Welcome to another edition of Trust Me, I Watch Everything, a weekly guide to all the new movies released on Friday. I’m Brett Arnold, film critic and host of At the Movies Again, a weekly Siskel & Ebert-style movie review show.
In theaters this week, after a prolonged, tumultuous journey from script to screen, is Michael, the controversial Michael Jackson biopic. Plus, a pair of lesser-known titles worth your time in Fuze and Desert Warrior.
At home, you can rent or buy the Rose Byrne-starring Tow. And on streaming services you’re likely already paying for, look for the Timothée Chalamet hit Marty Supreme and Apex, starring Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton.
Read on, as there’s a lot more, and there’s always something for everyone.
🎥 What to watch in theatersThe biggest release: Michael
Why you should skip it: Michael is, unfortunately, exactly what you’d expect from a Jackson family estate-approved film: a “shut up and play the hits”-style biopic that elides important details in service of being a good time for MJ fans. It’s a greatest-hits compilation, and those hoping to bop their heads and tap their toes to their favorite beats will leave the theater satisfied. Anybody looking for a more truthful film will be disappointed.
Michael is quietly insidious in the way it doesn’t touch the well-known child molestation allegations against the world’s most famous pop star while simultaneously laying it on thick by displaying his childlike eccentricities.
The film is loaded with sequences highlighting his love for exotic pets; his fixation with Disney, and Peter Pan specifically; and his tendencies to visit sick kids in hospitals, sign autographs and make innocent toy store purchases. So even though the allegations never come up in the movie, they loom over it in trying to explain away any possible behavior the audience may be aware of, as if to cut off the conversation before it starts. There are innocent explanations for everything you may have possibly ever heard!
Jaafar Jackson, though, is incredible and uncanny in the role. He completely embodies his pop star uncle Michael and deserves praise for his performance and the physicality required to pull off dance moves impossible for anyone but MJ and his most impressive impersonators. At the same time, the film itself perpetuates anew the toxic Jackson family legacy it depicts and criticizes onscreen by keeping the Jackson family money train rolling despite everything we know about the situation.
Michael undeniably works in the musical moments — the music is simply undeniable, and Jaafar absolutely nails the role. It’s too bad that director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan crafted a non-narrative and then ended the thing before the singer faced any actual adversity.
Biopics generally depict the rise and fall of an artist. This one is all rise, and then it ends at the 1988 Bad tour, as onscreen text assures us that “His Story Continues” — a confusing way to announce to viewers that the incomplete movie they just watched is part 1 of 2.
This could help explain why nothing untoward is featured in the film — maybe they’re saving all the seedy stuff for the sequel — but those aware of the film’s production history know the real reason for the split is a contract issue, which stated that some of Jackson’s alleged victims were never to be featured in any movies about his life. This led to a scrapped third act, a 22-day reshoot and the removal of allegations against him, period. (Worth noting: That version of the script depicted the pop star as innocent and the victims as money-grubbers.)
Michael is a compromised hagiography that gives fans of one of the world’s most famous and popular musicians a good time. But it doesn’t just ignore the elephant in the room; it actively tries to justify why the elephant is in the room in the first place and let the audience know it’s totally not weird that the elephant is there. That won’t stop it from becoming a smash hit that will have fans dancing in the aisles.
What other critics are saying: Reviews are brutal. The AP’s Jake Coyle writes, “The nostalgia of Michael is for more than Michael Jackson. But blindly believing only in that celebrity, in that fantasy, is repeating a sad history all over again.” Amy Nicholson at the Los Angeles Times, however, liked it, writing, “Suffocating nepotism might be the only way for now to capture someone as singularly strange as Jackson — if Jaafar delivered a line reading that wasn’t note perfect, it’s likely that someone in his clan would pipe up and say so.”
How to watch: Michael is now playing in theaters nationwide.
What to see instead: Desert Warrior
Why you should see it: When you think of seventh-century Arabia, surely your mind immediately goes to Anthony Mackie and Sharlto Copley, right?
If you’re able to put aside the inherent absurdity of the casting, Desert Warrior is actually far more competent than it sounds on paper, mostly thanks to esteemed director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), who imbues the action with life and fills the movie with gorgeous desert images.
