This month in culture: August 2024

The Instigators

In theaters August 2, Apple TV+ August 9

Boston crime movies are back! Starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck — and produced by Ben Affleck, of course — The Instigators is a heist comedy-thriller about a robbery that goes wrong, causing Damon’s therapist to get dragged along for the ride. Affleck/Damon productions have consistently been solid — from the ultimate Boston crime movie The Town to last year’s Jordan 1 sneaker-origin story Air — and this is directed by one of the best working action directors around, Doug Liman, who was responsible for The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Edge of Tomorrow and (the underrated) American Made.

— Ross Anderson

It Ends With Us

In theaters August 9

Colleen Hoover’s novels hit the world in the early 2000s and have recently become wildly popular, supposedly selling more copies than the Bible in 2022. It Ends With Us, written in 2016, is arguably Hoover’s best-known book, and is now a movie. Because of the highly emotional and sexual content in Hoover’s books, it’s no surprise that her work is beloved by women. It Ends With Us is a romantic story — though some argue it’s more about finding yourself — with themes of domestic violence. While Hoover’s work is easy to read, there are a few (myself included) who critique the maturity of her writing. For example, the main character’s name in It Ends With Us is… wait for it… Lily Blossom Bloom. And Lily Blossom Bloom owns a flower shop. As for the new movie coming out, there has been an uproar over costuming and casting — surely Blake Lively is too old to play a girl fresh out of college. It’s sure to make an exciting and controversial girls’ night out when it appears.

— Ella Johnson

Emily in Paris, season four

Netflix, Part 1 August 15, Part 2 September 12

Enfin! Emily in Paris returns on August 15 for its fourth season. The season’s ten episodes reintroduce Lily Collins in her role as Emily Cooper, relocated from her firm in Chicago to Paris to work for a sister agency. After being caught in a love rhombus between her boyfriend Alfie (Lucien Laviscount), her ex-lover Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) and his girlfriend Camille (Camille Razat), season four introduces a new love interest for Emily: Italian actor Eugenio Franceschini, who was spotted by paparazzi alongside Collins. The season will also expand on Gabriel and Emily’s relationship and also includes scenes in Rome — perhaps a Roman holiday? Season three’s dramatic ending should ensure this one is juicy. See you in Paris, mes amis!

— Elisenne Stoller

Alien: Romulus

In theaters August 16

In space nobody can hear you scream, but the Alien franchise has been struggling for some time, after Ridley Scott’s interesting but esoteric last two pictures, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, failed to hit the mark. Hopes are high, then, for the Scott-produced, Fede Álvarez-directed latest installment in the series, which revolves around a group of space colonists who find themselves face to face with nature’s most vicious and primal adversary in the form of the acid-blooded xenomorphs. The absence of a British character actor playing a ruthless android is to be mourned, but the fantastically atmospheric trailers suggest that this could be this summer’s most entertaining sleeper hit.

— Alexander Larman

Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter Two

In theaters August 16

Love or loathe Kevin Costner, you can’t fault his overarching ambition. Not content with making one passion project in the form of his three-hour western Horizon, he has promised a further three films (or “chapters”) if the first one is successful, funded largely by Costner himself and directed by and starring the great man. Whether this is just a ludicrous vanity project or a noble attempt to keep a moribund genre alive, there’s no denying Costner’s passion for old-school, big-canvas filmmaking, and the massive success of Yellowstone has only kept him in the public eye over the past few years.

— AL

The Crow

In theaters August 23

A few years ago, Hollywood’s finest thought it would be a wonderful idea to pump out reboots of beloved R-rated cult classics. The PG-13, big budget reboots, like Total Recall, Robocop and Ghostbusters (twice), were terribly reviewed and flopped hard, whereas R-rated, faithful follow-ups like Dredd and Blade Runner 2049 were excellent and flopped even harder. The new version of The Crow seems like an effort to do both simultaneously. It has an R-rating for violence, gore, sex and drugs, but also a budget of over $50 million. And test screenings say it’s “unwatchable.” At least that makes it interesting, but given that it’s been in on-and-off development since 2008, a critical and commercial bomb is hardly the dream result.

— RA

Only Murders in the Building, season 4

Hulu, August 27

The smash-hit murder-podcast sitcom is back — and things are getting meta. Last season ended with — what else — the shock shooting in mysterious circumstances of Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), the stunt double of Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin) … in his apartment. Charles, Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) will have to work out who dun it — while not being too distracted by the making of the movie version of their podcast, in which they’re played by Eugene Levy, Zack Galifianakis and Eva Longoria, respectively. You knew there’d be guest stars…

— Matt McDonald

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, season 2

Amazon Prime, August 29

The first season of Amazon’s ludicrously expensive Lord of the Rings prequel series received what can charitably be described as a mixed reaction. The sexy human stranger turned out to be… Sauron, obviously. The bearded magic man who fell from the sky was Baby Gandalf. And the preference for CGI over camerawork screamed “this was made during Covid.” The Tolkien fanbase is less “toxic” than others, however (St*r W*rs) — and so it’s fair to expect many of them will tune in to hate-watch Yung Galadriel and Lil’ Elrond attempt to stymie the Dark Lord — who is now a sexy elf, for smithing purposes, of course.

— MM

Reagan

In theaters August 30

A Hollywood film that portrays Ronald Reagan in a positive light? It couldn’t be. Producer Mark Joseph was inspired to take on the project in 2003 when he realized how awful The Reagans miniseries was, highlighting Reagan’s stance on gay marriage and McCarthyism. Members of the cast have dipped their toes a time or two into conservative media — Dennis Quaid as Reagan and Jon Voight as Viktor Petrovich. While certain films like Sound of Freedom have reached right-of-center audiences and broken box-office records, will Reagan live up to the hype? Time will tell. Politics aside, I’m excited to see my Hollywood crush David Henrie (he’s Christian) play young Reagan.

— EJ

This article was originally published in The Spectator’s August 2024 World edition.