Welcome to Trust Me, I Watch Everything, a weekly guide to all the new movies out each Friday.
This week’s buzziest release is The End of Oak Street, a blockbuster-sized Spielberg homage with dinosaurs invading 1980s suburbia starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor.
If you’d rather stay home, you can now rent or buy Olivia Wilde’s hit box-office comedy The Invite with Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, or catch up with the latest and allegedly final entry in the Jackass franchise.
Want to stick to a streaming service you’re likely already paying for? Adam Sandler’s daughter Sunny stars in the heartbreaking coming-of-age drama Don’t Say Good Luck, and the Bob Odenkirk action flick Normal finally hits HBO Max.
Let’s dive in!
🎥 What to watch in theatersMy pick: The End of Oak Street
Why I liked it: J.J. Abrams already made his own feature-length approximation of a Steven Spielberg flick with Super 8 back in 2011, and now he’s here producing another one 15 years later. Never change, J.J.!
David Robert Mitchell’s The End of Oak Street plays like the most exciting Jurassic Park sequel never made: an old-fashioned Amblin-style, otherworldly adventure about a deteriorating family unit in the suburbs that reveals the cracks in the idyllic white-picket-fence American dream.
After a mysterious cosmic event rips Oak Street from suburbia and transports their neighborhood to an unknown place, the Platt family (headed by Anne Hathaway, continuing her very busy year, and Ewan McGregor) soon discovers that their very survival depends on sticking together as they navigate their now-unrecognizable surroundings.
On a formal level, the craft is often astonishing, decidedly showy yet still impressive, full of so many split-diopter shots that there’s at one point a split-diopter shot reverse split-diopter shot. Mitchell, writer/director of the breakout horror hit It Follows, expertly mines the situation for maximum tension; the movie is essentially one dinosaur chase set piece after another. Sometimes it’s a big one; other times it’s the longest and biggest snake you’ve ever seen quietly slithering through a house, unbeknownst to its occupants. There’s a lot of “dinosaurs lurking in the background that nobody notices,” and it’s effective damn near every time.
It’s a satisfying blockbuster that just wants to entertain and deliver crowd-pleasing summer entertainment. There are, absolutely, bigger ideas at play here — a suburban street literally transported back in time carries a lot of thematic weight — but the movie isn’t full of hokey messaging, despite arguably being “about” something. Is it a movie about the dangers of a society that’s afraid to move forward and would rather go back to the way things once were? Maybe, but it’s mostly just a vehicle for dinosaurs to violently kill a bunch of people in a highly populated, non-prehistoric setting. It’s as if that one sequence from The Lost World were the whole movie, or like a Twilight Zone episode with a dino-sized budget. It’s got a strange, uncanny quality to it that I associate with M. Night Shyamalan, too.
The End of Oak Street may make some questionable narrative decisions in the final act, but none of that detracts from it being a terrifically good time at the movies. Mitchell’s film ends up playing like a better 2026 Spielberg movie than the actual one. Ouch!
What other critics are saying: Reviews are leaning positive. Robbie Collin at the Telegraph writes that the film “isn’t merely a running buffet of references; it’s an honorable attempt to revive bygone blockbusting techniques for a contemporary crowd.” But Kristy Puchko at Mashable wasn’t into it, writing, “If you’re looking for carefree summer fun, look elsewhere. The End of Oak Street is not fun. It’s bleak, brutal and ultimately infuriating.”
How to watch: The End of Oak Street is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Another option: The Rivals of Amziah King
Why I liked it: This genre-bending indie gem starring Matthew McConaughey (read our interview with him here) is wholly unique, incredibly charming and has a few moments of genuine “movies don’t get any better than this” transcendence. It’s also incredibly hard to describe because of its singular nature, but I’ll try my best. It plays like an adaptation of a great American novel that doesn’t exist — and is easily the most I’ve ever been moved by a movie that features someone being unexpectedly and graphically scalped.
McConaughey plays the eponymous Amziah King, a beekeeper, musician and anchor of his community who reunites with former foster daughter, Kateri (newcomer Angelina LookingGlass), after many years apart while fending off threats to his honey business.
