follow the actor as he reaches beyond Walter White.” Still, even with the looming presence of Cranston's defining role, Infiltrator breaks even, according to Tampa Bay Times ’ Steve Persall: “[It’s] an evocative crime drama, anchored by Cranston's gift for playing internal conflict with wordless expression and that deep, clinched voice.”
Released July 13
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
Starring: Zac Efron, Adam Devine, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 45%
Synopsis: A pair of brothers find two outgoing girlfriends and enlist them as wedding dates.
What’s The Word: It’s a goofy R-rated bro comedy, but its female characters manage some subversive winks. “There’s a craftiness in the script that isn’t always present in these performance-based, R-rated comedies,” wrote The Guardian ’s Jordan Hoffman. The Wrap’s Robert Abele wasn’t a fan: “Only Parks & Recreation alum Plaza offers the occasionally pleasurable deadpan impishness, but the primary takeaway is that she’s been to this well one too many times.” At The Ringer, though, staff writer Allison P. Davis was into it. The movie may be the first rom-com to suggest that women can drink and smoke and make immature jokes and also be deserving of love without having to evolve into it. “The central premise of Mike and Dave is that the vehement avoidance of growing up is a right equally for all genders,” Davis wrote. “It’s immaturity as equality, which means that neither of our party-girl heroines have to let go of their deeply flawed, MDMA-loving personalities.” The New Yorker 's Richard Brody raised an interesting point about these boyish comedies made in Judd Apatow's image: "Many comedies seem to be made by taking pictures of funny (or funny enough) people acting funny. But comedy is a matter of direction — not just comic timing but also comic spacing."
Released July 8
Zero Days
Starring: N/A
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer:88%
Synopsis: The doc tells the story of Stuxnet, a 2010 computer virus used in cyber warfare.
What’s The Word: Alex Gibney (director of Going Clear, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, the Eliot Spitzer doc Client 9) has created another vehicle for information and smart suspense. “What Zero Days does is plausibly make the case that cyber-aggression of nation states is a new form of dangerous geopolitical dysfunction,” writes The Guardian ’s Peter Bradshaw. But the doc lacks focus, probably due to the high levels of secrecy surrounding the weaponized computer virus. “Though their sound bites are well chosen and edited,” The Hollywood Reporter ’s Boyd van Hoeij wrote, “a sense remains that they are really talking around the film’s core subject.” An unexpected highlight? Joanna Tucker, according to A.V. Club’s Mike D’Angelo: “[Gibney] gets a genuine star turn from Tucker, who may one day be as famous as her husband, Adam Driver. She’s the main reason to see Zero Days — which is pretty ironic, since she’s the one quasi-fictional element in a movie that’s otherwise strenuously ‘just the facts, ma’am.’”
Released July 8
The Secret Life of Pets
Starring: Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Lake Bell, Ellie Kemper, Hannibal Buress
Rated: PG
Tomatometer: 75%
Synopsis: Your favorite comedians play a gaggle of lost cartoon canines for some kid-friendly fun.
What’s The Word: " The Secret Life of Pets is a hilarious account of the relationship we have with our animals, and a gentle reminder to treat them with love and respect,” wrote Raakhee Mirchandani at the New York Daily News. It might be charming, but it’s definitely a rehash of old kid-movie tropes, wrote Christianity Today ’s Alissa Wilkinson: “ The Secret Life of Pets might as well be called Generic Animated Animal Movie, a puzzle constructed of pieces lifted from other sources.” As a maker of kids movies, Universal might finally be hitting its stride, writes Village Voice ’s Bilge Ebiri, who said it “feels like they’ve finally cracked the code on making a silly-animals movie that’s just deranged enough to keep you watching, yet harmless enough not to truly offend anyone. It may not be a work of art, but it’s crazed, zigzagging energy is something to behold.”
Released July 8
Captain Fantastic
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Frank Langella
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 75%
Synopsis: A couple raises their children in an intellectually stimulating wilderness home, a setup that’s threatened when the family has to engage with the real world after the mother’s suicide.
