Trailer Blitz! The Room Returns, Sour Party and More
🎥 Here’s a list of films coming to screens soon!
🎥 “The Room Returns” Trailer: Bob Odenkirk Steps Into Tommy Wiseau’s Cult Movie Disaster-Piece for a Charity Remake Shot in One Day — Screening June 26th at LA’s Hollywood Forever
Tommy Wiseau’s so-called disaster-piece The Room is the gift that keeps on giving. After its strange rise to cult fame in the early aughts, when it was embraced as one of the most notoriously terrible films ever made, this cinematic monstrosity somehow keeps finding new ways to crawl back into the spotlight.
To be totally frank, we thought The Room phenomenon had run its course after 2017’s The Disaster Artist, the acclaimed James Franco comedy that told the stranger-than-fiction story behind the movie’s bizarre making. Like most so-bad-it’s-good sensations, there’s usually an expiration date, when the cultural peak starts tipping into overexposure and the joke begins to lose its charge.
So we thought The Room might have finally hit that wall.
But here comes The Room Returns, another Room-related project arriving completely out of left field, reminding us that Tommy Wiseau’s baffling little universe isn’t gone, nor forgotten. It is still very much alive, still mutating, and still finding strange new ways to pull us back in.
Instead of James Franco doing a dead-on Tommy Wiseau impression in The Disaster Artist — although these days, Franco and Wiseau might be more similar than we initially thought — we now have Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk bringing his own dramatic chops to Wiseau’s tortured leading-man role, Johnny, in a green-screen-shot tribute to the 2003 cult oddity.
And before you ask whether Odenkirk has lost his marbles by agreeing to star in what is essentially a remake of a film many still consider one of the worst in cinema history, there is a perfectly good reason behind it: the whole thing was done for charity.
Produced through Acting For a Cause, an all-volunteer organization, The Room Returns reimagines Wiseau’s original melodrama by flipping the mythology of the first film on its head. The 2003 movie famously burned through a reported $6 million and stretched across months of shooting with mostly unknown actors. This version was filmed in under 12 hours, on virtually no budget, with no rehearsal, teleprompters guiding the cast, and green screens standing in for the original locations.
Which, honestly, might be the most Room-appropriate way to remake The Room.
The cast includes Bob Odenkirk as Johnny, alongside Bella Heathcote as Lisa, Kate Siegel as Claudette, Arturo Castro as Steven, Rivkah Reyes as Susan, Cameron Kasky as Denny, and director Brando Crawford as Mark.
Mike Flanagan, the filmmaker behind The Life of Chuck, Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Hill House, is also involved as an executive producer. He also jumps in front of camera, co-starring as Peter. Room original cast member Greg Sestero who played Mark in the original is also back, this time playing Chris R.
The idea here isn’t to “fix” The Room, because that would defeat the entire point. The original film’s strange power has always come from its total lack of self-consciousness. It is a movie built from baffling creative choices, mismatched performances, unexplained football tossing, rooftop confrontations, and dialogue that seems to have been translated from human emotion into something only Tommy Wiseau fully understands.
Following sold-out screenings in Chicago and New York City, The Room Returns will have its Los Angeles premiere on June 26th at Hollywood Forever.
Tickets are available through actingforacause.org, with proceeds benefiting amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, and Blue Collaborative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting independent artists.
So, no, The Room still has not gone away. It has simply found another strange doorway back into our lives. And this time, Bob Odenkirk is standing there in front of a green screen, ready to tell Lisa that she is tearing him apart.
🎥 “Sour Party” Trailer: Steven Soderbergh Presents a Low-Budget Slacker Comedy About Two Broke Thirtysomethings Chasing Quick Cash Across Los Angeles with Samantha Westervelt and Amanda Drexton — On VOD/Digital and DCP+ July 24th
Steven Soderbergh is not only the kind of filmmaker who likes to play by his own rules, but every so often, he lends his name to smaller, stranger projects that could use a little extra spotlight.
We imagine it’s not only out of generosity, but also from an understanding that a healthy indie film system is necessary to keep movies weird, scrappy, and original. Especially at a time when Hollywood rarely makes room for risk unless someone can attach a franchise logo to it.
And while Sour Party sounds, on paper, like a fairly typical slacker indie comedy about two financially struggling thirtysomethings scrounging around Los Angeles for quick cash, its release path is something we haven’t really come across before.
