Starring: Monica Barbaro, Callum Turner, Maya Hawke, Julia Fox, Molly Ringwald, LeVar Burton, King Princess, Okieriete Onaodowan, Este Haim, Ziwe, Michelle Hurd
Director: Will Gluck
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Rating: R for Frank Pent-Up Sexuality
Release Date: August 7, 2026 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: It’s been three years since the United States outlawed premarital sex, save for a single annual 12-hour period of debauchery. Ergo, One Night Only is indeed the Carnal Version of The Purge. Pizzeria owner Owen (Callum Turner) is planning to use the occasion to propose to his girlfriend (Maya Hawke), but she actually thinks that they should sleep with other people. Meanwhile, daydreamer Allie (Monica Barbaro) is a singer of commercial jingles who plans to spend the evening hunting alongside her friend (King Princess), but she ditches her almost immediately. Left to wander the streets of NYC on their own, Owen and Allie keep bumping into each other throughout the night. It sure seems like the universe is trying to tell them to hook up, but their various hangups end up making that a rather roundabout journey.
What Made an Impression?: The Political Picture: Outlawing premarital sex sounds rather dystopian to me, but the society of One Night Only comes off as just plain frustrated and exhausted rather than oppressed. So you kind of just have to roll with the premise and not worry if it’s terribly realistic or not. Although, upon further consideration, I suppose there are real world examples of citizens continuing to have social lives despite the best efforts of governments taking their rights away. It would have been interesting to see ONO grapple more with the political implications of its premise (though it does a bit), but you kind of just have to accept that it has other things on its mind. Worst-Laid Plans: Part of the One Night Only Mandate is that anyone partaking must use protection while having relations. This leads to a series of gags in which Owen and Allie desperately venture into any bodega and health clinic they can find in search of a condom, only for every location to inevitably be out of stock. Which begs the question: why wouldn’t these establishments increase their inventory tenfold or a hundredfold for the occasion? I understand the desire to create a desperate situation from a screenwriting perspective, but it’s hard not to be disappointed by such a lack of foresight. They’re Dancing About It Too: A different running gag that I’m much more fond of takes its aim at an odd trend in the current media landscape. When we’re introduced to Allie, she’s singing Sara Bareilles’ inspirational anthem “Brave”, but it’s actually a reworked version for a psoriasis medication commercial. We’re also treated to revamped editions of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “A Thousand Miles”, the latter for a personal hygiene product. If this is the fate of all pop music in the 21st century, then that sounds more oppressive than the no-sex Mandate (but hilariously so). Do They Win Us Over?: With One Night Only leaving me with multiple questions about its approach, its potential success ultimately comes down to how charming its leads are. And they’re pretty charming! Plus, director Will Gluck (Easy A, Anyone But You) is a reliable rom-com veteran with a knack for playing around with the tropes of the genre. Plus, I would be remiss not to mention the steady hands of Molly Ringwald as Owen’s mother and LeVar Burton as her boyfriend. Ultimately, I’m in the mood to root that it all works out for Allie and Owen, at least for the one night that I’m focused on them.
One Night Only is Recommended If You Like: Cheekiness over Profundity
Keep on Troopin’, eh? (CREDIT: Searchlight Pictures/Screenshot)
Starring: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske, Brian Cox, Marisa Coughlan, Nat Faxon, Chace Crawford, Andrew Dismukes, Hannah Simone, Iqbal Theba, Sakina Jaffrey, Jon Rudnitsky, Lisa Gilroy, Lynda Carter
Director: Jay Chandrasekhar
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Rating: R for Sexual Content, Nudity, Language Throughout, and Drug Content
Release Date: August 7, 2026 (Theaters)
Super Troopers 3 is set to arrive in theaters on August 7, and I’m going to review it quite differently than how I generally review the attractions on the silver screen. Specifically, I shall initially focus on the first third of the movie and then speculate how the rest of the flick might go. Then on August 7 or later, I am going to return with Part 2 of the review and assess the rest of it in light of my speculation.
On my way to see August movies (CREDIT: Ketchup Entertainment)
They keep making new movies, and some of them are even worth watching. Here’s what’s at the top of the slate for August 2026:
One Night Only: It’s like The Purge, but for sex. Which is to say, One Night Only is about a world in which pre-marital relations are legal for only a single night per year. Callum Turner (who’s everywhere right now) and Monica Barbaro (formerly of Lifetime’s UnREAL) play the leads.
You can see One Night Only as often as you want in movie theaters beginning on August 7.
TV
–ESPN Jeopardy! Series Premiere (July 31 on Disney+, Hulu, and the ESPN App) – Hosted by Joe Buck.
