Movie
10 hours ago
24 Hello, Yahoo readers! My name is Brett Arnold, film critic and longtime Yahoo editor, and I’m back with another edition of Trust Me, I Watch Everything.
A pair of new releases from widely respected filmmakers top the list this week as Ron Howard's Eden and Ethan Coen's Honey Don't debut in theaters nationwide.
At home, the latest Mission: Impossible finally makes its way to the small screen, as does Brad Pitt's F1: The Movie, both of which are big-budget blockbusters that did, and are still doing, very well in theaters.
And on streaming services you're likely already paying for, a new crime-heist comedy of sorts starring Samara Weaving called Eenie Meanie hits Hulu, and an underrated indie gem Tornado is on AMC+, which offers a 7-day free trial.
Read on, because there’s something here for everyone!
🎥 What to watch in theaters
My recommendation: Eden
Why you should watch it: The latest film from beloved filmmaker Ron Howard is unlike anything the actor turned director has made before. If I hadn't known going in that he directed it, I never would've guessed, which is an exciting thing to say about a director in his 70s. Howard can still surprise us! Yet a populist crowd-pleaser this is not.
Eden is based on, or at least inspired by, the wild true story of a group of disillusioned outsiders in the late 1930s who abandon post-World War I Europe in search of a new beginning. Settling on a remote uninhabited island, their utopian dream quickly unravels as they discover that the greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other.
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The cast of Eden is chock-full of the hottest actors in Hollywood: Sydney Sweeney, Ana De Armas and Vanessa Kirby share the screen alongside Jude Law and Daniel Brühl. Law plays a German doctor and self-styled philosopher who is the first to set foot on the island. The others all follow because, unbeknownst to Law, the letters that he's been writing have been published in newspapers, and people have been following his exploits. He's quite pretentious and has grand ambitions of changing the world and believes the manifesto he's writing is the thing to do just that.
He has no interest in helping others make the island their home, and immediately starts trying to sabotage the newcomers, a husband and wife played by Brühl and Sweeney. It's not long before a baroness (De Armas) shows up with plans to build a hotel there and make a fortune off tourism, wielding her sexuality as a sort of weapon. That's when things spiral out of control.
The island experiment becomes a sort of microcosm speedrun of a society rising and falling, as all the different parties jockey for power and control. There are shocks and surprises throughout, and at least one sex scenes that's stranger than it is sexy. I am again struck by the fact that most of my joy from this nasty little movie comes from the knowledge that the inoffensive Howard helmed it.
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Eden is absolutely worth seeing in a theater, a fate that his last feature film, the sensational Thirteen Lives never got as it was shunted to Prime Video in 2022. That movie would've cleaned up at the Oscars had it had a real release; instead, now you're likely hearing about it for the first time in the closing paragraph of a review for a different movie.
What other critics are saying: The response is totally mixed. Variety's Owen Gleiberman writes, "For Howard, the film sure is different. Yet there’s another word for it — the word is terrible." Chase Hutchinson at TheWrap dug it, calling it a solid thriller from top to bottom.
How to watch: Eden is now in theaters nationwide.
Bonus not-quite-a-recommendation: Honey Don't!
Why you should maybe skip it: Drive-Away Dolls was always pitched as the first of three movies in a "lesbian B-movie" trilogy that Ethan Coen, half of the Oscar-winning Coen Brothers duo, would be making with his wife Tricia Cooke instead of his brother Joel. Honey Don't!, the second film, is here to make good on that promise. Sadly, if you didn't dig Drive-Away Dolls, there's really nothing in this one that's going to change your mind. Even if you did enjoy Dolls, as I did, Honey Don't! is a serious case of diminishing returns.
Margaret Qualley again stars, this time as Honey O'Donahue, a private investigator tasked with solving a woman's murder, unraveling a mystery that involves some sort of religious cult. Qualley is terrific in the lead, as are Aubrey Plaza and Charlie Day in their supporting roles, but Chris Evans, who should run away with the movie, is hamstrung by the terribly weak script, despite giving it his all.
