My Most Anticipated Films of the Summer

We have officially reached the time of year that often brings forth highly anticipated blockbusters as well as unexpected indie gems. In fact, upon looking at the calendar for this year’s Summer Movie Season, what is perhaps most striking is that there is a fairly balanced amount of studio films and independent films. In previous years, there was always a sense that the summer would mostly consist of mainstream fare, full of superheroes and spectacles, the kind of accessible entertainment that all families could enjoy while the kids are out of school and everyone is out on vacation. And if franchise films would reign supreme in the summer, then independent films would have their time to shine in the fall, which is when a lot of the most popular film festivals around the world (Venice, Toronto, Telluride, etc.) premiere the newest indie films from acclaimed directors and emerging talents.

It is then exciting to see that independent production companies like A24 and Neon have become so successful and reputable (mainly due to the reliably admirable quality of their films and their impressively high output per year) that they honestly seem to have just as much, if not more of a cultural footprint than a lot of the studio releases that one would expect to be the talk of the town. For example, when film fans talk about the movies that came out in 2019 (which by the way was one of the best years for cinema in recent memory), they’re much more likely to rave about Parasite and Midsommar rather than Hobbs and Shaw and The Angry Birds Movie 2 (though of course all four of these films are of absolutely equal quality, that much is certain).

So, keeping in mind this balanced slate of films, I wanted to talk about the five summer releases that I’m most excited to see. Some of these are films that I’ve been anticipating for a few years, while others are films that I’ve only gotten to know about in the last few months. But what they all share in common is a palpable potential for greatness within their respective genres, and by the time this year comes to an end, I think there’s a decent chance that film fans will be looking back fondly at these five movies.

*Cut to me being utterly wrong about all five of them 🤣.

Backrooms (May 29th)

First up, the new horror film from A24, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms. An adaptation of Parsons’ own webseries that was inspired by the eponymous creepypasta, this movie serves as an example of a continuing trend of YouTubers turning into filmmakers, following in the footsteps of the Phillipou Brothers with Talk to Me (2022), Chris Stuckmann with Shelby Oaks (2025), Mark Fischbach with Iron Lung (2026), and Curry Baker with Obsession (2026), which comes out just a couple weeks before Backrooms.

The marketing campaign for the film has done a phenomenal job of keeping the plot very vague and mysterious, so all I really know is that the movie features two great actors (the reliably excellent Chiwetel Ejiofor and the resplendently brilliant Renate Reinsve), some memorably eerie imagery of desolate rooms, a bit of a found footage component, and the fact that Parsons is merely 20-years-old and he’s already directed a famous film with this much talent and money behind it (which is definitely not a current source of jealousy and pettiness for us aspiring filmmakers). It also speaks to Parsons’ evident talents that some of the producers of the film are among the most lauded horror filmmakers working today, like James Wan and Osgood Perkins. It’s always really encouraging to see established directors helping out up-and-coming artists, and based on all the promotional material shown thus far, it is not hard to see why Wan and Perkins were impressed with Parsons’ distinctive vision for the project.

So if you’re a fan of liminal spaces and analog horror, then seek out an entrance to the Backrooms on May 29th. Just keep in mind that it might not be so easy to come back to the real world afterwards.

Disclosure Day (June 12th)

Ever heard of Steven Spielberg? I sure have. He’s kinda good at making movies, ain’t he? If you ask me, he’s probably the best thing that’s ever happened to cinema, full stop. And he’s got a brand new movie coming out in a MONTH! That’s something that merits celebration of the highest degree.

The film in question is called Disclosure Day, it's being released by Universal, and it’s particularly exciting because it’s Spielberg’s return to his earliest storytelling obsession: Humanity’s first contact with extraterrestrial life. At the age of 17, Spielberg made his very first feature-length student film: Firelight (1964), which revolved around a group of scientists investigating a phenomenon of colorful lights in the sky, as well as the disappearance of various townsfolk in Freeport, Arizona. While very little of the footage from Firelight has gone on to see the light of day, it is not hard to imagine how it served as the inspiration for subsequent movies in Spielberg’s filmography, like the awe-inspiring masterpiece that is Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the heartbreaking personal story of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), his horrifying adaptation of War of the Worlds (2005), and now Disclosure Day, which as indicated by its title seems primarily interested in the public unveiling of government secrets regarding the existence of aliens.

Out of all these thematically similar films however, by all accounts it does seem like Disclosure Day is a spiritual successor to Close Encounters specifically, to the point where a lot of fans are speculating that this new film might actually be a literal sequel to the 70s sci-fi classic. Whether or not that ends up being true, it’s really lovely to see Spielberg coming back to the kind of speculative subgenre that is closest to his heart, and it is notably a story that Spielberg himself came up with, which is not often the case with his filmography.

Along with an impressive cast (featuring thespians like Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, and Colman Domingo), some typically luminous cinematography from Janusz Kamiński, and what is sure to be yet another transcendent score from the one and only John Williams (who immediately revoked his retirement to work on this film), Disclosure Day is shaping up to be the kind of wondrous movie magic that only Spielberg and his crew are capable of conjuring. If anything, this movie might finally confirm my theory that Steven Spielberg is in fact an alien, cause that’d be the only reasonable explanation for how he has been capable of making an unfathomable number of great films over the course of six decades.

