AUGUST 12, 2022
<Click film’s poster to see info/trailer>
Directed By: Scott Mann
Studio: Lionsgate
FALL
For best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), life is all about conquering fears and pushing limits. But after they climb 2,000 feet to the top of a remote, abandoned radio tower, they find themselves stranded with no way down. Now Becky and Hunter’s expert climbing skills will be put to the ultimate test as they desperately fight to survive the elements, a lack of supplies, and vertigo-inducing heights in this adrenaline-fueled thriller costarring Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Starring: Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mason Gooding, and Jasper Cole
Genre: Thriller
Rating: PG-13 (for bloody images, intense peril, and strong language)
Country: USA | UK (English)
Runtime: 107 minutes
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Directed By: J.J. Perry
Studio: Netflix
Day Shift
Jamie Foxx stars as a hard working blue collar dad who just wants to provide a good life for his quick-witted daughter, but his mundane San Fernando Valley pool cleaning job is a front for his real source of income, hunting and killing vampires as part of an international Union of vampire hunters.
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, Snoop Dogg, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Meagan Good, Karla Souza, Steve Howey, and Scott Adkins
Genre: Action | Comedy | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller
Rating: R (for strong violence and gore, and language)
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 113 minutes
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Directed By: John Patton Ford
Studio: Roadside Attractions + Vertical Entertainment
Emily The Criminal
Emily (Aubrey Plaza) is saddled with student debt and locked out of the job market due to a minor criminal record. Desperate for income, she takes a shady gig as a “dummy shopper,” buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied by a handsome and charismatic middleman named Youcef (Theo Rossi). Faced with a series of dead-end job interviews, Emily soon finds herself seduced by the quick cash and illicit thrills of black-market capitalism, and increasingly interested in her mentor Youcef. Together, they hatch a plan to bring their business to the next level in Los Angeles.
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi, Megalyn Echikunwoke, and Gina Gershon
Genre: Crime | Drama | Thriller
Rating: R (for language, some violence and brief drug use)
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 97 minutes
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Directed By: Adam Patterson & Declan Lawn
Studio: IFC Films
Rogue Agent
The extraordinary and chilling story of career conman Robert Freegard who masqueraded as an MI5 agent and fooled people into going into hiding, and the woman who fell for him, and then brought him down.
Starring: Gemma Arterton, Shazad Latif, Marisa Abela, Edwina Findley and Julian Barratt
Genre: Drama | Thriller
Rating: Not Rated
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 115 minutes
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Directed by: Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman
Studio: Paramount+
Secret Headquarters
While hanging out after school, Charlie and his friends discover the headquarters of the world’s most powerful superhero hidden beneath his home. When villains attack, they must team up to defend the headquarters and save the world.
Starring: Owen Wilson, Walker Scobell, Jesse Williams, Keith L. Williams, Momona Tamada, and Michael Peña
Genre: Action | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Sci-Fi
Rating: PG (for violence, action, language and some rude humor)
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 89 minutes
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Directed By: Katie Aselton
Studio: Gravitas Ventures
Mack & Rita
When 30-year-old self-proclaimed homebody Mack Martin reluctantly joins a Palm Springs bachelorette trip for her best friend Carla, her inner 70-year-old is released — literally. The frustrated writer and influencer magically transforms into her future self: “Aunt Rita.” Freed from the constraints of other people’s expectations, Rita comes into her own, becoming an unlikely social media sensation and sparks a tentative romance with Mack’s adorable dog-sitter, Jack. A sparkling comedy with a magical twist, Mack & Rita celebrates being true to yourself at any age.
Starring: Elizabeth Lail, Diane Keaton, Taylour Paige, Dustin Milligan, Simon Rex, Nicole Byer, Patti Harrison, Loretta Devine, and Wendie Malick
Genre: Comedy | Drama
Rating: PG-13 (for some drug use, sexual references and language)
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 95 minutes
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Directed By: Han Jae-rim
Studio: Well Go USA
Emergency Declaration
While investigating a terroristic threat that goes viral online, Korean authorities discover that a suspect has recently boarded an international flight bound for the United States. When a healthy passenger on the same flight suddenly dies a gruesome death of unknown cause, panic erupts both in-flight and on the ground. With steadily decreasing fuel and international refusals to offer aid, the captain and crew will be forced to take unprecedented emergency measures in an attempt to save the lives of their passengers.
