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Clockwise from top: Disclosure Day, The Furious, Alice and Steve, and Stop! That! Train!
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Everett Collection (Niko Tavernise/Universal, Norachai Kajchapanont/Lionsgate, Bleecker Street Media)
Two of culture’s greatest icons have new films this week: Steven Spielberg and RuPaul. Forget Barbenheimer. It’s Stop! That! Disclosure! Day! Aliens and stormaganzas are what theaters were made for. And also to revisit a lovesick Gael García Bernal and Timothée Chalamet dancing to the Psychedelic Furs.
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It’s hard to boil down what you’re going to get in Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day. It’s not a conventional summer blockbuster. There’s moving camerawork, a thrilling action set piece, and a John Williams score, sure, but it also has Spielberg’s flair for thought-provoking drama and sentimentality — more in line with The Fabelmans than Jurassic Park. Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt star as a pair trying to expose the secrets of extraterrestrial life.
➽ Bilge Ebiri called it “an astoundingly personal alien movie.”
This is a movie where the stupider it gets, the better. Its premise is absurd: Two stewardesses (Drag Race alums Jujubee and Ginger Minj) land a job on a speedrail train known as the Glamazonian Express but have to save everyone onboard from a brutal “stormaganza” that lies ahead. RuPaul plays the president here? If you’re looking to get a couple glasses of wine deep and have a fun time, this is the movie for you.
Rolin Jones, playwright and TVL showrunner, suggests The Great Beauty on HBO Max.
Rolin Jones.
Photo: Michael Kovac/Getty Images
“There were three muses that haunted the writing/producing of The Vampire Lestat: (1) Anne’s epic novel, (2) an afternoon visit to the Rothko Chapel in Houston, and (3) Paolo Sorrentino’s 2013 masterpiece The Great Beauty. The film is about a jovial man hitting his 65th year, taking stock of himself and the socialite’s life that has calcified him. It does all sorts of things network notes say you’re not supposed to do. It has a generally passive protagonist who lingers joyfully in the atmosphere of a plot that moves like a minnow, and yet I can’t think of a movie that feels more like life as I’ve experienced it — heightened and bruised with articulation just out of reach. Give your soul the defibrillator shot it needs and watch this movie now.”
Rebecca Hall is an incredible horror heroine, turning in phenomenally spooky and pained performances in The Night House and Resurrection. This is in the same mode: Hall plays a teacher who starts hearing a hum that no one else can. It’s probably not just tinnitus! Writer Jordan Tannahill adapts his own novel for the series, and Janicza Bravo (whose credits include Zola, Poker Face, and The Bear) directs. —Roxana Hadadi
The excellent Indonesian martial artist and actor Joe Taslim was utterly wasted in the Mortal Kombat sequel, so thank God he’s getting a chance to show off his skills alongside Mo Tse in this bruising Hong Kong action film about two men who take on a trafficking ring. —Alison Willmore
A sly dose of British comedy, this is six episodes of interpersonal entanglement and awkwardness. Created by Sex Education writer Sophie Goodhart, it stars Nicola Walker and Jemaine Clement as best friends who fall apart when Steve begins dating Alice’s daughter. —Kathryn VanArendonk
A prequel to brothers and co-creators Arturo and Roy Ambriz’s series Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, this vibrant stop-motion animated musical follows a young writer in 1800s Mexico as she’s pulled into a fantastical world.
Something to Skip
The Terror: Devil in Silver
The Terror’s first installment introduced an anthology series that explores how physical locations used for violent purposes can develop sentient evilness. A great idea, but each season since has gotten less spooky and more disappointingly literal. Devil in Silver is the least scary and most simplistic of all, a disorganized season that struggles within its anthology framing. Victor LaValle adapts his 2012 novel by diluting its bleak perspective on the health-care system in favor of a silly haunted-house puzzle box. Not even Dan Stevens doing a silly little New Yawk accent can save this. (Streaming on AMC Plus.) —Roxana Hadadi
Ahead of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film with Tom Cruise, Mubi is inviting people to watch his feature directorial debut, Amores Perros. Rereleased for its 25th anniversary, this drama highlights three tough-love stories connected to a car crash in Mexico City. It features Gael García Bernal in his first leading role as Octavio, who is in love with his brother’s wife, Susana (Vanessa Bauche).
➽ Before Timothée Chalamet was doing Kalshi ads, he was yearning across Italy in Call My by Your Name, playing again ahead of its tenth anniversary.
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Photo: Universal
Eleven years later, Difficult People is as sharp and absurd as ever — and maybe even fresher, now that we live in a timeline where not enough TV followed in its wake. The comedy from Julie Klausner and co-starring Billy Eichner about two weapons-grade haters and best friends trying to make it in show biz in New York had everything: Cole Escola playing a demon twink, a note-perfect Richard Kind, and relentless digs at the likes of Kevin Spacey. The show now has a long-deserved Blu-ray, with episode commentaries and (shameless plug) a Vulture Festival panel. It’s the perfect watch for those last weeks of Pride when exhaustion sets in and you need something that hits a high jokes-per-minute ratio. (Out June 16, pre-order available.) —Rebecca Alter
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