Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, August 28. All synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.
Wide
No Escape
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Cast: Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, Pierce Brosnan, Sterling Jerins, Spencer Garrett, Byron Gibson, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Claire Geare, Russell Geoffrey Banks, Damian Mavis, Kimia Sun, Dollar Tan, Jimmy Chhiu, Bonnie Zellerbach, Sam B. Lorn, Suphornaphat Annie Jenselius, Hiroyuki Kobayashi
Synopsis: “In their new overseas home, an American family soon finds themselves caught in the middle of a coup, and they frantically look for a safe escape in an environment where foreigners are being immediately executed.”
Criticwire Grade Average: C- (8 reviews)
War Room
Director: Alex Kendrick
Cast: Priscilla Evans Shirer, T.C. Stallings, Karen Abercrombie, Beth Moore, Jadin Harris, Tenae Downing
Synopsis: “The family-friendly movie explores the transformational role prayer plays in the lives of the Jordan family. Tony and Elizabeth Jordan, a middle-class couple who seemingly have it all – great jobs, a beautiful daughter, their dream home. But appearances can be deceiving. In reality, the Jordan’s marriage has become a war zone and their daughter is collateral damage. With the help of Miss Clara, an older, wiser woman, Elizabeth discovers she can start fighting for her family instead of against them. Through a newly energized faith, Elizabeth and Tony’s real enemy doesn’t have a prayer.”
We Are Your Friends
Director: Max Joseph
Cast: Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski, Wes Bentley, Nick Rotteveel, Alessandro Lindblad, Vanessa Lengies, Jon Abrahams, Shiloh Fernandez, Jon Bernthal
Synopsis: “Cole, a 23-year-old DJ who struggles in the Hollywood’s electronic dance music scene, has dreams of becoming a major record producer. Eventually, older DJ James, begins to mentor him, but Cole makes a connection with James’ girlfriend, Sophie. When Cole’s relationship with Sophie blossoms and his friendship with James begins to break down as a result, he is forced into difficult decisions over his future.”
Criticwire Grade Average: C+ (5 reviews)
Limited
7 Chinese Brothers
Director: Bob Byington
Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Tunde Adebimpe, Eleanore Pienta, Olympia Dukakis, Stephen Root
Synopsis: “Larry is an unqualified, unemployable, inebriated prankster who rides a tide of booze onto the glorious shores of an undiscriminating Quick-Lube. Taking a part-time job vacuuming and washing windshields, Larry finds himself mixed up with hostile co-workers and unsatisfied customers, while also finding himself smitten with his lovely boss, Lupe Torrez. Will Larry keep it together long enough to win the girl, provide for man’s best friend (his dog Arrow), and do his grandmother proud?” [SXSW Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: B (4 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York, Houston, San Diego and Seattle (expands to 15 additional markets throughout September)
Drown
Director: Dean Francis
Cast: Matt Levett, Jack Matthews, Harry Cook, Sam Anderson
Synopsis: “Three surf lifeguards’ big night out is marred by jealousy, homophobic fears, and unrequited lust, and booze-fueled violence.”
Theatrical Release: San Diego (opens in Los Angeles on October 16th)
I Touched All Your Stuff
Director: Maíra Bühler & Matias Mariani
Synopsis: “The story of how Chris Kirk, a brilliant IT technician from Michigan, left a stable job in Olympia, Washington, moved to Bogotá, fell in love with a mysterious woman and ended up in a Brazilian jail for international drug smuggling.”
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles
Memories of the Sword
Director: Heung-Sik Park
Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Jeon Do-yeon, Kim Go-Eun, Lee Kyoung-Young, Kim Tae-Woo, Bae Soo-bin, Kim Soo-Ahn, Lee Jun-Ho
Synopsis: “As the greed and excess of a corrupt Monarchy threatens to destroy the once-glorious Goryeo Dynasty, three legendary warriors lead a revolt to overthrow the empire and save its people. But when deceit and betrayal costs the life of a master swordsman, a plot for justice and revenge is set into motion, raging for decades between the two survivors.”
Theatrical Release: Various (including New York and Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC)
My Voice, My Life
Director: Ruby Yang
Synopsis: “‘My Voice, My Life’ follows an unlikely group of misfit students from four Hong Kong middle and high schools cast in a musical theater performance. From low self-esteem to blindness, each student confronts unique personal challenges in the process of developing his or her character.”
