movie
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
RLJE Films, Shudder, and ALLBlk
Newcomer Bomani J. Story’s film is a fresh spin on Frankenstein and the mad scientist trope, from the perspective of a young Black girl. Brilliant teenager Vicaria (Laya DeLeon Hayes) is grieving the traumatic death of her brother due to gun violence, and she becomes determined to “cure” the disease of death. Using her scientific smarts, she creates a monster and also upends her life in unexpected ways. — Aisha Harris
movie
The Blackening
Glen Wilson/Lionsgate
Black horror is having a moment, so it was only a matter of time before a new parody emerged. A group of Black friends rent a cabin in the woods and stumble upon a board game where the players must decide who among them is the “Blackest,” and thus should be the first to die. It’s based off a clever Comedy Central sketch, so we’ll see if the premise can sustain a feature-length film. But if the trailer and cast, which includes Jermaine Fowler and Yvonne Orji, are any indication, it likely can. — Aisha Harris
movie
No Hard Feelings
Macall Polay/Columbia Pictures
Jennifer Lawrence’s oeuvre is dominated by capital-D dramas, so this edgy comedy is a definite departure for her. She plays Maddie, an Uber driver barely scraping by; she answers a Craigslist ad from a couple who’s concerned about their 19-year-old son’s lack of experience with dating (and, ahem, other stuff), and she agrees to become his “girlfriend.” Director/co-writer Gene Stupnitsky’s previous film, Good Boys, managed to be both hilariously vulgar and progressive, a good sign for this one. — Aisha Harris
movie
Joy Ride
Ed Araquel/Lionsgate
I’m a sucker for raunchy friend trip movies (Bridesmaids; Girls Trip, of course), so I’m all-in for the directorial debut of Adele Lim, who co-wrote the Crazy Rich Asians screenplay. Joy Ride has a fantastic cast (including Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu) and an interesting premise involving a group of friends traveling to China in search of one character’s birth mother. Queue the wild party scenes, an obligatory drug trip-gone-wrong and K-pop star impersonations. — Aisha Harris
TV
The Afterparty, Season 2
Apple TV+
The first star-studded season of Christopher Miller’s ambitious comedy series was a clever mashup that breathed new life into the murder mystery genre. This time around, the whodunit reportedly concerns a dead groom at a wedding, with Sam Richardson, Zoë Chao and Tiffany Haddish returning to the cast. Especially exciting are the new additions: John Cho, Anna Konkle (of PEN15) and Ken Jeong will certainly match the silly energy of Season 1. — Aisha Harris
movie
Kokomo City
Magnolia Pictures International
This Sundance award winner premiered to rave reviews for its unflinching depiction of four Black trans women sex workers, and it marks the directorial debut of D. Smith, a former hip-hop producer turned filmmaker. (In interviews, Smith has said she was pushed out of the music industry after she began transitioning.) With the fight for trans rights currently playing out and the recent killing of one of the film’s subjects, Rasheeda Williams, Smith’s focus feels urgent and essential. — Aisha Harris
TV
Black Mirror, Season 6
Nick Wall/Netflix
We’re long overdue for a new Black Mirror installment. In the years since the last batch of episodes dropped, the world has arguably only gotten bleaker. (*womp womp*) So here’s to a new season that will hopefully tap into our collective dread in that astute way the show so often does, this time featuring an amazing cast that includes Aaron Paul, Rob Delaney and Annie Murphy. — Aisha Harris
movie
Love to Love You, Donna Summer
HBO
Donna Summer reigned as Queen of Disco, but her legacy was complicated and she was ambivalent about fame and music. Now her daughter has co-directed this archive-based music documentary about an enduring icon of queer dance culture whose samples course through Beyoncé’s Renaissance as only one example — but whose real life has felt remote and unknowable, hopefully until now. — Bilal Qureshi
movie
You Hurt My Feelings
Jeong Park/A24
Nobody else really makes movies like Nicole Holofcener: Not powered by plot or spectacle, they are keenly and hilariously observed dramas about a certain kind of urban American and neuroses surrounding age, career and family. In Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Holofcener found a perfect partner. Their first collaboration was Enough Said, and the actor returns here as a writer who discovers that her husband secretly despises her new book. A comic and wise unraveling is bound to follow. — Bilal Qureshi
