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By — Jeffrey Brown Jeffrey Brown By — Anne Azzi Davenport Anne Azzi Davenport By — Alison Thoet Alison Thoet Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/8-blockbusters-and-indie-gems-to-watch-this-summer Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter 8 blockbusters and indie gems to watch this summer Arts Jun 26, 2023 4:30 PM EDT The summer movie season is heating up with exciting blockbusters and independent films coming soon to theaters. Monday on the PBS NewsHour, Jeffrey Brown speaks with Ann Hornaday, chief film critic of The Washington Post, and Aisha Harris, host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour and author of the new book, “Wannabe: Reckonings with the Pop Culture That Shapes Me,” for a roundup of their favorites. These answers have been lightly edited for brevity. “Barbie” Greta Gerwig is one of the most interesting directors we have working right now, and the cast is amazing. You have Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Issa Rae, many, many other stars and Greta Gerwig and her co-writer Noah Baumbach seem like they are taking Barbie in a different direction and a little bit more of a subversive direction… – Aisha Harris “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” Tom Cruise is a reliable box office star, and I’m really excited for that because it’s one of those franchises that I think keeps getting better every new installment. And Tom Cruise is just … still really fun to watch. – Aisha Harris “Oppenheimer” The biopic from Christopher Nolan about Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the nuclear bomb… A fascinating man of contradictions and paradoxes. And I really hope I’m optimistic that Nolan will really embrace those. Cillian Murphy will play Oppenheimer, which I think looks like a stellar piece of casting. – Ann Hornaday “Past Lives” Starring Greta Lee, about a young woman whose family emigrates from South Korea when she’s 12 and she has to leave her best friend and schoolgirl crush behind. She ends up moving to New York to become a writer and she and her old flame reconnect online…. It’s a love story we don’t really see very often on screen and Celine Song has just brought it to life with such subtlety and style and flair. – Ann Hornaday “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster” It is about this young girl who loses her brother to gun violence and she’s sort of this science nerd whiz kid, and she decides to mourn her brother and express her grief by creating this sort of Frankenstein-ish monster. – Aisha Harris “Theater Camp” Sort of a Christopher Guest-style comedy about a summer theater camp, and they have to sort of figure out what they’re going to do. The camp is in danger of shutting down because their director and their leader is ill. And it’s really, really funny. You’ve got Ben Platt, Molly Gordon, and if you’re a theater nerd like I am, I think you’ll appreciate how funny and spot-on this parody of that world is. – Aisha Harris “The Equalizer 3” I’m also a fan of “The Equalizer,” which is the Denzel Washington franchise…. I just think it’s become a really reliable series. He’s always amazing to watch. He’s one of our last great movie stars. And so, you know, I’m always interested to see what he will do. – Ann Hornaday “Problemista” There’s a smaller movie coming out called “Problemista” from Julio Torres… He was the creator of a cult HBO show called “Los Espookys”…. This is his feature debut. He’s playing a toy designer from El Salvador who comes to New York, and he’s trying to get something going before his work visa expires. And Tilda Swinton plays his mercurial and idiosyncratic boss. And just the idea of Tilda Swinton plus Julio Torres is delicious to me. – Ann Hornaday By — Jeffrey Brown Jeffrey Brown In his more than 30-year career with the News Hour, Brown has served as co-anchor, studio moderator, and field reporter on a wide range of national and international issues, with work taking him around the country and to many parts of the globe. As arts correspondent he has profiled many of the world's leading writers, musicians, actors and other artists. Among his signature works at the News Hour: a multi-year series, “Culture at Risk,” about threatened cultural heritage in the United States and abroad; the creation of the NewsHour’s online “Art Beat”; and hosting the monthly book club, “Now Read This,” a collaboration with The New York Times. By — Anne Azzi Davenport Anne Azzi Davenport Anne Azzi Davenport is the Senior Producer of CANVAS at PBS News Hour. @Annedavenport By — Alison Thoet Alison Thoet @alisonthoet
The summer movie season is heating up with exciting blockbusters and independent films coming soon to theaters. Monday on the PBS NewsHour, Jeffrey Brown speaks with Ann Hornaday, chief film critic of The Washington Post, and Aisha Harris, host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour and author of the new book, “Wannabe: Reckonings with the Pop Culture That Shapes Me,” for a roundup of their favorites. These answers have been lightly edited for brevity. “Barbie” Greta Gerwig is one of the most interesting directors we have working right now, and the cast is amazing. You have Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Issa Rae, many, many other stars and Greta Gerwig and her co-writer Noah Baumbach seem like they are taking Barbie in a different direction and a little bit more of a subversive direction… – Aisha Harris “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” Tom Cruise is a reliable box office star, and I’m really excited for that because it’s one of those franchises that I think keeps getting better every new installment. And Tom Cruise is just … still really fun to watch. – Aisha Harris “Oppenheimer” The biopic from Christopher Nolan about Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the nuclear bomb… A fascinating man of contradictions and paradoxes. And I really hope I’m optimistic that Nolan will really embrace those. Cillian Murphy will play Oppenheimer, which I think looks like a stellar piece of casting. – Ann Hornaday “Past Lives” Starring Greta Lee, about a young woman whose family emigrates from South Korea when she’s 12 and she has to leave her best friend and schoolgirl crush behind. She ends up moving to New York to become a writer and she and her old flame reconnect online…. It’s a love story we don’t really see very often on screen and Celine Song has just brought it to life with such subtlety and style and flair. – Ann Hornaday “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster” It is about this young girl who loses her brother to gun violence and she’s sort of this science nerd whiz kid, and she decides to mourn her brother and express her grief by creating this sort of Frankenstein-ish monster. – Aisha Harris “Theater Camp” Sort of a Christopher Guest-style comedy about a summer theater camp, and they have to sort of figure out what they’re going to do. The camp is in danger of shutting down because their director and their leader is ill. And it’s really, really funny. You’ve got Ben Platt, Molly Gordon, and if you’re a theater nerd like I am, I think you’ll appreciate how funny and spot-on this parody of that world is. – Aisha Harris “The Equalizer 3” I’m also a fan of “The Equalizer,” which is the Denzel Washington franchise…. I just think it’s become a really reliable series. He’s always amazing to watch. He’s one of our last great movie stars. And so, you know, I’m always interested to see what he will do. – Ann Hornaday “Problemista” There’s a smaller movie coming out called “Problemista” from Julio Torres… He was the creator of a cult HBO show called “Los Espookys”…. This is his feature debut. He’s playing a toy designer from El Salvador who comes to New York, and he’s trying to get something going before his work visa expires. And Tilda Swinton plays his mercurial and idiosyncratic boss. And just the idea of Tilda Swinton plus Julio Torres is delicious to me. – Ann Hornaday