Coyote vs. Acme is the little engine that could. The internet willed it back into existence and was finally released. Bringing in $15M over the weekend and getting a 7.7 IMDb score. Will, Claire C., Pandawithwingsx, and Mac F. had this 5-point pickup and turned it into 22 points on the first weekend.

The other movie last week was The Dog Stars which grossed $19M worldwide and only a 6.5 on IMDb. TheDeliReview had this pick and gained 10 points off of it. I’m so happy I never have to see these ads again.

One last check on Spidey watch, Spider-Man: Brand New Day in its fifth weekend, pulled another $66M globally and is now at $2.33B. It’s the third all-time grossing movie ever. It’s funny that my initial estimations were off by a billion.

One other movie I want to mention is The Odyssey. This is the only movie in the league that was able to fully max out on its 60 points. It’s currently at $1.55B and still going thanks to IMAX.

Now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The 2026 Summer league winner is WIll with 198 points. Claire C. jumps up into second place at 173 points and Nat falls to third place at 165 points. I realize it’s kinda awkward to be handing myself the trophy here hehe.

Will was able to win the league under his two big movies Spider-Man’s 49 points and Minions 28 points. I guess the Minions didn’t do so bad afterall but it definitely made it more stressful. His other 4 movies: The Sheep Detectives, Obsession, Backrooms, and Coyote vs. Acme had a combined 114 points to seal the win.

Claire went with the quantity strategy (if that was intentional or not) and drafted 9 movies that were able to claw its way up into second place by the last week of the season.

DestroVega was in first place for all of June prior to Nat taking over in July for the next six weeks in a row.

So technically scoring goes for another 30 days but I’m going to call it official now and here’s why. The gap between first and second place is 25 points and they both share three of the same movies. Four of her six other movies are no longer scoring any points to make up that gap.

Thank you for indulging me every week in this game I put together as a way to bring some fun and conversations to our new group. The trash talk we get to have every week is a lot of fun and the kind words that people have messaged me saying how much they enjoyed this and want to get in on this the next go around means a lot.

I know Violet has been anxiously waiting on the sidelines to finally join in on the fun. I’ve already heard her trash talking that we all should be afraid. We shall see about that haha. Fear not Film Friends, the league will be back for the Fall season and will start on October 1st. Signups will begin on September 8th. We have 34 new movies on the list. Can’t wait for the new wave of players to come aboard. Full details will also be released on the 8th.

One final time, check out the final standings.

Film Friends Fantasy League (FFL) is a fantasy sports-style league where members of the community draft a roster of films and score points based on box office and audience review scores. New seasons launch several times a year. Rules and signup info will be in the Film Friends Discord and website.

We have officially entered our SIXTH month of film friends (also the best month of the year): SEPTEMEBER. Despite there being a massive heat wave in Chicago, it is time for cozy sweaters, pumpkin spice, and crunchy leaves. September is also National Suicide Prevention Month, a topic that holds very near and dear to my heart. So, with all that being said, let’s dive into September.

September Movie + Discussion Date

September’s crispy fall pick is Dead Poet’s Society, a film that has been on my personal watchlist for years, and I am so excited we get to watch it together. Our monthly meeting will take place September 29th, 2026 at 6:30 pm CT. You can register for the call here. The meetings are scheduled for two hours, so please pop in and out of the call as much as you may need, you don’t have to stay on the entire time, and you also don’t have to arrive on time. As always, cameras are optional and you can call in on your phone. You also do not have to say anything insightful, or groundbreaking to participate in the conversation, I know I never do haha, this is a safe space to ask questions, talk through thoughts, or maybe just point out what you liked or didn’t like about the film. Lastly, if you’re interested in just listening, rather than participating, you can still join!

Snail Mail Deadline

As of June, we have changed some things in our snail mail system. If you would like to receive our movie announcements via snail mail, then please sign up for the paid substack subscription (linked here, 5$ a month). Once we have your subscription, we will send a follow up email gathering your information to send your snail mail too. If paying 5$ of month for mail does not serve you, fear not! We are keeping your addresses on file; there may be a chance on of these months you’ll be randomly selected to receive a free piece of snail mail. If you would like to receive snail mail beginning in October, please subscribe by September 20th. We do our best to get through as many people as possible, but anything after the deadline can’t be promised until the following month. Thank you for supporting film friends!

Merch Preorders Are Live!

You ask and you shall receive, film friends officially has merch! You can preorder on our website. Preorders will be up until the end of September, and orders will begin shipping out on the last week of September. More info on merch here.

Trevor’s Trivia + Yap Session

I know you missed him last month, but do not fret! Trevor is BACK with trivia this month on September 23rd, 7 pm CT. You can register for trivia here. You can join via zoom but play a kahoot style game through your phone! Trivia is usually only about 30 minutes long, so post trivia, if you’d like to stay and yap movies, we’ll keep the space open for a post trivia movie yap!

Biweekly Movie Chat

This chat is an opportunity to meet some of your film friends face to face, or camera to camera, and yap all things movies! New releases, old releases, movie recs, and everything in between! It super casual and mostly, just a really good time. Our second movie yap of the month will take place September 9th, at 7 pm CT. You can register for our yap here.

Watch Party

This month we will have a surprise discord watch-a-long party. You can join us on the discord here. If you do not have or use discord, please let us know, maybe we can set up a teleparty or something of that sort :) Our watch party will take place September 14th, 2026, 7 PM CT, and will accompany our movie of the month. You’ll have to tap in to find out what movie we’ll be watching!

Alternative Poster Challenge

If you are a film friend who loves art or graphic design, this is your chance to shine! After you watch the movie of the month, you will have until the 28th of the month to create an alternative movie poster. Once all the posters have been submitted, we will post the posters (anonymously) for everyone to vote on. Winner will receive a 4k physical disc (subject to availability) sent to their home. Please send submissions to filmfriendsadmin@gmail.com. This might be the last month we offer this challenge, so submit while you still can!

Film Friends Game Night

Some of y’all over on this discord have already taken this into your own hands (which we LOVE), but if you are interested in hanging out with other friends of film and video games, we are hosting an Among Us game night on the 16th. More info to come on this one <3

Film Friends Offerings

film friends is meant to be very community based, and with that, we have a couple of our friends of film that wanted to offer some other ways to be involved in our community:

Nat brings us the Criterion Challenge: each week, Nat spins the wheel to determine the weekly movie. After watching the weekly movie, enter your submission into the Google Form. Whoever watches the most movies will be the winner of a $200 Criterion gift card. (It’s never too late to enter! If you watch 11 of these films, you are entered to win another Criterion Gift Card!)

Will offers the film friends fantasy league, with a twist! Each player gets 100 points to draft a roster of movies during the summer season, with no limit on how many films they pick. Points are earned from two categories: worldwide box office gross and IMDb rating. Whoever racks up the most points by the end of the season wins. If you missed registration for the summer, do not worry. The time to register for the fall league is so soon! Keep your eyes peeled.

quinn offers the indie corner. Each month, quinn will select an indie movie to complement our monthly movie, to highlight under-seen and underrated indie gems. The indie corner is currently on pause, but will be back up and running very soon <3

We see + hear you, more meet ups are coming soon. In full transparency, our next one may not happen until 2027 because of the scale of the meetup - but we are working tirelessly and we promise we are hearing you!

Film Friends Resources

We know we have a million ways of communicating with one another, and a big part of this is because we want this to be accessible as possible. So here are all the ways you can find us:

Trevor made a website! You can find everything you need to know about each month at this link. Substack will always be the first to know, and all announcements and EYNTK will always be updated here. We also have a chat feature in Substack, so please utilize the feature to talk to other cinepals! If you’re interested in connecting with fellow film friends a bit deeper, you can join our discord chat. (You do not need to be a part of the discord, this is mostly for a deeper connection to the community <3). However, the discord chat is very active and very versatile. We officially have an Instagram! You can also find film friends updates through cinemastardust on tiktok.

If you have a suggestion, comments, concern, etc, please do not DM us. We want to make sure we see your messages, and sometimes your DMs do not come all the way through. Please email us at the film friends gmail so we can assist you accordingly.

Get to Know Your Admin Team

We have had so many new friends join recently and we are so honored! If you are just learning about film friends, we’d love to connect with you! Get to know us through the following:

Get to know Violet: Tiktok | ’s Podcast Episode

Get to know Trevor: TikTok | Instagram | ’s Podcast Episode | Youtube

Get to know Ali: Tiktok | Instagram

HOUSEKEEPING + REMINDERS

A couple of housekeeping things + reminders <3 These things go for Substack + Discord.

• We love + want to support your content! However, at the end of the day film friends is a space for film lovers to connect over movies. You are welcome to share up to TWO pieces of your own content / media a month, BUT ONLY, if you are willing to check out another person’s content. This is how community is built.

• We do not tolerate hatred of any kind. You will be removed from this group if we find that your words are unkind and/or harmful. This is meant to be a safe space, and we intend to keep it that way.

• If public handles (letterboxd, insta, etc) are shared with you, we love that! However, we do ask that you respect everyone’s privacy and only follow the handles that are shared.

• Reminder that we run all of this ourselves and by hand. The film friends admin team does our best to keep up, however, a reminder that we are only human and have full-time jobs, so sometimes we take a little longer to respond - we do our best though!

Do you have something you would like to bring to film friends? We would love to have you! Submit any and all ideas at filmfriendsadmin@gmail.com

thank you so much for being here and supporting us, and each other. we are forever grateful for you.

We will see you at the movies!

All of this is to say that, much like fall movies, the September new releases are slim pickings.

24. Dark Hollow & Don’t Move

Dir. Daniel Byers & Maclain Nelson

I’ve chosen to shrink these rankings down to only include major/high-profile releases after I went a little overboard and ranked every single movie last month, even though I don’t think half of them were even available to watch. But I’d be remiss if I did not point out that these movies have the exact same poster. (Don’t Move also stars Russ, and if that doesn’t scare you, it should.)3

Excitement Ranking: 2/100 & -1/100

23. The Girl in the River

Dir. Brando Benetton

Same as above. I just have to share the poster for The Girl in the River. What were they thinking? “Hey everyone, just look to your right, it’s gonna make an awesome poster!!” It did not. It made a bad poster.

Excitement Ranking: 3/100

22. The Deputy

Dir. Matt Sukkar

Again, I have no interest in this movie but the poster? How is it possible that two times this month we got posters (also, both with Tiffany Haddish) of some sort of law enforcement officers looking off to the right? It’s confounding. What could possibly be over there?

Excitement Ranking: 4/100

21. The Runner

Dir. Kevin Macdonald

Gal Gadot on Amazon Prime and she’s running. This seems like a Saw situation. She’s trapped in a scenario where if she stops running, someone close to her dies. To any of my loved ones, if you get kidnapped and the only barrier between your life and death is my ability to keep running, may god rest your soul. Please know that I loved you.