movie
Past Lives
Jon Pack/A24
If the devastating trailer is any indication, this story of past loves, reunions and regrets is the A24 drama of walking and talking dreams. Early Sundance raves hinting at a Richard Linklater vibe suggested I am the target audience, but this debut film from acclaimed playwright Celine Song also looks to be a deeply emotional one about Asian American identity and belonging. All early signs point to a wise and transnational story that’s already many critics’ film of the summer. — Bilal Qureshi
movie
Oppenheimer
Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures
Tenet had a rousing opening, but Christopher Nolan’s last epic was a bit of a letdown, not to mention confusing. The newest from Nolan — a maestro of rigorous grandeur and visual poetry — looks to be a terrifying historical portrait of the nuclear arms race during World War II. As with all his films, it features an incredible ensemble, including Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr., and was filmed by Oscar-nominee Hoyte van Hoytema in stunning, searing IMAX. — Bilal Qureshi
movie
Passages
SBS/MUBI
Cinema has fortunately moved past queer tragedies and coming-out melodramas to focus on the full range of queer relationships. Passages is a love triangle of man loves man who now also loves — or lusts — after a woman. Perhaps not an especially novel concept, but as written and directed by Ira Sachs and acted by Ben Whishaw, the brilliant German actor Franz Rogowski and French actress Adèle Exarchopoulos, Passages looks to be a sexy and chaotic adult drama about love, betrayal and change. — Bilal Qureshi
movie
Shortcomings
Jon Pack/Sony Pictures Classics
Adrian Tomine’s 2007 graphic novel, Shortcomings — in which a Japanese American Californian finds himself caught between the progressive politics of Asian solidarity and his love of white women — is one of my favorite books about race, representation and relationships. It was a funny and biting commentary that came out long before the incredible current moment in Asian American filmmaking. Tomine wrote the screen adaptation himself, and I’m excited to see the story receive a theatrical release. — Bilal Qureshi
movie
Blue Jean
Blue Jean Productions/Magnolia Pictures
The title character, played by a riveting Rosy McEwen in this debut feature by writer-director Georgia Oakley, is a lesbian phys ed teacher in Maggie Thatcher’s England whose daily jog takes her past a campaign billboard reading, “Are your children being taught traditional moral values?” The arrival of a comparatively uncloseted 15-year-old girl in Jean’s gym class, as well as at a lesbian bar she frequents, prompts a reassessment of her approach to life. — Bob Mondello
movie
Asteroid City
Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features
Star-studded sci-fi from the whimsical mind of Wes Anderson — the year is 1955, and a Junior Stargazer convention in a fictional desert town is disrupted by “world-changing” events. Attendees include Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jason Schwartzman, Jeffrey Wright, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Margot Robbie, Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell and Adrien Brody. Their itinerary was almost disrupted by brief frontal nudity, too, but an appeal to the MPAA ratings board brought the film from R, back to PG-13. — Bob Mondello
movie
Elemental
Disney/Pixar
If Pixar’s digitizers could bring emotions to vibrant life in Inside Out, imagine what they can do for more physical entities like Air, Earth, Fire and Water. And if a friendship should blossom where co-existence appears a little tricky — say, between an incendiary young woman named Ember and a “go-with-the-flow guy” named Wade — well, what better way to make a case for folks learning to get along. — Bob Mondello
movie
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
DreamWorks Animation/Universal Studios
DreamWorks Animation has long had a chip on its shoulder regarding Disney. Under former Disney exec Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks’ first animated film, Antz, was released just in time to steal thunder from Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. A few years later, DreamWorks’ Shrek was crafted specifically to mock the Disney canon. And judging from the trailer for the studio’s latest, the nemesis of DreamWorks’ title kraken in the summer that Disney is unleashing a live-action Ariel will be a vain, power-hungry mermaid. — Bob Mondello
movie
Biosphere
IFC Films