Theatrical Release: New York (opens in Los Angeles on September 4th)
Pod
Director: Mickey Keating
Cast: Larry Fessenden, Lauren Ashley Carter, Brian Morvant, John Weselcouch, Dean Cates
Synopsis: “After receiving a cryptic message from their war veteran brother, Martin, estranged siblings Ed and Lyla travel up to their isolated family lake house to hold an intervention. But the terror that they encounter within the snowy confines of the ransacked retreat is far beyond anything that they could have possibly anticipated.” [SXSW Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: C- (4 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Various (including New York and Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Phoenix and San Francisco)
Queen of Earth
Director: Alex Ross Perry
Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Katherine Waterston, Patrick Fugit, Kentucker Audley, Keith Poulson, Kate Lyn Sheil, Craig Butta
Synopsis: “Catherine has entered a particularly dark period in her life: her father, a famous artist whose affairs she managed, has recently died, and on the heels of his death she’s dumped by her boyfriend James. Looking to recuperate, Catherine heads out to her best friend Virginia’s lake house for some much needed relaxation. However, once Catherine arrives relaxation proves impossible to find, as she is overcome with memories of time spent at the same house with James the year before. As Catherine reaches out to Virginia with attempts at connection, Virginia begins spending increasing amounts of time with a local love interest, Rich, and fissures in the relationship between the two women begin to appear, sending Catherine into a downward spiral of delusion and madness.”
Criticwire Grade Average: A- (12 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York (opens in Los Angeles on September 4th)
The Second Mother
Director: Anna Muylaert
Cast: Regina Casé, Michel Joelsas, Camila Márdila, Karine Teles, Lourenço Mutarelli
Synopsis: “Val is the kind of live-in housekeeper who takes her work seriously. She wears a crisp maid’s uniform while serving perfect canapés; she serves her wealthy São Paulo employers day in and day out while lovingly nannying their teenage son whom she’s raised since toddlerhood. Everyone and everything in the elegant house has its place until one day, Val’s ambitious, clever daughter Jessica arrives from Val’s hometown to take the college entrance exams. Jessica’s confident, youthful presence upsets the unspoken yet strict balance of power in the household; Val must decide where her allegiances lie and what she’s willing to sacrifice.” [Sundance Film Festival]
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles
Turbo Kid
Director: RKSS Collective
Cast: Munro Chambers, Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside, Aaron Jeffery, Edwin Wright
Synopsis: “It’s 1997. In a ruined post-apocalyptic world, the orphaned Kid survives on his own through drought-ridden nuclear winter, traversing the Wasteland on his BMX, scavenging for scraps to trade for a scant supply of water. When his perpetually chipper, pink-haired new best friend Apple is kidnapped by a minion of evil overlord Zeus, the Kid summons the courage of his comic book hero and prepares to deliver turbocharged justice to Zeus, his buzzsaw-handed sidekick Skeletron, and their vicious masked army.” [Sundance Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: A- (6 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Various (including New York and Los Angeles, Austin, Denver, Jacksonville, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland and Seattle)
Unsullied
Director: Simeon Rice
Cast: Rusty Joiner, Murray Gray, James Gaudioso
Synopsis: “The story of Reagan Farrow, an athlete who is kidnapped and must fight for survival after escaping her captures and fleeing into the great wild dark unknown.”
Theatrical Release: Various (including New York and Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, Phoenix and Seattle)
When Animals Dream
Director: Jonas Alexander Arnby
Cast: Sonia Suhl, Lars Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter, Benjamin Boe Rasmussen, Mads Riisom, Esben Dalgaard, Jakob Oftebro, Gustav Giese, Benjamin Boe Rasmussen, Tina Gylling Mortensen
Synopsis: “The young woman, Marie, is an outsider in the small coastal community where she has grown up. The townspeople live in fear of her and not least her mother, who is wheelchair bound, suffering from a mysterious illness. When Marie discovers her body changing – long hair growing on her chest and back – she begins searching for answers concerning her family’s hidden past. Something that will have great consequences for herself and her family – and the choices she has to make.” [Critics Week]
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles
Z for Zachariah
Director: Craig Zobel
Cast: Margot Robbie, Chris Pine, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Synopsis: “In the wake of a disaster that wipes out most of civilization, a young woman who believes she is the last human on Earth meets a dying scientist searching for survivors. Their relationship becomes tenuous when another male survivor appears. As the two men compete for the woman’s affection, their primal urges begin to reveal their true nature.” [Sundance Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: B (22 reviews)
Theatrical Release: Various (including New York and Los Angeles, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego and Washington DC)
Zipper
Director: Mora Stephens
Cast: Patrick Wilson, Lena Headey, Richard Dreyfuss, Ray Winstone, John Cho, Dianna Agron
Synopsis: “A charismatic federal prosecutor and devoted family man whose political star is on the rise, Sam Ellis, appears to be en route to higher office. But what he thinks will be a “onetime thing” with a high-class escort service swiftly escalates into a reckless sexual compulsion. Facing ever-intensifying scrutiny as he is groomed for a U.S. Senate seat, Sam wrestles with the addiction that threatens to destroy his life, family, and career.” [Sundance Film Festival]
Criticwire Grade Average: C (6 reviews)
Theatrical Release: New York and Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, San Diego and Seattle
Missed last week? Here are all the releases from the weekend of August 21st.
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