Two Days, One Night

Marion Cotillard stars as a woman struggling to
keep her job in the latest from the Dardenne
brothers, which lost out to Winter Sleep for the
Palme d’Or at Cannes. After her boss decides to sack
her and give her co-workers a bonus, she forces a
vote and spends a weekend begging for her job
back. It’s both an intimate portrayal of a desperate
woman and a tense countdown to the final vote. The
Guardian called it “a Twelve Angry Men of the 21st-
Century workplace”. Released 2 Aug in Australia, 21
Aug in Slovenia and 22 Aug in Ireland.

The Trip to Italy
Steve Coogan (Philomena) and Rob Brydon swap the
Lake District for the Med in their latest gastronomic
road trip. A sequel to The Trip, also directed by
Michael Winterbottom, it’s heavy on banter and
impersonations: choice moments include Coogan’s
turn as an incomprehensible Tom Hardy in The Dark
Knight Rises. Coogan has described the approach as
“we drive through the most spellbinding scenery that
I've ever seen in my life, and then we diminish it by
talking crap”. Released 15 Aug in Sweden and the
US.

Love is Strange
Variety has called Ira Sachs “one of the most
perceptive and personal directors working in
American cinema”. Now he follows up his 2012
feature Keep the Lights On with a drama focusing on
an older couple. Ben (John Lithgow) and George
(Alfred Molina) finally marry after 39 years together,
but are forced to live apart after George loses his
job teaching at a Catholic school. What follows is a
well-observed ensemble piece with a narrative that,
according to The Hollywood Reporter, is
“constructed almost entirely of in-between moments
rather than the big turning points and tragedies”.
Released 3 Aug in the US, 21 Aug in Macedonia and
28 Aug in Serbia.

Frank
One of the oddest pop stars in history is the subject
of this comedy drama from director Lenny
Abrahamson. Cult British musician and comedian
Frank Sidebottom is played by Michael Fassbender –
complete with giant plaster head – while Maggie
Gyllenhaal and Domhnall Gleeson co-star. Loosely
based on the experiences of journalist Jon Ronson
(The Men Who Stare at Goats), who co-wrote the
script and was a member of Sidebottom’s band,
Frank has been praised by critic Mark Kermode for
getting "beneath the mask and the skin of its
eponymous antihero in a manner that bridges the
gap between absurdist laughter and all-too-tender
tears". Released 1 Aug in Sweden, 22 Aug in the US
and 28 Aug in the Netherlands.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller team
up again for the sequel to their 2005 surprise hit
Sin City, bringing more stories from Miller’s neo-
noir graphic novels to the screen. Jessica Alba stars
in the crime thriller, transformed from a stripper
with a heart of gold to a woman seeking revenge for
the death of her mentor (Bruce Willis). It might not
be as long to wait for the next instalment:
depending on box office turnout, Rodriguez has said
that Sin City 3 “could go as soon as we want to”.
Released 21 Aug in Greece and Russia and 22 Aug in
Canada.

Calvary
Writer-director John Michael McDonagh and actor
Brendan Gleeson reunite following 2011’s action
comedy The Guard: although Calvary is a comedy of
an altogether darker shade. During a confessional,
an unseen man threatens to murder an Irish
Catholic priest (played by Gleeson) the following
Sunday, setting off a drama that is part morality play
and part “existential detective story”. With plenty of
gallows humour and a good dose of fatalism, it has
won praise for Gleeson’s performance and
McDonagh’s writing, described by the Sydney
Morning Herald as “lyrical and thoughtful and
challenging”. Released 1 Aug in the US.

Night Moves
Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard
star as three radical environmentalists plotting to
blow up a controversial dam in this eco thriller from
Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy).
Combining suspense with musings on the moral
ambiguity of political extremism, it was praised by
The Boston Herald for being “an impressive piece of
neo-noir filmmaking”. Released 14 Aug in Germany
and 29 Aug in the UK.

The Two Faces of January
Screenwriter Hossein Amini (Drive, The Wings of a
Dove) makes his directorial debut with a thriller
adapted from a novel by Patricia Highsmith. Set in
Greece and Turkey in 1962, it follows an American
couple (played by Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten
Dunst) forced to go on the run with a scam artist
(Oscar Isaac) after a murder at their hotel. Time Out
described it as “an unhurried, louche thriller that
gives way to claustrophobia as it starts to get its
clammy hands around your neck.” Released 1 Aug in
Lithuania, 14 Aug in Slovenia and 28 Aug in the US.

Finding Fela
Documentary film-maker Alex Gibney – who won an
Academy Award for Taxi to the Dark Side – turns his
hand to Afrobeat music pioneer Fela Kuti in a
feature that mixes period interviews with highlights
from the Fela! Broadway musical. The Nigerian band
leader fused jazz, funk and Yoruban rhythms to
create a new sound; he also recorded songs
protesting government corruption, and was
repeatedly beaten before he died from an Aids-
related illness in 1997 – the film tackles the complex
life of a counterculture hero. Released 1 Aug in the
US.