ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — There are a lot of new movies coming out. Fortunately, we have a guide to what you should see, stream or skip this August. This month, our selections include a hilarious police spoof, a Norwegian body horror fairy tale and a heartbreaking drama from A24.

You should see…

“SORRY, BABY” (2025, 103 min., directed by Eva Victor)

“Sorry, Baby” is, to be hyperbolic, one of the more beautiful movies I’ve ever seen, from script to mise en scène. Eva Victor, the film’s writer, director and star, makes it all look effortless.

Set in and around a small New England college, “Sorry, Baby” captures a young English professor named Agnes (Victor) through non-linear vignettes as she copes with something bad that happened to her at the school during her graduate program. While the melancholic, argentine setting and trauma-infused narrative seem like telltale elements of your classic bummer indie drama, this is an Eva Victor movie, and they have an authorial voice unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

Victor’s dialogue, in particular, is so wry and dry that it feels impossible it could bring you to tears, but “Sorry, Baby” has a knack for taking you by surprise with its heartbreaking moments of poignancy. Victor has absolute control over the tone of their film, steering Agnes – and the audience watching her – through the labyrinth of this movie’s complex emotions like Ariadne led Theseus.

“Sorry, Baby” is for the cat-lovers, literature nerds and, inevitably, top ten lists of the movies of the year.

Rating: 5/5

“Sorry, Baby” is now playing in theaters.

“THE NAKED GUN” (2025, 85 min., directed by Akiva Schaffer)

The new “The Naked Gun” may only be 85 minutes long, but every second is jam-packed with jokes. Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson are a powerhouse duo in the spoof, a remake of the classic 1988 cop comedy, “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!” This film may have dropped the subtitle, but it keeps the rapid-fire sight gags, wordplay and zany physical comedy that make its predecessor so enduring and beloved.

The state of comedy and police work has become more complicated in the 2020s than it was in the late ’80s, but “The Naked Gun” finds a way to keep things funny while nudging toward political commentary. For a movie with an extended sequence featuring a Neeson, Anderson and a murderous snowman throuple and a pivotal moment with a talking owl, the naked truth is that this stupid comedy is pretty smart.

Rating: 4/5

“The Naked Gun” is now playing in theaters.

“CLOUD” (2025, 123 min., directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a modern master of the thriller genre, making his name on tense, psychological dramas like “Pulse” (2001) and “Cure” (1997) and continuing to explore desolation, technology and corruption through the 2020s, like in last year’s terrifying short “Chime.”

While “Cloud” isn’t as refined of an accomplishment as those films, the movie finds Kurosawa at the wheel of a smart, robust satire of the Japanese resale market. If you have ever had a frustrating experience on Facebook Marketplace, Kurosawa has a revenge fantasy for you. The film is hard on action and light on redeeming characters, but its humorous moments – especially from the wonderful Daiken Okudaira – and gorgeous cinematography by Yasuyuki Sasaki more than recommend it.

Rating: 3.5/5

“Cloud” is now playing in theaters.

You should stream…

“THE UGLY STEPSISTER” (2025, 109 min., directed by Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt)

You’ve never seen a Cinderella story like this. “The Ugly Stepsister” takes the villain-turned-protagonist approach of recent Disney fare like “Cruella” and “Maleficent,” focusing here on one of the “ugly stepsisters” from the classic fairy tale, and dials it up to 11. The Norwegian film is totally twisted and completely assured in its blackly comic vision of beauty, purity and virginity, tackling its themes with the sensitivity of a meat cleaver.

A fantastic, deranged Lea Myren stars as the titular sister, Elvira, who goes to great lengths to stay competitive in a “Black Swan”-esque competition to perform for Prince Charming. These include such beauty hacks as ingesting a tapeworm, receiving a rudimentary nose job and sewing on fake eyelashes, all captured in gorgeous, grotesque, unrelenting glory by debut director Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt. Unfortunately for Elvira, we know the outcome of “Cinderella,” lending the proceedings an air of delicious dramatic irony.

Rating: 4/5

“The Ugly Stepsister” is streaming on Shudder, AMC+ or to rent on VOD.

You should skip…

“SKETCH” (2025, 92 min., directed by Seth Worley)

Not dissimilar to “Together” in some ways, “Sketch” explores what would happen if a magic pool in the woods brought metaphorical nightmares to life. In this case, however, the horrors are monstrous drawings created by Amber, a trauma-addled young girl played by Bianca Belle, transformed from the pages of her notebook into creatures of reality. The manifestations of grief and sadness go on to terrorize her friends, family and community in one of the most disturbing children’s films I’ve ever seen. There is a dour sense of terror at the core of “Sketch” which it cannot alleviate, no matter how many jokes Amber and her ragamuffin group of Gen Alpha monster fighters make about “Minecraft.”

While I appreciate the references director Seth Worley is making with his movie to “Jurassic Park,” alien invasion films and other horror-tinged media, it’s confusing who “Sketch” is meant to be for. The movie is too scary for young children – my screening had no less than three-quarters of the audience, mostly parents and their kids, leave halfway through – and too PG for most adults to want to seek out for themselves. The film itself is perfectly serviceable, featuring pretty solid effects and child performances, but falls too frequently into a bewildering nether realm of tone far afield from the universally enjoyable family movies it wants to be.

Ultimately, “Sketch” probably should have been left on the drawing board.

Rating: 3/5

“Sketch” will be released in theaters nationwide Aug. 6.