Hello, Yahoo readers! My name is Brett Arnold, film critic and longtime Yahoo editor, and I’m back with another edition of Trust Me, I Watch Everything.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s highly anticipated new film, One Battle After Another, with Leonardo DiCaprio, is an instant Oscar frontrunner and hits theaters nationwide alongside the sequel to a horror franchise reboot, The Strangers: Chapter 2.
At home, the latest film from Disney and Marvel, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, is newly available to rent or buy, as is Splitsville, a hilarious modern screwball comedy starring Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona.
And there are a ton of new options on streaming services you’re likely already paying for, including Nicolas Cage in The Surfer and the Ana de Armas-led John Wick spinoff Ballerina.
Read on, because there’s more where that came from, and there’s always something here for everyone!
🎥 What to watch in theaters
My recommendation: One Battle After Another
Why you should see it: One Battle After Another is an astonishingly entertaining film. It’s also so incredibly of-the-moment and full of career-best performances that it’s an instant Oscar frontrunner.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s genre-defying movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguson, a washed-up revolutionary who lives in a state of drug-induced paranoia. He’s surviving off-grid with his spirited and self-reliant daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti). When his evil nemesis (Sean Penn) resurfaces and Willa goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her as both father and daughter battle the consequences of their pasts.
Sean Penn in “One Battle After Another.”
In short, Anderson made a stoner-dad political satire about how each generation finds themselves befuddled by the next, no matter how subversive and revolutionary they were in their youth. The film is a five-star experience, a pure blockbuster spectacle, never didactic or lecturing. It’s punctuated by tons of action, including shoot-outs and car chases, including one of the most riveting and impeccably photographed ones I’ve ever seen, which really takes advantage of its hill-ridden road.
Penn is unbelievable as the antagonist Col. Steven Lockjaw. His physicality is so appropriately sickening that it’ll stick with you. DiCaprio is typically excellent, earning tons of laughs in a role that, at a certain point, becomes “What if an Ethan Hunt-type guy was too stoned to remember the very important passcode needed to get his impossible mission?” Infiniti also stands out as DiCaprio’s daughter in a revelatory debut performance that helps get to the emotional core. Teyana Taylor also makes a hell of an impression despite limited screen time, and Benicio Del Toro is a delight here, in his second picture of the year directed by an Anderson.
One Battle After Another is the very best film of the year, and one of the most exciting American films of the decade.
What other critics are saying: It’s got terrific buzz. The Associated Press’s Jake Coyle is one of many critics hailing it as “an American masterpiece.” David Ehrlich over at Indiewire gushes that it’s “monumental” and writes that it “might be among the sillier films that Anderson has ever made, but there’s no mistaking the sincerity of its horrors, or how lucidly it diagnoses the smallness of the men inflecting them upon the innocent and the vulnerable.”
How to watch: One Battle After Another is now in theaters nationwide.
Bonus not-a-recommendation: The Strangers: Chapter 2
Why you should skip it: The original plan for this reboot of the popular 2008 horror film The Strangers was to release all three films in a new trilogy within weeks of each other, emulating the strategy Netflix deployed for their Fear Street films in 2021.
The Strangers: Chapter 1, however, ended up coming out in May 2025, and it took nearly a year and a half for this alleged middle part to make its way to theaters. Rumor has it that it even underwent serious reshoots after fans were disappointed with that first installment. Did those new sequences make any difference?
Sadly, not really. The Strangers: Chapter 2 is so bad and boring, I was actively writing the Scary Movie-style parody of it in my head during every sequence. The degree to which it lends itself nicely to that is actually ridiculous, and I assure you that version is very funny. There’s at least one scene featuring a CGI animal that is actually indistinguishable from a spoof of itself.
Divorced from that planned release strategy of all three coming out within weeks of each other, this trilogy makes no sense. There’s simply not enough story here; it’s vamping at feature length to fill time. It’s just an elongated chase scene, clearly indebted to other famous horror sequels, such as the original Halloween II, which is also set in a hospital shortly after the events of the original film. It’s all more fun on paper than it is in execution here. There’s one extended sequence, in which our Final Girl (Riverdale‘s Madelaine Petsch) runs from one set piece to the next, that actually builds some decent tension, but it’s all in service of a whole bunch of nothing.
What was clear after The Strangers: Chapter 1 is proven correct yet again: this specific approach to these characters is fundamentally wrong and constantly at odds with their entire deal. Adding a tragic and emotional backstory to The Strangers is so antithetical to their point, it borders on insulting.
What other critics are saying: It’s not getting very high marks. Variety’s Dennis Harvey writes, that a certain moment “jumps the shark” but adds “what does work throughout, even when the pileup of our heroine’s brushes with death starts to teeter, is Harlin’s engineering of tense action.” Roger Ebert dot com’s Brian Tallerico says “after this one, I’m truly scared to answer the door for chapter 3.”
