New Movies to Watch This Weekend: Watch ‘Verity’ and ‘Digger’ in Theaters, Rent or Buy ‘Coyote vs. Acme,’ Stream ‘Evil Dead Burn’ on HBO Max

Welcome to Believe me, I watch everythinga weekly guide to notable new films releasing or becoming available every Friday.

The hottest releases this week are Truth, the latest adaptation of Colleen Hoover with the most prestigious cast to date, and Excavator, an obnoxious Tom Cruise Oscar piece that’s expected to bomb miserably.

If you prefer to stay at home, you can rent or buy Coyote versus Acmé, which is newly available after its theatrical release. The film, once shelved for tax write-offs, has officially grossed over $100 million worldwide. You can also consult The uprising with Andrew Garfield.

Want to stick with a streaming service you’re probably already paying for? Evil Burn is coming to HBO Max, and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma debuts on Mubi. It’s horror season, after all!

But the list is really long, so let’s get to it!

🎥 What to watch at the cinema

My colleague Kelsey Weekman covered this one!

The most buzzed release: Truth

Why you should probably ignore it: We can’t talk about it Truth the film without talking about it first Truth the book.

It’s a novel by Colleen Hoover, the modern queen of WTF romance who is also responsible for It ends with us. I really can’t overestimate her impact: she’s sold more books than the Bible in 2022 and built an army of pop star-level fans to become one of the few living authors considered a household name. Hoover’s books, which are very popular on the bookish side of the Internet, are soapy, emotional and – let’s be honest – pretty bad. But that’s what makes them delicious. And Truth is the most delicious of all. It’s a one-star book that delivers a five-star reading experience.

In the film, Dakota Johnson plays a struggling novelist named Lowen who is hired to take over a popular series as a ghostwriter after its original author, Verity (Anne Hathaway), becomes incapacitated. Lowen moves into Verity’s house, becomes embroiled with Verity’s husband Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), and discovers Verity’s disturbing autobiographical writings that may be evidence of a crime.

I found myself begging the movie gods that the movie version of Truth would be just as ridiculous as the book. It’s an erotic thriller full of crazy intrigue. For example, it opens with Lowen witnessing a car accident and blood splattered on his clothes right before an important meeting. Later, she bites his headboard in the exact same place where Verity left bite marks. No spoilers, but Verity is portrayed as so horribly cruel to her children that she might as well be a cartoon witch.

The film preserves many of the book’s crazier events, but Hoover’s bizarrely absurd writing style is ripped off the screen, sucking the campiness out of it. It’s not bad enough to be good in a fun way, but it’s also not good enough to be authentically good. Hathaway, in his fifth film of the year, seems to be having the most fun. And I appreciated that it was probably the first film to feature a The hot ones the interview as a major plot point.

Once I happily watched videos about the book called “Truth by Colleen Hoover is a disjointed dumpster fire. And that’s an understatement.” and “Truth by Colleen Hoover is literally the WORST book ever written.” But I have never been able to muster up so much emotion to talk about the film, which is ultimately very good.

What other reviews say: Those who like it find it fun and campy, but those who don’t like it go all out. “A flat-footed dud, both overworked and underplayed, and barely supported by A-list stars who look either embarrassed, confused or uninterested in being there,” writes Variety’s Guy Lodge. Amelia Emberwing of TheWrap says Truth has its problems, but it “seems like the perfect movie to put on with your girlfriends.”

How to watch: Truth is now playing in cinemas nationwide.

Get tickets

Another release that is creating a buzz: Excavator

Why should you ignore it: Tom Cruise steps out of his blockbuster comfort zone and stars in an ambitious and expensive arthouse film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, a beloved Academy filmmaker and the man behind Oscar-winning films like The ghost And Birdman. This is Cruise’s first “big swing” in probably 20 years or more.

Unfortunately for audiences, it’s an atrocious, unbearable, completely unfunny, pretentious piece of work that is self-aware in a way that completely undermines the premise of the film, literally arguing against its own usefulness. It’s so crowd-unfriendly – the exact opposite of a crowd-pleaser – that I almost have to begrudgingly respect it to exist, especially at this size, scale and pedigree. Almost!

Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a billionaire oilman described as the most powerful man in the world, even more so than the US president. He embarks on a frantic mission to prove himself the savior of humanity before the disaster he personally unleashed destroys everything.

It’s an attempt at satire about a world that prioritizes corporate profits, but it’s never funny and it doesn’t say anything new or interesting. The “jokes” there are so broad, obvious and eye-rolling that you’ll have a hard time believing that’s what they did. Imagine Dr Strangelove if it was zero, or Don’t look for if it were more obnoxious and less funny.

There is one major element of the film that was left entirely out of marketing, and I won’t spoil it here, but it is insulting to the audience and completely deflated as a narrative device. Without going into detail, let’s just say that the film becomes self-aware in a way that took me out of it and made me wonder why on earth I would want to spend any more time watching it.

This revelation, in a cruel twist of fate, is the only funny moment in the entire film, and it’s a moment that’s meant to be taken seriously. To present something so objectively terrible that after 40 minutes the filmmaker steps in to say, “Don’t worry, it’s terrible for a reason” is frankly astonishing. The acting is so over the top that the movie has to pump the brakes and acknowledge it before moving on to the rest, which remains the same type of bad. It’s magnificent!

The message of the film is ultimately: “Making art about the ills of the world is futile, we are all doomed anyway, and you, the person watching this film, are stupid to hope to make something meaningful out of this overly theatrical and didactic garbage.”

Look Excavator is an experience similar to being reprimanded for something you had no part in. The movie aims to cut down on billionaires and those in power, but the people watching the movie aren’t billionaires and probably aren’t in positions of power in government. What does Iñárritu expect me to do about all this?

Cruise is an incredible actor as well as being our latest movie star, but he’s so bad here that he’s more likely to score a Razzie nomination than the Oscar so many pundits expect to get. Digger Rockwell is more of a sketch comedy caricature than a compelling character you’d want to spend two hours with; I constantly shove him and pound him without any subtlety. You’d be sick of this guy in six minutes SNL little.

Excavator is easily one of the worst films of the year, made worse by its own message that films like this do nothing to help the cause and are actually stupid. If you say so!

What other reviews say: It’s mostly a swing and a miss. Time’s Stephanie Zacharek writes: “Iñárritu and his star aren’t telling us a story; they tirelessly sell us the genius of the film they made. AV Club’s Monica Castillo writes: “Excavator lacks emotional depth, being far more interested in showcasing tricks and razzle-dazzle than character development. While Cruise puts on a good show, he bends plot threads to get there.”

How to watch: Excavator is now playing in cinemas nationwide.

Get tickets

But that’s not all…

• Watch out for Boiúna: Unfortunately, this “giant snake killing people in the Amazon” movie doesn’t feature enough of its titular giant snake killing people in the Amazon. It takes a full hour before we get any real snake action, and when we do, it’s obscured by quick editing and what must surely be a low VFX budget. There’s a misdirection that I appreciated in theory, but even that moment feels more disappointing than the “Oh, shit!” reaction they are clearly looking for. Take a shot every time a character says something like, “She decides who lives and who dies” or “That’s her domain.” It’s a disappointment on the part of horror filmmaker Mike P. Nelson (the Wrong turn And Silent night, deadly night reboots), who has just landed the position of director of the next Saw movie. Let’s hope we bring more than that. Get tickets.

💸 Movies newly available to rent or purchase

The best version: Coyote vs. Acme

Why you should see it: It’s been three years since Warner Bros. decided that Coyote vs. Acme would be better for the company’s bottom line if it was shelved indefinitely for a tax deduction rather than getting a theatrical or even streaming release.

Now, thanks to a small independent film production company called Ketchup Entertainment – ​​which also saved another Looney Tunes movie that WB put on the chopping block, 2024 The day the Earth exploded with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig — Coyote vs. Acme triumphantly returned from the dead.

The great irony of this whole ordeal, which has led to tons of backlash for the Warner Bros. CEO. Discovery, David Zaslav, and a wave of protests, online and in person, demanding the film’s release, is that it is in fact the best Looney Tunes movie ever made, by far.

The bar is not really high; people my age probably have a nostalgic affection for Space jam, but it is not at the same level as Coyote versus Acmé, which seems more inspired by WHO…