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See ‘Hoppers’ in theaters, rent ‘The Moment,’ stream ‘War Machine’ on Netflix
Welcome to another edition of Trust Me, I Watch Everything, a weekly guide to all the new movies released on Friday. I’m Brett Arnold, film critic and host of Roger & Me, a weekly Siskel & Ebert-style movie review show.
This week, the latest from Disney-Pixar, Hoppers, hits theaters alongside writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s feminist reimagining of Bride of Frankenstein, The Bride!
At home, you can rent or buy Heel, a disturbing drama, and Whistle, a horror movie about a cursed object.
And on streaming services you’re likely already paying for, a new sci-fi action flick in War Machine hits Netflix, and the Downton Abbey parody film Fackham Hall is now on HBO Max.
Read on, as there’s a lot more, and there’s always something for everyone.
🎥 What to watch in theaters
My recommendation: Hoppers
Why you should see it: Disney-Pixar’s Hoppers is easily the best Disney movie in quite some time, reminding you that Pixar’s name once meant you were guaranteed a terrific time with big laughs, emotional heft and a clever premise that continues to surprise you.
The movie opens with a young animal lover, Mabel, boldly attempting to free all the class animals at her school because she sees how unhappy they are in their cages. It’s a great introduction to the character and the film’s big ideas, which are largely about how kids need to go outside and touch grass, and how humans and animals are both better off living in harmony. Maybe highways don’t need to replace every stretch of land that’s meant for wildlife! Respect the balance of nature!
In the film, scientists have discovered how to “hop” human consciousness into lifelike robotic animals, allowing people to communicate with animals as animals. Mabel seizes an opportunity to use the technology, uncovering mysteries within the animal world beyond anything she could have imagined.
I appreciated how simple-minded Mabel’s plan is: She uses the tech to become a fake beaver in hopes of convincing real beavers and other animals to return to the woods so the mayor won’t bulldoze the area. I also appreciated the mayor’s arc, and how the film stresses that people make mistakes but can be convinced to do the right thing when presented with evidence that could change one’s perception.
But most importantly, it’s laugh-out-loud funny and perfectly charming throughout, with just the right amount of “humans suck” cynicism balanced with idealistic “Save the Whales!”-style feel-goodery. There’s a hilarious moment involving a butterfly that earned shocked gasps from the crowd, followed by laughter. It was then that I knew this wasn’t just a great Pixar movie, but a new kind of Pixar movie, untethered to the specific concerns of previous movies that all follow a fairly similar schema. It’s silly and frantic in the way that reminds me of the best Rick & Morty episodes. The film was directed by Daniel Chong, creator of the beloved Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears, and his comic sensibilities are a wonderful fit for the film.
Hoppers is a hilarious and warm charmer, harkening back to Pixar’s heyday while successfully ushering the studio into new territory. Talking animal movies don’t get much more clever than this!
What other critics are saying: It’s getting glowing reviews! Clarisse Loughrey at the Independent calls it “odd and spiky enough to carve out its own niche.” The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney writes, “It shouldn’t all hang together as well as it does, but the movie’s freewheeling plotting is exhilarating, even more so when a frantic chase accelerates the action.”
How to watch: Hoppers is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Get tickets
My bonus not-a-recommendation: The Bride!
Why you should skip it: Maggie Gylenhaal’s primal scream of a film, The Bride!, really earns that exclamation point, though it ultimately leaves you with the impression that a question mark would’ve been more fitting. It’s one of those films critics talk about as “ambitious” or a “big swing,” which is code for “it cost a ton of money and is an absolute mess in every way.”
