Welcome to Trust Me, I Watch Everything, a weekly guide to notable new movies opening or becoming available each Friday.
The Johnny Depp comeback vehicle Ebenezerdebuts in theaters this weekend alongside several other new releases, including Jim Caviezel’s Ghost Soldier.
If you’d prefer a movie night at home, you can rent or buy Brad Pitt’s Heart of the Beastand Jessica Chastain’s Other Mommy.
Over on streaming services you’re likely already paying for, get a double dose of Chastain by checking out Heartlandon Netflix, or be moved by the inspiring Being Heumannon Apple TV.
Let’s dive in!
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Movies newly available to rent or buy
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Movies newly available on streaming services you may already have
🎥 What to watch in theaters
The buzziest release: Ebenezer
Why it’s a mixed bag: The funniest bit in Ebenezer is unfortunately in the marketing and not the movie: Making “the story you haven’t seen” the centerpiece of the ad campaign, when the movie itself is just a completely straight retelling of one of the most adapted stories ever, is laugh-out-loud hilarious. Before he was Scrooge, he was … Ebenezer! It’s a very silly tagline, considering he’s always been both.
We all know Charles Dickens’sA Christmas Carol, but here’s the description anyway: Johnny Depp stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who embarks on a supernatural journey after visits from the ghost of his former business partner and the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come force him to confront his past and fight for a second chance at happiness.
The long and short of it is this: It’s a totally competent, perfectly fine adaptation that, unfortunately, is inextricably tied to the metatextual career-rehab element for its star, who harms the movie more than he helps it. It’s damn near impossible not to read into Depp, on a huge screen, yelling, “I’m not the man I was!” as the powers that be hope audiences accept this fictional apology as a real one.
Depp plays Scrooge like a cartoon character, or like he put on all that makeup to sell you a cellphone during the Super Bowl. It’s a big, broad performance full of mugging, rendered less interesting than a Depp creation like Captain Jack Sparrow simply because we’ve seen Scrooge in exactly this fashion so many times before.
Thankfully, all the supporting players around Depp fare far better, as they give real, committed performances pitched earnestly. Tramell Tillman and Andrea Riseborough both do excellent work as the Ghost of Christmas Present and Ghost of Christmas Past, respectively. The aesthetics of the movie also work well, with director Ti West successfully transitioning from cheap indie horror fare to bigger-budget studio work, crafting some genuinely spooky sequences and leaning into the scary stuff in fun ways.
When making something like this, all parties involved should ask themselves, “Is this better than what the Muppets have already done with the material?” The answer here is no, but it’s a serviceable adaptation that’s just a bit too uninspired to muster much excitement about.
What other critics are saying: They’re mixed. Amelia Emberwing at TheWrap writes, “There have been successful retellings of A Christmas Carol, and there will be more in the future. Far more adaptations, however, sit on a long list of forgotten attempts to cash in on the holiday box office. West’s film joins the latter.” The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, however, liked it well enough, writing, “This is a decent enough new version, avoiding any big new revisionist takes which might have clunked.”
How to watch:Ebenezeris now playing in theaters nationwide.
Another buzzy option: Ghost Soldier
Why it’s (also) a mixed bag:Ghost Soldieris an incredibly silly movie that, sadly, takes itself a bit too seriously when it would’ve worked far better had it leaned into all the goofiness.
In the first conservative-coded action thriller to be released since last week’s blue wave, Jim Caviezel plays Henry “Fitz” Fitzgerald, a man who’s spent years living quietly off the grid, hiding from a past few people know anything about. When a powerful foreign corporation moves into his hometown to seize his neighbors’ land to build data centers, claiming eminent domain, Fitz is forced to reveal who he really is: a former special forces soldier and advanced weapons developer. Armed with experimental technology, lethal combat skills and an unwavering code of justice, Fitz wages a one-man war against an enemy that never saw him coming.
In short, Caviezel’s character is basically an invincible super-soldier who creates high-tech weaponry like curved bullets and — spoiler alert — a literal invisibility cloak. I was laughing my ass off whenever a ludicrous high-tech gadget appeared, and I wish the movie had explored those details; their use feels totally out of left field here. Hilariously, they show off the curved bullets in the first act only to never use them at all.
There’s a lot of melodrama laid on real thick about just how evil the data center developers are, literally killing people to steal their land and water rights. The evil corporation is called Brownstone — because BlackRock would sue — and that’s about the level of subtlety on display here.
But who needs subtlety? Ghost Soldieris essentially an ’80s-style one-man army where Rambo is also Batman and Iron Man, with a worthy group of villains that viewers on both ends of the political spectrum can enjoy watching get taken down a peg. Director William Eubank does formidable work with the action sequences, though the violence does feel hampered by its PG-13 rating, not a great look when that’s half the appeal. It also feels cut down to be exactly 90 minutes, which is both a gift, in that it’s short, and a curse, in that you can tell it’s been chopped up.