What’s The Word: The movie has a “wonderful wryness,” according to R29’s own Elizabeth Kiefer. Some of it is charming, wrote The Hollywood Reporter ’s Leslie Felperin, but most of it is overdone movie magic: “This is really a movie for upper-middle class hipsters who once fancied themselves firebrands and status quo-challengers in college, but now consider only buying organic food at Whole Foods and not vaccinating their kids to be radical acts.” Viggo Mortensen is the flick’s undisputed star. “He’s totally believable as a man who’s set his own moral code and lived by it for years,” wrote Ed Frankl at Little White Lies. “As he realizes that he stands to lose his children to the outside world, Mortensen’s performance shifts up a gear, becoming more sensitive and moving.”
Released July 8
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
Starring: Norman Lear, George Clooney, Jay Leno, Rob Reiner, Amy Poehler, Jon Stewart
Rated: NR
Tomatometer: 76%
Synopsis: A look at the prolific television producer who changed the sitcom landscape and brought social issues into living rooms across America (albeit somewhat imperfectly).
What’s The Word: It’s a moving portrait of a television titan that borders on the syrupy sweet. “It finds pathos in an amiable, fluid charting of the career (and political) ambitions of the TV producer,” wrote Slant’s Clayton Dillard. The doc follows not only Lear’s professional life, but his personal as well: “Ewing and Grady’s high esteem for Lear doesn’t cause them to shy away from Lear’s personal failings,” wrote Laura Anne Harris at Seventh Row. But maybe it’s just a little too glowing, suggests Variety ’s Guy Lodge: “While a tongue-in-cheek poster captured on screen refers to Lear as a 'Great Black Leader,' there’s little sense here of how the Black community, of his generation or the next, viewed and continues to view his work. 'You raised me,' Jon Stewart tells Lear at one point in the doc; it’d be interesting to know if, say, Shonda Rhimes — a showrunner as ubiquitous in this era as Lear was in his, and comparably influential in the depiction of Black lives on screen — might say the same.”
Released July 8
Fathers and Daughters
Starring: Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Aaron Paul, Diane Kruger, Janet McTeer, Octavia Spencer, Jane Fonda, Quvenzhane Wallis
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 27%
Synopsis: Two timelines intersect as a famous novelist struggles with illness and raising his daughter in the past, and his daughter reckons with infidelity and trust issues in the present.
What’s The Word: How did so many great talents converge to work on something so obviously contrived and overstuffed? It’s all messy and damsel-in-distressy, according to The Telegraph ’s Tim Robey: “The level of psychological nuance in Desch’s script, not to mention feminist enlightenment, makes EL James look like Virginia Woolf.” For Empire, Ian Freer pointed out a high note: “It’s tastefully shot and Crowe commits to the horrors of Jake’s illness (his seizures are upsetting) but the writing lacks depth, the character psychology is dime-store Freud, and the performances are variable.” At the Observer, Rex Reed points out the dizzying device of time jumps: “The movie jumps around like a yo-yo with a juxtaposition of time sequences that careen out of control until the audience is thoroughly dazed and confused. One minute Katie is an 8-year-old begging her daddy to love her. Sixty seconds later, she’s a grown woman (Amanda Seyfried) destroyed by sex addiction — dry, barren, unable to relate emotionally and a promiscuous child psychologist whose boss (Octavia Spencer, wasted in a cameo) assigns her the case of a tormented orphan who does not speak.”
Released July 8
Cell
Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 0%
Synopsis: A cell phone virus turns New Englanders into murderous zombies (or something).
What’s The Word: A Stephen King adaptation that was better left as a book. “ Cell treats its subject matter with alarming seriousness, as if Williams were worried he might be making a Nicolas Cage movie, but the material cries out for the gonzo, pulp energy of a B-movie,” wrote Consequence of Sound’s Nico Lang. The movie has its bright spots — namely the reteaming of Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack — but “so much of the film lacks style or life of its own,” wrote Rob Hunter for Film School Rejects. “Let’s just be honest about this: Cell the movie looks cheap. Not Syfy channel cheap, but too cheap to be attempting some of the stuff it appears to be attempting,” wrote Slash Film’s Jacob Hall when the trailer dropped. “This doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie (there are plenty of terrific horror films that look like they were made for pennies and prayers), but it should put any and all expectations in the right place.”
Released July 8
The BFG
Starring: Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton
Rated: PG
Tomatometer: 72%
Synopsis: A young orphan girl is whisked away by a Big Friendly Giant on the adventure of her life, based on the Roald Dahl novel of the same name.
