Summertime in the cinema

Dinosaurs, Arnie, and male strippers surge back onto the big screen in the oncoming wave of cinematic eye candy

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      Ah, summer: forget those shrinking icecaps and slap on the SPF 50, if only for surfing your way to the air-conditioned picture show. There are so many movies shooting the curl this summer, in fact, that we should limit our discussion to the titles that most intrigue us in four basic food groups. We’re all for religious freedom around here, but don’t take these release dates on faith, as the studios and distributors, given their shrinking screen estate, move in mysterious ways.

      Blockbusters, Thrillers, and Action Movies

      June 10: Spielberg. Dinosaurs. Jurassic World! ’Nuff said?

      June 26: A 16-year-old Irish boy traverses the old frontier in Slow West, with Michael Fassbender supporting. And don’t go out in the woods tonight, if the anticamping Backcountry has anything to say about it.

      July 1: Arnold is baaaaack for Terminator Genysis, and still trying to freeze-dry the future.

      July 10: A dying billionaire goes all cryogenic in Self/less; results may vary!

      July 24: Jake Gyllenhaal is a brooding boxer in Southpaw.

      July 31: Indie regulars Rebecca Hall and Jason Bateman go the horror route in The Gift. And the ol’ Cruise missile shoots in for another go-round in Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation, with Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg aboard.

      August 7: Marvellous astronauts gain special powers to become The Fantastic Four.

      August 14: Guy Ritchie goes back to the Cold War for an update on The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and the fictionalized tale of rappers N.W.A. is found in Straight Outta Compton, produced by Ice Cube and Dr. Dre.

      August 21: A genetically engineered assassin has a crisis of conscience in Hitman: Agent 47.

      Cartoons, Comedies, and Family Fare

      June 3: The boys from Entourage hit the big screen.

      June 5: Melissa McCarthy and director Paul Feig give the Spy genre that Bridesmaids treatment.

      June 19: The folks at Pixar who brought us Up now go Inside Out, in the much-anticipated ’toon tour of a teenage girl’s mind. The title Dope is opposed to wack in this inner-city dramedy.

      June 26: Max is an army dog that helps vets with PTSD.

      July 1: Channing Tatum gets back to his skivvies in Magic Mike XXL.

      July 10: Those little Despicable Me Minions get their very own spinoff.

      July 17: Paul Rudd makes small a virtue in Ant-Man, although the insecticide gets hairy. Harried businesswoman Amy Schumer falls for nice guy Bill Hader in Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck. Ian McKellen stars as the older Mr. Holmes, looking to unravel one last case. 

      July 24: A Wargames for this decade, Chris Columbus’s Pixels finds aliens misunderstanding our old video games. Up-and-comer Nat Wolff hits the road in Paper Towns, while jaded philosophy prof Joaquin Phoenix explores the edges of morality in Woody Allen’s Irrational Man.

      August 1: The spirit of National Lampoon is invoked when some younger Griswolds take another Vacation.

      August 7: There’s stop-motion fun from the Chicken Runners in Shaun the Sheep Movie. Meryl Streep and Rick Springfield play unretiring rock stars in Ricki and the Flash.

      August 14: Greta Gerwig upends her young stepsister’s life in Noah Baumbach’s Mistress America, while a boy copes with Teen Lust and satanic parents in this offbeat venture from Vancouver’s Blaine Thurier. A foosball game comes to animated life in Underdogs.

      August 28: Zac Efron tries to make it as a DJ in We Are Your Friends, and estranged brothers try to make amends as Mountain Men, in their pre-occupied family cabin.

      Arthouse, Dramas, and Foreign-Language

      June 5: Paul Dano and John Cusack take turns playing Beach Boy Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy.

      June 12: A quirky highlight of the summer, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl follows a high-school filmmaker coping with his new friend’s cancer treatments. And the Office is really a place to avoid in this slashy South Korean thriller. June 19: Emily Watson anchors Testament of Youth, based on Vera Brittain’s classic WWI memoir. 

      June 26: Sweden’s surpassingly weird Roy Andersson returns with A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence. July 1: Fans of nonstop action will dig Gangs of Wasseypur, 320 minutes of Hindi-language mayhem.

      July 3: Mark Ruffalo is a manic-depressive dad learning to take care of his kids in Infinitely Polar Bear.

      July 9: Think delightfully small with the B.C.–made Martin’s Pink Pickle, and the ultra-claustrophobic Ben’s at Home.

      July 17: U.K. gritmaster Ken Loach takes on Irish red-baiting in Jimmy’s Hall. A look at L.A.’s sordid, sex-trade underbelly, Tangerine was shot entirely on iPhone 5 technology.

      July 24: Marisa Tomei is replaced in a Chinese-language remake of Only You.

      August 14: There’s unexpected trouble when The Kindergarten Teacher champions a young Israeli poet. Kristin Wiig is a less-than-adequate mother in The Diary of a Teenage Girl.

      August 21: A young father leads a decoratively double life in François Ozon’s The New Girlfriend.

      Documentaries and Special Events

      June 5: In Some Kind of Love, a Quebec cinematographer studies his odd aunt and uncle, and Sunshine Superman looks at the weird cult of BASE jumping. The Cinematheque screens newly restored prints of Satyajit Ray’s The Apu Trilogy.

      June 12: The Vancity Theatre hosts The Best of Hot Docs.

      June 19: The Taiwanese Film Festival hits that venue.

      June 26: A five-year-old sees some dreams come true in Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World, and a new dance work is taken from rehearsal to world premiere in Ballet 422.

      July 9: Six Manhattan brothers and a sister are hidden away in The Wolfpack. The late Ms. Winehouse is tunefully profiled in Amy, and Thai-American singer Nichkhun, a K-pop sensation, is profiled in Forever Young, Gardenia in Blossom.

      July 9: The ’theque launches François Truffaut’s full Antoine Doinel Cycle.

      July 24: The Indonesian genocide gets another follow-up in The Look of Silence.

      August 21: Not the new Disney ’toon you were waiting for, Bikes vs Cars takes a look at our favourite adversaries on wheels.

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