7 Great Movies I Discovered in August
This month might have been light on movies, but what was out there left a big impact
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Last month was a slog for me, professionally, thanks to Mercury being in retrograde so, strangely enough, I had time to watch movies. And while the movie theaters aren’t reflecting an abundance of content, there were still plenty of good things to see last month. So, while everyone is trying to immediately pivot to Halloween — sorry, as a September birthday baby no one celebrates spooky season around me till at least the end of the month! — I’m looking back at a few movies, some contemporary and some classic, I enjoyed spending time with in August.
Trap (2024)
Sure, critics like me had to pay to see this with everyone else but, in this case, I’ll say it served me well. Trap is M. Night Shyamalan’s best movie since The Village (which apparently is no longer a hot take) thanks to a fun and commanding performance from Josh Hartnett. People, I did not have the Josh Hartnett-aissance on my 2024 bingo card but I’m so happy it did (and I didn’t even particularly like him back in the aughts).
Shyamalan skillfully builds tension while balancing it out with a story about a father trying to connect with his child…while just happening to be a serial killer. There’s a lot the movie says about white male privilege and crime culture. While everyone is swooning over the Hartnett shirtless with a cleaver scene I think that sequence perfectly illustrates the hubris and ego of serial killers in a way that numerous crime docs do quite capture. I’ve thought about writing more in-depth on the movie’s presentation of crime but, right now, you should all make a point of seeing Trap.
