Welcome to Trust Me, I Watch Everything, a weekly guide to all the new movies out each Friday and where to find them. This week’s buzziest theatrical release is Supergirl, the second film in the James Gunn rebooted D.C. Universe over at Warner Bros.
If you’d rather have a movie night at home, you can rent or buy the sexy indie crime thriller Carolina Caroline or Tuner, another excellent indie that features Dustin Hoffman.
And on streaming services you’re likely already paying for, Avatar: Fire and Ash, makes its way to Disney+ and the surprise box-office hit, The Sheep Detectives debuts on Prime Video.
Intrigued? Let’s get into it!
🎥 What to watch in theatersThe biggest release: Supergirl
Why you should skip it: As a noted hater of James Gunn’s Superman but a big fan of the comic-book series that this new movie is based on (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, by writer Tom King and artist Bilquis Evely), I had high hopes for Supergirl. The movie did not meet them.
Milly Alcock of HBO’s House of the Dragon stars as Clark Kent’s cousin Kara Zor-El, and here’s what passes for a plot: When an unexpected and ruthless adversary strikes too close to home, Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, reluctantly joins forces with an unlikely companion on an epic, interstellar journey of vengeance and justice.
While the movie technically adapts the comic book’s story, it does so in such disastrous ways that they might as well have left the source material alone. In Woman of Tomorrow, you are made to feel how evil marauding space villain Krem is, and he actually comes off quite menacing and scary on the page. In the movie, we know he’s bad because the movie has him made up to look like a Mad Max villain, with studs in his face and the like. It’s a great look, but a great look is not characterization, and he has none here, which makes an A-grade villain into a generic and forgettable bad guy.
Even worse, Ruthye, Supergirl’s ally who is such a key part in the books, gets sidelined in a way that makes her annoying and useless. Her arc in the comic mirrors Mattie’s in Charles Portis’ legendary novel True Grit, and even her dialogue throughout the series makes it clear that’s what they’re going for. The movie abandons all of this to give us…Jason Momoa as Lobo, a fan-favorite bounty hunter character who has no business being in the movie at all, and a fetch-quest plot centered around the poisoning of a CGI dog that was already overutilized in the last movie. The story of Woman of Tomorrow is such a lay-up, and they give it up for no good reason.
The movie plays like an “Oops All Star Wars Cantina Band Scenes” compilation for a while as Kara and friends traverse the galaxy to track down the poison antidote or whatever. It’s one Mos Eisley after another! These sequences feature some fun, practical make-up on the monsters and cool-looking sets mixed in with awful-looking digital effects, which only serve to emphasize how muddy and bad the movie looks the rest of the time.
Supergirl, worst of all, shortchanges Kara, who feels like she’s second-or third-string in her own movie at times. She doesn’t get to do anything “super,” really, and is often seen just floating around, which, again, looks terrible because these movies are now all shot in warehouses with backgrounds added in post. It’s clear that Momoa’s Lobo is shoehorned in because somebody at Warner Bros. was worried that a female-centric superhero movie wouldn’t sell enough tickets. You could excise his character from the movie entirely and lose nothing. In fact, it would be better! And I’ve barely mentioned how incoherent and useless the action sequences are; not a single one makes an impression, unless what they were going for is me squinting to see what the hell is happening.
Supergirl goes in a decidedly different direction from Superman, leaning more into Star Wars territory, which, combined with the reverence the movie shows for its needle drops, makes it feel like another attempt at Guardians of the Galaxy. The Mad Max aesthetic is cool, but the reason those movies work is that they have the action and spectacle to back it up. Supergirl does not, nor does it have an actual story to engage with, despite having a great one on the page.
The 1-2 punch of Superman and Supergirl was supposed to usher in an exciting and bold new era at DC, despite industry headwinds suggesting that superhero movies have lost their luster. Instead, all they’ve done is prove there’s not much juice left to squeeze.