This reimagining of Bride of Frankenstein opens with Jessie Buckley, who is widely expected to win an Oscar next weekend, portraying Mary Shelley, the long-deceased author of Frankenstein, as a sort of vengeful ghost here to introduce a sequel that’s worthy of her. It then sets up the incredibly convoluted actual story, which involves Shelley inhabiting, by way of possession, a 1930s flapper/gangster’s moll named Ida, who is dead a scene after she’s introduced. The dynamic here is best described as “Ida is Gollum, and Mary Shelley is Smeagol,” which is a sentence I can’t believe I’m typing, and a concept I can’t believe made it from script to screen in this mega-budget movie. It’s a big choice that doesn’t work, and Buckley’s overacting is so off-putting that she’s lucky the movie is coming out now and not during Oscar voting a month ago, lest she Norbit herself.
We are soon introduced to Christian Bale’s Frankenstein’s monster, aka Frank, as he seeks out a new doctor to help make him a companion. He’s spent many years as a lonely drifter and would like to have “intercourse.” Bale gives the best and perhaps only grounded performance in the film, really making you feel that loneliness and yearning for a partner in crime. That sentiment becomes literal when the pair become lovers on the lam in a Bonnie and Clyde subplot that leads to a half-assed detective yarn featuring Gylenhaal’s real-life husband, Peter Sarsgaard, as a crime-solving buffoon and Penélope Cruz as the secretary who proves to be a more competent detective than he is. You see, behind every man is a woman doing the real work, or whatever.
All of this nonsense is meant to serve the feminist ideals at its center, which may be well-meaning but come off as completely dated and first-thought. The messaging often manifests in very literal ways, like when Buckley shouts “Me too!” over and over, or when their crime spree inspires women across the country to don The Bride’s ink-splotched look, for reasons that are never explained and are never mentioned again. There’s no shortage of ideas presented here; the problem is that none of them gets fleshed out in any meaningful way, so the movie doesn’t seem to know what it’s actually trying to say beyond sneaking in some buzzwords.
No matter how badly you want to support risky big-budget filmmaking and/or feminist reinterpretations of iconic texts, The Bride! shows the limits of conceiving a project messaging-first and figuring out the rest afterward.
What other critics are saying: It’s getting universally panned. Time magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek calls it “an intellectual joyride without the joy.” Rolling Stone’s David Fear, however, has a more forgiving take, writing, “The more you watch the actors give life to the central idea of a meeting of scarred bodies and equal minds, the more you feel like you’re watching something not just perversely over-the-top but personal.”
How to watch: The Bride! is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Get tickets
But that’s not all …
Max the Impaler in Dolly. (Courtesy of IFC/Everett Collection)
(©IFC Films/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Dolly: If you ever wondered, “What would The Texas Chain Saw Massacre look like if Stifler was in it?” Dolly is the movie for you. While it’s great to see Seann William Scott again, the movie itself feels like a pale imitation of better fare, serving as a feature-length excuse to show off a particularly jarring prosthetic that’s featured so often it starts to feel like a joke. As for the plot itself, a woman (she’s about to be proposed to by Scott’s character before they’re … interrupted) is abducted by a deranged figure who wants to raise her as its child. Dolly was shot on 16mm film and has a nice, nasty look to it, and I dug the porcelain mask the killer wears, but there’s little here to get excited about. Every time it pays direct homage to Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it’s just another reminder that your time would be better spent watching that. Get tickets.
💸 Movies newly available to rent or buy
My recommendation: Heel
Why you should see it: Heel is a dark thriller that features sensational performances from the always terrific Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough, as well as relative newcomer Anson Boon. It was titled Good Boy when it debuted at festivals, but changed its name after the dog-centric horror film beat it to the punch.
The plot? A 19-year-old criminal, Tommy, is kidnapped and forced into a rehabilitation process by a dysfunctional couple, Chris and Kathryn, who try to make him a “good boy.” Tommy must find a way to escape.
It’s an extreme premise handed with unexpected subtlety and care for its characters, who may not seem worthy of such empathy at first glance. Tommy is a disaster of a person, getting drunk and high and philandering with no care paid to the collateral damage in his path, even going so far as to post his heinous exploits on social media as if he’s proud of the behavior.
