Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Everett Collection (A24, Brook Rushton/Columbia Pictures), Marni Grossman/Paramount+, Miley Cyrus via YouTube
After the high of Superman’s shiny optimism comes Ari Aster plunging us back into the anxieties of COVID lockdown with Eddington. There’s no precious and poorly behaved dog in a cape, just two poorly behaved men beefing over masks, but there will be some Letterboxd sickos enjoying it all the same. Or maybe check out the bigger vibe killer, the new Smurfs movie. We didn’t have the energy to list it here, but godspeed to our critic Alison Willmore, who saw it for her review. Not even a sentient book named “Jaunty Grimoire” could save that one. Let’s talk about the better stuff this weekend instead.
Featured Presentations
Eddington
Ari Aster’s films are usually unsettling, big swings, and they produce a number of big takes. Eddington is no different. As we are transported back to June 2020, Joaquin Phoenix stars as a mask-adverse sheriff, Joe Cross, a man at odds with the more liberal mayor of the town of Eddington (Pedro Pascal). Aster’s western-inspired flick brings together all the political, personal, online, and social anxieties COVID exacerbated in this searing black comedy. It doesn’t all totally work, but if Aster is your auteur of choice, buckle up.
In theaters now
Sorry, Baby
After premiering at Sundance, Eva Victor’s filmmaking debut is out wide in theaters. In Sorry, Baby, Victor (who also wrote and directed) leads the film as a professor named Agnes who tries to piece her life together after a sexual assault. Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, and Louis Cancelmi also star.
In theaters now
I Know What You Did Last Summer
“This I Know What You Did Last Summer is more egregious than most, especially since that hooded, hook-wielding fisherman remains such a promising monster, a figure straight out of a nightmare; there’s so much more that can be done with him. Over and over, though, the movie blows it.” (Read Ebiri’s full review here. In theaters now.)
➽ Jennifer Love Hewitt on returning to this franchise. And more on that ending …
The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3
YA Sabrina is back for its final season. Lola Tung stars as a girl inexplicably nicknamed Belly who is torn between two brothers, Conrad (Chirstopher Briney, the nü Aaron Samuels) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). Going into season three, Belly is officially with the latter brother, but this show has plenty of drama, so there’s definitely going to be some bumps and plenty of crying along the road.
Streaming on Prime Video
Untamed
This miniseries, from The Revenant and American Primeval writer Mark L. Smith, aims for the nuance of Outside magazine’s articles about the crimes that occur in our national parks system, with an eye to the balance between what makes our public lands beautiful and what makes them impossible to regulate. It doesn’t quite get there, but it’s worth watching for the series’ attempt to pretend that Vancouver is Yosemite. —Roxana Hadadi
Streaming on Netflix
Apocalypse in the Tropics
Petra Costa’s absorbing, harrowing documentary follows the rise of Evangelical Christianity in Brazil and the way it has been threaded into the country’s politics, leading to a catastrophic polarization that has played right into the hands of pious, cynical grifters. Sound familiar? —Bilge Ebiri
Streaming on Netflix
Genre Fare
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3
Despite the franchise-serving valence of its premise as a prequel to the original series, this has proved to be the best Star Trek show in ages. It returns for a new season, where it will hopefully continue its winning blend of being unabashedly fun and gloriously episodic. —Nicholas Quah
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Couch Concert
Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful
She’ll never go on tour, but we’ll take a movie, I guess. To pair with her new album of the same name, Miley Cyrus released a film of visuals à la Lemonade in theaters for one night. Now that film is streaming, and you might as well throw on the Hannah Montana: Best of Both Worlds concert movie afterward for a complete experience.
Streaming on Hulu
➽ Plus there’s part one of Billy Joel: And So It Goes on the newly redubbed HBO Max.
Double Feature
High Noon
Photo: YouTube
While there’s a lot of confusing politics in Ari Aster’s Eddington that seem destined to spark conversations, the controversial (in its day) politics of this celebrated 1952 western unfold in a straightforward, economically tense (as in, 85 minutes long) showdown between Gary Cooper’s lone justice-bound marshal and a gang of outlaws no one else is brave enough to stand up against.
➽ If you’re in the mood for more westerns, here are 50 we love.
Want more? Read our recommendations from the weekend of July 11.
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