Nope, Thor, Minions, and more good reasons for moviegoing in July

Theaters everywhere July 1It’s got to be tough writing a movie in which the protagonists are basically oversized banana Tic-Tacs who speak in a barely comprehensible, Esperanto-like, pure nonsense, yet the first spin-off film managed to pull off a hilarious slapstick extravaganza in the vein of classic silent comedy. That’s a daunting enough achievement once; for the second go-around, writers Brian Lynch and Matthew Fogel have brought back the Minions’ original master, Gru (Steve Carell), to provide dialogue and more of a character arc. Making this a prequel to the original also removes Gru’s biggest shortcoming—ever since he reformed from being a supervillain to become a good dad, he’s been a dud of a character. Now a 12-year old fanboy, he must earn that Despicable title from the beginning.An unexpectedly star-studded supporting cast includes Taraji P. Henson, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lucy Lawless, and Alan Arkin as the super-villain team the Vicious Six. (One of these things is not quite like the other!) And as Gru’s Mom? Julie Andrews. Hey, not every kid she raises can turn out to be a Banks or Von Trapp. [Luke Y. Thompson]

Theaters everywhere July 1If there’s one thing Bridgerton has established, it’s that there’s an audience for Bridgerton. That is, flashy Regency-era dramas featuring lavish costumes—and, notably, romantic leads whose looks have typically excluded them from such stories. In that vein come Freida Pinto and Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù in , Suzanne Allain’s tale of star-crossed, fabulously frocked lovers directed by Emma Holly Jones. A comedy of errors at which we can imagine Jane Austen would give a nod of appreciation, Mr. Malcolm’s List stars Dìrísù as the titular English gentleman with a notorious list of qualifications for what he seeks in a bride. Pinto, ravishing as ever, plays the kindhearted Selina Dalton, enmeshed in a scheme designed by the relentlessly silly Julia Thistlewaite (Zawe Ashton) to humiliate Malcolm. Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Theo James, and an even sillier Ashley Park co-star in a film designed to distract and delight—at least until Bridgerton season 3. [Jack Smart]

Hulu July 1Vietnamese-American director Le-Van Kiet, equally adept at horror (The Requin) and action (Furie) tries his hand at mildly anachronistic medieval action, following a princess (Joey King) who aggressively resents her arranged marriage to a sociopathic would-be usurper (Dominic Cooper). Teaming with Kiet’s Furie heroine Veronica Ngo, the princess goes full John Wick on the opposition, with MMA skills, sword-fu, and serious stunts. Produced by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad, promises lots of long-take action sequences, and a possible major U.S. breakthrough role for Ngo, briefly seen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi as Rose’s doomed sister Paige.The 22 year-old King, who’s been acting since the age of four, has a lot of experience on the sets of action movies—Battle: Los Angeles, The Dark Knight Rises, White House Down, and Independence Day: Resurgence among them. This time, she’s front and center as the star, and she learned how to do all the moves with minimal cutaways. Cooper appears to be playing an evil spin on his Warcraft king. Here’s hoping their olde-tyme, new-school battle will layeth some serious smacketh down. [Luke Y. Thompson]

Theaters everywhere July 8Writer-director Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows, Jojo Rabbit) returns with his second Marvel outing and the first Thor-centered movie since his own Thor: Ragnarok in 2017. Fans have waited three years to see what the God of Thunder has been up to since Avengers: Endgame, and based on the trailers and footage shown so far, it looks like it’s going to be filled with the ever-reliable action and cheeky fun we’ve come to expect from the . Moreover, it seems Waititi is continuing to bring his own signature touch to the hero’s story with a distinct style and tone, similar to the vibe he injected into Ragnarok. This entry introduces Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher, along with returning characters Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Natalie Portman as Jane Foster. Portman has been seen rocking newly buffed up arms and wielding her very own hammer, so the hype for seeing what’s in store for her character is reason enough to check this out. Fans are likely in for a strong continuation of the MCU’s fourth phase following Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. [Brandon Kirby]

Theaters everywhere July 15Where The Crawdads Sing became a surprise bestseller in 2019 and captivated readers with its tale about a lonely girl’s coming-of-age in the marshes of North Carolina. Author Delia Owens managed to appeal to a multitude of audiences by combining a murder mystery, a romance, and a nature survival story into an irresistible page turner. Translating all this for the big screen can be a tall order. But director Olivia Newman (First Match) and screenwriter Lucy Alibar (Beasts Of The Southern Wild) have an ace up their sleeves: their leading lady, Daisy Edgar-Jones.Edgar-Jones broke out with the critically acclaimed Hulu miniseries Normal People which became one of the first big hits of lockdown when it was released in April 2020. Since then, she has appeared in the FX series Under The Banner Of Heaven and in the Sundance cannibalism satire Fresh. However, Crawdads marks her first big-screen starring role and promises to shift her career another gear—provided producer Reese Witherspoon can give this film the same magic she brought to book adaptations like the Oscar-nominated Wild and the Emmy juggernaut Big Little Lies. [Murtada Elfadl]

