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BBC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The Naked Gun to Freakier Friday: 12 of the best films to watch in August
From The Naked Gun to Freakier Friday – these are the films to watch at the cinema and stream at home this month. Souleymane's Story Boris Lojkine's powerful drama was the winner of two prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, and has a 100% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes review round-up site. It's the story of Souleymane (first-time actor Abou Sangaré), an immigrant from West Africa who has come to Paris in the hope of making enough money to support his ill mother. But the title, Souleymane's Story, has another meaning: it also refers to the false life story he has to memorise and recite at a legal residency application interview in two days' time. The trouble is that memorising anything is almost impossible while Souleymane is cycling around Paris as a food delivery worker, crossing paths with the police and with people who owe him money, and trying to find somewhere safe to sleep. "Lojkine's narrative is pacy and moves like an edge-of-the-seat thriller," says Namrata Joshi in the New Indian Express. He "also documents the entire industry that gets built around immigration and asylum". Released on 1 August in the US and Canada Weapons Barbarian, Zach Cregger's twist-filled horror film about the world's worst Airbnb, was a commercial and critical hit in 2022, and now the writer-director returns with a film which, he says, is "more ambitious in almost every way". The Twilight Zone-worthy premise is that 17 children from the same class all wake up at the same moment, walk out of their houses and disappear into the night, never to be seen again. The children's parents (Josh Brolin, among others) are desperate for answers, and their teacher (Julia Garner) is under suspicion. But that, says Cregger, is just the start of the story. Even more intriguingly, he says that he was influenced by Paul Thomas Anderson's multi-stranded ensemble drama, Magnolia. "I love that movie," he told Entertainment Weekly. "I love that kind of bold scale. It gave me permission when I was writing this to shoot for the stars and make it an epic. I wanted a horror epic, and so I tried to do that." Released on 8 August in cinemas internationally The Bad Guys 2 The Bad Guys was a different kind of DreamWorks cartoon – a stylish heist caper in the Ocean's Eleven mould, except that the criminals just happened to be talking animals. Adapted from Aaron Blabey's graphic novels, the film featured Mr Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr Snake (Marc Maron), Ms Tarantula (Awkwafina), Mr Shark (Craig Robinson) and Mr Piranha (Anthony Ramos), a gang of wisecracking criminals who got tired of being stereotyped as scary predators. In the sequel, they're still struggling to be accepted as upstanding members of the community, and things get trickier when they're blackmailed into teaming up with another gang of crooked animals: The Bad Girls. The director, Pierre Perifel, says that the sequel makes the jump from heist film to all-action blockbuster. "We're big fans of Mission: Impossible, and of big action films in particular, and we wanted to dabble and play with that genre," Perifel told Collider. "We're not doing Mission: Impossible, we're doing The Bad Guys, but it has those tropes." Released on 1 August in cinemas internationally Caught Stealing Darren Aronofsky is known for his abyss-dark dramas; no one goes to see Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler or The Whale because they fancy a fun Friday night at the cinema. But now Aronofsky has switched to Tarantino / Ritchie mode for a boisterous crime caper set in grimy 1990s New York. Adapted from Charlie Huston's novel, Caught Stealing stars Austin Butler as a baseball-loving barman who is trying to impress his new girlfriend (Zoe Kravitz) when he stumbles into a gangland feud involving a British punk-rocker (Matt Smith), a pair of Orthodox Jewish hitmen (Liev Schreiber and Vincent D'Onofrio), and $4m in ill-gotten gains. "The state the world's in right now... There's a lot going on," Aronofsky explained in Empire. "So, I wanted to get back to the core ingredients that make movies great – entertainment and fun. I wanted to make something filled with joy and adventure… It's a romp." Released on 29 August in cinemas internationally It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley Jeff Buckley's Grace is one of the greatest albums of the 1990s – or, as David Bowie once said, one of the greatest albums ever made. Buckley's poetic songwriting, swirling guitar arrangements and angelic multi-octave voice were stunning, but, tragically, we'll never know what else he might have accomplished: he accidentally drowned in a river in 1997 before he had completed his second album. Amy Berg's documentary examines the conflicted man behind the music, and ponders the dark ironies of his short life. The father he never knew, Tim Buckley, was also a singer who died young. "What the documentary captures is that Buckley was on his way to becoming a staggeringly huge star," says Owen Gleiberman in Variety. "I defy you to see It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley and not fall in love with Jeff Buckley's voice. By the time the film is over, you want to find a way to go back and rescue him to let him live the life he should have had." Released on 8 August in the US Highest 2 Lowest Highest 2 Lowest "fulfils every expectation you might want from a modern Spike Lee movie", says Stephanie Zacharek in Time. A loose remake of Akira Kurosawa's High and Low (1963), this New York music-industry thriller stars Denzel Washington as a record-company boss. He's renowned for signing some of the biggest names in the business, but his company has fared so poorly in recent years that he is struggling to keep control of it. And then he hears that his son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) has been kidnapped. Co-starring some real-life music stars, including A$AP Rocky and Ice Spice, Highest 2 Lowest is "smart, hugely entertaining, and profound in a way that's