Few things bring cinephiles joy quite like spending the weekend holed up in a movie theater, devouring the latest silver screen debuts. Though the biggest question is always, How exactly 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 — can a film named White Girl actually give a compelling look at race and privilege in America? However, 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 each week!
The Girl on the Train
Starring: Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux, Haley Bennett, Allison Janney
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 46%
Synopsis: Rachel is an alcoholic who rides the train between New York City and a suburb, fantasizing about a woman who lives in her old neighborhood. When the woman turns up dead, Rachel becomes the prime suspect.
What’s the Word: It’s like one of those old Lifetime movies, but more lame. Fans of the book might be disappointed. “ The Girl on the Train is an absorbing, page-turning (or page-swiping) whodunit,” wrote Rebecca Murray for Showbiz Junkie, “but it doesn't have quite the same impact as a feature film.”
At Globe and Mail, Kate Taylor agreed: “Whatever the locomotive power of the novel, this film adaptation only limps into the station.” At least Emily Blunt is talented: “About the only good call in The Girl on the Train was the casting, which gives us two hours of Emily Blunt shredding her soul, soaking it in vodka, and then setting it on fire. The rest is a mawkish, retrograde misfire,” wrote Vox’s Alissa Wilkinson.
Released October 7
The Birth of a Nation
Starring: Nate Parker, Jackie Earle Haley, Armie Hammer, Gabrielle Union
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 77%
Synopsis: The story of Nat Turner and his slave uprising.
What’s the Word: It’s mostly campy with a lot of lecturing. R29’s own Arianna Davis breaks it down: “Frankly, it's not a very good film at all. So much so that after seeing the movie, I walked out of the screening room relieved, a weight lifted off my chest that I no longer had to figure out how, as a Black woman (and alumnus of the same college as Parker), I was going to separate this Black artist from this Black art. Because, in my opinion, The Birth of a Nation was not art.”
As a cinematic telling of Turner’s story, Slate’s Dana Stevens wrote that Parker’s rendering of him isn’t compelling: “There's a deliberate myth-making quality to Parker's reconstruction of the real-life Nat Turner, who was a much more morally complex figure than the righteous avenger Parker writes, directs, and plays him as.”
Released October 7
American Honey
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Sasha Lane, Riley Keough, McCaul Lombardi
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 82%
Synopsis: Star, a free-spirited girl from a troubled home in Oklahoma, meets Jake in a supermarket. The next day, she joins his crew of magazine salespeople, teens who lives on America’s fringes and crisscross the country, living an American outlaw fantasy.
What’s the Word: It’s excellent. And the music — E-40, Rihanna, Juicy J — is pretty good, too. When I saw it, I noticed a beautiful religious undertone to the way it was filmed.
“Yes, it depicts teenagers doing things the grown-ups would rather not admit they actually do,” wrote Ty Burr for The Boston Globe, “but it does so with a poetic curiosity and a sense of what it's like to be young, poor, and rootless — both futureless and free.” Also, Shia LeBeouf is pretty hot.
Released September 30
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Goat
Starring: Nick Jonas, James Franco, Ben Schnetzer, Gus Halper
Rated: R
Tomatometer:75%
Synopsis: After a harrowing assault, a college guy is hazed during fraternity pledging. Drunkenness reveals the frat’s toxic masculinity.
What’s The Word: It’s good — chillingly so. “This isn't an easy film to watch,” wrote Stephanie Merry for The Washington Post. “But it's even harder to forget.” Schnetzer is especially great, suggested Katie Walsh in the Tribune News Service: “ Goat wouldn't be as strong as it is without the strength of Schnetzer's lead performance, which provides the emotional anchor around which the rest of the film orbits.” It’s compelling, wrote Jordan Raup for The Film Stage, but “its themes are a bit muddled, and certainly not unique.”
Released September 23
The Lovers and the Despot
Starring: Shin Sang-ok, Choi Eun-hee
Rated: NR
Tomatometer:75%
Synopsis: A documentary following a stranger-than-fiction true story: A Korean actress fell in love with a famous director, and was kidnapped by Kim Jong-il. The director was later kidnapped as well, but the couple was reunited by Kim, a movie buff, and forced to be his “personal filmmakers.”
