Suicide Squad

Best Movies to See in August: 'Suicide Squad,' 'Pete's Dragon' and More

From DC's all-star supervillain epic to an updated Disney classic, what you need to check out this month

Late summer is an odd time in the moviegoing calendar, when the last gasps of blockbuster season share cineplex marquees with left-of-center indies and slightly off-beat studio projects. August brings a varied slate of new releases, from a fantastical children's stop-motion wonder to a true story dramatized as a wartime bro-out to a comedy showcase for the cream of the sitcom crop. Pretty much every taste can find something worth investigating this month, so read on for a full briefing on what's to come:

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Suicide Squad (8/5)
It's good to be bad in DC's wild-card release about a group of supervillains collared by a no-nonsense government handler (Viola Davis) and forced into black-ops crimefighting work. Early word is that Margot Robbie is a blast as the screw-loose hellraiser Harley Quinn, and she's joined in the intriguing cast by Will Smith, Joel Kinnaman, Cara Delevigne, and Jared Leto giving his, shall we say, idiosyncratic take on the Joker. The early trailers showed trace amounts of levity in this demented spin on the superhero template, which could be a welcome change of pace for fans after the joyless, po-faced Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Join the movement: Make DC Movies Fun Again.
Joshy (8/12)
An assortment of faces from just about every good sitcom in the last five years get their Big Chill on in this Sundance-feted indie comedy. Josh (Silicon Valley's Thomas Middleditch) won't let his fiancée abandoning him cancel his bachelor party, and so he collects his pals Greg (Brett Gelman), Adam (Listen Up Philip director Alex Ross Perry), Eric (Nick Kroll) and Ari (Adam Pally of Happy Endings fame) for a leisurely, drug-fueled weekend getaway. Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, Jenny Slate, Jake Johnson, and Lauren Graham round out the stellar cast in this low-key. all-star ensemble piece.
https://youtu.be/fPOamb6d_20
Pete's Dragon (8/12)
The 1977 original combined live-action, animation and a handful of jaunty tunes for a off-beat childhood staple; Ain't Them Bodies Saints director David Lowery apparently ditched the songs entirely and swapped the clipped-out cartoons for smoothly integrated CGI in his earthy, naturalistic reimagining of the Disney film. Oakes Fegley takes up the mantle of Pete, with Bryce Dallas Howard, Karl Urban, Wes Bentley, and Robert Redford portraying the adults that can't possibly understand the primal bond between a boy and his dragon. Expect a more dialed-down, gentle vibe than most of Disney's recent output.
Sausage Party (8/12)
Audiences and critics at South by Southwest were split down the middle over this Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg-scripted "Toy Story, but with foulmouthed food" animated raunchcom about groceries staging a revolution in the produce aisle when they find out what awaits them in the world outside the whooshing doors. But with a stable of vocal talent including Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, James Franco, and Danny McBride, the pedigree's all there. Your appreciation of the middle-school sexual innuendo in the title should be a good litmus test.