Do you feel that? It’s Cancer season, so it’s okay to let yourself get a little emotional. This is the time of year that will make you want to feel warm and loved and at home — and we’ve got the pop culture picks to get you there. Read on for the movies, music, and TV shows that will get you through July!
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ARIES (March 21 to April 19)
It takes the will of a ram to rewrite the past, and that’s just what your sign-mate Quentin Tarantino is here to do. The filmmaker is back this month with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (July 26), an alternate timeline of 1960s Hollywood history. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a (fictional) famous movie star alongside Brad Pitt as his best friend and stunt double and Margot Robbie as (the very real) Sharon Tate in Tarantino’s wild ride through golden-age Tinseltown. Warn your water-sign friends to take cover — this Aries legend is about to set the whole summer on fire.
TAURUS (April 20 to May 20)
You really do have perfect taste, Taurus. Keep this month delicious — in more ways that one — by tearing through J. Ryan Stradal’s The Lager Queen of Minnesota (July 23). The author of 2016’s acclaimed Kitchens of the Great Midwest returns to the Heartland — and its culinary traditions — for a novel of beer, pie, and family. As usual, darling bull, you’ll probably find yourself wanting a second helping.
GEMINI (May 20 to June 20)
You followed the shocking details of the college admissions scandal — nicknamed, probably by a Gemini, Operation Varsity Blues — obsessively, with equal parts horror and glee (you have two sides, after all). So you will also take delight in the miraculous timeliness of Bruce Holsinger’s The Gifted School (July 2), a novel about parental competitiveness going to unhealthy extremes. As both a juicy drama and a thought-provoking examination of our myths and values, it’s sure to help distract you from the sting of your birthday season ending.
CANCER (June 21 to July 22)
It may be the epic tale of a wayward Leo rediscovering that he is and always has been destined for the spotlight (sigh), but it’s your birthday right now, Cancer, and that means The Lion King (July 19) is dedicated to you. What better way to celebrate this most loving time of the year than with the ultimate homecoming? With “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (spoiler: you can)? With the shattering heartbreak that, 25 years ago, probably first taught you how to access the profound depths of your Cancerian capacity to feel? It’s time, gentle crab. You need to return to Pride Rock.
LEO (July 23 to Aug. 22)
Your birthday season hasn’t technically arrived yet, but in a way, the entire summer is Leo season, right? I mean, as long as the sun’s out, it’s got to shine on someone, right, and who else is so deserving? The point is, the hottest new show of July seems like it was made just for you, and when British phenomenon Love Island (CBS, July 9) makes its American debut, you’ll feel right at home watching a whole group of swimsuit-wearing, bed-sharing singles flirt and kiss and toss their hair and couple and recouple up. They might as well call it Leo Island.
VIRGO (Aug. 23 to Sept. 22)
You may know Awkwafina as a comedienne, but don’t forget that she’s a multifaceted Gemini — and one of her many sides is a compelling dramatic actress. She fares well in Lulu Wang’s Sundance smash The Farewell (July 12) as a young Chinese-American woman who visits her cancer-stricken grandmother in China one last time — but whose family has decided not to tell Nai Nai about her terminal diagnosis. As all good Virgos understand, the strongest, purest feelings are often demonstrated not in passionate outbursts (ahem, fire signs), but in restraint. This movie will vibrate within you long after you’ve seen it.
LIBRA (Sept. 23 to Oct. 22)
Let a very Libra summer of love begin! You’ll while away July watching Four Weddings and a Funeral (Hulu, July 31), the new miniseries from the brilliant romantic mind of Cancer Mindy Kaling, based on the 1994 film. Basically, it’s just Libra culture in small-screen form: a great big ensemble of beautiful people falling in and out of love, causing drama, uncovering secrets, and attending no fewer than five (!) huge parties. Don’t worry that one of them is a funeral!
SCORPIO (Oct. 23 to Nov. 21)
Avid Reader Press/Simon + Schuster
You’re the sign of intensity, passion, obsession, desire. Very casual! This month, you’ll immerse yourself (even more than usual) in all of that, with Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women (July 9), an unforgettable, deeply empathetic examination of sex and love in America. The nonfiction book is the product of almost a decade of reporting, which Taddeo spent crossing the country and profiling three women with very different sex lives in a groundbreaking portrait of female desire.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 to Dec. 21)
Superhero movies can be hit or miss for you, Sagittarius — some of the weirder, semi-philosophical, rebels-in-outer-space ones can ignite your interest, but the hyper-grounded, is-the-institution-actually-bad? (yes, it is) variety make you want to jump off the edge of whatever administrative building’s roof they’re having a confrontation on. Spider-Man: Far from Home (July 5) not only stars your fellow archer Jake Gyllenhaal as a colorful new character, but also takes the action to your favorite place — away. Far away.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 to Jan. 19)
Gustavo Cabellero /NBC News/MSNBC/Telemundo (3)
You have, shall we say, an acute awareness of rank, Capricorn. You could probably walk into a room of strangers and assess within 15 minutes (honestly, probably 12 minutes) where the power is. Then within 15 days (honestly, probably 12 days) you’d seize it for yourself. The point being: There’s a socially acceptable battle royal for the highest seat in the land going on at this very moment, and what kind of sea-goat would you be if you missed it? The second round of the 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates (July 30) is coming up. Get your popcorn.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 to Feb. 18)
For the strangest thing in the zodiac (in the best way!), this month will be all about Stranger Things (Netflix, July 4), the third installment of the Duffer Brothers’ sci-fi hit. The new season will bring more of the brainy supernatural mysteries you love to puzzle through, and it will introduce the exciting, sinister element of a mall, which enables our young heroes to dress in their loudest ’80s-wear (basically, like Aquarians). Throw on your favorite neon bomber jacket and settle in for some Netflix and chilling.
PISCES (Feb. 19 to March 20)
Ed Sheeran is an Aquarius, but it’s the sign that follows his own that will most appreciate his next work. No.6 Collaborations Project (July 12) is a collection of collaborations — don’t you almost tear up a little just thinking of all those artists making beautiful music together? — for which the sensitive singer called on a diverse group of partners. For “I Don’t Care,” the first single from the collection, he teamed up with Justin Bieber — a celebrated (if controversial) Pisces.
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