anything but sentimental", says Zacharek. "Lee has made a film that feels modest and grand at once, the kind of movie you can see on a Saturday night just for kicks and still be thinking about the next day." Released on 22 August in the US The Roses One of Hollywood's darkest ever anti-romantic comedies, The War of the Roses (1989) starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as a couple going through a blisteringly bitter divorce. Thirty-six years on, it has been remade – or reimagined – with Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch as the unhappy couple. Cumberbatch is Theo Rose, a famous architect, and Colman is Ivy Rose, a small-time cook. But when his career crashes while hers goes into orbit, the Roses' relationship gets thorny. Co-starring Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon, the film is directed by Jay Roach (Meet the Parents, Austin Powers), and written by Tony McNamara (The Favourite, Cruella), who says that his screenplay is even more outrageous than the 1980s one, but not, perhaps, as cynical. "We were like, 'Let's do a movie about people who want to stay married rather than two people trying to destroy each other,'" McNamara said on Streaming Movie Night. "A sophisticated adult screwball comedy didn't seem like it had been done for a while in a proper commercial way, and so it seemed like an opportunity." Released on 29 August in cinemas internationally Splitsville Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin have already made one acclaimed indie comedy together, The Climb (2019), which Covino directed, and both men wrote and acted in. Now they've reunited for a higher profile project opposite higher profile co-stars, Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona. Marvin plays Carey, who has been married to Ashley (Arjona) for a year when she announces that she has been unfaithful to him and wants a divorce. When he tells the sorry tale to his wealthy friends Paul (Covino) and Julie (Johnson), they reveal that their marriage works so well because they are free to sleep with other people. Could this work for Carey and Ashley, too? And is Paul and Julie's relationship really as healthy as they make it sound? This "reliably funny romcom about the notion of open relationships makes for a delightful time", says Esther Zuckerman in IndieWire. "The film-makers have created an utterly endearing tale of four people trying to negotiate their own desires in the silliest ways possible with unexpected chaos around every turn." Released on 22 August in the US Freakier Friday Lindsay Lohan spent years in the Hollywood wilderness after she starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in 2003's Freaky Friday, so it's heartening to see her back on the big screen in the perfectly named sequel, Freakier Friday. In the first film (itself a remake of a Disney comedy from 1976), Lohan and Curtis played a teenage girl and her mother, Anna and Tess, who swapped bodies for a day. In Freakier Friday, Anna and Tess swap bodies with Anna's daughter and step-daughter – so both Lohan and Curtis get to pretend that they're teenagers. "[Freakier Friday] is a feelgood movie, which is what I want to give people," Lohan said in Elle. "And it's fun. When I saw the second cut, I wanted to get up and dance at the end." Released on 8 Aug in cinemas internationally The Naked Gun How can you make a Naked Gun film without the franchise's beloved star, the late Leslie Nielsen? The answer, it seems, is to cast Liam Neeson – not just because his name is so similar to Nielsen's, but because he knows how to be gruff and deadpan while surrounded by silliness. "Liam Neeson is probably the only actor alive in the 21st Century who could do what Leslie Nielsen did," the film's producer, Seth MacFarlane, said in Entertainment Weekly. The casting of Pamela Anderson as the love interest / femme fatale was an inspired move, too, especially as Anderson was so acclaimed for her previous film, The Last Showgirl. MacFarlane is hoping that his spoof cop thriller will be that rarest of things, a Hollywood comedy that is a cinema hit. "It's been a long time since a really high-profile hard comedy has been put out there. This is a true comedy, with a whole bunch of laughs. And hopefully, if the movie does well, it brings a few more of those kinds of movies back into our shared landscape." Released on 1 August in cinemas internationally The Thursday Murder Club Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club has been a publishing sensation since it came out in 2020. Not only was it a bestseller, but it helped established the genre of "cosy crime" detective novels – although Osman might not use that term himself. "When I started writing The Thursday Murder Club, the successful crime books of the time were mainly dark psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators," he told the BBC in 2023. "I just wanted to write an Agatha Christie-style thriller but with some humour and with a modern twist. A book I'd love to read, but couldn't find. I'd never heard the term 'cosy crime'." The inevitable screen adaptation is produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Chris Columbus, the maker of Home Alone and the first two Harry Potter films. Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie play four pensioners in the same retirement community who hit upon an unusual hobby: solving mysteries. Released on 28 August on Netflix Nobody 2 Bob Odenkirk, the star of Better Call Saul, doesn't look like a typical Hollywood action hero – but that's one reason why Nobody (2021) was so entertaining. The idea was that Odenkirk's character, Hutch, was a mild-mannered, middle-aged suburban dad. But it turned out that he had a secret past as a government assassin, so when he got tangled up with Russian mobsters, we had the cathartic pleasure of seeing this average-looking fellow participating in some of modern cinema's most gloriously brutal fight scenes. In the sequel, Hutch is on a summer holiday with his wife (Connie Nielsen) and children when a crime boss (Sharon Stone) interrupts their family time. "For me, what mattered in the second movie was: what's something that a couple could relate to as a tension in their life," Odenkirk said in Discussing Film. "One of the big ones in America is the inability to take a break and not work constantly or worry about our jobs… Hutch just can't do it. Most people can't do it. I've struggled to do it myself." Released on 15 August in cinemas internationally -- For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