What’s the Word: “For such a big, extravagant movie, with such an outsized central character, The BFG is surprisingly intimate, and that’s largely thanks to Rylance,” Stephanie Zacharek wrote for Time. “His BFG is a fragile, gentle soul with clumsy feet clad in hippie-sandals, a bit frightening at first, but he wins us over in a heartbeat.” At Gizmodo, Germain Lussier highlights the fantastical visuals: “The textures, the colors, the physical representations of dreams, it’s a world that’s quite pleasant to spend some time in.” For The Telegraph, Robbie Collin called the plot lean and a little slow, but “Sophie and the BFG’s partnership almost plays like a platonic romance, deepening and becoming more moving with every passing minute.”
Released July 1
The Innocents
Starring: Lou de Laage, Agata Buzek
Rated: NR
Tomatometer: 85%
Synopsis: At the end of the Holocaust, a young doctor arrives at a convent to find several nuns pregnant and in the throes of a religious crisis.
What’s the Word: It’s a movie that treats rape and religiosity with graceful nuance. “Those women are painted as full, complex characters in a few deft strokes — women who are struggling after rape to know whether they believe in something anymore, to understand their vows of chastity, to live in the problem of theodicy every day,” wrote Christianity Today ’s Alissa Wilkinson. These serious topics are treated with an insightful degree of delicacy: “Laced with intensely emotional situations, it refuses to force the issue by pushing too hard,” wrote the Los Angeles Times ’ Kenneth Turan. “And it proves, yet again, that though moral and spiritual questions may not sound spellbinding, they often provide the most absorbing movie experiences.” At Variety, Justin Chang was struck by the give and take of each sister's piousness: “In the process, the sisters — despite wearing identical habits and seeming to radiate the same stiff severity — emerge as individuals with their own unique feelings, convictions, personal histories, and varying degrees of faith.”
Released July 1
Life, Animated
Starring: Gilbert Gottfried
Rated: PG
Tomatometer: 86%
Synopsis: A documentary chronicling how a family used Disney movies to communicate with their autistic son.
What’s the Word: It’s a moving coming-of-age documentary about how Disney movies gave a family a way to communicate with a shared language and love. “It tells two stories,” wrote Jason Bailey at Flavorwire. “How his parents used those cartoons, which he’d obsessively viewed and memorized, to bring him out of his shell; and where they’ve left him at his moment of transition into adulthood and independence.” The Associated Press found it devastatingly tender and well-honed: “But once we wipe away the tears from that devastating moment when doctors diagnose little Owen Suskind with 'regressive autism' — and raise the real possibility that he'll never speak again — we're in for a fascinating, sometimes excruciating, uplifting, and yes, even funny ride, thanks to director Roger Ross Williams and of course Owen's devoted and determined family.”
Released July 1
The Legend Of Tarzan
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer: 34%
Synopsis: A reformed, gentlemanly Tarzan leaves England and returns to the jungle to work as a trade emissary.
What’s the Word: Tarzan has always been a superhero movie about a white savior, but Skarsgård’s talent tries to find a depth in the one-dimensional hero. At its core, it might actually be a movie about the perils of white colonialism, suggested IGN’s Jim Vejvod: “You can't help but leave the film suspecting the screenwriters really wanted to just tell a straightforward story about the Belgian atrocities in the Congo, and the only way they could get that film made was by sticking Tarzan in it.” At Indiewire, David Ehrlich praised Samuel L. Jackson as the dud’s only interesting element. “Only Jackson, whose George Washington Williams is loosely based on a historical figure of the same name, manages to stir any interest,” wrote Ehrlich. “There’s real weight to the notion of a late 19th-century black man traversing the world in order to weed out slavery wherever it rears its head, but [director David] Yates reduces him to a limp sliver of comic relief.” Manohla Dargis was a bit more forgiving in her review for the New York Times: “Tarzan is still the white avatar flying through the African jungle with eerie skills, a mighty yodel and existential issues, yet the terrain he swings over is messier, closer, and less of a lie than it once was.”
Released July 1
The Purge: Election Year
Starring: Elizabeth Mitchell, Frank Grillo
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 59%
Synopsis: A senator’s presidential campaign vows to end the crime free-for-all that is The Purge, but she finds herself in peril when the yearly event rolls around.
