Paste's Massive Guide To The 50 Summer 2011 Movies That Matter

Illustrations by Laura Medina

Page 4 of 5

31. Captain America: The First Avenger

Release Date: July 22
Director: Joe Johnston
Stars: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan
What’s that up in the screen this summer? It’s another Avenger superhero. We’re hopeful it’ll be a good one since Joss Whedon co-wrote the script and the cast also includes Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones. Of course, Evans is most famous for portraying Human Torch in some of the worst comic-book movies of all time, Fantastic Four and 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

32. The Myth of the American Sleepover

Release Date: July 22
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Stars: Jade Ramsey, Nikita Ramsey, Amy Seimetz
The enormous ensemble cast won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance for this end-of-summer, beginning-of-high-school, coming-of-age story.

33. Sarah’s Key

Release Date: July 22
Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner
Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Niels Arestrup, Mélusine Mayance
Splitting time between an American journalist in present-day Paris and a Jewish girl in the French capital in 1942, this adaptation of a Tatiana De Rosnay novel depicts the French police’s round-up of 10,000 children and their families under the Nazi regime.

34. Cowboys & Aliens

Release Date: July 29
Director: Jon Favreau
Stars: Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell
We’re just bummed there aren’t also robots and dinosaurs in this mash-up from director Jon Favreau (Iron Man).

35. Crazy, Stupid, Love

Release Date: July 29
Directors: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Stars: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon
The 40-Something Divorcé. Steve Carell once again has trouble with the ladies after his perfect life unravels when his wife leaves him, but Ryan Gosling comes to the rescue, helping make him over without, we assume, a chest waxing.

36. The Devil’s Double

Release Date: July 29
Director: Lee Tamahori
Stars: Dominic Cooper, Amber Rose Revah, Mem Ferda
A rare (fictional) glimpse inside the world of pre-9/11 Iraq, the story focuses on the body double for Saddam Hussein’s son Uday and his love for Uday’s concubine.

37. The Future

Release Date: July 29
Director: Miranda July
Stars: Miranda July, Hamish Linklater
Like Me and You and Everyone We Know, Miranda July’s new film also revolves around the love life of a shy introspective girl, but instead of the search for love, July focuses on the struggle to keep loving. July is as winning as ever, and Hamish Linklater is charming, if a bit too John Krasinski-esque in the opposite role. Some will find the narration—by a dying cat named Paw Paw—cloying and the touch of magic realism jarring, while others will find them whimsical and exciting.—Michael Dunaway

38. The Guard

Release Date: July 29
Director: John Michael McDonagh
Stars: Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham
It takes a lot for us to get excited about a buddy-cop movie, but Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle will do. Gleeson, who was so great in In Bruges, is the “unorthodox” Irish policeman and Cheadle is the “uptight” FBI agent trying to bust an international drug-smuggling ring.

39. Life in a Day

Release Date: July 29
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Stars: Cindy Baer, Moica and Caryn Waechter
National Geographic and Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) set out to capture life, documented by people all around the world on the day of July 24, 2010, to get a snapshot of our modern world.

40. Dirty Girl

Release Date: August 5
Director: Abe Sylvia
Stars: Juno Temple, Milo Jovovich, Sally Hawkins, William H. Macy, Lisa Kudrow
In 1987, Danielle, a high-school tramp with a heart of gold and her chubby, gay classmate go on a cross-country road trip in search of the father Danielle never knew.