What other critics are saying: It’s getting torn apart! Clarisse Loughrey at The Independent writes, “the mandate here appears to be to keep things as distinctly Gunn-esque as possible. In return, Superman’s moodier, more cynical relative has been robbed of the chance to speak with her own voice. It’s the superhero equivalent of a Vegas impersonator.” Robbie Collin at The Telegraph writes, “Like watching an endless orangey-grey rehash of scenes from Mad Max and Star Wars. Who is faster than a speeding bullet and can leap tall buildings in a single bound? Supergirl’s novel answer: who cares?”
How to watch: Supergirl is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Another wide release: Jackass: Best and Last
Why you should see it: Jackass: Best and Last is definitely more of a glorified “best of” send-off clip show than a full-throated new movie. It’s right there in the title after all. But that doesn’t make it any less hilarious for fans of the extremely R-rated franchise, and it does offer a fair amount of new material, even for those who’ve already worked their way through all of the once-deleted footage on the old DVD box sets. Though going in, fans should be aware that it hews more closely to a “.5” compilation than a wholly new feature-length affair.
What started as a pop culture phenomenon that earned scorn from Congress — Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut once led a charge to have the MTV show banned from the airwaves — eventually started to earn praise from the media about its depiction of “positive masculinity.” The copious amounts of full-frontal male nudity and bare asses that were once a liability ultimately became something to be celebrated. Now, Knoxville and the gang are old enough for the stunts to mostly be centered around getting a colonoscopy, so the crew decided it’s time to throw in the towel.
As described by Paramount, which unexpectedly added the film to its calendar only a few months ahead of its release, the film functions as both a farewell and a celebration, combining all-new stunts with fan-favorite moments, never-before-seen footage and a look back at the friendships that fueled one of entertainment’s most enduring franchises.
Some of the unaired footage that MTV wouldn’t allow on television is genuinely tense and shocking. That includes a stunt that’s dubbed the “birth of Jackass” in which Knoxville, wearing a bulletproof vest with some porno mags shoved underneath to blunt the impact, shoots himself in the chest, “Russian roulette”-style, point-blank with a pistol, or when he packs himself into a box and gets violently tossed down some stairs.
Some of the excised footage from 2022’s Jackass Forever features Bam Margera, who was scrapped from the movie due to recurring issues with his sobriety, and it’s nice to see Bam again even if his pals are just as mean to him as ever and he is, once again, pranked with a snake.
It’s hard not to feel bad for new cast member/the sole female Rachel Wolfson, who joined the series in Jackass Forever, as she’s treated like a glorified extra here, standing around in the background during new bits without a thing to do. She literally spins the wheel and shouts out the colors during a particularly nasty game of “Twister,” and that’s as big a contribution as she makes.
Jackass: Best and Last may be the worst theatrical film in the franchise given its nature as both a “best of” send-off and a “one last ride” finale, but fans who grew up laughing so hard they cried at their antics will do so all over again here, and there’s just enough added to keep it fresh. If you’ve always found it to be an embarrassing indictment of our society, however, there’s nothing here to change your mind.
What other critics are saying: The critics have really warmed up to these guys. The Wrap’s Todd Gilchrist writes, “leave it to these mischief makers to deliver a final chapter that serves as a requiem, a victory lap and an envelope-pusher all at once.” David Ehrlich of Indiewire writes, “like any burial service worth its sentiment, “Best and Last” is largely rooted in revisiting old memories, which is a generous way of saying that it’s basically a glorified clip show with a smattering of new footage sprinkled in for good measure.”
How to watch: Jackass: Best and Last is now playing in theaters nationwide.
But that’s not all…
From left: Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, Edward Norton in The Invite (Courtesy of A24/Everett Collection)
The Invite: Oliva Wilde’s third film as a director is easily her best, a laugh-out-loud funny comedy about marriage, sex, complacency and rekindling that spark. The script from Rashida Jones and Will McCormack is smart and funny and honest; they’re working from a template, though, as the movie is a remake of a 2020 Spanish film called The People Upstairs, which has proven to be fertile ground. This American version is the seventh version of it, with Russia, Korea and Italy among the nations that took it for a spin. In the film, Joe and Angela’s (Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde) marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors (Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz) for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places. It’s a perfectly cast film that features some of the best work from all parties involved, though it’s particularly nice to see Norton in a role like this, earning tons of laughs. Wilde is exceptional here, too, both in front of and behind the camera. It’s a movie about intimacy in marriage and how we all want to be seen and desired, even when we struggle to communicate it. But more importantly than that, it’s very, very funny, and builds to an incredibly satisfying crescendo about midway through when it really kicks into high gear. It ends on a sweet note that makes the whole experience feel more than worthwhile.
