13 Movies Worth Going to Theaters for This Summer (Plus 7 Worth Streaming)

Summer is coming soon, which means it’s time to prepare to head outside and take in the sun, right? Wrong. There are simply too many promising summer movies headed our way during the warm months of 2022 to justify staying outdoors for extended periods. You’ll find many of them in theaters which, if Covid-19 cooperates, will be enjoying their first normal summer movie season in years. (Knock wood.) But streaming services also have a lot to offer in the weeks to come, from a documentary about a pop star/movie icon to a romantic comedy starring the same pop star/movie icon. (J-Lo fans will be well taken care of in the summer of 2022.) And, of course, there will be sequels and superhero movies, most of which actually look pretty promising. But, more than most recent summers, this year looks like it will be presenting a variety of options for those who want a break from big franchise films, too. If even half the films lifted below live up to their potential it should be a memorable year.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (in theaters May 6)

Director: Sam Raimi
Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiewetel Ejiofor, a multiverse of madness
What It’s About: Marvel has kept the plot details of this second Doctor Strange film pretty tight, but this we know: it will pick up plot strands left dangling not just by Doctor Strange but by Spider-Man: No Way Home, WandaVision and other magic-adjacent corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Also: Cumberbatch plays an alternate universe version of Strange, and Patrick Stewart has an undisclosed role. It’s all pretty intriguing.
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: This is the first film Sam Raimi has directed since 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful and his first superhero movie since the original Spider-Man trilogy. Doctor Strange has always explored the weird fringes of the Marvel Universe, and the potential for otherworldly monsters ought to put the Evil Dead director back on familiar turf in other ways, too.

Men (in theaters May 20)

Director: Alex Garland
Stars: Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear
What It’s About: After witnessing her husband plunge to his death, Harper (Buckley) decides to take a vacation to the English countryside where she enjoys some quiet reflective time, until her vacation takes a sinister turn.
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: Alex Garland, the director of Ex Machina and Annihilation, has a rare gift for starting with tense situations then ratcheting that tension up to an almost unbearable level. Men’s cryptic trailer suggests this won’t be an exception. That the film stars Buckley, one of the most exciting and unpredictable actresses working, doesn’t hurt either.

Top Gun: Maverick (in theaters April 28th)

Director: Joseph Kosinski
Stars: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly
What It’s About: Maverick (Cruise) is still taking to the air, only now he’s (reluctantly) been assigned the task of teaching the next generation of Top Gun recruits, including the son (Teller) of his late friend Goose.
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: Because of his insane — borderline unsettling, even — level of commitment, his passion for doing his own stunts, and maniacal focus on every detail of every production he’s involved in, Cruise has become our greatest action star. So is it any surprise that this sequel faithfully captures the exact same rush of excitement the original did?

The Bob’s Burgers Movie (in theaters May 27th)

Director: Loren Bouchard, Bernard Derriman
Stars: H. Jon Benjamin, Dan Mintz, Eugene Mirman, Kristen Schaal, John Roberts
What It’s About: The emergence of a sinkhole by their restaurant’s entrance creates some problems for Bob Belcher (Benjamin) and his family.
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: Fans of the beloved long-running Fox animated sitcom Bob’s Burgers have been waiting a long time for this big-screen adaptation. Will it be worth it? Given the series’ remarkable consistency, the answer is almost certainly “Yes.” That it’s said to be a full-blown musical bodes well, given the many memorable songs featured on the show over the years.

Benediction (in theaters June 3)

Director: Terence Davies
Stars: Jack Lowden
What It’s About: English poet Siegfried Sassoon serves in World War I, ends up in a psychiatric hospital for opposing the war, falls in love with a man, and becomes a Catholic.
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: If there’s an arthouse equivalent of Tom Cruise returning to fighter jets it’s Davies (The Long Day Closes, The Deep Blue Sea) returning to the world of 20th century English repression, poetry, religion, and tortured sexuality, all which Sassoon’s story offers in abundance.

