✹ WEEKLY FILM RUNDOWN: August 2-8
The latest releases and special screenings hitting Music City this week. For a complete list of upcoming releases, check out our 2024 Film Guide.
Trap M. Night Shyamalan’s latest is, as always, shrouded in secrecy, but we know it stars Josh Hartnett as a dad taking his daughter to a Taylor Swiftish arena concert who also happens to the serial killer that the FBI orchestrated the show to catch. No telling whether it’ll be the next The Sixth Sense or The Happening, but reviews look like a crisis is averted. Now playing in theaters.
Kneecap The members of the titular Belfast hip hop group play themselves in this anarchic biopic about their rise to infamy for performing in their native tongue and championing the cause of Irish Republicanism. With Michael Fassbender as the band’s political prisoner turned manager. Now playing in theaters.
Coup! No, it’s not an urgent cinematic retelling of Kamala Harris’s rise among the ranks but a class satire about a grifter (Peter Sarsgaard) posing as a chef who takes over a seaside estate by fomenting a rebellion of the help. Now playing at AMC Thoroughbred 20, AMC Murfreesboro 16, and Regal Hollywood 27.
Cat Video Fest The Belcourt brings this nationwide fundraiser for animal shelters to Nashville so locals can enjoy the year’s best cat videos. Insert childless cat ladies jokes here.
Weekend Classics: Animal Kingdom @The Belcourt In conjunction with Cat Video Fest, The Belcourt has curated a series of the greatest animal movies ever made. Enjoy a wide array of screenings from Lady and the Tramp and Best in Show to Winged Migration, The Birds, and ornithology classic Jurassic Park. This week brings a 35mm print of unhinged Japanese ghost story House.
Music German arthouse superstar Angela Schanelec reimagines Oedipus through the story of a child abandoned in a farming community whose past catches up with him while serving a prison term. A shoo-in for one of August’s best films. Now playing at the Belcourt,
3 Women and The Shining The Belcourt pays tribute to Shelley Duvall with rep screenings of her two most iconic roles. See her as the thoroughly modern woman who takes Sissy Spacek under her wing in Robert Altman’s singular Three Woman before another round of her performance as the put-upon wife of the most volatile novelist of all time in Kubrick’s most cultish cult classic.
Green Room 2016’s tensest film was overshadowed by the tragic death of its star, Anton Yelchin, but this tale of a punk band who ends up on the wrong side of rural Washington Neo Nazis led by Patrick Stewart deserves to be seen in a crowded theater. It’s also perhaps the least contrived time white supremacists have appeared in Nashville this summer. Playing Saturday at the Belcourt.
Harold and the Purple Crayon Unless you’re Steven Spielberg, taking a classic kid’s book and following its protagonist all grown up is treacherous territory. But Sony clearly didn’t get the memo that this CGI heavy, two-hour adaptation featuring Zachary Levi writing his adult self out of the books for some, “hilarious hijinks” was destined to be the summer’s biggest misfire. Now playing in theaters.
The Firing Squad The Epoch Times gets into the movie business with this true story of three Indonesian death row inmates (including Kevin Sorbo and Cuba Gooding, Jr.) who change their lives by becoming Christians. Now playing in theaters.
Girlfriends The late 70s indie classic follows a bar mitzvah photographer as she takes friendship and romance in New York. Playing Tuesday at the Belcourt
Hairspray Why anyone would watch this hackneyed musical remake of John Waters’s classic about dance shows and segregation in 60s Baltimore is beyond me, but maybe at-large councilmember Olivia Hill will shed some light. Wednesday at The Belcourt.
The Latest in Bolly/Tolly/Kolly/Lollywood and Other Special Presentations of Asian and Middle Eastern Imports.
Boat (Tamil) Survivors of a maritime bombing navigate the treacherous sea. Now playing at Regal Hollywood 27.
Ulajh (Hindi) A diplomatic services offer becomes embroiled in a conspiracy far from home that could make her career. Now playing at Regal Hollywood 27.
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha (Hindi) A man fresh out of prison reunites with his lost love as the truth emerges about his alleged crimes. Now playing at AMC Thoroughbred 20 and Regal Hollywood 27.
Shivam Buaje (Telugu) “A humble loan agent finds himself caught up in a global conspiracy to cause devastation in India. An accident triggers visions of crime and a serial killer, compelling him to unravel a larger mystery and prevent an impending catastrophe.” Now playing at Regal Hollywood 27.