How to watch: Now playing in limited release before expanding wide next week.
💸 Movies newly available to rent or buy
The best option: Carolina Caroline
Why you should watch it: Remember back in the ’90s when it seemed like every indie movie was about lovers on the run? Carolina Caroline is such a strong entry into this particular canon that you’ll be hoping it spurs another wave of ’em.
In this sexy crime romance, a young woman (Samara Weaving), desperate to leave her small town, runs away with a charming con man (Kyle Gallner) and embarks on a crime-and-passion-filled journey through the Southeast to find her estranged mother. It feels indebted to Badlands and Natural Born Killers as much as to Bonnie and Clyde, with the added element of a con and of teaching someone how to pull it off, reminiscent of Will Smith and Margot Robbie’s Focus, to name a fairly recent example.
Carolina Caroline may be the best showcase of Samara Weaving, who has thus far largely played Scream Queens in horror movies but rarely gets to show her true range. I’ve repeatedly praised her work in dozens of extremely bad genre movies, with my usual refrain being that she is always the best thing about them. She’s generally far better than the movies she appears in; Carolina Caroline may be the first one that feels worthy of her talent.
Not to shortchange Gallner, who is every bit as good as Weaving here. He’s another actor who’s been quietly racking up credits for decades — his first was 2001’s Wet Hot American Summer — and found himself doing great work in genre fare, often in character actor-type smaller roles. He’s wonderful in a lead role here, equal parts charming and menacing.
Carolina Caroline works because its central romance does. It’s electric stuff, and you feel it — the pitch-perfect country-western soundtrack helps with that, too. It’s an engaging, engrossing crime thriller all on its own and full of all the tension that implies, but it’s all rendered even more intoxicating thanks to Weaving and Gallner selling the hell out of it. Don’t miss this indie gem!
What other critics are saying: They like it! Vikram Murthi at The AV Club writes, “both Weaving and Gallner excel playing distressed criminals who feel the heat on their tail, but the way that distress curdles into shared heartbreak and grief as they slowly reach clarity draws serious blood.” Variety’s Guy Lodge correctly points out that the two leads should be bigger stars, writing, “Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner, two fine actors rarely granted the glow that comes with a proper star vehicle, positively bask in it here; together, they give a potentially standard film an active heart rate.”
How to watch: Carolina Caroline is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
Another great option: Tuner
Why you should watch it: This efficient and entertaining low-budget indie crime-drama thriller boasts a great cast and even stronger characters. Leo Woodall stars as a talented piano tuner whose life is turned upside down when he discovers that his meticulous piano-tuning skills can also be applied to cracking safes.
The circumstances by which the piano tuner reluctantly falls into his life of crime are clever and engrossing, and there’s also a compelling romance between Woodall and costar Havana Rose Liu. The killer sound design stands out, and it’s great to see Dustin Hoffman having fun here — his character even has his own bobble head in the world of the film. The script embraces some genre clichés by the end, but not enough to detract from all it does right.
Tuner is exactly the type of small, independent movie that will play well with general audiences, with its gripping premise, propulsive energy, and terrific performances that heighten every element even as the plot starts to underwhelm. It’s got style, and it’s a strong narrative feature debut for filmmaker Daniel Roher, whose 2022 documentary Navalny won an Oscar.
What other critics are saying: It’s incredibly well-reviewed. G. Allen Johnson at the San Francisco Chronicle notes that “the film belongs to Woodall, who turns brooding silence into riveting cinema. His is a star-making performance, perfectly in tune.” The Guardian’s Cath Clarke writes of Woodall and Hoffman, “what a pair they are; they are a real pleasure to watch in an easy, unforced drama that mixes romcom moments with a relaxed crime thriller. It’s like the Safdie brothers in chill-out mode.”
