This summer's 15 most promising under-the-radar films

Cast: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Rich Sommer, Cary Elwes, Michael Ironside

Director: Matt Johnson

Apparently, every company that has ever existed has a wild, cinema-worthy story about how it got off the ground, and BlackBerry is no different. Still, BlackBerry the film is giving strong Big Short vibes with its self-aware take on how the BlackBerry became a near-ubiquitous executive status symbol—and its sudden, harsh downfall. Jay Baruchel stars as BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis and Glenn Howerton co-stars as Jim Balsillie, the investor that helped make the pre-iPhone company a worldwide success. [Jen Lennon]

Cast: Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Browning

Director: Andrea Pallaoro

One of the more highly regarded films of the 2022 Venice Film Festival comes stateside in Monica, the story of a trans woman returning to Cincinnati to see the estranged and dying mother who rejected her years earlier. Trace Lysette earned kudos for conveying a wealth of emotion despite Monica’s quiet suffering, while the great Patricia Clarkson is equally understated—and effective—as the mother. Director and co-writer Andrea Pallaoro’s third feature is a portrait of a family reaching for any semblance of closure after years of emotional and physical disconnect. This touching and inwardly looking drama looks to be a crucial and critically acclaimed addition to cinema’s growing list of trans stories. And for that, we can all be thankful. [Mark Keizer]

Cast: Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Quintessa Swindell

Director: Paul Schrader

In Master Gardener, Joel Edgerton plays an exceptional horticulturist with a secret: he’s a former neo-Nazi in witness protection, which becomes something of an issue when he’s forced to mentor his boss’ biracial niece. Conflicted, tortured men are familiar territory for Paul Schraeder (writer of Taxi Driver, writer and director of The Card Counter), but his ability to get inside their heads is what sets his films apart. Master Gardener debuted to polarizing reviews at Venice, but most seem to agree that Edgerton’s incredible performance is worth seeking out. [Jen Lennon]

Cast: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Michaela Watkins, Arian Moayed, and Jeannie Berlin

Director: Nicole Holofcener

Acclaimed filmmaker Nicole Holofcener (Walking And Talking, Can You Ever Forgive Me?) turns her keen, observational gaze on the intricacies of trust and honesty in marriage in You Hurt My Feelings, her first feature in five years. It stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who worked with Holofcener previously on Enough Said, as a novelist forced to reevaluate her relationship with her husband (Tobias Menzies) and her chosen career when she overhears him telling a friend (Moayed) what he really thinks about her latest book. The film got a warm reception at Sundance in past January, with critics praising its sharp wit, emotional candor, and engaging performances. [Cindy White]

Cast: Jojo Bapteise Whiting, Ladainian Crazy Thunder

Directors: Riley Keough and Gina Gammell

The genesis of War Pony, the feature directing debuts of Gina Gammel and Riley Keough, is almost as interesting as its story. While filming 2016’s American Honey, Keough befriended two of the film’s extras, Bill Reddy and Franklin Sioux Bob, both members of the Lakota tribe living in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Their friendship soon begat War Pony, a coming-of-age story about two Oglala Lakota teens in South Dakota (both played by non-professional actors). The film took home the top prize in the Un Certain Regard competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. This sidebar to the main fest spotlights emerging talent and non-traditional stories, both of which can be used to describe War Pony. [Mark Keizer]

Cast: Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu

Director: Adele Lim

This comedy from first-time director Adele Lim (who wrote the screenplays for Crazy Rich Asians and Raya And The Last Dragon) finds lifelong best friends Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola), who travel from the U.S. to China to find Audrey’s birth mother. Accompanying them on their journey are Lolo’s cousin Deadeye and Audrey’s former roommate Kat (Stephanie Hsu), now a famous Chinese TV star. The fun of Joy Ride is in watching these four fantastic performers cope with one wild situation after another, but hidden beneath the surface of this madcap adventure lies a touching story about identity and family, the ones we’re born into and the ones we make for ourselves. [Cindy White]

Cast: Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, Jimmy Tatro, Patti Harrison, Ayo Edebiri, Alan Kim, and Amy Sedaris

Directors: Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman

Theater Camp started out as an 18-minute short posted to YouTube back in the dark days of 2020, when we were all stuck inside and desperate for entertainment we could stream from our couches. The mockumentary was a collaboration between grown-up theater kids Ben Platt, Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin, and Nick Lieberman that centered on a struggling camp for current theater kids. Now they’ve expanded it into a fully formed feature with a similar premise—when the beloved founder of a theater camp in upstate New York called Adirond Acts (get it?) falls into a coma the staff and students band together to save the program in her honor. Anyone who had aspirations of being on stage as a kid should find a lot to relate to here, and plenty to laugh at, too. [Cindy White]

Cast: John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, Jamie Foxx

Director: Juel Taylor

It’s a shame that They Cloned Tyrone is going straight to Netflix, because it seems like it’d be a whole lot of fun to see in a theater. The pulpy sci-fi comedy centers on Fontaine (Boyega), Yo-Yo (Parris), and Slick Charles (Foxx) as they investigate a government conspiracy involving, you guessed it, clones. The script, which Taylor co-wrote with Tony Rettenmaier, landed on the 2019 Black List. They Cloned Tyrone is Taylor’s feature-film directorial debut, and it’s set to premiere at the American Black Film Festival one month before its Netflix release. [Jen Lennon]

