Check out our picks of some of the best TV, film, and books coming your way soon.
Happy New Years | Maya Arad | 5th August
After emigrating to America in the 1960s, Leah maintains her connection to Israel by writing an annual letter on Rosh Hashanah to her old friends from a women’s teaching college. Composed of fifty-one letters penned between 1966 and 2016, the novel documents Leah’s high hopes and deep disappointments, from relationships, marriage, and divorce to raising two children by herself, financial debt, and professional ups and downs. Leah rarely acknowledges the injustices she has had to overcome, but her letters turn increasingly introspective, ultimately exposing the secrets that shaped her trajectory from a naive but driven social climber to an independent woman at peace with herself.
Wednesday | Netflix | 6th August
Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) returns to prowl the Gothic halls of Nevermore Academy, where fresh foes and woes await. This season, Wednesday must navigate family, friends, and old adversaries, propelling her into another year of delightfully dark and kooky mayhem. Armed with her signature razor-sharp wit and deadpan charm, Wednesday is also plunged into a new bone-chilling supernatural mystery. Creator/showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar return for the spine-tingling second season of Wednesday, alongside Executive Producer and Director Tim Burton.
Butterfly | Prime Video | 13th August
Butterfly is a character-driven spy thriller series that explores complex family dynamics within the treacherous world of global espionage. It’s centred on David Jung (Daniel Dae Kim), an enigmatic, highly unpredictable former US intelligence operative living in South Korea, whose life is blown to pieces when the consequences of an impossible decision from his past come back to haunt him, and he finds himself pursued by Rebecca (Reina Hardesty), a sociopathic young agent assigned to kill him, and Caddis, the sinister spy organisation she works for.
The Life of Chuck | In cinemas from 21st August
Written and directed by Mike Flanagan, The Life of Chuck is an adaptation of the novella published in the 2020 collection, If It Bleeds, by Stephen King. Tom Hiddleston plays Charles ‘Chuck’ Krantz, and it co-stars Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and Jacob Tremblay. The plot is split into three acts which follow the formative moments in the life of Chuck in reverse-chronological order, from his death coinciding with the end of the universe to his childhood.
Eddington | In cinemas from 22nd August
In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbour is pitted against neighbour, following the political and social turmoil in the fictional city of Eddington, New Mexico, caused by the COVID pandemic. The American contemporary Western film is written and directed by Ari Aster, and also stars Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Michael Ward, Austin Butler, and Emma Stone.
