The dog (star) days of summer have arrived. While distributors are saving their heavyweights for the fall, August still brings a handful of delights, including some B-movie spectacles, meta narratives, and a surprise drop from one of our great auteurs.
15. The Dog Stars (Ridley Scott; Aug. 28)
Even with a 90th birthday next year, Ridley Scott is showing no signs of slowing down. The director is set to release his latest film The Dog Stars, his first since 2024’s Gladiator II, later this month. With a cast including Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong, and Allison Janney, the post-apocalyptic drama has been riding a wave of less-than-stellar buzz since it was delayed from a prime spring spot to the doldrums of August, but we’ll always show up to see what the director has in store.
14. Coyote vs. Acme (Dave Green; Aug. 28)
After wrapping shooting in the first half of 2022, the journey for Dave Green’s Coyote vs. Acme has faced more obstacles than the Road Runner. After Warner Bros. Discovery opted to shelve the film as a tax write-off, they finally smartened up and offered to sell to distributors. Ketchup Entertainment, which also released The Day the Earth Blew Up, came to the rescue and it’s now finally arriving at the tail end of summer.
13. Idiots (Macon Blair; Aug. 28)
After breaking out leading Blue Ruin, Macon Blair showed his directorial chops with I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, and this year he returned to Sundance with his latest film. Idiots (previously titled The Shitheads) stars Dave Franco, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Mason Thames, Kiernan Shipka, Nicholas Braun, and Peter Dinklage. Kent M. Wilhelm said in his Sundance review, “For its relatable premise and tried-and-true structure, the road movie has a rich cinematic history. Its success has spawned a number of subgenres, including the screwball escort film where opposing personalities often work against each other to reach a destination. Whether it’s getting someone to the Greek or a 3:10 train to Yuma, it’s a beloved trope that resurfaces every few years. In 2026, writer-director Macon Blair revives the formula for Idiots. He plots a tumultuous course for his prisoner-transport comedy that keeps the journey interesting and finds space to add depth to an otherwise broad comedy. The steady two-hander never quite soars, but is elevated by an eclectic batch of supporting roles that supply bursts of energy in the right places.”
12. Union County (Adam Meeks; Aug. 14)
While he had quite a deal of fun in I Love Boosters earlier this summer, Will Poulter’s next performance is one of his most impressively dramatic. Adam Meeks’ feature debut Union County, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year, follows Poulter alongside Noah Centineo as brothers navigating a community hit by the opioid epidemic. Jake Kring-Schreifels said in his review, “Last summer, in the middle of The Bear’s fourth season, Will Poulter strolled into the show’s eponymous Chicago restaurant and placed the kitchen staff’s jaws on the floor with his handsomeness. This wasn’t exactly a new reaction for the tall British actor—over the last few years, his cool, blue eyes, angular frame, and disarming accent have made him used to being looked at. No matter the supporting role, when he walks into a room, the energy changes. But in Union County, writer-director Adam Meeks’ assured feature debut, Poulter tries a disappearing act. As recovering drug addict Cody Parsons, he trudges into a courthouse with a scraggy beard, unkempt hair, and slumped shoulders, sanding down his vibrant sheen into a pale matte. Nobody around him turns their head, let alone loosens their jaw.”
11. Buddy (Caspar Kelly; Aug. 28)
After bringing much-loved surreal entertainment with his viral Too Many Cooks, Casper Kelly entered big-screen territory with his Sundance premiere Buddy, starring Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key, Michael Shannon, and Patton Oswalt. Caleb Hammond said in his Sundance review, “A mix of Barney and Blue’s Clues, the TV program Buddy follows a large pink unicorn who, alongside a supporting cast of anthropomorphized house objects, teaches the program’s children a new lesson each episode. All of the show’s elements—the colorful sets, the ’90s outfits the children wear, the songs they sing—point to Kelly’s deep understanding of the aesthetics and rules of the world that he subverts.”