The first hour of the movie contains pretty much all of the aforementioned transcendence, and while it struggles to follow up on that exciting, good-natured and infectious energy, it still manages to stick the landing. There are simple sequences here where Amziah and his buddies strike up a tune, and the power and importance of community shine through in a way that nearly moved me to tears. Amziah is the glue that holds this particular one together, and despite knowing nothing about him up top, you almost immediately get a sense of who he is as a person and local figurehead.
McConaughey is excellent — the best he’s been in ages and maybe ever, channeling that relaxed, cool-guy persona that he so effortlessly does. Child star Angelina LookingGlass is a breakout presence here, basically becoming the lead character as the movie stretches on. It’s a hell of an introductory role.
The film plays a bit like a Western, then becomes a Southern-fried musical and a Coen Brothers-style crime flick before morphing into a moving drama about a father and a daughter, and, eventually, a revenge thriller. Somehow, it manages to feel lived-in and on course the entire time.
The Rivals of Amziah King is a joyful movie full of unexpected detours and digressions that ultimately feels like a celebration of connecting with those around you. There’s not a cellphone in sight here, just people living in the moment. It’s a message that feels increasingly important in our siloed, filter-bubbled times.
What other critics are saying: Most love it! The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager writes, “As subtly sharp as it is sweet, it’s one of the year’s most enlivening standouts.” Mark Kennedy at the AP, however, dinged it for not feeling “authentic.” I disagree!
How to watch: The Rivals of Amziah King is now playing in limited release before expanding nationwide.
But that’s not all …
Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat in The Wrong Girls. (Neon /Courtesy Everett Collection)
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The Wrong Girls: While this has nothing to do with Drive-Away Dolls or Honey, Don’t, the lesbian caper comedies directed by Ethan Coen and his wife, it does feel like it’s spiritually the capstone of that trilogy. Sadly, this is not a compliment. It also desperately wants what the unexpectedly hilarious Pizza Movie has. In this stoner comedy directed by Kristen Stewart’s wife, Dylan Meyer, two best friends living paycheck to paycheck and bong rip to bong rip get caught in a case of mistaken identity that throws their lives into chaos. Shawkat, in particular, is very funny here, earning laughs by simply saying her lines in silly, stoned ways. It’s almost respectable how low this movie’s ambitions are, but it needs far more laughs than we get here to pull that off. The plotting is just so generic, derivative and unengaging, and the writing uninspired in a way that feels intentionally stupid but not funny. A major disappointment! Check out Smiley Face instead. Get tickets.
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Nimrods: Fans of the band Green Day may enjoy this Green Day-produced movie about Green Day that features Green Day, but it’s not really for anybody else. Three friends journey from Kansas City to Los Angeles, mistakenly believing their band is opening for Green Day on New Year’s Eve after a prank pulled by one of their brothers. The ingredients for a fun, raunchy road trip comedy are here, but it just isn’t very funny or charming, and my interest in the band had long waned by the time I graduated high school. Again, fans will likely get a kick out of it! Get tickets.
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Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie: My colleague Lauren Tuck — with help from her 4-year-old daughter — checked this one out: I took my daughter to the Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie premiere, and she had — this is a real quote, I swear, I’m getting it tattooed — “the best day of her life.” She’s 4, so there’s not much competition, but I’ll take it. Besides the fact that Paramount went all out for the kids with coloring books, a monster truck, a human claw machine to grab pup stuffies and themed food like volcano brownies, the movie was tolerable for me and amazing to her. It’s under 90 minutes, which is an ideal length for a kids’ film, and has great messages about never giving up and consumerism and overconsumption (lookin’ at you, Mayor Humdinger) that have stuck with us both. Get tickets.
💸 Movies newly available to rent or buyThe best option: The Invite
Why I liked it: Olivia 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, humorous and honest; they’re working from a template, though, as the movie is a remake of the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs, which has proven fertile ground.
This American version is one of several adaptations, with Russia, South 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 Penélope 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.
The Invite is 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 rewarding crescendo about midway through. It ends on a sweet note, making the whole experience feel more than worthwhile.
What other critics are saying: It’s one of the best-reviewed films of the year. IndieWire’s Kate Erbland dubs it “a truly adult comedy with plenty to say and even more laughs to share.” David Fear at Rolling Stone writes, “Whether this is the beginning of the hyphenate finding a distinctive voice as a director — a Wilde style — is TBD. What’s certain is that she turned a modern comedy of manners into a minor miracle.”
