Cinema guide: new films in Australia this week

Check out the new films in cinemas this wee (8 to 14 July), from Lanthimos' Kinds of Kindness to the much-anticipated Twisters.
Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons in Kinds of Kindness. Image: Searchlight Pictures/20th Century Studios

Your guide to new films in cinemas across Australia this week, 8 to 14 July 2024.

For the monthly guide to new film releases, head here.

11 July

Fly Me To The Moon

Rom-com set during the lead-up to 1969’s Apollo 11 mission, starring Scarlett Johansson as a marketing exec hired by NASA to stage a fake moon landing, and Channing Tatum as the launch director struggling to stop the real thing from descending into chaos.

Director: Greg Berlanti
Cast: Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson
Classification: M
Runtime: 132m

Kinds of Kindness

The next film from auteur Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things), this story follows a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Jesse Plemons
Classification: MA
Runtime: 164m

Read: Poor Things review: a fabulous feminist fable

MaXXXine

Following 2022’s X and Pearl, filmmaker Ti West and star Mia Goth complete their starstruck horror trilogy with this story set in 1980s Los Angeles, following Maxine continuing her journey towards fame after the events of X.

Director: Ti West
Cast: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Kevin Bacon
Classification: R
Runtime: 104m

Twisters

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) directs this update to the 1996 film Twister, which centered on a pair of storm chasers who risk their lives in an attempt to test an experimental weather alert system.

Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Cast: Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos


Recently released

Horizon: An American Saga

Kevin Costner directs and stars in this Western epic telling a story spanning 15 years across pre- and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West.

Director: Kevin Costner
Cast: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington
Classification: R
Runtime: 181m

Read: Horizon: An American Saga film and streaming preview

Kill

In this Indian action film, a passenger train bound for New Delhi becomes a bloody battleground of brutal close-quarters combat as a pair of commandos square off against a 40-strong army of invading bandits.

Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Cast: Raghav Juyal
Classification: R
Runtime: 115m

Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line

Documentary tracing the 45-year journey of the quintessential Australian rock band, featuring interviews and archival material including footage of their outback tour with Warumpi Band, the Exxon protest gig, and wearing “Sorry” suits at the Sydney Olympics. Premiered in competition and as opening night film at the Sydney Film Festival.

Director: Paul Clarke
Cast: Midnight Oil
Classification: M
Runtime: 110m

Read: Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line Sydney Film Festival review

Sidonie in Japan

Sidonie Perceval, an established French writer, is mourning her deceased husband. Invited to Japan for the re-edition of her first book, she is welcomed by her local editor who takes her to Kyoto, the city of shrines and temples. As they travel together through the Japanese spring blossoms, she slowly opens up to him. But the ghost of her husband follows Sidonie: she will have to finally let go of the past to let herself love again.

Director: Elise Girard
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, August Diehl, Tsuyoshi Ihara
Classification: M
Runtime: 95m

Sunflower

A seventeen-year-old boy struggles to understand and embrace his sexuality as he comes of age in the working class suburbs on Melbourne’s edge.

Director: Gabriel Carrubba
Cast: Liam Mollica, Luke J. Morgan, Olivia Fildes
Classification: MA
Runtime: 84m

The Bikeriders

Over the course of the 1960s, a Midwestern motorcycle club evolves from a gathering place for local outsiders into a more sinister gang, threatening the original group’s unique way of life.

Director: Jeff Nichols
Cast: Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer
Classification: M
Runtime: 116m

Silvi Vann-Wall is a journalist, podcaster, and filmmaker. They joined ScreenHub as Film Content Lead in 2022. Twitter: @SilviReports