Indie Film Release Guide: August 3rd [An ONTD Original]
It’s August, so the good indie pickings have started getting slim, but they’ll rev up again in late September/early October ahead of awards season. A24’s acclaimed Eighth Grade is going wide this week, so check for it in a theater near you if you haven’t already seen it. Other new wide releases from the bigger studios include Christopher Robin, The Spy Who Dumped Me and The Darkest Minds.
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: July 27th, July 20th, and July 13th.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Click to viewStars: Chloë Grace Moretz, John Gallagher, Jr., Jennifer Ehle, Sasha Lane
Writer: Desiree Akhavan, Cecilia Frugiuele
Director: Desiree Akhavan
Genre: Drama, Romance
Plot: In 1993, a teenage girl is forced into a gay conversion therapy center by her conservative guardians.
What you should know: Based on the novel by Emily M. Danforth.
Opens in: NYC, then expands to select cities next Friday
Never Goin’ Back
Stars: Maia Mitchell, Camila Morrone, Kyle Mooney
Written and directed by: Augustine Frizzell
Genre: Drama
Plot: Jessie and Angela, high school dropouts, are taking a week off to chill at the beach. Too bad their house got robbed, rent's due, they're about to get fired, and they're broke.
What you should know: Frizzell is an actress who has previously directed a few shorts, but this is her first full-length feature. She won the Director to Watch award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Opens in: NYC & LA
Night Comes On
Stars: Dominique Fishback, Tatum Marilyn Hall, Nastashia Fuller
Writer: Jordana Spiro, Angelica Nwandu
Director: Jordana Spiro
Genre: Drama
Plot: Angel LaMere is released from juvenile detention on the eve of her 18th birthday. Haunted by her past, she embarks on a journey with her 10 year-old sister that could destroy their future.
What you should know: Winner of the NEXT Innovator Award at Sundance this year.
Opens in: NYC & LA
Nico, 1988
Stars: Trine Dyrholm, John Gordon Sinclair, Anamaria Marinca, Sandor Funtek
Written and directed by: Susanna Nicchiarelli
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
Plot: The last year of singer Nico's life, as she tours and grapples with addiction and personal demons.
What you should know: Winner of the Venice Horizons Award for Best Film at last year’s Venice Film Festival.
Opens in: NYC & LA
No Date, No Signature
Stars: Amir Aghaee, Zakieh Behbahani, Saeed Dakh, Navid Mohammadzadeh
Writer: Vahid Jalilvand, Ali Zarnegar
Director: Vahid Jalilvand
Genre: Drama
Plot: Kaveh Nariman is a coroner in the medical examiner's office. One day at his work he meets a corpse which is very familiar to him.
What you should know: The film was shot in Iran, and it’s in Persian.
Opens in: NYC
Gavagai
Stars: Anni-Kristiina Juuso, Andreas Lust, Mikkel Gaup, Einar Andreas Søli
Writer: Kirk Kjeldsen, Rob Tregenza
Director: Rob Tregenza
Genre: Drama
Plot: A German businessman travels to Norway to finish the impossible translation of some poems into Chinese, a project of his late wife.
What you should know: The trailer is almost four minutes long, like a mini-movie.
Opens in: NYC
Milla
Stars: Severine Jonckeere, Luc Chessel, Ethan Jonckeere
Written and directed by: Valérie Massadian
Genre: Drama
Plot: A 17-year-old girl's youthful romance seems ready to cross the threshold into teen parenthood.
What you should know: I couldn’t find a trailer with English subtitles - it’s in French.
Opens in: NYC, then LA in two weeks
Urban Country
Stars: Brighton Sharbino, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jason London, Candice Michele Barley
Writer: Gianna Montelaro
Director: Teddy Smith
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family
Plot: A troubled young girl must choose between a carefree and exciting life in the city to a hard-work and no-frills country lifestyle in order to learn who she really is and what she wants out of life.
What you should know: Pretty sure this is "faith-based" filmmaking.
Opens in: NYC
La Familia
Stars: Giovanni García, Reggie Reyes
Written and directed by: Gustavo Rondón Córdova
Genre: Drama
Plot: Twelve-year-old Pedro roams the streets with his friends, raised by the violent urban atmosphere around him in a working class district of Caracas. After Pedro seriously injures another boy in a rough game of play, single father Andrés decides they must flee to hide.
What you should know: It’s in Spanish.
Opens in: Miami
40 Years in the Making: The Magic Music Movie
Director: Lee Aronsohn
Genre: Documentary
Storyline: TV writer/producer Lee Aronsohn tracks down the scattered members of a beloved early 1970s band with the hope that, 40 years after they broke up, he can get them to play one last show.
What you should know: Spoiler alert: he’s successful, as seen in the trailer.
Opens in: NYC & LA
The Forest of the Lost Souls
Stars: Daniela Love, Jorge Mota, Mafalda Banquart, Lígia Roque
Written and directed by: José Pedro Lopes
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Plot: The Forest of the Lost Souls is a dense and remote forest, Portugal's most popular place for suicide. On a summer morning, two strangers meet within the woods.
What you should know: It’s in Portuguese
Opens in: Select cities
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What have you seen lately? Planning to see anything this weekend?