New movies to watch in July

Of all the new movies coming out this month, the film news that’s on everybody’s radar is the big double-release day of Barbie and Oppenheimer on July 21.

Material Girl meets Atomic nightmares! Barbenheimer! In Barbie, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling star as Barbie and Ken in Greta Gerwig’s pink fantasy turned nightmare, as Barbie’s perfect world begins to crumble as she goes through an existential crisis. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer documents the evolution of J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) from an ambitious scientist into a man tormented by the central role he played in the development of the atomic bomb.

Montreal’s fantasy and horror event of the year, the Fantasia International Film Festival  (July 20 to Aug. 9) — one of the biggest genres festivals in the world — promises new films from Zach Clark (The Becomers), Joe Lynch (a Lovecraft adaptation called Suitable Flesh) and Pascal Plante (whose new film, Les Chambres Rouges, will open the festival) as well as the latest Nicolas Cage vehicle (Sympathy for the Devil). (For more on Fantasia 2023 program highlights, please click here.)

Tom Cruise saved the movies in 2022 with the astronomically popular release of Top Gun: Maverick. Can he repeat that success with Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One (July 12)? We’re going to say yes. The Mission Impossible film series is one of the most consistently entertaining franchises going right now. The highly anticipated Dead Reckoning Part One has Ethan Hunt and the IMF team tracking down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity if it falls into the wrong hands. (To read our review of Dead Reckoning Part One, please click here.)

If you’re looking for some summer scares, the final chapter in the popular Insidious franchise hits the big screen early this month. Insidious: Red Door (July 7) follows a now grown-up Dalton, ready to head off to college before his dreams become a living nightmare as the repressed demons from his past come back to haunt the family. Patrick Wilson, who also reprises his role as the family patriarch, Josh Lambert, makes his directorial debut by stepping behind the camera for the first time. 

Straight off the success of Everything Everywhere All at Once, Stephanie Hsu stars in Joy Ride (July 7), a comedy from the co-screenwriter of Crazy Rich Asians. The film follows four Asian-American friends as they travel through Asia in search of one of their birth mothers while bonding and discovering what it means to know and love who you are.

In the tradition of the Marigold Hotel franchise, the “older women go on an adventure” genre takes up this summer with The Miracle Club (July 14). Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates and Laura Linney star in this 1967 period film about a group of women who win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes.

Looking for a comedy for the whole family? Disney is releasing Haunted Mansion about a woman and her son enlisting a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters. The live-action film features an all-star cast including LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto. 

If you’d like to take full advantage of summer, there are also many outdoor screenings. Check out Film Noir au Canal every Sunday (July 16–Aug. 20) for some crime cinema. Cinéma Public presents Bleu Soir in collaboration with Livart, Sundays through Thursdays (through Aug. 31). Their summer program this year includes films like The Virgin Suicides, Gaz Bar Blues and Love Streams. Cinéma Sous les Étoiles presents screenings in parks all over the city, showcasing films like Big Fight in Little Chinatown, Geographies of Solitude and Les années Super 8 (also through Aug. 31). ■

This article was originally published in the July 2023 issue of Cult MTL. See what’s screening in local cinemas here.

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