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Playwright Conrad Earp (Edward Norton) has completed his latest work detailing the tale of a father (Jason Schwartzman) driving his precocious son, Woodrow (Jake Ryan), to receive an award for his scientific research in the fictional town of Asteroid City. While in Asteroid city a confluence of events takes place locking all inhabitants and visitors into quarantine. It’s during this lockdown each inhabitant will have their own revelation for better or for worse. Written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola and Directed by Anderson, this veritable who’s who of Wes Anderson’s greatest hits features the usual expected cast of players adding a few new faces along the way, all delivering deadpan lines of efforted dialogue. Meticulous in set design and art direction, the usual Anderson feast of nuttiness is on full display, and, plinking soundtrack from none other than Alexandre Desplat does its best to sell the drama. Sadly, this return to Wes world, comes up a bit empty handed with comedic beats lacking punch, and, despite all its efforts, echoes a resounding “meh,” we’ve seen these gags before and the bar has not been raised further. Seemingly forgettable, tidy bows and all, this brisk hour and forty four minutes seems appropriately timed. Asteroid City is Rated PG-13.

In the year 1994 the Transformers stuck on Earth detect a beacon of hope that might lead the way back their home of Cybertron. Unfortunately, the same beacon has captured the attention of a planet swallowing robot god. It’ll take the union of humans, Noah and Elena (Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback), the Transformers, and the Maximals a new breed of transformers to overthrow Scourge (Peter Dinklage) and the powers of evil. Written by Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, and Josh Peters and Directed by Steven Caple Jr. This prequel and sequel in the long running Transformer franchise sets itself up with an impossibly moronic and bone headed premise, so rough at times it almost hurts with the low bar intellect and exposition of Snidely Whiplash and Saturday morning cartoons. Furthermore, since this is a prequel, we pretty much know who’s going to make it out alive, offering little emotional investment required (read that as none). And yet, the robots still shine, this time with ample room cinematically to really “do their thing.” Bottom line, you already know what you’re in store for for two hours and seven minutes, with the exception of the last 5 minutes, that may be the most promising transformation yet to come, maybe not, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is rated PG-13.

After suddenly losing their mother, Sadie and Sawyer Harper (Sophie Thatcher and Vivien Lyra Blair) and their father Will (Chris Messina) are all working through their grief when a strange entity finds it’s way into their life. Shrouded in darkness, preying upon the weak, and preferring to hang out in closets, this Boogeyman’s intentions are clearly nefarious. Now more than ever the Harper family will need to find strength in order to prevail, or, maybe it’s just easier to give in to the darkness instead? Adapted from Stephen King’s The Boogeyman, Writers Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, Mark Heyman and Director Rob Savage have stepped up to remind us all why Stephen King still holds the title of reigning champ in modern day horror. Effectively delivering un-nerving turns, and twists, even the expected terror is still effective, and, in some instances even more startling than simple gotcha jump scares. More impressive, the whole film lives under the blanket of a PG-13 rating; which is to say, slumber parties for teens and tweens this summer are going to be rough as this fright fest delivers solid chills from start to finish all whilst following the classic rules of horror. Brace yourself for some good squirms, The Boogeyman runs an hour and thirty eight minutes, but your endocrine system (mainly the adrenaline) is going to make things feel much longer, one eyebrow raised and head tilted, you’ve been warned…Boo.