What’s the Word: Finally, a vision of an America that is worse than the 2016 election. Variety ’s Owen Gleiberman thought it worked, but lamented the lack of a true dramatic edge: “ A Clockwork Orange shocked people because of how it got us to identify with Alex, but there’s never a moment in Election Year when a character we know and like turns into a purger, killing for the nasty, pleasurable kick of it.” For BET.com, Clay Cane said this installment doesn’t live up to the political thoughtfulness of its predecessors. “Although horror is usually a vapid genre, The Purge was layered with social issues to make the audience think beyond the gore. The Purge: Election Year isn’t smart or layered enough to justify the gratuitous violence,” Cane wrote. “[Director James] DeMonaco's cleverly playing to two different audiences here,” wrote Laura Clifford for Reeling Reviews, “those who will be horrified by his political satire and those who will come for the gore and violence.”
Released July 1
The Shallows
Starring: Blake Lively
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer: 74%
Synopsis: A surfer adrift at sea tries to avoid becoming a shark’s dinner.
What’s The Word: Lively is in great form, but the plot drags and the suspense feels fake. “At times, it’s hard to tell whether The Shallows is trying to sell a tropical vacation, that Sony Xperia phone or a fantasy date with Lively herself, but in any case, the film looks virtually indistinguishable from a slick, high-end commercial,” wrote Variety ’s Peter Debruge. At The Guardian, Jordan Hoffman compared it to Gravity in its arresting simplicity: “What could have been mere summertime chum is actually one of the more cleverly constructed B-movies in quite some time.” Lively is good as a solo star, but the rest is of the movie is another story, wrote The Hollywood Reporter ’s Todd McCarthy: “Shallow is a mild word for it. Others would be silly, miscalculated, unconvincing, artless, pandering, hokey, ridiculous. Or just plain awful.”
Released June 24
Independence Day: Resurgence
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth, Bill Pullman, Vivica A. Fox
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer: 37%
Synopsis: Earth’s nations are in cahoots to battle aliens.
What’s The Word: If you want to spend some time in an air-conditioned theater, watching big explosions with minimal character development, this is your movie. “It's technically and visually marvelous, but it's hard not to get a little fatigued before the big finish,” wrote CNET’s Luke Lancaster. “But the real problem isn't the borderline tiresome carnage. It's the cast.” At The Film Stage, Dan Schindel wrote that Will Smith’s absence is palpable: “It doesn’t help that, though the script does a remarkable job of recapturing the original’s winning sense of goofiness and the cast is game for it, it severely lacks a Will Smith.” For GQ U.K., Helen O’Hara called it a bit of fun foolery: “So while this is utter nonsense for much of its runtime, overstuffed with people you will struggle to care about, and while its finale shamelessly begs a sequel (like Steven Hiller, Emmerich apparently ain’t heard no fat lady), there’s still a (molten) core of wild entertainment beneath the hokum.”
Released June 24
Free State of Jones
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keri Russell, Mahershala Ali
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 39%
Synopsis: An honorable farmer rebels against slavery during the Civil War.
What’s The Word: A contrived take on race and America that errs on the History 101 side. “It’s a tale of racial liberation and heroic bloodshed that is designed, at almost every turn, to lift us up to that special place where we can all feel moved by what good liberals we are,” wrote Owen Gleiberman for Variety. It’s not terrible, wrote Michael Phillips for the Chicago Tribune, but “often in Free State of Jones we feel like visitors to a historical re-enactment site.” At The Village Voice, Bilge Ebiri called it cluttered, but said it’s well intentioned: “The movie is gradually overwhelmed by onscreen title cards doling out historical context, along with the occasional informative and/or inspirational speech.”
Released June 24
Weiner-Dog
Starring: Greta Gerwig, Danny DeVito, Ellen Burstyn
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 67%
Synopsis: A pup sprinkles some joy into the lives of an offbeat group of characters, including a bitter old woman, a veterinary nurse, and a screenwriter.
What’s The Word: It charms, but with an oddball sensibility. “You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, you’ll wince, and you’ll sigh. Such is the genius of Wiener-Dog, and of [director Todd] Solondz, and why he remains a reliable visionary,” wrote Michael Roffman at Consequence of Sound. At The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy was less taken with Solondz’s signature misanthropy: “By embarking upon an episodic road movie, Solondz is able to create a miniature portrait of the modern American landscape, and it isn’t a pretty picture; but, then, it never would be, no matter what area nor what era he was dealing with, so corrosive is his view of human nature and how people conduct themselves.” Writing for The Playlist, Noel Murray said the movie isn’t perfect, but it’s not terrible: “Not everything Solondz comes up with works, but he’s still pulling interesting ideas out of his oddball head.”