The film is being released globally on all platforms on July 24th, with a concurrent rollout on DCP+, a next-generation Web3 streaming platform from Decentralized Pictures. The organization describes itself as a nonprofit created to support emerging independent filmmakers through funding, mentorship, and community-driven discovery. Roman Coppola is one of its founders, with Sofia Coppola serving on the board of directors.
Apparently, Sour Party was one of the selected films awarded funding by Decentralized Pictures to help complete post-production, including the final mix, music licensing, and legal fees.
So, yes, the movie itself may be about broke people trying to collect money, but its real-world path to release also comes with its own very tale of life imitating art.
Written and directed by husband-and-wife filmmaking team The Drextons (filmmaker Michael A. Drexton and actress Amanda Drexton), Sour Party marks the couple’s feature debut. The film was shot independently around Los Angeles on an initial $64,000 budget, which feels very much in line with its scrappy L.A. punk energy.
The film stars Samantha Westervelt (who also co-wrote the original story with The Drextons) as Gwen and Amanda Drexton as James, two broke, self-absorbed thirtysomethings barely scraping by in Los Angeles. After Gwen realizes she forgot her older sister’s baby shower, she decides she needs a proper registry gift to save face. So she and James make a list of people they believe owe them money and head across the city, turning a desperate cash grab into a messy tour through old grudges and not-so-great judgments.
Reggie Watts and Corey Feldman co-star, playing some of the fascinating characters you find in Los Angeles.
Soderbergh, who later signed on to present the film, described Sour Party as his “favorite kind of indie film success story.” In a press kit statement, he adds, “A group of artists creating their own opportunity instead of waiting for one to present itself. That kind of indomitable spirit infuses every aspect of this movie, and I also believe the world needs more comedies!”
Whether DCP+ becomes a meaningful new route for indie filmmakers remains to be seen, but the idea behind it is interesting. And we are all for new, interesting ways of getting films to consumers that buck the traditional system.
{ Also check out this week’s new trailers }
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🎥 “Mister Whatever” Trailer: John Mulaney Turns His New Stand-Up Tour Into a Spot-On Oscar-Bait Spoof — On Tour Nationwide
Some trailers are built to sell movies. Others are built to trick us, just long enough, into thinking John Mulaney has made a prestige drama about a man losing his grip on reality. This sharply designed spoof hits every familiar awards-season beat: the solemn dramatic energy, the unraveling protagonist, the tasteful emotional dread, before revealing itself as a sly promo for Mulaney’s nationwide stand-up tour, Mister Whatever. Honestly, if this is Mulaney’s secret audition tape to host the Oscars, we’re listening. And you’ve got our vote.
🎥 “The End of Oak Street” New Promo: Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor Face Suburban Cosmic Terror in David Robert Mitchell’s High-Concept Dinosaur Thriller — In Theaters August 14th
A quiet street gets transported to the edge of the world... and maybe even back to the Jurassic age. After a mysterious cosmic event rips a suburban neighborhood out of ordinary life and drops it somewhere unknown, the Platt family must stay together long enough to understand what happened and survive whatever is now waiting beyond their front doors. Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, and Christian Convery star as a family trapped inside an impossible new reality, while writer-director David Robert Mitchell, of It Follows fame, steers this high-concept mystery toward eerie suburban unease, where dinosaurs are no longer trapped in history books... they’re staring right at you.
🎥 “Minions & Monsters” Extended ‘Cyclops’ Look: The Minions Go Full Monster-Movie Mayhem in Illumination’s New Big-Screen Adventure — In Theaters Wednesday, July 1st
The Minions were probably always one bad idea away from making their own monster movie. This new Illumination adventure sends the banana-loving troublemakers into Hollywood mode as they set out to find the perfect creature for their kaiju-sized production, which naturally turns into a globe-trotting mess of slapstick, gibberish, and monster-sized accidents.
🎥 “De Gaulle: Resistance & Liberté” Trailer: Simon Abkarian Leads Antonin Baudry’s Two-Part WWII Epic About Legendary French General Charles de Gaulle’s Fight for Free France — In French Theaters June 3rd (Part One) and June 26th (Part Two)
France falls, history closes in, and one unknown general refuses to accept defeat. Simon Abkarian (Casino Royale, Persepolis) stars as Charles de Gaulle in Antonin Baudry’s two-part WWII saga, which follows the future French leader as he flees to London in 1940 and tries to convince the world that the battle for France is not over. With Simon Russell Beale as Winston Churchill, Campbell Scott as Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a cast that includes Niels Schneider, Thierry Lhermitte, and Karim Leklou, this sweeping two-film historical epic turns resistance into a gamble built on nerve, conviction, and the stubborn belief that freedom can still find a way forward.
