>>> Finding Dory is a genuinely daring sequel to Pixar’s beloved 2003 Finding Nemo. It shifts perspectives from Albert Brooks’s fearful, judgmental clown fish, Marlin, to Ellen DeGeneres’s kind-hearted but unquestionably challenged blue tang, Dory, whose memory impairment is no longer played for laughs, but seen as a lifelong disability. (See full review).
Opens June 17. See listing.
Rating: NNNNN
Central Intelligence is a comedy about an accountant (Kevin Hart) who reunites with a friend (Dwayne Johnston) and finds himself in the middle of an espionage adventure. Back in 1979, it was Alan Arkin freaking out when he was pulled along on a Central American caper by Peter Falk in this iteration, Kevin Hart is the easily panicked square and Dwayne Johnson the gung-ho wild card. Their pairing not only makes comic sense but seems visually logical as well as the hulking Johnson throws the diminutive Hart around like a toy in various settings. (See full review).
Opens June 17. See listing.
Rating: NNN
>>> De Palma is a feature-length documentary tribute to the cult director who gave the world Carrie, Dressed To Kill, Blow Out, Scarface, The Untouchables and the first Mission: Impossible, as well as The Bonfire Of The Vanities, Raising Cain and Mission To Mars. Co-directors Baumbach and Paltrow simply sit their subject down and have him recount his life story, mixing in clips from his films as illustration. (See full review).
Opens June 17. See listing.
Rating: NNNN
>>> Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made is an affectionate, suspenseful and moving look at ingenuity, fandom and friendship. Back in the early 80s, a group of then 11-year-olds attempted to do a shot-by-shot remake of the blockbuster Raiders Of The Lost Ark using a borrowed camera, DIY sets and their imaginations. (See full review).
Opens June 17. See listing.
Rating: NNNNN
No Stranger Than Love is a misbegotten romantic comedy about a small-town schoolteacher (Alison Brie) whose would-be lover (Colin Hanks) is swallowed by a mysterious hole that appears in her living room floor just as a mysterious man (Justin Chatwin) arrives in town. This film is the kind of terrible that defies understanding. (See full review).
Opens June 17. See listing.
Rating: N
>>> Tempest Storm is a comprehensive portrait of the woman who bills herself as “the oldest burlesque dancer in the world” – though at the age 87, she mostly makes public appearances (and autograph signings) as one of the elder stateswomen of female empowerment. Documentarian Mukerji (65_Red Roses, Blood Relative) follows Storm as she works the circuit and tries to reconnect with a daughter she hasn’t seen in decades. (See full review).
Opens June 17. See listing.
Rating: NNNN
Genius follows legendary literary editor Max Perkins (Colin Firth) as he wrangles the extravagant prose of Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law) into some great fiction. Director Grandage, whose roots are in the theatre, has made some showy choices that have zero cinematic value or meaning. He’s leached the film of any colour – even California is dull. His favourite shot in the streets of New York City is of people’s feet. (See full review).
Opens June 17. See listing.
Rating: NN
The Witness follows Connecticut veteran Bill Genovese as he investigates half a century later the 1964 murder of his sister Kitty – who, as the New York Times reported, was stabbed to death in Queens over a half-hour while 38 of her neighbours watched from their windows, unwilling to “get involved.” It’s an odd package: director Solomon seems to realize that Bill is a far more interesting subject than Kitty (whose death was both more tragic and less sensational than the world believes) and focuses on the obsession that drives him, 50 years after the fact, to understand and even re-enact a moment he cannot change. (See full review).
Opens June 17. See listing.
Rating: NNN
Available now on Netflix
>>> Diamond Tongues is a dramedy about a young woman (Leah Goldstein) trying to establish an acting career in Toronto, Diamond Tongues works both as a character study and an exercise in cringe comedy: you spend an hour and a half watching someone make a lot of bad choices, hoping that she’ll learn from at least one of them.
Rating: NNNN
Available to watch here.