Jurassic World: Dominion (in theaters June 3)

Director: Colin Trevorrow
Stars: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Chris Pratt, Jeff Goldblum, various dinosaurs
What It’s About: It looks like this third movie in the second wave of Jurassic films is going to make good on the “world” part of the title: After the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, dinosaurs are everywhere. Sounds like a good time!
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: Returning director Colin Trevorrow (who directed Jurassic World but sat out Fallen Kingdom) has brought back the original Jurassic Park stars for this go-around. Love them or not, this trilogy has tried one daring idea after another, whether murdering an amusement park filled with tourists or letting dinosaurs loose in a creepy old house. This should be the biggest swing yet.

Pixar’s Lightyear (in theaters June 17)

Director: Angus MacLane
Stars: Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi
What It’s About: This isn’t a spin-off of Toy Story—at least not exactly. The latest from Pixar chronicles the adventures of the Buzz Lightyear character on whom the toy in Toy Story is based. (It’s a little confusing, as IP reaches are.)
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: Though fans hoping for an exciting new idea from Pixar groaned a bit when the film was announced, it looks like a fun space adventure, which is something Pixar hasn’t done yet (even if the character isn’t exactly new).

Elvis (in theaters June 24)

Director: Baz Luhrmann
Stars: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks
What It’s About: You might have heard of Elvis Presley (Butler), a singer from Memphis who had some hits a few decades back. Now Presley is getting the Baz Luhrmann treatment with a biopic that puts a special emphasis on his relationship with manager Tom Parker (Hanks), a legendary huckster who may not always have had Presley’s best interests in mind.
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby) has a knack for visual flair and big stylistic swings, and he’s seldom better than when working with material that lets him incorporate music.

The Black Phone (in theaters June 24)

Director: Scott Derrickson
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Finney Shaw
What It’s About: Abducted by a serial killer (Hawke), a kid (Shaw) tries to escape before he becomes the latest victim — with some help from a mysterious phone and some voices from beyond.
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: After parting ways with Marvel ahead of the second Doctor Strange movie, Derrickson reunited with the team who previously worked together on Sinister and, like that film, this looks creepy as hell.

Crimes of the Future (in theaters sometime in June)

Director: David Cronenberg
Stars: Viggo Moretensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart
What It’s About: Set in the near future, David Cronenberg’s first film in eight years — and his first from an original story in a couple of decades— features performance artists, rapidly evolving bodies, and a lot of scenes sure to make even the hardiest moviegoer squirm. (We’re guessing on that last detail, but it’s a pretty safe guess.)
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: It’s Cronenberg. This is sure to be a movie you won’t forget soon, even if you hate it.

Thor: Love and Thunder (in theaters July 8)

Director: Taika Waititi
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale
What It’s About: The God of Thunder (Hemsworth) faces his biggest threat yet in the form of Gorr the God Butcher (Bale), a serial killer specializing in divine beings.
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: There used to be a pattern to Marvel movies. You star in three solo adventures, you appear in whatever other Marvel films need your character, you get out. (See: Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans.) Apparently nobody told Hemsworth, however, who’s back for an unprecedented fourth Thor movie. The story’s at least partly about passing the torch: Thor finds that his ex, Jane Foster (Portman), can now wield the hammer that previously only he and Captain America could lift. Plus: Christian Bale!

Nope (in theaters July 22)

Director: Jordan Peele
Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun
What It’s About: Do we know much about Peele’s latest beyond what’s suggested in its creepy trailer, featuring a horse ranch, some bizarre weather patterns, and Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips (Part 2)”? Nope. Should that matter? Nope.
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: Peele has quickly established himself as a director of terrifying, widely resonant horror films. There’s no reason to think his latest will break that pattern and, as with Get Out and Us, it might be best to go into this knowing as little as possible.

Bullet Train (in theaters July 29)

Director: David Leitch
Stars: Brad Pitt, Joey King, Brian Tyree Henry
What It’s About: A bunch of assassins — including a pair at opposite ends of their careers (Pitt and King) — tangle on a bullet train traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto.
Why It’s Worth Leaving the House For: A stunt double (for Pitt, among others) turned filmmaker, Leitch helped redefine the modern action movie with John Wick. Follow-ups like Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2 suggest he’s the right man to direct a funny/violent thriller set aboard a train. And with Pitt involved, it’s almost guaranteed to at least be fun.