🎥 “Color Book” Trailer: A Widowed Father and His Special-Needs Son Make Their Way Across Atlanta for a First Baseball Game in David Fortune’s Festival-Winning Feature Debut, Starring William Catlett and Jeremiah Alexander Daniels — Coming to Netflix June 19th
Parenthood does not pause for grief. After losing his wife, a devoted father (William Catlett) tries to raise his son with Down syndrome (Jeremiah Alexander Daniels), hoping to give him the simple joy of attending his first baseball game. But as their trip across Atlanta begins to stretch and fray, the journey becomes something deeper: a test of patience, memory, and quiet resilience. Filmmaker David Fortune’s debut feature, born from AT&T’s Untold Stories competition, keeps its focus on the everyday tenderness between a father and child, captured in stark black and white. Sometimes a simple trip can carry the weight of an entire life, especially when love is the only thing keeping the road ahead from falling apart.
🎥 “Summer’s Last Resort” Trailer: A Teen’s Plan to Save Her Mom Turns Into a Luxury Vacation Meltdown in This Mother-Daughter Comedy Starring Violet McGraw, Sophia Bush and Jerry O’Connell — Premiering July 3rd on Tubi
Family vacations are tricky enough before someone starts sabotaging the itinerary. This Tubi comedy follows a teen, played by M3GAN’s Violet McGraw, who becomes determined to stop her mother (Sofia Bush) from falling into another bad relationship, only to accidentally send their luxury getaway off the rails. Also starring Jerry O’Connell and directed by Wynonna Earp actress Melanie Scrofano, the film taps into the messy, well-meaning panic of trying to rescue someone who never asked for saving... even if the one doing the rescuing may have a point.
🎥 “Heartstopper Forever” Trailer: Nick and Charlie Face Love, Distance, and Growing Up in Alice Oseman’s Feature-Length ‘Heartstopper’ Finale Starring Joe Locke and Kit Connor — Premiering July 17th on Netflix
First love is facing its final exam. Netflix’s queer teen romance series, based on creator Alice Oseman’s beloved webcomic, ran for three seasons before closing out with this feature-length finale. Joe Locke and Kit Connor return as Charlie and Nick, who now find themselves preparing for the next stage of their lives and their relationship. As Nick gets ready to leave for university and Charlie begins to find a stronger sense of independence at school, the distance ahead starts pressing on a bond that has always felt safe, tender, and hard-won. Yasmin Finney, Will Gao, Corinna Brown, Kizzy Edgell, Tobie Donovan, and Rhea Norwood also return as the Truham-Higgs circle faces its own bittersweet growing pains. Charlie and Nick may believe in forever, but adulthood has a way of stress-testing even the most tender love story.
🎥 “Steal Away” Trailer: Angourie Rice and Mallori Johnson Form an Obsessive Bond in Clement Virgo’s New Drama — In Theatres July 17th
Fascination has a way of turning dangerous before anyone knows what to call it. Written and directed by Clement Virgo (Brother), this indie drama stars Angourie Rice as a teenager whose life begins to shift after her family takes in a refugee played by Mallori Johnson. What starts as curiosity soon deepens into desire, jealousy, and a troubling urge to slip into someone else’s story.
🎥 “The Salt Path” Trailer: Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs Walk 630 Miles Toward Hope in Marianne Elliott’s Moving Survival Drama — In U.S. Theaters August 28th
Losing a home can break a person, but this drama follows two people trying to walk their way back to themselves. The X-Files’ Gillian Anderson and The White Lotus’ Jason Isaacs star as a husband and wife who are forced from their home and make the impulsive decision to trek 630 miles along England’s rugged South West Coast. Directed by Marianne Elliott, this looks like the kind of journey where every blister, storm, and quiet stretch of coastline becomes part of a larger search for dignity, endurance, and whatever “home” means after it’s gone.
