Top 10 Must-See Summer Movies You Don’t Know About Yet

Avengers: Age of Ultron has Hulk-smashed its way through its first two weekends and is on track to be one of the year's most profitable pics, but there's much more at the multiplex than Marvel heroes this summer. In fact, looking at the lineup of reboots, sequels and slick blockbuster titles, 2015 is looking like one of the most sprawling summers for popcorn pleasures in ages. But what's really strange is how many of the most interesting titles have flown so far under the radar, dominated on social media by juggernaut films like Mad Max: Fury Road, Tomorrowland, Jurassic World and Ant-Man. On that note, here are my picks for the 10 movies you might not yet know about - but that you absolutely have to carve out the time to see if you want to get the most out of your cinema trips this summer. 10) Self/less (opens July 10, wide) The quote-unquote biggest movie on this list, The Cell director Tarsem Singh's sci-fi thriller Self/less has attracted shockingly little buzz in the months leading up to its plum summer release. It stars Ben Kingsley as a wealthy man dying from cancer, who undergoes an experimental procedure to transfer his mind into the supposedly vacant body of a younger man (Ryan Reynolds). As the man begins to discover where his new body came from, he learns that he has entered into a partnership with a nefarious organization that will kill to protect itself. Though most summer sci-fi offerings are veritable wastes of celluloid (see: Lucy, Transcendence), Ex Machina showed there's still an appetite for fresh, creative stories in the genre, and Self/less has a story that could surprise us all equally. 9) The Stanford Prison Experiment (opens July 17, limited) Reviews were strong on this psychological thriller, which screened at Sundance, and with the material on hand, that doesn't come as much of a surprise. The Stanford Prison Experiment, like all the most chilling thrillers these days, is based on a true story. In 1971, psychologist Philip Zimbardo (Billy Crudup here) paid university students to take on the roles of either prisoners or guards in an elaborate scenario designed to figure out how individuals responded to socially imposed power dynamics. The results weren't pretty, with abuses of the prisoners starting almost immediately. It's an intriguing story, to be sure, and director Kyle Patrick Alvarez is working with a killer cast here, including Ezra Miller, Olivia Thirlby, Nelsan Ellis, Ki Hong Lee, Tye Sheridan, Michael Angarano, Jack Kilmer and Nicholas Braun. That staggering lineup of up-and-comers is alone enough to make The Stanford Prison Experiment worth keeping an eye on. 8) Sleeping With Other People (opens Aug. 21, limited) Alison Brie is one of the most under-appreciated comic actresses working today, and it's absolutely shameful that she still has to be degraded for roles in mainstream fare (like the absolutely atrocious Get Hard). This summer might change all that, though - she stars with Jason Sudeikis in Sleeping with Other People, which is riding a wave of critical acclaim out of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival all the way to an August release date. Brie plays a serial cheater who embarks on a platonic relationship with a womanizer (Sudeikis) even as both of them start to catch the feels. With its stellar cast, also including Natasha Lyonne, Adam Scott and Amanda Peet, as well as a strong writer-director in Leslye Headland (Bachelorette, About Last Night), this is looking like the sleeper hit comedy of the summer. 7) American Ultra (opens Aug. 21, limited) This one just announced its release date in time to be included, but the plot sounds so fascinating that it absolutely deserves a place on this list. Jesse Eisenberg (in his first of two appearances here) stars as a small-town stoner with an enigmatic past who gets caught up, along with his girlfriend (Kristen Stewart), in a vast government operation intended to wipe him off the face of the Earth. American Ultra doesn't have a trailer or even any official stills yet, but it boasts a talented scribe in Chronicle writer Max Landis and an intriguing directorial choice in Nima Nourizadeh (Project X). Additionally, with a supporting cast including Walton Goggins, Bill Pullman, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, John Leguizamo and Tony Hale, this is definitely going to be the most fun summer movie of them all for sharp-eyed television aficionados. 6) Southpaw (opens July 24, wide) Jake Gyllenhaal wasn't looking so good the last time we saw him (in Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler), and now, he's transformed again, albeit in the opposite direction, for Antoine Fuqua's boxing drama Southpaw, bulking up so completely that he's almost unrecognizable. It makes us wonder why more people aren't raving about how excited they are to see the pic, as opposed to summer fluff like the new Mission: Impossible and Pixels? Regardless, Southpaw should be on every dutiful cinephile's list - Gyllenhaal stars as a tormented boxer grieving the death of his wife (Rachel McAdams). When his self-destructive behavior causes child protection services to take his child, he struggles to get his life back on track with the help of an accomplished trainer (Forest Whitaker). It sounds like one of the few movies of the summer that we could be talking about during awards season. 