Released June 24
The Neon Demon
Starring: Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves, Jena Malone
Rated: R
Tomatometer:48%
Synopsis: A charming beauty turns cold after becoming the It Girl of L.A.’s modeling scene. Expect cat fights and lots (and lots) of blood.
What’s The Word: It’s weird (and it was booed at Cannes). But maybe in a high-fashion, artsy way that just happens to turn gruesome. “[Nicholas Winding] Refn’s built a career on the exploits of violent men — of underworld hustlers, vicious convicts, and Viking warriors,” wrote AV Club’s A.A. Dowd. “He pivots here to a feminine perspective but only abstractly: This is a film about objectification that mainly sees its characters as objects, to be dressed and undressed, plastered in glitter and gore, and arranged like furniture against vast expanses of negative space.” Modeling really is the kill-or-be-killed industry we all thought it was, wrote The New Yorker ’s Anthony Lane, and Refn is keen to prove it: “By the end of the movie, Refn has toyed with cannibalism, lesbian necrophilia, the egestion of an eyeball, and other minor sports, all of them filmed in lavish taste.” At Rolling Stone, Peter Travers panned the glitzy modeling drama: “I'd talk about the acting, but I never saw the cast doing any; it's all posing. Even the sex and violence have lost their allure, and every take is drawn out with such excruciating precision that you want to scream.”
Released June 24
Swiss Army Man
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Paul Dano
Rated: R
Tomatometer:63%
Synopsis: Stranded on an island, a lonely guy befriends a farting corpse.
What’s The Word: A black comedy with bro-losophy pranks. The premise is weird and the plot drags, wrote Time ’s Stephanie Zacharek, but it makes an interesting point: “The world [the two leads] build in their dual isolation becomes a ramshackle paradise, a place to explore complex male feelings.” At Brooklyn Magazine, Benjamin Mercer found that it’s still very funny, even if its dramatic moments don’t hit home: “It’s hard not to appreciate the juvenile exuberance of many of these high jinks, and the hand-cranked effects with which many of them are rendered.” The Guardian ’s Jordan Hoffman warned audiences to expect lots of flatulence: “I could never prep you enough for the degree to which farting plays a pivotal role in Swiss Army Man.”
Released June 24
The Phenom
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Paul Giamatti, Johnny Simmons
Rated: NR
Tomatometer: 84%
Synopsis: A struggling baseball wunderkind is mentored by his physical therapist.
What’s The Word: It’s a baseball movie without a lot of baseball that explores the nature of insecurity. “ The Phenom unfolds as a series of quiet, incisive conversations that showcase subtle, insightful performances,” wrote Serena Donadoni at The Village Voice. At The New York Times, Neil Genzlinger was less forgiving: “It’s a variation of all those children’s movies and TV shows in which a Little Leaguer or pee-wee football player is browbeaten by a parent trying to relive his or her own childhood.” At Slant, Kenji Fushima countered that even though the movie isn’t excellent, it’s not really about baseball at all. “The film touches on the effects of a culture that puts too much emphasis on winning and money at the expense of simple healthy competition.”
Released June 24
Finding Dory
Starring: Ellen DeGeneres, Diane Keaton, Albert Brooks, Ed O’Neill, Ty Burrell
Rated: PG
Tomatometer: 95%
Synopsis: Everyone’s favorite forgetful fish searches for her family with the help of Marlin, Nemo’s dad.
What’s The Word: A lovely, worthy Finding Nemo follow-up. “In a way that is both emphatic and subtle,” wrote A.O. Scott of The New York Times, “ Finding Dory is a celebration of cognitive and physical differences. It argues, with lovely ingenuity and understatement, that what appear to be impairments might better be understood as strengths.” Still, writes Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post, “ Finding Dory could never completely measure up to Nemo, whose dazzling visuals and mythic contours made it an instant, enduring classic.” The sequel features a gaggle of stars and master voice actors, but DeGeneres remains the star, as RogerEbert.com’s Susan Wloszczyna noted: “DeGeneres and her sometimes goofy, sometimes giddy persona continues to be a perfect fit for the role that provided the uplifting salt-water soul of Finding Nemo.”
