This weekend brings five very different stories to cinemas and streaming. One follows a lonely pilot across a world devastated by disease. Another turns a missing-child investigation into a disturbing family reckoning. Elsewhere, Wile E. Coyote takes his fight against ACME into a courtroom, a cheerful children’s television mascot reveals a terrifying side, and a wrong telephone number starts an unexpected university romance.
Here is the spoiler-free storyline of each movie—and the kind of viewer most likely to enjoy it.
The Dog Stars
Storyline
Civilisation has been shattered by a flu pandemic that killed most of the population. Hig, a pilot played by Jacob Elordi, survives at an abandoned Colorado airfield with his dog and Bangley, an armed survivalist portrayed by Josh Brolin.
The two men depend on each other, but they have very different ideas about what survival requires. Bangley treats every stranger as a possible threat. He protects their compound through weapons, suspicion and strict routines. Hig understands the danger surrounding them, yet he has not stopped hoping that somewhere beyond their isolated territory, a more meaningful life may still exist.
Their uneasy existence changes when Hig receives a mysterious radio transmission. The signal appears to come from beyond the area he normally patrols and may prove that other survivors are still out there.
Following it would mean abandoning the security of the airfield and flying into unknown territory. The voice could lead Hig to companionship and a new beginning—or to people prepared to exploit his hope.
His decision turns the story into more than a physical survival mission. Hig must determine whether remaining alive is enough when isolation has taken away nearly everything that made life worth protecting.
The central conflict lies between Bangley’s caution and Hig’s need for human connection. One man believes hope can get them killed. The other fears that a life governed entirely by fear is another form of death.
Ridley Scott directs this adaptation of Peter Heller’s novel. It opens in cinemas on August 28 and is rated R. 20th Century Studios
Choose The Dog Stars if you want:
A serious post-apocalyptic thriller
Survival action with an emotional foundation
A story about loneliness, grief and hope
A dangerous journey through a ruined world
Complicated characters rather than simple heroes and villains
Viewers seeking constant action may find its reflective themes heavier than expected. Its strongest appeal is the question beneath the danger: what is the point of surviving if fear prevents people from living?
The Whisper Man
Storyline
Tom Kennedy is a widowed crime writer raising his eight-year-old son while attempting to rebuild their lives after a devastating loss. His understanding of criminal behaviour has always belonged to his work—until his son is abducted.
The disappearance carries disturbing similarities to crimes committed by a serial killer known as the Whisper Man. There is one major problem with that connection: the murderer was captured and imprisoned years earlier.
Unable to understand how a closed case could be connected to the abduction, Tom turns to his estranged father, Pete, a retired police detective involved in the original investigation.
Pete may possess knowledge that could help recover the child, but his relationship with Tom has been damaged by years of resentment and emotional distance. Their reunion is driven by necessity rather than forgiveness. They must search through the details of an old investigation while confronting the possibility that Pete did not uncover the complete truth.
The evidence raises frightening questions. Someone may be copying the imprisoned killer. An accomplice may have avoided capture. The original case may have contained a mistake—or the Whisper Man may still be influencing events from inside prison.
Every passing hour increases the danger to Tom’s son. However, progress depends on two men who cannot completely trust each other. Tom must separate his anger toward Pete from the information his father can provide, while Pete must face the possibility that an unresolved failure from his past has reached directly into his family.
Robert De Niro, Adam Scott and Michelle Monaghan lead the adaptation of Alex North’s novel. The film arrives on Netflix in August. Netflix Tudum
Choose The Whisper Man if you want:
A dark psychological crime thriller
A serial-killer mystery
A missing-child investigation
Disturbing family secrets
Suspense built around sound, memory and uncertainty
A damaged father-and-son relationship at the centre of the case
The subject of child abduction may make it difficult viewing for some audiences. This is the weekend’s strongest option for viewers who want a sombre mystery rather than action or escapism.
Coyote vs. Acme
Storyline
After years of falling from cliffs, being struck by explosives and watching countless inventions malfunction, Wile E. Coyote finally decides that his failures may not be entirely his fault.
The products he ordered from the ACME Corporation repeatedly promised to help him catch the Road Runner. Instead, they exploded, collapsed or turned against him. Convinced that the company sold him dangerous and defective equipment, Coyote hires a struggling personal-injury lawyer to take ACME to court.
His lawyer has little power, limited resources and personal experience with the corporation’s influence. On the opposing side stands ACME’s intimidating attorney, played by John Cena, backed by a company determined to protect its reputation.
The case places a nearly indestructible cartoon character inside a legal system built for human beings. Coyote must somehow prove that ACME’s products—not simply his own reckless decisions—caused his endless injuries.
The courtroom battle expands into a fight between an underestimated customer and a corporation capable of controlling the story told about him. Familiar Looney Tunes chaos remains part of the adventure, but the lawsuit gives Coyote something he has rarely possessed: an opportunity to explain why he keeps losing.