Ghost Soldierdoes just enough right to recommend for fans of the genre or its star, but with a few small tweaks, it really could’ve been a hoot.
What other critics are saying: Reviews aren’t the kindest. The AV Club’s Siddhant Adlakha writes that it’s “barely coherent, and it makes some audacious promises it doesn’t even try to keep.” The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager dug it, writing, “If [this] saga is woefully hackneyed, it at least boasts a jingoistic B-movie spirit that would have made it right at home in the 1980s.”
How to watch:Ghost Soldieris now playing in theaters nationwide.
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Victorian Psycho: “Scream Queen” Maika Monroe is having the time of her life as the titular “Victorian psycho,”but the movie — based on the novel of the same name and written by the author of said book, Virginia Feito — unfortunately doesn’t live up to her incredibly fun performance. When eccentric young governess Winifred Notty arrives at a remote gothic manor, a string of unsettling events leads the household to suspect she isn’t who she claims to be — but the truth may be far more dangerous than they imagine. It’s not funny enough to work as a comedy and not horrific enough to function as pure horror. The supporting cast, including Jason Isaacs, Ruth Wilson and Thomasin Mackenzie, is full of great performances, though; it just doesn’t amount to much! Get tickets.
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Paper Tiger: Auteur James Gray (Little Odessa, We Own the Night, Armageddon Time) is back with yet another crime thriller about family, the Russian mob and growing up in Queens. Two brothers (Miles Teller and Adam Driver) become entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true. As they try to navigate their way through the dangerous world of the Russian mafia, family bonds begin to fray, with life-altering consequences. This description could describe a number of Gray’s films, but Paper Tiger — much like Wild Horse Nine,in which filmmaker Martin McDonagh iterates on a theme to great effect — feels like Gray finally making the movie he’s been trying to make his whole career. It’s a tense family melodrama that just so happens to feature the Mafia and will certainly end in tragedy. At first glance, it’s grounded and seemingly low-stakes; eventually, you realize that’s not true. It’s a rich work that culminates with a breathtaking sequence of violence that will have you questioning what you learned from it. Currently in limited release before opening wide on Nov. 20.Get tickets.
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How to Rob a Bank:The latest film from David Leitch (Bullet Train, The Fall Guy) sports a killer cast and has been described as “Robin Hoodfor the TikTok generation.” A crew of social media-savvy bank robbers broadcasts their daring heists, unaware that their growing viral fame has put them in the crosshairs of a veteran FBI agent and a brilliant software engineer. Despite the unlikely duo closing in, the crime ring pushes past their limits, putting everything on the line for their most ambitious heist yet. Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz, Anna Sawai, Rhenzy Feliz, Pete Davidson, John C. Reilly, Christian Slater and Michael Gandolfini star. Get tickets.
💸 Movies newly available to rent or buy
The buzziest option: Heart of the Beast
Why you should watch it: Sometimes all you need to make a movie is Brad Pitt and a dog. It certainly worked for Channing Tatum!
Heart of the Beastis a survival thriller about a man and his dog stuck in the wilderness. Pitt plays James Belmont, a retired Army Special Forces veteran who has a heart attack while flying in his seaplane with his dog, a retired combat canine named Odin, who I can confirm is a very, very good boy and absolutely steals the show from his A-list costar. Put the dog’s name — it’s Uber — above the title!
The bond between Belmont and Odin feels as real as any relationship I’ve ever seen onscreen; the performances from both the four-legged actor and the bipedal one are worthy of praise. Even though it’s a cinematic cheat code to feature a dog in peril, it became one for a reason: it’s a damned effective way to get an audience emotionally involved.
J.K. Simmons’s early inclusion as a man they encounter in the woods is a great touch, showing how Pitt’s character struggles to connect with others. You really get a sense of why a veteran with his experiences would retreat into nature and spend retirement in the woods with a dog.
Heart of the Beast features a few too many CGI animals and too much CGI-animal-on-CGI-animal violence for my liking, but it’s not enough of a problem to mar the experience. The movieis at its best when it focuses on the “never give up on each other” relationship between Belmont and Odin, which crops up in every action sequence as they encounter one terrifying obstacle after another. The movie also leans a bit too heavily on wartime flashbacks; the specifics there don’t really feel necessary in a story as simple as this about a wounded man and his equally wounded pup.
If you currently love or have ever loved a dog, Heart of the Beastwill likely make you cry. And spoiler alert: no, the dog doesn’t die, an important detail the movie instantly foregrounds.