How to watch: Tuner is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
But that’s not all…
Nick Jonas, Paul Rudd in Power Ballad. (Courtesy of Lionsgate/Everett Collection)
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Power Ballad: The latest music-based film from John Carney, the genius behind Once, which launched the careers of the brilliant Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, and my personal favorite, Sing Street, is back at it again. When Rick (Paul Rudd), a past-his-prime wedding singer, meets fading boy-band star Danny (Nick Jonas) during a gig, the two bond over a late-night jam session. But when Danny turns one of Rick’s songs into the hit that reignites his career, Rick sets out to reclaim the recognition he believes he deserves — even if it means risking everything he cares about. It’s a charming film, even if the songs don’t reach the highs of previous Carney flicks, and I always appreciate his showcase of the songwriting experience, and how community is a prerequisite to fostering that creativity. I found the resolution here, an acknowledgment of who and what art is really for, quite moving. Rent or buy.
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I Love Boosters: The colorful new film from Boots Riley (Sorry To Bother You) is a well-meaning, live-action cartoon that aims to educate the masses on heady concepts like Marxism and dialectical materialism. In the movie, a fearless crew of inventive young women turns shoplifting into a radical act of defiance. It lost me a bit at the introduction of a literal plot device, which has multiple settings that allow it to do whatever the plot needs it to do, and it only got wackier from there. It will surely lose others right away from its very concept, but it grabbed me initially because of Riley’s predilection for practical effects and actual sets, which make the production design a sight to behold. Regardless of how you feel about the movie’s politics, the whole thing’s a bit of a mess, and I must admit that some of the “weird” jokes feel come off more strange than funny. Rent or buy.
📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already have
The biggest release: Avatar: Fire & Ash
Why it’s a mixed bag: It’s frankly stunning the degree to which Avatar: Fire and Ash feels like the same movie as the last one. There was a 13-year gap between 2009’s Avatar and its first sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, in 2022. The fact that we spent time on Pandora with Jake Sully and his family so recently makes the return to their incredible world feel less exciting. They should’ve called it Avatar 3: Avatar 2!
It’s drag-and-drop cinema; a number of scenes here could’ve worked just as well in part 2, as it’s really just part 2B. Cameron has been honest about the fact that Avatar 2 and 3 were once a single movie that is now split into two extremely long parts; he’s been less honest when discussing how incredible the stories are. It’s the same damn movie!
In the film, conflict on Pandora escalates as Jake and Neytiri’s family encounter a new, aggressive Na’vi tribe led by the evil Varang, played by Oona Chaplin, who gives a standout performance in the film. She’s Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter, and there’s something quite special about tracing the history of cinema from the silent era to this instance of high-tech futurist cinema.
There’s at least one big sequence I got swept up in, during which Quaritch, the villain who died in part 1 and was quasi-resurrected in part 2, arms the evil Na’vi clan with guns. And there are probably three to five shots where my jaw actually dropped from the visuals. Anytime it’s not delivering top-notch action, though, it’s boring, and the action that’s there simply isn’t enough. Why does Cameron introduce Fury Road-esque Na’vi warboys only to dispatch them a single time?! There’s just not much that’s new in the bag of tricks. I do love, though, that Cameron continues to stuff his blockbuster spectacle with hyperspecific critiques of U.S. foreign policy and interventionism.
The Avatar fans that (ironically?) love Spider (Jack Champion) and the subtitled whales will surely have a blast, and it’s technically as incredible an achievement as ever, but if you’re one of those “I don’t get Avatar” people, Fire and Ash doesn’t do anything new to make it make sense. It’s simply more of the same, which is certainly enough for some, considering they are the highest-grossing films of all time.
What other critics are saying: It has the most mixed reviews yet for the franchise. Rolling Stone’s David Fear calls it “the most expensive three-hour video-game cut scene ever,” adding, “the piles of ash here looks and sounds phenomenal. What you would not give to feel some actual fire burning behind all of this.” Peter Bradshaw at the Guardian writes, “Avatar is as gigantically uninteresting and colossally impervious to criticism as ever: a vast, blank edifice that placidly repels objection.”
How to watch: Avatar: Fire & Ash is now streaming on Disney+
Another great option: The Sheep Detectives
Why you should watch it: The Sheep Detectives is about as good a movie starring entirely computer-generated talking sheep could be, I reckon!
