August and September are not generally considered a great time to release movies (and that’s true) but hidden in the barrage of garbage are always a few worthy movies. Here is an array of movies scheduled for release in the next month and a half.
Aug 16 — Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Ben Foster)
This indie drama about an outlaw who escapes from prison to reunite with his wife and meet his daughter for the first time premiered at the Sundance Film Festival early this year. It looks reminiscent of Terrence Malick’s “Badlands.”
Aug 23 — The World’s End (directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost)
A group of mates encounter an alien invasion while trying to recreate and finish a pub crawl they attempted in their youth. It’s the third film in a trilogy of films by the director, writers, and stars of “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.”
Aug 23 — You’re Next (starring Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, A.J. Bowen)
A wild, violent home invasion horror/comedy that has gotten strong reviews at film festivals since 2011. It seems like this will be better than “The Purge,” this year’s other home invasion horror movie.
Aug 23 — Paradise: Faith (directed by Ulrich Seidl and starring Maria Hofstätter)
The second in Ulrich Seidl’s “Paradise” trilogy. The first, “Paradise: Love,” is now on DVD. Filmmaker John Waters ranked this film as his third favorite of 2012 and wrote in Artforum magazine: “Fassbinder died, so God gave us Ulrich Seidl. I laughed uproariously throughout this horrifying portrait of a religious fanatic, and if there’s something the matter with you, you will, too.”
Aug 30 — Getaway (starring Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, Jon Voight)
Here’s another car chase flick to tide you over before the next “Fast & Furious” film comes out.
Aug 30 — Passion (directed by Brian De Palma and starring Noomi Rapace, Rachel McAdams)
De Palma has gone back to the days of his sexy thrillers such as “Dressed to Kill” and “Body Double” by remaking Alain Corneua’s 2010 French film “Love Crime.”
Sept 6 — Riddick (starring Vin Diesel, Karl Urban)
This is the third live action movie in the sci-fi franchise starring Vin Diesel which started with 2000’s “Pitch Black” and was followed by 2004’s “The Chronicles of Riddick.” It looks as if the movie and its video game will be interchangeable.
Sept 13 — The Family (directed by Luc Besson, starring Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones)
Besson, director of “La Femme Nikita,” “Léon: the Professional,” and “The Fifth Element,” directed this action comedy about a Mafia family that is relocated to Normandy, France, but encounters a world of problems connected to their past. De Niro has been in many more bad movies in the past decade than good ones, but maybe this movie will be of the good ones.
Sept 13 — Insidious: Chapter 2 (starring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne)
The sequel to 2010 horror movie directed by James Wan, who also directed this summer’s mature, economically directed “The Conjuring.”
Sept 20 — After Tiller (directed by Martha Shane, Lana Wilson)
This documentary follows the lives of four late-term abortion doctors, the only ones left in the country after the 2009 murder of late-term abortion doctor George Tiller.
Sept 20 — Enough Said (directed by Nicole Holofcener, starring James Gandolfini, Toni Collette, Catherine Keener, Julia Louis-Dreyfus)
This comedy about love, relationships, and divorce is the fifth film by writer/director Nicole Holofcener (“Friends with Money,” “Please Give”), and one of Gandolfini’s final films.
Sept 20 — Parkland (starring Zac Efron, Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton, Ron Livingston, Marcia Gay Harden)
This historical drama recounts the events and people in the Dallas hospital on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, much like 2006’s “Bobby,” which centered around the assassination of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president’s brother.
Sept 20 — Prisoners (staring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Viola Davis, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano)
The English-language directorial debut of Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, whose 2011 Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee “Incendies” was a feel-bad knockout. Let’s hope this kidnapping crime thriller is not just a routine “Law and Order” episode with an A-list cast.
Sept 27 — Don Jon (starring and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, also starring Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore)
Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It looks like an intelligent romantic comedy featuring characters that could have been on “Jersey Shore.”
Sept 27 — Rush (directed by Ron Howard, starring Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, Olivia Wilde)
Ron Howard, one of the most eclectic directors working, going from “Splash” to “Apollo 13” to “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” to “A Beautiful Mind,” directed this “based on a true story” sports drama about the British Formula One racer James Hunt. It is written by Peter Morgan, who collaborated with Howard on “Frost/Nixon.”