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Joel Kinnaman

Director: Yuval Adler

Wait, Nicolas Cage is starring in a movie with the word Devil in the title? The possibilities for Maximum Nic are endless! In Sympathy For The Devil, Joel Kinnaman (Altered Carbon, For All Mankind) plays a driver forced at gunpoint to ferry around a mysterious stranger who looks suspiciously like an Oscar winner who’s spent the last 15 years slumming in an endless string of B-movies. But we love Cage so we’re hoping Sympathy For The Devil extends his recent streak of bigger, better, and higher profile films after The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent and Renfield. Yuval Adler directs from a script by someone actually named Luke Paradise and that gives off very cool Thief and Collateral vibes. [Mark Keizer]

Cast: Sophie Wilde, Joe Bird, Alexandra Jensen

Directors: Danny and Michael Philippou

Talk To Me is the feature directorial debut of Danny and Michael Philippou, who got their start making horror shorts on their YouTube channel RackaRacka. The film, which premiered at Sundance and was quickly snatched up by A24 after a bidding war, centers on a group of friends who draw some unwanted supernatural attention after a séance involving an embalmed hand. Early reviews were glowing, promising lots of gore and impressive practical effects. [Jen Lennon]

Cast: Casey Affleck, Noah Jupe, Walton Goggins, Jack Dylan Grazer

Director: Bill Pohlad

If you’ve never heard of the rock/soul duo of Donnie and Joe Emerson, neither had anyone else when they released their first and only original album in 1979, which is the starting point for Love & Mercy director Bill Pohlad’s fascinating-sounding Dreamin’ Wild. After the album came, went, and was quickly forgotten, it was rediscovered and earned great acclaim 30 years later when a music blogger paid $5 for a copy in a Spokane, Washington, antique store. Casey Affleck and Noah Jupe play older and younger versions of Donnie Emerson while Walton Goggins and Jack Dylan Grazer do the same, respectively, for his brother Joe. Themes of second chances and lost dreams look to get a melancholy workout in this drama that earned solid reviews when it played out of competition at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. [Mark Keizer]

Cast: Helen Mirren, Gillian Anderson, Ariella Glaser, Orlando Schwerdt, and Bryce Gheisar

Director: Marc Forster

The bestselling middle-grade book Wonder by R. J. Palacio features an antagonist named Julian who bullies the main character Auggie and winds up expelled from school at the end of the story. What happens to him next and what he learns became the subject of the graphic novel White Bird by the same author, published in 2019. Now, White Bird: A Wonder Story is getting its own film adaptation. When Julian (Bryce Gheisar, reprising his role from Wonder) gets a visit from his grandmother (Helen Mirren) she tells him about her youth and the hardships of growing up as a Jewish girl in France during World War II, like having to hide from Nazis at the home of a classmate. Really puts those ordinary middle school problems into perspective, doesn’t it? [Cindy White]

Cast: Katherine Waterston, John Cho

Director: Chris Weitz

Top-tier horror factory Blumhouse Productions enters the summer fray with They Listen, a film whose plot we know nothing about but will probably involve people listening. Still, considering the talent involved, the film should be on your radar. It’s directed by Chris Weitz, whose genre-heavy CV includes The Golden Compass and The Twilight Saga: New Moon. He also co-wrote Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The cast includes Katherine Waterston and John Cho, who has appeared in 11 of Weitz’s films, starting with American Pie, which Weitz co-directed with his brother, Paul. Kinda like a Jordan Peele film, the fact that They Listen’s plot is under wraps at this late date actually gets us more excited to see it. [Mark Keizer]

Cast: Julio Torres, Tilda Swinton, RZA, Isabella Rossellini, Larry Owens, Catalina Saavedra, Greta Lee

Director: Julio Torres

Comedian Julio Torres has written for Saturday Night Live, the HBO series Los Espookys (which he also appeared in), and his own standup special My Favorite Shapes, but the upcoming film Problemista is the first project he wrote, directed, and starred in. He plays Alejandro, an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador whose desperation to secure a work visa gets him caught up in the chaotic world of an art critic (Tilda Swinton) obsessed with her late husband’s (RZA) art and legacy. The film takes the viewer through the seedy, surreal spaces of New York City as well as the Byzantine intricacies of the U.S. immigration system. Expect a bumpy ride, with humorous, unexpected twists and turns. [Cindy White]

Cast: Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Marshawn Lynch, Havana Rose Liu, Kaia Gerber

Director: Emma Seligman

Bottoms is a queer teen sex comedy in which two high school girls set up a fight club hoping it’ll help them hook up with cheerleaders. If you’re not on board from that one sentence alone, we’re not sure how to help you. The film drew rave reviews after its South By Southwest premiere, with critics praising its humor and sharp satire. [Jen Lennon]