What’s a better way to escape the scorching summer heat than to slip into a dark, cool movie theater for a couple of hours? With only about a month of summer left, here’s a guide to the best and the worst of this season’s biggest movies.
The Fall Guy: 9/10
Last summer, the cultural phenomenon known as Barbenheimer took the world by storm, accumulating a total of eight Academy Awards and grossing billions of dollars at the box office. Ryan Gosling, who starred as Ken in the Barbie movie, now stars in this action-packed comedy alongside Oppenheimer star Emily Blunt. The unexpected duo is a great one.
Former stuntman Colt Seavers (Gosling) is recruited to find a missing movie star while trying to win back his former girlfriend Jody Moreno (Blunt), an up-and-coming movie director. Director David Leitch, a former stunt double himself, created grippingly realistic action montages, including a venturesome 360 car flip, a daring 200-foot drop-off of a helicopter, and fiery explosions that left audible gasps reverberating throughout the theater. A heartfelt ode to stuntmen everywhere, this lighthearted flick will surely put a smile on your face.
It Ends With Us: 2/10
Based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling (and controversial) novel, this movie has been one of the most highly anticipated of the year. Unfortunately, not even the star-studded cast could salvage this disaster. The film focuses on the life of young woman Lily Bloom (Blake Lively), alternating between her childhood in an abusive household and adult life, where she falls head-over-heels for seemingly-perfect neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni). All goes well until her former boyfriend and first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), suddenly reappears in her life.
The film teeters a treacherous line between a powerful story about breaking cycles of abuse and a cutesy rom-com, which turns out to be a god-awful mix. While supposedly a film about domestic violence, its more pronounced focus on romantic relationships and fluff creates an air of unseriousness and lack of emotional complexity or depth. Even the fun and floral marketing left some viewers confused as they watched the movie, unaware it was about domestic violence when they walked in. As Letterboxd user Starwarss so eloquently put it,”It ends with us wanting to unwatch this.“
Despicable Me 4: 6/10
Even the immaculate soundtrack and outstanding animation could not stop me from falling asleep ten minutes into this derivative and uninspired movie. How many sequels does a franchise really need?
Inside Out 2: 8/10
By itself, this movie is good enough; as a sequel, it falls completely short. Inside Out offers a sincere and creative depiction of human emotions, all hidden behind stunning animation and a fascinating premise. While retaining the same quality animation and premise, this sequel fails to match the emotional depth and playfulness that made the first movie so outstanding, and instead just comes across as a cash grab.
This movie follows the core emotions from the first movie—Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Jealousy—and introduces a couple more: Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrassment, Nostalgia, and Envy. As Riley journeys through adolescence, she struggles to navigate these new emotions and changes in her life. However, the newfound emphasis on Riley and her overexaggerated preteen struggles swallows too much screen time, inspiring a level of cringe so pronounced that I was tempted to leave the theater. Granted, this is a kids movie, but the discussion of anxiety felt incredibly rudimentary and commonplace in comparison to Inside Out’s exploration of the necessity of all emotions.
The Idea of You: 7/10
Starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, this film adaptation of Robinne Lee’s novel explores the accidental romance between 40-year-old art collector and mother Solène Marchand (Hathaway) and 24-year-old boy band member Hayes Campbell (Galitzine). The film focuses on the characters’ 16-year age gap (gasp), because who’s ever heard of such an age gap in Hollywood?
As someone who loves terrible movies, this somehow managed to disappoint me. The film fails to lean into its cringe, instead attempting to be artsy and critique social norms while lacking any real depth. The movie ends up feeling mundanely corny, and had me wishing for my last two hours back.
MaXXXine: 10/10
The final chapter in Ti West’s successful horror trilogy, MaXXXine—a gore-filled slasher—sees scream queen Mia Goth flawlessly portray Maxine Minx, a former adult entertainer willing to cross any line to make her dreams of fame and stardom a reality. Set amidst the backdrop of ‘80s Hollywood and the serial killers that haunted it, the movie delves into themes of religious fanaticism and the pitfalls of relentless ambition. The high-energy soundtrack, sets, and cinematography simultaneously inspire nail-biting anxiety and a sense of nostalgia. Be warned, this movie is not for the fainthearted; the goose-bump-inducing gore had me shrieking the whole time.
