Matthew McConaughey

This summer hasn’t been a great one for movies (we even have actual data to back that up), and even if the rest of this month turns out to be as disappointing as June, we still have August to look forward to — and Kubo and the Two Strings, Laika’s latest stop-motion animation adventure, which looks like the studio’s most epic and visually stunning project yet. Even though the previous trailer was said to be the last we’d see before the film’s release, Laika has delivered one more sneak peek to tide you over until August.

Remember those days in high school where your regular history teacher would call in sick and some anonymous substitute would just put on a VHS of Glory or Gettysburg and call it a day? It turns out that practice is still alive and well at universities across the country, with one small difference: instead of some random recent college graduate as a substitute teacher, these students will be visited by Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey.

“The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed” — every fan of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series has that opening line from The Gunslinger seared into their brains. We’ve already gotten a look at Idris Elba as the heroic gunslinger Roland Deschain, but today brings our first peek at the other half of that equation thanks to some new set photos of Matthew McConaughey.

Watching ‘Free State of Jones’ transported me back in time, but not back to the Civil War era. The 139 minute war drama took me back to high school on the days when my U.S. History teacher would play a historical movie, like 1986's Glory, in place of a lesson plan. But if any teacher is looking to add a movie to their syllabus, it shouldn’t be Gary Ross’ ‘Free State of Jones.’

HBO’s drama problem seems only to increase as 2016 rolls on, a slump that last year dragged True Detective from top-tier to bottom-shelf to cold storage. Matthew McConaughey might just be up for a cold one, however, claiming to have talked with creator Nic Pizzolatto about returning Rustin Cohle for True Detective Season 3.

Just when you thought Fred Armisen’s deleted SNL finale sketch the last of Season 41 to hold you over for summer, in swoops a bonus round of celebrity Star Wars auditions! SNL dusted off the November sketch for another round, this time including Matthew McConaughey, along with impressive impressions the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Shia LaBeouf and more.

It might be okay if Laika just continues to release trailers for Kubo and the Two Strings. The studio’s latest stop-motion adventure looks to be their most beautiful, immersive and epic story yet, and it’s hard to complain about so many trailers when each one is so darn pretty. Note to Laika: Either put this movie in theaters, like, tomorrow, or please continue to release a new trailer for it every day until August.

When Gus Van Sant’s latest feature The Sea of Trees debuted at Cannes nearly a year ago, expectations were high. A skilled actor’s director, Van Sant’s collaboration with buzzy star Matthew McConaughey was presumed to be an insta-hit and a possible Oscar contender in the making. McConaughey’s professional capital has never been higher, and the Cannes set has always been fond of Van Sant, awarding him the Palme d’Or for his school-shooting drama Elephant in 2003. So it came as that much more of a shock when audiences roundly rejected The Sea of Trees, complete with booing and walkouts. (Though that sounds a bit more dramatic than it is. Cannes audiences love big gestures; nearly everything gets either a standing ovation or jeering, and in the rarest of occasions, both.)

We’ve been looking forward to Laika’s upcoming fantasy adventure Kubo and the Two Strings since the first trailer surfaced back in December. The fledgling studio has accrued a ’00s-Pixar-level spotless track record in the past seven years; their releases Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls dazzled critics and audiences alike with their blend of ceaselessly clever humor and stop-motion wizardry. There’s no reason to believe Kubo won’t continue this hot streak for Laika, and the latest trailer to appear online cements this as one of the year’s most exciting animated releases. (Though the potential for crossover appeal in the world of furries is not quite as great as that of Zootopia. Point, Disney.)

The drama finds McConaughey portraying a wayward businessman who travels to Aokigahara to end his life, but before he can do so, he meets a like-minded soul (Ken Watanabe) who’s come for the same reason.