My favorite way to escape the oppressively humid Tennessee summer is with a trip to the air-conditioned oasis that is the movies. Luckily, both our local arthouse and the megaplexes are obliging this year with slates dotted with extra-long epics.
Christopher Nolan is one of few directors left who can truly conjure a blank-check film. After the mega success of 2023’s Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer, Nolan was operating with the blankest of checks. The result is his nearly three-hour retelling of The Odyssey (and other assorted Greek mythology texts), which opens wide this week — including on 70 mm IMAX at Regal Opry Mills and on 35 mm at the Belcourt. You can find our review online this week.
With Odyssey fever about to take over the film world, the Belcourt has lined up a special series celebrating lavish big-screen epics of all kinds. Weekend Classics: Beat the Heat began earlier this month with Nolan’s space saga Interstellar and Martin Scorsese’s desert crime chronicle Casino. The series continues this weekend with surrealist French friendship tale Céline and Julie Go Boating (July 17-18) and the Ross McElwee documentary Sherman’s March (July 19 & 21). Remake, McElwee’s reevaluation of Sherman’s March following the tragic death of the filmmaker’s son, will also screen on July 21. Other entries in the series read like a Letterboxd bro’s ideal lineup: Oliver Stone’s madcap JFK (July 24-26), Andrei Tarkovsky’s biography of Russian artist Andrei Rublev (July 31-Aug. 2), David Lean’s epic of all epics Lawrence of Arabia (Aug. 7-9), Sergio Leone’s revisionist Western masterwork (and a favorite of late Scene editor-in-chief Jim Ridley) Once Upon a Time in the West (Aug. 21-23) and Quentin Tarantino’s Tinseltown fairy tale Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Aug. 28-30), which will be screening on 35 mm.
The Queer Qlassics series continues at the Belcourt with Park Chan-wook’s twisty The Handmaiden (July 29) and 2019 action/sci-fi anime Promare (July 22). Midnight Movies has a robust slate of cult classics on deck with Godzilla vs. Biollante (July 24), Cloverfield (July 25), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Aug. 7), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Aug. 8), Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (Aug. 22) and the return of the Super Secret Mystery Midnight Movie on Aug. 21.
Music City Mondays are still rolling with NOFX doc 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up (July 20), Michelangelo Antonioni’s conspiracy thriller Blow-Up (July 27), 1958 Newport Jazz Festival concert film Jazz on a Summer’s Day (Aug. 3) and Gypsy 83: The Director’s Cut (Aug. 31). There will also be a special Music City Mondays screening on Aug. 10 of The Easy Kind, a film starring and inspired by the story of Nashville country singer Elizabeth Cook. Cook will be on hand for a performance and a Q&A.
The Belcourt is also set to celebrate Elaine May with screenings of the lauded multihyphenate’s directorial efforts A New Leaf (Aug. 11 & 15), Mikey and Nicky (Aug. 12 & 16) and Ishtar (Aug. 17). A 4K restoration of Jane Campion’s acclaimed 1993 drama The Piano will show Aug. 21-27. And a pair of Staff Picks round out the Belcourt’s summer repertory lineup — Olivier Assayas’ meta-text Irma Vep (Aug. 4) and the beloved object of cult worship for Millennial Film Guys, Michael Mann’s 2006 Miami Vice remake (Sept. 4).
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Nashville comedian John Early’s directorial debut Maddie’s Secret is still playing at the Belcourt, as is Olivia Wilde’s hilarious dramedy The Invite. Coming attractions on the new release schedule include Gregg Araki’s first feature in 12 years I Want Your Sex (opens July 31), Jane Schoenbrun’s slasher deconstruction Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Aug. 13, on 35 mm) and Matt Johnson’s Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony (Aug. 21).
The industry is clearing out for a Tom Holland takeover of the megaplexes this summer with the aforementioned The Odyssey and the latest Peter Parker entry Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31). The jury’s still out on whether Mr. Zendaya himself has the sauce when it comes to non-Spiderman leading roles, so this one-two punch will be an intriguing test case. Other wide releases to look out for include the long-awaited return from indie genre weirdo Nicolas Winding Refn with Her Private Hell (July 24), high-concept rom-com One Night Only (Aug. 7), David Robert Mitchell’s suburban dinosaur mystery box The End of Oak Street (Aug. 14), Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic adaptation The Dog Stars (Aug. 28) and the rescued-from-tax-write-off-hell Coyote vs. Acme (Aug. 28).