It’s a $150 million Saudi-backed film, and the money is, in fact, on the screen. The poster and title may lead you to believe that Mackie is the titular desert warrior, but the movie is actually smarter than that and has a real plot that actually makes sense.
In the film, Princess Hind (Aiysha Hart, the real desert warrior here) defies her fate, refusing to become a concubine to the ruthless Emperor Kisra (Sir Ben Kingsley). Fleeing into the desert with her father, she is hunted by a merciless army and forced to trust a legendary bandit (Mackie) with secrets of his own. Rising from fugitive to fearless warrior, Hind unites warring tribes for a final battle that will change history forever.
Desert Warrior makes the absolute most of on-location filming in exotic locales; it’s beautifully photographed throughout, and the set pieces are all exciting and well put together. Surely many liberties have been taken in adapting this slice of history into an action film, but in the process, Saudi Arabia proves it can make a big-budget spectacle that largely stands up to the best Hollywood has to offer. (Largely because Hollywood doesn’t even try to make historical epics anymore.)
What other critics are saying: They were not as kind as myself. The AV Club’s Monica Castillo writes, “While the story onscreen is dull and the performances uninspired, it’s the story around Desert Warrior that solidifies it as a strange chapter in a country’s self-promotional history.”
How to watch: Desert Warrior is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Another solid option: Fuze
Why you should see it: The plot of Fuze is simple yet also more complex than it appears at first glance.
It’s a tense, ticking-clock thriller about an unexploded WWII bomb that is discovered on a busy construction site in the middle of London. Chaos ensues as the military and police begin a mass evacuation, and the true nature of the situation gets revealed. Now it’s a heist movie!
It’s an incredibly efficient and propulsive flick that keeps you invested as more complications are revealed. Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as the guy defusing the bomb, and Sam Worthington and Theo James show up as the criminals committing a robbery, using the bomb situation as cover.
It’s directed by David Mackenzie, who was behind the Taylor Sheridan-penned Hell or High Water. The cross-cutting and editing here really keep things moving along; it’s a brass-tacks genre exercise and nothing more, but it succeeds within those parameters.
What other critics are saying: They like it! Amy Nicholson at the Los Angeles Times writes, “While the outro feels tacked on, upon reflection, it’s the missing piece that transforms the movie from a puzzle into a proclamation on group cohesion. Only afterward does it hit us that Mackenzie has really made a thriller about trust.” TheWrap’s Drew Taylor dubs it “all killer, no filler.”
How to watch: Fuze is now playing in theaters nationwide.
But that’s not all…
Samara Weaving and Jason Segel on the poster for Over Your Dead Body. (Courtesy of IFC Films/Everett Collection)
Over Your Dead Body: This off-putting action comedy is far more violent and lighter on laughs than you’re expecting. Jason Segel and Samara Weaving star as a dysfunctional couple that heads to a remote cabin to “reconnect,” but each has secret intentions to kill the other. Imagine if The War of the Roses, remade just last year as The Roses, got incredibly gory and violent, and you’ve basically got the gist. The movie’s plotting gets increasingly over-the-top as it goes, and there’s a single scene that puts a bad taste in your mouth that never goes away. Get tickets.
💸 Movies newly available to rent or buyMy recommendation: Tow
Why you should see it: Fresh off an Oscar nomination for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Rose Byrne returns in a tragic yet good-spirited film based on a true story.
Here, Byrne plays a woman living in her Toyota Camry on the streets of Seattle. When her car is stolen and impounded, she is thrust into a relentless legal battle against an indifferent bureaucratic system. It’s a social realist drama that empathizes with the struggle of those just barely hanging on, illustrating how a simple problem can easily cascade into a nightmare if you don’t have the money to fix it.
It’s not as gloomy as it sounds, though, finding plenty of moments of levity alongside the frustration. Byrne is great, as always, and the supporting cast sports a deeper bench than you’d expect. It’s as if Erin Brockovich were about a woman fighting to beat the system solely for herself.
