Edgar Wright’s latest movie stars Fault in Our Stars breakout Ansel Elgort as Baby, a young orphan getaway driver coerced by Kevin Spacey into a world of crime for the pervasive “One Last Job”. A played out story but with Wrights injection of pure adrenaline that worked so well in his British classics (Hot Fuzz, Sean of the Dead) this heist movie is set to have serious punch. The flicks that made Wright famous were fairly low budget, so his style played out in blockbuster fashion in an American movie may seem risky, but the States seem to have taken good care of our national treasure, supplying him with the likes of Kevin Spacey, John Hamm and Jamie Foxx as co-stars.
UK release 28th June
Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge
Jack Sparrow is back again… again! Starring alongside Skins alumni Kaya Scodelario who joins newcomer Brenton Thwaites (playing the son of Orlanda Bloom.) This time around the threat comes from original badass Javier Bardem as the visually stunning ghost of a Spanish captain. Tipped to be the last ever film in the franchise (although we have our doubts), it’s certain to be the most action-packed POTC offering to date.
Can you believe it’s been 14 years since the first film was released? We’re just as obsessed as ever!
UK release 26th May
The Beguiled
Sofia Coppolla’s highly anticipated new film with an enviable cast of actors is a sensual gothic exploration into a group of girls and young women who take in a wounded soldier during the American Civil War, with their hospitality soon taking a sinister turn. An exploration of female lust, betrayal, and isolation, played out with Coppola’s talent for orchestrating simmering tensions. Nicole Kidman is an eerie and austere schoolmistress with an authority that puts her in the same space as Nurse Hatchett from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest or HAL 3000. Colin Farrell’s turn as John, the soldier is convincingly ambiguous against this strict background of religion and etiquette where the lines of good and evil are assumed to the cut and dry, but throughout the movie become muddled and murky.
UK release 23rd June
The Big Sick
Kumail Nanjiani of Silicon Valley fame stars in this romantic comedy with a darker edge, based on his real-life relationship with his wife Emily Gordon, who he co-wrote the script with. Kumail meets and begins a relationship with Emily, struggling to bridge the gap between his new American beau and his Pakistani heritage. This culture clash with Nanjiani’s humour is enough for a decent rom-com by itself, but their relationship is tested further when Emily falls ill and is put into a medically induced coma. What makes this film stand out from the deluge of romantic comedies, and in particular the new onslaught of boundary testing rom-coms eyeing up the prized spot of the next (500) Days of Summer is there’s an entire act of the movie where the female protagonist is absent, literally comatose, leaving Kumail to ruminate on their relationship alone, with the exception of input from Emily’s parents (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano.)
UK release 28th July
Ingrid Goes West
With the rise of social media, instagram and blogs, there has also been a development in the amount of people becoming obsessed with social media persona and comparison anxiety – the conviction that someone somewhere is living that perfect life you wish to achieve. In Ingrid Goes West Aubrey Plaza plays out the extreme of this, as Ingrid who, after becoming obsessed with a lifestyle blogger called Taylor Sloane (played by Elizabeth Olsen), moves across the country to meet and befriend her. The darkly funny film taps into a growing identity crisis in our culture where your online persona can project a completely different reality, and what happens when you can’t live up to that idea.
UK release on 4th August
Spiderman: Homecoming
It’s been only fifteen years since Tobey Maguire and the franchise is now in it’s third reboot, bringing the story into the Avenger universe and explores a mentor-mentee relationship between Peter Parker and Tony Stark.. The classic role of red-haired Mary Jane has been rewritten completely, instead the object of Peter’s “she’s out of my league” obsessive affections is Liz Allan, played by Laura Harrier, in a step towards diversity in superhero movies that is so desperately needed.