World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
A stacked Friday for UK screens led by Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars; a separate US slate topped by Coyote vs. Acme’s wide expansion; Timor-Leste makes its ASEAN Film Festival debut in Hong Kong; and sad news for Menace II Society’s Samuel Monroe Jr..
Morning all — a proper end-of-August Friday today, with new releases either side of the Atlantic and a first for Southeast Asian cinema in Hong Kong (with a personal connection!) Here’s what happened in the world of movies during the last 24 hours.
A packed Friday at UK cinemas: Leading today’s UK slate is Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars, his post-apocalyptic adaptation of Peter Heller’s novel starring Jacob Elordi as a pilot holed up in an abandoned airport hangar with his dog and a hard-edged Josh Brolin, before a mysterious radio transmission pulls him back into the world. Elsewhere: Curzon’s Bitter Christmas and Signature’s Rise Of The Footsoldier: Retribution offer rather different tones; Studiocanal’s Colony brings Yeon Sang-ho — director of Train to Busan — back to infected-outbreak territory via a sealed biotech conference; there’s One Night Only – the sex version of The Purge – with Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro; doll-horror film She Saw Us; Cable Car-rescue documentary Hanging By A Wire; part 1 of a French biopic De Gaulle: Résistance and Black Bear’s raunchy sex comedy with Olivia Wilde I Want Your Sex. For the nostalgic, Park Circus brings back both Shaun The Sheep Movie and Kiki’s Delivery Service, alongside a fresh UK bow for La La Land. Phew! Ten-plus titles all told — a genuinely stacked end to the month.
Meanwhile, over in the US: American screens get their own separate stack today, several with no UK date yet. Coyote vs. Acme — the excellent but long-shelved Warner Bros. title that’s been getting rave reviews from the UK (including mine) goes properly wide across US theatres after a strong limited debut, while Casper Kelly’s absurdist horror-comedy Buddy, starring Michael Shannon and Cristin Milioti, brings a genuinely deranged take on children’s television to multiplexes. Netflix also drops its starry crime thriller The Whisper Man adapted from Alex North’s bestseller, with Robert De Niro as a retired detective hunting a serial killer alongside Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan and Michael Keaton — a solid stay-home option if the cinema slate doesn’t grab you.
Timor-Leste makes its festival debut in Hong Kong: Away from new releases, the ASEAN Film Festival in Hong Kong marked a genuine first yesterday, as Timor-Leste took part for the very first time with a programme of short films exploring the country’s intangible cultural heritage, presented alongside director Grazela Maria Albino. Now in its fourth year and running until 27th September, the festival’s expanded to over 30 films from all eleven ASEAN member states this time round — a properly meaningful moment for a country whose film industry rarely gets much of a look-in internationally. (Oh, and that personal connection: in a rather bizarre episode in my career in computing, I once had to develop a bid for a CRM system for the government of Timor Leste… a truly odd experience.)
And in one final, sad piece of news: American actor Samuel Monroe Jr., best known for his roles in Menace II Society and The Players Club, has died aged 52 from complications of meningitis. A defining face of 1990s Black American cinema, his passing has been marked with tributes from those who worked alongside him across a career spanning more than three decades.
That’s all for today. With such a well-stocked cinema cupboard and already behind due to grandparenting duties, I’m planning a triple bill today of The Dog Stars, Insidious: Out of the Further and Mutiny today to try to catch up a bit. Wish my eyesight good luck!
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