–Futurama Season 14 (or Season 11) Premiere (August 3 on Hulu)
Music
-Ariana Grande, petal
-Shaboozey, The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales
Sports
-Little League Softball World Series (August 2-9 on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC)
A rose by any other bush… (CREDIT: MUBI/Screenshot)
Starring: Callum Turner, Jamie Bell, Tracy Letts, Riley Keough, Lukas Gage, Elle Fanning, Pamela Anderson, Elena Anaya
Director: Karim Aïnouz
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Release Date: July 24, 2026 (Theaters)
Rosebush Pruning is a movie that does feature some literal rosebush pruning, but that titular gardening activity is also a metaphor for something else. Anyway, what you really gotta know about this flick is that Callum Turner, Jamie Bell, Riley Keough, and Lukas Gage play a quartet of adult siblings who still live with their father (Tracy Letts), and let’s just say that they’re a little bit too close to each other. Longtime readers of my reviews will surely know that I often like to ask myself if I would like to live in the world of the movie that I’m reviewing. In this case, that answer is: Oh, definitely not! Unless, that is, we zoom out a bit. While I certainly don’t want to be a member of this family, I wouldn’t mind spending a decent amount of time in beautiful Catalonia, which is where they currently live. So I guess the moral of the story is: when in Spain, don’t be these people
…Started up a Brand New Day! (CREDIT: Marvel/Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando, Mark Ruffalo, Florence Pugh, Liza Colón-Zayas, Marvin Jones III, Zabryna Guevara
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Running Time: 145 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Occasionally Gnarly Action Violence, and a Little Bit of Language
Release Date: July 31, 2026 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: It’s been a lonely life for the Tom Holland version of Peter Parker ever since his last big screen adventure. He’s still Spider-Man, and New Yorkers still love their arachnid guardian, but a spell has been cast that has made everyone forget the entire existence of the human being behind the mask. He’s inching towards re-introducing himself to his former girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), but he’s got to be careful, since there are always new threats lurking around the corner. This time around, the primary threat is a mysterious newcomer (Sadie Sink) with the ability to jump her consciousness into other people who’s trying to expose a secret at the suspiciously friendly Department of Damage Control. Meanwhile, Peter seems to be going through a sort of second adolescence, as he develops new powers and then consults a relatively Hulk-free Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) to help him get a grip on these emerging abilities.
What Made an Impression?: The Day After When?: To rewatch or not to rewatch? That’s always one of the big questions at the heart of the latest MCU release. With Brand New Day, I wondered if I ought to revisit 2021’s No Way Home to remind myself how we got to the point where nobody remembered Peter Parker anymore. But ultimately, I decided I would prefer not to and instead see how this chapter stands on its own (which is typically my prerogative in general). And I believe I made the right decision. While things started off feeling a little vague, I appreciated that this movie didn’t feel the need to recap itself to death and instead give off at least a hint of mystery. Criss-Cross:Brand New Day reaches towards the platonic ideal of a true low-key comic book crossover sensibility. We’ve seen Peter team up with all the major Avengers already, but what about the other rando Marvel heroes and villains we’ve yet to see him interact with before? Several of them are in this movie! But not all of them, as that would be too overwhelming. Sometimes superhero flicks have multiple antagonists combined with a whole host of friendly cameos, and it ends up feeling like three or four (or a thousand) different movies smashed together. But in this case, it feels natural enough that all these folks would be interacting with each other in this series of scenarios. They Had an Effect on Me: My biggest bummer with BND is that the visual effects are too slick in the way that our digitized and sanitized CGI era so often is. There’s just not much tactility as Spidey swings around the Big Apple. Nevertheless, there is a decent amount of emotional heft to the big set pieces. It helps when there are some close-up shots interspersed within those sequences, as Tom Holland’s eternally youthful visage immediately conveys plenty of vulnerability. Brand New Enough Indeed: Ultimately, I’m pleased to report that I was satisfied by Brand New Day because it didn’t feel like just more of the same once again in the way that so many Marvel movies have. While it didn’t quite blow me away like the most transcendent examples of this genre, I never quite knew where we headed. The reveals are clever, the ideas are sincere, and the enthusiasm is still real.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is Recommended If You Like: A mix of the old and the new
Starring: Cooper Hoffman, Olivia Wilde, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Daveed Diggs, Charli XCX, Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho, Roxane Mesquida
Director: Gregg Araki
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Rating: R for Strong Sexuality (Frequently Funny and Occasionally Scary)
Release Date: July 31, 2026 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: In I Want Your Sex, Cooper Hoffman plays a naive fellow named Elliot who truly never could have guessed what he was in for at his new job. (Even those of us who aren’t so gullible would have been surprised by all the twists and turns!) He’s hired as a new assistant for Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), an artist known for her sexually explicit pieces and her extreme skepticism towards her own profession. Soon enough, the assistant gig turns into a BDSM relationship. Elliot’s excited to be dominated by a powerful woman, whereas she seems to be motivated mostly by boredom. It’s all fated to take a bizarre dark turn, as indicated by flash-forwards of Elliot answering to a pair of detectives (Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho) about Erika’s disappearance and possible murder.