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The craziest thing about Honey Don't! is the way it just sort of fizzles out instead of building to a satisfying third-act conclusion.
The detective story in Honey Don't! is flat and uninteresting and while its obsession with sex is admirable in a landscape of movies that don't care about it anymore, it's all too scattershot and messy to muster much excitement about or get a real handle on. It's a baffling and disappointing experience, especially if you're a Coen brothers fan like me. Drive-Away Dolls was a fun-enough silly diversion; Honey Don't! is a reminder that diversions aren't meant to last forever.
What other critics are saying: They're split right down the middle! Nick Schager at the Daily Beast calls it the worst movie of the year, correctly assessing that "Coen and Cooke are so uninterested in plotting that they don’t develop or intertwine their multiple threads." The AP's Lindsey Bahr, however, writes that it's "gory, unapologetically sexual, quippy and dark. It also clocks in at under 90 minutes — they knew just when to get out."
How to watch: Honey Don't! is now in theaters nationwide.
But that's not all...
Lurker: This engaging indie thriller plays like a modern take on The Talented Mr. Ripley, with present-day concerns about social media and how people nowadays crave close proximity to fame as a sort of fame unto itself, and how far they’ll go to achieve it and maintain it. It has a punch line of an ending that’s so dark and inspired, I laughed out loud. It's a blast! Watch if you dug Ingrid Goes West. Buy tickets.
Relay: Riz Ahmed, Lily James and Sam Worthington star in this propulsive throwback cat-and-mouse thriller that borrows from the best of the genre, morphing from a ’70s-style to the ’90s as it goes. It's a lot of fun, even if it takes one turn too many. Buy tickets.
💸 Movies newly available to rent or buy
My recommendation: Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Why you should watch it: The alleged final film in Tom Cruise's long-running franchise is probably the weakest of the bunch. But considering the highs of the series and that there's not a truly bad entry among them, it's barely an insult. Even the "worst" Mission: Impossible is better than most other blockbusters at this scale and there's simply no other actor on the planet doing the kind of stunts that Cruise pulls off. Final Reckoning may even sport the most jaw-dropping moment of them all, teased in the trailer above.
It's a movie of high highs and low lows — when it came out in theaters, I wrote that those peaks are so satisfying to watch that they almost make you forget that the first hour of this movie is all montage and exposition.
It also falls into the same trap of the previous entry in trying to add legacy sequel elements and clumsily tie all 29 years of movies together, which provides some comedic moments that likely weren’t intended to be funny. There is a payoff to a throwaway line of dialogue from the very first installment here that’s such a great gag, it won me over. Don't even get me started on the real-life metaphor of it all!
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is overstuffed and too long but delivers where it counts. If you missed it in theaters, you can now watch Cruise defy death from the safety and comfort of your couch.
What other critics are saying: Critics lean positive but are pretty mixed, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 80%. Lindsey Bahr at the AP agrees “that in attempting to tie everything together, Mission: Impossible lost the plot.” Rolling Stone’s David Fear was kinder, saying the movie “feels like a conclusion to 30 years worth of proving that yes, you still can conjure up a certain vintage strain of Hollywood magic.”
How to watch: Mission: Impossible —The Final Reckoning is now available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple TV and other VOD platforms.
Bonus recommendation: F1: The Movie
Why you should watch it: F1 is a huge hit that's still raking in cash globally — it's far and away the biggest moneymaker for Apple in its original films space thus far. It's easy to see why, as it's a crowd-pleaser directed byTop Gun: Maverick's Joseph Kosinski, who really knows his way around crafting high-octane action sequences, and stars Brad Pitt in an effortlessly cool, if not a bit well-worn, role.
When it debuted in theaters, I praised Kosinski for shooting everything practically and not relying solely on computers. The filmmakers outfitted rocket-powered race cars with cameras and filmed them the same way Kosinski did the fighter jets in Maverick. The spurning of CGI here is key, and it's what makes both movies stand out in an era of "let's just do it in post" filmmaking; a throwback to ’90s blockbusters, down to the Jerry Bruckheimer producer credit.
