11 New Movies We Can't Wait to Watch This Summer

While TECHNICALLY summer doesn't start until the summer solstice on June 21, for all intents and purposes, summer starts on Memorial Day weekend. Cue picnics in the park, beach trips, sunburns, s'mores and "Summer Fridays" playing hooky from work. But most of all cue summer movies.

Over the past few decades, summer has become a fertile ground for blockbusters, as audiences pack into air-conditioned theaters (make sure to bring a sweatshirt) to escape the heat for few hours. Franchises like Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man and Indiana Jones pick those long summer days to debut their movies, and fans are more than happy to sip an Icee while watching cars explode.

But don't sleep on the indie summer releases either. Many movies, having started their long release journeys back at Sundance or SXSW, are now entering theaters widely, meaning you can finally catch up on things film twitter has been raving about for months.

We looked ahead at the summer movie calendar and picked 11 films that you won't want to miss!

Here are 11 Must-Watch New Summer Movies for 2023:

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (June 2)

Summer is starting off strong with a buzzy double-header the first week in June. To begin, we have the highly anticipated sequel to the 2018 Academy Award winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The original took audiences by surprise with the smartly created multiverse storyline (before everyone was doing multiverses), gorgeous graphics and a chart-topping soundtrack. Now Miles Morales and his bevy of spider-friends are back for round two, which is sure to be bigger, better and filled with even more Spideys.

2. Past Lives (June 2)

Also opening June 2 is Past Lives, a quiet decades-spanning romance about a boy and a girl who seem eternally tethered but are unable to be together. The drama debuted earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, and it's been building steam ever since. Greta Lee (who you may recognize from Russian Doll or The Morning Show) is at the center of a love triangle between a childhood friend from Korea and a longterm partner in New York. The delicate film is fine-tuned perfection, and will be one to watch as we head into awards season this fall.

Related: 10 Academy Award Contenders for 2024 That You Can Already Watch

3. Asteroid City (June 16)

While Wes Anderson's last movie, The French Dispatch, never seemed to connect with audiences given its vignette format, I'm excited for his latest quirky feature. Asteroid City, which is debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, focuses on a hoard of odd individuals who attend a fictional stargazing convention. Anderson's symmetrical shots and pastel tones are all present, as is a vintage Wes Anderson stacked cast that includes *deep breath* Jason Schwartzman, Scarlet Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Jeff Goldblum, Sophia Lillis, Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks. Watch for the vibes and for the stars (of more than one variety).

4. No Hard Feelings (June 23)

Jennifer Lawrence has been largely MIA for the past few years recovering from press backlash, franchise fatigue and giving birth to a son. Last winter, she made a quiet return in Causeway, a poignant and Oscar-nominated indie drama about a woman recovering from a traumatic brain injury. Now she's back on the big screen in this raunchy, R-rated comedy about an Uber driver who answers a Craigslist ad to pose as a quiet boy's girlfriend. J. Law has incredible comedic timing, but hasn't done many straight comedies, so this should be a delight.

5. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (June 30)

After the disastrous fourth Indiana Jones movie, I thought we'd seen the last of the archeologist/action hero, but 15 years after Crystal Skull and over 40 years since Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy is back. In Dial of Destiny, Harrison Ford is joined by Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge on a mission that involves Nazis, the Cold War and the moon landing. Will there be snakes on the moon? We'll have to wait and see.

6. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (July 12)

Tom Cruise is yet again attempting to send himself to an early grave by way of ridiculous stunt work. In this first part of a series-ending duology, Cruise's Ethan Hunt has returned to face off against baddies in another death-defying mission. The plot is largely under wraps, but expect plenty of deranged stunts (performed by Cruise himself much to the chagrin of every insurance agency) and at least one person peeling their face off. Hayley Atwell joins the cast for the first time, and if the Fast X two-part series finale was any indication, we may see the star ending this movie on the losing side of things.

7. Theater Camp (July 14)

On the opposite end of the budgetary scale from Mission: Impossible we have Theater Camp, a tiny comedy about the slightly annoying counselors at a summer theater camp. (As a lover of theater, we must admit that every theater person is at best, slightly annoying). If you love jokes about Company and references to Hedda Gabler, then this is the movie for you. The movie was written/directed/produced by a combination of Molly Gordon, Ben Platt and Noah Galvin (who all also star), and features a slew of their young, talented friends including Jimmy Tatro, Ayo Edebiri and Patti Harrison. You will either be obsessed with this movie or ready to murder all your friends who won't shut up about it.

8. Oppenheimer (July 21)

The double feature of the century arrives in theaters July 21, 2023, and I'm not sure which I'd recommend you watch first. Perhaps you'd like to start with Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, who created the atomic bomb. While Nolan's latest movie Tenet was a twisty puzzle box that required multiple viewings to decipher, I imagine that Oppenheimer will be more akin to Dunkirk in its historical nature. Cillian Murphy gets the meaty lead role and could be in the hunt for his first Oscar nomination. If you don't want to start your day at the theater with a movie about the Manhattan Project, however, you could save that for later and begin with...

Related: Everything We Know About the 2024 Oscars, Including Important Dates

9. Barbie (July 21)

Barbie couldn't be more different from Oppenheimer if it tried, and that's the true beauty of this July 21 double feature. Ignore the tragedies of the world and instead bask in the shellacked, pink, plastic world of the Hasbro icon. Margot Robbie (and approximately 400 other actors) play Barbie in the latest from Greta Gerwig. Gerwig, who previously wrote and directed Ladybird and Little Women has a perfect track record, and I don't anticipate that will change with Barbie. Now your only question is whether you'd like to start or end your day with Ryan Gosling dressed as Ken.

10. Haunted Mansion (July 28)

In a trend that's growing increasingly alarming, Disney, which has for decades been the epitome of imagination, is returning to the same IP over and over. While the live action remakes, unnecessary Pixar sequels and spinoff Marvel/Star Wars TV shows are growing tiresome, the second Haunted Mansion movie in 20 years is a welcome return. What has me ghoulishly giddy about Disney's latest ride-to-movie adaptation is the cast. LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hasan Minhaj, Dan Levy and Winona Ryder? All in one movie? Some playing ghosts perhaps? I'm ready to laugh and then have chronic nightmares for a month.

11. The Last Voyage of the Demeter (August 11)

At this point, August is looking a little sparse on hits (unless talking turtles, talking dogs and talking beetles are your thing), but that doesn't mean that more tiny films won't schedule releases for the end of summer in the next month or so. ATM, however, the movie I'm most looking forward to is The Last Voyage of the Demeter, or as I'm referring to it Dracula on a Boat. The horror movie doesn't have a particularly star-studded cast (unless you count Liam Cunningham from Game of Thrones), but the premise and trailer look delightfully terrifying. 2023 has been a great year for horror with M3GAN, Cocaine Bear, Scream VI, and Beau Is Afraid, so let's keep those good times going.

Next, The Best Movies of 2023 (So Far)