Oppenheimer
and
Barbie
will likely continue to dominate the box office throughout August but if
you've already seen them or don't care for nukes and dolls, fear not. Here
are 10 August releases we reckon might be worth getting out of the summer
heat for.
Meg 2: The Trench (August 4th, cinemas)
The titular giant shark of
the first film
has been multiplied for this sequel with Jason Statham once again
plumbing the depths of the ocean as rescue diver Jonas Taylor. Along with
the sharks there are human threats to cope with this time.
Ben Wheatley (Free Fire;
High Rise) directs this adaptation of author Steve Alten's novel 'The
Trench'.
Paris Memories (August 4th, cinemas)
Written and directed by Alice Winocour (Disorder;
Proxima), Paris Memories stars Virginie Efira as Mia, a
survivor of a terrorist attack in Paris. As she attempts to rebuild her
life she connects with other survivors including the injured Thomas (Benoît Magimel). Winocour was inspired by her brother, who survived the attack on the
Bataclan venue in November 2015.
You Hurt My Feelings (August 8th, Prime Video)
Writer/director Nicole Holofcener reteams with her
Enough Said star Julia Louis-Dreyfus for comic drama
You Hurt My Feelings. Louis-Dreyfus plays a novelist whose marriage hits the rocks when she
overhears her husband (Tobias Menzies) giving a brutally honest
negative reaction to her latest work.
L'Immensita (August 11th, cinemas, Curzon Home Cinema)
Directed by Emanuele Crialese, L'immensità takes us
back to the Rome of the 1970s. There we find the unhappily married Clara (Penélope Cruz) and Felice (Vincenzo Amato), whose 12-year-old daughter (Luana Giuliani) Adriana begins identifying as a male. Crialese is said to have drawn
heavily on his own childhood for his first film in over a decade.
The Communion Girl (August 11th, Shudder)
This 1980s set Spanish horror stars Carla Campra and Aina Quiñones as a pair of teenage friends who enjoy a night of
clubbing in their small town. Things take a dark turn as they make their
way home and encounter a little girl clad in a communion dress, clutching
a doll. Yikes!
Lie With Me (August 18th, cinemas)
Based on the novel by Philippe Besson, director
Olivier Peyon's Lie with Me tells the story of Stephane
(Guillaume de Tonquédec and Jérémy Gillet), an author who
returns to his hometown of Cognac to help promote a local distillery. There
he encounters Lucas (Victor Belmondo), the son of his first love
Thomas (Julien De Saint Jean), rekindling memories of his formative
years.
Bad Things (August 18th, Shudder)
One of the most talked about movies from this year's Tribeca Film Festival
was director Stewart Thorndike's Bad Things. The film sees a group of friends
terrorised by the supernatural when they holiday at a snowy resort.
The Innocent (August 25th, cinemas)
Louis Garrel writes, directs and stars in this French crime
caper. Garrel plays a young man who enlists a friend (Noémie Merlant) to spy on his mother's new husband (Roschdy Zem), an ex-con he suspects of having sinister motives,
only to find himself embroiled in a criminal plot himself.
Scrapper (August 25th, cinemas)
Director Charlotte Regan scooped the top prize in the World Cinema
Drama section of this year's Sundance Film Festival with her feature debut
Scrapper. The film stars Lola Campbell as Georgie, a
12-year-old living alone on a London council estate following the death of
her mother. When her estranged father (Harris Dickinson) shows up,
Georgie struggles to accept his presence in her life.
Afire (August 25th, cinemas, Curzon Home Cinema)
Undine
director Christian Petzold and actress Paula Beer reteam once
again for Afire, in which Beer plays one of four young people who gather at a holiday home
on the Northern Germany coast. As a forest fire rages nearby (prescient or
what?), so too does the quartet get hot and bothered.