In this utterly charming and delightful film based on the 2005 novel Three Bags Full, Hugh Jackman stars as George Hardy, a shepherd who reads detective novels to his beloved sheep every night, assuming they can’t possibly understand. But when a mysterious incident disrupts life on the farm, the sheep realize they must become the detectives, following clues, investigating human suspects and proving that even sheep can be brilliant crime-solvers.
The mystery is fun and engaging, but what’s most unexpected here is that the film explores very human ideas through its talking sheep characters; it’s ultimately a movie about accepting the tough things in life, such as the inevitability of death.
It’s quite moving watching these sheep unlearn the comforting lies they were told (like: sheep don’t die, they just become clouds) in their pursuit of the truth in the murder mystery they’re caught up in, all to honor the human who died. The screenplay from Craig Mazin — yes, the same man who wrote the award-winning HBO series Chernobyl — really elevates the material.
The Sheep Detectives sits comfortably alongside classics like Babe and its sequel, Babe: Pig in the City, as a fun, accessible movie for both children and adults that isn’t afraid to get at quietly devastating emotional truths in the process, all in a lighthearted, funny way. That’s no small feat.
What other critics are saying: Everyone digs it! Guy Lodge at Variety writes, “There’s wisdom amid the silliness, as the story gently makes a case for the necessity of grief, mindfulness and mortal awareness. … That’s more than you might expect from a film called The Sheep Detectives.” Mashable’s Kristy Puchko calls it “a feel-good movie that’s sure to delight all ages.”
How to watch: The Sheep Detectives is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video
But that’s not all…
Eric Andre, John Cena in LITTLE BROTHER (Courtesy of Netflix/Everett Collection)
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Little Brother: In this very silly, stupid, raunchy comedy, John Cena plays a famous real estate agent whose carefully curated world gets upended when his eccentric “little brother” from a decades-old “Big Brothers Big Sisters” program, played by comedian/professional prankster Eric Andre, unexpectedly reappears. It’s a premise ripe for laughs, but the movie mistakes crassness for wit, and it’s just not particularly funny, especially after there’s beena a string of straight-to-streaming comedies starring Cena that are all more entertaining than this one. There’s a scene so outrageous that it made me feel bad for Michelle Monaghan, an actor I consider far better than this material, despite her agreeing to do this movie. Now streaming on Netflix.
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In the Hands of Dante: The latest film from Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is an ambitious yet pretentious epic that tries to weave a profound story across the ages and falls completely flat. Inspired by the book of the same name by Nick Tosches, the film follows a Vatican priest who discovers Dante’s original Divine Comedy manuscript. When asked to authenticate it, writer Nick Tosches steals it, while a parallel story follows Dante’s quest to create his masterpiece. The movie interweaves these two narratives — one, essentially a chintzy crime movie, and the other a faux-profound rumination on why Dante wrote what he wrote. It’s a baffling experience because you expect these stories to have some meaningful connection, but it never comes. The impressive cast includes Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Gerard Butler and John Malkovich, and despite some fun performances, especially from Butler, it’s just hard to take it seriously due to the wild oscillations in tone, from highbrow to lowbrow and back again. Now streaming on Netflix.
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Undertone: This movie is so completely underwhelming that it should lead to a moratorium on “the scariest movie ever made!”-style marketing, which only sets up movies like this for failure. Undertone may impress some as a no-budget exercise in minimalism and subtle, understated spookiness, but I needed a little more meat on the bone here, especially if the marketing team is going to go all in on “scariest movie you’ll ever hear” messaging. The premise is this: A podcast host covering spooky content moves back home to care for her dying mother. When sent recordings of a pregnant couple’s paranormal encounters, she discovers their story parallels hers, with each tape pushing her toward madness. If you want a good movie that’s essentially a filmed radio play, check out Pontypool, an underseen favorite of mine. Find my full review here. Now streaming on HBO Max.
That’s all for this week! We’ll see you next week, when the big July 4 weekend release is Minions & Monsters.
Looking for more recs? Find your next watch on the Yahoo 100, our daily list of the most popular movies of the year.