What’s The Word: First of all, can you imagine? Filmmakers Ross Adam and Robert Cannan give this wacky (and, at times, heartbreaking) tale a deep resonance. “Juxtaposing archival footage with a tension-building collection of interviews, Cannan and Adam approach the outlandish crime as a puzzlement, all but wondering aloud how two celebrities could be turned into a dictator's puppets,” wrote Dave White for The Wrap. At the Village Voice, Alan Scherstuhl wrote that the film makes the most of the talking-head style: “Cannan and Adam's interviewees — Choi, intelligence agents, film critics — tell the story with more suspense than talking heads usually muster. The film is brisk and fascinating, ultimately moving, but also less rich than it might have been.” Writing for The Film State, Dan Schindel called the story compelling, but said the movie can feel skin-deep: “The most frustrating aspect of The Lovers and the Despot is its refusal to do more than simply recite its tale, ignoring the interesting concepts lurking within it,” Schindel wrote.
Released September 23
The Dressmaker
Starring: Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 53%
Synopsis: A dressmaker working in Paris returns to the Australian backwoods where she grew up, and causes a ruckus.
What’s The Word: Is it avant-garde? Experimental? Tired? Trash? Everyone is divided. At Four Three Film, Isobel Yeap wrote that it is “a fascinating feminist film. It prioritizes Tilly’s relationship with her mother over her romantic relationship.” The plotting is strong, wrote Elise Nakhnikian for Slant, but “the frequent contemptuousness the film displays toward its characters keeps the audience at arm's length, making all the angst and intrigue on display in Dungatar read as strenuous playacting.” Regardless of the movie's other qualities, the best performance comes from Judy Davis — it’s worth seeing for her alone. Davis’ performance “provides a much-needed anchor in the middle of a whirlpool of discordant, clanging nonsense,” wrote Rebecca Pahle for Film Journal International.
Released September 23
My Blind Brother
Starring: Jenny Slate, Adam Scott, Nick Kroll, Zoe Kazan
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 79%
Synopsis: A funny lady dates a blind sports star and his seeing brother.
What’s The Word: Slate, Scott, and Kroll make a winning team. At Variety, Andrew Barker called it a “winningly featherweight romantic comedy.” It’s also a part of a new-ish genre of comedies: “The studio-produced romantic comedy may be flatlining, but who cares, so long as snappy indies like this one step up to fill the void?” asked Kimberly Jones in the Austin Chronicle. At the Arizona Republic, Barbara VanDenburgh found its humor very respectful: “It's a slight film, but one that hits all the tricky emotional and comedic notes without a hint of cruelty,” she wrote.
Released September 23
The Magnificent Seven
Starring: Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, Peter Sarsgaard, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luke Grimes, Lee Byung-hun
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer: 63%
Synopsis: Seven gunslinging outlaws fight to protect a town from a cold-hearted industrialist.
What’s The Word: It’s not as good as John Sturges’ iconic original, but then, it never could be. This is a solid effort at remaking a classic. “While it might not launch a Western cinematic resurgence, The Magnificent Seven gives the genre a much needed shot in the arm. Say hello to the fall's first big blockbuster,” wrote Jeffrey Lyles for Lyles’ Movie Files. At the Austin American-Statesman, Joe Gross pointed out an interesting paradox about the movie’s self-consciousness: “Everyone seems a little too aware that they are Making A Western For A Modern Audience rather than throwing themselves headfirst into making a Western for a modern audience.” At the Associated Press, Lindsey Bahr gets right to the point: the two stars. "You could do worse than putting it all in the capable hands of Denzel Washington, with some help from Chris Pratt," she wrote.
Released September 23
Bridget Jones's Baby
Starring: Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 78%
Synopsis: Bridge is back — this time with a bundle of joy and a pair of men who could both be the father.
What's the Word: Bridget Jones would be charming if she were reading a phone book — this movie does right by her and by women who have grown up with the trilogy. "The movie's mores can feel cluelessly retro as the ever-dithering Bridget lurches between one man and another," wrote Dana Stevens for Slate. At Consequence of Sound, Allison Shoemaker wrote that it definitely makes good "on the smooshy stuff, to be sure, but it's the stuff in between that really delivers." At NPR, Ella Taylor got at the heart of what really matters: "Zellweger has precision comic timing, her British accent is close to flawless, and she's having a great time."
Released September 16
Blair Witch
Starring: James Allen McCune, Valorie Curry
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 42%
Synopsis: A group of college kids face a horrifying ghost in the Black Hills Forest in Maryland.