What Made an Impression?: “Contemporary Art is a Scam”: I’m no expert in the contemporary art scene, but I have seen plenty of movies that hilariously insist that the whole endeavor is patently ridiculous. And I Want Your Sex is particularly ruthless in that regard. It essentially asks: What if your whole life were just a nonsensical work of art provocation? Elliot’s experience suggests that it would be decently amusing at first but that it would inevitably become a little too anxiety-inducing. More Like “Ex-C-Ex”: This is a movie with a bunch of friendly faces in the supporting cast, including Daveed Diggs as Erika’s brusque manager, Mason Gooding as Elliot’s sort-of-friendly co-worker, and Chase Sui Wonders as Elliot’s roommate who’s also by far the least warped human being we encounter. But then there’s Charli XCX (continuing quite the onscreen year for herself) as Elliot’s girlfriend. And let’s put “girlfriend” in quotes because she doesn’t appear to love or like him in any measurable capacity. And let’s furthermore say that that whole gag is milked for all its worth in a handful of well-deployed scenes, including a screamer of a punch line I Guess That Was Worth It:I Want Your Sex hinges on a conclusion that offers a more-or-less happy ending for just about everybody. It’s definitely a relief, although it does feel like it kind of comes out of nowhere. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more it actually has felt paradoxically inevitable, while boldly underscoring the thesis that art is just a scam. But not in a way that is as cynical as you might suspect that message must be. Instead, we are assured that we can use that scam energy and be reborn in truth on the other side.
I Want Your Sex is Recommended If: You’ve always wanted to see The Usual Suspects crossed with Nocturnal Animals
Starring: Reeve Carney, Eva Noblezada, André De Shields, Amber Gray, Patrick Page
Director: Brett Sullivan
Running Time: 141 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Release Date: July 24, 2026 (Theaters)
Well, hello there! Yes, the rumors are true, I did go see Hadestown: The Musical in a movie theater. I had never previously seen it on Broadway or any other live theatrical venue, though I did have a general idea of what to expect. Here are my biggest takeaways:
-I would’ve guessed ahead of time that André De Shields would be the main singer behind my favorite song, but no, that honor instead goes to Patrick Page as Mr. Hades himself going on about The Wall. What a bass!
-André was great, too, of course, and he did a fine job of ushering his co-stars into the spotlight.
-Let’s all start jumping like Amber Gray as Persephone!
-That “la la la” falsetto from Reeve Carney was kind of terrifying. (In a good way?)
-Eva Noblezada was delivering the sort of face acting that was making me go, “I hope everything works out okay!”
And now you know what I thought about Hadestown: The Musical.
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Hadestown: The Musical (Theaters) – A Broadway show comes to the big screen.
–Rosebush Pruning (Theaters)
TV
–President Curtis Series Premiere (July 26 on Adult Swim) – Rick and Morty spinoff with Keith David in the title role.
–Beat Shazam Season Premiere (July 28 on FOX)
Music
-Charli XCX, Music, Fashion, Film
-Robyn Hitchcock, The Confuser
-The Strokes, Reality Awaits
-Shania Twain, Little Miss Twain
-Tyla, A*Pop
-WILLOW, The Thread
-Pete Yorn, All the Beauty
Sports
-AIG Women’s Open (July 30-August 2 on Golf Channel and NBC)
You’re welcome! Why are you welcome, you may ask? Well, I assume that you would be thanking me at some point for getting to read this review of mine. Now why, you may also ask, am I being so presumptuous about my audience’s reaction? Well, I just felt compelled to mimic the same presumptuousness demonstrated by the Dwayne Johnson-portrayed demigod Maui, which is in turn the very same presumptuousness demonstrated by Walt Disney Pictures in releasing a live-action remake of Moana a mere decade after the animated original.
But you know what? I did feel welcome.
I’m sure that had quite a bit to do with my lowered expectations set by this questionable context. But this movie felt like a movie, and I guess it was just a day when I needed the silver screen to gently wash over me. (As it is most days.) So, well… thank you.
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