The Dog Stars to One Night Only: 10 of the best films to watch this August

From Jacob Elordi in Ridley Scott's post-apocalyptic thriller, to a wacky NYC romcom starring Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro, here are the films to watch at the cinema and stream at home this month.

In most ways, One Night Only is a typical romantic comedy. It revolves around two flirtatious and absurdly attractive young New Yorkers (Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner), and it's directed by Will Gluck, who made such Hollywood romcoms as Friends with Benefits and Anyone but You. But Travis Braun's script has a bizarre twist: it's set in an alternate reality where it's illegal for single people to have sex, except on one night a year. Nicknamed "The Purge, but for sex", the concept has prompted much online debate about whether it's a great idea for a romcom or an absolutely terrible one. "If you allow yourself to buy into the absurdity of it, you'll have a good time," advised Turner in The Hollywood Reporter. "Don't be a stickler for the rules, or go watch something else. Go watch a documentary."

Released on 7 August in the US and Canada and on 28 August in the UK and Ireland

Eli Roth, the director of Cabin Fever and Hostel, is back to dish out another scoop of gory, low-budget horror – and Ice Cream Man looks like his most gleefully excessive film yet. Ari Millen plays the titular purveyor of frozen treats, a mystery man who drives around an all-American town, selling ice cream that turns children into homicidal maniacs. So if you enjoyed the climax of Weapons, when the children become a pack of feral predators, then Ice Cream Man could be the guilty pleasure for you. "I want this to be the craziest film I've ever made," said Roth in Geek Vibes Nation. It's like The Birds but with children... I mean, it's totally insane."

Released on 6 August in Australia and New Zealand, and on 7 August in the US, the UK, Canada and Ireland

Ridley Scott is 88, but the legendary director is busier than ever. In the past five years, he has made The Last Duel, House of Gucci, Napoleon and Gladiator II, and now he's directed The Dog Stars, a post-apocalyptic thriller adapted from Peter Heller's novel. Among the survivors of a near-future flu epidemic are a pilot (Jacob Elordi), a medic (Margaret Qualley) and an ex-marine (Josh Brolin) – although you could say that none of them knows more about surviving than Scott himself. "He's been plugging into cinema his whole life – it literally pumps through his blood," said Elordi on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "That's what keeps the engine running. I'm literally watching cinema sustain a life."

Released on 26 to 28 August internationally

Anthony Bourdain, who died in 2018, was a rock star in the world of food and travel-writing, so it's appropriate that he should get a rock star origin-story film. Inspired by his bestselling memoir, Kitchen Confidential, Tony is set in the mid-1970s when he was a college drop-out working in a restaurant in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It's directed by Matt Johnson (Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie), and it features Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) as the 19-year-old Bourdain, alongside Antonio Banderas as the chef who mentors him, Leo Woodall as a friend, and Emilia Jones as his girlfriend. Sessa is the ideal actor to play Bourdain, Johnson said in Entertainment Weekly. "[They are] both from Jersey, both sent to........

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