Excitement Ranking: 5/100

20. The Fix

Dir. Guy Moshe

Here’s the first sentence of the synopsis for this one: “The Fix follows a group of war-torn CIA operators mentored by “Larry” (Liam Neeson) and led by “Tucker” (Zachary Levi)...” [insert video of the Laura Palmer scream]

Excitement Ranking: 10/100

19. Runner

Dir. Scott Waugh

Not to be confused with The Runner (see #21 above), this movie stars Alan Ritchson as a guy running. Easy enough to remember the difference. And if you later are thinking to yourself, “Was The Runner on Amazon Prime or Runner? Oh duh, probably the one with Alan Ritchson since Reacher is the Amazon Prime king,” you’re wrong. The Runner is on Amazon Prime, the one with Gal Gadot. Runner, the one with Alan Ritchson, is apparently coming to theaters. It also stars Owen Wilson and is made by Angel Studios. Are those good things or bad things? There’s really no way to tell anymore.

Excitement Ranking: 11/100

18. Fall 2: Deadpoint

The Spierig Brothers

The sequel to 2022’s Fall. Are these the same characters from the first? That would be crazy. If you go through one Fall scenario, why in the name of whoever you worship would you ever climb something again?

Points for Fall being a “fall movie,” though. They should’ve leaned into that marketing. Once this article hits the Substack, the movie producers will probably read it and think “dammit, we should’ve leaned into that marketing.” And I’ll say, “Sorry, should’ve contacted me sooner. Now your movie comes out soon, and you won’t be able to use that idea. Also, it’s in print on what was once #3 in the ‘Rising in Film & TV’ Substack category, so it’s very official, and I will sue you for copyright infringement.” (This is my master plan to fund Film Friends).

Excitement Ranking: 21/100

17. Mayday

Dir. John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein

Wow, an action buddy-comedy starring Ryan Reynolds! I sure wonder what his character will be like? A quippy, sarcastic but loveable douchebag?? No way!! What a change of pace for him!4

Excitement Ranking: 34/100

16. By Any Means

Dir. Elegance Bratton

This is a complicated one for me. It stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. I adore Yahya Abdul-Mateen II5. Unfortunately, it co-stars Mark Wahlberg. The world was done with Mark Wahlberg somewhere between the release of Ted and Ted 2. And yet, here I am, still forced to see Mark Wahlberg on my screen at a very consistent pace.

Excitement Ranking: 36/100

15. Heart of the Beast

Dir. David Ayer

After Marley & Me, it seems Hollywood put out a requirement that at least one sad dog movie must come out each year. But in some sick twist of fate, that has now skewed from being movies about nice, family dogs to movies where the dog is paired with some lonely guy, typically played by an A-List actor. Dog starring Channing Tatum. Arthur the King starring Mark Wahlberg. Togo starring Willem Dafoe. The Call of the Wild starring Harrison Ford. Max, which doesn’t star an A-Lister, but the dog fought in Afghanistan, so I guess war is the A-Lister there. And now we add Heart of the Beast with Brad Pitt. It’s also directed by David Ayer, who kindly took a break from making Jason Statham movies and trying to convince everyone there’s a better version of Suicide Squad out there to make this.

Excitement Ranking: 37/100

14. The Stunt Driver

Dir. Michael Dowse

Where are we at with Jay Baruchel these days? It’s over, right? They really tried to make Jay Baruchel a thing for a few years there.

Excitement Ranking: 41/100

13. Charlie Harper

Dir. Tom Dean & Mac Eldridge

I’ve seen this trailer a handful of times now, and I still have no idea what’s going on. I kinda feel like one of these characters is dead. Or maybe that was already in the trailer, and I’m pretending like I had some deep analysis. That or the name Charlie Harper reminds me too much of Charlie St. Cloud, the 2010 Zac Efron movie where he can see ghosts and stuff. Have y’all seen that? Not that great. But if Charlie Harper isn’t a ghost movie, then it’s just Marriage Story but for people in their early-20s. But I don’t think they’re married, and they certainly don’t have kids, so there’s actually no stakes to whether they break up or not.

Excitement Ranking: 46/100

12. Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass

Dir. Gang Zhang

If you thought I didn’t watch Tom and Jerry upon its release in 2021, you’re sorely mistaken. Therefore, I will show this movie the same respect and dignity. I’m not even a huge Tom and Jerry fan, it's just the principle of the matter. I can’t be the dumb goof that I am and not have love in my heart for Tom and Jerry.

Excitement Ranking: 55/100

11. Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!

Dir. Josef Kubota Wladyka

I have a weird thing where I really don’t like musicals, but I love a good dance sequence. Killer choreography is the only beacon of light for me during a musical. Maybe that’s why I didn’t like Wicked. They were just singing in empty fields in that movie. Great voice, Elphaba, but maybe hit the dougie or something while you’re doing it. This movie is all dance and no singing. That’s a thumbs up from me.

Excitement Ranking: 63/100

10. Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom

Dir. Steven Cox & Matthew Walker

Shaun is the GOAT. Aardman Animations is the GOAT. GOAT x GOAT.

Excitement Ranking: 71/100

9. Onslaught

Dir. Adam Wingard

I just like Adria Arjona, there’s really not that much more to say. And this feels like a nice table setter for her action star turn in The Thomas Crown Affair and Man of Tomorrow next year.

Excitement Ranking: 75/100

8. The Weight

Dir. Padraic McKinley

Ethan Hawke being a drug mule for Russell Crowe, but instead of drugs it’s gold, and instead of wherever you transport drugs from, it’s the Oregon wilderness, and instead of making money from muling, he’s reducing his prison sentence, and instead of police checkpoints that you have to get through, it’s a long rickety foot bridge.

Excitement Ranking: 77/100

7. Bad Apples

Dir. Jonatan Etzler

Remember when Saoirse Ronan showed up and was like “hey everyone, I’m the best actor ever now” and we were all like “yay!!” but then she was like “wait nvm jk, I’m still the best actor but I’m only gonna do movies you can see in like one theater on a specific day” and we were like “awww :(.” Well, that continues again with Bad Apples where she plays a teacher and one of her students is a real ding-dong and ruins the vibes.

Excitement Ranking: 83/100

6. Forgotten Island

Dir. Joel Crawford & Januel Mercado

I think there’s a small hate campaign brewing over this movie because its trailer has epic bacon humor. But I am a man who does not let the musings of random people on social media deter me. Also, DreamWorks only makes bangers (for the most part).

Excitement Ranking: 85/100

5. Practical Magic 2

Dir. Susanne Bier

I saw Practical Magic for the first time last year at a sold-out showing in a huge theater at a local museum. The vibes were at an all-time high. The people were loving it. But as we have learned many a time over, the nostalgia sequel never lives up. And typically, it only works to hurt the original. And as much as I enjoyed Game of Thrones, as much as I enjoyed Ramona and Beezus6, Maisie Williams and Joey King do not have the cultural cachet that Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman did have and still have.

Excitement Ranking: 87/100

4. The Uprising

Dir. Paul Greengrass7

Andrew Garfield!! And he’s leading an uprising against a tyrannical leader in the 14th century!! Buddy, get yourself a time machine, we could use your help now!! It’s also the first of four Focus Features movies you can watch the rest of the year that’ll get you a nifty $100 gift card.

Excitement Ranking: 89/100

3. Hope

Dir. Na Hong-jin

The Korean monster movie that set the Cannes Film Festival on fire this year. Monster movies are cool. Apparently the VFX aren’t amazing in this one, but who cares?? It’s a monster. We don’t know what it would look like in real life. A real-life monster could look like a PS2 character. There’s literally no way for us to know until it happens. Schrödinger’s monster. And imagine it does happen and the monster does look like its unrendered CGI? Egg on everyone’s faces who said this had bad VFX. And I don’t want egg on my face.

Excitement Ranking: 92/100

2. Resident Evil

Dir. Zach Cregger

In my most recent rewatch of Weapons, I noted that Austin Abrams has the juice. A Chalamet-type energy, if I may say. The problem with Austin Abrams, and the reason he has not yet had a Chalamet-type career, is branding. Austin Abrams first broke out in Euphoria. Which you’d think would be good since Euphoria produced some huge stars. The problem is, he played a big loser in it. So we all just thought he was a big loser. Also, his name is Austin Abrams. Compare that to something like Timothée Chalamet. Whose name do you wanna see on the marquee? You could probably meet an Austin Abrams in every small town in the Midwest. But there’s only one Timothée Chalamet. That’s just a free tip from me to Austin.

What was I even supposed to be talking about? Uhh, Resident Evil looks cool, Zach Cregger rocks. I’ve never seen any of the other Resident Evil films or played the games, so I’m going in totally blind, which seems like the correct move.

Excitement Ranking: 95/100

1. Primetime

Dir. Lance Oppenheim

This is it, baby!! The Pattinson Heater continues. This guy can’t make a bad movie. He hasn’t been in an outright stinker this century. That’s right, I’m including Mickey 17 in that list. I loved Mickey 17. You all let it fail, but not me. I was there. And I’ll be there again for this. I really am hoping this is the psychological investigation it’s setting itself up to be. I’ve long been a truther about the problems with true crime as a tentpole of media. I liked Serial as much as the next guy, but I just think we went too far when we started getting Ross Lynch as hot Jeffrey Dahmer.

Excitement Ranking: 99/100

All of these opinions are solely those of Trevor and do not reflect the feelings of Film Friends. Sorry about dissing Russ really early on. He did have that one good song back in 2016. You can find more of Trevor’s rambling at TheDeliReview on TikTok, Instagram, Letterboxd, and YouTube.

All images provided by themoviedb.org.

What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to the written version of videos I publish every Friday, highlighting what is new to the cinemas and can now be viewed in your home on a standard video on demand service. I don’t include paid video on demand, so keep that in mind. So without further ado, dim the lights and roll the reel.

In Theaters:

Coyote vs. Acme

The Big One this Weekend

Not the big one because it might not have the biggest box office take, but because of the journey it took to even make it to cinemas. Warner Bros. head David Zaslav was a horrible exec, but his biggest gaffe in my opinion was his handling of the entire Looney Tunes IP. He pulled the cartoons off of HBO Max, gave Ketchup Studios The Day the Earth Blew Up, and shelved this movie for a tax write-off. It’s like if someone bought Disney and just abandoned anything related to Mickey Mouse. Fortunately, they made a deal to let Ketchup Studios finally release this in theaters, and most people think it’s pretty great, myself included. If you are a Looney Tunes fan, you will absolutely love this. The only silver lining to Paramount buying Warner would be that they love franchise content and would definitely treat Looney Tunes much differently.

The Dog Stars

Director Ridley Scott is 88-years old and doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. The quality of his recent films are hit (The Last Duel) or miss (House of Gucci), but he still possesses the ability to craft something great. Jacob Elordi stars as Hig, a pilot who survives a virus that wipes out most of humanity but who also lost his wife in the process. A very strong supporting cast features Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce and Allison Janney, among others.

Buddy

If you’re of a certain age, you definitely saw the Adult Swim video Too Many Cooks, a tremendously bizarre eleven minutes that opens as a 1980s sitcom that slowly twists into a violent, looping nightmare of endless television genres. It should come as no surprise that the writer/director of the viral short’s debut film is a horror/comedy about a kid who must escape a television show titled It’s Buddy!, hosted by a bright orange humanoid unicorn who lives in a wacky clubhouse. Adult Swim fans should eat this up.