The Invite (June 26th)

This next film was the buzziest title at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, as its distribution rights were sold for $12 million to the usual suspect of A24 (you just know other independent production companies HATE to see A24 personnel walking into an auction). This reportedly hysterical comedy is Olivia Wilde’s The Invite, starring her and Seth Rogen as a married couple going through a rough patch, until they are suddenly invited by their upstairs neighbors (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) to a dinner party, and we watch as the night becomes increasingly scandalous and out of control.

The movie is an American remake of a Spanish film called The People Upstairs (2020), and those who saw it at Sundance largely felt that it was a welcome return to form for Wilde, whose previous film Don’t Worry Darling (2022) was mired with a lot of behind-the-scenes controversy and mixed results. I was a huge fan of Wilde’s directorial debut Booksmart (2019), as I really do think that’s one of the best teen comedies ever made, so it’s been nice to hear that her comedic chops and her dynamic camerawork are being put to good use. Plus, I love any dialogue-driven movie that feels like a stage play in terms of its limited setting and its small cast of characters, so this film definitely feels like the kind of invite I’d gladly accept.

(In case you were wondering, yes, I’m having a blast coming up with overtly cute ways to end each segment of the post. What can I say, we like to have fun here. And speaking of fun…)

The Odyssey (July 17th)

There’s this itty-bitty lil’ movie called The Odyssey. It’s based on some archaic Greek myth that you may have heard of, it’s being released by Universal, it stars a just few relatively well-known chumps, and it is directed by um…*checks notes. Oh yeah, it’s the new film from JESUS CHRISTOPHER NOLAN CHRIST!!! Ring the bell, sound the alarm, open the floodgates, and release the Kraken (or should I say the Scylla, hehehe), because this is quite simply the biggest cinematic event of the year.

It’s not just the fact that Nolan chose to follow up his Oscar-winning triumph Oppenheimer (2023) with perhaps the most influential literary epic in the Western canon. It’s not just the fact that the ridiculously stacked cast contains the likes of Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Lupita Nyong’o, Elliot Page, and Mia Goth (just to name a few out of many more, I’m not kidding). It’s not just the fact that this is the first film in history to be shot entirely on IMAX’s 70mm film cameras, the highest quality image format available. And it’s not just the fact that they’re filming in real locations, in treacherous weather conditions, using old-school methods like large-scale puppetry to create a giant cyclops.

What excites me most about this film is the fact that it is Nolan’s first official foray into the realm of fantasy, of the supernatural, of gods and legends. The notion of a filmmaker with a reputation for telling ambitious stories in a very grounded, intricate, and immersive manner choosing to adapt one of the most operatically grandiose tales, that right there is a combination of factors that I find utterly irresistible. It is in many ways the quintessential Nolan narrative: A father finds himself on an arduous journey trying to get back to his family. I cannot wait to see what kinds of structural conceits Nolan has up his sleeve, and I have a working theory about how he’ll depict the power of the Gods (I’ll probably write about this in a future blog post). More than anything though, I am genuinely counting the days (70 days left, to be precise) until I get to be swept away in this glorious adventure, and rest assured, I will watch this film in theaters at least three times, just in case I missed absolutely anything the first couple of times.

So yeah, as you might surmise, my excitement for this film would be best described as calm, normal, restrained, and dare I say, barely noticeable.

The End of Oak Street (August 14th)

The last film I wanna talk about has not been getting much anticipatory attention, and I sincerely hope that changes when it comes out. It’s called The End of Oak Street, it’s a Warner Bros. picture, and as you can see in that gorgeously composed shot above, it is a sci-fi survival thriller about a suburban neighborhood that is abruptly transported to prehistoric times. It stars Anne Hathaway (who is having one hell of a packed year between this, The Odyssey, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Verity, and my favorite film of the year thus far, Mother Mary) and Ewan McGregor (who I’m always happy to see in anything, he rocks).

The writer/director is David Robert Mitchell, who is known for his indie horror hit It Follows (2014) and his criminally underrated surrealist dark comedy Under the Silver Lake (2019). I think it’s quite rare and thrilling that a filmmaker with such arthouse sensibilities has been given a big budget to make an original, large-scale science fiction story that is equally capable of evoking wonder and terror, sometimes simultaneously. It’s also just refreshing to see a movie featuring dinosaurs that is decidedly NOT a Jurassic World movie, as I do think that franchise unfortunately normalized a lot of the inherent spectacle of seeing these prehistoric creatures come to life.

Now that a filmmaker as imaginative as Mitchell is working alongside ultra-talented partners like his producer J. J. Abrams and his composer Michael Giacchino, I think it’s clear that The End of Oak Street seems to be a road worth following.

Here are some other upcoming summer releases I’m looking forward to seeing: 

I Love Boosters (May 22nd), Power Ballad (May 29th), Carolina Caroline (June 5th), Toy Story 5 (June 19th), The Death of Robin Hood (June 19th), Her Private Hell (July 24th), Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31st), Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (August 7th), The Dog Stars (August 28th), and Coyote vs. Acme (August 28th).

I hope all of you have a great summer, that you watch a bunch of excellent movies, that you munch on some quality popcorn, and that you take some well-deserved time off from all the pressures of life. Cause if you ask me, the easiest vacation is the one that is most readily available to us all: The escapism of the movies.