Starring: Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, Jeon Do-yeon and Kim Nam-gil
Genre: Action | Drama | International | Thriller
Rating: Not Rated
Country: South Korea (Korean)
Runtime: 147 minutes
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Directed By: Alli Haapasalo
Studio: Strand Releasing
Girl Picture
Mimmi, Emma and Rönkkö are girls at the cusp of womanhood, trying to draw their own contours. In three consecutive Fridays, two of them experience the earth moving effects of falling in love, while the third goes on a quest to find something she’s never experienced before: pleasure.
Starring: Aamu Milonoff, Eleonoora Kauhanen, Linnea Leino, Sonya Lindfors, Cécile Orblin, and Oona Airola
Genre: International | Romance
Rating: Not Rated
Country: Finland (Finnish & French)
Runtime: 100 minutes
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Directed By: Ed Perkins
Studio: HBO Max
The Princess
The story of Princess Diana is told exclusively through contemporaneous archive creating a bold and immersive narrative of her life and death. Turning the camera back on ourselves, it also illuminates the profound impact she had and how the public’s attitude to the monarchy was, and still is, shaped by these events.
Starring: Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Tony Blair, Hillary Clinton, and Clint Eastwood
Genre: Documentary | Biography | International
Rating: Not Rated
Country: UK | Germany (English)
Runtime: 109 minutes
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Directed By: James Ponsoldt
Studio: Bleecker Street
Summering
During their last days of summer and childhood — the weekend before middle school begins — four girls struggle with the harsh truths of growing up and embark on a mysterious adventure.
Starring: Lia Barnett, Lake Bell, Sarah Cooper, Ashley Madekwe, Madalen Mills, Megan Mullaly, Eden Grace Redfield, and Sanai Victoria
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG-13 (for some thematic material)
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 87 minutes
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Directed By: James Bird
Studio: Paramount Pictures
WifeLike
A grieving detective in the near-future hunts down criminals who trade artificial humans on the black market. In the fight to end AI exploitation, an underground resistance attempts to infiltrate him by sabotaging the programming of the artificial human assigned as his companion to behave like his late wife. She begins to question her reality as memories of a past life begin to surface in a world where nothing is as it seems.
Starring: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Elena Kampouris, Doron Bell, Agam Darshi, Alix Villaret, and Sara Sampaio
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rating: R (for sexual content, nudity, violence and language)
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 105 minutes
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Directed By: Julie Ha & Eugene Yi
Studio: MUBI
Free Chol Soo Lee
In 1970s San Francisco, 20-year-old Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee is racially profiled and convicted of a Chinatown gang murder. After spending years fighting to survive, investigative journalist K.W. Lee takes a special interest in his case, igniting an unprecedented social justice movement.
Starring: Chol Soo Lee, Jeff Adachi, K.W. Lee, and Ranko Yamada
Genre: Documentary
Rating: PG-13
Country: USA (English & Korean)
Runtime: 83 minutes
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Directed By: Azi Rahman
Studio: Vertical Entertainment
No Way Out
New to Los Angeles, talented photographer Nick (Joey Bicicchi) falls hard for the free-spirited Tessa (Maia Mitchell) who introduces him to the fast-paced world of high fashion. Fueled by sex, drugs, and the seduction of unbridled adoration, their love borders on obsession when she asks him to do the unimaginable. When a dark truth is uncovered, the young lovers are hurdled down a path of revenge and destruction blurring the lines of morality and begging the question — how far would you go for the one you love?
Starring: Maia Mitchell, Ashley Nicole Williams, Guy Burnet, Katelyn Pippy, Ronnie Gene Blevins, and Joey Bicicchi
Genre: Action | Crime | Thriller
Rating: Not Rated
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 89 minutes
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Directed By: Masaaki Yuasa
Studio: GKIDS
INU-OH
From visionary director Masaaki Yuasa, hailed by IndieWire as “one of the most creatively unbridled minds in all of modern animation,” comes a revisionist rock opera about a 14th-century superstar whose dance moves take Japan by storm. Born to an esteemed family, Inu-oh is afflicted with an ancient curse that has left him on the margins of society. When he meets the blind musician Tomona, a young biwa priest haunted by his past, Inu-oh discovers a captivating ability to dance. The pair quickly become business partners and inseparable friends as crowds flock to their electric, larger-than-life concerts. But when those in power threaten to break up the band, Inu-oh and Tomona must dance and sing to uncover the truth behind their creative gifts.