How to watch: The Invite is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
Another option: Jackass: Best and Last
Why I liked 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 offers a fair amount of new material, even for those who’ve already worked their way through all the once-deleted footage on the old DVD box sets. But fans should be aware going in 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 — Sen. 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, Johnny 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. 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 (and the sole female) Rachel Wolfson, who joined the series in Jackass Forever. She’s treated like a glorified extra, 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 to change your mind.
What other critics are saying: The critics have really warmed up to these guys. TheWrap’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 available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
But that’s not all …
William Franklyn-Miller as George Washington in Young Washington. (Angel Studios /Courtesy Everett Collection)
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Young Washington: Young Washington is one of those biopics with a script so on-the-nose that it feels like its characters are aware that what they’re doing is Very Important and will one day be part of History. It also engages in the arguably more annoying trope of highlighting a key detail everybody already knows and hammering it into the ground (we’ve all heard the cherry tree story, so little George is always chopping down trees). It more often than not plays like a movie that 30 Rock’s Jenna Maroney would star in as George’s mother — Mary-Louise Parker in the role is similarly jarring. That said, it’s surprisingly competent in the action department, if only briefly, with battle sequences that are well-shot and edited, and production design that’s convincing despite the presumably smaller-than-your-average-biopic budget. That is, unfortunately, undone by the clear use of generative AI during these sequences, which predictably sticks out like a sore thumb. The problem is otherwise almost entirely on a script level. The dialogue is full of clichés that characters repeat over and over again; someone was particularly proud of a line during a chess game about pawns being able to take knights. It’s likely OK enough to become a staple on CRT televisions wheeled into middle-school classrooms on a cart when the history teacher has had a bit too much to drink the night before. It’s not too concerned with legit history, though, and would rather just tell an inspirational story in a way that reads like CliffsNotes. Rent or buy.
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Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass: This extremely silly and stupid comedy (complimentary) will appeal to fans of David Wain’s previous work, like Wet Hot American Summer and They Came Together, and probably nobody else. When her fiancé cheats on her with his “celebrity pass,” small-town hairdresser Gail Daughtry (Zoey Deutch) decides to get even. Her quest leads her on a wild adventure through Hollywood as she frantically searches for her own celebrity pass: actor Jon Hamm. It’s very loosely spoofing The Wizard of Oz, and more generally satirizing Hollywood, but both take a back seat to joke-a-minute gags of all kinds, including a Mad Men reunion between Hamm and John Slattery. You’re either allergic to this type of comedy or find it hilarious. Rent or buy.
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Minions & Monsters: This $5 billion franchise for children didn’t have to make a feature-length love letter to making movies that’s as full of references from the silent era and the Golden Age of Hollywood as it is to more modern allusions like Spielberg movies and a literal George Lucas cameo, but I’m glad they did. The nods to George Méliès, Citizen Kane, Metropolis and the antics of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd may be lost on your toddlers, but film critics and, hopefully, parents at large should appreciate them. The Minions are now the kings of Hollywood, and they’re paying their respects! The third standalone Minions film, but seventh overall in the Despicable Me universe, tells the story of how the Minions conquered Hollywood, became movie stars, lost everything, unleashed monsters onto the world and then banded together to try to save the planet from the mayhem they had just created. It’s Babylon for babies; those yellow guys are Singin’ in the Rain! Rent or buy.
📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already haveThe biggest release: Don’t Say Good Luck
Why I liked it: As of late, Happy Madison Productions has morphed into a place for Adam Sandler’s children to make charming and thoughtful coming-of-age films for mass distribution on Netflix, and I find this to be a very positive development after years of middling straight-to-streaming Sandler comedies.
Following 2023’s You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah and Roommates from earlier this year, Don’t Say Good Luck is the most ambitious Daughter(s) of Sandler movie yet. It’s also a simple yet incredibly effective tearjerker about a relationship between a daughter and a mother navigating a tough situation.
Sophie Birenbaum (Sunny Sandler) is ready for the spotlight as the lead in her high school musical — until suddenly she’s living with even more drama at home when her mom’s (Melanie Lynskey) cancer comes back.
It’s a heartbreaking and honest work that resonated with me as someone who lost my own mother to cancer earlier this year. I found it to be a very real depiction of how people react in these situations — Sophie throws herself into the musical as a means of distracting herself, which her mom welcomes, because she doesn’t want her to worry about her — but the inevitable is inevitable, and both must face the music soon enough.
