All I’m saying about Cloud Atlas (Warner Bros., possibly December), “an epic story of mankind” with multiple characters and several time-flipping narratives, is that you might want to read David Mitchell‘s 2004 novel of the same name before seeing it. The last thing you want is to watch a film that makes you go “wait…what?” time and again. You want to be truly “with” the experience, and not fighting it or feeling defeated by it. So I’m just telling you as a friend that you need to buy the book and put on the coffee and study it and figure it all out before seeing the film. You’re back in high school and you’ve homework to do. Simple as that.

Yes, of course — George Herbert Walker Bush looks like a very wise and commendable statesman compared to his son, but I don’t know if I can accept a Barry Goldwater-like revisionist view at this stage. HBO is debuting 41. Here’s Maureen Dowd’s chat with the 88 year-old ex-Prez.

“Of course I’m respectable. I’m old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.” – John Huston‘s Noah Cross in Chinatown (’74).

N.Y. Times media watcher David Carr and film critic A. O. Scott — a.k.a., the “Sweet Spot” guys — riff on New York theatre, the Tony Awards, and the savoring of an authentic Manhattan experience. Plus Carr does a little man-on-the-street interview segment.

The summer season has been underway for five or six weeks now, but let’s spitball some of the remainder — i.e., films opening between June 11th and Labor Day that have stirred interest or curiosity — in terms of likely bests, worsts, mehs and in-betweeners. I’ve seen six or seven of the following but otherwise I know zip (I’m sitting in the attic of a hotel inside the medieval village of Cesky Krumlov and don’t feel all that connected as we speak) — this is mainly intuition & premonition. If you know or have heard something, please share.

Boiled down, there are about 15 summer films opening over the next 10 weeks that are either essential or almost certainly worth seeing. If I’m missing something truly exceptional or terrible, please advise.

Essential, Sterling, Nutritious: Beasts of the Southern Wild (6.27), Side By Side (August TBA — best documentary of the summer?)

Obviously Unmissable: The Dark Knight Rises (7.20), Bourne Legacy (8.3), The Campaign (8.10).

Hearing Good Things: Magic Mike (6.29), The Amazing Spider-Man (7.3 — a friend saw it, was genuinely pleased), Savages (7.6).

Sturdy, Commendable, Recommended: Trishna (7.13), The Queen of Versailles (7.20), Searching for Sugar Man (7.27).

Modest, Low-Key, Reasonably Decent: Your Sister’s Sister (6.15), Take This Waltz (6.29), 2 Days in New York (8.10).

Possible Sleeper: Hit and Run (8.24)

Trepidations: Rock of Ages (6.15). Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (6.22), Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (6.22), Total Recall (8.3), Premium Rush (8.24)

No Clue: People Like Us (6.29), Hope Springs (8.10), 360 (.3),

Nope: Red Lights (7.13), Killer Joe (7.27), Sparkle (8.17), Lawless (8.29).

Hidden: To Rome With Love (6.22).

Little Stuffed Bear: Ted (6.29).

Indifferent: Brave (6.22)

Strange Intrigue: Klown (7.27).

Sandler Pics Never Change: That’s My Boy (6.15).

Tyler Perry Pics Never Change: Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection (6.29).

Necessary Sit: The Woman in the Fifth, Tahrir: Liberation Square.

Took a bus down to medieval Bohemian village. Too touristy but pleasantly scenic all the same, and at times breathtaking. Three hours south of Prague. Rolling green hills. Close to Austrian border.

Saturday, 6.9, 7:25 pm