In Mel Eslyn’s literally dark dramedy (the sky’s pitch black for apocalyptic reasons not initially clear), Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass are the last humans alive. They live Odd Couple-style in an apartment-size geodesic dome with a few fish and a hydroponic garden. Duplass (who co-wrote with the director) says it’s a look at masculinity and (straight) male relationships. Folks who caught it at TIFF describe it as “weird,” “provocative” and “literally like nothing you’ve seen before.” — Bob Mondello
movie
Theater Camp
Sundance Institute
When the founder keels over from a strobe light effect — the “first Bye Bye Birdie-related injury in the history of Passaic County” — camp staffers Ben Platt and Molly Gordon hustle to write a musical about her for their middle-school charges (“every kid who was ever picked last in gym”) in a goofy mockumentary that has it all and then some: bill collectors beating at the doors of dorms named Rodgers & Hammerstein and Kander & Ebb, Sondheim jokes and a 10-year-old agent-in-training. — Bob Mondello
movie
Golda
Jasper Wolf
One of the season’s odder casting stunts puts Helen Mirren (encased in what appears to be pounds of latex and makeup) in the sensibly heeled shoes of Golda Meir during her greatest crisis — the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and Arab states. Mirren looks remarkably like the Israeli leader. Sounds like her, too, and she’s matched in that respect by Liev Schreiber, affecting a thick German accent as Henry Kissinger. If impersonation is half the battle, that half’s won. The question will be whether it pays off dramatically. — Bob Mondello
movie
The Equalizer 3
Stefano Montesi/Columbia Pictures
Slipping into summer just under the wire, Denzel Washington and Director Antoine Fuqua complete their ultraviolent, weary-government-assassin-just-wants-to-retire trilogy with a well-honed flourish. In the first film, Washington’s Robert McCall reluctantly took on a Russian gang. In the second, it was mercenaries he didn’t want to fight. This time he finally feels comfortable, living the good life in Italy — so it’s the Sicilian Mafia that’ll force his hand. — Bob Mondello
TV
The Idol
Eddy Chen/HBO
This tale of a pop star and her predatory self-help guru already has a long list of troubles: allegations that co-creator Sam Levinson (showrunner of Euphoria) and co-star Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye sidelined original director Amy Seimetz and boosted the show’s sexual content. Carping that Levinson and star Lily-Rose Depp are examples of Hollywood’s “nepo baby” issues. Concern that powerful men (Tesfaye and Levinson) hijacked a story about a female character. Will the series be good enough to refute the rumors? — Eric Deggans
TV
The Wonder Years, Season 2
Matt Miller/ABC
The first season of this Black-centered reboot won a Peabody Award for its wry, amusing look at a young boy and his family navigating a pivotal time for Black America — the late 1960s. Told as a flashback with narration by Don Cheadle playing 12-year-old Dean Williams all grown up, the show’s second season must tackle themes that feel relevant for modern audiences. It must also move forward after the firing of original series star Fred Savage, who served as an executive producer and director. — Eric Deggans
TV
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 2
Marni Grossman/Paramount+
Before Star Trek: Picard blew Trekkers’ minds reuniting The Next Generation cast, Strange New Worlds’ first season confirmed that the sweet spot for Paramount+’s new Trek series lay in recapturing the vibe of the franchise’s classic shows. So expectations are high for these new episodes, set on the starship Enterprise years before James T. Kirk takes over, and exploring the early days of Spock, Nyota Uhura and a swashbuckling Nurse Chapel in an ambitious revival of original recipe Star Trek. — Eric Deggans
TV
Twisted Metal
Peacock
Told in half-hour episodes and based on a PlayStation video game, this limited series features Captain America alum Anthony Mackie playing the kind of role normally associated with Chris Pratt or, say, Will Smith — motormouthed outsider navigating a dangerous environment. In this case, it’s a post-apocalyptic wasteland featuring Stephanie Beatriz, a mysterious package and a killer clown in an ice-cream truck who’s voiced by Will Arnett. Seriously. — Eric Deggans
TV
I’m a Virgo
Pete Lee/Prime Video/Amazon Studios