What other critics are saying:Everyone pretty much agrees that it does what it says on the tin. Lindsay Bahr at the AP writes, “It never strays far from the formula, but while often predictable, occasionally implausible and sometimes even straight propaganda, it’s an effectively thrilling adventure, and Pitt can shed a tear (actually, many) like the best of them.” IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio adds, “The visible, palpable, real bond between James and Odin (and then, of course, Pitt and Uber) would take a heart of stone not to be touched by.”
How to watch:Heart of the Beastis now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
Another buzzy option: Other Mommy
Why it’s a mixed bag: The creepy trailer forOther Mommydebutedahead of Universal’s big summer blockbuster The Odyssey,which means that damn near everybody suddenly became aware of the Jessica Chastain-starring horror movie. It ended up catching unsuspecting moviegoers off guard with a pretty shocking jump scare.
A young girl forms a relationship with a sinister entity in her home that looks uncannily like her own mother, drawing her into a terrifying and increasingly dark world. The Other Mommy entity wants the girl to let her into the girl’s heart, presumably to take over her body and assume human form.
If that sounds like it’s ripe material for a “metaphorror” movie, a horror movie whose terrors are actually standing in for some sort of real-world trauma, you’d be correct. This attempt at realism clashes with the dark fairy tale dream — or rather, nightmare — logic that rears its head throughout.
Rob Savage directs the hell out of it, his whacked-out visual language and swirling camerawork rendering a shot of a girl rifling through a freezer interesting, and deploying a 360-degree tracking shot to put us in the point of view of a girl on a tire swing. Transitions between scenes are similarly gonzo.
I actually found all the spooky stuff associated with the entity, like the way it wears people like skin suits and the uniquely chilling disintegration that occurs when it changes form, pretty effective.
The biggest problem with Other Mommyis that it’s all over the place. It takes an Insidiousdetour for a bit, turns onto the Itfreeway,and its ever-expanding nightmare logic gives way to some A Nightmare on Elm Street-style side quests, which are effective but don’t exactly jibe with the reality of the scenes. The rules here are just inconsistent — the entity can apparently do anything to anyone, even at a crowded party — in a way that’s distracting more than it is disturbing.
I appreciatedOther Mommytaking some bold swings and trying to get at very real issues regarding motherhood, but it overcomplicates things with human melodrama that feels unnecessary and underdeveloped. An expositional monologue that flatly explains the correlations between the entity and the little girl’s worldview just bogs everything down.
Other Mommyworks better as a series of horror set pieces than it does as a coherent treatise on the loss of identity and freedom that occurs when one chooses to become a mother. And that’s fine, though I fear the movie gives away its biggest jump scare in the marketing, and it never really matches that pure shock energy again.
What other critics are saying: Reviews are not kind. Variety’s Siddhant Adlakha says it’s “among the most limp and ineffectual works to grace the screen this year, misfiring in every direction, including and especially its tone.” Richard Lawson at The Hollywood Reporter writes, “The film is missing a sense of dreadful build-up that might help its scares sink in deeper. As is, Savage’s film is an attractive but mostly vacuous collection of jumpy bits and half-baked mythology.”
How to watch:Other Mommyis now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
The buzziest option: Heartland
Why you should see it:Heartland is a good, old-fashioned neo-noir mystery that stands out for its unique, fully realized milieu: the world of country music and the Nashville music scene. Imagine something like Taken, set in the universe of a Taylor Sheridan show.
A former country star, Misty Jones (Jessica Chastain), comes out of seclusion to investigate the disappearance of her niece, a rising country musician. In the process, she must grapple with her own past and Nashville’s seedy underbelly.
The story itself is rather boilerplate, and it’s not the hardest mystery for viewers to solve, but writer/director Shana Feste infuses it with complex characters and lively music, making it a treat to sink into. These people are far from archetypal; you think you’ve got Chastain’s Misty all figured out, but the screenplay does a great job of revealing more of her as the film goes on, using the audience’s preconceived notions of the character to sneak in some unexpected depth and pathos.
Heartlandwinds up being about the poor treatment of young women in spaces such as a local country music scene and also the world stage, where abusive men tend to have all the power. It’s an unexpectedly moving thriller that uses the trappings of genre entertainment to tell an important story.
What other critics are saying: They like it! Nick Schager at The Daily Beast writes, “With its star crooning, carousing and cutting off her enemies’ appendages as a disgraced singer back in her old stomping grounds, it offsets its predictability with knockabout ferocity.” TheWrap’s William Bibbiani writes, “Chastain is one of those performers who can do anything. So, why not headline a Netflix Original whodunnit that plays like the best airplane novel you never read, and — one can only hope — the first in a long, long series?”
How to watch:Heartlandis now streaming on Netflix.
