It’s the first week of the Summer movie season, and it begins with a bit of MADNESS!!!

By Sean Blanford

In Theaters
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Make way. There’s a new MCU film coming, though! The first of three highly-anticipated Marvel films in 2022 hits theaters this weekend, and it’s the only film being covered by the Bananameter critics. Benedict Cumberbatch returns as Stephen Strange alongside Benedict Wong, Elizabeth Olsen, Rachel McAdams, and new-to-the-series Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez. At the same time, director Sam Raimi brings his sense of humor and horror to the franchise. Find out this weekend what our consensus score was.

In Theaters (limited)
Happening: From France, the 2021 winner of the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival is the latest from writer/director Audrey Diwan. Based on the Annie Ernaux novel, the film stars Anamaria Vartolomei as Anne, a young student in 1960s France seeking to receive an at-the-time illegal procedure to terminate her unexpected pregnancy.

Lux Æterna: The second Gaspar Noe film in two weeks. This, however, is a short made famous at the 2019 Cannes for having paramedics waiting outside the premiere in case audience members became ill or fainted during the screening. The film stars Beatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg as two actresses sharing stories of on-set hysteria and witchcraft.

Netflix
Marmaduke: An animated adaptation of the beloved comic strip Great Dane stars Pete Davidson as the titular pup. He seeks to go from undisciplined and mangy to a World Champion. Jason Anthony, J.K. Simmons, and David Koechner co-star.

Shudder
The Twin: Teresa Palmer (Lights Out) stars as Rachel, a young mother who moves to a remote home with her husband and surviving twin son after the tragic accident that killed the other child. When the dead child’s soul begins to take over the body of the living one, the family learns more about their children than they ever imagined.