Picture this: A wealthy businessman buys an island, populates it with real live dinosaurs, and opens a theme park. What could go wrong? Pretty much everything, as a certain Steven Spielberg movie can attest.
"Jurassic Park" is one of those classic perfect films you want to catch on the big screen whenever possible, and if you’re wondering if we’re mentioning it because there is an opportunity to do so in the next few weeks, the answer is yes!
"Jurassic Park" is one of many must-see masterpieces hitting cinemas and outdoor theaters in New York City this August, alongside some bona fide cinema classics, slasher horror flicks with a twist and a lovingly irreverent documentary about that one band whose name you were always afraid to say in front of your parents. Whether you’re sheltering from unpredictable weather or looking to boost your Letterboxd numbers, the movies are the place to be.
Jurassic Park
Brooklyn Bridge Park Harbor View Lawn, Aug. 6
Steven Spielberg’s "Jurassic Park" is one of the best summer movies (if not one of the best movies) of all time. Groundbreaking special effects that still blow today’s blockbusters out of the water are only part of the attraction — the movie is anchored by delightful performances from some of the era’s greatest actors, including the legendary and recently departed Sam Neill.
The film that launched a thousand paleontology careers is well worth seeing outdoors on the big screen. You’ll never forget where you were the first time you heard that T. rex roar.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Angelika Film Center, AMC Lincoln Square 13, opens Aug. 7
A budding horror director is hired to remake the ’80s slasher series that sparked her love of cinema, but when she heads into the wilderness to pick the brain of the star of the original, who's currently living in the long-closed summer camp that provided the setting for the movie, the boundary between fantasy and reality begins to crumble.
The vividly titled "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," the latest from horror director Jane Schoenbrun, is equal parts a send-up of Hollywood remake fever and an exploration into the strange things that spark our most hidden desires. Dreamily atmospheric and unapologetically sexy, "Camp Miasma" further cements Schoenbrun as one of the most exciting voices working in horror today.
Sour Minnows
Old American Can Factory, Aug. 8
Witnessing something as odd as a group of people crouching down and licking a city street is enough to make one wonder if they’ve somehow slipped into a different plane of reality — which is exactly what happens to the protagonists of the surreal body-snatching horror comedy "Sour Minnows."
What do authenticity and creativity mean in a world increasingly run by slop? Is reality real if you can’t remember any of it? What would it be like for a weird yellow man to jump into your skin and pilot your body like an alien invader? These are just a few of the questions asked (and sort of answered) in director Harrison Atkins’ existential dive into the modern world’s nightmares and dreamscapes.
"Sour Minnows"’ U.S. premiere at the Old American Can Factory will have an afterparty immediately following the screening.
The Warriors
Long before John Wick was declared excommunicado in a city full of killers, the Warriors, a young, tough Coney Island street gang, were falsely accused of assassinating a charismatic gang leader and forced to fight for their lives from the Bronx all the way back to their home turf.
Their odyssey through New York City’s demimonde traverses the mausoleums of Woodlawn Cemetery, the hidden pathways of Riverside Park and the catacombs of the subway tunnels as the Warriors battle their way towards safety and sunrise. Walter Hill’s 1979 action classic "The Warriors" is an homage to the city after dark, crafting high drama from its gangland underground. Can you dig it?
Family Movie
Film at Lincoln Center, Aug. 19
The metatextual layers go deep in "Family Movie," a slasher parody directed by husband and wife Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, in which they and their real-life children play a family of filmmakers whose latest microbudget horror movie production is derailed by the discovery of an actual dead body on set.
As the body count increases and the family becomes less adept at covering them up, their already fraying familial bonds are tested to their limits. Full of goofy industry in-jokes and references to real horror movies, "Family Movie" is a tribute to the joys and frustrations of making art with your loved ones.
The screening as part of Film at Lincoln Center’s Scary Movies XIV will have a Q&A with Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, and Travis Bacon.
Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan and Staten Island, opens Aug. 28
The unhandsomely named band the Butthole Surfers are maybe most well-known for firing a shotgun into the crowd at Lollapalooza (albeit one loaded with blanks). Their music is good, too! "Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt" lays bare (sorry) the dirty, dramatic history of the band from their formation to their first taste of fame and beyond, offering a fully exposed (sorry) portrait of a team of artists whose like we won’t soon meet again.
With soundbites from fellow entertainers Flea, Dave Grohl, and Richard Linklater, "The Hole Truth" is the definitive documentary about one of rock’s most bizarre groups.
Filipiñana
There are few places where class inequality is as inescapable as on a golf course, and the green at the heart of "Filipiñana" is no different. When a young teen is hired to be the new “tee girl” at an upscale Manila golf club, her sweltering first day on the job drops her into a spider’s web of post-colonial social do’s and don’ts, unearthing the violent reality beneath all that fresh cut grass.
Director Rafael Manuel’s striking debut is imbued with a Wes Anderson-esque attention to detail and composition and a scathing critique of the Philippines’ rigid modern class structure, as darkly funny as it is furious.
Trapped: Mind-Altering Shorts 2026
Industry City, Courtyard 5/6, Aug. 28
Rooftop Films’ short film programs remain unskippable, and the bunch screening at the end of this month is full of “mind-altering” tales you won’t want to miss. Genre is no barrier to these short films’ strange experiments and grand ideas, finding beauty in the grotesque and vice versa. A male goat prepared for ceremonial slaughter is miraculously pregnant, testing a Malaysian-Tamil couple’s commitment to their faith and their community. A young girl’s toxic relationship with her mother becomes a literal Kafkaesque nightmare when the mom transforms into a bug. A woman’s social life is upended when she becomes obsessed with throwing herself down flights of stairs.
And those aren’t even the weirdest ones!
