By Stephanie Merry
Continuing from yesterday’s list of summer movie releases, here are more movies to watch out for.
The East
Stars: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgard, Ellen Page and Jason Ritter
Scoop: Marling’s star launched at Sundance a couple of years ago with a one-two punch of films she wrote and starred in. She teams once again with writer-director Zal Batmanglij for this thriller about a spy embedded among a group of anarchists that wages war on companies that have nefarious
aims.
Pieta
Stars: Min-soo Jo, Eunjin Kang and Jae-rok Kim
Scoop: Kim Ki-Duk wrote and directed this Korean crime drama about a draconian debt collector who tries to turn his life around when his estranged mother resurfaces.
Why to see it: Moviegoers unable to stomach bloody violence should bypass this film. Those who can handle gore (and lots of it) might discover why the brutal story with a surprise ending took home the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
We Steal Secrets — The Story of Wikileaks
Scoop: Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) looks at Julian Assange’s divisive website that gave whistleblowers a megaphone.
Fill the Void
Stars: Hila Feldman, Razia Israeli and Yiftach Klein
Scoop: A Hasidic woman dies during childbirth, and her family pressures her sister to marry the widower.
The Kings of Summer
Stars: Nick Offerman, Moises Arias, Nick Robinson and Alison Brie
Scoop: Two best friends and one oddball interloper decide to escape their stifling parents and live in the woods for the summer in director Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ feel-good feature debut.
Why to see it: Chris Galletta’s hilarious, heartfelt script could turn this little dramedy into the breakout indie hit of the summer. A cast filled with established comedians, such as Offerman and Megan Mullally, plus fresh talent, including Arias (looking like the next Zach Galifianakis), provides plenty of laughs.
The Internship
Stars: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and Rose Byrne
Scoop: Vaughn and Wilson, playing their customary characters (the motormouth and the straight man), are dropped into another fish-out-of-water scenario. After the salesmen lose their jobs, they somehow snag internships at Google, despite their lack of tech knowledge.
The Purge
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey and Tony Oller
Scoop: One night a year, the police let murder and mayhem take place while turning a blind eye. The one-percenters bolt their doors and turn on their security systems, but the 12-hour period is going to prove especially harrowing for one family when their daughter lets in an outsider.
Dirty Wars
Scoop: The Sundance-selected documentary tracks Blackwater author and investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill as he travels the globe to research the US government’s “kill list” and uncovers mysteries surrounding the secretive Joint Special Operations
Command.
Wish You Were Here
Stars: Felicity Price, Joel Edgerton and Teresa Palmer
Scoop: The non-linear feature debut for Australian writer-director Kieran Darcy-Smith is about four friends who go on vacation together. But when only three return home to Sydney, the group tries to piece together the events of a drug-fuelled night in Cambodia.
Shadow Dancer
Stars: Clive Owen, Andrea Riseborough and Gillian Anderson
Scoop: Documentary director James Marsh tries his hand at fiction with an adaptation of Tom Bradby’s novel. Set in the 1990s, the drama follows an Irish woman and IRA member who is forced to supply information to British intelligence.
Evocateur — The Morton Downey Jr. Movie
Scoop: The documentary looks at the 1980s talk show host who chain-smoked on camera and berated his guests, ushering in an era where talking heads could be screaming banshees.
Syrup
Stars: Brittany Snow, Shiloh Fernandez, Amber Heard and Kellan Lutz
Scoop: The adaptation of Max Barry’s cult novel satirises the gleaming deception of marketing by looking at a slacker with a get-rich-quick scheme.
This is the End
Stars: James Franco, Craig Robinson, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill
Scoop: Members of the cast play themselves, watching Los Angeles collapse around them and facing doomsday with as much urgency as a stoner can muster.
Why to see it: Writers Rogen and Evan Goldberg also penned Superbad and Pineapple Express, which should give some indication of the idiocy, but also the laughter, audiences can expect. The movie marks the pair’s directorial debut.