Colony

Ten years ago, director Yeon Sang-ho released Train to Busan, an acclaimed spin on the classic zombie movie. He eventually followed that up with the sequel Peninsula and now comes the prequel Colony, which shows the virus get released and the outbreak spreading. I haven’t yet caught up with Train to Busan (Hooptober candidate), but I’m sure there’s a sizable audience for this one.

It Ends

When Letterboxd opened its Video Store service that highlighted movies that struggled to find distribution, one of the first selections was It Ends. Now the micro-indie gets a wide release by Neon about 18 months after debuting at South by Southwest. It features a cast of relatively unknowns, but word of mouth is pretty strong.

Idiots

I’m a pretty big fan of writer/director Macon Blair, he makes some wildly different films, including the very fun remake of The Toxic Avenger. His follow-up is this comedy which had the much better, but much harder to market, title Shitheads when it debuted at festivals. This features Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. as a pair of losers who have a very simple task to perform but can’t even do that right. The cast also includes rapper Killer Mike and Kiernan Shipka, sign me up.

Finding Emily

A hopeless romantic musician gets the phone number from the girl of his dreams, only to find out it’s the wrong number. He teams with a driven psychology student to find her, which kicks off a wild cross-campus scavenger hunt. This was released in the UK earlier this year and got a positive reaction. There’s always room for another romcom.

Beyond Belief

An aspiring teenage rock star trains for a marathon after hearing a mysterious voice. This seems like a faith-based film, and clearly there is a market for them. I don’t recognize anyone involved in this one.

On Streaming:

I gotta be honest, this is probably the smallest selection of streaming titles in any single weekend since I’ve been doing this for over two years.

The Last Sunrise

Amazon Prime Video

A young American woman with health challenges takes an island vacation to Majorca, where she finds unexpected romance with a local man. She then must choose to follow her own desires, or her family obligations and her planned return home. This does have Eva Longoria in it, who I haven’t seen on screen in quite a long time.

The Whisper Man

Netflix

A grieving father and his young son relocate to a quiet town that was terrorized by a serial killer called The Whisper Man fifteen years earlier. The boy is abducted, and the father then connects with a retired detective who worked on the case years ago. Features a pretty solid cast including Robert DeNiro, Adam Scott, Michael Keaton, and Michelle Monaghan.

Desert Warrior

Hulu

Rupert Wyatt, who previously directed the very strong Rise of the Planet of the Apes, returns with this desert action film about an honorable and mysterious rogue, known as Hanzala. He makes himself an enemy of the Emperor Kisra after he helps a fugitive king and princess in the desert. Anthony Mackie plays the titular warrior, and Sir Ben Kingsley plays the Emperor. Unfortunately, reviews aren’t glowing, to say the least.

And that’s it for this weekend. For more in-depth reviews on some of these movies and many others, follow me @DestroVega on Letterboxd or on just about any social media platform. You can also check out my podcast Wild Card Cinema on YouTube.

First up is Insidious: Out of the Further which not gonna lie had a respectable worldwide opening gross of $60M. I’ve heard scenes about this one that definitely makes me say no thank you.

The other new movie was Mutiny, the Jason Statham action flick which isn’t too different from his movie earlier in the year. Instead of being a former British government assassin being chased through Scotland, he’s a former British special forces soldier chasing after bad guys on a ship. This one didn’t fare too well only earning $14M in the box office. Both TheDeliReview and Claire shouldn’t be surprised with this outcome.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is just playing on another level. In its fourth weekend it earned a crazy $109M which now makes its total so far at $2.22B and on track this week to pass Titanic as the fifth highest grossing movie of all time.

Meanwhile The Odyssey is still pulling in record setting numbers. It just became the highest grossing R-rated movie currently at $1.44B. Not too shabby for a three hour war epic don’t you think. I had a last minute invite to see it again in IMAX 70mm last weekend and I took it as Nolan intended.

Now two movies on a smaller scale, both Obsession and Minions and Monsters had a big milestone of its own by reaching $500M. The funny thing is one is considered a huge success and the other movie is considered a disappointment, I’ll let you figure out which one is which.

The moment has finally arrived. I’ve talked about this for a few weeks now and we have a change at the top of the standings. Will is now sitting in first place with 176 points and still has a movie yet to release. The summer of Nat is officially over. It was a good run. Nat is in second with 165 points. This would’ve happened a lot sooner but the children failed the Minions. DestroVega is still in third and both Claire and Antonio are tied for fourth.

For the final time this season here is what’s coming up this weekend for the league.

Coyote vs. Acme finally makes its way into theaters after years of uncertainty. Who knew that such a loud voice from the internet crowd could bring a movie back from the dead.

The Dog Stars wraps up the season for TheDeliReview. I’m just thrilled I never have to watch those advertisements again.

Although the season may be ending, the Fall League is just around the corner. The Fall League details will come out in the next couple weeks and signups will start on Sept 8th.

Check out the standings for week 17.

Film Friends Fantasy League (FFL) is a fantasy sports-style league where members of the community draft a roster of films and score points based on box office and audience review scores. New seasons launch several times a year. Rules and signup info are in the Film Friends Discord.

HOW TO ORDER:

1. Fill out the google form on the website for all info including selection, sizing, and address.

2. We will send you an email confirming your order, cost, and address.

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What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to the written version of videos I publish every Friday, highlighting what is new to the cinemas and can now be viewed in your home on a standard video on demand service. I don’t include paid video on demand, so keep that in mind. So without further ado, dim the lights and roll the reel.

In Theaters:

Insidious: Out of the Further

The Big One this Weekend

I’ve never seen an Insidious movie, but I’m aware the franchise is huge. I actually thought Patrick Wilson was reprising his role from The Conjuring franchise when this franchise kicked off, but no, I’m just dumb. Reviews are mixed, probably for fans only but horror always gets a nice first weekend.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Probably the movie I’ve heard about for the longest time this year and it’s finally getting its wide release. I was very much into director Jane Schoenbrun’s last film and only imagine their output will get better with each movie. I love Hannah Einbinder on Hacks, and the premise seems like something Schoenbrun keeps building on in their early career.

Tony

I had a chance to see Tony a couple of weeks ago. It’s one of the better biopics you’ll see. Rather than a sweeping film about Anthony Bourdain’s entire life, it focuses on a summer he spent in a small kitchen in Provincetown and learned that it might be food that was his true calling. Great performances by Dominic Sessa, Leo Woodall and Antonio Banderas anchor this character drama.

Spa Weekend

Female ensemble comedies peaked with Bridesmaids, but they are still a fun time especially when they have a cast as stacked as this. Isla Fisher, Anna Farris and Leslie Mann have all been in some classic comedies, sometimes stealing the show. It’s co-written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scoot Moore, who have had ensemble comedy success with The Hangover and Bad Moms. If it can be anywhere as funny as either of those it should be a good time.

Hot Spot

Science-fiction movies centered around A.I. at this moment in time are a tough sell, and this is another attempt. A private eye investigates a murder in a future world where sentient A.I. rules the world and his marriage and identity suffer a meltdown. It is directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska, who made the wild film The Lure, so maybe there is something interesting here.

Mutiny

If you’ve seen one Jason Statham movie where he isn’t working with Guy Ritchie, you’ve sorta seen every Jason Statham movie. These things make a ton of money being sold in international markets, so there is sure to be one every year for the next decade. This was actually available on Amazon Prime Video to stream for free for a couple of hours earlier this week, which is hilarious. If you’re a Statham head, you’ll probably be entertained.

The Fast and the Furious (25th Anniversary)

Twenty-five years later there have been ten movies and a spin-off film and the family is still going strong. Clearly people love them, but I never ventured past watching this one. This is like the Olive Garden of film franchises - it’s not all that great, but it does the job and the masses keep coming back for more. Plus, the whole family thing.

On Streaming:

Mother Mary

HBO Max

Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel star in this two-hander about a pop star who seeks to reconnect with her former friend and costume designer for the perfect dress for an upcoming tour. Aside from the two fantastic leading performances, Hathaway slams her body around a hard floor in one captivating scene, director David Lowery stages one amazing sequence when Mother Mary takes the stage. A sensational slow burn.

The Christophers

Hulu

In a coincidental twist of fate, you have the opportunity for the perfect double feature as Michaela Cole stars in yet another two-hander this time opposite Sir Ian McKellan. Two children hire Cole’s character to forge a series of incomplete paintings known as The Christophers in order to enhance their inheritance. The kids are played by Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning and James Corden, who actually gives likely his best performance. It’s written by Ed Solomon and directed by Steven Soderbergh, an interesting team up that works incredibly well.

Busboys

Hulu

Not only the most unfunny comedy of the year, which is really saying a lot, it’s also my least favorite movie this year. Theo Vonn and David Spade self-financed this movie so they didn’t have to make it “PC,” which clearly didn’t help whatsoever. The two play a pair of idiots who think if they simply land jobs as waiters, the world will be their oyster. Sound dumb? It’s worse.

The Wizard of the Kremlin

Hulu

This was supposed to start streaming last weekend, I don’t know what happened. Despite what Tarantino says, Paul Dano is a damn fine actor. In this film, he plays an amalgamation of real people here, named Vadim Baranov, who becomes a spinster for Vladimir Putin as he ascends to become president of Russia. Jude Law plays Putin, but the real standout performance is from Alicia Vikander, who plays Baranov’s on-again, off-again love interest Ksenia. This one is pretty lackluster, but I was more positive than negative on it.

I Swear

Netflix

The true story of John Davidson, who was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome at a young age and was ostracized by his peers. Released in the United Kingdom last year, Robert Aramayo won the BAFTA for his lead performance, where the real Davidson would set off an unfortunate incident during the ceremony because of his affliction.

Is God Is

Moves to Amazon Prime Video

After being stranded on MGM+, a service even I don’t have, Is God Is makes the move to Amazon Prime Video. It’s a great revenge tale with fantastic performances across the board with another first time writer/director to boot, Aleshea Harris who adapted this from of her stage play. I can’t even envision it as a play but can’t stress enough how this is a must watch. One of the best movies of the year.

Passenger

Paramount+

This is a really generic horror movie about a couple who are being stalked by a demonic spirit after a car accident. The opening scene sets you up for something that might be exciting, only to plod along for the rest of the runtime with some cheap jump scares thrown in. I have no idea how they were able to get Melissa Leo to be in this aside from a fat paycheck.

The Fence

AMC+

The newest film from French director Claire Denis is about a couple of cops who have a man arrive to where they are staying asking for them to return the body of his dead brother who was murdered at the site. Denis’ movies are definitely a certain flavor, one that I don’t particularly love. Matt Dillon headlines the small cast.

For the cinephiles:

Rosebush Pruning

Mubi

A family struggling with genetic illnesses lives on a country estate. Personal drama develops amongst them in this intimate portrait. This doesn’t have the greatest reviews but it does have an intriguing cast including Pamela Anderson, Riley Keough, Callum Turner and Elle Fanning, who I’ll watch in just about anything.

And that’s it for this weekend. For more in-depth reviews on some of these movies and many others, follow me @DestroVega on Letterboxd or on just about any social media platform. You can also check out my podcast Wild Card Cinema on YouTube.

Now to tie this into the league. After the meetup, a group of us went to see a showing of The End of Oak Street in IMAX. We were able to talk about it in person instead of hashing it out in discord after the fact. Oak Street opened to a $47M worldwide gross and a 6.7 IMDb score. Giving Aldiaz and Antonio a needed score boost.

PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie continues the dinosaur themed weekend and was more of a hit with the kids. Making $69M and earned a 6.2 score. Panda and Thedelireview continued his kids movie strategy and was hoping to get more than 9 points.

This weekend on Spidey watch, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has reached the rarified air of the $2 Billion club. Doing so in its third weekend. It is now the eighth movie to hit that milestone. Will, panda, navs, and claire are all receiving the spoils.

There was no movement for the week and the top 3 are still the same. Nat’s leading by one point at 169 with Will at 168. DestroVega holding at 160 in third place. Will still has one more movie coming out next week so that’s when we should see some moves in the top of the standings.

Opening on Friday we have another installment in the Insidious series, Insidious: Out of the Further. Antonio’s the only one holding this movie and you can guarantee I won’t be watching that, no thank you! My horror friends, you can enjoy this one.

The other movie opening this week is Mutiny where Jason Statham plays the same character he always plays and I can’t wait to see what he gets into. Thedelireview and claire knows what’s up.

Check out the standings for week 16.

Film Friends Fantasy League (FFL) is a fantasy sports-style league where members of the community draft a roster of films and score points based on box office and audience review scores. New seasons launch several times a year. Rules and signup info are in the Film Friends Discord.

Standings — Week 16

What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to the written version of videos I publish every Friday, highlighting what is new to the cinemas and can now be viewed in your home on a standard video on demand service. I don’t include paid video on demand, so keep that in mind. So without further ado, dim the lights and roll the reel.

In Theaters:

The End of Oak Street

The Big One this Weekend

Anne Hathaway (yes, again) and Ewan McGregor star as the parents of a family who must navigate new surroundings when their entire neighborhood is transported to an unknown place after a cosmic event. Much of the film is shrouded in mystery, but there are definitely dinosaurs and people love them some dinosaurs. This is written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, who made the fantastic It Follows and Under the Silver Lake, which has a rabid fanbase.

PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie

Speaking of dinosaurs, this movie weirdly has a similar plot. After a storm, the PAW Patrol wind up on an obscure dinosaur island. Somehow they also trigger a volcano and then must help save the island. I know next to nothing about PAW Patrol, but I know it was very popular at one point, and since they are making another movie, I assume it still is.

Nimrods

I loved Green Day just about as much as the next guy in my youth, and some of the music still holds up incredibly well. In this comedy, three friends who are in a band drive cross-country, getting into hijinks as they race towards LA so they can open up for Green Day on New Year’s Eve and achieve their big break. I’m hoping for some laughs and the cast is loaded with names who are capable of delivering.

The Wrong Girls

I already thought we were having a pretty lit movie year, and then I learned there’s a stoner comedy starring Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat - we are so back. The two play an aimless pair of women who inadvertently gain telepathic powers after ingesting an experimental drug. From there, they have to avoid dangerous people pursuing the same drug. At the very worst, we should get a female Pineapple Express, and I wouldn’t be mad at even that.

The Rivals of Amziah King

It’s almost unfathomable that Matthew McConaughey hasn’t been in an actual theatrically released film since before the pandemic. He returns as Amziah King, a beekeeper, musician, and anchor of his community who reunites with his former foster daughter after years apart. When King faces threats to his honey business, his daughter takes over the bookkeeping and investigates who is trying to harm them. Kurt Russell as a potential baddie definitely piques my interest in this one.

The Brink of War

Jeff Daniels stars as Ronald Reagan who must race to save a nuclear deal with Mikhail Gorbachev, played by Jared Harris, while pressure mounts around both of them. This is another Angel Studios release, so you know two things are going to happen. First, the facts will be blown out of proportion so that it’s super patriotic. Secondly, I’ll never see it in my lifetime.

Elijah Peel

Based on a true story, Robert Malcolm Cumming stars as the titular Peel, who is a stadium-filling rock star whose life of fame, partying, and addiction comes crashing down on him when he suffers a heart attack. This is actually about the life of musician Kevin Sepe, who wrote and co-directed the film. It’s also faith-based, so it could also have come from Angel Studios.

Six: The Musical Live!

Much like Hadestown: The Musical from a few weeks ago, this is a filmed version of the musical Six. If you aren’t aware of the musical, it tells the story of the six wives of Henry VIII, cleverly reimagining them as pop stars who reclaim their narratives from their infamous husband’s shadow. I’ve heard it’s really great from fans of Broadway.

La La Land (10th Anniversary Rerelease in Dolby Cinema)

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling return to Dolby Cinema for the 10th Anniversary of La La Land, a movie we all thought won Best Picture for about five minutes or so. It’s ripe for a rewatch, and there’s no better way to experience a movie than in the Dolby Cinema. I just remember being blown away by that opening sequence and look forward to seeing it again.

Your Name (10th Anniversary)

The highly acclaimed anime film also returns to theaters for its 10th Anniversary. The movie is about two teenagers, a boy in Tokyo and a girl in rural Japan, who begin to randomly swap bodies, which leads them both on a search for one another. I’ve been meaning to finally get around to seeing this, but what I have seen is visually breathtaking.

Train to Busan (10th Anniversary Remastered & Revived)

And for the 10th Anniversary hat trick, we have the zombie film Train to Busan, directed by Yeon Sang-ho. I’m pretty sure this is getting a rerelease not only because of the anniversary but also because Sang-ho has the prequel Colony arriving in theaters soon. Another one I have had on my watch list for the last decade.

Wet Hot American Summer (25th Anniversary)

Hard to believe it’s been 25 years since David Wain and Michael Showalter, both members of the comedy troupe The State, unleashed this cult classic comedy into the world. The cast is absolutely loaded with talent, many actors you’re seeing on screen for the very first time along with some seasoned vets. It’s about a group of camp counselors on the last day of camp. That’s it, that’s the plot, and that’s all that’s needed. If you haven’t seen this one, please remedy that.

On Streaming:

Michael

Starz

Is Michael a good biopic? Not really, but it does showcase some fantastic recreations of some of the biggest moments in music history. The only knock on that I have is that you can just watch all of these landmark performances or music videos on YouTube and see the real thing. All this said, it does feature an electric first-time performance from Jaafar Jackson, nephew of Michael, who should be nominated this year. Colman Domingo also plays the father of the family, and anytime he’s in anything, it’s a bonus.

Normal

HBO Max

Bob Odenkirk stars as a temporary sheriff in the small town of Normal when he begins to unravel dark truths about the town after a bank robbery. It’s easy to mix this movie up with Nobody, because Odenkirk stars in both and both his character and the film’s titles are similar, but this is directed by Ben Wheatley and definitely features his particular style of filmmaking. Overall it’s a pretty good time.

Hamlet

Amazon Prime Video

There have been many adaptations of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, so why not another one? Riz Ahmed stars in this version reimagined in a bold, modern adaptation set within London’s elite South Asian community. I think I’m tapped out on Shakespeare at the moment, but Ahmed is a fantastic actor, and I’m sure this will be a unique approach.

TOW

Amazon Prime Video

Rose Byrne stars in this drama that tells the true story of Amanda Ogle, an unhoused woman who had to fight the system when she received a tow bill that eventually reached $21,634. Byrne’s performance is probably being over looked since she’s following up IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU but she’s very good. As is Simon Rex, who plays an attendant at the tow yard.

Don’t Say Good Luck

Netflix

Adam Sandler’s other nepo baby, Sunny, stars in this Netflix original about a girl ready for the spotlight as the lead in her high school musical, only to experience more drama at home than on the stage. Her mother is played by the excellent Melanie Lynskey, who I’m sure is going to turn in a good performance. Netflix originals are more miss than hit, but the cast around Sandler is strong - let’s hope the script is as well.

The Wizard of the Kremlin

Hulu

Despite what Tarantino says, Paul Dano is a damn fine actor. In this film, he plays an amalgamation of real people here, named Vadim Baranov, who becomes a spinster for Vladimir Putin as he ascends to become president of Russia. Jude Law plays Putin, but the real standout performance is from Alicia Vikander, who plays Baranov’s on-again, off-again love interest Ksenia. This one is pretty lackluster, but I was more positive than negative on it.

Girls Like Girls

Peacock

Based on writer/director Hayley Kiyoko’s song turned novel of the same name, this is an LGBTQ+ coming-of-age story. It features strong lead performances from Maya da Costa and Myra Molloy, two actresses with very few credits to their name, but you would be hard-pressed to tell by just watching this. Pretty solid debut, especially for a singer turned filmmaker, even if Zach Braff seems to be acting like he’s in a different movie.

Deep Water

MGM+

The newest film from Renny Harlin apparently starts with a plane crash disaster before turning into a shark survival movie. I’m not exactly excited for this one, but some people are seemingly having a good time with it, and it does star Sir Ben Kingsley along with Aaron Eckhart (where has he been?), so it might have some good acting performances.

This week’s Horror Selection from Shudder

Hellcat

AMC+/Shudder

This is a direct-to-Shudder original with an interesting hook. A woman wakes up in the back of a camper with a badly infected wound and is told from a voice up front that if she doesn’t make it to a hospital within the hour, she will face a terrible fate. This seems like a premise that might be tough to sustain, but it’s a tight 90 minutes.

And that’s it for this weekend. For more in-depth reviews on some of these movies and many others, follow me @DestroVega on Letterboxd or on just about any social media platform. You can also check out my podcast Wild Card Cinema on YouTube.

Toy Story 5 was the first film to do it, and it took eight weeks to get there. A film no one really asked for but was surprisingly good. Because of that, we will wait for the inevitable news for Toy Story 6 (lmao). It’s currently sitting at a $1.094B worldwide gross.

The Odyssey, which is an action period film, is three hours and rated R. It took only four weeks to make it. It brought in another $31M and now is up to $1.111B. This one was the film I was least confident about due to the length and rating. It’s never been done before, and it did it within a month.

Now if you thought 30 days to a billion was fast, then sit down for this news. Spider-Man: Brand New Day crossed the billion-dollar mark in roughly six days! It is currently sitting at $1.644B worldwide. Earning a massive $144M domestic in its second weekend, and $732M worldwide.

These are insane numbers. Spider-Man broke the all-time opening weekend domestic record, and it’s on track to cross $2B in its first month. I still think The Odyssey is the better made movie, but it’s hard to argue Spider-Man isn’t just as, if not more, entertaining to watch. Marvel stans, you know what I’m talking about!

The day I thought would never come is finally here. We have a change in the top 2 this week, everyone! Nat is still in first place with 173 points, but Will has now moved into second, one point behind him at 172, riding the Spidey wave all the way to the top. Pandawithwingsx, navsxoxo, and Claire C. also rode the wave up the standings.

Nat, count your days hehe. DestroVega is now in third. TheDeliReview is briefly tied for last again, but he still has a few movies left, so I see him moving back up the standings.

This coming week we have two movies on deck. The End of Oak Street is a fun adventure/dino movie. I really liked this one a lot, and this is what the Jurassic World series should’ve done. Universal, please take some notes. We also have PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie for the kids to have a blast with.

