What is an August Movie? It is not merely a movie that is released in August, no, it is so much more than that. You can have an August movie released in any month, though I struggle to find an example of a truly August Movie showing up at any other time. Sound off in the comments if you can think of one, I'd like to read your take.
First and foremost, August Movies are cheesy. Truly and deeply cheesy and they know it. It's a movie that commits to the "blatantly inauthentic" nature of the story, the production, and the acting. It needs to be so bad, it's good. The kind of movie you hate-watch but kind of without the hate. You laugh, you cringe, you have a ton of fun, then immediately forget everything except the feeling of having been entertained.
August Movies also have a very simple premise. Think Snakes on a Plane (there are snakes, on a plane!), Premium Rush (courier needs to deliver a package by the deadline, or else!), and Piranha (there are piranhas! In unexpected bodies of water!). The story does not try to do too much. There's little character development, backstory, or growth. The problem is clear and the goal is to solve the problem. There's little deviation from the main story; we don't dive too deeply (if at all) into the lives of the secondary characters.
There might be a recognizable star in an August Movie but they're rarely a mega-blockbuster star. They are the source of credibility for the movie. You probably went to see Snakes on a Plane because Samuel L. Jackson was the star. You wanted to hear him say motherfucker and you wanted to hear him do that sort of half-shouted speech he does when he's explaining why some other character is so dumb that they're going to die if they don't fall in line and listen up. The story becomes a vehicle for the star but not in the traditional sense: the star isn't trying to raise their career profile with this epic masterpiece of cinema. They're probably paying the bills or fulfilling a contract they signed many years before.
What does this have to do with The First Purge, you say? Allow me to dig deeper.
The First Purge (RottenTomatoes and IMDB) is directed by Gerard McMurray and stars Y'lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Jovian Wade, and includes actors Marissa Tomei and Patch Darragh. The movie is the fourth in The Purge franchise and follows the events of the first purge night: a night where all crime is legal. Staged as an experiment by a psychologist (Tomei) funded by the right-wing political party New Founding Fathers leaders (Darragh). Limited to Staten Island in New York City, we see the tension between those who object to purge night, those who want to capitalize on an opportunity, and those who are truly invested in the success of the purge.
Based on the trailers, you'd be forgiven for thinking The First Purge is an August Movie. (The movie itself has graphic elements. This is the green band trailer. You can decide if you want to watch.)
Mild spoilers ahead. Continue from this point after you've seen the movie or if you don't mind having some plot details described before you've seen The First Purge.
It looks like it should be an August Movie, right? It looks as though it has all the right elements: It looks really cheesy, it has a simple premise, and there's a couple people you recognize but no one who is a super-mega movie star. However upon closer inspection, the First Purge is more than an August Movie.
On the surface, this looks like a cheesy thriller/horror movie. There are costumes and masks and jump scares and gore. But that is the trailer. That's what gets you in the cinema. The core of the story is really about why the concept of a purge could arise in a population. There's some minimally veiled commentary on race and poverty. The story, the real story is about how people are being coerced into participating in something that will perpetuate all the negative stereotypes about their neighbourhood and the politicians who profit from it all.
The story is not subtle. It is the very opposite of subtle. There is a scene where a character is attacked and she escapes after using pepper spray, shouting at him "fuck you! pussy grabbing mother fucker!" (I'm paraphrasing here). I don't remember the exact line but she absolutely called him out for being a pussy grabber. Now, where else have you heard that phrase? That's right. There are also scenes where trucks full of men in full KKK costumes and gangs of bikers wearing Nazi symbols roam around and hunt people. They're hired by the New Founding Fathers political party to rile up the people, causing them to fight back and look like they're participating in the purge. The KKK and the Nazis are the people the politicians have brought in to stir the pot and cause people to join in the violence on purge night (regardless of whether it's self defence). Yeah, the story is not subtle. At. All.
Nor is it inauthentic. The characters don't have much of a back story, true, but they are genuine and earnest in their desire to protect their family, friends, and neighbourhood. They believe that people aren't as bad as the experimenters think they are. They gather at their church and take care of one another. They protest the experiment and try to convince people not to participate. When it's all over, the movie sticks with you. I remember sitting there when the lights came up thinking "wow, I can't believe they made that movie" because of the direct commentary on American politics I mentioned earlier.
The story is simple enough: the first purge night is happening and people are trying to survive. Politicians and psychologists are watching via CCTV from a safe distance (naturally) while the main characters are on the ground trying not to be killed (or worse). We see a couple short scenes in the days leading up to the purge experiment but the bulk of the story focuses on the hours where the purge is active. The tight timeline means we don't have to worry about the story going beyond what it should be: surviving the purge.
The First Purge might be a summer movie but it is definitely not an August Movie. It's a smart, albeit on the nose, commentary on American politics as it attempts to answer the question: how could this ever happen? We see that the purge was never meant to help those who are purging. It was always meant to be a means to control poorer people and generate profit for the rich who own the companies that provide the weapons, personal protection equipment, and home security systems that we have seen become the norm for many in the other movies of the franchise. The Purge series may have started as a gory thriller but it's grown into an intelligent allegory for the political tensions happening in America (and elsewhere, too) and even if you have never seen any of the movies in the franchise, The First Purge is a must see.
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