With the busiest schedule since the year 2020 ahead of us, there is much to look forward to. This July should be the most intense box office competition in recent history. There is less uncertainty this year as well, as most of these titles will most likely be released on their originally planned dates.
In the end, choosing only 23 titles is a bit conservative, and there are a few major names missing from the roll call below; nonetheless, imagine that we are just as enthusiastic for The Super Mario Bros. Movie as you are (and don’t bother asking any follow-up questions).
Air
Air, directed by Ben Affleck and starring himself as Nike cofounder and future “MJ whisperer” Phil Knight, aims even higher in a year that also promises a behind-the-scenes thriller about the genesis of the BlackBerry (Matt Damon is there too as Sonny Vaccaro).
If it’s anything like The Social Network, that is. Does Michael Jordan require any more praise for the way he changed the game? Does it relevant if Winning Time’s plotline involving the 1980s sneaker battles were resolved by that point? Let’s try this one: Is there a remote possibility that you’re not viewing this?
Beau Is Afraid
Beau, it seems, is Joaquin Phoenix, and since his creator is horror guru Ari Aster, the question of what he has to be frightened of is left wide open.
Using the all-time fantastic Broadway actress Patti LuPone as Beau’s mother may turn out to be the biggest casting coup of the year, since the teaser hints one root of our hero’s fears may be parental.
Evil Dead Rise
Fun in the Evil Dead Rise movies has always come from Bruce Campbell’s egocentric lead character and other brash, throwaway humans interacting with otherworldly forces they can’t control.
Yet, Evil Dead Rising by Lee Cronin appears to be an emotional roller coaster, as three small children must watch as their loving, stressed mother (Alyssa Sutherland) transforms into a rictus-grinning Deadite.
Fast X
With an estimated budget of $340 million, Fast X is getting close to Avatar territory; Pandora is the only area Dom and the crew hasn’t ravaged at some point in the last 20 years and counting. (Now that Jason Momoa has been cast as the antagonist, perhaps they will be eligible for a tax rebate if they shoot in Atlantis.)
The Fast franchise is doing well as an experiment in exaggerating typical elements of action films until they become meaningless. The franchise’s brain trust is not likely to botch this: certain projects are simply too massive to fail.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Back to the multiverse again; it’s getting old to have stories set in several dimensions at the same time. Yet, Shameik Moore’s animated Miles Morales is as heartfelt and humorous as Tom Holland’s live-action Peter Parker (not scheduled to appear) is stiff and gormless, making Into the Spider-Verse (2018) a beautifully designed and performed exercise in pandemonium.
Daniel Kaluuya’s Spider-Punk, a spiky guitar slinger with a Cockney accent who uses his guitar as a machine to kill Nazis, is the most interesting Spider-Cameo yet.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
The good news is that Indy can start over with a new protege after Mutt Williams (remember him?) perished while returning to his home planet. Casting Phoebe Waller-Bridge as his goddaughter Helena could prove to be brilliant, adding a sassy, Indiana Jones–like dimension to the story.
(Harrison Ford has always portrayed the role as older and grumpier than he was.) It was also a clever choice to cast Mads Mikkelsen as the antagonist, an ex-Nazi, considering the story’s focus on the space race. James Mangold, the film’s director, has a steady hand and won’t likely squander the goodwill he’s built up.
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning
A gladiatorial undercurrent runs through every new Tom Cruise stunt: “Are you not entertained?” he seems to question, over and over again, as he sticks the HALO jump or motorcycle landing.
We’ll let them off the hook for a title that includes not only the traditional colon but also a dash—a grammatical clusterfuck that doubles as a reminder that they’re drawing these final chapters out as long as possible—because the conflict between a superstar’s quasi-suicidal showmanship and the kind of franchise storytelling that requires Ethan Hunt to be indestructible has made the Mission: Impossible movies a gold standard.
Barbie
Greta Gerwig deserves credit for skillfully turning the teaser trailer for her upcoming project into a tribute to the most iconic art-movie director of all time; this is sure to get the internet talking (and moaning) about what, precisely, Barbie will be.
You can bet that Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach will find the boundary between the two; the question is whether or not crossing it will lead the film in a worthwhile direction. Nevertheless, Ryan Gosling’s very bland performance as Ken serves as a reminder that the Goz is always (always!) better at humor than two-fisted melancholy. I’d pay good money to see a new version of Drive if it were dressed like this.
Oppenheimer
Reader, you have won a prize: You, Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Roman Reigns, Benny Safdie, Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman, Casey Affleck, Matthew Modine, Harry Styles have apparently all been cast in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. (I only made up two.)
This is a terrible and fascinating topic, and Nolan usually handles it with his signature flair for period pieces. He detonated a nuclear bomb for this film as well. Tell us about your experience on the set of the film, and we’ll see you on the red carpet.
The Exorcist
It would have been a long shot to bet on David Gordon Green rebranding himself as the guy who remakes classic ’70s horror films back in 2000 when George Washington was captivating art-house audiences.
Regardless matter how you feel about the new Halloween films, it’s hard to ignore the possibility of a The Exorcist sequel starring Ellen Burstyn. Nothing is known at this time except that Pazuzu will return in some manner. And with that, I’m done.
Dune: Part Two
Perform the voiceover. It is safe to suppose that Austin Butler while casting the role of Feyd-Rautha, will give the young Harkonnen villain an Elvis Presley voice. Dune: Part Two will have big shoes to fill after the success of the first film in the series, which was a pleasant surprise both aesthetically and commercially because of its genuine sense of size and awe.
No longer in doubt is Denis Villeneuve’s ability to accomplish military-sized concepts without compromising softer nuances. He argued for the opportunity to paint this story on a vast canvas, and he won.
The Killer
In The Killer, Now that he has Mank out of his system, director David Fincher is making a glossy genre film starring the recently absent Michael Fassbender as a world-traveling assassin based on a comic novel.
We can safely assume there is nothing more promising coming out this year, and the film’s November release date suggests it may premiere at film festivals.
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