What’s the Word: A fine reboot that is true to a well-known franchise. “If you must reboot a classic, this is how you do it,” wrote Rosie Fletcher for Digital Spy. At Variety, though, Guy Lodge wasn’t as impressed: “A significantly more accomplished and entertaining sequel than 2000's woeful cash-in Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, [this] nonetheless reps something of a missed opportunity.” The Hollywood Reporter ’s Leslie Felperin wrote that the movie was too bound by its source material to ever become something unique and interesting: “By sticking so slavishly to the original Blair Witch film's template, the result is a dull retread rather than a full-on reinvention, enlarging the cast numbers this time but sticking to the same basic beats.”
Released September 16
Miss Stevens
Starring: Lily Rabe, Oscar Nunez, Lili Reinhart, Timothee Chalamet
Rated: NR
Tomatometer: 86%
Synopsis: A teacher chaperones three students on a weekend trip, and finds herself growing up in the process.
What’s the Word: Just because the teacher befriends one of her male students, don’t expect it to devolve into some tawdry illicit romance. “While her bond with the troubled, inquisitive Billy becomes the script’s emotional core, coaxing forth insights and revelations that neither character is fully prepared to deal with, the story mercifully avoids the predictable route of nudging them into an inappropriate relationship,” wrote Variety’s Justin Chang, “instead raising honest, hard-to-answer questions about what happens when the mentor unexpectedly becomes the mentee.” At The New Yorker, Richard Brody saw little beyond the story’s loose outline: “Rachel is a lonely woman in mourning for her mother, with a fragile veneer of quiet yearning and awkward energy; when that veneer cracks, the effect is powerful despite its air of calculation.” Lily Rabe is great in it, according to Consequence of Sound’s Randall Colburn. “Rabe’s performance here is nothing short of stunning,” Colburn wrote. “The sharp, lived-in tics and details of her character work are instantly endearing, an open window into her vulnerabilities and passions.”
Released September 16
Other People
Starring: Jesse Plemons, Molly Shannon, Bradley Whitford
Rated: NR
Tomatometer: 84%
Synopsis: A young gay man navigates being out to his family while caring for his cancer-stricken mother.
What’s the Word: This is your annual excuse to watch Molly Shannon in anything, because she’s always so charming. “Inherently melodramatic,” wrote Daniel M. Gold for the New York Times, “the film belongs to Ms. Shannon, who vividly etches Joanne in a full end-of-life range: funny, loving, angry, regretful, exhausted, resigned.” At the A.V. Club, A.A. Dowd saw the movie’s heart in spite of its moments of melodrama: “It's a little easy, a little obvious, but there's still an undeniable specificity to it — the sense that it comes from someplace genuine.” The Guardian ’s Nigel Smith highlighted Shannon’s deft performance: “Shannon shows new shades in her deft handling of a tragedy she's tasked with bearing. Further proof that when it comes to drama, comedy actors are often the experts.”
Released September 9
Sully
Starring: Tom Hanks, Laura Linney
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer: 83%
Synopsis: Clint Eastwood (director) takes on the story behind the famous "Miracle on the Hudson" emergency landing.
What’s the Word: Sometimes you just need to remember Clint Eastwood’s better days and move on. MTV’s Amy Nicholson has the heaviest take: “ Sully is fascinating as a study of Eastwood's persecution complex, his fear that not everyone in the world adequately worships an accomplished white man.” Writing for The New Republic, Will Leitch says the movie’s scope is smartly narrow: “The only real reason we care about Sully is what happened in that plane. In that regard, and only that regard, Sully absolutely delivers.” The upside? Even if it’s boring, Tom Hanks is reliable: “[Hanks] is predictably great, especially in a scene where he's informed that all his passengers survived, but it's a quiet, dignified performance, the kind that has lately become his stock-in-trade,” wrote Max Weiss for Baltimore Magazine.
Released September 9
White Girl
Starring: Morgan Saylor, Brian Marc, Chris Noth, Justin Bartha
Rated: NR
Tomatometer: 68%
Synopsis: A wild, optimistic blonde from Oklahoma moves to New York. She does a lot of drugs, has a lot of sex, and tries to get her Puerto Rican lover out of jail. (It's similar to another movie about NYC youth, Kids)
What’s the Word: Here’s an important bit of context, taken from director Elizabeth Wood’s interview with R29: A frequent critique of her script was that her protagonist ought to have had a depressing or abusive childhood to somehow legitimize her drug use or wantonness.
“[I told people] ‘Actually, I think so often a young person that’s white and privileged and acting out is not the result of a bad background,” Wood said. “It’s the result of a really good background where everything has been so protected that they’re willing to take insane risks just to feel alive.’”
