Five global cinematic crackers of the summer now showing at/coming to a cinema near you.
Dunkirk
You might already know how the May 1940 evacuation of France’s Dunkirk turned out: More than 300,000 troops, mainly British ones, escaped from the beach while being bombarded by the Nazis. But the power of Christopher Nolan’s harrowing, unusual dramatic re-creation is that it tries – with real success – not to make any of this feel like just another war movie. Instead there’s an uneasy sense of a bloody, strange event unfolding in that unknowable way that those on the ground might have experienced it. There’s no glory here, just survival.
On general release from Friday 1.
Baby Driver
Music sounds better when you’re on the road. In Baby Driver, Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright takes the car-chase action film – loaded with tyre squeals – and weds it to a cracking jukebox playlist. The result is the most supercharged piece of motorised choreography since John Landis destroyed a fleet of cop cars in The Blues Brothers. Wright's hero Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a getaway-car driver who wants to go clean, but with every exquisitely calibrated swerve, you’re happy he’s not quite there yet. The action sequences here, imbued with humour and break-on-a-dime timing, are the most beautifully sustained and jaw-dropping of Wright’s career. You’ll be rewinding them in your head for days.
On general release now.
War for the Planet of the Apes
Today’s Apes wrangler, director and co-writer Matt Reeves, has steered the concept into ethically complex territory, beginning with 2014’s second chapter, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. An epic set 15 years after the outbreak of civilization-killing Simian Flu. Once again our hero is Caesar (Andy Serkis), sensitive leader of the apes who suffers a calamitous blow to his family after a sneak attack. His peaceful nature rocked by vengeance, Caesar departs with a small detachment of shaggy aides-de-camp to intercept the humans. Apart from executing the unique trick of having us root for human extinction, War foregrounds a beautiful tension between the savage instinct for retribution and higher restraint – ironically fought within the heart of an animal.
On general release from Friday 15.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
‘Couldn’t you just be a friendly, neighbourhood Spider-Man?’ asks Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) of his 15-year-old web-slinging protegé Peter Parker (Tom Holland), fearing that the high schooler is going to tangle with the wrong bad guy and end up in more trouble than he can handle. Spider-Man: Homecoming offers a welcome narrowing of the Marvel mega-verse, away from alien invasions and globe-smashing supervillains and back towards something more local and intimate. The film’s villain, flight-suited arms manufacturer The Vulture (Michael Keaton), doesn’t even want to rule the world: he’s just chasing a fast buck to feed his family. The problem is that he’s willing to sacrifice innocent lives to achieve that goal – starting with Peter’s. Homecoming is light, breezy and also dizzyingly entertaining.
On general release from Friday 8. Long press and extract the QR code in the image to book tickets to the 247Tickets x Time Out Shanghai private premiere with a pre-screening cocktail party at Jingan Kerry Center.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
The Fifth Element director Luc Besson returns to visually spectacular sci-fi territory with a totally bonkers action adventure. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets flaunts a visual imagination on fire – and a human pulse that’s at best sporadic. Let’s just say it doesn’t skimp on the planets. We’re only just beginning to take in a utopian Space Oddity-scored prologue in which generations of astronauts, human and otherwise, meet peacefully at an orbiting space station when the action shifts to a gorgeous beach where an alien princess cavorts with a pet that poops pearls. Rihanna shows up as a shape-shifting pole dancer with a penchant for poetry, Ethan Hawke is enlisted to play a pimp, and the climax is built around a notion of intergalactic humility (toward immigrants, in fact) that feels decidedly otherworldly. For those risks alone, this is welcome summer fare. If we’re going to have space operas, let them sing in the strangest accents possible.
On general release now.
Cars 3
The racing world is changing in the latest Cars escapade from Pixar. A new generation of faster, more efficient motors has arrived on the scene and a dramatic crash leaves an ageing Lightning McQueen facing retirement. Unfortunately for parents bored of the franchise or irritated by the premise (why would cars go to a bar and grill – why?), the now-not-so-cocky racer is refusing to hang up his tyres. Despite his flabby wheels and creaky joints, McQueen (Owen Wilson) is desperate to keep racing and avoid becoming merchandise. In an attempt to get his engine revving, he joins a new training facility, complete with track simulators, VR and perky personal trainer Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo).
On general release now.
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