After the Barbenhiemer summer of 2023, there are big shoes to fill for movies this year. Some top hits so far include blockbusters like Dune Part 2 and Challengers.
The second Dune film was a great success among critics and fans, and even succeeded in garnering a whole new audience to the franchise. Senior communications major Naomi Bilesanmi said she watched and loved Dune Part 2 despite sleeping through the first one.
“I wasn’t all that interested in seeing the second one but my friends invited me and I actually really liked it,” said Bilesanmi, “I had to go back and rewatch the first one and now I’m completely invested.”
Director Denis Villeneuve completes the story of the first Dune novel and adds some familiar faces to the cast. Austin Butler and Florence Pugh join Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya for the more actionpacked and suspense-driven sequel.
Dune Part 2 picks up with protagonists Paul Atriedes and Chani united with Paul’s mother, Lady Jessica, as they continue to maneuver their alliance with the Fremen, the native people of the planet Arrakis. Paul has a destiny to fulfill that only he can see but he is also seeking revenge against House Harkonnen for destroying his family and he must balance all of this on top of a complicated battle for power that forces him to choose between love and the fate of the world.
In a role completely different from Dune Part 2, Bilesanmi and senior information science major Bryan Bokino said they are also excited to watch Zendaya in the upcoming sports drama, Challengers.
“I saw an ad for it on Youtube and it looks really interesting.” Bokino said. “I’m a big horror, thriller fan but Challengers look cool so I’m definitely going to watch it.”
LucaGuadagnino’s Challengers follows a professional tennis player, Tashi, as she navigates her sports career and the attention of two best friends vying for her affections. Major consequences follow the main character years later. Zendaya leads Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor in the much anticipated film that comes out on April 26.
Bokino also mentioned movies in the horror/thriller genre such as Immaculate, the Catholic horror starring Sydney Sweeney, and Damsel, the Netflix thriller starring Millie Bobby Brown.
This film follows Elodie after she marries a handsome prince and is used as a sacrifice to satisfy a generation-old curse. She gets thrown into a cave with a fire breathing dragon so obviously chaos and action ensues.
But for Bokino, Brown is the main draw of Damsel. “It looked interesting, like dragons and all that. But mainly just because Millie Bobby Brown is in it and I just wanted to see her,” he said.
Damsel is one of Millie Bobby Brown’s many projects that are available on Netflix and now the highly talked about Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell rom-com Anyone But You has joined the streaming service.
Before the release of Sweeney’s role as a tortured nun in Immaculate, everyone was talking about her romantic comedy, Anyone But You. People were mainly speculating about the nature of Sweeney and Powell’s off-screen relationship, but that should not take away from the classic enemies-to-lovers and fake dating tropes this movie utilizes and that have been missing from cinema for too long.