Morgan Saylor — you might remember her from Homeland — gives an astonishing performance: “Saylor plays the kind of wild child who acts out because she came from a good background — it takes a certain fearlessness to portray a character who’s never had to be afraid of anything, and the actress steps into the part like she’s running into traffic,” wrote David Ehrlich of Indiewire. “As someone who graduated from a New York liberal arts college known for its wealthy, white student body, who lived a block south of Ridgewood off the M train, and who has been well-acquainted with Leah-types,” wrote Erin Whitney for Screencrush, “I can attest to how honestly and bluntly White Girl captures that culture.”
Released September 2
The Light Between Oceans
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, Rachel Weisz
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer:60%
Synopsis: An Australian couple struggles to conceive.
What’s the Word: This is the second time a pair of actors has fallen in love on the set on a Derek Cianfrance movie. A profile by The Ringer’s Sean Fennessey gets at the director’s stylistic intensity: “I’m trying to fill the movies up with fleeting moments, because that’s what life is,” Cianfrance said. “I’m just trying to take real family pictures.”
For the Associated Press, Lindsey Bahr wasn’t quite convinced of the film’s grandeur, writing that it’s “stunning to see, and the performances are of the highest caliber, but it's all packaged in a story that just doesn't earn its stay, or our tears.”
At The Washington Post, Ann Hornaday gives viewers a warning: “Ladies and gentlemen, let your hankies unfurl.”
Released September 2
Southside With You
Starring: Tika Sumpter, Parker Sawyer
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer: 92%
Synopsis: The story of the president and first lady’s first date.
What’s The Word: “Michelle Obama is [who she is today],” actress and producer Tika Sumpter told Refinery29. “But Michelle Robinson is the girl from South Side. She’s the girl figuring it out still, she’s a second-year associate at a law firm. She went to Princeton and Harvard and is successful in her own right.” The movie showing Mrs. Obama’s first date with the president is a little like Before Sunrise, suggested Detroit News ’ Adam Graham, “if those two characters had a really epic epilogue.” Southside With You is largely unconcerned with who its leads grow up to be, wrote Leah Greenblatt for Entertainment Weekly: “It delivers something more modest: a tender, unrushed love story.” At The Wrap, Sam Adams wrote that the movie shows a deficiency: Hollywood’s lack of love stories that star Black people. “Its near-total lack of precursors suggest that if it weren't about one of the most famous Black couples, it would likely not have been made at all.”
Released August 26
The Intervention
Starring: Melanie Lynskey, Clea DuVall, Cobie Smulders, Vincent Piazza, Natasha Lyonne, Alia Shawkat, Jason Ritter
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 78%
Synopsis: Four couples take a weekend away to stage an intervention of one couples’ marriage.
What’s The Word: Clea DuVall, who has been acting in Hollywood for some time, produced and directed a script that’s been on her mind for a while. “I thought, What if there was a story about someone who is so convinced that they knew what was right for everybody else? And they actually tried to put one of their plans in action?" DuVall told Refinery29. "That idea would be so ridiculous, because you don’t really ever know what is going on in someone else’s life.” At The Village Voice, April Wolfe called it an “honest, intimate portrayal of three couples who endure a weekend of emotional maintenance while trying to convince a fourth couple to get a divorce.” At The Guardian, Nigel M. Smith said that it’s a miss because it struggles to balance humor and seriousness: “The problem for The Intervention lies in its misjudgment of tone. It's played for feel-good laughs (the cornball ending feels especially unearned), when DuVall should have instead dug deeper to exploit her characters for the messed-up people that they are.”
Released August 26
The Hollars
Starring: John Krasinski, Anna Kendrick, Richard Jenkins
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer:50%
Synopsis: John Krasinski is a disenchanted NYC professional whose mother’s illness brings him back home to his small town.
What’s The Word: The plot’s convention — about a boring man needing a trip home to put his life in perspective — has been done many times before, and in more interesting ways. It’s “just good enough to make you wish that it were better,” wrote Matt Zoeller Seitz for RogerEbert.com. “One minute Richard Jenkins is emphatically crying over his wife's illness which is apparently a running gag,” wrote Matt Prigge for Metro. ”The next Wilco is playing over earnest montages of people staring into space.” The movie’s highlight is Margo Martindale, who “proves again that she is one of the best actors on the planet,” according to Rolling Stone ’s Peter Travers.
Released August 26
War Dogs
Starring: Jonah Hill, Miles Teller, Bradley Cooper, Kevin Pollack
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 59%
Synopsis: Bros sell guns to war lords, basically.