What other critics are saying: They dig it! Variety’s Owen Gleiberman calls it “a minor indie that doesn’t always make the right moves, but Byrne seizes her character and turns the question of whether you like her or not into the film’s dramatic motor.” Christian Zilko at IndieWire writes that it “comes dangerously close to being crass poverty porn. But even with those narrative shortcomings, it’s hard to dispute that the film has good intentions.”
How to watch: Tow is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already haveMy recommendation: Marty Supreme
Why you should watch it: The Safdie brothers may have split up, but Marty Supreme proves that the secret sauce fueling the duo’s energy all along must be collaborator/editor Ronald Bronstein.
This film, from a solo Josh Safdie, slots perfectly into Uncut Gems and Good Time as a sort of trilogy capper on the type of self-absorbed character the brothers love to put at the center of their films.
In 1950s New York, Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness. Timothée Chalamet stars as Marty, a ping-pong player who knows he’s the best at it and won’t let anything stand in the way of him realizing that dream on the grandest stage possible.
Marty Supreme is essentially a one-man show, though it also boasts a remarkable ensemble surrounding that character. It’s the most Mab Libs-ian supporting cast ever assembled: Gwyneth Paltrow’s first role in six years, and relative newcomer/daughter-of-Pamela-Adlon Odessa A’zion are the most notable, alongside billionaire investor and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, rapper Tyler, the Creator, magician Penn Jillette, legendary New York filmmaker Abel Ferrara and even The Nanny star and former SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher.
Josh Safdie’s affinity for stacking his movies with nonactors alongside real ones pays off big here; the craziest part is that they’re all unbelievably good — especially O’Leary, who has a big part, and Paltrow, who is absolutely sensational as a 1930s-era movie star. There’s also a meta quality to the marketing campaign and the way Chalamet has carried himself in public over the past year that makes you wonder whether he’s imitating the character, or whether the character was written as a reflection of its star. When he won an award for playing Bob Dylan and earnestly admitted he wanted to be “one of the greats,” did he mean that, or was he emulating Marty? Or was Marty written for Chalamet because this is how he is? It’s an interesting question!
The filmmaking itself feels like another star right alongside Chalamet, as the constantly-in-motion camera, incredibly loud and anachronistic ’80s synth-pop score, and frantic editing synthesize into something akin to a roller-coaster ride. If you dug the other Safdie-Bronstein films Uncut Gems and Good Time, you’ll love this one. If you found those stressful and unappealing, you might feel similarly here, though the sports angle and the small differences in the character do make Marty Supreme feel a bit more mainstream and less off-putting.
Marty Supreme is an exhilarating, electric movie about the pursuit of greatness and the type of person that it takes to achieve it.
What other critics are saying: It was nominated for Oscars! David Fear at Rolling Stone writes, “You have to be a hustler to make movies like this in the age of AI and IP, even ones with genuine movie stars in them. It’s in Safdie’s DNA as much as Marty’s. Both end up champions in their own way, and we’re the ones who end up winning.” As the Daily Beast’s Nick Schager eloquently put it, it’s a “150-minute-long heart attack of a film in which its protagonist, repeatedly and dangerously, crashes out and is narrowly revived.”
How to watch: Marty Supreme is now streaming on HBO Max.
But that’s not all…
Lee Byung-hun in No Other Choice. (Courtesy of Neon/Everett Collection)
(Courtesy Everett Collection)
No Other Choice: There’s simply no other director using the camera and doing editing tricks quite like Park Chan Wook, whose latest film feels incredibly of the moment despite being based on a book from the ’90s. It’s about a man who’s abruptly laid off after 25 years with the same company and the extreme, violent lengths he takes to eliminate the competition for the new job he wants. It’s an extremely dark satire that makes you laugh and cry, sometimes within the same sequence. There’s a careful tonal balancing act, with casually astonishing transitions and camera movements throughout. Now streaming on Hulu.
Apex: This straight-to-streaming “world’s most dangerous game”-style thriller pits Charlize Theron against a terrifically menacing Taron Egerton. Theron plays a grieving woman seeking solace in the wilderness who becomes ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a serial killer (Egerton). It’s repetitive and boring, squandering its intense-sounding premise and spending most of its runtime having characters talk aloud about their motivations. Disappointing! Now streaming on Netflix.
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 list of the most popular movies of the year.