Indie Film Release Guide: August 16th [An ONTD Original]

[scriptedending]

This weekend, Angry Birds 2, Good Boys, and the Sundance fave Blinded By the Light are all getting wide releases, (though it might be a bit harder to find Blinded By the Light than the other two films). A couple more wide releases come from smaller studios, and appear in the round-up below.

The films listed are from studios other than the “Big Six” - Paramount, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Columbia and Disney. Note that some of the movies listed are in their first week or two of limited release in the USA, so it may take them a few more weeks (or months) to show up in your local arthouse theater or on VOD. Check out the posts from the past few weeks for more movies that may have just opened near you: August 9th, August 2nd, and July 26th.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Click to view

Stars: Cate Blanchett, Judy Greer, Kristen Wiig, Billy Crudup
Writer: Richard Linklater, Holly Gent, Vincent Palmo, Jr.
Director: Richard Linklater
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Plot: A loving mom becomes compelled to reconnect with her creative passions after years of sacrificing herself for her family. Her leap of faith takes her on an epic adventure that jump-starts her life and leads to her triumphant rediscovery.
What you should know: Based on the novel by Maria Semple, this film from beleaguered studio Annapurna has been delayed twice since its original release date of March 2018. So if you feel like you've been seeing ads for this film for years... you're right!
Opens in: Wide release



47 Meters Down: Uncaged

Click to view

Stars: Sistine Rose Stallone, Nia Long, Corinne Foxx, John Corbett
Writer: Ernest Riera, Johannes Roberts
Director: Johannes Roberts
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Horror
Plot: Four teen girls diving in a ruined underwater city quickly learn they've entered the territory of the deadliest shark species in the claustrophobic labyrinth of submerged caves.
What you should know: It’s a sequel to 2017’s 47 Meters Down, and stars the daughters of actors Jamie Foxx and Sylvester Stallone.
Opens in: Wide release

The Amazing Johnathan

Click to view

Director: Benjamin Berman
Genre: Documentary
Storyline: What begins as a documentary following the final tour of a dying magician - "The Amazing Johnathan" - becomes an unexpected and increasingly bizarre journey as the filmmaker struggles to separate truth from illusion.
What you should know: Penn Jillette, Weird Al and Carrot Top all make appearances.
Opens in: Select cities + on Hulu

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles

Click to view

Stars: Jorge Usón, Fernando Ramos, Luis Enrique de Tomás, Cyril Corral
Writer: Eligio R. Montero, Salvador Simó
Director: Salvador Simó
Genre: Animation, Biography, Drama
Plot: Paris, 1930. The infamous surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel is left penniless after the scandalous release of L'Age d'Or leads to a falling out with collaborator Salvador Dalí. On a whim, Buñuel's good friend, sculptor Ramón Acín, buys a lottery ticket and promises to devote his winnings to fund Buñuel's next film. Incredibly, Ramón wins the jackpot, sending the two friends to the remote mountains of their native Spain to film the documentary Las Hurdes: Land Without Bread.
What you should know: The film was inspired by the graphic novel of the same name by Fermín Solís.
Opens in: Select cities

Cold Case Hammerskjöld

Click to view

Director: Mads Brügger
Genre: Documentary
Storyline: In 1961, United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane mysteriously crashed, killing Hammarskjöld and most of the crew. With the case still unsolved 50-plus years later, Danish journalist, filmmaker, and provocateur Mads Brügger leads us down an investigative rabbit hole to unearth the truth. Scores of false starts, dead ends, and elusive interviews later, Brügger and his sidekick, Swedish Göran Björkdahl, begin to sniff out something more monumental than anything they’d initially imagined.
What you should know: Won the World Cinema - Documentary directing award at Sundance 2019.
Opens in: Select cities

Gwen

Click to view

Stars: Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Mark Lewis Jones, Maxine Peake, Richard Harrington
Writer/Director: William McGregor
Genre: Drama, Horror
Plot: Gwen is a young girl whose life seems to be collapsing around her. Struggling with her mother’s mysterious illness, her father's absence and a group of angry villagers threatening to take her farm, Gwen must find the strength to guide her family through the darkness. But as a malevolent presence begins to take grip of her home, it becomes apparent there is a greater evil that may be too strong to overcome.
What you should know: Premiered at TIFF 2018.
Opens in: Select cities

End of the Century

Click to view

Stars: Juan Barberini, Ramon Pujol, Mía Maestro, Helen Celia Castro-Wood
Writer/Director: Lucio Castro
Genre: Drama, LGBT
Plot: When Ocho, a 30-something Argentine poet on vacation in Barcelona, spots Javi, a Spaniard from Berlin, from the balcony of his Airbnb, the attraction is subtle but persistent. After a missed connection on the beach, a third chance encounter escalates to a seemingly random hookup. But are these two merely beautiful strangers in a foreign city or are they part of each other’s histories-and maybe even their destinies?
What you should know: It’s in Spanish.
Opens in: NYC, then LA next month

Aquarela

Click to view

Director: Victor Kossakovsky
Genre: Documentary
Storyline: Water is the main protagonist, seen in all its great and terrible beauty. Mountains of ice move and break apart as if they had a life of their own. Kossakovsky's film travels the world, from the precarious frozen waters of Russia's Lake Baikal and Miami in the throes of Hurricane Irma, to Venezuela's mighty Angel Falls in order to paint a portrait of this fluid life force in all its glorious forms. Fragile humans experience life and death, joy and despair in the face of its power.
What you should know: It was shot at 96 frames per second, but will be screened at 48 fps, since projectors that screen 96 fps are rare.
Opens in: Select cities

Already Gone

Click to view

Stars: Shiloh Fernandez, Raquel Castro, Justine Skye, Seann William Scott
Writer/Director: Christopher Kenneally
Genre: Drama
Plot: A lonely teenager runs away from home, bringing his abusive stepfather's girlfriend with him.
What you should know: Keanu Reeves is an executive producer on this film.
Opens in: Select cities

Driven

Click to view

Stars: Erin Moriarity, Lee Pace, Judy Greer, Jason Sudekis
Writer: Colin Bateman
Director: Nick Hamm
Genre: Biography, Drama, Thriller
Plot: FBI informant Jim Hoffman lures troubled automobile magnate John DeLorean to an undercover sting for cocaine trafficking.
What you should know: Ok, so this is technically being distributed by Universal, and therefore shouldn’t be in my post. However, they’ve clearly washed their hands of this one. I haven’t seen it advertised at all, and I can’t even find the trailer on their YouTube page, so I figured it could use the exposure. And I know y’all love Lee Pace!
Opens in: Select cities

Also opening: Adam (Trailer), Los Reyes (Trailer), What You Gonna Do When The World’s on Fire (Trailer), The Divine Fury (Trailer), Scared of Revolution (Trailer), The Second Sun (Trailer)

Source 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

What have you been watching lately, ONTD? Seeing anything this weekend?