The Boston French Film Festival returns to the MFA with a focus on authenticity
From romantic comedies to thrillers, Irving says the films showing at the festival have an 'emotional realism' that makes them affecting to audiences. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up This is especially true in the festival's opening film, 'Three Friends (Trois Amies),' a romantic comedy for adults that Irving calls 'a real treat.' The film comes from award-winning writer-director Emmanuel Mouret and revolves around three middle-aged women and their complex (and sometimes unwittingly overlapping) love lives. Irving says the film is thoughtful in its examination of complicated modern love, while still remaining lighthearted and energetic. Advertisement A scene from "Three Friends" by Emmanuel Mouret. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts In the film, Mouret tells the story of what Americans (somewhat dismissively) call a mid-life crisis. But what Irving appreciates about 'Three Friends' is the tone it uses to tackle the notion of reinventing yourself in your 40s. 'What's very French about this film is that it treats midlife-questioning as a serious philosophical quandary,' Irving says. 'These complex ideas are not something to gloss over or make fun of.' Advertisement One of Irving's favorite films in the festival, 'Holy Cow (Vingt Dieux),' is a refreshing and scrappy coming-of-age comedy. The film follows 18-year-old Totone (Clément Faveau), who unexpectedly finds himself juggling the responsibilities of managing his struggling family farm and caring for his 7-year-old sister after his father's untimely death. To secure his future, Totone enters a regional Comté cheesemaking contest. The film won the Youth Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024. 'Holy Cow' is set and filmed in Jura, a rural agricultural region in eastern France, where director Louise Courvoisier grew up. Courvoisier cast only non-professional actors from the region; she found Faveau working at a poultry farm and attending agricultural high school. 'Its really fun, but it's also eye-opening,' says Irving, who also pointed to the real-life feel of the characters and cinematography as particular strengths of the film. Irving also highlighted ' 'Souleymane's Story' won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024, including for Best Actor for Sangare's break-out role, and the Jury Prize. Advertisement Irving says the film aligns with a new trend in French cinema: realistic thrillers about ordinary people racing against time. 'The intensity is even higher because the stakes feel authentic,' she says. 'It feels like something that could happen to you.' Abou Sangare as Souleymane in "Souleymane's Story" by writer-director Boris Lojkine. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts Thought-provoking subject matter seems to be the theme of this year's festival. 'We're starting to turn to movies to numb ourselves and turn off our brains,' Irving says. 'Which is good to indulge [in] sometimes.' But she wants the festival to be a break from ethos of film acting solely as an escape. 'You have to balance that with things that will actually nourish you,' Irving says. This year's featured films, she hopes, will do just that. THE BOSTON FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL July 25 through Aug. 24 at the Museum of Fine Arts. For more information, including screening times, visit
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Travis Scott to Make India Debut With ‘Circus Maximus' Tour
BookMyShow Live is set to bring rap superstar Travis Scott to India for the first time as part of his 'Circus Maximus' world tour, with a performance scheduled for Oct. 18 at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The India show will be produced and promoted by BookMyShow Live, the live entertainment experiential division of BookMyShow, working in collaboration with global concert promoters Live Nation. More from Variety 'Paul and Paulette,' 'Souleymane's Story' Win Top Honors at India's Red Lorry Film Festival 'September 5' to Open India's Red Lorry Film Festival (EXCLUSIVE) Guns N' Roses Set to Rock Mumbai After 12-Year Absence Scott, whose live performances have earned him a reputation as one of hip-hop's most dynamic performers, has dominated charts with hits including 'Sicko Mode,' 'Goosebumps,' 'Highest in the Room' and 'Fe!n.' His most recent studio album, 'Utopia,' has further cemented Scott's cultural impact, breaking streaming records and reinforcing his status as one of the most influential artists of his generation. Korea University will launch the country's first College of Media & Communication on March 27, featuring a new division of global entertainment aimed specifically at international students. The initiative comes as foreign enrollment in the university's media programs has matched local admissions in recent years, with both divisions sharing curriculum while maintaining separate admissions processes. Alumni from major players including HYBE, CJ ENM, and Kakao Entertainment will participate in the launch event's networking sessions with current students. Indian content licensing firm One Life Studios has appointed former international business head of Viacom18's content syndication arm, IndiaCast, Govind Shahi as strategic advisor to boost global expansion. The Mumbai-based company, known for syndicating epic series 'Porus' to 28 countries, aims to leverage Shahi's experience to penetrate emerging markets. 'Govind's expertise makes him the perfect partner to accelerate our vision,' said CEO Siddharth Kumar Tewary. One Life Studios, established in 2017, operates under parent company Swastik Productions, creator of 'Mahabharat' and 'RadhaKrishn.' Best of Variety The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More