🎥 “Dreams in Nightmares” Trailer: Writer-Director Shatara Michelle Ford Sends Three Queer Black Women Across the Midwest in This New Tender Road Movie — In Theaters August 21st
The road movie gets a tender, uneasy reworking from Test Pattern filmmaker Shatara Michelle Ford. Denée Benton stars as Z, who, joined by her two closest friends, heads across the Midwest after a layoff to find a friend who has vanished off the grid. Co-starring Mars Storm Rucker, Dezi Bing, Sasha Compère, and Jasmin Savoy Brown, this expansive indie drama turns one search into a larger fight for love, identity, belonging, and self-determination.
🎥 “Crossing” Trailer: A Desperate River Escape Becomes a Wartime Story of Devotion and Sacrifice in This Chinese Historical Epic Starring Liu Ye — In U.S. Theaters July 10th
Survival can come down to a single crossing. Set during a massive wartime encirclement, this Chinese historical drama follows the Red Army as it attempts a strategic river escape with 400,000 troops closing in around them. Liu Ye stars in a story where an old soldier bound by a sacred vow and a homeless orphan are brought together by duty and sacrifice.
🎥 “Big Baby” Teaser: A Horror Writer’s New Script Starts Looking Disturbingly Real in This Masked-Slasher Chiller From Powerman 5000 Frontman Spider One — On VOD/Digital August 7th
Writer’s block is bad enough before your own nightmare starts picking up a body count. This indie horror film follows Adam, a successful screenwriter whose dreams of a baby-masked killer inspire a new script, only for the line between fiction and reality to begin falling apart. Written and directed by rocker-turned-horror filmmaker Spider One, of the band Powerman 5000, and starring Krsy Fox, Brandon Scott, and Kate Freund, this looks like a nasty little genre riff about what happens when the monster in your head leaps from the page into your own world.
🎥 “Son of Sara” Trailer: A Pregnant Woman’s Dinner Invitation Turns Into a Bloody Descent Into Madness in Houston Bone’s New Horror Thriller Starring Chloe Van Landschoot — On VOD/Digital July 31st
Pregnancy horror tends to work best when the body already feels like a haunted house, and this one appears ready to push that fear into something even more deranged. Chloe Van Landschoot stars as a pregnant woman plagued by strange urges and disturbing visions, only to accept a dinner invitation that sends the night spiraling into blood-soaked madness. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Houston Bone and co-starring Tymika Tafari and Garrett Hnatiuk, this horror film looks like a nasty little trip where motherhood, paranoia, and violence all sit down at the same table.
🎥 “The Wave (aka La ola)” Trailer: Filmmaker Sebastián Lelio Turns Chile’s Feminist Student Uprising Into a Defiant Musical Drama Starring Daniela López — Opening in Select LA Theaters June 26th, Expanding to Other Cities Later
Acclaimed filmmaker Sebastián Lelio (Gloria, A Fantastic Woman) returns to the emotional terrain of identity, public pressure, and personal autonomy with this Chilean musical drama about a quiet music student drawn into a feminist uprising on her university campus. Daniela López stars as Julia, a reserved student whose decision to speak out pulls her into a growing movement confronting harassment, abuse, and institutional silence. As private pain becomes public resistance, this politically charged drama understands that finding your voice can also mean realizing you are never alone.
🎥 “23 000 Lives” Trailer: Young Activists Risk Everything to Rescue Refugees at Sea in This True-Story-Inspired German Drama — Premieres July 17th on Netflix
Doing the right thing sounds simple until law, politics, and human lives all crash into the same impossible choice. Inspired by a true story, this German drama follows a group of young people who set sail across the Mediterranean to rescue refugees in distress, only to find their beliefs about justice pushed to the limit. Directed by Markus Goller and starring Louis Hofmann, Maria Dragus, Trevor Magaya, and Mala Emde, this tense moral drama asks what one person can change when looking away is no longer an option.
🎥 “Unidentified” Trailer: Haifaa Al Mansour’s Saudi Murder Mystery Follows a Woman Searching for a Nameless Victim — In Select City Theaters June 19th
Evil really can hide in plain sight. Mila Al Zahrani stars as Noelle Al Saffan, a newly divorced true-crime obsessive still grieving a child of her own when the body of an unidentified teenage girl is discovered in the desert. As the case risks fading into silence, Noelle becomes determined to give the girl a name and uncover the truth behind her death. Written and directed by Wadjda filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour, this gripping Saudi murder mystery turns unsolved loss into a quiet act of defiance.