Theaters everywhere July 15 looks like it was buried in a Miramax time capsule around 2002 and unearthed just in time to give us some old school, crowd-pleasing feels during the COVID era. Lesley Manville stars as a widowed cleaning lady in post-WWII London who takes the money she earned scrubbing floors and flies to Paris to buy the object of her obsession: a couture Christian Dior gown. Those snooty French, though, are standing in her way (probably while holding a baguette).Getting a rare, thank-you-Lord chance to topline a film is the great Manville, who earned an Oscar nomination for another clothing-centered movie, 2017’s Phantom Thread. Her co-stars here include French heavyweight Isabelle Huppert, along with Lambert Wilson and Jason Isaacs. After three TV movie adaptations of Paul Gallico’s 1958 novel Mrs. ’Arris Goes To Paris, this is the first version to make it to the big screen. Two of Gallico’s other works, Lou Gehrig: The Pride Of The Yankees and The Poseidon Adventure, were also adapted into films. Baseball? Upside-down cruise ships? Christian Dior? Dude’s got range!Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris was produced in cooperation with the House of Dior, so expect plenty of haute couture eye candy in what looks to be a thoroughly enchanting comedy/drama. [Mark Keizer]

Netflix July 15Dakota Johnson has more than proven herself as a romantic lead. From the erotic (the Fifty Shades film series) to the the empathetic (Cha Cha Real Smooth), she has a warm and easy charm onscreen. But can she take on the literary doyenne of the Regency era, Jane Austen?In the latest adaptation of Austen’s Persuasion she’s Anne Elliot, a woman looking for a second chance at love. Fans of the book took umbrage with the film’s attempts at modernization—like breaking the fourth wall—when the trailer was released recently. But if anyone can add a modern twist to the beloved Austen, it’s Johnson and her natural screen presence. It helps that the cast is chock-full of screen favorites, from Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) playing against type as the cad William Elliot, to Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth) as the dashing Captain Wentworth, to Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) as Anne’s father. Many have adapted and sometimes modernized Austen’s novels; after all, her stories about society’s rules and how they impact love lives remain affecting—as long as these rules are outlined. That task this time falls to theater director Carrie Cracknell making her screen debut with an adaptation by Ron Bass (My Best Friend’s Wedding) and Alice Victoria Winslow. [Murtada Elfadl]

Theaters everywhere July 22After knocking our collective socks off in 2017 with his Oscar-winning feature debut Get Out, Jordan Peele stumbled a bit with his uneven 2019 follow-up Us. But ever since the earliest teaser trailers of this summer’s Nope, the writer-director looks to be back on track. Or, maybe that’s just the mystery surrounding the film and its actual plot. No matter, anyone remotely interested in the movies is really looking forward to Nope when it hits theaters on July 22.As noted, the teasers and trailers are a bit vague, leaving a lot to the imagination. We do know there’s a modern day Western horse ranch setting and all sorts of weird things happening that cause people to say “nope”—pretty slick if you can say a movie’s title in dialogue and not make it seem ridiculous. The most recent trailers have given cause to support earlier suspicions that it’s an alien invasion film. But that seems a little too basic for Peele, who isn’t afraid to mash up genres until his films don’t fit into any one category.Nope also features a very solid cast including Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Steven Yeun and it feels like this summer’s best water cooler conversation starter. We shall see soon enough. [Don Lewis]

Netflix July 22If we’re keeping it 100%, some streaming efforts, even big-budget affairs, have a distinctly bottom-of-the-drawer vibe—the cinematic equivalent of posthumous album releases that should’ve remained well buried.Not so, however, with the pedigreed The Gray Man, an action thriller co-directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, and starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas, among others. Tabbed as the most expensive movie ever produced by Netflix, with a reported budget of $200 million, the movie is an adaptation of the first of a whole set of novels by Mark Greaney, who was Tom Clancy’s twilight-era co-author, and anointed Jack Ryan and Jack Reacher successor.The story—black ops mercenary Court Gentry (Gosling) is pursued by unstable former CIA colleague Lloyd Hansen (Evans), plus a rogue’s gallery of international assassins—is a familiar casserole of pure spy-versus-spy shenanigans. The trailer, though, augurs a chase sequence with massive streetscape destruction, in addition to showcasing a nice streak of style and character. Add that to the fact that its offscreen players (the Russos, plus Captain America and Avengers co-screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely) have shown themselves to be capable world-builders, and there’s considerable reason to believe that The Gray Man represents the opening salvo in an estimable new action franchise. [Brent Simon]

