The Other Summer Movies - Part 2

 In my last post, I looked at five "almost-blockbuster" summer movies that may not have been huge franchise films, but had the potential to break into that upper echelon. For this article, we'll look in the opposite direction at five films opening in limited release or much further under the radar.

It can be dangerous to release an independent, arthouse, or small-scale movie during the summer, when the traditional season for such films is in the fall or winter and there's the danger of being over shadowed by the summer blockbusters. But if a studio has faith in a film, releasing it early can actually work to its advantage, as the summer season is much less crowded and films can gain early momentum towards end-of-year success. So while none of these films are likely to break any box office records, they all have the potential to be remembered for much longer.

Moonrise Kingdom - May 25

Directed by Wes Anderson
Starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray

With his first live-action film in five years, Wes Anderson has brought in his usual cadre of actors, although the film's central stars are 12-year-olds Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as Boy Scout and his girlfriend who run away from their New England township in the 1960's. Willis, Norton, and Murray (among others including Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Jason Schwartzman), play the town's oddball collection of police officers, parents, and Scout Leaders that fan out to find them. Anderson's low-key, extremely dry sense of humor and penchant for eccentric character studies isn't for everyone, but for those of us seeking a return to the same form he showed with The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic, this could represent the director's best work in years.

The organizers at Cannes seem to agree, as Moonrise Kingdom will be the festival's Opening Night presentation, with its stateside release following soon afterwards. It's too early to tell whether the current buzz will translate to any mainstream success for the film, but we should at least have a much better idea following its showing at Cannes.

To Rome With Love - June 15

Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Roberto Benigni, Woody Allen, Penelope Cruz

Woody Allen has had at least one movie released a year since 1981, and he shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. And after the success of Midnight in Paris, he's arguably riding higher now than he has in years. Between Paris, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and his recent London-based films, Allen's move to European locales seems to have reinvigorated him, and he's continuing that trend by moving to Italy for his newest film.

To Rome With Love diverges from the rest of Allen's recent films a bit by using its ensemble cast in a series of vignettes set in the Italian capital rather than as part of a single storyline, and it's also notable to see Allen himself acting in one of his movies for the first time since 2006's Scoop. And with the cast also featuring both Allen's usual collection of stars (Penelope Cruz, Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, and Judy Davis among others) alongside a host of native Italian actors including Roberto Benigni, that alone should put it on any film lover's must-watch list.

Magic Mike - June 29

Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Starring Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer

Steven Soderbergh has been hinting for some time now that he wants to take an indefinite leave of absence from filmmaking shortly, and although few people actually think he intends to permanently retire, any period of inactivity from a director like Soderbergh is unfortunate. After all, there aren't many out there who can see me on a film with Matthew McConaughey as the owner of a male strip club, also starring bland action star Channing Tatum and based on Tatum's own pre-stardom stripping experiences. But it's always been about the right role for an actor, and I can think of very few better roles for Channing Tatum than "male stripper", and very few better directors for that role than Soderbergh is.

In fact, it's always been Soderbergh's willingness to throw caution to the wind and film whatever he wants that has made him such a great director over time. He can direct Julia Roberts to an Oscar with Erin Brokovich and get everyone in Hollywood together to remake Ocean's Eleven one day, and then turn around and direct a four-hour Che Guevera biopic (Che) or an experimental murder mystery starring non-actors (Bubble) the next. Sure, it'll occasionally all go wrong and he'll make something like The Good German, but filmmaking can't always be safe, and it shouldn't always be safe.

Beasts of the Southern Wild - July 6

Directed by Benh Zeitlin
Starring Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry

Zeitlin's directorial debut came out of nowhere to win the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and Fox Searchlight immediately snapped it up after a short bidding war. Whether they can translate that into success with audiences at large remains to be seen, but its Sundance reaction alone has put it at the forefront of the summer's arthouse releases. The film is almost entirely from the perspective of the 6-year-old Wallis, playing a girl named Hushpuppy from a remote Louisiana bayou on a half-magical, half-real journey to find her mother in the aftermath of a near-apocalyptic hurricane.

Beasts is said to be an unorthodox film both in style and narrative, and it's deliberately unclear on how much of it is real and how much is a product of Hushpuppy's imagination. So like Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life last year, I can expect some people who walk in expecting a more traditional movie to walk out confused. But just as The Tree of Life succeeded nonetheless, garnering the most money of any of Malick's films and awards-season acclaim, I can see Beasts of the Southern Wild being the kind of summer film that is remembered nonetheless.

Sparkle - August 17

Directed by Salim Akil
Starring Jordin Sparks, Whitney Houston, Cee Lo Green

A remake of a 1970's musical about a trio of sisters and based loosely on the rise to fame of The Supremes, Sparkle differs somewhat from the other films on the list as it's starting out in wide release, but it certainly fits in here better than it would have amongst the big-budget blockbusters. Although it likely would have had a much smaller profile had it not been for Whitney Houston's sudden passing in February, three months after filming had been completed. Houston plays the single mother of the sisters, with former American Idol Jordin Sparks in the central role.

The original film was the inspiration for the hit musical Dreamgirls and its subsequent film version, so the 2012 version might ironically suffer for that by being seen as derivative, right down to the Sparks/Jennifer Hudson comparisons that are sure to arise. But if Sparkle is strong enough as a film to stand on its own feet, that combined with the ramped-up interest it's getting for being Houston's last screen appearance could make it a late-summer sleeper hit.