Don’t Say Good Luck is a moving slice-of-life film about the bond between a mother and child, the devastation of its being cut short and the lack of a right way to deal with it in the moment. Life goes on, though it’ll never be the same. And we have to learn to be OK with that.
What other critics are saying: They agree! The AV Club’s Monica Castillo writes, “By focusing on life and its messiness instead of looming death, Hart’s film earns the emotion other cancer dramas take for granted.” Los Angeles Times’ Mary McNamara writes, “Does Don’t Say Good Luck skirt around the grim realities of cancer as cavalierly as it paints a Pinterest mood-board vision of high school? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean the message and the feelings (yes, you absolutely will cry) are not just as authentic.”
How to watch: Don’t Say Good Luck is now streaming on Netflix.
Another option: Normal
Why I liked it: Bob Odenkirk continues his budding action hero trajectory with Normal, another film in which the actor takes down deserving bad guys. Unlike Nobody and its sequel, he’s just an everyday normal guy here, instead of some dude with a secret, violent badass backstory. It’s less John Wick and more, “What if Hot Fuzz took place in Fargo, and also Japanese Yakuza members are involved?”
In the film, Odenkirk plays the new sheriff of a small town in Minnesota who uncovers a dark secret while investigating a botched bank robbery. What makes the role interesting is that, as the character starts to discover something is wrong, he tries his hardest to keep his nose out of it and ignore it. But the bad news persists, and he must eventually go into action-hero mode.
The gunfights are well-staged, and the action is largely a lot of fun, a reminder that director Ben Wheatley’s best movie was 2016’s Free Fire, essentially a feature-length gun fight in a single location. Normal doesn’t quite reach those highs — it’s hard to beat an 85ish-minute movie in which 80 of those minutes are action — but it’s a fun enough twist on the relatively newly formulated “Bob Odenkirk kicks some ass” subgenre. Henry Winkler is in it too!
What other critics are saying: Reviews are pretty mixed. Katie Rife at IndieWire writes, “Like a firecracker with a long fuse, Normal builds up, burns fast, makes a big noise and then it’s gone.” The AP’s Jake Coyle adds, “Many of its twists aren’t hard to see coming, and the movie sometimes lacks the scale needed for a sprawling battle. But a mustachioed Odenkirk with a shotgun is, by most metrics, more than enough firepower for any movie.”
How to watch: Normal is now streaming on HBO Max.
But that’s not all …
Liz Atwater in Hellcat. (Shudder / Courtesy Everett Collection)
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Hellcat: This no-budget horror flick makes a lot out of a little. A woman wakes in the back of a moving camper trailer with a badly infected wound. A voice from the truck towing it tells her they must reach a doctor within the hour or she’ll suffer a horrific fate. Most of the fun comes from the slow reveal of exactly what is going on, and the single-location setup in a moving vehicle is a rather ingenious (and cost-effective!) way to keep things interesting. I don’t want to spoil what specific type of horror movie this turns out to be, but I found it entertaining, even if it’s ultimately too thrifty to show off the goods. Now streaming on Shudder.
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The Wizard of the Kremlin: In this disappointing snoozefest from acclaimed French director Olivier Assayas, a Russian filmmaker (Paul Dano) becomes an unlikely adviser to Vladimir Putin (Jude Law) as he rises to power in the early 1990s. Dano’s one-note monotone performance never clicks, and Jude Law doesn’t even attempt a Russian accent despite playing Putin. It plays less like a thriller and more like an incredibly dry stage play, full of endless, dense monologues. By the time it reaches its point about the modern age of digital propaganda we’re now living in, you’ll likely already be asleep. Now streaming on Hulu
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Busboys: Podcaster Theo Von joins comedian/actor David Spade in this independent film entirely written, produced and self-financed by its two stars, who put up $3 million of their own money. A pair of clueless friends see becoming waiters as the answer to all their problems, and hijinks ensue. Now streaming on Hulu.
That’s all for this week! We’ll see you next Friday.
Looking for more recs? Find your next watch on the Yahoo 100, our daily list of the most popular movies of the year. And for family-friendly picks, check out our kid-approved summer movie guide.