DVD/Blu-ray Release Calendar: August 2018

▣ Life of the Party Trailers

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The latest comedy from the husband-and-wife team of Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy is a gender-reversed update of Back to School starring McCarthy as a newly single housewife who returns to college--the same one that her daughter is attending. Maya Rudolph and Gillian Jacobs also star. Critics found a few laughs, but little more.

▣ On Chesil Beach Trailers

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Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle star in this adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel about the excruciatingly awkward wedding night of two virgin newlyweds. Despite a screenplay by McEwan and strong direction by Dominic Cooke, making his directing debut after decades in the theater, the film divided critics.

▣ Revenge Trailers

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Writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s debut feature earned excellent reviews as it made its way around the festival over the past year, finally reaching theaters a few months ago. Matilda Lutz stars in this thriller about a woman who seeks revenge on her rich boyfriend and his sleazy friends. This is not viewing for the faint of heart. While highly stylized, the action intensifies to a brutal and bloody finale.

▣ The Rider Trailers

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This year's best-reviewed movie to date is Chinese-American filmmaker Chloé Zhao’s follow-up to Songs My Brothers Taught Me. The drama, which won the top award at the 2017 Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, follows a young cowboy (Brady Jandreau) on the Pine Ridge Reservation as he struggles to come to terms with not being able to ride after a horse crushes his skull. Based on events from Jandreau’s life and also starring his father and sister as versions of themselves, the film, like Zhao’s first feature, is an immersive look at life in this Sioux community.

▣ Zama Trailers

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Writer-director Lucrecia Martel’s latest film comes nine years after her much-praised The Headless Woman. An adaptation of Antonio Di Benedetto’s 1956 novel about Don Diego de Zama, a clerk for the Spanish empire whose main desire is to be transferred from his outpost in what is now Paraguay, this “beautiful, hypnotic, mysterious and elliptical” film “becomes a lacerating, often surprisingly comic evisceration of colonialism and patriarchy,” according to New York Times critic Manohla Dargis.

▣ Avengers: Infinity War Trailers

In the second of three Marvel releases in 2018, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes finally come face to face with Thanos (a CGI Josh Brolin). He wants to acquire all six infinity stones; they want to stop him. Following a pair of Avengers films directed by Joss Whedon (2012‘s The Avengers and 2015‘s Avengers: Age of Ultron), Infinity War marks the first of two that will be directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War), with their follow-up due next May.

▣ Deadpool 2 Trailers

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The inevitable sequel to Tim Miller's hit 2016 X-Men spinoff starring Ryan Reynolds as the wisecracking "merc with a mouth" returns much of the cast but finds Atomic Blonde's David Leitch taking over as director. Joining the fun are Josh Brolin, Zazie Beetz, and Terry Crews. Deadpool 2 actually scored a point higher than the first film, though it performed slightly worse at the box office.

▣ First Reformed Trailers

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The latest from writer-director Paul Schrader (Affliction, American Gigolo) stars Ethan Hawke as Reverend Ernst Toller, a tortured ex-military priest struggling with a dwindling congregation and guilt over the death of his son in the Iraq War. When a pregnant parishioner played by Amanda Seyfried requests that he counsel her husband, Reverend Toller must confront his past and humanity’s future. It's a huge improvement over Schrader’s previous directorial efforts, Dog Eat Dog and The Canyons.

▣ American Animals Trailers

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Bart Layton’s debut narrative feature dramatizes the “Transy Book Heist” of 2004, when four Kentucky college students attempted to steal millions of dollars in rare books. Retaining some of the documentary flourishes from his award-winning The Imposter, Layton casts Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, and Jared Abrahamson to play the college kids, but he also has their real-life, current-day counterparts appear with them and comment on their actions.

▣ Book Club Trailers

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A fairly successful bit of summer counter-programming aimed at an audience old enough to remember books, this comedy stars Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen as lifelong friends whose lives change after reading 50 Shades of Grey. It's the directorial debut for writer/producer Bill Holderman (A Walk in the Woods).

▣ RBG Trailers

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The title stands for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second female U.S. Supreme Court Justice (of a total of four to date), following Sandra Day O’Connor and preceding Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West, the film chronicles Ginsburg’s journey from young litigator to 85-year-old Supreme Court veteran. The film earned good reviews when it premiered at Sundance early this year, and performed well during its theatrical run, becoming distributor Magnolia's highest-grossing film to date.

▣ Western Trailers

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Written and directed by Valeska Grisebach (Longing), this modern western pits German construction workers installing a hydroelectric plant in rural Bulgaria against the local villagers. Using non-professional actors, Grisebach slowly builds the tension between the groups as newly arrived worker Meinhard mixes with the local population. It’s a novel examination of masculinity and xenophobia in contemporary Eastern Europe.