The Best Films Releasing In July
July is here, and with it come some of the year’s biggest blockbusters. It’s hard to have missed the infectious build-up to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie, or the much anticipated historical drama Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan. These are the best movies releasing this month to bookmark…
Barbie
Barbie might end up being the biggest film of the summer, and that’s saying something. Directed by Greta Gerwig, the movie has generated a ton of buzz for its casting of Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, and its apparently camp yet existential tone. Barbie has been living an idyllic life in Barbieland, surrounded by variations of herself (played by a cast including but not limited to Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef and Dua Lipa). But after she has something of an existential crisis, she is expelled for “not being a perfect doll”, and sets off to the real world in search of happiness. Accompanying her is the clueless and vain Ken, who tags along without her realising.
Releases: 21.7.23
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is the latest film from Christopher Nolan, and while it might be released the same day as Barbie, is a decidedly different affair. It follows the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), a renowned nuclear physicist who helped oversee the Manhattan Project to develop the first nuclear weapon. As WWII rages, he and Lt. Gen Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) work in secrecy to develop a bomb that could end the war and realise they will change the world forever. Shot in IMAX and partly in black and white, it also stars a cast including Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr, Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, Ben Safdie and Josh Hartnett. It’s certainly heavy going, but with the combo of Nolan and Murphy, you’re sure to get a thrilling historical drama.
Releases: 21.7.23
Insidious: The Red Door
The latest installment in the Insidious franchise, Insidious: The Red Door is one for you horror fans this month. Starring Ty Simpkins, Rose Byrne, Patrick Wilson and Lin Shaye, it’s set ten years after the events of the second Insidious film. The Lambert family thinks it’s finally outrun the demons that have haunted them in the past, but their fears will once again resurface when the teenage Dalton (Simpkins) heads to a top Ivy League university. The only way to stop the demonic horrors from following them is to go once again into the mysterious realm The Further, and put an end to things for good.
Releases: 7.7.23
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1
Tom Cruise is back once again for another turn as Ethan Hunt in the endlessly entertaining action series Mission: Impossible, and it looks like it’ll somehow up the ante for audacious stunts even further. Sometime after the events of the previous film, IMF agent Hunt and his team are pulled into a new explosive mission that involves trying to locate a dangerous new weapon that could threaten all of humanity. Forces from Ethan’s past are resurfacing, threatening both him and his team, and he finds himself faced with the prospect of scarifying everything to complete his mission. It’s the first part of a two-part story and promises to be Ethan’s most dangerous mission yet. Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Kirby and Pom Klementieff also star.
Releases: 10.7.23
On Streaming: They Cloned Tyrone
A mysterious and eerie sci-fi comedy, They Cloned Tyrone sees an unlikely trio who come together to find the truth behind a government conspiracy involving cloning. Fontaine (John Boyega) Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris) and Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx) all live in the same neighbourhood, but find that things have started getting seriously weird as a series of eerie events grips the town. They uncover a plot that involves experimenting and kidnapping people in a Black neighbourhood, with the government apparently having a twisted agenda to advance. It might be a sci-fi mystery, but it’s definitely a comedy too, with satirical elements and homages to 70s Blaxploitation films.
Releases: 21.7.23 on Netflix
The Out-laws
No, this doesn’t have anything to do with Stephen Merchant’s BBC sitcom The Outlaws, but it is an action-comedy. Owen Browning (Workaholics’ Adam Devine) is a very much ordinary bank manager who’s engaged to marry the love of his life, Parker (Nina Dobrev). Out of the blue, the bank he works out is held up by a gang of robbers known as the Ghost Bandits, but Owen is convinced that the robbers may actually be none other than his future inlaws. When Parker is kidnapped for ransom by another criminal, Owen is forced to team up with his would-be father-in-law Billy and would-be mother-in-law Elly, played by Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin respectively. It also stars Michael Rooker, Poorna Jagannathan and Richard Kind.
Releases: 7.7.23 on Netflix