Man of Steel
Stars: Russell Crowe, Henry Cavill and Amy Adams
Scoop: It seems like yesterday that Superman was getting a reboot with Brandon Routh as Krypton’s most famous export. But that was seven years ago, which is long enough (in Hollywood years) to warrant another creation story, this time with “The Tudors” star Cavill in the cape.
Why to see it: In addition to Crowe and Adams, the big-name cast boasts Kevin Costner, Diane Lane and the seemingly ubiquitous Michael Shannon. And Zack Snyder, who also directed 300 and Watchmen, knows his way around special effects.
Stuck in Love
Stars: Greg Kinnear, Logan Lerman, Kristen Bell and Jennifer Connelly
Scoop: This might be the Crazy Stupid Love of 2013, starring Kinnear as a recently divorced writer struggling with his single status, just as his kids and ex-wife grapple with their own relationships, both within and outside the family.
The Painting
Stars: The voices of Jean Barney, Chloe Berthier and Julien Bouanich
Scoop: In this fantastical animated French film, fighting breaks out among the characters in an unfinished painting, leading some of the figures to search for the artist to restore order.
Molly’s Theory of Relativity
Stars: Reed Birney, Cady Huffman and Nicholas Lampiasi
Scoop: A woman who recently has lost her job consults friends, family and imaginary acquaintances on making a big life change.
World War Z
Stars: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos and David Morse
Scoop: If you thought the zombie takeover had run its course, think again. Seven years after writer Max Brooks’ post-apocalyptic thriller, director Marc Forster is bringing the adaptation to life. Pitt plays a United Nations worker who might save humanity if he can figure out how to stop the proliferation of the undead.
Why to see it: Although rewrites and delays are often the harbingers of disappointing films, it’s hard not to be intrigued by this adaptation. Yes, it’s a zombie movie, but it’s one that seeks to be more of a thoughtful thriller than a campy confection filled with face-eaters.
Much Ado About Nothing
Stars: Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion and Clark Gregg
Scoop: The cast may look familiar to Joss Whedon’s army of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fans. Despite populating the film with his usual collaborators, the writer-director defies predictability with a black-and-white adaptation of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy.
Why to see it: Whedon reportedly shot the film in just 12 days, using his own house as the set. And yet, the homemade creation received fairly glowing reviews at its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, proving great things can come from little budgets.
The Bling Ring
Stars: Katie Chang, Israel Broussard and Emma Watson
Scoop: Director Sofia Coppola’s latest was inspired by the true story of a group of California teens who robbed the houses of famous tabloid fixtures.
Why to see it: Coppola, who directed Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides, has her detractors. But she undoubtedly has a talent for creating mood and establishing a specific time and place, all of which could come in handy here. Plus, the film was chosen to open the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard series, which spotlights innovative approaches to making movies.
Monsters University
Stars: The voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal and Steve Buscemi
Scoop: The prequel to Pixar’s Monsters Inc. chronicles how the odd couple of animation met.
Why to see it: It turns out Mike (Crystal) and Sulley (Goodman) were college roommates and rivals before becoming best friends and colleagues. That opens up all kinds of possibilities for Pixar, which got a little inspiration from Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds. The result worked for enthusiastic early audiences at CinemaCon.
Augustine
Stars: Vincent Lindon, Soko and Chiara Mastroianni
Scoop: Yet another recent work about the diagnosis of “hysteria” in women during the 19th century, this French film focuses on neurologist Dr Jean-Martin Charcot and his unorthodox relationship with a young seizure-suffering patient.
White House Down
Stars: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx and Maggie Gyllenhaal
Scoop: It’s the second coming of Olympus Has Fallen. The other terrorists-take-Washington film of 2013 comes to the screen courtesy of the prince of the apocalypse, director Roland Emmerich (2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day).
The Heat
Stars: Melissa McCarthy, Sandra Bullock and Marlon Wayans
Scoop: Bridesmaids director Paul Feig oversees this comedy about an FBI agent (Bullock, doing her perfected persnickety thing) forced to work with a disheveled Boston police officer (McCarthy, looking especially unkempt) on a big drug case.
To be continued
