TV
Stranger Things (available 15 July)
This fun supernatural thriller is an ode to all things 80s, from Stephen King to Steven Spielberg. For ultimate nostalgia points, it also stars Winona Ryder. She plays Joyce, whose son Will goes missing from small-town Hawkins, Indiana, in creepy circumstances. As she becomes convinced she can converse with her son via ouija board, the town decides she’s unhinged – until monsters start to show up in the shadows. Meanwhile, Will’s friends set off on their bikes with rucksacks full of snacks, ET-style, to track him down. They’re helped by their new friend Eleven, a mysterious arrival with telekinetic powers that mean she can break a baddie’s neck with just a thought, make bullies wet themselves, make trucks fly – and talk to Will via walkie-talkie. Looks set to be the TV event of the summer.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (available now)
Finally, someone in the UK has picked up the brave, brilliant, goofball musical romcom that won Rachel Bloom a fully-deserved Golden Globe. She is stellar as wacky weirdo Rebecca Bunch, a Harvard-trained lawyer living a miserable workaholic existence in Manhattan until she bumps into her childhood summer-camp boyfriend Josh Chan on the street and decides to stalk him to his hometown of West Covina in California. There, she gets a job at a strip-mall law firm and vows to win Josh’s heart. The songs are all original, and across-the-board hilarious, from The Sexy Getting Ready Song to heavy-metal anthem Textmergency and faux-feminist anthem Women Gotta Stick Together.
Gilmore Girls (available now)
You can have a timely reunion binge with Lorelai, Rory, Sookie and the fast-talking Gilmore gang before the show’s revival later this year – and yes, Melissa McCarthy is on board. All seven seasons are available to watch in one splendid week of sentimentality overload.
Film
Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal: The Movie (available now)
Funny or Die’s brilliant mini-movie about the 70s and 80s rise to fame of the man whose outlandish soundbites and entire real life almost renders satire redundant. But with Johnny Depp donning the blond quiff, it manages to strike spoof gold.
The Taking of Pelham 123 (available now)
Hyperactive remake of the 70s thriller that inspired Reservoir Dogs. John Travolta plays Ryder, a criminal mastermind who hijacks a subway train, demands a $10m ransom – then has to negotiate with Denzel Washington’s troubled subway employee Walter Garber. Silly, entertaining stuff.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (available now)
Hilarious if hit-and-miss compendium of answers to questions in a sex manual from Woody Allen’s early funny period in the 70s. In the segment What Happens During Ejaculation? Allen himself plays a single sperm, Burt Reynolds plays the brain – and in another section about bestiality, Gene Wilder falls in love with a sheep.
Belle (available 6 July)
A powerful, emotionally engaging period drama that tells the true story of Britain’s first black aristocrat – and examines race, class and gender while it’s at it.
The Fault in Our Stars (available 13 July)
Mushy teenage cancer romcom based on John Green’s bestselling YA novel.
The Tenant (available 27 July)
Roman Polanski thriller about a man named Trelkovsky renting an apartment in which the former inhabitant killed herself, and who takes a long slide into instability himself. The last in Polanski’s Apartment trilogy, after Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby. Like those films, The Tenant is no easy watch.
