August, while containing much smaller cinematic events than July’s The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, has managed to scrape together some of the most unique and interesting of the year. This month may not have had the biggest or best movies, but it does have plenty that push forward the ideas of their respective genres and, in some cases, cinema in general. Though, with the good we must always get some bad, and August’s lows have been as low as we’ve seen in some time. Here are some of the best and worst movies to release over the last month.

The Best:

Sunny Dancer (dir. George Jaques)

While Sunny Dancer is, by no means, the best movie of this month, there’s just enough positives here that it edges over into the good category, mostly just from the fact that this is a fun day out to the cinema. It does seem like it tries to be more, at times, though that fun aspect is all you really need from a movie like this. I can see this getting a new life in a few years when younger people discover it and are able to relate to a few characters, as well as simply being drawn to that enjoyment factor.

This doesn’t really push the ‘coming-of-age’ genre in any way at all, often being very by-the-books and straight shooting, occasionally to a fault. However, there’s a lot of fun to be had with Sunny Dancer, it holds some good morals in its story and faces the very serious topic of cancer and a child’s emotional journey away from it in a very respectful and admirable way.

Looked at under a microscope, this may not be the best movie, even being quite bang average, but if you’re just looking for an inoffensive, fun, coming-of-age story that occasionally deals with a few hard-hitting topics, then this will be right up your alley — even if there are countless better options out there.

The End of Oak Street (dir. David Robert Mitchell)

The End of Oak Street feels very Spielberg-esque, and not just for its inclusion of dinosaurs. You can see many shades of Jurassic Park and The Goonies within this and it often pays homage to so many dinosaur movies that came before it, while managing to stay unique and original in how this approaches the material and makes you feel about it.

Even though this is simply a lot of fun and exactly what you think of when you picture a blockbuster — at least I left the cinema thinking how cool everything I just witnessed was — there’s so much more packed into this that tugs at your heart strings, even if some of it seems to play in the background. I really admire the arc of Denise and Greg’s relationship blossoming once again after experiencing this terrible adversity together.

With this being David Robert Mitchell’s first dip into straight action, after 2014’s It Follows and 2018’s Under The Silver Lake, it feels natural to be somewhat skeptical of how well he can perform in such a different genre. However, he manages to take what he’s so great at in mystery and adapt it for this new genre, elevating this sense of wonder and excitement that this story naturally gives you.

The End of Oak Street sees the return of the proper blockbuster and is everything you hope for in a dinosaur action movie, especially one starring Ewan McGregor. I wouldn’t call this a ‘straightforward’ action flick, though if that’s what you’re looking for, The End of Oak Street will be everything you want and way more — not to mention Anne Hathaway’s stellar performance, once again.

Coyote vs. Acme (dir. Dave Green)

As I’m sure you’re aware, Coyote vs. Acme has had quite the journey: Originally scrapped by Warner Bros. as a tax write-off, Warner was scrutinised to no end by a moviegoing audience hungry to see the movie they had been promised, finally forcing Warner to put the movie up for auction — at which point it was picked up by Ketchup Entertainment, allowing it to finally be seen by public eyes in 2026.

Even though this movie has its fair share of problems, it’s hard not to simply enjoy it. The Looney Tunes have been sorely missed in live action for many years and this return, as a courtroom drama, is just as fun as ever — even if the Looney Tunes themselves are severely underutilised. Will Forte and John Cena manage to blend into this world in such a perfect way, it makes you wonder why they weren’t in this world many years ago. They’re both able to devolve into chaos and lift up much of the more cartoonish humour, while still being the straight men of the story and keeping it on track.

Is Coyote vs. Acme a perfect movie? No, not by any means. But is this worth all your support? Wholeheartedly yes. I’m sure, if you go and watch this in the cinema, you’ll have a blast and you’re able to say you’ve done your part to stand against corporate greed and helped art triumph against the bourgeoisie, in a sense — only pushing the themes that this movie presents in the process.

Tony (dir. Matt Johnson)

Tony is possibly one of the biggest surprises of this month, simply from the genre it resides in. While this is a biopic, following Anthony Bourdain’s young life after being rejected a writing fellowship and finding his journey towards cooking, it doesn’t feel as if it’s telling the life of Anthony Bourdain, instead giving us a story with actual substance, which is somehow a high bar for this subgenre.

When I think of a biopic, I think of a referential glaze over the life of somebody like Michael Jackson, in which no part of their life is delved into any deeper than a few scenes; the lead actor is impersonating, rather than acting. We essentially see the highlights of a person’s life thrown into two hours, with the sole purpose of an audience saying “hey I remember that”. Tony never feels this way. No costume feels like it’s mimicking anything, no part of Dominic Sessa’s performance feels fake or disingenuous, every part of this simply feels like an actual movie — and an amazing one at that.

I love that this delves into one single summer of Bourdain’s long culinary career: the birth of it. We see how this life is thrust upon him and how it changes him for all the better. We’re able to see one single arc — for lack of a better word — in this man’s life, rather than many self-indulgent moments of it. This is something I thought could have benefited movies like Michael in so many ways.

Tony feels like a breath of fresh air in a genre that is, seemingly unbeknownst to studios, on its last limbs and struggling to stand up — even if Michael was able to garner over a billion dollars. For a more adult coming-of-age movie, rather than the aforementioned, much more childish Sunny Dancer, look no further than Tony.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (dir. Jane Schoenbrun)

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is exactly what you want from a movie with style. Many movies that put so many eggs in the style basket can often forget to spare any for substance; that is not a problem here. There are so many layers that could be dissected for hours, and it’s simply a beautiful movie to look at. Every single frame paints a gorgeous picture and furthers this deeply convoluted — in a good way — story in so many facets.