10. Filipiñana (Rafael Manuel; Aug. 28)
One of the most formally accomplished feature debuts to premiere at Sundance earlier this year, Rafael Manuel’s Jia Zhangke-backed feature debut Filipiñana is set at a country club in the Philippines as we follow a 17-year-old “tee-girl” who starts uncovering a rotting core of misogyny and violence amongst the higher-ups and clientele. With striking tableaus crafted by cinematographer Xenia Patricia, Manuel effectively pulls back the clashing layers of beauty and systemic issues to capture a country’s disparities.
9. Dreams in Nightmares (Shatara Michelle Ford; Aug. 21)
After her impressive directorial debut Test Pattern, which was nominated for both Gotham and Independent Spirit Awards, Shatara Michelle Ford returned to the festival circuit in 2024 with Dreams in Nightmares. Jourdain Searles said in her review, “Shatara Michelle Ford’s sophomore feature Dreams in Nightmares is a Black road trip film with a big heart, full of warmth, healing, and beauty. With their debut film Test Pattern, Ford announced themselves as an essential new voice in Black cinema, with a focus on the lives and struggles of Black women. Here, Ford tackles similar themes with a wider scope that includes Black femmes, queer love, and non-monogamous relationship structures. An even mix of comedy and drama, Dreams in Nightmares is a work that feels both casual and cathartic.”
8. Tony (Matt Johnson; Aug. 7)
After crafting one of the highlights of 2026 with the thrilling, hilarious Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, Matt Johnson is back with a look into the early life of the late, great chef Anthony Bourdain. Devan Suber said in his review, “Those looking for a movie about the man himself won’t necessarily come away with much about Bourdain or his background. As a film about how a small period of time can end up shaping a person, Tony is well observed and distinctive. If nothing else, it’s a welcome sign that Johnson can retain his signature voice while dropping some elements of his style and finding interest in a topic he might not care all that much about.”
7. Late Fame (Kent Jones; Aug. 7)
Returning after his directorial debut Diane, film scholar Kent Jones is back with Late Fame, which brings together Willem Dafoe and Greta Lee, working from a script by Samy Burch (May December) that itself adapts Arthur Schnitzler’s novella. As Leonardo Goi said in our Critic’s Pick review, “One need not be fluent in the ’70s New York poetry scene to appreciate such a piercing snapshot. Jones captures the boys’ milieu with near-ethnographic attention to its textures, patois, and etiquette; Late Fame is never funnier––or more consistently on-point––than when it turns to these pompous fresh graduates and their quirks. In adapting Arthur Schnitzler’s 1895 novella, Burch can posit Ed’s squad as analogue nostalgists in a digital world. But that, of course, is just one of their many poses.”
6. American Doctor (Poh Si Teng; Aug. 14)
Poh Si Teng’s American Doctor is a harrowing, heartbreaking portrait of Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian doctors who are risking their lives to tend to the overwhelming victims of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and speak the truth in any way they can. Dan Mecca said in his Sundance review, “When will this end? When will this bloodshed stop? And when will the United States of America stop supporting it? Filmmaker Poh Si Teng offers a clear-eyed, unrelenting look at the genocide in Gaza with her documentary American Doctor. It follows three doctors––Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, and Dr. Mark Perlmutter––that are consistently trying to save lives in the Gaza Strip. On some trips they are approved to enter. On others they are denied for specious reasons. Dr. Perlmutter is Jewish, Dr. Sidhwa is Zoroastrian, and Dr. Ahmad is Palestinian. Their mission is the mission of all medical professionals: to heal everyone they can.”
5. The Fence (Claire Denis; Aug. 7 in theaters and AMC+ on Aug. 21)
Consider our shock when we learned last week that the U.S. release of Claire Denis’ The Fence was just around the corner. Premiering at last fall’s festival circuit, and with not much of a peep since, the great director’s latest is perhaps not so evocative and penetrating as her career high marks, but it’s stuck with me far more than most of last year’s most “acclaimed” films. Ethan Vestby said in his review, “Is the idea of a Claire Denis film changing? There was likely an image one formed in their head when that name emerged: elliptical, sexy, avant-garde. Yet recent works are suggesting a different direction, one far more direct and less mysterious. It can even be said that her newest, The Fence, plays like a final film––not necessarily as a grand summation or statement, but like a stripping-down of almost everything possible.”