Check out the standings for Week 15:

Film Friends Fantasy League (FFL) is a fantasy sports-style league where members of the community draft a roster of films and score points based on box office and audience review scores. New seasons launch several times a year. Rules and signup info are in the Film Friends Discord.

The Last Duel

I saw this one in a screening. I just remember really liking this movie. Jodie Comer plays Marguerite, Adam Driver is Jacques, Matt Damon is her husband Jean, and Ben Affleck plays Pierre. Out of all of them, the surprise has to be Affleck’s performance because I expected the leads of this film to crush it. Just judging him off the trailer with the hair, I was like, yeah, it’s going to be good like he normally is, but is he going to crush it on the level that he did? I did not expect that. Driver delivers like he always does. Matt Damon, he is as intense as you want and need him to be, excellent in the role.

You have to know going in that there is this level of tension between these two characters that slowly builds, but it doesn’t start out like that. We see that there is a relationship, a friendship there, that, again, comes from great chemistry.

What this film does is something that I just wasn’t expecting at all. I had no clue they were going to tell the story like this. We see the same story from three different perspectives, different pieces of information being told to us every time we come back to that moment in time. Also, something that I thought was brilliant was the use of different camera angles, and then hearing conversations or seeing even a character movement that we didn’t see the first time.

Marguerite is not the only character whose perspective you get, but when we finally get to see her outlook on all of this, it is beautifully put to screen, and she was already so great in a movie like Free Guy. Now she’s bringing it in the awards-caliber role that I hoped this would be. It was that. Jodie Comer is the standout here, but she is surrounded by an excellent cast.

I’m just a sucker for a good medieval movie, a film like Gladiator, something that Ridley Scott has done before and done extremely well, one of my favorites, and while The Last Duel isn’t quite up to that standard, man, I love this. I really did.

This was Scott’s worst-performing movie, and it’s a shame not as many people saw it, but I can understand why. It’s a long movie and a bit of a slow burn. There were a couple of scenes and maybe even character perspectives that I wish we would have just gotten less of. A tough watch at times, but one that I was just entranced by. I went with 4.5 out of 5.

Transformers One

I saw the teaser, and I honestly thought I wasn’t even going to see the movie. I thought that it looked like a made-for-TV Nickelodeon movie. It just didn’t look very good. But the curiosity got the better of me, so I went. I caught it in a screening. I was so surprised by how great it is, and that is the best type of feeling you can have when you see a movie.

I have heard the same thing for years. Can we please have a Transformers movie that just has Transformers, that takes place on Cybertron, without any humans, without Earth? Can it just be about them? You know, like all the shows we like?

I was mostly surprised by how personal the film felt, with Orion Pax, voiced by Chris Hemsworth, and D-16, voiced by Brian Tyree Henry, who will later, of course, become sworn enemies, Optimus Prime and Megatron. It’s when Pax finds a really rare, difficult-to-find sticker of D-16’s favorite Transformer, and he gives it to him, and he puts it on his shoulder. Reminded me of any time that a friend has given me a gift, or I’ve given a friend a gift, and there’s this look of, like, oh, you actually really do care about me.

The movie tries for some jokes, not all of them work. It feels 100% like the Transformers most of us loved from the ’80s and ’90s. It’s too bad that Michael Bay has put a bad taste in people’s mouths for Transformers, and it also didn’t perform well and probably won’t get a sequel. This is way better than all the Bay movies. That was a 4.5 out of 5.

Worth Revisiting

Wind River

I saw this one on opening weekend. The last time I saw this movie was about six years ago, so I figured it was due a rewatch. Wind River is directed and written by Taylor Sheridan. Now, Taylor Sheridan, you might recognize his name. I absolutely love this movie. It is one of the best of that year. Wind River takes place entirely on this native reservation called Wind River, where a young teenage girl is found dead in the middle of the wilderness, having run six miles through winter cold and snow.

Elizabeth Olsen plays the FBI agent, Jane, who is not the local one. She just happens to be the closest agent available. She gets assigned to the case. Now you have Jeremy Renner as Cory, who is a local there. He lives there with the community. He has a child there, and he loves his life there, and he is a hunter.

By the time the movie ends, you realize the murder mystery really wasn’t what had you hooked in this movie. The only negative thing I can say about Wind River is that the conclusion of the murder mystery itself is a little underwhelming per se, but that didn’t bother me at all because really it was just a setup. It was a tool. It was a plot device to move our characters along in the story, and the strength of this movie relies on its characters.

Jeremy Renner gives one of the best performances of his career. There is power and strength in his character, yet frailty and brokenness in his character. There are times that he’s on screen that your heart is just breaking for him. He gives such a subtle, yet widely varied performance that he just crosses all sorts of lines and boundaries when it comes to human emotion. I was just completely enthralled with his performance.

Gil Birmingham plays Martin, the father of the girl who had died, and he’s friends with the Jeremy Renner character all the same time. The girl is his daughter, Natalie. There’s one moment in the film when emotion becomes a part of it, and I felt myself as an audience member watching him and Jeremy Renner on screen together. I was getting a bit emotional. It was just nerve-wracking, yet compelling all the same time. He is by no means comic relief in the movie at all. He gives a few moments of much-needed laughter in the film as well. You need little moments of relief to be able to take a breath. Gil delivers that.

That brings us to Elizabeth Olsen. Olsen is perfectly fine in this movie. She gives a very good performance, not the best performance I’ve ever seen her give, but that’s not really her fault because there really wasn’t much more for her to do and to give. And I found that she was probably getting as much out of every scene as she possibly could. So I don’t blame her for that. She did perfectly well as a good character.

By the time this movie ended, I was just glued to my seat. This movie is fantastic. This was a perfect 5 out of 5 for me.

(500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer is one of those movies that I didn’t see when it came out. I saw it a few years later on DVD that a friend lent me. I’ve seen it the one time and really did like it a lot, but I never got around to seeing it again. Not for any reason in particular. Yeah, I see bits of it play on TV over the years but never the full thing.

Well, my friend Violet made a strong recommendation for me to watch it again, and I did so over the weekend. It was a good choice. I totally get why it’s one of her favorite movies ever.

The movie follows the story of Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who grew up maybe not the best looking, certainly not the most adept with flirting or dating, and would find himself living vicariously through these aforementioned love stories. Now, Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is a girl who’s grown up with a distaste for romance in general.

And this is why I feel (500) Days of Summer is such a great movie, because it takes us on this journey and shows us exactly what all the other movies and books and songs get wrong. The idea of the one, or finding the one. In the movie, Tom just decides that Summer is the one for him. But, as Tom’s little sister states, it just doesn’t happen that way.

At the very beginning of their relationship, Summer clearly lets him know that she’s not looking for anything serious or long-term. He decides that he and Summer are meant to be, so he puts this burden onto her shoulders, whether she likes it or not.

The love story in (500) Days of Summer isn’t really between Tom and Summer. It’s more to do with us and all the love stories that began and ended in our own lives. Was Tom in love with Summer? Or was he just in love with his idea of Summer? Now, the answer to that is pretty obvious by the end.

Would I recommend (500) Days of Summer? Absolutely, I would. It held up on a rewatch, 4.5 out of 5.

What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to the written version of videos I publish every Friday, highlighting what is new to the cinemas and can now be viewed in your home on a standard video on demand service. I don’t include paid video on demand, so keep that in mind. So without further ado, dim the lights and roll the reel.

In Theaters:

One Night Only

The Big One this Week

Romcoms aren’t really my jam, but The Purge-esque hook of this had my interest piqued. After watching it, I was surprised it has much more in common with Scorsese’s fantastic comedy After Hours, as the two leads bumble their way across the city trying to make a connection with someone. I had fun with this and would watch Monica Barbaro in all the romcoms, while the verdict is still out on Callum Turner, but his physique should keep him leading movies for a while.

Super Troopers 3

Speaking of bumbling, the inept crew of Vermont state troopers is back for thirds. This time Farva (Kevin Heffernan) is getting married and the gang attempts to break up the relationship, for what reason I can only guess. The first 15 minutes of Super Troopers is hilarious, the rest is hit or miss, and I’ve never seen the second movie. For what it’s worth, this has the worst reviews of the trio.

Cookie Queens

Even if you’ve never been a Girl Scout, you can’t escape the phenomenon that is the Girl Scout Cookie. In this documentary, we follow four young girls who are striving to be a top-selling “Cookie Queen.” I see Shannon Elizabeth is in this, which I only have to assume means one of the girls is her daughter. People seem to really dig this.

Sheep in the Box

Written and directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, this film follows a married couple who decide to welcome a humanoid robot into their home as their son. The Big Picture’s Sean Fennessey called this a bad film and reviews are mixed, but I’ll definitely be checking it out.

The Samurai and the Prisoner

Another international selection, this is based on Honobu Yonezawa’s novel set in 16th-century Japan. As the title spells out, a samurai works with a prisoner to uncover a mysterious truth. This one is from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, no relation to Akira.

Ice Cream Man

Seemingly terrible person Eli Roth returns with this slasher remake of a film that originally starred Clint Howard, but is now closer to a bad version of Weapons, according to those that have seen the advanced screening. People are straight tearing this apart, and to make matters worse, it’s filled with generative AI. Don’t support this garbage.

On Streaming:

The Last House

Netflix

Netflix original movies are incredibly rocky at best, and you forget them almost instantly. That said, I have hope in this based on the cast alone, with Greta Lee and Wagner Moura starring as parents of a family of four being kept in their house by a mysterious threat. It’s also written by Matt Robinson, who already has the terrific Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die to his credit this year.

Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)

Paramount+

The title basically says it all, this is a filmed performance of Billie Eilish’s latest tour. The selling point? It’s co-directed by James Cameron, deploying his state-of-the-art 3D technology. 3D televisions don’t really exist at this point, so I don’t know why they are even advertising this aspect on streaming.

You, Me & Tuscany

Peacock

I might not be the biggest romcom guy, but I never mind watching pretty people in beautiful locations. I also love wine country and would be thrilled to visit Tuscany, but just getting to see it on a screen will have to do for now. Other than romcom and the Tuscan sun, I don’t know much about the movie, but I’ll check it out.

Beast

Starz

An MMA legend now working as a commercial fisherman is dragged back into the ring when his brother gets in trouble. He reunites with his coach, played by Russel Crowe, and commits to one final fight. Sounds pretty generic and nobody has Starz so likely one that will be passed up.

This week’s Horror Selection from Shudder

The Yeti

AMC+/Shudder

Sometimes Shudder showcases something underseen, a nice little hidden gem. Other times they give you The Yeti, which seems like a bad B-movie. Two men go missing, and a search party tries to rescue them before realizing they are in an area of the wilderness that belongs to an ancient threat. Hard pass.

For the cinephiles:

A Poet

Mubi

I’ve heard this is great, so I’m looking forward to seeing this the most. A poet who never reached the success he envisioned now teaches for a living and recognizes a huge talent amongst his students. He then grapples with bringing her into the world of poets and conquering his own demons. Sounds heavy, but apparently it’s very funny.

And that’s it for this weekend. For more in-depth reviews on some of these movies and many others, follow me @DestroVega on Letterboxd or on just about any social media platform. You can also check out my podcast Wild Card Cinema on YouTube.

