A new hybrid-release Harley Quinn movie, an animated musical starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, a Sundance-winning documentary about a Yazidi rescue mission in Syria, and more great movies and shows are coming to Seattle theaters and the internet this week. Pop some Junior Mints in the freezer and read on for our picks, and find even more options on our complete on-demand calendar.
Jump to: New This Week | Drive-Ins and Outdoor Movies | Also Playing
New This Week - In Theaters
Girls Trip
Portland Mercury contributor Jenni Moore writes, "Girls Trip doubles as a $19-million ad for the Essence Festival, but I was pleased that the comedy isn’t just a Black woman’s rendition of The Hangover, and nor does it contort itself into a cheesy romcom. The central love story here is that of the “Flossy Posse,” four college friends who used to slay dance-offs in the ’90s. Ryan (Regina Hall) seems to have it all, Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) needs to get laid, and Sasha (Queen Latifah) is a gossip blogger. But Tiffany Haddish steals the show as Dina, the life of the party who routinely gets the girls into trouble, and will get buck to defend her friends from fuck niggas or “Instagram ho” villains. Is Girls Trip a hilarious, turnt-up celebration of Black womanhood and sexuality? YAS! But at its core, it’s about personal integrity, self-love, and female friendship."
Central Cinema
Friday-Wednesday
The Host
Careless American military personnel dump chemicals into South Korea's Han River. Several years later, a creature emerges from the tainted waters and sinks its ravenous jaws into local residents. When the creature abducts their daughter (Ah-sung Ko), a vendor (Song Kang-ho) and his family decide that they are the only ones who can save her.
Grand Cinema
Friday-Saturday
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Mashing up the bombast of Marvel with the glory days of Pixar, Spider-Verse feels decidedly different—funnier, weirder, more daring—than most American animated movies. This is almost a meta, post-modern take on Spider-Man: Instead of being all about Peter Parker, Spider-Verse stars Miles Morales (excellently voiced by Shameik Moore), a kid who also gets bit by a creepy spider and also gets creepy spider-powers. But Miles—a Afro-Latino teenager who, for all his cleverness and heart, feels out of place at his fancy Brooklyn school—not only has a different perspective on the whole "great power, great responsibility" thing, but has his own obstacles to becoming a hero. Luckily for Miles, a whole slew of other spider-people from alternate dimensions show up to help him out. This is a big, fun blockbuster, but it's also the rare big, fun blockbuster that dares to have a strong point of view and a fresh, exciting personality. As Spider-Verse dazzles and twists, thumping to a hip-hop soundtrack and glimmering with every color in the universe, it captures the thrill, smarts, and irreverence that mark Spider-Man's best stories. ERIK HENRIKSEN
Central Cinema
Friday-Wednesday
The Suicide Squad
Fueled by bodega breakfast sandwiches, Harley Quinn is ready to kick ass alongside fellow supervillains Bloodspot, Peacemaker, and King Shark on a government-sanctioned search-and-destroy mission on the remote island of Corto Maltese.
Various theaters
New This Week - Streaming
Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union
Known for his Martin Luther King, Jr. documentary King in the Wilderness, Peter Kunhardt's three-episode docuseries explores the life and legacy of Barack Obama, padded by interviews with subjects like Representative John Lewis (RIP), the speechwriter and podcast host Jon Favreau, the New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb, and the former senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett.
HBO Max
OME: Tales From a Vanishing Homeland
Filmed in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon in the Yasuni biosphere and presented in honor of International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana's documentary offers a peek into the lives of the Huaorani, one of Ecuador’s most isolated indigenous groups—one whose homeland is being threatened by oil companies.
Northwest Film Forum
Friday-Monday
The Paper Tigers
Here are two things I love rolled into one: kung fu and Seattle. (And, yes, I really do love the former despite its dearth of good architecture.) The work that brings these two together is the movie The Paper Tigers. Directed and written by Tran Quoc Bao, the film, which is set in Seattle, and features aspects of the 206 in numerous shots, has at its core the key (if not defining) kung fu narrative logic expressed by a line that has been dubbed a million times: "You killed my master, so I'm going to kill you." In Bao's story, there is a master, and this master is killed by some great force of evil, and the students of the master must avenge the murder. But there is just one catch in The Paper Tiger: the students, three in all, are no longer young. They have to fight with forgotten skills and worn bodies. The Paper Tiger is also a comedy. CHARLES MUDEDE
Netflix
Starting Saturday
Sabaya
The winner of the World Documentary Directing Award at the most recent Sundance Film Festival, Sabaya follows a group of volunteers with the Yazidi Home Center, whose mission is to rescue Yazidi women who are still being held as sex slaves (Sabaya) by Daesh (ISIS supporters) at Syria's Al-Hol Camp. Often accompanied by female infiltrators—some of them former Sabaya—and armed with nothing but an old mobile phone and a small gun, they travel to the camp in an inconspicuous van.
SIFF
Starting Friday
The Stranger's Summer Movie Mashup
Three of The Stranger's amateur short-film festivals—the sexy trailblazer HUMP!, the stoner-ific SPLIFF, and the gore-tastic SLAY—will be viewable online at this summer showcase, which was formerly scheduled to take place in person.
The Stranger
Saturday only
Vivo
In this animated musical, a kinkajou (a very cute rainforest "honey bear" voiced by Broadway royalty Lin-Manual Miranda) is tasked by his beloved owner and mentor (Juan de Marcos Gonzáles) with delivering a love song to an old friend before it's too late.
Netflix
Starting Friday
Drive-Ins & Outdoor Movies
BECU Drive-in Movies at Marymoor Park
Redmond
This week: Coco (Thursday), Pitch Perfect (Wednesday)
Blue Fox Drive-In Theatre
Oak Harbor
This week: Jungle Cruise (Thursday-Monday), Escape Room (Thursday-Monday)
El Centro de La Raza
Beacon Hill
This week: Daughters of the Dust (Saturday)
Mural Amphitheatre
Seattle Center
This week: The Farewell (Friday), Strictly Ballroom (Saturday)
Peddler Brewing
Ballard
This Week: Mean Girls (Thursday)
Rodeo Drive-In
Bremerton
This week: Jungle Cruise (Friday-Tuesday), Black Widow (Friday-Tuesday), Old (Friday-Tuesday), Escape Room (Friday-Tuesday), Snake Eyes (Friday-Tuesday), A Quiet Place Part II (Friday-Tuesday)
Skyline Drive-In Theatre
Lineup: Snake Eyes (Thursday), Space Jam: A New Legacy (Thursday)
Wheel-In Motor Movie Drive-In
Lineup: Black Widow (Friday-Sunday & Wednesday), Cruella (Friday-Sunday & Wednesday)
Also Playing
Black Widow
Various theaters (and premier access on Disney+)
Cruella
Cinemark Lincoln Square - Bellevue (and premier access on Disney+)
F9
Regal Meridian
The Green Knight
Various theaters
In the Heights
Regal Meridian (and streaming on HBO Max)
Jungle Cruise
Various theaters (and streaming on Disney+)
Old
Various theaters
Pig
Various theaters
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain
Various theaters
Snake Eyes
Various theaters
Space Jam: A New Legacy
Various theaters (and HBO Max)
Stillwater
Various theaters