The premise alone — a TV series by musician/activist/filmmaker Boots Riley about a 13-foot-tall Black teenager played by When They See Us alum Jharrel Jerome — makes pop culture fans salivate. But Riley’s surreal drama goes beyond expectations, casting Walton Goggins as a Tony Stark-style, armor-wearing superhero who might be unwittingly upholding white supremacy. As Cootie struggles to avoid being exploited for his size (and breaking furniture), viewers get a fantastical parable on protecting Black excellence. — Eric Deggans
TV
And Just Like That…, Season 2
Craig Blakenhorn/Max
The first season, updating HBO’s 25-year-old comedy Sex and the City, worked hard to justify why it should even exist, given the original show’s problematic past. It earned a second season, killing Chris Noth’s Mr. Big just in time to avoid Noth’s real-life scandals. And there’s more nostalgia coming with the return of another old love, John Corbett’s Aidan Shaw. But should we still care about Sarah Jessica Parker’s self-obsessed social butterfly, Carrie Bradshaw, in the age of Elon and Trump? — Eric Deggans
TV
The Bear, Season 2
Matt Dinerstein/FX
The first season of this show came out of nowhere, sideswiping viewers with its scrappy drama, as Jeremy Allen White’s talented young chef Carmy Berzatto left New York to run the greasy spoon owned by his family in Chicago. New episodes show Carmy using a stash of money hidden by his late brother to upgrade the eatery into a next-level restaurant, The Bear. Of course, given the open dysfunction of Carmy’s work family, raising their game to meet this new challenge is easier said than accomplished. — Eric Deggans
movie
Being Mary Tyler Moore
Bettmann/Getty Images/HBO
With her sunny smile, crack comedy instincts and unassuming style, Mary Tyler Moore became a sitcom queen with a 60-year career in TV, stage and film. But HBO’s film pokes at the reality of her life, including struggles against showbiz sexism, confining marriages, alcoholism and diabetes. At times, the narrative is a bit too careful, content to only hint at the darker side of a performer who once said she could be a lot like her withholding matriarch character in Ordinary People. — Eric Deggans
TV
Queen of the Universe, Season 2
Joel Palmer/Paramount +
It’s a scary time for queer folk who find joyous self-expression in drag performance. This hilariously over-the-top international singing competition can’t and won’t change the minds of the many bad-faith homophobes out there, but it will remind the rest of us that arrant fabulousness is a vital public service. Watch the show, sure, but don’t forget to support your local drag queens while you’re at it. — Glen Weldon
movie
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
Can the sequel to 2018’s bracing, gorgeously animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse live up to that film’s promise? Will it deliver the same sheer imagination? The boundless heart? The killer soundtrack? Details on the story are fuzzy, but the stakes are higher and it looks like the cast of alternate-universe Spiders-Men(?) is bigger than ever. Even if you’re experiencing multiverse fatigue, the love these filmmakers clearly have for the Miles Morales Spider-Man might just win you over. — Glen Weldon
TV
Stan Lee
Stephen Morton/AP
The persona known as Stan Lee was the creation of writer Stanley Lieber, who co-created the Marvel Universe with people like Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby. But his true calling was as hype man; he created and nurtured a teeming Marvel fan base. I’m not expecting David Gelb’s documentary to be a revelatory, warts-and-all look at Lee’s life, given that it’s airing on Disney+, which is owned by the same parent company as Marvel. But Gelb’s Jiro Dreams of Sushi found a way into the mind of a complicated creator, so this’ll be worth checking out. — Glen Weldon
TV
Secret Invasion
Des Willie/Marvel
Remember those shape-shifting aliens from the 2019 Captain Marvel movie? Pointy ears, chin grooves? They’re back, and they’re imitating all sorts of folk, for uh, reasons. Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury has also returned from … someplace. Space, I think? Look, the MCU is 15 years old, some teenage growing pains are to be expected. At this point, even us superfans can be a little fuzzy on the details, but we’ll still show up to see how things shake out. — Glen Weldon
movie
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
Rainer Bajo/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
