New movies to watch in August

Controversial opinion incoming: There’s no truly terrible movie in the Alien franchise. That doesn’t mean, though, that Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Álvarez (known for his Evil Dead remake and Don’t Breathe) doesn’t have a tall order with Alien: Romulus (Aug. 16), one of the biggest movies scheduled for August. Cailee Spaeny stars in the seventh installment of the franchise, set between the events of Alien and Aliens. (See my review of the film here.)

Speaking of controversial opinions, we’re truly blessed to live in an era where we regularly get to watch new M. Night Shyamalan movies. He’s described his latest, Trap (Aug. 2), as Hannibal Lecter meets a Taylor Swift concert. Josh Hartnett is in full DILF mode in a movie about a dad and his teenage daughter who go to a concert only to realize the whole thing is a trap organized by police to catch a serial killer.

Already one of the most successful French films in years, The Count of Monte-Cristo (Aug. 16) is a rare film that has both critical and popular appeal. The recent recipient of the Cheval Noir best film prize at Fantasia, the movie has topped the French box-office as well. The retelling of the Alexandre Dumas novel stars Pierre Niney in the titular role.

For horror and thriller fans, there are a lot of really interesting films hitting the screen in August. Tilman Singer puts Hunter Schafer in Cuckoo (Aug. 9), a darkly funny and unpredictable horror film set in the German Alps. (See my interview with Schafer’s costar Dan Stevens here.) Quebec filmmaker, Annick Blanc makes her feature debut with Jour de Chasse (Aug. 16), a thriller that made waves at SXSW, starring Nahéma Ricci as a sex worker stranded in the woods with a bunch of men on a hunting trip. The Crow (Aug. 23) is a reboot of the gothic revenge fantasy of the same name, based on the 1989 graphic novel. Bill Skarsgård steps into the lead role with FKA Twigs and Danny Huston in supporting roles. John Cho stars in Afraid (Aug. 30), the new sci-fi thriller about an experimental home AI that becomes sentient.

sing sing colman domingo new movies august — Sing Sing

One of the most beloved films to screen at TIFF last year, Sing Sing (Aug 9), stars Colman Domingo as part of a small group of prisoners inside Sing Sing Correctional Facility — one of the world’s most infamous maximum security prisons — attempting to stage their own original production, Breakin’ The Mummy’s Code.

Based on the children’s book of the same name, Harold and the Purple Crayon (Aug. 2) is about a grown-up Harold who has a purple crayon that helps bring his drawings to life. Zachary Levi plays the lead role with Jemaine Clement and Zooey Deschanel in supporting roles.

The much delayed Borderlands (Aug. 9), a movie directed by Eli Roth and based on the popular video game, is finally coming to the big screen this month. Cate Blanchett leads an all-star cast that includes Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramirez, Gina Gershon, Jamie Lee Curtis and Bobby Lee. A ragtag team of misfits embark on a mission to save a missing girl who holds the key to unimaginable power.

If you can’t get enough of the Olympics, Balestra (Aug. 9) will hopefully scratch an itch. Cush Jumbo stars as Joanna, a competitive fencer at the end of her career who is desperate to be the world’s best. In order to gain an edge, she pursues an experimental technology, allowing her to train via lucid dreaming.

One of China’s most successful independent films of all time, Only the River Flows (Aug. 9), is also opening in theatres this month. A neo-noir about a police chief investigating a series of murders in rural China in the 1990s, the film is based on a novel by Yu Hua, one of China’s foremost avant-garde writers.
Ababouiné (Aug. 23) is the latest film from André Forcier, one of Quebec’s most celebrated filmmakers. His latest is a comedy-drama starring Rémy Girard, set towards the end of the Great Darkness in the 1950s, focusing on a conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and a young team of baseball players. ■

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This article was originally published in the August 2024 issue of Cult MTL.

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