4. The End of Oak Street (David Robert Mitchell; Aug. 14)
Eight years since Under the Silver Lake, David Robert Mitchell is finally out of director jail and on a large-scale adventure feature for a major studio. His WB-backed, J.J. Abrams-produced feature The End of Oak Street stars Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor. While even the trailer reveals much more than we’d hope, we can’t wait to see what the director conjures with more resources at his disposal, and early buzz suggests he’s delivered an ideal August thriller.
3. The Rivals of Amziah King (Andrew Patterson; Aug. 14)
Following up his impressive debut The Vast of Night, it’s been a long wait for Andrew Patterson’s delightfully ambitious second feature The Rivals of Amziah King, which premiered at SXSW last year and will finally arrive in theaters this month. John Fink said in his review, “Like the Church potluck to which Amziah King introduces his one-time foster daughter Kateri, The Rivals of Amziah King is a gleeful mashup of genres and tones blending bluegrass music, comedy, revenge, and heist-thriller elements into a tasty homestyle buffet full of eccentric characters and thick Southern accents. It’s a strong follow-up to the promise Andrew Patterson displayed in his resourceful debut feature The Vast of Night––even when this mash-up seems a little uneven and indulgent, with a heavy use of formal techniques, from slow-motion to ironic music.”
2. Fast (Rob Tregenza; Aug. 12)
Just one year after The Fishing Place—on which his work as DP earned our consideration for 2025’s best cinematography—Rob Tregenza returns with Fast, a southern-set drama about race cars and time travel. Tregenza is certainly the only American filmmaker who’s earned the collaborative trust of Jean-Luc Godard, Béla Tarr, and Alex Cox, none of whom entirely distill his sensibilities: long takes, quiet sequences punctuated by bursts of violence, hyper-specific regional locations, and performances that work between naturalistic and mannered. Safe to say there’s no working filmmaker quite like Tregenza, and nothing this month (or year) that will be in clear conversation with Fast.
1. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Jane Schoenbrun; Aug. 7)
Far and away one of the highlights of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival (landing on nearly all top 10 lists from our critics), Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow follow-up Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a wildly entertaining exploration of the slasher film, erotic pleasure, and everything in between. Led by Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, Rory O’Connor said in his Critic’s Pick review from Cannes, “Shot masterfully by their regular cinematographer Eric Yue (Alex G also makes a welcome return as composer), the movie-within-the-movie’s formative kill scene is so mesmerizing that you’ll welcome Schoenbrun’s decision to play it again and again––all the better to get a feel for how Kris’ obsessions have led them to the movie’s climax, and perhaps their own. Yue and Schoenbrun’s approaches also perfectly align when capturing actresses’ faces, often in achingly beautiful close-ups that only occasionally allow for a flicker of menace. ‘There’s a hole at the bottom of the lake,’ Billy explains to Kris in one of those moments, setting off a sequence that is quickly becoming Schoenbrun’s signature—that churning sense of movie spiraling a drain as it drags you down with it.”
More Films to See
- Olmo (Aug. 7)
- Cookie Queens (Aug. 7)
- A Child of My Own (Aug. 13)
- The Wrong Girls (Aug. 14)
- The Bend in the River (Aug. 14)
- Hot Spot (Aug. 21)
- It Ends (Aug. 21)
- How to Divorce During the War (Aug. 21)
- Franz (Aug. 21)
- Mutiny (Aug. 21)
- Hanging by a Wire (Aug. 28)
- Colony (Aug. 28)
- The Sun Never Sets (Aug. 28)
The post 15 Films to See in August first appeared on The Film Stage.
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