7 Films Worth Staying Home to Stream

Firestarter (in theaters and on Peacock May 13)
Director: Keith Thomas
Stars: Zac Effron, Ryan Kiera, Michael Geyeyes
What It’s About: This second adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 novel stars Efron as a dad on the run from nefarious government forces out to capture his daughter (Kiera), who can start fires with her mind.
Why It’s Worth Streaming: Despite a memorable performance from Drew Barrymore, the previous film version of Firestarter, one of King’s most highly regarded early books, leaves plenty of room for improvement. Thomas’s previous effort, the engrossing 2019 film The Vigil, suggests he can deliver on that promise.

Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers (on Disney+ May 20)
Director: Akiva Schaffer
Stars: John Mulaney, Andy Samberg
What It’s About: Two chipmunk friends reunite to solve a mystery.
Why It’s Worth Streaming: OK, a reboot of this after school staple fondly remembered by ‘90s kids doesn’t sound that promising, but take a look at those credits again. The film teams Mulaney and Samberg as the eponymous Rangers, and Samberg’s Lonely Island collaborator Schaffer directs. It’s been teased as a knowing look at animation and the celebrity world that’s much closer to Who Framed Roger Rabbit? than a lazy reboot.

Cha Cha Real Smooth (on Apple TV+ June 17)
Director: Cooper Raiff
Stars: Cooper Raiff, Dakota Johnson
What It’s About: A recent college grad (Raiff) spends an aimless summer working as a bar mitzvah party starter and drifting into an ill-defined relationship with the mother (Johnson) of an autistic teen.
Why It Might Make the Summer Memorable: The film charmed audiences at this year’s Sundance and understandably so: Raiff’s a winning talent in front of the camera—his first film,  and a thoughtful writer/director behind it. This ought to be his breakthrough (though hopefully it won’t lead to him leaving these sort of small-scale observational films behind).

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (on Hulu July 17)
Director: Sophie Hyde
Stars: Emma Thompson, Daryl McCormack
What It’s About: After a lifetime of disappointing sex, a widow (Thompson) hires a professional escort (McCormack) in an attempt to find out what she’s been missing only to discover that both the arrangement, and her issues, are more complicated than she initially believes.
Why It Might Make the Summer Memorable: Thompson’s been on a roll lately in big films like Cruella, but it’s nice to see her in a project that keeps the focus on her. Reports from Sundance hailed the film for its bold execution, wit and tender central relationship.

The Gray Man (on Netflix in July)
Directors: Joe and Anthony Russo
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Dhanush
What It’s About:. In this adaptation of a 2009 Mark Greaney novel, Ryan Gosling stars as an ace CIA operative on the run from assassins commanded by a former co-worker (Chris Evans).
Why It’s Worth Streaming: The team of screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directors Joe and Anthony Russo have worked well together before on a couple of Captain America and Avengers films. Now they have to prove they can work outside the MCU system, and a (presumably) fast-paced and twisty spy thriller sounds like it could be an excellent fit, especially with this cast.

Spiderhead (On Netflix sometime in the summer)
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett
What It’s About: This prison drama is set in a near-future in which inmates can reduce their time by volunteering for dangerous experiments.
Why It’s Worth Streaming: Kosinski is pairing Top Gun: Maverick with what sounds like a more conceptual offering based on a George Saunders short story. Any attempt to film Saunders’ dystopian near-future tales is worth checking out.

Resurrection (in theaters and VOD August 5)
Director: Andrew Semans
Stars: Rebecca Hall, Tim Roth
What It’s About: Margaret (Hall) is a respected professional and single mom who has her act together in every respect. Then, one day, she unexpectedly spies a man from her past (Roth) and starts to unravel.
Why It’s Worth Streaming: Anchored by Hall and Roth’s intense performances, Resurrection shocked Sundance audiences this past January for reasons that are best left undisclosed. It’s a must for fans of psychologically gripping horror films, though it’s hard to imagine even the most jaded veterans will be prepared for the film’s final act. Is there any better way to end the summer movie season than that?