Sundance Now has revealed their August slate, including the premiere of the new Australian drama Upright along with the gripping new true-crime docuseries The Suspect. Additionally, August brings the explosive finales of the French spy thriller The Bureau Season 5 with the final two episodes directed by Jacques Audiard, and the Australian psychological thriller The Secrets She Keeps.
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The Sundance Now August slate includes:
Saturday, August 1
Her
Academy Award winner for Best Original Screenplay. In the near future, a lonely writer (Joaquin Phoenix, Joker) develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation) designed to meet his every need. Directed by Spike Jonze. Also starring Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy), Rooney Mara (Carol), Bill Hader (Barry), Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids), Olivia Wilde (Tron: Legacy) and Amy Adams (Arrival). (2013)
Defending Your Life
Daniel Miller (Albert Brooks, Drive) isn’t having a good week. For starters, he died after getting hit by a bus. Then he discovers that, in the afterlife, he must defend his actions on Earth in order to ascend to a higher plane of existence. While awaiting judgment, he falls in love with Julia (Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada), whose near-perfect life on Earth seemingly makes her a shoo-in for ascension. However, Daniel’s actions in his lifetime might not be enough for him to move on. Also starring Rip Torn (Men in Black). (1991)
Thursday, August 6
Upright, Eps 1 & 2 (Sundance Now Exclusive)
When family outcast Lucky Flynn (Tim Minchin, Robin Hood, Californication, Matilda the Musical) learns that his mother is dying, he decides to drive to the other side of Australia to see her, packing nothing but an upright piano for the journey. But his plans are soon turned upside down when he meets the runaway teenager Meg (Milly Alcock, Casting Guild of Australia’s 2018 Rising Star Award recipient, Reckoning, A Place to Call Home), who’s dealing with some family demons of her own. Together, they forge an unlikely friendship as they embark on a road trip adventure across the beautiful Nullarbor Plains in a race against time.
The Secret She Keeps, Ep 4 (Sundance Now Exclusive)
Another episode of the thrilling Australian psychological thriller. Agatha has created her perfect family with her baby and Hayden. But an old flame of Agatha’s threatens to thwart her plans.
The Bureau, Season 5, Ep 8 (Sundance Now Original)
Another episode of the critically acclaimed French spy thriller. During a paper chase cleverly orchestrated by The Bureau and Pavel Lebedev, Karlov slowly uncovers a vice that’s tightening around him. Meanwhile, Bakatine is inches away from discovering the truth. It could all end in disaster.
Monday, August 10
Dare
In high school, what kind of person did you dare to be: risk-taking and lustful, melancholy and confused or simply safe and over-achieving? Dare follows three very different teenagers through the last semester of high school. They are Alexa (Emmy Rossum, The Phantom of the Opera), the overachieving good girl who longs to break out of her shell; Ben (Ashley Springer, Teeth), the melancholy outsider confused about his sexuality; and Johnny (Zach Gilford, Friday Night Lights), the rich kid who has everything, including good looks, but hides behind his bad boy persona. This unlikely trio fall into each other’s lives and each other’s arms, making a last-ditch effort to shake things up before they actually have to start living as adults. Also starring Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) and Ana Gasteyer (Saturday Night Live). (2009)
Disgrace
In Cape Town, South Africa, during the final years of apartheid, David Lurie (John Malkovich, Being John Malkovich), disgraced by an improper affair with a female student, decamps to live with his daughter, Lucy (Jessica Haines, Cape Town), on her country farm. David quickly settles into the quieter pace of rural life and begins to make peace with the scandal. But trouble erupts when a group of black youths rob the farm and rape Lucy, leading David to question his place within the social fabric of South Africa. (2008)
Magnus
Magnus Carlsen, a Norwegian chess prodigy, becomes a Grandmaster at age 13 and world champion in 2013. (Documentary, 2016)
The Other Man
When his shoe-designer wife, Lisa (Laura Linney, The Big C), disappears while on one of her frequent business trips, computer executive Peter (Liam Neeson, Schindler’s List) stumbles upon evidence that she has been having an affair with the dashing Italian Ralph (Antonio Banderas, The Mask of Zorro). Impulsively flying to Milan to search for his wife despite the pleadings of their college-age daughter, Abigail (Romola Garai, Atonement), Peter enters into a complicated charade by befriending Ralph and slowly teasing information about Lisa out of him. (2008)
Thursday, August 13
The Fall, Season 3
Superintendent Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson, The X-Files) has Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan, Fifty Shades of Grey) under arrest, however, it’s uncertain whether he will survive to face justice for his crimes. Meanwhile, Spector’s family has to deal with the consequences of his arrest and evidence emerges that there could be more of Spector’s victims than Superintendent Gibson initially realized. (6 EPS, Available all at once)
Upright Eps 3 & 4
Meg is beside herself when she loses all of her and Lucky’s money. To make matters worse, they run out of gas.
Meg and Lucky join a campground party on the Great Australian Bight, but the night takes a horrible turn when Lucky discovers a suicide note.
The Secrets She Keeps, Ep 5
Meghan and Agatha come face-to-face. Agatha panics over baby Rory’s deteriorating health.
The Bureau Season 5, Ep 9
Having recently returned to France, Marie-Jeanne is put back in charge of The Bureau. Sisteron, meanwhile, is managing the office responsible for handling Intel from Karlov. Karlov is extracted and sent to France to start a new life. Paul has also been extracted and is now in quarantine, hiding out in a rural setting and trying to get some well-earned rest. Jonas is deeply in love with his new girlfriend but suspects she might be a foreign agent. Marie-Jeanne decides to apply for the job of Director of National Intelligence as Ponte is about to retire.
