If the pulses of moviegoers aren’t already racing after epic spectacles “The Odyssey” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” they will be by the end of August, a month that promises to deliver late-summer thrills and star power.
Three of my five must-see movies for the month are outright survival thrillers, one is a hot-blooded rom-com, and another is the pre-fame story of a legendary chef.
Other releases worth scoping out: Eli Roth gore fest “Ice Cream Man” (Aug. 7), queer horror-comedy “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” (Aug. 14) and long-awaited live-action/animated comedy hybrid “Coyote vs. Acme” (Aug. 28).
One Night Only (Aug. 7)
Imagine twisting the horror thriller “The Purge” into a jolly rom-com. Only, instead of legal mass murder for 12 bloody hours, it’s state-approved premarital sex from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., on a single night in an alternate America. That’s what mischief rom-com ace Will Gluck (“Anyone but You”) is up to here. He directs Monica Barbaro as Allie, a talented New York singer who can’t advance beyond ad jingles due to stage fright. She’s hot for Owen, a recently dumped pizza-shop proprietor (Callum Turner), who’s equally enchanted by her. This should be the night they get it on — it’s practically required by law — but it’s is a rom-com, after all. Which means all kinds of comic interruptions keep Allie and Owen from catching Cupid’s arrows. Can true love thrive on “the least romantic night of the year”?
What’s the buzz? This is an amusing chance to see two of Hollywood’s fastest-rising young stars. Barbaro received an Oscar nomination for playing Joan Baez in the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.” Turner is considered a leading candidate to play James Bond in Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming 007 movie.
Why I’m excited: It’s high concept to the point of absurdity, to be sure, but Gluck’s strength has always been comic timing and actor chemistry, and early footage suggests both are in sync here. I like the use of Robyn’s synth-pop hit “Dopamine” in the trailer, which makes “One Night Only” seem like a lost rom-com from the 1980s, a great decade for a genre that hasn’t fared well in the 21st century.
Tony (Aug. 14)
They were “happier, stupider times,” as goes the title of the companion book to this chronicle of the pre-fame restaurant antics of the late Anthony Bourdain, the candid chef and itinerant storyteller who energized food and travel journalism. Set in 1975 Provincetown, Mass., and starring Dominic Sessa (“The Holdovers”) as the 19-year-old Bourdain, the film’s a combination coming-of-ager and confessional rager, courtesy of indefatigable Toronto filmmaker Matt Johnson, who directed “BlackBerry” and “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.” The screenplay is based in part on “Kitchen Confidential,” the 2000 Bourdain memoir that helped make its author both a culinary and media star. Emilia Jones plays Nancy, the love interest, Leo Woodall is restaurant worker Sal, and Antonio Banderas commands the role of Chef, the restaurant owner who takes a chance on Tony.
What’s the buzz? There’s sizzling talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Why I’m excited: A new Matt Johnson movie always deserves eyeballs. And this one has the potential to remove some of the gloom surrounding Bourdain, whose name has been associated with his tragic 2018 suicide while on the road for his culinary discoveries show “Parts Unknown.”
The End of Oak Street (Aug. 14)
A UFO sighting one night brings excitement to a suburban American street. By the next morning, excitement has shifted to terror as a family awakens to discovers their entire street has become a walled-off version of Jurassic Park, replete with rapacious dinosaurs. That’s the high concept of this survival thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as parents attempting to save their brood. An additional hook: There may be someone or something watching out of sight, making this more like a Jurassic version of “The Truman Show.”
What’s the buzz? This has comeback potential for writer-director David Robert Mitchell, who was a hot property after his 2014 horror hit “It Follows” but disappeared after his incomprehensible 2018 picture “Under the Silver Lake” bombed at Cannes.
Why I’m excited: The trailer is promising, with Hathaway and McGregor bringing genuine star power. And I like the added intrigue of the unseen watcher(s).
The Dog Stars (Aug. 28)
A deadly flu pandemic wipes out most of humanity, leaving Cessna pilot Hig (Jacob Elordi) to eke out a miserable existence on an abandoned Colorado airfield, bolstered by his dog, a grizzled ex-Marine (Josh Brolin) and a “kill or be killed” attitude. Then comes a strange radio transmission, hinting at people living elsewhere who are worth finding and possibly joining — but everybody has to be wary of roaming, axe-swinging scavengers called Reapers. Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce and Allison Janney co-star.
What’s the buzz? Far enough removed from COVID, the film can play less like an allegory and more like a stripped-down survival drama, anchored by Ridley Scott’s large-scale visual instincts and a character-driven narrative.
Why I’m excited: Scott and his A-list cast are enough to make this a must-see, but there are literary reasons, too. The 2012 Peter Heller book the film adapts was a bestseller, winning Novel of the Year on Apple iBooks and best-of list nods by The Atlantic and Publishers Weekly.
It Ends (Aug. 28)
At the signpost up ahead, infinite madness. Alexander Ullom’s debut feature could be described as a Gen Z road trip to the Twilight Zone, except for one big difference. The legendary Twilight Zone takes you somewhere, mentally or physically, but this film treks the burgeoning terrain of liminal movies — think “Backrooms” and “Exit 8” — where the destination is constantly unclear and maddeningly out of reach. That’s the situation stumbled into by four 20-something friends, who set out on a late-night snack run in a Jeep Cherokee, seeking fun but instead finding wrong-turn terror on an endless blacktop loop. Oh, and there’s something weird and threatening in the surrounding forest. “This is not real life anymore,” someone says, stating the obvious. Who expects anything real in a liminal movie? Let’s hope your popcorn bucket has unlimited refills.
What’s the buzz? The film debuted to acclaim at South by Southwest in 2025, where tastemaking studio Neon snapped it up. And Neon evidently likes writer-director-editor Ullom’s work, because it has already grabbed the rights to his next film.
Why I’m excited: Liminal films and YouTube videos are usually confined to interior space. By pushing that unease into open roads and wooded exteriors, Ullom flips the grammar of the sub-genre, suggesting that even wide-open terrain can feel claustrophobic.