Another buzzy option: Being Heumann
Why you should see it:The director of Apple TV’s 2021 surprise Best Picture winner CODA, Sian Heder, returns to the streaming service with a new film that is arguably equally inspiring.
Being Heumanntells the story of real-life disability activist Judy Heumann. Scrappy, defiant and done being treated like a burden, Heumann turns her outrage into a revolution. In 1977, she and more than 100 disability rights protesters sent a very loud message — the system is broken, not us — by organizing a sit-in that helped pave the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act.
It’s a powerful and moving film made all the more effective and affecting by casting real people with disabilities. When they monologue to the camera about their experiences, it feels genuine because it is. These are very real stories, and the movie does an excellent job of showcasing how we are all living in the ADA-compliant world that wouldn’t exist if not for Heumann and her bravery and tenacity. You really grow to appreciate all the hard work that goes into fighting for permanent change at the federal level.
Ruth Madeley is sensational and really carries the film as Heumann, and dozens of actors you’ve never seen before also make a hell of an impression. A-lister Mark Ruffalo is great as the reluctant face of the U.S. government, initially resistant to the disability community’s demands.
Being Heumannis a rousing, humanistic work that showcases an important moment in our country’s history and the power of community in effecting lasting change. The fact that it manages to do so with plenty of laughs alongside the tears makes it all the more impressive.
What other critics are saying: They mostly dig it. Robert Abele at the Los Angeles Times writes, “Being Heumann is never dull, because this incident and its impact were never dull, nor was the principled, unwavering Heumann herself.” The AV Club’s Anna McKibbin, however, writes that “Heder makes the mistake of flattening history into entertainment, which means that Being Heumann is less enjoyable than simply reading about reality.”
How to watch:Being Heumannis now streaming on Apple TV.
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The End of Oak Street: David Robert Mitchell’s The End of Oak Streetplays like the most exciting Jurassic Parksequel never made: an old-fashioned Amblin-style, otherworldly adventure about a deteriorating family unit in the suburbs that reveals the cracks in the idyllic white-picket-fence American dream. After a mysterious cosmic event rips Oak Street from suburbia and transports their neighborhood to an unknown place, the Platt family (headed by Anne Hathaway, continuing her very busy year, and Ewan McGregor) soon discovers that their very survival depends on sticking together as they navigate their now-unrecognizable surroundings. It’s a satisfying blockbuster that just wants to deliver crowd-pleasing entertainment. There are, absolutely, bigger ideas at play here — a suburban street literally transported back in time carries a lot of thematic weight — but the movie isn’t full of hokey messaging, despite arguably being “about” something. The film may make some questionable narrative decisions in the final act, but none of that detracts from it being a terrifically good time. Now streaming onHBO Max.
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Misty Green: Comedian Chris Rock’s latest effort as writer/director bombed so badly in theaters that its planned wide theatrical release was scrapped, and the movie was quickly pulled from cinemas after a brief run in about 100 theaters. Years after her Hollywood breakthrough, a talented actor (played by Rosalind Eleazar) whose career has stalled fights for her second act. It’s part cynical Hollywood satire and part character study of a frustrating and arguably unsympathetic person who can’t get out of her own way. Unfortunately, the movie gets bogged down by multiple unnecessary subplots that lead nowhere. Rock proves himself here to be a true multihyphenate — a bad actor, a bad writer and a bad director — but Eleazar gives a great, star-making performance throughout and almost single-handedly makes it work. Now streaming onNetflix.
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Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass: This extremely silly and stupid comedy (complimentary) will appeal to fans of David Wain’s previous work, like Wet Hot American Summerand They Came Together,and probably nobody else. When her fiancé cheats on her with his “celebrity pass,” small-town hairdresser Gail Daughtry (Zoey Deutch) decides to get even. Her quest leads her on a wild adventure through Hollywood as she frantically searches for her own celebrity pass: actor Jon Hamm. It’s very loosely spoofing The Wizard of Oz, and more generally satirizing Hollywood, but both take a back seat to joke-a-minute gags of all kinds, including a Mad Menreunion between Hamm and John Slattery. You’re either allergic to this type of comedy or find it hilarious. Now streaming onNetflix.
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Avengers: Endgame Encore:This re-release of Marvel’s 2019 record-breaker is meant to get audiences excited and ready for Avengers: Doomsday. The IMAX and “Infinity Vision” versions include an extended preview for Doomsday as well as an additional post-credit scene; standard showings add roughly two minutes of footage, which is also included in the IMAX version. This version is now available to watch at home.Now streaming on Disney+.
That’s all for this week! We’ll see you next Friday.
Looking for more recs?Find your next watch on the Yahoo 100, our daily list of the most popular movies of the year.
