This week, I'll take a look at the movies opening on July 25, three pictures that look very promising cinematically — but will they be as interesting for the Fantasy Moguls players you are?

I was surprised to discover that the lead actor in the U.K. drama Boy A was portrayed by the young Andrew Garfield, seen last year as the smart American student to Robert Redford's professor in Lions for Lambs. It turns out the actor has both American and British parents — he was born in California and raised in the United Kingdom. In Boy A, Garfield is Jack Burridge, a young man released from jail many years after having been imprisoned for a crime committed when he was barely a teenager. Hoping to keep low profile and move on with his life, he soon discovers how difficult this might be.

The film is an adaptation of the acclaimed novel of the same title, written by Jonathan Trigell and published in 2004. First presented at the Toronto Film Festival last year, Boy A is considered a TV movie in the United Kingdom, where it was broadcast last November and has since collected many prizes, including four BAFTA TV Awards. On the international scene, however, Boy A is viewed as a feature film, as proven by the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury that it claimed at the Berlin Film Festival last February, and its upcoming launch in U.S. theaters.

Though his name won't likely be a factor for most in deciding whether to see the film, John Crowley, the Irish director of Boy A, made a name for himself a few years back with Intermission, which starred Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy. One thing that will be a factor in the film's relative success or failure is word of mouth, and in that regard, Boy A has, since its Toronto screening last year, acquired a solid reputation among critics (who've mostly praised it), industry professionals (who've bestowed its aforementioned numerous awards) and audiences (the IMDb User rating currently stands at 8.6 with more than 450 votes).

Some may be concerned by the fact the film is being distributed in the United States by The Weinstein Company. Okay, I can already hear your sighs of rejection, bearing in mind the long list of flops Harvey and Bob have had since breaking away from Miramax. Once in a while, however, the still-wily Weinsteins have handled films that have been interesting for Fantasy Moguls players. Take last year's Control, a U.K. production with great buzz that was released in a very few theaters and garnered a strong User Rating and several PTA points.

With a release limited at the Film Forum in New York City on Wednesday, July 23, with probably no more than a couple of Los Angeles theaters joining in on July 25, Boy A looks like it could display strong PTA numbers on opening weekend, and possibly on the following weekend as well. The problem is that you can't get it for cheap: it's $11 in July-September Ultimate leagues. With the strong competition that comes at the end of July, it's a risky film. You might be fortunate enough to grab seven PTA points, if we're being optimistic, or only one or two if the competition turns out to be too strong. Either way, the IMDb number should be solid, around 8.

Sticking to Boy A's theme of troubled adolescence is American Teen, a documentary that has been pushed by a growing buzz these past few months. It all began last January at the Sundance Film Festival, as the path to greatness of  American indies so often does. The doc was a crowd-pleaser in Park City, and went on to win the Directing Award in the documentary competition. Paramount Vantage won a bidding war to acquire the distribution rights and then boldly booked a summer release. Take a look at the trailer and poster they put together, and you'll agree that the soon-to-disappear specialty division of Paramount has a clear and efficient idea as to how to sell the film to the audience: the freshness of real-life youngsters combined with the vivid intrigues of life in an American high school.

Following teens in their senior year in an Indiana high school, observing the hopes, dreams, disillusionment, love and everything else that spices up life in high school, American Teen seems to want to be the The Breakfast Club of its generation. Some have questioned its authenticity, suggesting that the film is a little too "acted" and/or heavily edited for total honesty. American Teen appears be to having an impact on its viewers, however, and could even make a minor box-office splash if its release is carefully handled (watch for the theater counts in coming days). Teen can also rely on its director's good resume, as Nanette Burstein has already made two significantly awarded documentaries, the boxing-related On the Ropes, and the fascinating Robert Evans portrait The Kid Stays in the Picture.

Priced at $7 in Ultimate leagues, American Teen could have an interesting run ahead of it. Contrary to what Fantasy Moguls predicts, the film will grab at least a few PTA points, though how many will be harder to guess until more information about the release pattern emerges. If audiences are hooked, however, it's the kind of film that could have relatively impressive legs. Anything is possible on opening weekend, including between two and four PTA points. It's clearly one of the films to watch in its price range anyway.

As I am writing this column, Henry Poole is Here is still listed as a July 25 release for Fantasy Moguls purposes, though it's been known for quite a while now that the film will in fact be launched in American cinemas on Aug. 15. Hence, I will not be discussing it today, and if you still have it in your May, June or July leagues, drop it for something else if you can.

One feature though that is listed as an Aug. 1st film, but which will get a limited release on July 25 before expanding in early August, is Brideshead Revisited. It belongs to a genre specific to the British cinema and that could be called ... well ... "period dramas taking place in countryside English manors." James Ivory is the patriarch of the genre, with films like A Room with a View, Maurice, Howards End and The Remains of the Day. There seems to be a younger generation encroaching on his turf, however, like Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement) and Julian Jarrold, who brings us Brideshead one year only after having flirted with the genre in Becoming Jane (which was lighter).

Some of you may be familiar with the title, as the film is adapted from a classic of English literature, Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder, by Evelyn Waugh. The protagonist is Charles Ryder, an Oxford student who befriends an aristocratic young man, Sebastien Flyte, who introduces him to his influential family and their magnificent "home," Brideshead Castle. Brideshead Revisited was made into a TV series in 1981, with Jeremy Irons in the lead. In the film, the cast consists of Matthew Goode (Match Point, The Lookout) as Charles Ryder, Ben Whishaw (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer) as Sebastien Flyte, Hayley Atwell (Cassandra's Dream) as Sebastien's seductive sister, and reliable veterans Emma Thompson (an Ivory favorite) and Michael Gambon as the Flyte parents.

Miramax is distributing the film, just as with Becoming Jane last year. That film was a big disappointment PTA-wise, as it earned only four points for an comparatively expensive Fantasy Moguls price tag. But the film went on to earn $18 million at the box-office. Depending on the theater count on its opening weekend, Brideshead might be a nice prestige pick. Miramax has already planned to expand its release at least twice in early August, so the film has a shot at bringing both PTA points and interesting box-office numbers. And this time, it is much cheaper than Becoming Jane, bearing a modest $8 price tag. If Miramax does not open it in 100 theaters like they did with Jane, Brideshead could very well be worth its price, collecting three or four PTA points at least, and box-office revenues possibly measureable in millions of dollars. As for the User Rating, it seeems doubtful it will be under 7.

And so we close the month of July. The year is passing fast, and I realize that I called 2007 a small year for cinema, with few memorable films ... while 2008 is, in fact, for the moment, in my opinion, a much weaker year than 2007. By this same point last year, I had seen films like Zodiac, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Sunshine, The Lives of Others and Control. Maybe the coming months will be exceptional? In the meantime, next week, I'll look at Frozen River and (sigh) Midnight Meat Train. Not very indie, that one, I know ... but I'm not the one who decides which films get a limited release.

Indie Jones has never lived on huge estate in the English countryside, but if he had, then he'd definitely have gotten up to something scandalous with the daughter of a wealthy family. That's clearly where the action is in that game. Tell him about your own imagined indiscretions at danceswiththearthouse@gmail.com.