Supergirl – James Gunn’s Superman (2025) was a surprisingly solid hit last year, so there’s a bit riding on this – the first real follow up in the “DC Universe” franchise – from Dumb Money (2023) director Craig Gillespie. Kara Zor-El (or Supergirl, played by Milly Alcock of House of the Dragon) heads out for an intergalactic birthday bender with the scene-stealing secret weapon of the previous film…Krypto the superdog. The partying twenty-something with superpowers encounters ends up facing off against assorted alien jerks that get on her nerves, including a rebranded Jason Momoa as perhaps DC Comics most ridiculous superhero-adjacent character, Lobo (which is not at all pejorative and is honestly perfect casting). With a screenplay by Ana Nogueira (her first major film project) and overseen by Gunn as the creative head of the franchise, expect this one to be a fairly good time for the university aged crowd.

Minions & Monsters – Hitting just before the school holidays is the next installment in the Despicable Me franchise, focusing on the titular jaundiced, gibbering, goggle-adorned, helpfully inept and ever-loyal cash-machines. Set in 1920’s Hollywood the Minions find themselves making a monster movie, only to unleash an all too real terror into the world. With voice talent including Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan, Cristoph Waltz, Allison Janney, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeff Bridges, Phil LaMarr, Trey Parker in a rare non South Park role and apparently George Lucas (…!), regular series director Pierre Coffin (also the voice of the Minions) and Patrick Delage are on hand to bring this one to the box office. The kids are guaran-damn-teed to find it hilarious.

Jackass: Best and Last – It’s astonishing how endearing a group of friends that became rich and famous by repeatedly attacking one another’s testicles have become. The progenitor of pretty much all prank shows whether live, televised or streamed, Jackass was a generational touchstone when it first came to screens, then dumbfounded critics when their cinematic efforts proved to be not only profitable with juvenile audiences, but actually possessed of artistic merit (exemplified in Jackass: Forever). The boys are promising that this will be the last time they will do exceptionally stupid and dangerous stunts for entertainment, and director Jeff Tremaine has undoubtedly covered the entire ordeal in excruciating detail, but expect a touch of melancholy and rumination on the realities of growing old, and the loss of the ability to withstand a cattle prod to the rectum.

Dear You – For those of the indie/arthouse/international film crowd, this Chinese family drama comes from filmmaker Hongchun Lan (who co-wrote the screenplay) and features a cast of largely first time performers. Something of a culturally significant project, the dialogue is entirely in a regional dialect, Teochew (rather than more globally accessible Mandarin or Cantonese), as the unfolding narrative ponders how ex-patriots remain connected to the places that they may have fled. Facing financial ruin, a young man sets out to find his grandfather, who had for some time sent letters with support money for the family (Qiaopi) after fleeing to Thailand to escape military conscription. Unburdened by famous faces, these are the kind of films that can be deeply transportive experiences.