Released June 17
The Conjuring 2
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Frances O’Connor
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 74%
Synopsis: Paranormal investigators travel to north London to help a single mother living with a house plagued by evil spirits.
What’s the Word: The sequel is scary! And worth it, if you’re into horror movies and paranormal frights. Vera Farmiga is reliably excellent, according to USA Today ’s Brian Truitt. “While [Patrick] Wilson is solid as the good-hearted Ed, Farmiga is [director] Wan’s true standout — her Lorraine really gets put through the wringer as she deals with the constant presence of a terrifying supernatural force, and Farmiga sells every gasp,” Truitt wrote.
At Consequence of Sound, however, Michael Roffman was less invested in the “exaggerated carnival fare" that is "slick and stylish to the point of distraction.” HitFix’s Drew McWeeney says it’s a cut above others in the horror genre: “A rare horror sequel that stands toe-to-toe with the original, possibly even improving on it.”
Released June 10
Me Before You
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Charles Dance, Jenna Coleman
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer: 53%
Synopsis: A quirky caregiver and her cynical, paralyzed patient fall in love.
What’s The Word: It isn’t the best love story with medical complications, but it’s also not the worst. Sheri Linden at The Hollywood Reporter said that the actors — Game of Thrones ’ Clarke and Hunger Games ’ Claflin — make a formulaic plot easier to stomach. “With their charm and good looks, Clarke and Claflin give the duo’s sublimated sensuality an undeniable charge, enhanced by the honeyed light of Remi Adefarasin’s camerawork,” Linden wrote. The Wrap’s Alonso Duralde was more harsh on the film's lack of cohesiveness: “Forget art, or even craft,” he wrote. “This is the kind of movie that can’t even get its shameless audience-pandering in order.” At A.V. Club, Jesse Hassenger wrote that though the movie might bring tears, he expects they'll quickly dry: " Me Before You is a first-level tearjerker, the kind that expects people to cry when the characters are sad, not because of any unspoken meaning underneath."
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Starring: Zac Efron, Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne
Rated: R
Tomatometer:64%
Synopsis: Sorority sisters mess with hapless adults.
What's The Word: This comedy sequel has a surprising and welcome feminist bent. "The Bechdel test is overly simple, yes, but a usefully blunt tool to compare Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising to its modern comedy brethren, virtually none of which have bothered to imbue female characters with the agency, humor, or actual personality that the women of Neighbors 2 deliver in spades," Katey Rich wrote for Vanity Fair. Erin Whitney at ScreenCrush noted: "Not only is it one of the best and funniest comedy sequels, it’s also the most feminist, gay-inclusive, and self-aware mainstream comedy of the year, if not ever." But Amy Nicholson at MTV News was slightly more wary: " Neighbors 2 ’s Social Justice Warrior critique would feel less sour if it weren’t written by five white guys. I guess this is still their party after all."
Released May 20
The Lobster
Starring: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Léa Seydoux
Rated: R
Tomatometer:92%
Synopsis: An exploration of love and life in a society where people have to find romantic partners in 45 days or they are turned into animals of their choosing.
What's The Word: It's an acquired taste, but it's truly brilliant. "This movie is an unusual beast, and if you can’t invest in its wild premise and starchy manners, stay home," Amy Nicholson at MTV News explained. "See it, however, and you’ll not only see one of the best movies of the year — you’ll see one of the most brutally honest takes on the knots people twist themselves into so they don’t have to be alone." The New York Times ' A.O. Scott wrote that the movie is "often startlingly funny in the way it proposes its surreal conceits, and then upsettingly grim in the way it follows through on them." Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weeklydeemed it " the most original and beautifully strange love story since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."
Released May 13
Love & Friendship
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel
Rated: PG
Tomatometer: 100%
Synopsis: A Jane Austen adaptation about a scheming widow.
What's The Word: If you're a Janeite in need of a laugh — or just someone who likes great movies — go. The movie "more than delivers on the comedy of manners front, but it’s also a very funny, unapologetic portrait of a diabolically clever woman," Glenn Whipp wrote at The Los Angeles Times. Peter Travers at Rolling Stone said he "can't think of a more wickedly modern romantic comedy." A.O. Scott's New York Times review declared: "It's the Whit Stillman movie that some of us have been waiting a long time for, and also a Jane Austen movie that goes some way toward correcting the record of dull and dutiful cinematic Janeism."
Released May 13
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