The best films out in UK cinemas and on streaming in July

British-Moroccan filmmaker Fyzal Boulifa’s ‘Lynn + Lucy’ was a seriously grabby debut back in 2020. Loosely inspired by Sirk and Fassbinder, his follow-up is another much-praised drama full of intimate domestic details and big ideas. This time he’s following a modern woman (Aicha Tebbae) and her devoted, but wilful son as they negotiate the patriarchal fault lines of Moroccan society and their own co-dependent relationship. It’s a mother-son drama with a jagged social realist edge. 

In cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema Jul 7

For a man who once made a serial killer flck about a car tyre, the idea of a team of Power Rangers-like superheroes – and their rodent boss – battling a malevolent alien force while at a corporate retreat sounds almost rote. But that’s only the MCU-riffing set-up of Quentin ‘Rubber’ Dupieux’s latest cinematic cheese dream. A kind of horror anthology, it also delivers three giddily surreal stories within the story. Our advice? Open your mind and let some Dupieux wonderment in.

In cinemas Jul 7

Happily restored from Disney+ and back to the big screen, Pixar returns with its highest-concept animation since ‘Inside Out’. A sensitive fable about segregation and the migrant experience, it’s set in a world populated by four anthropomorphised groups of elements – fluffy air, grassy earth, flickering fire and wobbly water elements – in which one fire element, Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis), and Wade (Mamoudou Athie), a water element, prove that love can defy physics. If anyone can make the Periodic table fun, it’s Pixar. 

In cinemas Jul 7

Ethan Hunt and his IMF buddies are facing their greatest foe yet in a mysterious terrorist who has laid his hands on a deadly weapon. Tom Cruise will again be leaping off improbably high objects in the name of keeping humanity safe, with reliably entertaining support from Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames and one or two ‘Mission: Impossible’ OGs. Often having ‘part one’ in a film’s title is a red flag – all set-up, no sizzle – but this one could be epic.

In cinemas Jul 14

Is Greta Gerwig’s toy story for kids, zoomers, grown-up hipsters or nostalgic boomers? All of the above? It’s rare for something so ‘extra’ to feel so mysterious, but we’re still curious about how all the fuchsia social media-friendly kitschness translates on screen. The plot has Margot Robbie’s Barbie and Ryan Gosling’s Ken departing Barbieland in search of true happiness in the real world, with the zeitgeisty support of an army of other Barbies that includes Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Emma Mackey and Dua Lipa.

In cinemas Jul 21

Anyone thinking that Christopher Nolan’s commitment to practical effects has met its match reprising an actual A-bomb detonation has seriously underestimated the man. His ticking-clock wartime drama about American physicist Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) apparently boasts his biggest bang yet, putting that exploding hospital in The Dark Knight in the shade. Beyond the megatonne spectacle, expect the kind of thinky, richly cast blockbuster Nolan specialises in, with Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt helping the Brit recreate a pivotal moment in human history. 

In cinemas Jul 21

Like a Blaxploitation ‘Get Out’, this sci-fi thriller should combine an edgy critique of structural racism with big laughs and genuine tension. Jamie Foxx, John Boyega and Teyonah Parris play a trio of investigators on the trail of a government conspiracy to clone Black people. It’s the directorial debut of ‘Creed II’ writer Juel Taylor and could herald a bold new filmmaking voice. 

Streaming on Netflix Jul 21

Whatever cine-savant Mark Cousins doesn’t know about cinema probably isn’t worth knowing, so ‘The Story of Film’ man’s new documentary about Alfred Hitchcock is sure to be a proper feast for film buffs. Narrated by Alistair McGowan and framed as a conversation between Cousins and The Master, it’ll bring fresh insights and new perspectives on ‘Psycho’, ‘Marnie’, ‘Rear Window’ and other ironclad classics.

In cinemas Jul 21

Supernatural freakiness drips from every frame of an intense Aussie horror film that A24 picked up at this year’s Sundance. The fatal McGuffin at its heart is an embalmed hand that connects a teenager (Sophie Wilde) and her friends with the spirit realm and some serious demonic business. It’s been a gala year for horror so far and we’re still four months from Halloween – this one should bring some serious midsummer chills. 

In cinemas Jul 28