In Cinemas: June 24, 2016 — Free State of Jones, Independence Day: Resurgence, Maggie’s Plan, The Neon Demon, The Shallows

Matthew McConaughey returns to the big screen as Newton Knight, a Mississippi farmer who in the midst of the American Civil War formed a mix-race community and fought against the Confederacy. The film is called Free State of Jones, and directed by Gary Ross, best known as a writer of Big, Pleasantville, and adapting and directing The Hunger Games. 

I don’t get the excitement around Independence Day: Resurgence. The 1996 original was a silly alien invasion picture from Roland Emmerich, the master of disaster movies. Things blew up impressively, but it was otherwise a deeply forgettable dud.  Only Jeff Goldblum made it worth watching. I feel confident that’ll be the case with this sequel, too.

Two independent films open this weekend: I’ve heard good things about Rebecca Miller’s film Maggie’s Plan, which has been described as a “hipster romantic comedy,” starring Greta Gerwig as a woman in a love triangle with Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore, set in New York, natch’.

https://youtu.be/ZrYPRiSk3Fc

There’s also The Neon Demon, the new film from Nicolas Winding Refn, Danish director of Drive and Only God Forgives. He’s a visual stylist with spiritual kink. This new film has been described as his first real horror. I look forward to it.

And if you Gossip Girl fans (or haters) ever wanted to see Blake Lively trapped on a rock by a shark, here’s your chance. The Shallows: 

About the author

flawintheiris

Carsten Knox is a massive, cheese-eating nerd. In the day he works as a journalist in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At night he stares out at the rain-slick streets, watches movies, and writes about what he's seeing.

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