When the movie's in racing mode, it's inherently thrilling. They were also allowed to film with IMAX cameras during an actual Formula One season, so there's plenty of awesome footage throughout. The problems arise when it's not delivering cars going fast, which is far too often, especially considering the movie runs a whopping two-and-a-half hours. It's simply too cliché-ridden, both story-wise and character-wise, for that massive runtime to go down easy.
The movie does a good enough job of laying out the basics of Formula One so that amateurs can keep up and delivers where it needs to, even if it never reaches the heights — literally — of the director's Top Gun: Maverick.
What other critics are saying: Critics are largely into it, but there are detractors. Stephanie Zacharek at Time cleverly calls it a "perfect Brad Pitt vehicle," writing that, at 61, he's "finally aged into roles like these. And sometimes, as F1 proves, they’re the best thing that can happen to a guy." TheWrap's William Bibbiani, on the other hand, says it's "limp" and "sterile."
How to watch: F1: The Movie is now available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple TV and other VOD platforms.
📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already have
My recommendation: Eenie Meanie
Why you should watch it: Samara Weaving and Karl Glusman star in this comic crime/heist thriller, emphasis on the comic, from the writers of Deadpool. It unfolds exactly like that sounds, for the most part, and your tolerance for it will depend on whether you find the characters and the dialogue annoying or funny.
In the film, a former teenage getaway driver gets dragged back into her unsavory past when a previous employer offers her a chance to save the life of her chronically unreliable ex-boyfriend.
It's fairly generic stuff enlivened by Weaving's natural charisma and some exciting chases. Heist movies are an easy sell for me, and the way into the story here was compelling enough to keep me engaged throughout. The focus on Weaving's character, the eponymous Eenie Meanie, and her backstory are appreciated, even if some other elements, like her relationship with Glusman's character, felt rushed.
The entire second act drags pretty bad, and there are definitely tone problems as it gets too real for the type of that it is. The film wants us to take it seriously and also not take it seriously depending on the moment, but by the time things kick into gear, it gets back on track and ends on a high note, almost justifying the level of tragedy and pathos involved.
It's a lot like Baby Driver, really. As far as straight-to-streaming debuts go, you can do far worse, even if it's occasionally frustrating.
What other critics are saying: Check back later!
How to watch: Eenie Meanie is now streaming on Hulu.
Bonus recommendation: Tornado
Why you should watch it: Tornado is just your average Scottish samurai-Western ... wait, what?! When it hit theaters, I wrote that the film is clearly inspired by Japanese cinema (with a side of Quentin Tarantino). Actress Kôki stars as Tornado, a Japanese puppeteer's daughter who gets caught up with criminals when their traveling circus show crosses paths with an infamous gang of criminals, led by Sugarman (Tim Roth) and his son Little Sugar (Jack Lowden). It's as riveting as it is efficient and wastes no time setting up the stakes. The story is familiar but imbued with enough specific quirks and eye-catching style that it feels entirely unique.
What other critics are saying: Critics largely agree that it's worth a look. IndieWire's Josh Slater-Williams praised the performance of Takehiro Hira while Peter Bradshaw at the Guardian praised the distinctive "film-making language." On the other side of things, David Jenkins at Little White Lies says that ultimately "we’re left with a film which leaves only a superficial impression and little sense of purpose."
How to watch: Tornado is now streaming on AMC+.
But that's not all...
The Map That Leads to You: This generic sappy romance stars a couple of TV's hottest young stars in Madelyn Cline of Outer Banks and KJ Apa, who portrayed Archie Andrews on the long-running CW series Riverdale. It's like a beach read trying to be Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise. Now streaming on Amazon Prime.
That’s all for this week — we’ll see you next week at the movies!
Looking for more recs? Find your next watch on the Yahoo 100, our daily updating list of the most popular movies of the year.
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