Even if you think the story of Dracula has been done to death — or undeath, technically — the makers of this film found a new way in by paring off the thinnest slice of Bram Stoker’s novel. Namely, the chapter that takes place on the ship that, unbeknownst to its crew, is transporting Dracula to England. Things … don’t go well. Put it that way. Claustrophobic high-seas horror, directed by André Øvredal, whose 2010 film, Trollhunter, had a lot of fun with very different monstrous creatures. — Glen Weldon
movie
Blue Beetle
Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Comics
Jaime Reyes is a Mexican American kid who discovers a scarab that’s actually a piece of extraterrestrial military tech that fuses to his spine and outfits him with an armored exoskeleton that he must learn to control. It’s not a novel premise, granted: Think Venom meets The Greatest American Hero. But if this film manages to capture the charm of the comic book character, especially his love for his big, riotous family, it may finally key into the heart that has been missing from DC superhero films. — Glen Weldon
TV
American Born Chinese
Carlos Lopez-Calleja/Disney
Based on Gene Luen Yang’s acclaimed graphic novel about a friendship between a regular kid and the son of a god, the series also reunites Everything Everywhere All At Once stars Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu. It’s rare to see the core of an acclaimed cast show up together in another project so quickly — and in an adaptation of a beloved book, no less. The pedigree couldn’t be more impressive, and anticipation has been understandably high. — Linda Holmes
TV
Platonic
Apple TV+
Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen have both been around a while, and they’ve both impressed audiences in drama and in comedy. In Platonic, they play longtime best friends who have been out of touch, and whose reconnection creates chaos for them both. Summer is a great time for a silly comedy made by reliable talent, and even if the “a man and a woman are friends and this is surprising” idea is a little played out, this one will all be in the execution. — Linda Holmes
movie
Flamin’ Hot
Searchlight Pictures/20th Century Studios
Maybe snack foods don’t seem like the most obvious inspiration for a story. But it’s hard not to be curious about this Eva Longoria-directed biography of Frito-Lay janitor-turned-executive Richard Montañez, who claims to have invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. (Frito-Lay disagrees about the claim of invention, as does some outside reporting.) Can you make a whole movie that, even if true, is about the creation of a snack? Well, we just had one about a shoe. So who knows what’s possible? — Linda Holmes
movie
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Lucasfilm Ltd.
Sure, there have been some diminishing returns in the Indiana Jones universe over the first four films. But Harrison Ford recently showed off his considerable comic chops in Shrinking, and those selfsame chops are the ones that made Indy so irresistible. Impressive additions to the cast include Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen and Antonio Banderas, but we all know it’s about Indy, the hat, the whip and — he hopes — no snakes. — Linda Holmes
movie
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One
Paramount Pictures/Skydance
Mission: Impossible has become one of the most popular action franchises, as well as perhaps the most well-regarded, and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie is back for Dead Reckoning, which — yes — will arrive in two parts, this summer and next. Even people with a limited appetite for action, violence, or Tom Cruise are often swept away by the craft in these films, and this will likely be the second summer in a row in which Cruise will be credited with bringing huge audiences to theaters. — Linda Holmes
movie
Barbie
Warner Bros. Pictures
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken were plenty to get the buzz going on this adaptation. Director Greta Gerwig, whose past work is as varied as Little Women and Lady Bird, and who wrote the script with Noah Baumbach, gave it another twist. And then the trailer dropped, dripping with pink, dressed to the nines with a childlike but obviously meticulous aesthetic, and promising a whole world of Barbies and Kens as well as our central couple. — Linda Holmes
TV
Red White & Royal Blue
Amazon Prime
Casey McQuiston’s novel about a hot romance between a British prince and the son of an American president is deeply beloved by readers, and now the film is coming to Prime Video. If the movie is anything like the book, you can expect charming banter, romantic swooning and the complications of international diplomacy. Plus, Uma Thurman as the president! — Linda Holmes