The movies coming out this summer worth seeing

We were told off recently for having too much summer holiday, so it’s our responsibility to use that time as wisely as possible which, of course, means going to see lots of movies.

From the week before Christmas all the way to Waitangi Day, here is a selection of new films arriving in cinemas that I am looking forward to.

James Cameron once suggested that tickets to his Avatar films should be more expensive than other films because they are longer than average and cost lots of money to make.

We should be grateful his campaign failed because this summer we can get three hours and fifteen minutes of air-conditioned bliss for the same price as an ordinary 90-minute film.

But only if you don’t spring for extras like reclining chairs, IMAX or 3D.

Avatar: Fire and Ashopens 18 December.

When John Clarke died suddenly in 2017 a vacancy opened up for “greatest living New Zealander”. If all you know about Clarke is the Fred Dagg character you are in for a treat as this intimate documentary – by his daughter Lorin – shows us how he became one of the greatest comic voices in the world after he left Aotearoa.

Not Only Fred Dagg But Also John Clark previews from 18 December opens 25 December.

If music is more your style, Anchor Me, a documentary about Don McGlashan opens on 15 January.

The third big screen outing (the previous feature film, Sponge on the Run, missed out on cinemas because of Covid) for the beloved animated character sees our weird little hero head to the bottom of the ocean to face the ghost of the Flying Dutchman, a reference that will go over the heads of most of the target audience but fun all the same.

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePantspreviews from 19 December opens 26 December.

For slightly older viewers, Scarlet is a new animé film from the great Mamoru Hosoda (Mirai) and opens on 5 February.

There’s not much online yet about this picture, the latest from writer-director Tearepa Kahi (Herbs – Songs of Freedom and Poi E: The Story of a Song). It looks to be a documentary (with significant dramatic recreations) about the Māori Battalion World War II hero Haane Manahi who was nominated for a Victoria Cross for bravery.

Haane previews from 29 January and opens 5 February.

Both of the top prize winners at this year’s Cannes Film Festival are being released within two weeks of each other in January - both are likely contenders for the foreign language Oscar.

Jafar Panahi’s remarkable It Was Just an Accident, made in defiance of an Iranian government ban, won the Palme d’Or and opens on 29 January.

In Sentimental Value, film director Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World) has made a film in which Stellan Skarsgård plays a film director attempting to make an autobiographical movie against the wishes of his family.

Sentimental Value previews from 26 December and opens 8 January.

Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning (and bestselling) 2020 novel reaches the screen courtesy of Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao (Nomadland).

Playwright William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley) lose their son, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), to the plague, prompting Shakespeare to write the most famous play in the English language.

Hamnet previews from 10 January, opens 15 January.

Inspired by a 2008 documentary, Song Sung Blue is the story of Mike and Claire Sardina (Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson), who performed for many years as the Neil Diamond tribute act, Lightning & Thunder. This promises romance, heartache and lots of crowd-pleasing music.

Song Sung Blue previews from 26 December, opens 1 January.

Some 22 years after the first film in the franchise, the arrival of Danny Boyle’s 28 Years later was like a breath of fresh air for the zombie genre.

The follow-up has Nia DaCosta (Little Woods, Hedda) in the director’s chair as we get to focus on “the jimmys”, a psychopathic cult inspired by Jimmy Savile.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple opens 15 January.

If you want a more restrained version of Ralph Fiennes, wait two weeks for the Alan Bennett-scripted costume drama The Choral which opens 29 January.