“Chemical Hearts”
Cast: Austin Abrams, Lili Reinhart
Synopsis: A high school transfer student finds a new passion when she begins to work on the school’s newspaper.
What You Need to Know: As one of the strongest actors on CW hit “Riverdale,” actress Lili Reinhart has slowly been establishing herself outside of the teen drama, such as her supporting turn in 2019’s excellent “Hustlers.” With “Chemical Hearts” she, alongside her co-star and similarly rising profile Austin Abrams (of HBO’s “Euphoria”) got the chance to establish themselves away from the roles that brought them first notice. Better still is it’s being helmed by director Richard Tanne whose last project was the sweet and unassuming 2016 “Southside With You.” Adapted from the story “Our Chemical Hearts” by Krystal Sutherland, this teen romance looks to add to the great coming of age love stories that pack an emotional wallop.
Release Date: August 21 on Amazon Prime
“Rogue”
Cast: Megan Fox, Jessica Sutton, Philip Winchester
Synopsis: O’Hara leads a lively squad of soldiers on a daring mission: rescue hostages from their captors in remote Africa. But as the mission goes awry and the team is stranded, O’Hara’s squad must face a bloody, brutal encounter with a gang of rebels-and the horde of ravenous, enraged lions they encounter.
What You Need to Know: If there’s any obvious draw to “Rogue,” a film directed by M.J. Bassett (“Altered Carbon”), it’s Megan Fox, an actress who for many has been consistently let down by the Hollywood system. It’s a deserved leading role for the actress and while the plot is, at least on paper, silly with a lion being the main antagonist, it’s a solid place for Fox to start in terms of hopefully re-engaging with the general public – especially those who have been championing her since her thrilling performance in “Jennifer’s Body.” Co-written between Bassett and Isabel Bassett, the film will hopefully go the route of the B level success of a film like “Crawl” while also offering a solid platform for its star.
Release Date: August 28
“The New Mutants”
Cast: Maise Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Henry Zaga, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt
Synopsis: Rahne Sinclair, Illyana Rasputin, Sam Guthrie, and Roberto da Costa are four young mutants being held in an isolated hospital for psychiatric monitoring. Dr. Cecilia Reyes, believing the teenagers are a danger both to themselves and to society as a whole, keeps a close eye on them as she struggles to teach them how to rein in their mutant abilities. When newcomer Danielle “Dani” Moonstar joins the other patients in the facility, strange occurrences begin to take place.
What You Need to Know: Wouldn’t it be terrific if the consistently pushed back, Josh Boone (“The Fault in Our Stars”) film ended up pretty good? Or even just passably okay at this point? Currently scheduled to be released at the end of the month (while we all wait for it to possibly be bumped yet again), “The New Mutants” has been one of the oddest cautionary tales of the Hollywood system in recent history. With a cast of up and coming stars such as Maise Williams (“Game of Thrones”) and Anya Taylor-Joy (“Emma.”) and directed by Boone who helmed one of the most popular YA adaptations in recent history, the film has been through post-production hell with its original release date scheduled back in 2018. With a horror spin on the superhero genre, there’s still a chance that the film will manage to surprise us all despite the telltale signs of middling quality, but we’ll have to wait and see first if the film manages to stick to its most recent release date.
Release Date: August 28 (Maybe? Still hard to believe it’s actually hitting theaters…)
