Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos:Everett Collection (Philippe Bosse/Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Walt Disney Studios), A24
No one seems to be having a better run this year than Robert Pattinson. (Okay, maybe Anne Hathaway and Zendaya?) After The Drama and The Odyssey comes Primetime, in which he plays Chris Hansen, and his performance is so expressive the trailers alone have inspired a barrage of memes. This weekend we’re also getting a slew of AHS actors back in their most memorable roles, Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman in a rom-com inspired by Reylo fanfic, and Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey facing the challenge of performing themselves.
As To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, Pattinson is absolutely unnerving, giving one of his best performances of the year. But Pattinson is also surrounded by marvelous turns from Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, and Phoebe Bridgers as Lance Oppenheim’s drama dives into the series’ uneasy ascent to must-watch TV.
➽ Merritt Wever is great in this movie.
Return to Hillman College as A Different World tackles a different generation. Maleah Joi Moon stars as Deborah, the daughter of original series stars Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy (Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert, respectively). Deborah attends her parents’ alma mater while reeling over being rejected by her dream school.
The streamer’s dominance of the romance and rom-com space continues with an adaptation of the popular Ali Hazelwood novel starring Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman. Two scientists decide it would be advantageous for them to pretend to date, and wouldn’t you know it, the chemistry between them starts to feel real. —Kathryn VanArendonk
Woody Harrelson likes to think he and Matthew McConaughey are brothers, so now there’s an Apple TV show about that. The actors star as themselves in this fictional comedy where McConaughey’s mom (played here by Holland Taylor) reveals that Harrelson may indeed be related to McConaughey, and the two get into all kinds of trouble as they start living together in Austin, Texas.
➽ Our thoughts? Don’t overthink it.
How American Horror Story got to 13 seasons is beyond me. I don’t remember the last six, but as someone who lived their teen years at the height of Tumblr, I am deathly curious to see what AHS: 13 will produce. There are absolutely no details on the plot — just that it includes the all-stars of memorable AHS seasons past. But where the heck is Taissa Farmiga, the queen of Murder House? This GIF changed lives.
“The ambition in Forgotten Island is overwhelming. It’s a story about friendship, growing up, and memory, deeply rooted in Philippine mythology, and as with the last several DreamWorks movies, it looks gorgeous.” —James Grebey, ranking every DreamWorks animated movie
Endgame’s box-office crown slipped, so Marvel is throwing in some unseen footage (with more Robert Downey Jr.) to go with its rerelease. I suppose it’s more so meant to get people up to speed for Avengers: Doomsday, but that feels a little too late, man.
After the series’s 50th-anniversary season, we’re not exactly back to basics. Twenty-one players, two tribes — there’s still tricks up host Jeff Probst’s sleeve.
This low-budget horror box-office hit has finally made it to streaming. Its world is a “dark outgrowth of the whole liminal-spaces aesthetic … dead malls, or public libraries at night, or hotel hallways or airport passageways caught at a moment when no one else is around,” as Alison Willmore noted in her review. —Eric Vilas-Boas
They’ll never stop making them. At least this one was better than 4. —E.V.B.
➽ Plus Jackass: Best and Last is now streaming on Paramount+, while Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba The Movie: Infinity Castle hits Hulu and Netflix on Monday.
The MTV Video Music Awards are on Sunday night. There’s a whole new crop of pop girlies to smooch, so it makes perfect sense that Madonna will be performing at the show for the first time in 23 years. Just kidding — it’s because she leads the pack this year for nominations. Confessions II earned Mads 11 nods, ahead of other stars such as Taylor Swift (nine), Sabrina Carpenter, and Ariana Grande (seven each). —Bethy Squires
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Photo: GKIDS
Directed by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) and designed by Yoshitaka Amano (Vampire Hunter D, Final Fantasy), Angel’s Egg is a visually stunning anime tone poem set in the aftermath of an apocalyptic cataclysm. Nearly wordless, it tracks the interactions between a young girl holding an egg and a boy holding a gun as they navigate the ruins of a battle-scarred underwater city. Who are they? Where did they come from? And why have they come across each other? GKIDS has given the animation masters’ poignant film its most handsome rerelease yet, accompanied by Amano’s art, interviews with each of its creative leads, and a new essay. —E.V.B.
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