"Leave No Trace"
Release date: June 29 (limited release)
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 100%
With a 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, "Leave No Trace" is one of the best-reviewed movies of the year. It comes from Debra Granik, the director of the Oscar-nominated thriller "Winter's Bone" that helped launch Jennifer Lawrence into the mainstream. This time, she teams with actor Ben Foster, who critics say gives an extraordinary performance.
Description:"Will (Ben Foster) and his teenage daughter, Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie), have lived off the grid for years in the forests of Portland, Oregon. When their idyllic life is shattered, both are put into social services. After clashing with their new surroundings, Will and Tom set off on a harrowing journey back to their wild homeland."
"SuperFly"
Release date: June 13
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 51%
Director X, known for music videos like Drake's "Hotline Bling" and Nelly's "Hot in Herre," brings his stylish flair to this reimagining of the 1972 original Blaxploitation film.
Description: "Superfly – the film that helped define a genre in its characters, look, sound, and feel – is reimagined with Director X, director of legendary music videos (Drake, Rihanna), introducing it to a new generation. The screenplay is by Alex Tse."
"Won't You Be My Neighbor?"
Release date: June 8, 2018
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 99%
At a time of so much tension and turmoil, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" is being hailed as a reminder that good people exist. The documentary from Morgan Neville, the director of the Oscar-winning doc "20 Feet From Stardom," transports audiences back in time for a major dose of nostalgia, and helps people of all ages remember the legacy of childhood icon Fred Rogers.
Description: "In Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet from Stardom) looks back on the legacy of Fred Rogers, focusing on his radically kind ideas. While the nation changed around him, Fred Rogers stood firm in his beliefs about the importance of protecting childhood. Neville pays tribute to this legacy with the latest in his series of highly engaging, moving documentary portraits of essential American artists."
"Hearts Beat Loud"
Release date: June 8, 2018
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 91%
"Hearts Beat Loud" is a feel-good movie starring "Parks and Rec's" Nick Offerman and rising star Kiersey Clemons. The two play a father-daughter duo who join forces to start a band before Clemons' character leaves for college. If you're looking for a heartwarming and funny family film, this may be for you.
Description: "In the hip Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, single dad and record store owner Frank (Nick Offerman) is preparing to send his hard-working daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons) off to college, while being forced to close his vintage shop. Hoping to stay connected through their shared musical passions, Frank urges Sam to turn their weekly "jam sesh" into a father-daughter live act. After their first song becomes an Internet breakout, the two embark on a journey of love, growing up and musical discovery."
"Hereditary"
Release date: June 8
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 89%
There's a good chance you've heard of this chilling and brutal new horror film, but if you haven't seen it, you should join the hype. Easily one of the most haunting films in recent years, "Hereditary" is an instant classic in the genre, and is already garnering Oscar talk for Toni Collette's intense performance.
Description: "When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter's family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell."
"American Animals"
Release date: June 1, 2018
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 85%
"American Animals" is the MoviePass-funded film that is actually good ("Gotti," not so much). Featuring a great young cast that includes "American Horror Story's" Evan Peters and "Dunkirk's" Barry Keoghan, "American Animals" is a heist movie based on a true story. Barry Layton's experience with documentary filmmaking shines through the narrative in a very literal way.
Description: "American Animals is the unbelievable but entirely true story of four young men who attempt to execute one of the most audacious art heists in U.S. history."
"First Reformed"
Release date: May 18
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 97%
"First Reformed" is from writer/director Paul Scrader, the writer behind classic Martin Scorsese films "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull." With "First Reformed," he delivers a story packed with questions on the relationship between faith and morality, and Ethan Hawke gives one of his best performances as a priest struggling with those ideas.
Description: "Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is a solitary, middle-aged parish pastor at a small Dutch Reform church in upstate New York on the cusp of celebrating its 250th anniversary. Once a stop on the Underground Railroad, the church is now a tourist attraction catering to a dwindling congregation, eclipsed by its nearby parent church, Abundant Life, with its state-of-the-art facilities and 5,000-strong flock. When a pregnant parishioner (Amanda Seyfried) asks Reverend Toller to counsel her husband, a radical environmentalist, the clergyman finds himself plunged into his own tormented past, and equally despairing future, until he finds redemption in an act of grandiose violence."
"The Book Club"
Release date: May 18
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 53%
While the movie may not have been well-received by critics, it might appeal to an older audience just looking for a funny, relatable movie with a dynamite cast that includes Jane Fonda and Diane Keaton.
Description: "Diane (Diane Keaton) is recently widowed after 40 years of marriage, Vivian (Jane Fonda) enjoys her men with no strings attached, Sharon (Candice Bergen) is still working through her decades-old divorce, and Carol's (Mary Steenburgen) marriage is in a slump after 35 years. The lives of these four lifelong friends are turned upside down after reading the infamous "50 Shades of Grey," catapulting them into a series of outrageous life choices."