Carbon Arc
The local movie series kicks off its fourth anniversary with the excellent Lukas Moodysson jam We Are the Best!, about a pre-teen punk rock trio, on June 27. (The day before catch the Thrillema entry The Sacrament.) Also on the docket are Hedwig and the Angry Inch (July 17), The Guild (July 18 and August 15) and Masters of the Universe (August 21). carbonarc.ca.
July 4
Tammy
The summer’s most glorious trailer by 100 pies, Tammy stars Melissa McCarthy as a low-level fugitive. Susan Sarandon plays her grandmother, Kathy Bates is there and McCarthy’s husband Ben Falcone directs (they wrote it together). Expect jetski sales to increase as a result.
July 4
Begin Again
John Carney’s last movie, Once, was one of the best of the past decade. It shouldn’t matter what the follow-up is about, but Begin Again (generically retitled from Can A Song Save Your Life?) stars Keira Knightley as a musician who forms a bond with a loser music exec (Mark Ruffalo). So there.
July 11
Obvious Child
Jenny Slate is at the centre of Gillian Robespierre’s debut feature, a festival hit about an unplanned pregnancy which Robespierre says she wrote in response to sunnier abortion movies like Juno and Waitress. It is by all accounts a star-making turn for the very funny Slate, an SNL alumnus and co-author of Marcel the Shell.
July 11
Boyhood
America’s best director, Richard Linklater, follows up last summer’s wonderful Before Midnight with Boyhood, a coming-of-age story he’s been filming a few days a year over the past 12. No big deal.
July 18- August 15
Outdoor Film
Experience
The Atlantic Film Festival’s annual waterfront screening series, which we will never stop calling alFresco filmFesto, has finally chosen a wonderful actor to celebrate for the fourth edition of its themed summer: Sandra Fuckin’ Bullock. Kicking off with Gravity (July 18), followed by Bullock’s Oscar-winning turn in The Blind Side (July 25), Miss Congeniality (August 1), Speed (August 8) and an online vote for August 15 between The Proposal, While You Were Sleeping (this one!), Two Weeks Notice and Two If By Sea, which was shot here and is not good, so don’t let sentiment win.
July 25
Step Up: All In
There’s no Channing Tatum —there’s not even Jenna Dewan—and the trailer is just awful, but Step Up 3D was surprisingly awesome, and there’s no better time for a dance movie than the hot-ass dog days of summer.
August 1
The F Word
Sweet and romantic, The F Word stars Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan as a pair of BFFs with some unresolved sexual tension. It’s miles above director Michael Dowse’s earlier, stupider films FUBAR and Goon, plus Adam Driver is in it.
August 1
Guardians of the Galaxy
This latest from the Marvel factory had a funny teaser but the trailer is bad, so it’s anyone’s guess. There’s a talking raccoon and a talking tree, but DAMN Chris Pratt.
August 22
If I Stay
Chloë Grace Moretz stars as a cello prodigy whose entire family (led by Mireille Enos from The Killing) is killed in a car accident. But will teenage love pull her through? Is she a ghost sometimes?
Most release dates are Halifax hopeful.
This article appears in Jun 19-25, 2014.