Super Fun Summer Movies to Watch This August

As summer sizzles, chill out with some great movies. Here are five films to make August super fun.

In the mood for a daring, innovative drama? | Promising Young Woman

Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman was nominated for five Academy Awards, ultimately winning Fennell the Best Original Screenplay for her ingeniously conceived thriller. Cassie (Carey Mulligan), a former medical student out to avenge a victimized friend, brings abusive men to justice with complex set-ups. After reconnecting with a former classmate (Bo Burnham), Cassie devises her most ambitious caper yet. “Promising Young Woman is a wolf in sheep’s clothing; a revenge drama that looks like a romcom,” Empire writes. “There is molten fury running through the hot-pink veins of” the movie.

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In the mood for a cosmic comedy? | Asteroid City

Set in 1955 in a one-motel town in the desert, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City is a bright, technicolor, sci-fi treat. Assembled for the Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention, a cast of comic figures—played by Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jason Schwartzman, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, Steve Carell, Hope Davis, and Maya Hawke, among others—find their minds blown by an inexplicable experience. The film’s cavalcade of quirky characters, odd coincidences, and stylized sets eventually reveal a profound mystery. “ The audacity and beauty of Asteroid City lie in the way it connects the mysteries of the human heart to the secrets of science and the universe,” writes New York Magazine.

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In the mood for a touching family film? | Half Brothers

Luke Greenfield’s Half Brothers follows two siblings—Renato (Luis Gerardo Méndez) and Asher (Connor Del Rio)—from opposite sides of the border who are desperate to understand why their father (Juan Pablo Espinosa) left his family in Mexico to start a new life in the United States. Unfortunately, in order to learn the truth, the poorly-matched half-brothers must take a road trip together. “It’s a scavenger hunt of sorts,” says writer/producer Eduardo Cisneros in the production notes. “Every time they get to a certain spot, they learn something they didn’t know about their father and his life.” Full Circle Cinema writes, “Full of an abundance of heart, Half Brothers encourages us to rediscover that which means the most to us in life before it’s too late.”

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In the mood for an inspiring story of recovery? | Land

Robin Wright directs and stars in Land, an inspiring story about a woman named Edee (Wright) who recovers from an unfathomably traumatic event by retreating to the isolation and beauty of the Rocky Mountains. As a director, Wright told Oprah Daily, “I wanted to make a film about kindness and human resilience.” Shot in surroundings where, Film Stage writes, every fifth shot “will take your breath away,” the story keeps the human drama in close up as “Wright the filmmaker wrings out one of Wright the actor’s career-best performances.”

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In the mood for a fun summer trip? | Book Club: The Next Chapter

In Bill Holderman’s Book Club: The Next Chapter, the four ladies from the original hit film—Vivian (Jane Fonda), Diane (Diane Keaton), Sharon (Candice Bergen), and Carol (Mary Steenburgen)—fly off to Italy for a hysterical, wine-fueled bachelorette party. During production, the leading ladies’ friendship on and off screen melded into one. “The scenes seemed very real,” Fonda told The Peterborough Examiner, “It was like the movie didn’t end and there was real life that blended together while we were there.” The movie’s fun-loving embrace of friendship might, as Collider suggests, “leave audiences ready to grab their gal pals and set off on an adventure to Italy.”

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