The reason why I like the Film Friends Discord is that it’s a cool community where you can just talk about anything movie-related or not. So we go anywhere from just talking about our physical media collections to what the next popcorn bucket is that’s coming out. It’s a fun group of people that we get to hang out with, especially when we’re kind of just all alone on the internet. Always a little joking around, always having some fun GIFs being thrown around. This past weekend, Saturday was particularly quiet, but on Sunday it got really busy, and what sparked that off was a comment by someone in the community.

What seemed like a harmless comment turned into an hour and a half of going back and forth after another point was made: can Zendaya be considered a box office draw when she is not the “star” of any of her biggest box office movies?

Everyone started picking sides, some saying that her box office success is undeniable and others that she is benefiting from the large IP franchises she’s supporting in.

For me, I’m a little bit in the middle of the two. I can see both sides. I can see that, yes, her box office wins are mainly with her ensemble casts, and her box office losses are mainly in her own vehicle movies like Challengers or The Drama. Which, yes, they might have made a decent amount compared to their budget, but a movie that doesn’t make more than a $100M total doesn’t really feel like a big win. So then I opened up the question, which was whether there really is a true superstar anymore. Maybe in hindsight that was a bad idea, but that pushed the conversation for another hour.

But I do think Violet had a really good answer to a lot of this. She said we would have to interview every single person for every single movie to have a definitive yes or no.

Later on, after the conversation ended, I was doing research for this article, and I found that there is a thing called PostTrak, and they basically stop movie viewers on their way out to gauge what they actually came to the movie for. So when I looked for The Odyssey, I basically came back that 51% went to see the movie because of the director, Christopher Nolan. As a cast, as a group, or as a whole, it was 44%. For Matt Damon specifically, it was 27%.

When I saw the polling for The Odyssey, you know, I thought it was right in line. The Odyssey is a Christopher Nolan movie first, so that’s obviously going to get the most amount of views. You know, Christopher Nolan has such a prestige to his name that anyone, even if it’s such a small role, even just two or three lines, they’re willing to do it because it’s a Christopher Nolan movie. So yeah, I wasn’t all that surprised by the breakdown of The Odyssey.

Here’s the rest of what PostTrak found:

• Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Deadline):

  • The franchise - 58%

  • Looked fun - 47%

  • The cast as a whole - 41%

  • Tom Holland - 39%

  • Zendaya - 29%

• Challengers (Deadline):

  • Zendaya - 55%

• The Drama (IndieWire):

  • Zendaya and Robert Pattinson - 70%

Now, with Spider-Man, and Zendaya’s only in a portion of that movie, I was kind of surprised that she still pulled basically a third of the draw for the poll. Obviously, it’s a franchise movie, so people are going to come see because it’s a continuation of Marvel, but then also the events of the last movie left such a lot of unknowns. The only thing I was left a little shocked by is, you know, she is a part of the movie, but not really in it all that much. Yet for her, the pull was 29%. That was a shocking revelation to me.

Finding out the numbers for Challengers, though, did kind of shock me a bit, because when I went and saw that movie it didn’t do very well box office-wise. I like the movie. I don’t know if I would say that I went there because of her specifically, but, you know, Zendaya is not really my target demographic. She’s more on, you know, the younger girls’ side, and those girls apparently showed up.

Also, it’s hard to market a movie that is a rated-R tennis drama, and someone approved a $55M budget for that. But yeah, it costs a little too much to make any profit for that movie. You know, seeing the stat on the study that it’s $3M per movie. That was done back in, what was it, 2007 or so. So I’m sure that might have gone up or down since then, almost 20 years now, but yeah, I don’t see too much difference with that stat, it seems pretty on par.

At first, I kind of agreed with the counterargument that Zendaya is not a box office draw. But then when a couple of people started arguing for the other side, and then starting to see these figures come into play afterwards, I’m really starting to come in like, yeah, maybe she is a pull for a certain demographic. So in the end, I think they were right on that aspect.

I did think it changed my mind. It gives me a little bit of insight into how much star power is. Now, I still do believe that it is a diminishing return. There aren’t very many people that have that. But maybe Zendaya is that one person. Her and Timothée Chalamet, and several big-name directors are now the only ones that can have that kind of pull.

So I wasn’t really expecting to have this much of a lively activity on Sunday in the Discord, but, you know, it happens. So if you’re not in our Film Friends Discord, this probably might give you a flavor of what we have in there. So, yeah, come join us. It’s a real fun community and, you know, we talk about all kinds of things, and this is just one of them. So if you’re interested, let us know.

Sources: PostTrak exit polling reported by Deadline and IndieWire. Star value figure from Anita Elberse, "The Power of Stars: Do Star Actors Drive the Success of Movies?", Journal of Marketing, 2007.

Looking at the draft list before the season started, I debated between Spidey and The Odyssey and ultimately went with Spidey cause I thought it would make the most money of the summer season. That it could reach $1.3B by the end of the league. Well, guess what, it’s going to break a billion in its first 5 days.

Pandawithwingsx thought it was going to be a huge number, and he was definitely correct about that. The audience did Will wrong after they didn’t go see his Minions & Monsters, so they definitely made up for it by seeing Spidey several times over. I’d like to thank Violet for getting the children to make their parents take them to go see it. With huge reveals, you didn’t want to be the only person on Monday to not know what everyone is talking about.

Literally and figuratively, no one went to go see Once Upon A Time In A Cinema. It only made $24,000. Not millions but thousands. That’s an amount a big church takes in donations on a Sunday.

I knew The Odyssey was going to take a big hit on its third week going against Spider-Man, but I never saw that number coming. It’s at $912M with an 8.5 IMDb score, still the best rating in the pool, and it took three weeks to get where Spidey got in three days. For any other year, we’d be talking about The Odyssey making bank over the summer. It will have the last laugh come awards time though, so it has that at least to look forward to.

After months, we finally have a break of the three-way stranglehold at the top. Will jumped 48 points with the help of Spider-Man, from 6th place up to 3rd. Along with him, Claire C., Pandawithwingsx, and navsxoxo also benefited from the Spidey boost. Claire went from 8th place to 4th, and the other two are finally out of the bottom two after sitting there all summer.

Nat is still on top and DestroVega is still 2nd. Nat, count your days.

We originally had a film slated for this weekend, but I think the studios got scared of Spider-Man and decided to take their ball and stay home for this weekend (lmao). Looking at Once Upon A Time In A Cinema’s numbers, that was probably the best idea. So happy surprise bye week. We’ll pick back up with the next installment of the Anne Hathaway takeover with The End of Oak Street and the kids’ favorite Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie.

We are coming to the last few weeks of the season, but don’t you worry, the fall season will start back up in October with signups in September. A full announcement will be coming out soon.

Odysseus got taken out by a guy in a shiny spandex suit. Who’s going to be his next victim?

Check out the standings for Week 14:

About the Film Friends Fantasy League: Film Friends Fantasy League (FFL) is a fantasy sports-style league where members of the community draft a roster of films and score points based on box office and audience review scores. New seasons launch several times a year. Rules and signup info are in the Film Friends Discord.

38. Ice Cream Man

Dir. Eli Roth

The trailer for this keeps popping up, and it continues to not move me in any way, and also Eli Roth seems like he sucks as a dude.

Excitement Ranking: 2/100

37. Legend of the White Dragon

Dir. Aaron Schoenke, Allen Harris

This movie looks abhorrent. It is a direct rip-off of Power Rangers, down to its stars, including the late Jason David Frank. I will be seeing it immediately upon its release.

Excitement Ranking: 8/1003

36. The Brink of War

Dir. Michael Russell Gunn

Movies about war that focus on the government officials bore me to my core. And Jeff Daniel’s wig looks like shit. It’s also from Angel Studios, which isn’t a diss but an observation4.

Excitement Ranking: 10/100

35. The Fence

Dir. Claire Denis

Excitement Ranking: 17/100

34. Insidious: Out of the Further

Dir. Jacob Chase

I’ve never seen an Insidious. That will continue.

Excitement Ranking: 18/100

33. Super Troopers 3

Dir. Jay Chandrasekhar

I’ve never seen a Super Troopers. That will continue.5

Excitement Ranking: 24/100

32. Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie

Dir. Cal Brunker

I’m not going to watch this movie, but I respect the institution that is Paw Patrol. (Chase the dog threatened me with a gun if this was any lower in the rankings.)

Excitement Ranking: 25/100

31. Union County

Dir. Adam Meeks

Excitement Ranking: 31/100

30. The Magic Faraway Tree

Dir. Ben Gregor

Excitement Ranking: 34/100

29. Hot Spot

Dir. Agnieszka Smoczynska

Excitement Ranking: 38/100

28. The Sun Never Sets

Dir. Joe Swanberg

This appears to be a very important movie that many men need to see. A man (Jake Johnson) is in a nice relationship with a woman (Dakota Fanning). He then tells said woman that they should take a break and explore the field. Said woman then finds a hotter man (Corey Michael Smith), and the first man gets upset. There is an epidemic out there of men who are proposing open relationships to their partners (with all due respect to those who are able to have one in a respectable manner, no judgement here). But to the men out there who think they can pull it off, this movie should be a reminder that there is always a hotter dude and that you can not actually pull it off and you should be nicer to your partner.

Excitement Ranking: 38/100

27. It Ends

Dir. Alexander Ullom

Excitement Ranking: 39/100

26. Nimrods

Dir. Lee Kirk

This movie is whose story is by, is produced by, and is starring Green Day. I used to like Green Day, but then I turned 13.

Excitement Ranking: 43/100

25. Late Fame

Dir. Kent Jones

Willem Dafoe is an elder poet. He is forgotten. He is rediscovered by a new generation. Old man trying to hang with a pretentious younger crowd antics ensue.

24. The Birthday Party

Dir. Miguel Ángel Jiménez

Willem Dafoe is a rich guy. He has an island. They’re throwing a birthday party. Elite wealthy rich people antics ensue.

Excitement Ranking: 46/100

23. One Night Only

Dir. Will Gluck

At long last, we will be freed of this trailer. The early reviews of this seem mildly positive, although I’m personally not sold on Callum Turner as an actor and I’m really not sold on the premise of this movie. Assuming you do live in a world where single people can only have sex one night of the year, are you not planning this out at least 6 months in advance? How are you scrambling the night of to find someone? And does the sex rule count only for 2+-person sex or does it also extend to one-person sex? Cause if it’s the former, I’ll tell you right now the reason Callum Turner’s character appears so chill is because he is cranking down in the back of that pizza shop on a daily basis. He’s essentially Matthew McConaughey in The Wolf of Wall Street. The key to good business is being relaxed, he’s getting those numbers up!!

Excitement Ranking: 55/100

22. The Rivals of Amziah King

Dir. Andrew Patterson

I think this is There Will Be Blood but about honey.