As his kidnappers try and “fix” him, so to speak, they show him his videos on a loop as a means of teaching him a lesson. At first, he’s pleased with his work, but eventually, the A Clockwork Orange-style situation bears fruit. The kidnappers themselves also have compelling reasons for doing what they do, and the movie eventually veers off into directions I never saw coming.
Heel is a thriller with thought-provoking moral and ethical questions that get more and more interesting as the film unfolds. The ending genuinely shocked me, and I appreciated the provocation of its messaging.
What other critics are saying: It’s getting great marks. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw writes, “Graham and Riseborough execute the bland nastiness expertly.” Matthew Creith at TheWrap calls it “doggone exceptional when it comes to the powerhouse acting abilities of Graham and Boon, both of whom take on their roles to showcase opposite ends of the rehabilitation spectrum.”
How to watch: Heel is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
Rent or buy on Apple TV
My bonus recommendation: Whistle
Why you should see it: This horror movie is a shameless knock-off of so many other, much better horror movies — it’s basically mixing Final Destination lore with a Talk to Me-style “teens messing around with a cursed object” flick — but it gets the details right where it counts to a degree that won me over by the end.
A misfit group of unwitting high school students stumbles upon a cursed object, an ancient Aztec death whistle. They discover that blowing the whistle and the terrifying sound it emits will summon their future deaths to hunt them down.
There’s a single kill so ingenious and so reminiscent of the creative death sequences in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise that I have no choice but to recommend it to horror fans. And I appreciate that filmmaker Corin Hardy found a unique way into a very familiar setup; the rationale behind the deaths and how and why they unfold is macabre enough to stand out
What other critics are saying: Reviews are more mixed, but plenty agree with me! Mike McCahill at the Guardian calls it “enough for Friday or Saturday night enjoyment, certainly.” TheWrap’s William Bibbiani dug it, too, writing, “Even though Whistle offers nothing new to the supernatural death curse genre, it’s directed by Corin Hardy, and Corin Hardy likes to go hog wild.”
How to watch: Whistle is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
Rent or buy on Prime Video
But that’s not all …
Charli xcx in The Moment. (Courtesy of A24/Everett Collection)
(Courtesy Everett Collection)
The Moment: My colleague Kelsey Weekman is better suited for this one, so here’s her blurb: Remember “brat,” the hard-partying, emotionally authentic ethos encapsulated by Charli xcx’s 2024 slime-green album of the same name? The artist herself parodies the way her club-rat persona was co-opted by brands and culture vultures — and how she struggled to let her moment die — in this mockumentary I’d describe as a more niche Spice World for people who use organic deodorant. You’ll like it if you know her. Also, Kylie Jenner appears in one scene, and she’s genuinely amazing. Now available to rent or buy.
The Strangers: Chapter 3: The original plan for this reboot of the popular 2008 horror movie The Strangers was to release all three films in a new trilogy within weeks of each other. The Strangers: Chapter 1 came out in May 2024, but it took nearly a year and a half for Chapter 2 to reach theaters in October 2025 after extensive reshoots. The third installment came out last month, and it’s arguably the worst of them all, considering it’s saddled with all the asinine backstory. These movies were ill-conceived from the start, as “the strangers” are scary because we don’t know anything about them, and these movies exist to try and tell us more about them. This is what vamping at feature-length looks like, and I’m eternally grateful this bizarre experiment is over. Now available to rent or buy.
📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already have
My recommendation: War Machine
Why you should watch it: Alan Ritchson’s new Netflix action movie is a reminder that a movie can be extremely simple yet remain taut and effective.
It’s about a military unit in the wild facing an otherworldly threat: During the final stage of U.S. Army Ranger selection, an elite team’s training exercise turns into a terrifying fight for survival. It’s essentially an extended chase scene with a big, scary … thing violently picking these men off one by one.
I appreciated not knowing what was going to happen here, so stop reading now if you’re sold already. The antagonist turns out to be a deadly robot with advanced weaponry designed to pulverize humans in an instant. Imagine Predator if, instead of an actual alien, it were a giant killer robot like the ones you’d see in the Xbox game MechAssault.