Monday, August 17
The Sunshine Makers
A real-life Breaking Bad for the psychedelic set, The Sunshine Makers reveals the fascinating, untold story of Nicholas Sand and Tim Scully, the unlikely duo at the heart of 1960s American drug counter-culture. United in a utopian mission to save the planet through the consciousness-raising power of LSD, these underground chemists manufactured a massive amount of acid, including the gold standard for quality LSD, “Orange Sunshine,” all while staying one step ahead of the Feds. (Documentary, 2015)
Resolved
With competition as fierce as that of any sport, debate teams are a way for high school students to develop techniques of persuasion and reason. They’re also a hotbed of racial and class bias. (Documentary, 2007)
Tuesday, August 18 — True Crime Tuesday
The Suspect, Ep 1 (Sundance Now Exclusive)
On July 6, 2011, millionaire Richard Oland of Moosehead Brewing fame suffered a gruesome 45 blows to his head, neck, and hands. His son Dennis immediately became the police’s prime and only suspect. The case turned one of Canada’s wealthiest families into the cast of a real-life soap opera. Featuring intimate and exclusive access, The Suspect is a bewildering true-crime mystery of alleged police misconduct, media frenzy, and wrongful conviction.
Thursday, August 20
The Bureau Season 5, Ep 10 – FINALE
A strange Uzbek tourist who has just settled in Paris finds a weapon left behind by Karlov. Paul believes Karlov was contriving to damage him after he disappeared: he enlists Sisteron’s help in tracking down this suspected “time bomb.” Forced to investigate his girlfriend, Jonas finds damning proof. As Marie-Jeanne continues her campaign for the job of director, she realizes some of her so-called “friends” are really not on her side.
The Secrets She Keeps, Ep 6 – FINALE
Agatha is on the run with baby Rory. Will Meghan get her baby boy back?
Upright, Eps 5 & 6
Lucky contemplates giving up when Meg runs away with the ute and the piano, but a potentially poisonous snakebite makes him change his mind.
Lucky decides to transform his attitude and his appearance, but it’s not long before some devastating news sends him spiraling into despair.
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Monday, August 24
The Vicious Kind
Caleb Sinclaire (Adam Scott, Step Brothers) has just been through a particularly difficult breakup. Isolated, yet strangely contented with his newly single status, Caleb wears his distain toward women as a macho badge of honor. However, when Thanksgiving weekend arrives and Caleb meets his younger brother Peter’s (Alex Frost, Elephant) new girlfriend, Emma (Brittany Snow, Pitch Perfect), he tries to warn his brother away from her, but ends up becoming infatuated with her in the process. Also starring J.K. Simmons (Whiplash). (2009)
Vegas Baby
Courtesy of a Las Vegas fertility clinic, a YouTube-based competition offers a free round of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Through this controversial contest, the complexities of America’s burgeoning fertility industry are explored. (Documentary, 2016)
José
19-year-old José (Enrique Salanic) lives with his mother (Ana Cecilia Mota) in Guatemala. His life is routine and aimless, until he finds passion, pain and self-reflection through a relationship with a Caribbean migrant, Luis (Manolo Herrera). (2018, Foreign Language)
Tuesday, August 25
The Suspect, Ep 2
On July 6, 2011, millionaire Richard Oland of Moosehead Brewing fame suffered a gruesome 45 blows to his head, neck, and hands. His son Dennis immediately became the police’s prime and only suspect. The case turned one of Canada’s wealthiest families into the cast of a real-life soap opera.
Thursday, August 27
Upright, Eps 7 & 9 – FINALE
After dropping Meg at her mother’s house in Kalgoorlie, Lucky gets a phone call from Meg’s father, worried sick about his daughter’s whereabouts. Upon learning that Meg doesn’t have a mother, Lucky frantically rives back to town to find her.
Lucky has a touching reunion with his mother, but his homecoming gets a much frostier reception from his brother Toby.
Slings and Arrows, Season 1
Winner of 13 Gemini Awards. In the fictional town of New Burbage, legendary theatrical madman Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross, Due South) returns to the New Burbage Theatre Festival, the site of his greatest triumph and most humiliating failure, to assume the artistic directorship after the sudden death of his mentor, Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette, Mentors). When Geoffrey arrives, he finds that Oliver is still there, in spirit anyway, and with his guidance (and often despite it), Geoffrey attempts to reconcile with his past while wrestling the festival back from the marketing department. Despite a bitter leading lady (Martha Burns, Remedy), a clueless leading man (Luke Kirby, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and a scheming general manager (Mark McKinney, Superstore), he manages to stage a remarkable production of Hamlet — the play that drove him mad. Also starring Rachel McAdams (The Notebook).
Monday, August 31
Silicon Cowboys
Launched in 1982 by three friends in a Houston diner, Compaq Computer set out to build a portable PC to take on IBM, the world’s most powerful tech company. Many had tried cloning the industry leader’s code, only to be trounced by IBM and its high-priced lawyers. Silicon Cowboys traces the rise, and eventual demise, of the unlikely upstart that would alter the future of computing and shape the world as it is known today. (Documentary, 2016)
The Bad Kids
Located in an impoverished Mojave Desert community, Black Rock Continuation High School is one of California’s alternative schools for students at risk of dropping out. Every student has fallen so far behind that they have no hope of earning a diploma at a traditional high school. Black Rock is their last chance. This film is an observational documentary that chronicles one extraordinary principal’s mission to realize the potential of these students. (Documentary, 2016)