Excitement Ranking: 56/100

21. Mutiny

Dir. Jean-François Richet

A Jason Statham Movie (Boat Edition)

Excitement Ranking: 56/100

20. The Wrong Girls

Dir. Dylan Meyer

Excitement Ranking: 56/100

19. The Marching Band

Dir. Emmanuel Courcol

Excitement Ranking: 64/100

18. Finding Emily

Dir. Alicia MacDonald

Rom-com about a guy who meets a girl at a bar, falls in love, doesn’t get her number, and attempts to find her. He enlists the help of another girl who uses his journey as the subject for her research paper or documentary or something. Seems fun and cute, and frankly, it is our responsibility as a society to keep the rom-com alive. It’s like voting. You don’t have to go, but it is your civic duty, and in order to keep the constructs of our society upright, we have to exercise these rights. So again, you don’t have to go, but when democracy crumbles (or the rom-com genre in this scenario), don’t start pointing fingers at me, cause I went to the booth. I didn’t even feel like it, but I did it for the good of us all. And was I happy that when I got there my options were Angourie Rice and a guy named Spike who was apparently in Alien: Romulus? No, I wasn’t happy about it. We used to have a lot better options. But I still went, okay? Angourie Rice is a lot better than what we could’ve ended up with.

Excitement Ranking: 67/100

17. Spa Weekend

Dir. Jon Lucas, Scott Moore

I think this movie looks quite poor. But every single one of these women has made me laugh at some point in my life. They are immensely skilled comedic talents. I believe in them as the Hollywood institutions that they are.

Excitement Ranking: 68/100

16. All Night Wrong

Dir. Jason James

Starring Maria Bakalova and Zach Cherry on a blind date gone wrong. I like both of them, and I support the belief that beautiful women can date ugly men!!

Excitement Ranking: 70/100

15. The Dog Stars

Dir. Ridley Scott

I have seen the trailer for this movie about 50 times. I still really don’t understand the vibe. It’s opening in IMAX, so I assume that means there are some high-intensity action moments. The trailer is a lot of Jacob Elordi sadly walking his dog around in a dystopian future. But it is a Ridley Scott-directed movie, therefore, I must see it. Because what if it’s somehow Alien or Blade Runner? Yes, Scott’s most recent work is definitely not Alien or Blade Runner, but what if this is? What if he refinds the magic? We have to hold out hope. We know the ability to make Alien and Blade Runner exists within his body, could Jacob Elordi be the one to bring it out of him? We can’t write off the possibility.6

Excitement Ranking: 75/100

14. Buddy

Dir. Casper Kelly

This is a slasher film where the killer is essentially Barney the Dinosaur. That is a fun premise. But the real draw is that it stars Cristin Milioti. Cristin Milioti quite literally does not miss.

Excitement Ranking: 79/100

13. Colony

Dir. Yeon Sang-ho

New zombie movie from the director of Train to Busan. Hell yeah.7

Excitement Ranking: 81/100

12. Toxic

Dir. Geetu Mohandas

The trailer for this is bonkers. I’m not sure I understand it at all. The subtitle for this movie is “A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups,” and it is the most expensive Indian movie ever made. It’s getting a worldwide release on August 26 in IMAX, Dolby, and 4DX. It’s written and starring Yash, who is sometimes credited as “Rocking Star Yash,” which I think is a Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson situation. “Rocking Star” is an undeniably sick moniker. This may have to be an opening day watch.

Excitement Ranking: 82/100

11. Julian

Dir. Cato Kusters

Excitement Ranking: 84/100

10. Bitter Christmas

Dir. Pedro Almodóvar

Excitement Ranking: 85/100

9. Filipiñana

Dir. Rafael Manuel

Excitement Ranking: 86/100

8. Olmo

Dir. Fernando Eimbcke

Excitement Ranking: 89/100

7. The Whisper Man

Dir. James Ashcroft

Adam Scott and Robert De Niro teaming up to take down a serial killer. This has Longlegs vibes, but the version of Longlegs we thought we were getting from the trailer of the movie, not the version of Longlegs we ended up getting, where it was just like the devil hanging out the whole time and not actually a serial killer movie.

Excitement Ranking: 91/100

6. Idiots

Dir. Macon Blair

I enjoy the work of Mason Thames. I believe he has the juice. I also enjoy the comedic talents of Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr.

Excitement Ranking: 94/100

5. Coyote vs. Acme

Dir. Dave Green

We finally got it. After a prolonged battle, Ketchup Entertainment came to the rescue after Warner Bros. Discovery attempted to throw this thing in the dumpster in the name of tax breaks. A Who Framed Roger Rabbit-esque courtroom drama about the perils of being Wile E. Coyote and the dastardly schemes of big corporations. Also stars Will Forte as the lawyer, can’t beat that. A hearty fuck you to Warner Bros. Discovery for trying to keep this kind of art from us.

Excitement Ranking: 95/100

4. The Last House

Dir. Louis Leterrier

Excitement Ranking: 96/100

3. The End of Oak Street

Dir. David Robert Mitchell

The End of Oak Street and The Last House are running a very similar playbook. Sci-fi movies about a family confined to their house due to some sci-fi reasons. Each movie stars two actors I really like as the parents. The End of Oak Street gets the higher ranking because it’s in theaters and not Netflix.

Excitement Ranking: 97/100

2. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Dir. Jane Schoenbrun

The big-screen return of Jane Schoenbrun after 2024’s I Saw the TV Glow8. Admittedly, I’m not in love with either of Schoenbrun’s previous two films, but I still really love what they are doing in them. They are a director who is doing something much different than anyone else, and for that reason alone I’ll always be eager to see what they are doing next. Also, for the past few months my girlfriend has been endlessly watching and rewatching Hacks, so Hannah Einbinder has suddenly become a fixture in my household. I also really liked Gillian Anderson in the three episodes of The X Files that I watched, before I realized there were 218 episodes and two movies and I got intimidated.

Excitement Ranking: 99/100

1. Tony

Dir. Matt Johnson

If you know me, you may know that my top movie of 2026 so far has been Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie. A movie that is written, directed, and starring Matt Johnson. Ever since seeing it, I’ve become a worshipper at the altar of Matt Johnson. Johnson was also the director of 2023’s Blackberry, which, for a biopic about a phone I never had and was too young to care about, was actually a really great movie. If Blackberry is any indication, Tony should be something great as well. It also has a lot of my favorite dudes in it. Dominic Sessa of The Holdovers fame9. Leo Woodall of Tuner fame. Stavros Halkias of being the pedophile cop in Bugonia fame. Antonio Banderas of all-time hot guy fame. I will be genuinely devastated if this lets me down.

Excitement Ranking: 100/100

All of these opinions are solely those of Trevor and do not reflect the feelings of Film Friends. That whole thing about Callum Turner doing personal business in the back of a pizza shop was his joke. It's not really funny if you think about it, and we don’t want any trouble from Callum Turner’s representatives. You can find more of Trevor’s rambling at TheDeliReview on TikTok, Instagram, Letterboxd, and YouTube.

All images provided by themoviedb.org.

The meager popcorn bucket. What was once just a simple paper bag has rocketed into a $100M industry. Every major theater chain is jockeying for top position, innovating the bucket in ways we could never have imagined. And with every new blockbuster comes a new slew of buckets. Who is doing it best? What makes a perfect bucket? Can the right bucket finally bring the joy I’ve been seeking? Some of these will be answered; most will not (I am just one man). I’ll be taking a look at the popcorn bucket offerings from AMC, Regal, and Cinemark and ranking them via the patent-pending Bucket Coefficient12.

Today, we take a look at the popcorn buckets for Spider-Man: Brand New Day:

8. AMC Spider-Man Head

The head bust buckets are one I’ve come to deeply dislike. Anatomically, the inside of a skull would be the easiest to munch popcorn out of, that is obvious to us all. Because of that, I find the bust buckets to be incredibly lazy. It’s safe, it’s simple, it’s boring. There’s been a million before, there will be a million after.

Design = 6.6

Usability = 2

Bucket Coefficient = 13.20

Read more

August Movie + Discussion Date

We’ve got another double feature coming at you with Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused paired with Everybody Wants Some. The last couple of months have had some crazy bangers, but we thought we’d lighten the load a little bit with the end of summer in sight. It is highly recommended to watch in release order, but we can’t tell you what to do. This month we’re changing up the time ever so slightly - so our monthly meeting will take place August 25th, 2026 at 6:30 pm CT. You can register for the call here. The meetings are scheduled for two hours, so please pop in and out of the call as much as you may need, you don’t have to stay on the entire time, and you also don’t have to arrive on time. As always, cameras are optional and you can call in on your phone. Lastly, if you’re interested in just listening, rather than participating, you can still join!

FILM FRIENDS IN PERSON MEET UP + MOVIE WATCH PARTY

Film friends is hosting our very first in person meet up! We are so excited to get to meet some of our fellow midwestern cinephiles. If you are in the Midwest, or more specifically, Indiana area, come join us at Kan Kan Cinema and Bar. We are hosting an IRL discussion over Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, an iconic game of trivia, and so much more! All the questions can be answered here, as well as RSVPing for the event. We will be streaming the movie and having our first film friends watch party on August 11th. More info to come on that soon. We hope to see you there!

Snail Mail Deadline + ICYMI

As of June, we have changed some things in our snail mail system. If you would like to receive our movie announcements via snail mail, then please sign up for the paid substack subscription (linked here, 5$ a month). Once we have your subscription, we will send a follow up email gathering your information to send your snail mail too. If paying 5$ of month for mail does not serve you, fear not! We are keeping your addresses on file; there may be a chance on of these months you’ll be randomly selected to receive a free piece of snail mail. If you would like to receive snail mail beginning in September, please subscribe by August 20th. We do our best to get through as many people as possible, but anything after the deadline can’t be promised until the following month. Thank you for supporting film friends!

Trevor’s Trivia

This month we won’t be hosting trivia due to the in-person event - but it will be back in September <3

Biweekly Movie Chat

The biweekly movie chat is back! Right now, we only have one scheduled for the month, but we may offer two for the lack of trivia. Either way, this chat is an opportunity to meet some of your film friends face to face, or camera to camera, and yap all things movies! New releases, old releases, movie recs, and everything in between! It super casual and mostly, just a really good time. This movie yap will take place August 18th, at 7 pm CT. You can register for our chat here.

Alternative Poster Challenge

If you are a film friend who loves art or graphic design, this is your chance to shine! After you watch the movie of the month, you will have until the 28th of the month to create an alternative movie poster. Once all the posters have been submitted, we will post the posters (anonymously) for everyone to vote on. Winner will receive a 4k physical disc (subject to availability) sent to their home. (For this month, your prize may be delayed as the movie is still in theaters lol). Please send submissions to filmfriendsadmin@gmail.com.

Film Friends Offerings

film friends is meant to be very community based, and with that, we have a couple of our friends of film that wanted to offer some other ways to be involved in our community:

Nat brings us the Criterion Challenge: each week, Nat spins the wheel to determine the weekly movie. After watching the weekly movie, enter your submission into the Google Form. Whoever watches the most movies will be the winner of a $200 Criterion gift card. (It’s never too late to enter! If you watch 11 of these films, you are entered to win another Criterion Gift Card!)

Will offers the film friends fantasy league, with a twist! Each player gets 100 points to draft a roster of movies during the summer season, with no limit on how many films they pick. Points are earned from two categories: worldwide box office gross and IMDb rating. Whoever racks up the most points by the end of the season wins. If you missed registration for the summer, do not worry. There will be opportunity to register in the fall.