The film combines live action and animation, with Will Forte playing Coyote’s attorney. It opens in cinemas on August 28. Official Coyote vs. Acme website
Choose Coyote vs. Acme if you want:
A family-friendly comedy
Live-action and animated characters together
Looney Tunes humour
Courtroom satire
An underdog challenging a powerful corporation
A lighter alternative to the weekend’s thrillers
This is the clearest choice for families and longtime Looney Tunes viewers. It offers a recognisable character in an unusual story without requiring extensive franchise knowledge.
Buddy
Storyline
Inside the colourful world of the children’s television programme It’s Buddy!, a group of young performers spend their days singing, dancing and learning cheerful lessons from Buddy, an enormous orange unicorn.
Everything in Buddy’s world is designed to appear safe. The colours are bright, the songs are encouraging and happiness is treated as a rule everyone must follow.
The illusion begins to break when one child refuses to participate.
Buddy does not respond like a patient television host. His friendly performance begins to slip, revealing a controlling presence beneath the costume. As the children question their surroundings, they discover that the programme may not be entertainment and that leaving Buddy’s world will be far more difficult than entering it.
The children are sent on a dangerous journey toward the mysterious Diamond City. What initially resembles another educational television adventure becomes an attempt to escape a place governed by forced happiness and frightening consequences.
Outside that manufactured world, Grace—a mother carrying memories she cannot fully understand—finds herself drawn toward the forgotten television programme. Her search suggests that Buddy’s influence may extend beyond the screen and that the children’s disappearance is connected to something buried in her past.
Keegan-Michael Key voices Buddy, with Cristin Milioti, Topher Grace, Michael Shannon and Patton Oswalt appearing in the cast. Casper Kelly directs the horror film.
Choose Buddy if you want:
Psychological horror with dark comedy
Corrupted childhood nostalgia
A sinister television mascot
Surreal environments and unsettling characters
A story about control disguised as happiness
Something stranger than a conventional slasher
Despite its colourful appearance, Buddy is not a children’s movie. Its entire premise depends on transforming familiar children’s television imagery into psychological horror.
Finding Emily
Storyline
A young musician believes he has met the woman who could become his perfect match. Before they separate, she gives him her telephone number—but when he tries to contact her, he discovers that one of the digits is wrong.
With almost no reliable information, he decides to search for her across his university campus.
His plan brings him together with an ambitious psychology student who is practical, observant and far less impressed by romantic fantasy. She agrees to help him identify the mystery woman, using the few clues available to narrow down the possibilities.
Their private search soon attracts attention. Other students become involved, rumours spread and the attempt to locate one woman develops into a campus-wide frenzy.
As the pair spend more time together, the musician remains focused on finding the person he has imagined as his ideal partner. What he fails to notice is that the search itself is creating a genuine connection with the psychology student beside him.
The story’s deeper question is not simply whether they will locate Emily. It is whether the musician is pursuing a real person or an idea he has constructed from one brief encounter.
His partner faces a conflict of her own. Helping him may disrupt her academic and personal ambitions, especially as her feelings become more complicated. She must decide whether continuing the search is bringing her closer to what she wants or helping someone else find a woman who may never match his expectations.
Angourie Rice and Spike Fearn lead the romantic comedy, which reaches US cinemas on August 28. Focus Features
Choose Finding Emily if you want:
A light university romantic comedy
Opposing personalities forced to work together
Music, friendship and campus confusion
A romance built around an unusual search
A break from horror, violence and apocalyptic stories
This is the weekend’s most relaxed choice. The wrong number supplies the comic premise, but the developing relationship between the two search partners provides its emotional centre.
Which movie is right for you?
| If you want… | Choose |
|---|---|
| Post-apocalyptic survival and emotional drama | The Dog Stars |
| A dark serial-killer investigation | The Whisper Man |
| Family comedy and Looney Tunes chaos | Coyote vs. Acme |
| Disturbing mascot horror | Buddy |
| A light campus romance | Finding Emily |
Flicklevel weekend recommendation
The Dog Stars appears to offer the weekend’s broadest combination of spectacle, danger and emotional depth. Its post-pandemic setting creates the physical threat, but Hig’s struggle between safety and human connection gives the story its real purpose.
For psychological-thriller viewers, The Whisper Man is the more suitable choice. Its missing-child investigation becomes more personal because the case forces Tom to depend on a father he no longer trusts.
Families should consider Coyote vs. Acme, while horror fans looking for something unconventional may prefer Buddy. Viewers wanting an uncomplicated romantic escape should choose Finding Emily.
The best movie therefore depends on the experience you want. This weekend offers survival, crime, comedy, horror and romance without requiring every audience to watch the same kind of story.