Amazon Prime Video July 22There are so many reasons to get excited about Anything’s Possible. First and most importantly, it’s the first mainstream coming-of-age film featuring a leading transgender character. Eva Reign stars—yes, you better believe she’s a star—as Kelsa, a modern-day high schooler navigating a crush on a classmate named Khal (Abubakr Ali). Secondly, this script from Ximena García Lecuona marks the directorial debut of Tony- and Emmy-winning legend Billy Porter, whose takeover of Hollywood as an out-and-proud queer Black artist has been inspiring to witness and who is sure to nail both the romance and comedy in this teenage rom-com. And thirdly, the unbeatable Renée Elise Goldsberry co-stars as Kelsa’s mother; just one glimpse of her in the trailer is enough to turn on the waterworks. Perhaps the most revolutionary thing about this film is how familiar said trailer makes Kelsa’s story seem—girl likes boy, girl kisses boy, high school drama ensues, etc.—without shying away from her transness. As Khal says with a shrug, “It’s not that brave if you’re just being who you are.” It’s that kind of quietly groundbreaking approach that could make Anything’s Possible a game changer this summer. [Jack Smart]

Theaters everywhere July 29Director David Leitch is no stranger to high-octane action flicks with a splash of humor, considering that Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, and Hobbs & Shaw are all on his resume. His latest, , looks to continue this streak and demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Brad Pitt toplines a stacked cast featuring Sandra Bullock, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz, Joey King, and Michael Shannon, just to name a few. The story follows a group of five unsuspecting assassins with a common mission who all convene on a lightning-fast bullet train. Think of it as a neon-tinged Snowpiercer with even more over-the-top action, and that’s where the appeal of Bullet Train just begins. Sprinkle in Brad Pitt going full fun mode, i.e. his roles most recently in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and The Lost City, and you’ve got yourself a nearly guaranteed great time at the movies. [Brandon Kirby]

Theaters everywhere July 29Wait, Ryan Howard from The Office directed a movie? He sure did and it looks awesome. B.J. Novak, who executive produced the classic NBC sitcom and played Ryan on the show, makes his big screen directing debut with the comedic thriller, . Novak stars as Ben, a New Yorker staff writer and podcaster, who travels to West Texas after a woman he slept with dies of an opioid overdose. When her family comes to believe she was murdered, Ben agrees to help investigate because it would make for a juicy podcast.Expect both sides of the cultural aisle to take a hit during Ben’s Red State deep dive. While in Texas, he pitches his boss (Issa Rae) on the new podcast by proposing to shed light on “a new American reality where people invent conspiracies because the truth is too hard to accept.” But don’t worry, MAGA crowd, left-leaning Ben is portrayed as a shallow opportunist more than willing to use a young woman’s death to make himself famous.With Ashton Kutcher and Indiana Jones 5’s Boyd Holbrook co-starring, this combination of thriller, comedy, mystery, and satire has late-summer sleeper potential. Ryan Howard may be a fraudster, but Novak looks like the real thing. [Mark Keizer]

Writer-director John Michael McDonagh casts reigning Oscar winner Jessica Chastain opposite Ralph Fiennes in The Forgiven (select theaters July 1) to make dramas sexy again, and Claire Denis unites Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon to do the same with Both Sides Of The Blade (select theaters July 8). Martin Scorsese serves as executive producer of two buzzy indies: Dreaming Walls: Inside The Chelsea Hotel (select theaters July 8), a sure-to-be-touching slice-of-life documentary, and Murina (select theaters July 8), a Cannes Film Festival award winner from Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović. The Sea Beast (Netflix July 8) and The Deer King (select theaters July 14) offer kids animated wonders, while Diego Hallivis’ American Carnage (select theaters July 15) and Charlotte Colbert’s She Will (select theaters July 15) will give horror fans more options than just Nope this month. Finally, for fans of quietly observed drama, Lena Dunham returns to the big screen with Sharp Stick (theaters everywhere July 29) and the reliably wonderful John Cho brings Don’t Make Me Go to Prime Video on July 15. [Jack Smart]