
Clockwise from top: The Chair Company, Tron: Ares, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Roofman.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Sarah Shatz/HBO, Paramount Pictures, Disney, Lionsgate/Everett Collection
Last week was about Taylor Swift, but this week is Nine Inch Nails’ album-release party in theaters — a.k.a. Tron: Ares. That’s the best thing this film, which features Jared Leto as an AI protagonist, has going for it. There’s also J.Lo doing what J.Lo does best (performing dramatically), Channing Tatum doing what he does best (being a lovable doof), and Tim Robinson doing what he does best (being a real silly sicko).
Tim Robinson stars as a shopping-mall developer who sits on a chair that collapses onstage, sending him on a quest to track down the manufacturer. Surreal events transpire. If you’re wondering whether he can expand I Think You Should Leave’s specific humor into serialized storytelling form, the answer is “yes” — by grafting it into the frame of a conspiracy thriller. —Nicholas Quah
Jennifer Lopez is an Old Hollywood star in Bill Condon’s movie adaptation of the stage musical, in which young gay window dresser Molina (Tonatiuh) regales his cellmate, political revolutionary Valentín (Diego Luna), with the story of his favorite musical starring Ingrid Luna (Lopez), a.k.a. the Spider Woman. If you’re missing the feel of Old Hollywood musicals, Kiss of the Spider Woman will try its best to remedy that.
“Joachim Rønning does get his own kick-ass score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, all ominous throbbing, but can’t come up with anything visually distinctive. He imports the streaks-of-colored-light showdowns from the digital grid onto the paved roads of a real city, but that turns out to be far less cool looking than dumping a human into an alien computerized world.”
In this film based on a true story, Channing Tatum plays Jeffrey Manchester, a notorious spree robber known for stealing from a variety of McDonald’s franchises. Roofman is set after Manchester’s prison escape while he’s hiding out in a Toys“R”Us, where he meets and falls in love with employee Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst).
We’ve had The Woman in the Window, The Woman in the Yard, even The Girl on the Train. Well, now she’s on a boat — or rather, falling off one. Keira Knightley stars in Netflix’s new thriller, based on a book by Ruth Ware, as a journalist aboard a luxury cruise ship who sees somebody getting tossed over the side. When she attempts to raise the alarm, everyone tries to gaslight her into thinking there never was anybody in Cabin 10. What’s the cover-up? —James Grebey
James Wan, the man behind Saw, The Conjuring, and Malignant, executive-produces a spooky new Netflix series that stretches the limits of what should count as a documentary. The show features people describing paranormal encounters they claim to have had as reenactments bring their scary stories to life. —J.G.
Kathyrn Hunter knocks on Dakota Fanning’s door and tortures her with a box of horrors. Written and directed by The Strangers filmmaker, Bryan Bertino, Vicious torments Fanning’s Polly with a box that asks for three things from her: a thing she needs, a thing she hates, and a thing she loves. If she doesn’t offer them, well, totally chill things will happen, I’m sure.
➽ Plus, The Conjuring: Last Rites is available on digital, and Elisasue is on HBO Max.
“Tim Meadows rarely, if ever, misses when he’s asked to add a little something extra to an existing quality product. He’s doing exactly that in the second season of Peacemaker, a show that established a commitment to being silly and profane in its first season and has done very little to make us think it will do otherwise going forward. (About that: It is kind of funny to think about someone watching the most recent Superman movie and diving into Peacemaker to tie together the now-connected DCU and seeing Tim Meadows curse at an eagle he thinks is a duck while raiding a house that had very recently hosted an orgy featuring dozens of fully nude extras.)”
What could top a Nicholas Hoult cameo? Maybe just all of Meadows’s performance in Peacemaker. Read more of writer Brian Grubb’s ode to season two’s secret weapon here.
Pulse and Cure director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of the greatest names in J-horror. His latest film is about the most horrifying thing of all. That’s right: capitalism, baby! Cloud follows a man who makes a living as an online reseller, but it doesn’t take long before this #Hustle #Grindset wreaks havoc on his life — not to mention the lives of everybody he has ripped off or slighted. —J.G.
The first live-action DreamWorks Animation adaptation has made its way to Peacock. Is this new How to Train Your Dragon as good as the original cartoon, which is also streaming on Peacock? Of course not, but it’s still thrilling to watch Hiccup and Toothless soar through the clouds regardless of the medium. —J.G.
Want more? Read our recommendations from the weekend of October 3.
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