These are the films we’re watching, talking about, or quietly circling — the ones that feel interesting, promising, or simply too intriguing to let slip past. Some have already landed, others are just over the horizon, but together they sketch out the shape of the cinematic months ahead. Supergirl brings a burst of cosmic energy and emotional turbulence. The Last Viking offers a darkly comic tale of fractured identity and buried secrets. The Invite turns a simple dinner into a slow‑burning emotional detonation. Spider‑Man: Brand New Day pushes Peter Parker into the uneasy territory of adulthood and consequence. The End of Oak Street wraps suburban mystery in a warm, Spielberg‑tinged glow. Bitter Christmas blends autofiction and grief across two timelines. The Dog Stars delivers Ridley Scott’s windswept, post‑pandemic odyssey of survival and connection. Pressure tightens the screws on the tense 72 hours before D‑Day. Bad Apples digs into moral grey zones inside a failing school system.
Supergirl — 25 June 2026
Supergirl arrives with a blast of interstellar energy and a punky, chaotic edge. Kara Zor‑El finds her world upended when a ruthless adversary strikes too close to home, forcing her into an uneasy alliance on a vengeance‑driven journey across the stars. It’s bold, messy, emotional, and occasionally brash — a DC film that leans into character as much as spectacle.
The Last Viking — 26 June 2026
The Last Viking isn’t a saga of shields and armour at all — it’s a darkly comic, character‑driven crime story from Anders Thomas Jensen, built around two brothers whose lives have splintered in very different ways. Years after a bank robbery goes wrong, Anker returns home to recover the stolen money he buried before his arrest. The problem is his brother Manfred — played by Mads Mikkelsen — now lives with dissociative identity disorder and believes he is John Lennon, complete with mannerisms, worldview, and a total detachment from the criminal mess Anker is trying to clean up.
The film blends off‑beat humour with emotional weight as the brothers navigate old wounds, buried secrets, and the fallout of choices made long ago. Expect something atmospheric, strange, and quietly moving — a story about fractured identity, loyalty, and the long shadow cast by the past.
The Invite — 3 July 2026
Olivia Wilde’s The Invite is a comedy of manners that turns into a pressure cooker. Joe and Angela’s marriage is already wobbling when their neighbours arrive for dinner — and what follows is an evening of confessions, collisions, and emotional unravelling. It’s funny, tense, and sharply observed, with a tight four‑person cast that keeps the whole thing humming.
Spider‑Man: Brand New Day — 31 July 2026
Peter Parker steps into a harsher world in Brand New Day, navigating adulthood, exposed identity, and the fallout of being a hero without a mask to hide behind. The film blends humour, heart, and high‑stakes action, but its core is Peter’s struggle to balance responsibility with the fragile business of growing up. A fresh chapter with emotional weight beneath the spectacle.
The End of Oak Street — 14 August 2026
A suburban mystery with a Spielbergian glow, The End of Oak Street follows characters caught between the ordinary and the uncanny. Hathaway and McGregor anchor the story with warmth as strange events ripple through a neighbourhood that seems to shift moods like weather. Expect thrills, spills, and that rare communal gasp only a packed cinema can deliver.
Bitter Christmas — 28 August 2026
Pedro Almodóvar’s tragicomedy weaves two timelines together: Elsa, an advertising director in 2004 navigating grief and creative burnout, and Raúl in 2026, a filmmaker turning Elsa’s life into autofiction as he battles his own creative drought. The film blurs reality and fiction, set partly against Lanzarote’s volcanic landscapes, and explores how personal pain becomes artistic fuel.
The Dog Stars — 28 August 2026
Ridley Scott adapts Peter Heller’s post‑pandemic survival novel into a windswept, intimate epic. Following Hig (Jacob Elordi) as he navigates a world stripped back to essentials — trust, shelter, the next safe horizon — the film focuses on the quiet, haunting business of living after everything has fallen. Expect scorched landscapes, battered hope, and Scott’s signature blend of muscular filmmaking and emotional grit.
Pressure — 9 September 2026
Set in the tense 72 hours before D‑Day, Pressure follows General Eisenhower and Captain James Stagg as they face an impossible choice: launch the largest seaborne invasion in history or risk losing the war. It’s a tight, procedural drama driven by strategy, doubt, and the weight of responsibility — with Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser leading a strong ensemble.
Bad Apples — 11 September 2026
A smaller film on paper, but one that looks set to land with a thud of recognition. Bad Apples threads through school corridors and bureaucratic blind spots, following Marian, Danny and Eddie Waller as they navigate moral grey zones institutions prefer not to acknowledge. Twists arrive as consequences rather than gimmicks. By the end, you’re left chewing over the choices people make when the system around them is already cracked.
Conclusion
Taken together, these films paint a lively, unpredictable picture of the months ahead — a mix of spectacle, intimacy, mystery, and grit. Some lean into myth, others into emotional truth, and a few simply want to entertain with sharp writing and strong performances. Whether you’re after blockbuster escapism, character‑driven drama, or something stranger and more atmospheric, there’s plenty here worth marking on the calendar. The next stretch of cinema looks varied, confident, and full of stories that might just linger longer than expected.
By Pat Harrington
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