7月份最值得一看的精彩新片（上）
8 of the best films to watch this July (part 1)

1. Nope

A politically-charged sci-fi horror mystery with a very short title? Yes, Nope is the third film from Jordan Peele, the brilliant writer-director of Get Out and Us. For his alien-abduction movie, Peele reunites with the star of Get Out, Daniel Kaluuya, who plays a horse rancher in the US West. After a strange object falls from the sky and kills their father, he and his sister (Keke Palmer) suspect that there is a flying saucer hovering in the clouds above their ranch. The jaw-dropping revelations that follow, insists Peele, are best experienced in a crowded cinema.

Released on 22 July in the US, Canada, Ireland and Spain and on 12 August in the UK and Sweden

2. Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing is a phenomenon. Delia Owens's debut novel, a mystery-drama set in 50s and 60s North Carolina, topped the New York Times list of fiction best-sellers in both 2019 and 2020, and has now sold 12 million copies worldwide. One of its biggest fans, Reese Witherspoon, has produced the inevitable film. "The way that Delia Owens wrote this book with such authenticity, you could just tell she really grew up in this place," Witherspoon told Caitlin Brody at Vanity Fair. "She really appreciated the nature around her. The book is a love letter to growing up in the South." Daisy Edgar-Jones from Normal People puts on her best deep Southern accent to play Kya, a girl who lives alone in the marshlands. As a young woman, Kya has relationships with two local men (Harris Dickinson and Taylor John Smith), and considers moving back to civilisation. But when one of the men is found dead, she is put on trial for murder.

Released on 15 July in the US and Canada and on 22 July in the UK and Ireland

3. Minions: The Rise of Gru

Depending on how you look at it, this is either a sequel to the first Minions film or a prequel to the first Despicable Me film. Either way, it's set in 1970s San Francisco when Gru (Steve Carell) was a 12-year-old boy with a full head of hair. Having set his black heart on becoming a supervillain, he must prove himself worthy of joining a gang called the Vicious Six. The bumbling Minions, meanwhile, must prove themselves worthy of being his assistants. "Six months into 2022," writes Peter Debruge at Variety, "it's the funniest film Hollywood has produced thus far. "

Released internationally on 1 July

4. Thor: Love and Thunder

Thor: Ragnarok was probably the most fun of all of Marvel's superhero blockbusters, but its writer-director, Taika Waititi, has upped the ante for its follow-up, Thor: Love & Thunder. Chris Hemsworth returns as the mighty Thor. He has given up being a superhero, but when the evil Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) starts living up to his memorable name, Thor has to come out of retirement, along with his sidekicks Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (Waititi). The twist is that while he's been on sabbatical, his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) has usurped his role as the hammer-wielding god of thunder.

Released internationally on 8 July