There’s just enough pathos to the characters here to make it work on an emotional level, as Ritchson’s character is a veteran and the sole survivor of an incident that claimed the lives of his entire squad, including his own brother. He’s essentially thrown right back into the exact same trauma that he’s worked so hard to escape.
War Machine is an efficient and engaging thrill ride that proves a familiar premise, when imbued with enough creativity, solid character work and a great lead performance, can be a more than worthy affair.
What other critics are saying: William Bibbiani at TheWrap writes, “If you can accept the fact that it’s big, silly and brainless, and nowhere near as good as its obvious influences, and also that it’s shameless propaganda, it’s still possible to have a good time.” Ben Lee at the Guardian adds, “Everything here [is] just about serviceable for the moment yet never memorable enough for the moment after.”
How to watch: War Machine is now streaming on Netflix.
Watch on Netflix
My bonus recommendation: Fackham Hall
Why you should watch it: If this year’s remake of The Naked Gun had you wishing for a full-on resurgence of spoof and parody films, Fackham Hall is here to answer your prayers. Go ahead and say the title out loud if you want to understand the type of humor the movie’s after.
In this very specific yet entirely broad comedy that’s meant to send up traditional period dramas such as Downton Abbey, a new porter forms an odd bond with the youngest daughter of a well-known British family. The Davenport family, headed by Lord and Lady Davenport, is also dealing with the epic disaster of the wedding of their eldest daughter to her caddish cousin. Familiar faces such as Damian Lewis, Katherine Waterston and Thomasin McKenzie earn lots of laughs.
The film is completely silly and falls into the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, aka Airplane and Top Secret!, mold of delivering a joke every few seconds. There’s such a wide breadth of gags here, you’ll be chuckling over the wordplay and miss another hilarious reference to a real-life person or pop culture item. There are running gags, there are sight gags … you name a type of stupid joke, and this movie’s got it.
Your mileage will certainly vary depending on your tolerance for both British humor and, frankly, dumb jokes. But I found myself laughing out loud far more than I expected.
What other critics are saying: Reviews are mixed-positive. Frank Scheck of the Hollywood Reporter says it’s “unlikely to enter the pantheon of great movie spoofs. But it offers sufficient laughs to amuse Downton Abbey fans,” though Matt Hambridge at FandomWire calls it a “chore to get through.” Comedy is subjective, after all!
How to watch: Fackham Hall is now streaming on HBO Max.
Watch on HBO Max
But that’s not all …
Jessie Buckley in Hamnet. (Courtesy of Focus Features/Everett Collection)
(©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Hamnet: Hamnet has already won awards and is nominated for several Oscars, and while Jessie Buckley’s nominated lead performance is impressive, the movie was a fundamental miss for me because the film’s central concept just doesn’t work. The film purports to tell the powerful story of love and loss that inspired Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet. It depicts William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, after the birth of their son, Hamnet. When tragedy strikes and Hamnet dies at a young age, Shakespeare turns to his art. And yet, the movie is strange and cagey about these characters, treating them as IP or Easter eggs to be teased rather than being forthright about it. Hamnet seems to want the audience to “ooh” and “aah” and maybe even gasp when William Shakespeare, who is never explicitly called that in the movie, sits down and writes, “To be … or not to be.” It has the worst tendencies of the “biopic based on a famous figure” genre without any of the potential highs that come along with a more traditional take on the material. The connections between the “real-life” tragedy involving Shakespeare’s son and the play Hamlet are tenuous at best. It feels like it’s grasping at something that is barely there while trying to illustrate its grander point. To be clear, it is a critically acclaimed film, and I am in the minority with my disdain for it. Now streaming on Peacock.
That’s all for this week — we’ll see you next week at the movies!
Looking for more recs? Find your next watch on the Yahoo 100, our daily list of the most popular movies of the year.