Starring: Avu-chan, Mirai Moriyama, Kenjirô Tsuda, Yutaka Matsushige, and Tasuku Emoto
Genre: Animation | Fantasy | International | Music | Musical
Rating: PG-13
Country: Japan | China (Japanese)
Runtime: 98 minutes
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Directed By: David Alvarado & Jason Sussberg
Studio: Greenwich Entertainment
We Are As Gods
“We are as gods and might as well get good at it,” Stewart Brand wrote in ’68. The pioneer of LSD, cyberspace, futurism, and modern environmentalism now urges people to use our god-like powers to fight extinction by reviving lost species.
Starring: Mike Brand, Stewart Brand, George Church, Peter Coyote, Paul Ehrlich, and Brian Eno
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not Rated
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 94 minutes
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Directed By: Antonio Tibaldi
Studio: Juno Films
We Are Living Things
We Are Living Things follows two undocumented residents who after a chance meeting, discover that they are both in search of intelligent life in the universe. Solomon (Jorge Antonio Guerrero) lives in the back lot of a recycling plant in Brooklyn, obsessed with connecting to aliens whom he believes abducted his mother many years ago. Chuyao (Xingchen Lyu), who fled China, believes she was abducted as a child. The two decide to help each other find the proof they seek, all the while on the run from the law as fugitives. Along their journey, they give each other hope for the future.
Starring: Jorge Antonio Guerrero, Xingchen Lyu, Zao Wang, O-Lan Jones, and Blanca Vivancos
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Country: USA | China | Italy (English, Spanish, & Mandarin)
Runtime: 96 minutes
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Directed By: Mauro Russo Rouge
Studio: Kino Lorber
Bloom Up: A Swinger Couple Story
Pet shop owners by day and swingers by night, Italian couple Hermes and Betta are, in most ways, regular people. In this honest, sex-positive look at the swinger lifestyle, director and cinematographer Mauro Russo Rouge is invited into their lives with no moment off-limits, crafting a portrait of a relationship that gives equal weight to the mundane yet strangely fascinating logistics of organizing sex parties as it does to the act itself. Shot in a rich visual style that is deeply sensual without ever feeling vulgar or exploitative, the film is “more emotionally than sexually voyeuristic” (Screen Daily), an intimate exploration of the deep love and complex challenges one polyamorous couple shares.
Starring: Elisabetta Barbero and Hermes Osnato
Genre: Documentary | International
Rating: Not Rated
Country: Italy (Italian)
Runtime: 88 minutes
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Directed By: Samantha Wishman & Christina Thomas
Studio: First Run Features
Free Puppies!
Tens of thousands of dogs are transported every year from areas with high euthanasia rates to parts of the country with fewer unwanted dogs and a surplus of adopters. Knowing the happy ending for these lucky dogs is only the beginning of the story, FREE PUPPIES. takes a closer look at where they come from. By following dog rescuers throughout rural counties in the Georgia-Alabama-Tennessee tristate area, we see the challenges that lead to dog overpopulation in the first place and the work being done in these communities to overcome them.
Starring: Ann Brown, Monda Wooten, and Ruth Smith
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not Rated
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: — minutes
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Directed By: April Wright
Studio: Going Attractions
Back to the Drive-In
When the pandemic hit, drive-ins were suddenly the only safe venue in town, with press coverage about how drive-ins are “back,” and how they are thriving. But this documentary goes behind the headlines to learn the truth, spending a whole night with 11 very different drive-ins in 8 states all over the country, from preparations before the customers arrive, to selling tickets, opening the snack bar, and getting the movie on screen, we discover these family-owned businesses are actually struggling to survive. This doc is about authentic drive-ins and the passionate people who run them, but more broadly it highlights questions about the future of the theatrical experience, and the challenges of many small businesses wondering whether they will survive and make it to the other side of the pandemic.
Starring: Yilong Zhu, Enyou Yang, Ge Wang, Lu Liu, and Jingmin Luo
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not Rated
Country: USA (English)
Runtime: 105 minutes
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