5) The Gallows (opens July 10, wide) Never underestimate the infinite wisdom of Jason Blum. The horror-happy producer has delivered hit after hit in recent years, with Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister and Unfriended under his belt, and this summer, he'll be sneaking another under-the-radar frightener into theaters with The Gallows. We only got the first teaser for the found-footage flick recently, but it successfully scared the bejeesus out of at least this writer. Set in high school, the film centers on a group of kids who try to restage a play that ended in tragedy for one cast member years earlier. Things don't go so well, though. The filmmakers, Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing, are unknowns, and there's been little publicity for this one, but I'm prepping for a genuinely scary pic and can't wait to see how it turns out. 4) Me & Earl & the Dying Girl (opens June 12, wide) Every summer has its indie darling knockout. Last summer, it was either Boyhood or Chef, depending on who you ask. The year before, it was The Kings of Summer, without a doubt. And in the summer of 2015, it seems pretty certain that Me & Earl & the Dying Girl has that title on lockdown. It earned a standing ovation at Sundance along with the Grand Jury Prize for Drama, where our own Dominic Mill awarded it the site's top rating of five stars. The pic, which centers on a pair of teenagers who decide to make a movie for their leukemia-stricken friend, is destined for great things, and though a lot of audiences may be diverted by the shinier attractions in the coming months, Me & Earl & the Dying Girl seems like one of the summer's real must-sees. 3) Mr. Holmes (opens July 17, limited) All Sherlocked out, are you? Try this deer-stalker on for size - Sir Ian McKellen takes on the role of Baker Street's most legendary detective, who is facing the end of days after a lengthy career of solving mysteries the world over. With his mental functions slowly but surely leaving him, Holmes revisits the one case he could never solve, in hopes of laying one demon to rest before he passes on, only to find himself grappling with much larger questions of love and life. This is a far cry from the heartthrob Holmeses that Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch brought to life in recent years, but Mr. Holmes looks like a classy, clever addition to the literary icon's filmography. It's certainly not a blockbuster and, sandwiched in between Jurassic World and Inside Out, it may not find a big audience - but something tells me that the film is going to be well-worth the price of admission. 2) The End of the Tour (opens July 31, limited) I caught this transcendent flick at this year's Independent Film Festival Boston, and if anything is right in the world, you'll be hearing a lot more about it as the Oscar race heats up. Jason Segel is revelatory as author David Foster Wallace, whose conversations with journalist Dave Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg, terrific) during a 1996 book tour for his bestselling Infinite Jest make up the backbone of director James Ponsoldt's insightful film. But The End of the Tour is about so much more than Wallace - it's about the ideas that propelled him forward, that haunted and hypnotized him, that made him simultaneously embrace and detest the eyes of millions. Credit Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies for a script worthy of comparisons to Richard Linklater's Before trilogy in how it draws profundity out of honest and raw conversation. 1) Dope (opens June 19, limited) Here we are - Dope is going to be the sleeper hit of this summer, I'm calling it now. An audience fave at Sundance, it's attracting nothing but terrific buzz leading up to its June bow, and the young stars have the makings of real breakouts. Refreshingly, this is one film set in the ghetto that doesn't focus on how terrible life there is, but more on the young people who want to get out, attend college and go on to do bigger and better things. Star Shameik Moore plays a high school geek named Malcolm, who winds up in possession of a backpack filled with drugs, and that's just the catalyst for all the crazy adventures, chases and shenanigans that he and his friends get caught up in. Energetic, bursting with young talent and seemingly packed with pop culture references, Dope is definitely shaping up to be the go-to cool movie of the summer, and it absolutely deserves a place atop this list.