The supernatural pervades the season, starting with Jim Jarmusch’s zombie drama, “The Dead Don’t Die” (June 14), which features a cast of Jarmusch veterans (including Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, and Bill Murray) and newcomers to his cinematic universe, such as Danny Glover and Selena Gomez. Ari Aster’s “Midsommar” (July 3) is set in a village in Sweden, where a vacationing American woman (Florence Pugh) believes that she has stumbled upon a macabre cult.
Movies set in the entertainment world are soon to be prominent. “Rocketman” (May 31), a drama about Elton John’s rise to fame, stars Taron Egerton, as the singer-songwriter, alongside Jamie Bell, who plays his collaborator Bernie Taupin; it’s directed by Dexter Fletcher. In “Late Night” (June 7), directed by Nisha Ganatra, Emma Thompson plays a talk-show host whose staff writer (Mindy Kaling) helps rescue the show from cancellation. Danny Boyle directed “Yesterday” (June 28), a comedic fantasy in which the Beatles are remembered by nobody except for one musician (Himesh Patel), who shares their music with the world; Lily James, Kate McKinnon, and Ed Sheeran co-star. Quentin Tarantino’s latest work, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (July 26), is set in 1969 Los Angeles and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a fading actor and Brad Pitt as the actor’s stunt double, who attempt a double comeback. The Manson-family murders are involved in the story, too: Damon Herriman plays Charles Manson and Margot Robbie plays Sharon Tate. “Blinded by the Light” (Aug. 14), directed by Gurinder Chadha, is set in London in the nineteen-eighties and stars Viveik Kalra, as a teen-ager from a Pakistani family who finds resolutions to his personal problems through the music of Bruce Springsteen.
Familiar intellectual property prevails in a new batch of remakes and sequels. Samuel L. Jackson stars in the latest version of “Shaft” (June 14), directed by Tim Story; this time, the protagonist is John Shaft, Jr., the son of the detective from the 1971 original. “Men in Black: International” (June 14), an update of the franchise, stars Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Rebecca Ferguson, and Liam Neeson; F. Gary Gray directed. Tom Holland returns in the title role of “Spider-Man: Far from Home” (July 2), directed by Jon Watts. Zendaya is also back, as Peter Parker’s friend MJ.
Friends and family are central to several upcoming movies, including the comedic drama “The Farewell” (July 12), starring Awkwafina and directed by Lulu Wang, about members of a Chinese family who decide not to tell their grandmother that she’s mortally ill. Jesse Eisenberg stars in Riley Stearns’s “The Art of Self-Defense” (July 12), a comedy about a meek man who, after a random assault, studies karate with a sensei (Alessandro Nivola) who becomes his mentor—and, perhaps, his tormentor as well. Elisabeth Moss, Tiffany Haddish, and Melissa McCarthy star in “The Kitchen” (Aug. 9), an action comedy, set in New York in the nineteen-seventies, about the wives of imprisoned criminals who keep their spouses’ schemes going. ♦
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