Best movies of Summer 2019: Film releases to bookmark

Late Night

Emma Thompson stars as a talk show host who’s fed up with the sea of white, male faces that populate her creative meetings. Late Night should prove a fitting testament to Thompson’s vocal contributions to the Time’s Up movement in this sharp satirical comedy, which also features John Lithgow (The Crown) and comedian Mindy Kaling.

Men In Black: International

Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson replace Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in a reboot of the Men in Black franchise. The duo will have no qualms about travelling the world to track down a mole in their agency, having taken a comedic trip together to Asgard and back in Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok. Expect blasters, wide-eyed aliens and starry cameos by the bucketload.

Toy Story 4

Even the creators of Toy Story can’t resist a gesture towards the political, as a trash-bound plastic spork (Sporky, no less) provides the impetus for Woody and Buzz’s latest adventure. New characters, voiced by Keanu Reeves and the comedy duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, will – we hope – help the franchise keep its astonishing record of avoiding the dreaded sequel curse.

Yesterday

Any one of Yesterday’s three killer selling points would make it a blockbuster – the writing of Richard Curtis, the directorship of Danny Boyle and the music of the best-selling band in history (ABBA and Queen, you did your best).

Down-on-his-luck musician Jack Malik (newcomer Himesh Patel) is hit by a bus, waking to discover that he’s the only person in the world who remembers The Beatles; naturally, it doesn’t take long for Jack to start getting ideas that could kickstart his new creative life…

Midsommar

Director Ari Aster terrified us beyond belief last summer with Hereditary. Now, in Midsommar, Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth, The Little Drummer Girl) plays a young woman dragged along to a summer camp in rural Sweden by her boyfriend. It’s ‘a nine-day festival that only happens every 90 years’ – nothing sinister about that, right?

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Hot on the heels of Avengers: Endgame comes a jaunt of Peter Parker’s own. Ever just an ordinary kid, Spider-Man (Tom Holland) jets off to Europe for a school trip, only for another one of his nemeses to interrupt his forays into the world of Venetian culture.

This time it's Mysterio, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and described as 'Iron Man and Thor rolled into one' – proof that Marvel is always able to take things to the next level.

The Lion King (Disney live-action remake)

First there was Cinderella; then, The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast. Now, Disney’s The Lion King gets the live-action remake treatment in July 2019. Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) voices the adult Simba, while none other than Beyoncé takes on feisty love interest Nala.

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Scar, alongside cameo performances from comedy legends John Oliver, Keegan-Michael Key and Seth Rogen… It sounds dreamy – Hakuna matata, everyone.

Once Upon A Time in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino’s hotly-anticipated latest film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, takes place in LA in 1969 and uses the backdrop of actress Sharon Tate’s (Margot Robbie) notorious murder to explore the themes of Hollywood stardom and corruption.

In classic Tarantino style, it features an ensemble cast of huge stars: Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Dakota Fanning, Al Pacino, Damian Lewis, Burt Reynolds and Lena Dunham. Needless to say, our expectations are through the roof.

Pain and Glory

From one directorial titan to the next: famed Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar directs Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz in Pain and Glory. Banderas plays Salvador, a fading film director recalling his life through a series of imaginary and real encounters with people and places he has known.

You'd be forgiven for detecting a whiff of plausible autobiography; either way, this is classic Almodóvar territory: a wistful exploration of longing, beauty and pain.

The Souvenir

The Souvenir stars Honor Swinton Byrne (daughter of Tilda Swinton, who also features) in an intimate portrayal of conflicted youth. Julie’s (Byrne) relationship with a mysterious older man catalyses yet strains her development as a woman, throwing light on the discomfort of those in-between years we all have to experience.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, The Souvenir will be agonised over for years to come.