How to watch: The Strangers: Chapter 2 is now in theaters nationwide.
But that’s not all…
June Squibb in “Eleanor the Great.” (Courtesy of Sony/Everett Collection)
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Eleanor the Great: June Squibb stars in Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, a strange, well-meaning and mildly baffling film about a woman who pretends to be a Holocaust survivor. Squibb is great, but the script simply doesn’t do a good enough job of getting you to understand why this woman would do such a despicable thing. The tone is too lighthearted for the seriousness of the subject matter. Its heart is certainly in the right place, but its exploration of grief is just kinda bizarre and off-putting. Get tickets.
💸 Movies newly available to rent or buy
My recommendation: Fantastic Four: First Steps
Why you should watch it: The best thing about The Fantastic Four: First Steps is that it doesn’t adhere to the Marvel house style and has a unique look that’s decidedly its own: a retro-futuristic take on the 1960s that feels as indebted to The Jetsons as it does to the comic books it’s based on.
First Steps opens with our heroes — Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) — celebrating four years as America’s superhero protectors. The public knows who they are and appreciates their efforts to keep them safe. But they’re soon forced to balance their roles as heroes and the strength of their family bond while defending Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner).
The film is at its best when it’s leaning into either the silliness or the scale of the sci-fi comic book world these characters inhabit, like when we get a glimpse of villain Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser, a highlight) and his underground world of Subterranea, or when the plot turns to the idea of teleporting entire planets in order to save lives.
If I have a major complaint, it’s that the Fantastic Four’s powers are never really utilized in a way that feels specific to each character. It’s all just generic superhero zipping around and shooting forceful beams out of their hands. The wildly specific skillsets all feel incidental here, rather than expertly written and woven into the narrative or the action.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps may be the third attempt at bringing these classic comic book characters (the fourth, actually, if you count the hastily-made-to-keep-the-rights unreleased 1994 version), but it’s undeniably the most successful of that very cursed bunch. The speed-run character development is a barrier at first, but by the end, I was worn down and accepted that this is what comic book movies are now, nearly 20 years after Iron Man changed everything for the genre.
What other critics are saying: Most agree that Marvel finally got it right this time. William Bibbiani at TheWrap says it’s first-rate, writing, “whatever its drawbacks, feels like a real Fantastic Four movie, and that’s no small achievement.” The AP’s Coyle agrees that the villains steal the show and calls it “a very solid comic book movie.”
How to watch: Fantastic Four: First Steps is now available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple TV and other VOD platforms.
Bonus recommendation: Splitsville
Why you should watch it: This indie screwball comedy manages uproarious big laughs alongside insightful and acidic satire about the thoroughly modern world of open marriages.
When his wife asks for a divorce, a man runs (literally) to his friends for support, only to learn that the secret to their happiness is an open marriage. This openness quickly gets … complicated.
Filmmakers Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin are also the stars of the film, alongside two of the hottest actresses in Hollywood — literally and figuratively —and these two guys, who just look like normal dudes and not A-listers, being married to Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona, is another layer of comedy.
The movie sports a centerpiece fight scene that is a real barnburner, but it’s the rawness and honesty of it all that sneaks up on you, getting at the jealousy, contempt and insecurity lurking under all these new-age ideas of being “open” to your partner sleeping with other people. By the time it leans into absurdism, I was fully on board and howling along with every gag. It’s super impressive that tonally it pulls off the sincerity as well as the comedy.
In short, Splitsville is actually the biting and sexy relationship movie starring Dakota Johnson that Materialists promised to be.
What other critics are saying: It’s a hit with critics! Jake Coyle at AP echoes the screwball detail, calling it “an uncommonly adult farce of infidelity that Cary Grant and Irene Dunne might have chuckled at.” Rolling Stone’s David Fear says, “Should you choose to stay past that opening salvo of sex, death and dick jokes, you’ll discover there’s a tenderness lying right beneath the superficial cynicism.”
How to watch: Splitsville is now available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple TV and other VOD platforms.
But that’s not all…
Orlando Bloom in The Cut. (Courtesy of Republic Pictures/Everett Collection)
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The Cut: Orlando Bloom is absolutely fantastic in this film that aims to subvert everything we know about a boxing movie. It’s all about a boxer trying to make weight for a fight — imagine if the training montage from one of these types of things was the entire movie — and portrays the harsh realities of how far one can push their body in pursuit of redemption. It’s a harrowing psychological drama, and Bloom’s commitment to the roles shines through at every turn. John Turturro is also terrific in a supporting role. Rent or buy.
📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already have
My recommendation:The Surfer
Why you should watch it: This comic psychological thriller starring Nicolas Cage is a real treat for fans of the actor. Fans of good old-fashioned Aussie Ozploitation films will like it too.
Cage stars as a man revisiting his childhood beach to surf with his son. Humiliated by a rowdy group of locals, he becomes entangled in an escalating conflict that pushes him to his breaking point.
It’s laugh-out-loud funny and deeply stressful in equal measure, and there’s a lot bubbling under the surface here regarding modern ideas of masculinity. The late Aussie actor Julian McMahon of Nip/Tuck fame, who died earlier this year, is terrific as the antagonist.
It is also gorgeous to behold, colorful and stylized in such a way that it could be confused for an actual Aussie New Wave film, and that only becomes more true as the surreal elements take hold alongside Cage’s descent into madness. “Don’t live here don’t surf here!” Check it out if you dig movies like Burt Lancaster’s The Swimmer.
What other critics are saying: It’s got great reviews! Amy Nicholson at the Los Angeles Times poignantly writes, “The grief in this film is relatable to anyone who’s realized how hard it is to go home again, whether that means a newly gentrified neighborhood or simply the security of what a middle-class wage used to afford.” The AP’s Jake Coyle says Cage’s “performance of a man brought to near-disintegration can be neatly filed alongside Cage’s many other head trips to the brink.”
How to watch: The Surfer is now streaming on Hulu.
Bonus sort-of-recommendation: From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
Why you should maybe watch it: After a lengthy delay and reports of extensive reshoots, stuntman turned filmmaker Chad Stahelski, the brainchild of the franchise and director of all four John Wick films, was brought in to replace director Len Wiseman. One of its stars, Ian McShane, confirmed in an interview that Stahelski came on board to “protect the franchise.”
He did what he could. Whenever the movie is in hyper-violent action mode, it’s a lot of fun. The problem is that awesome action is almost entirely relegated to the final 45 minutes, which leaves about an hour and 15 minutes of laborious setup.
Whenever the movie slows down to get into the minutiae of the world-building or the backstory of the lead character, it’s a bore, missing the mark of what makes Wick satisfying.
The dark humor that punctuates the violence, a staple of the series, is firmly intact here though, and the more inventive kills involve grenades, flamethrowers and an ice skate. Keeping with franchise tradition, it does appear that Ana de Armas does a lot of her own fighting and stunt work, and it looks great.
While the reshoots clearly added the fluid action that works, they also added in John Wick himself in a way that felt unneeded, taking away from the lead character’s story. I guess the writing was on the wall when the title changed from Ballerina to From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.
🍿 What critics are saying: Don’t come for the storyline! Variety’s Owen Gleiberman called the plot of Ballerina “pure trash,” with the Los Angeles Times’s Nicholson calling it “a snooze.” That said, the fight scenes get high marks. “These movies [live] or die by their action sequences, and to its credit, this franchise expansion pack has a few good ones up its sleeve,” Rolling Stone’s David Fear wrote.
How to watch: From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is now streaming on Starz.
Stream ‘From the World of John Wick: Ballerina’
But that’s not all…
Willem Dafoe and Corey Hawkins in The Man In My Basement. (Courtesy of Hulu/Everett Collection)
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The Man in My Basement: Willem Dafoe and Corey Hawkins star in this movie that probably makes for a better book. Down on his luck, a man agrees to rent his basement to a mysterious stranger, unaware he may be letting in a force much darker than he imagined. It’s an incredibly ambitious movie that sadly doesn’t really work at all. It has too many ideas and gestures at several without nailing down a single one. It’s all a big metaphor about race, which likely worked better on the page, and the horror elements are half-baked and unnecessary. Now streaming on Hulu.
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M3GAN 2.0: This box-office bomb is actually fun, if you’re aware that it’s more of a comedic sci-fi spy adventure that’s riffing on everything from Terminator 2 to Mission: Impossible and not a horror film at all like the original. It’s certainly dumb, but it knows it. Had the movie not been an unreasonably lengthy two hours long, all the silliness would be easier to forgive. Now streaming on Peacock.
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Karate Kid Legends: This new entry in the decades-spanning franchise tries to do it all: be a reboot, a legacy sequel and tie it all to the beloved recent TV spinoff Cobra Kai. The issue is that in trying to do so much — for example, working in both Jackie Chan from the 2010 reboot and Ralph Macchio from the originals and new-to-the-series Joshua Jackson’s pizza guy arc — no one element gets any time to shine, and the whole thing feels incredibly rushed. No argument here, though, that it all wraps up in about 90 minutes. Now streaming on Netflix.
That’s all for this week — we’ll see you next Friday at the movies!
Looking for more recs? Find your next watch on the Yahoo 100, our daily-updating list of the most popular movies of the year.
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