Writer/director Emma Seligman’s 2020 indie comedy Shiva Baby, an expansion of her 2018 short of the same name, garnered a lot of love on Letterboxd, where it’s currently sitting on an extremely impressive 3.9 average rating. Her eagerly anticipated follow-up is finally here, and it once again stars Shiva breakout Rachel Sennott, who has a co-screenwriting credit alongside Seligman. Promising a fresh, queer spin on the “teens vow to lose their virginity” trope, (complete with a poster that riffs on this notorious 1984 film), Bottoms has Sennott and Ayo Edebiri playing less-than-popular high-schoolers who start a fight club in order to get close to the cheerleaders they covet. “The best high-school comedy since Superbad,” raves Anoopmama. Jack says it’s “never not a rollicking good time”. Sara calls it a “satirical, refreshing take on the teen comedy that’s bloody, horny and camp”. Now in US theaters.

Charlotte Regan’s British dramedy Scrapper has been generating positive word-of-mouth ever since it took home the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Triangle of Sadness star Harris Dickinson plays a party boy who returns to England to parent the twelve-year-old daughter he’s never met after her mother dies. Many reviews make favorable comparisons to last year’s low-key British father/daughter drama Aftersun, with several making note of other influences such as The Florida Project and the films of Wes Anderson. Alice calls it “quietly heartwarming” while Phoeb claims it’s “faultless… beautiful and touching and wise and thoughtful and also very very funny.” “My heart isn’t coping,” confesses Lara. Ella Kemp spoke to Regan and Dickinson for Journal. Now in US and UK theaters.

In Babek Jalali’s black-and-white film Fremont, which screened at Sundance and SXSW this year, Anaita Wali Zada plays Donya, a twenty-something Afghan immigrant and former US military translator living in the titular Northern California town. She makes a living writing the fortunes that appear inside cookies at Chinese restaurants, but isn’t sure where she fits in in her adopted country. Also starring On Cinema’s Gregg Turkington and The Bear lead Jeremy Allen White, the film’s unique sense of humor is charming Letterboxd members, with the word “droll” showing up in every second review (almost). “I love how bluntly eccentric all the characters here are,” says Trey. Twotwo calls it “poignant, cerebral, genuine” and Liam “could have easily sat for another hour of this”. Now in select US theaters.

Kamila Andini’s Indonesian period drama Before, Now & Then premiered to raves at last year’s Berlin Film Festival (where co-star Laura Basuki won an acting award) and eighteen months later, it’s finally getting a US release. The follow-up to her impressive coming-of-age film Yuni, which featured highly in our 2021 Year in Review, Before, Now & Then follows Nana (played by Happy Salma), a woman living in West Java in the 1960s during a period of considerable tumult. She forms a bond with her second husband’s mistress (Basuki), in a beautifully subtle upending of typical narratives. Mukhlis says it’s “goddamn incredible”, while Aulia considers it “one of the most visually breathtaking Indonesian films” they’ve ever seen. We caught up with Andini while she was on jury duty at the Melbourne International Film Festival; her four favorites are coming soon. Screening in Brooklyn now, and rolling out to select US cities in the coming weeks.

When vertiginous wonder Fall came out last year, it was often marketed as “47 Meters Down, except up a pole”. Bringing things full-circle, the new 47 Meters Down-adjacent film The Dive is being touted as “Fall, but underwater”. Sophie Lowe and Louisa Krause play sisters who face some awful decisions when one of them gets trapped by a rock while scuba-diving in a cave. Luckily they are using those “full-face” scuba masks so we can properly see how freaked out they are. Mark credits Dive with a “tight set up and pay off”. “Held my breath all the way through this film until I remembered I didn’t have to,” says Alice, which bodes well for its immersive (submersive?) power. “Literally every phobia of mine mashed into one film,” cautions Kara. Now in US theaters.

German visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren’s Piaffe comes with an intriguing premise indeed: a woman named Eva (Simone Bucio) sprouts a horse’s tail when she takes a temporary job as a foley artist creating horse noises for a movie. Then her sex life improves. An expansion of her 2020 short Passage, Oren’s film is eliciting comparisons to everything from Titane to Black Swan, along with a predictable torrent of horse puns. “Insightful and enthralling,” writes Andrew, who calls it “the most German film [he’s] seen in years: techno, gender, queerness and wacky sex.” “Secretary meets Secretariat,” says Rachel, winning the horse-joke sweepstakes. Now in select US theaters.

C.B. Stockfleth’s documentary The Elephant 6 Recording Co. tells the story of the musical collective that generated a whole host of psychedelic-leaning artists and bands, including Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control and The Apples in Stereo. “I love when a music doc gives the same vibes as the band/genre and this was that!!!!” raves Maggie. For Tom, it’s a “loving tribute to the creative spirit, and weirdos,” and  RCV says it’s “Bands You Should Listen To: The Movie”. Now in select US theaters.

Somehow not based on a beloved children’s book (although it claims to be inspired by real events), British paranormal comedy-adventure Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose is nevertheless destined to join the canon of long, silly film titles. Simon Pegg plays the titular Hungarian-American para-psychologist (not the mongoose), who in 1935, is tasked with investigating an Isle of Man family’s claim to have encountered a… talking mongoose (voiced by legendary fantasy novelist and comic-book author Neil Gaiman). Christopher Lloyd and Minnie Driver co-star. In select US theaters from September 1.