Four new films to see this week: The Summer Book, Have You Never Heard of Bill Fuller?, Nimrods: A Green Day Comedy and Queens of the Dead

Glenn Close, Emily Matthews, Mason Thames and Katy O’Brian feature in quartet of movies released in the week of August 7th, 2026Emily Matthews and Glenn Close in Charlie McDowell's The Summer Book Sun Aug 09 2026 - 04:53 • 3 MIN READThe Summer Book ★★★☆☆Directed by Charlie McDowell. Starring Glenn Close, Emily Matthews, Anders Danielsen Lie, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Pekka Strang, Sophia Heikkilä. No cert, limited release, 94 minTouching adaptation of Tove Jansson’s celebrated novel – a memoir in shallow disguise – concerning a young girl (Matthews) holidaying with her wise granny (Close) and bereaved dad (Danielsen Lie) on a remote Scandinavian island. McDowell’s English-language adaptation is, if anything, a little too respectful to the source text. There is a sense throughout of filmmakers tiptoeing across the fragile surface of a delicate narrative. There are life lessons here. There are emotional connections worth savouring. But there is not much forward motion. Close makes it work with a warm performance that suggests a character from a Studio Ghibli film. Full review DCHave You Never Heard of Bill Fuller? ★★★⯪☆ Directed by David Burke. Featuring Kate Fuller, Jane Fuller, Adam Clayton, Suggs, Sam Smyth, Michael Mary Murphy. No cert, limited release, 82 minYou may, indeed, not have heard of Bill Fuller. But few 20th century Irish lives were so flushed with achievement. Urban builder, ballroom mogul, music manager, gold prospector, the Kerryman lived an epic life that might provide Paul Thomas Anderson with material for a three-hour feature. The story told here in brisk non-linear fashion is gripping. Yet we end the film puzzled as to what drove the subject. Repeated shots from John Wayne movies remind us he identified with the frontier spirit. But nobody can quite make sense of a man who defied possibilities all through his life. Full review DCNimrods: A Green Day Comedy ★★★⯪☆ Directed by Lee Kirk. Starring Mason Thames, Mckenna Grace, Jenna Fischer. 16 cert, limited release, 116 minWhen is a Green Day film not a Green Day film? When it follows three Missouri teenagers who set off for Los Angeles after a prank phone call convinces them they have been chosen to open for the band? The script seldom strays from the familiar rhythms of the coming-of-age road comedy. Lee Kirk, who previously directed frontman Billie Joe in Ordinary World, embraces an episodic formula that delivers chilled-out comedy. The young cast, headed by the adept Thames, is thoroughly likable. The Black Phone star channels understated determination, while Kylr Coffman and Ryan Foust provide contrary comic energy. Full review TBQueens of the Dead ★★★⯪☆ Directed by Tina Romero. Starring Katy O’Brian, Jaquel Spivey, Riki Lindhome, Jack Haven, Cheyenne Jackson, Margaret Cho. No cert, Shudder, 101 minLeaning very much into the Looney Tunes subtones of her late, great father’s work, Tina Romero, daughter of Night of the Living Dead creator George, chews up the zombie genre and spits out the feathers. Her first feature sticks with the family tradition of strangers under siege by hordes of the bloodthirsty undead, but trades isolated farmhouses for a Brooklyn drag venue where opening night descends into chaos as zombies start street-walking. Queens of the Dead only sometimes becomes the riotous midnight movie classic it promises to be, but the undead have never looked this fabulous. Full review TBIN THIS SECTION