🎥 “Kill Code” Trailer: A Cyber-Enhanced Fugitive Fights an AI Combat Program in This Sci-Fi Action Thriller Starring Franzi Schissler, Harvey Keitel, Tyrese Gibson, and Frank Grillo — On VOD/Digital July 24th
The future of law and order looks less like justice and more like a deathmatch. Harvey Keitel, Tyrese Gibson, and Frank Grillo star in this sci-fi action thriller set in a world where an AI-powered system turns criminals into combatants for public punishment. But when cyber-enhanced operative Elera (Franzi Schissler) discovers the program is growing beyond its creators’ control, she joins a rogue resistance and races to bring down the AI’s mainframe before the system decides everyone is guilty.
🎥 “Beyond Belief” Trailer: A Teenage Rocker Hears a Mysterious Voice Pulling Him Toward Faith in This ’80s-Set Indie Drama Starring Carson Lueders — In Theaters August 28th
Big dreams get complicated when something bigger starts calling. Set in the 1980s, this faith-driven coming-of-age drama follows Andy (Carson Lueders), a teenage rocker chasing music stardom while carrying the grief of losing his father. But when a mysterious voice tells him to run, Andy’s path shifts from ambition to belief, forcing him to question the future he wants and the life he may be meant to live.
🎥 “Robotica” New Trailer: Charles Band’s Android-Revenge Thriller Sends a Sex-Bot on a Violent Payback Mission — Streaming This Summer
A sex-bot breaks free from her programming, and the men who treated her like property suddenly have a serious hardware problem. Lilly Bell stars in this sci-fi revenge thriller as an android pushed past obedience after repeated abuse by her male overlords. Once she snaps awake, submission turns into violent payback, with legendary B-movie filmmaker and Full Moon Features co-founder Charles Band steering the whole thing into sleazy, grindhouse-flavored exploitation territory. This is revenge with circuitry, and mercy was never part of the code.
🎥 “Queerpanorama” Trailer: A Nameless Young Man Moves Through Desire, Roleplay, and Shifting Identity in Writer-Director Jun Li’s Black-and-White Queer Portrait — Out Now on VOD/Digital
This is not a love story so much as a study of performance. A young gay man moves through a series of erotic encounters, taking on traces of each partner’s life until the line between connection and imitation starts to blur. Written and directed by Jun Li, this black-and-white queer drama uses sex, awkwardness, and shifting roles to explore how identity can be borrowed, tested, and discarded.
🎥 “The Truthers” Trailer: A Daughter Returns Home to Her Father’s Growing Conspiracy Obsession in This Spanish Thriller Starring Stéphanie Magnin — Premieres July 24th on Netflix
Coming home should bring answers, not more reasons to be afraid. This Spanish thriller follows Ruth (Stéphanie Magnin) as she reunites with her erratic father after her mother’s sudden death, only to suspect his strange behavior may be tied to something hidden inside the family home. Directed by Roger Gual and co-starring Jose Coronado, this Netflix import pulls grief, paranoia, and family suspicion into one claustrophobic mystery where the deeper Ruth digs, the less certain she becomes about what she really came home to find.
🎥 “A Sad and Beautiful World” Trailer: Childhood Sweethearts Reconnect Across Decades in Cyril Aris’ Lebanese Romantic Drama — In Select U.S. Theaters July 24th
From Lebanese filmmaker Cyril Aris, this romantic comedy-drama follows Nino and Yasmina, childhood sweethearts whose lives keep circling back to each other as Lebanon changes around them. Spanning decades of love, heartbreak, family, and the question of whether to stay or leave, this looks like a sweeping love story where the biggest question is not just who you love, but where you belong.
🎥 “The Marching Band” Trailer: Long-Lost Brothers Find an Unlikely Second Chance Through Music in Emmanuel Courcol’s French Crowdpleaser — Coming to New York August 21st
Family has a funny way of arriving off-key in this French drama about a celebrated orchestra conductor who discovers the brother he never knew he had. After learning his long-lost sibling is a school cafeteria worker who happens to play trombone in a local marching band, the conductor uses music to bridge the distance between them. Starring Benjamin Lavernhe and Pierre Lottin as the separated siblings, filmmaker Emmanuel Courcol tells a warm story about the strange notes that can still bring people together.