Within this movie, Schoenbrun confronts their sexuality and gender identity even more than in 2023’s I Saw The TV Glow — a movie focused solely around the transgender experience. Not only does this explore these themes so deeply and in such a beautiful, at times metaphorical way, this also confronts the slasher genre as a whole. Through Teenage Sex and Death, we explore the endless slasher sequel slop, mostly satirising the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises, and how sexuality and sexism can relate to them, especially the idea of a ‘final girl’. This may sound like a lot for this to handle, though it balances it all incredibly well.

Teenage Sex and Death has so much style and just as much substance, this is easily one of the most creative and interesting looking movies of the entire year, as well as being the best of the month, by a long shot. If you’re a fan of horror in any capacity — especially the slasher subgenre — I’m sure you’ll love this. This contains some of the best cinematography and art direction in any movie of the entire year, so it’ll at least be a feast for your eyes.

The Worst:

Mutiny (dir. Jean-François Richet)

Where Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma has all the style and substance you could ever ask for in a movie, Mutinyis the exact opposite. This may actually have some of the least style I’ve ever seen in a movie, and somehow has even less substance.

Mutiny takes the formula for Statham’s last two movies, The Beekeeper and A Working Man, and takes away anything that made those two remotely interesting, namely how the story progresses. This movie seems to have the main objective of simply showing Jason Statham killing a bunch of people, with no regard for any kind of story. After the first ten to twenty minutes, this devolves entirely into soulless ‘action slop’, where anybody other than Jason Statham becomes fodder and means absolutely nothing.

Statham isn’t the problem here, he plays his role amazingly — possibly due to it being essentially the same he’s played for at least 10 years — though there’s absolutely nothing else to it. Almost as soon as Statham boards the ship, this becomes unbelievably boring, turning this 90 minute action flick into one of the longest movies you’ll ever watch. I’m sure this will find a new life as something you put on in the background while you cook dinner once it arrives on digital, ending up in the same vein as Red Notice and many other Netflix original action movies, though in the cinema this isn’t worth your time, no matter what you’re into.

The Last House (dir. Louis Leterrier)

The Last House is a difficult movie, as its first half is truly something quite interesting : drawing similarities to 2020’s pandemic, addressing the stakes and mystery of the movie, and showing this family learning to stick together through adversity. It may be somewhat rushed at times but it sets something up that could make for quite an interesting story. However, this really lets itself down in the second half.

Around the middle of this movie, we have a big time jump to five years after everybody was initially stuck inside their houses, and it also changes this from a mystery thriller about a family facing extreme adversity just to survive to an action movie about defeating a kraken. This is such a far cry from what made the movie really good in the first place, which is showing this family learning to cope.

Us seeing these monsters up close really ruined the movie for me, even more than it already was by this point. Throughout, we’re shown silhouettes of these monsters, hinting towards what they could be and allowing the audience to conjure up an idea in their heads. By the time they’re shown, the actual design is inevitably going to be underwhelming to the audience because the design that we’ve thought in our heads isn’t bound by any world building or realism. No matter how well this design is done, after all the build up we’ll always get a disappointing result — not to mention the similarities between the design of Stranger Things’ Demogorgons and these sea monsters, making them seem like a way for Netflix to easily market the movie to fans of their biggest IP.

The Dog Stars (dir. Ridley Scott)

The Dog Stars is an expected outcome for Ridley Scott’s career, as of late, though is no less of a disappointment. Every time I see his name attached to a poster, I have faith, though House of Gucci, Napoleon, and the newest The Dog Stars have continued to prove how far Scott has fallen from his prestige as the man behind phenomena such as Blade Runner, Gladiator, and Alien.

Simply put, The Dog Stars is boring. This lacks any sort of charm and substance in its circling story, leaving you feeling empty when the credits roll, and this is visually a boring feature, no matter how much Ridley and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt try to convince you otherwise in their many wide, sweeping shots of Elordi’s plane.

Unfortunately, there are many ideas presented that seem like they could have made for something really great — and this sounds amazing on paper — though the complete lack of emotion from the script and camerawork makes me just not care, turning this two hour drama into a long slog through this uninspired post-apocalyptic world.

I would have loved to have seen a lonely isolation movie, following Elordi and his plane trying and failing to experience his life before the virus one more time. However, he finds solace almost immediately in Qualley’s Cima and Pearce’s Jack, overshadowing and attempting to replace any slight emotional pull that this once had.

Ice Cream Man (dir. Eli Roth)

When you walk into an Eli Roth movie, you know you’re not about to see anything revolutionary, but not only is Ice Cream Man easily the worst movie of this entire month, this also manages to win the bottom spot of the whole year by a landslide. I can’t think of a single redeeming quality in this movie.

Ice Cream Man seems like it possibly could have worked as a ten minute short film, taking only the first and last five minutes, though with a runtime of almost ten times that, the vast majority of this ends up being absolutely nothing. The entire runtime is taken up by a small group of children running away from a bigger group of children, all the way up until the very end, where they must’ve realised nothing’s happened so far but the movie needs to be wrapped up somehow.

Not only is this terrible in its own right, it also digs its own grave even deeper than it needed to by making fun of a teenage girl’s eating disorder, essentially calling autistic people the r slur, and using generative AI in so many moments, completely shamelessly. All I have to say is please don’t support this movie with your money, no part of it deserves it. You’d be better of burning your money or just watching one of the many amazing movies that are out right now, many of which released this month and I’ve already mentioned.