Trailer Round-Up: 'Cats And Dogs', 'Fatal Affair', 'Father Soldier Son', 'The Kissing Booth 2', 'I Used To Go Here', 'Random Acts Of Violence', And More
Hello again, friend of a friend. It's time for a trailer round-up! This is an infrequent column where we cobble together various trailers from TV shows and movies that aren't exactly "big," but still deserve some attention. The indie flicks, documentaries, and other oddities that we can't exactly give devote a single post to, but can find time to talk about. We love you, movies.
Fatal Affair
Fatal Affair appears to be a modern-day update on the classic domestic thriller. You know the type – movies like Fatal Attraction and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. In this Netflix movie, "Ellie (Nia Long) tries to mend her marriage with her husband Marcus (Stephen Bishop) after a brief encounter with an old friend, David (Omar Epps), only to find that David is more dangerous and unstable than she'd realized." Fatal Affair is now streaming on Netflix so you can have some trashy fun with it this weekend.
Father Soldier Son
Another Netflix title is the documentary Father Soldier Son. This story follows "a former platoon sergeant and his two young sons over almost a decade, chronicling his return home after a serious combat injury in Afghanistan. Originating as part of a 2010 project on a battalion's yearlong deployment, reporters-turned-filmmakers Catrin Einhorn and Leslye Davis stuck with the story to trace the longterm effects of military service on a family." This, too, is now streaming on Netflix. You can make it a Fatal Affair – Father Soldier Son double-feature!
The Kissing Booth 2
Oh hell yeah, time for more Kissing Booth action! Get those lips ready! In The Kissing Booth 2, "Elle Evans (Joey King) just had the most romantic summer of her life with her reformed bad-boy boyfriend Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi). But now Noah is off to Harvard, and Elle heads back to high school for her senior year. She'll have to juggle a long-distance relationship, getting into her dream college with her best friend Lee (Joel Courtney), and the complications brought on by a close friendship with a handsome, charismatic new classmate named Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez). When Noah grows close to a seemingly-perfect college girl (Maisie Richardson-Sellers), Elle will have to decide how much she trusts him and to whom her heart truly belongs." This YA sequel arrives on Netflix July 24.
The Claudia Kishi Club
Tijuana Jackson: Purpose Over Prison
In Romany Malco's Tijuana Jackson: Purpose Over Prison, "Tijuana Jackson (Romany Malco) is a man determined to move beyond his checkered past and achieve his ambition of becoming a world-renowned motivational speaker. When asked to be the subject of a 10-minute student film, TJ leaps at the opportunity. Ten minutes turns into ten hours, and ten hours become ten life-altering days of courage and inspiration. Determined to be more than a statistic with a pipe dream, TJ stops at nothing to earn the respect of his family, and crush (Regina Hall), who is currently his probation officer, by becoming the success story they claimed he'd never be." This film arrives on July 31.
I Used to Go Here
Gillian Jacobs takes the lead in I Used to Go Here, where the Community alumn plays Kate Conklin, a 35-year-old writer dealing with the lackluster launch of her debut novel. Kate "receives a welcome invitation from her former professor and old crush (Jemaine Clement) to speak at her alma mater. With her book tour cancelled, and her ego deflated, Kate hopes that returning to her old college as a published author will give her the morale boost she sorely needs. Instead, she falls into a comical regression—from misadventures with eccentric twenty-year olds to feelings of jealousy toward her former professor's new favorite student. Bittersweet emotion and awkward humor abound as Kate journeys through her past to redefine her future." The flick arrives in theaters and on demand August 7.
Cats and Dogs 3
Uh...they made a third Cats & Dogs movie. I'm not sure why, but they did. Here, "Gwen the Cat and Roger the Dog are secret agents who covertly protect and save the world without humans ever finding out. Their partnership is due to the Great Truce, which has stopped dog and cat hostility for a decade. But the long-standing peace is threatened when a supervillain parrot discovers a way to manipulate wireless frequencies that only dogs and cats can hear! Will the heroes be able to stop the foul fowl, or will he cause a cat-a-strophe between the species?" Look, I love dogs (cats are okay, I guess), but I'm not sure who this is for. In any case, the film is headed to home video this September. I can't find a full date, just "September." So mark your calendars!
The Go-Go's
The Showtime doc The Go-Go's follows the story of the popular 80's pop band: "Born out of the L.A. punk scene, Charlotte Caffey (lead guitar, keyboards and vocals), Belinda Carlisle (lead vocals), Gina Schock (drums), Kathy Valentine (bass and vocals) and Jane Wiedlin (guitar and vocals) didn't play the part of bad girls – they were genuine punk rockers. Their 1981 debut album Beauty and the Beat, featuring the hits 'Our Lips Are Sealed' (one of Rolling Stone's Top 100 Pop Singles) and 'We Got the Beat,' was one of the most successful debut albums of all time, No. 1 on the Billboard charts for six consecutive weeks and resulted in a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. The Go-Go's will release their first new recording in nearly 20 years." This arrives on Showtime July 31.
Random Acts of Violence
Headed to Shudder, Random Acts of Violence follows "Comic book creator Todd Walkley (Jesse Williams), his wife Kathy (Jordana Brewster), assistant Aurora (Niamh Wilson) and best friend, Hard Calibre Comics owner Ezra (Jay Baruchel)" as they "embark upon a road trip from Toronto to New York Comic Con and bad things start to happen. People start getting killed. It soon becomes clear that a crazed fan is using Todd's 'SLASHERMAN' comic as inspiration for the killings and as the bodies pile up, and Todd's friends and family become victims themselves, Todd will be forced to take artistic responsibility." Directed by Jay Baruchel, Random Acts of Violence hits Shudder on August 21.
How to Fake a War
Finally, allow me to tell you How to Fake a War: "When an unexpected outbreak of peace leads to a ceasefire between Russian forces and Georgian rebels, arrogant rock star Harry Hope (Jay Pharoah) fears for the success of his heavily hyped Piece of Peace global charity concert. Desperate, he dispatches his PR consultant, Kate and her naïve intern, Pegg, to create a fake war story – until the concert, at least." The film from director Rudolph Herzog (son of Werner!) drops on demand August 21.