What’s the Word: Measure your expectations: This is an installment into the bro canon, but a seemingly fun one. “People are overthinking War Dogs — essentially it's the second best movie in the Hangover franchise,” tweeted Toronto-based critic Jason Gorber. At NPR, Mark Jenkins commented that sticking closer to the true story would have been better, “but they manage to slip a fair amount of interesting commentary between the blunders, bong hits and wartime near-misses.” The movie tries to mimic the style and skill of an iconic talent, and the strain shows: “Everything in this film, from the voiceover narration, to the familiar rock 'n' roll and Sinatra musical cues, to the freeze frames, to the tale of reckless and ambitious young men behaving badly, seems lifted directly from the Scorsese playbook,” wrote Max Weiss for The Baltimore Sun.
Released August 19
Morris From America
Starring: Craig Robinson, Markees Christmas, Carla Juri
Rated: R
Tomatometer: 92%
Synopsis: When a Black father and son move to Germany, the son adapts to life abroad, with white German friends who expect him to have a stereotypical Black identity.
What’s the Word: “In the end, this is Morris’ story,” wrote Tomris Laffly for Film Journal International. “And he is perhaps the most disarmingly lovable young teen to come of age in American independent cinema (which has no shortage of such fare) in recent years.” At The Ringer, K. Austin Collins wasn’t really feeling it, but was into one aspect of Morris’ character, that the kid raps about a lifestyle of drugs and jail time that he really knows nothing about. “But the fantasy [Morris’ lyrics] lay bare is valuable,” Collins wrote. “They’re the movie’s greatest insight into who Morris thinks he is, who he wants to be, and what’s at stake for him in hip-hop. For a middle-class expat going through puberty, it’s a fantasy of manhood that feels and sounds distinctly African American.” More than a coming-of-age story, it’s a touching look at the relationship between Black fathers and Black sons, suggested The New Yorker ’s Anthony Lane: “The highlight is not Morris’s worst scrape, when he gets stranded out of town without cash or a phone, but the speech that [his dad] gives after he comes to the rescue. Robinson delivers it in long takes and with tremendous style. ‘We’re the only two brothers in Heidelberg,’ he says. ‘We gotta stick together.’”
Released August 19
Ben-Hur
Starring: Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, Morgan Freeman, Nazanin Boniadi
Rated: PG-13
Tomatometer:30%
Synopsis: It’s the same plot as the old version, only worse.
What’s the Word: Nah. Ben-Hur has been adapted before, and this new version isn’t an improvement, wrote Philadelphia Inquirer Tirdad Derakhshani: “Dominated by CGI effects, it's a soap opera better fit for basic cable.” The lack of real plot points and star turned Ben-Hur into a dollar store version of the bigger, gutsier movies of its kind. “It needed a star like the Russell Crowe of Gladiator to provide dramatic heft. What is Ben-Hur without a platform of moral grandeur? Not much,” wrote Stephen Holden for the New York Times. At Christianity Today, critic Alissa Wilkinson had a particularly moving take: It’s not a good movie, but it tells a meaningful story. “Give me [this] Ben-Hur — with its pulsating battles and chariot races, its proclamation that mercy and sacrifice are more revolutionary than anything you can cook up with swords or chariots — over any of this summer's exhausting superhero movies,” she wrote.
Released August 19
Spa Night
Starring: Joe Seo
Rated: NR
Tomatometer: 91%
Synopsis: A shy 18-year-old explores his sexuality in the spas and karaoke bars in Los Angeles’ Koreatown.
What’s the Word: It’s a delicate and difficult movie about the tug of war between parental expectations and self-love. “[The film's directors] approach moments of sensuality subtly, as the camera languidly wades into the steamy saunas and the monochromatic showers where David’s interest in the unknown begins to percolate. He’s simultaneously frightened and enlivened by the possibilities of touching a man,” wrote Sam Fragoso for The Wrap. For writer Noel Murray at the A.V. Club, it’s a little too indirect. He said, “ Spa Night does a fine job of articulating the existential ennui of someone who loves his parents but knows he can never be what they were expecting.” At The Guardian, Nigel M. Smith felt that the the movie belonged more to the protagonist’s parents than his own inner crisis. “[Andrew] Ahn is more successful at relaying the emotional complexity of David’s parents’ plight as Korean immigrants fighting for a better life for their son. It’s their story that resonates in the end.”
Released August 19
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
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
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
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
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
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
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