Quinn offers the indie corner. Each month, Quinn will select an indie movie to complement our monthly movie, to highlight under-seen and underrated indie gems. The indie corner is currently on pause, but will be back up and running very soon <3

Film Friends Resources

We know we have a million ways of communicating with one another, and a big part of this is because we want this to be accessible as possible. So here are all the ways you can find us:

Trevor made a website! You can find everything you need to know about each month at this link. Substack will always be the first to know, and all announcements and EYNTK will always be updated here. We also have a chat feature in Substack, so please utilize the feature to talk to other cinepals! If you’re interested in connecting with fellow film friends a bit deeper, you can join our discord chat. (You do not need to be a part of the discord, this is mostly for a deeper connection to the community <3). However, the discord chat is very active and very versatile. You can also find film friends updates through cinemastardust on tiktok.

Calling Film Friends Writers

We are always looking to add voices to film friends. If you are someone who is interested in writing about movies in any which way, shape, or form, maybe you’d like to write with us! If you’re interested, please email us or message us directly. <3

Do you have something you would like to bring to film friends? We would love to have you! Submit any and all ideas at filmfriendsadmin@gmail.com

thank you so much for being here and supporting us, and each other.

We will see you at the movies!

What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to the written version of videos I publish every Friday, highlighting what is new to the cinemas and can now be viewed in your home on a standard video on demand service. I don’t include paid video on demand, so keep that in mind. So without further ado, dim the lights and roll the reel.

In Theaters:

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

The Big One this Week

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Peter Parker, who no one now remembers, is all growns’d up. Certain things have been kept very secret (who is Sadie Sink actually playing?!) while others are not. We will see returning favorite Hulk and the big screen debut of Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle. My only question is, will we ever get Kingpin in a live-action Spidey flick? Come on, Kev.

I Want Your Sex

Director Gregg Araki, whose filmography is a complete blind spot to me, returns with this comedy starring Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman, who seems to gravitate towards interesting roles just like his late father. He plays Elliot, a man who lands a job working for a dominatrix played by Wilde. Eventually she taps him to be her sexual muse - lucky guy! I better hear some George Michael.

On Streaming:

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Peacock

I was surprised by how good The Super Mario Bros. Movie ended up being, so I was excited for the sequel. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to Galaxy aside from reminding you every two minutes that the video games had this cool character or place. It’s pretty much the equivalent of jiggling keys or flashing shiny toys at the audience. There’s also nothing as funny as Jack Black’s song Peaches from the first film.

The Devil Wears Prada 2

Hulu

Two decades after the original movie, Disney got the gang back together for a cash grab… psyche! Shockingly, this sequel brilliantly focuses on the decline of journalism, both with newspapers and magazines. I had never seen the original The Devil Wears Prada until the night before I saw this in the theater, so I didn’t have the nostalgia most people do, and I liked the new one quite a bit more. Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep, and Stanley Tucci are all firing on all cylinders, and there’s a treasure trove of cameos. One of the surprises of the year for me.

The Drama

HBO Max

One of the most shocking movies of the year, which was marketed extremely well, cleverly hiding what it was exactly about, stars Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as a couple nearing their wedding date. While going through a reception menu tasting and having a bit too much wine, they play a game with their best friends, with each admitting what’s the worst thing they have done. From there, things spiral out of control in glorious ways. Leave it to a Norwegian filmmaker to nail an aspect of American society.

Over Your Dead Body

AMC+

Jason Segel and Samara Weaving play a married couple who go on a vacation while unknowingly each plan to “take care” of the other. The Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone directs this remake of the Norwegian film The Trip (lots of Norway this weekend). I had a decent time with this one, it seems most people liked it more than I did. I felt that it leaned a little too much into the violent aspects while I was looking for more comedy. I’m still a Weaving Stan.

A Private Life

Netflix

Jodie Foster stars as a psychiatrist who mounts a private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered. This had a pretty short stint in theaters, and I didn’t get a chance to catch it, but it has solid reviews, and Foster is a legend.

Untitled Home Invasion Romance

Hulu

Ever since I’ve heard of this one, I’ve been very interested in watching it. American Pie’s Jason Biggs stars in and makes his directorial debut in this film where he plays a man in a failing marriage and, in a last-ditch effort to salvage it, stages an invasion while on a romantic weekend getaway. Lots of movies about failing marriages and criminal plots this weekend. Pen15’s Anna Konkle also stars.

Time and Water

Hulu

From the Oscar-nominated director of the fantastic documentary Fire of Love comes a similar film, even if the subject seems to be a polar opposite. An Icelandic writer preserves vanishing glaciers, departed grandparents, family memories, and flowing time in his personal archives, transforming loss into a time capsule. I thought Fire of Love was great, so I’ll definitely give this a watch when I can.

The Devil’s Mouth

Amazon Prime Video

I was ready to completely ignore this but then saw Kathryn Newton stars in it, so it at least has my curiosity. A group of college friends vacation in Thailand (always a bad omen in movies), only to find themselves trapped in submerged caves with a predator. Sounds like a party atmosphere The Descent. Still will probably pass on this, but there’s definitely worse stuff on streaming.

This week’s Horror Selection from Shudder

Nightborn

AMC+/Shudder

This Finnish folk horror (so close to the Norwegian hat trick) stars Ron Weasley as a man who moves with his wife to an isolated house in the forest where they start their family. Mommy knows best, though, and is convinced something is horribly wrong with her newborn son. Foreign horror is never afraid to go full tilt, so it might be a wild ride.

And that’s it for this weekend. For more in-depth reviews on some of these movies and many others, follow me @DestroVega on Letterboxd or on just about any social media platform.

But this movie really appreciates the ending of the last film. It doesn’t try to just dismantle it or pretend like it didn’t happen. The value really is in Peter’s evolution as a person. Allowing him to mature and putting him up against things not only physically, but emotionally as well. In a big city, where everyone admires him, he can’t share it with the people he loves.

I’ll just say Holland is fantastic in his scenes with Zendaya’s MJ and she gives him the right amount of charm back. The fact that there is this history we all know about, and he knows about, but she doesn’t know creates all of this tension in these scenes that is handled really, really well. I loved his back and forth with Punisher, aka Frank Castle and Jon Bernthal is fantastic in the role. Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner is also in this movie and his moments lead to a fun and satisfying scene. Also there are a couple cameos that show up and I was a big fan of their appearances.

This movie knows exactly who Spider-Man is. This might be the most accurate live action adaptation of Spider-Man to the comics to date. It gets really big and uses lots of MCU characters, but you never for a second would think it is not a Spider-Man film. I think this movie makes Hulk better than he’s been in a long time. I love the relationship with Ned and Peter. This movie is maybe my favorite Tom Holland Spider-Man performance, period. It is one of my favorite Zendaya performances.

The first act feels like a series of Spider-Man comics, where he’s just going up against various villains. It didn’t feel like they were trying to go for nostalgia bait. I love the idea of picking up with Peter Parker now, all these years later, to see what his life is like as Spider-Man.

Destin Daniel Cretton’s first outing as director taking over from John Watts has proved himself as a very good choice.

This is the best looking of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films. The shadows in this movie are great. The color in the movie pops and the swinging scenes are wonderful. They’re probably some of the best I’ve seen since The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Now let’s talk about the elephant in the room, Sadie Sink. No spoilers of course, her character has been shrouded in mystery for months and I’m definitely not going to tell you who she’s playing. All I’ll say is that Marvel totally has plans for this character. Her scenes with Holland shows why Sink is such a great up and coming actress.

Michael Giacchino’s themes are strong and the song choices were on point. It runs just under two and a half hours, and there’s one scene after the credits. Whatever Cretton wants to do next, let him.

But this is a really good continuation of what Tom Holland has brought to this character, and the story really respects that. This is one of my favorite MCU films in recent years and probably now my favorite Spider-Man live-action movie. The MCU has been on a bit of a downslide lately, so that’s not saying a lot. I can’t wait to see it again.

4.5 / 5.0 — Go see it opening weekend.

Arrival

Arrival has been sitting up there the longest, for about six years. I caught it on Veterans Day weekend while it was still playing in the theaters and the only seat left was front row, so I watched the whole thing with my neck craned up at the screen. Even from that angle I was floored by what Denis Villeneuve had put in front of me. The setup could not be more basic. Aliens show up and nobody can figure out how to talk to them. Every disaster after that comes down to people failing to understand each other, and it works better than most of the alien-invasion movies I’ve sat through.

That’s also the film where I clocked what Villeneuve is capable of. The reveal at the end goes back and reorganizes everything you’ve spent two hours watching, and I had no idea it was coming. I’ve been walking into theaters hoping to get hit like that again ever since.

Amy Adams is doing all of the heavy lifting and the Academy managed to look right past her. She picked up nominations everywhere else that hands out awards and then her name wasn’t on the Oscar list at all. Villeneuve said he was disappointed by it.

A Few Good Men

I was a teen the first time I watched this and I’d guess half of it went over my head. Rank system, the weight of what Col. Jessup is defending, none of that meant anything to me yet.

Then I entered the Air Force. I was watching JAG, the TV show, around that same time and spending my days around officers, and at some point, the vocabulary stopped being background noise and started being language I actually understood. Going back to A Few Good Men after that was like watching something I’d never seen before.

The script is about as good as courtroom writing gets and every actor in it is working at the same level. There’s a reason people are still quoting “You can’t handle the truth!” thirty-plus years later. The scene holding it up is built well enough to carry the weight.

Dune: Part Two

I’d seen the first Dune and that was all the convincing I needed. Villeneuve has reached the point with me where I’ll buy a movie ticket without reading anything about it first. Choosing between the two parts was a real problem and I went back and forth on it, but Part Two wins by a nose. It’s also the most recent addition, the one that knocked Back to the Future out of the fourth slot.

The scale is great, and I felt it in the theater seat, but that isn’t what keeps it in my top four. Paul Atreides spends the whole movie carrying a prophecy other people built for their own reasons, and he uses it anyway, because it’s the only route he can see to protecting what’s his. Watching a man talk himself into a war he knows is coming is not a comfortable sit right now.

Then there’s Chani. She’s the one person who won’t bow to the myth, and Paul picking the myth over her is the real gut punch.

Parasite

As part of a military family, I was born in South Korea. I’ve lived most of my life in the United States.

The engine of the film is pressure, the pressure to survive and to get ahead, and watching it showed me something about how my mother saw the world while raising a family under exactly that. The movie puts it right on the screen.

Then it won Best Picture. First Korean film, and the first non-English-language film ever, at the 92nd Academy Awards. A story out of my heritage recognized as the best in the world, and nobody had to soften it or Westernize it first. I remember exactly where I was.

I also just think it’s a great movie. I saw it in a theater with the subtitles running and it’s funnier than people give it credit for, a dark comedy sitting inside a class thriller, right up until it turns into something else.

Two more deserve a mention. Interstellar held a slot until Parasite took it, the same way Back to the Future held one until Dune. Neither of them dropped for me. They just got outranked.

The Odyssey is the odd case. I saw it in four formats, including IMAX 70mm, in six days. A movie that’s been out a week has no business sniffing around my all-time favorites, and this one is. Putting it in the four right now would just be recency bias. Ask me in a year.

That’s my four. I’m not so great with the video challenges, so instead I’m nominating Violet to tell us hers next. Everyone else, what’s sitting at the top of your profile, and how did it get there?