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There may be plenty of new films opening on screens large and small this week — nearly 20! — but in the land of IndieWire, there might as well just be one film arriving on Friday. It’s the only Critic’s Pick of the bunch. It’s been hailed (by our own David Ehrlich, ahem) as a “Great American Movie.” It should catapult Cate Blanchett and Todd Field and Nina Hoss into the awards chatter gauntlet. It’s “TÁR”! And don’t you forget that accent mark or that it’s in ALL CAPS!! (Humble notation: no, seriously, the film really is just that good.)
Elsewhere, this week’s choices run the gamut, we’re talking a new David O. Russell and a film in which international pop star Shawn Mendes stars as a crocodile, a Palme d’Or winner and a new Stephen King adaptation, a brand-new entry into the “Hellraiser” mythos and a Mila Kunis-led drama based on a best-selling thriller. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: this week has something for everyone, and then some.
Each film is now available in a theater near you or in the comfort of your own home (or, in some cases, both, the convenience of it all). Browse your options below.
Week of October 3 – October 9
New Films in Theaters
As new movies open in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWire will continue to review them whenever possible. We encourage readers to follow the safety precautions provided by CDC and health authorities. Additionally, our coverage will provide alternative viewing options whenever they are available.
“Amsterdam” (directed by David O. Russell)
Distributor: 20th Century Studios
Where to Find It: Theaters
A star-studded new historical comedy that’s amusing at best, noxious at worst, and frantically self-insistent upon its own negligible entertainment value at all times as it strains to find the beauty in the mad tapestry of life? That’s right: David O. Russell is back. And while the volatile director’s recent work (“Joy,” “American Hustle”) has been damning enough to dampen enthusiasm for this comeback on its own — even without Russell’s various personal controversies — it doesn’t exactly help matters that his first movie in seven years is a wildly over-cranked plea to “protect kindness” that rings every bit as forced and hollow as you might expect from someone with such a pronounced reputation for killing it himself.
But David O. Russell lives for mess. It’s his ideal state and favorite subject. “Amsterdam,” as with all of the director’s movies, is clearly the work of someone who wanted it to be this way; someone who wanted his sepia-toned noir about one of the United States’ clumsiest political conspiracies to feel like a humorless farce, a sexless “Jules and Jim” love triangle, and also a guileless rebuttal to the latest flare-up of American fascism all at the same time. Read IndieWire’s full review.
“Amsterdam”
Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
“Last Flight Home” (directed by Ondi Timoner)
Distributor: MTV
Where to Find It: Select theaters
When Ondi Timoner’s 92-year-old father told her that he was determined to end his life, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker (“Dig!,” “We Live in Public”) naturally decided to capture his final weeks on camera — to record the 15-day waiting period mandated by the California End of Life Option Act. Deep within her grief a few weeks later, she found herself assembling this most intimate home video footage into something intended for other people to see: a (relatively) commercial product that would premiere at a festival and play in select theaters before living in perpetuity on VOD.
On paper, that might sound like a morbid and/or cynical exercise in mining public content from private loss. On screen, however, Timoner’s warm, open, and unexpectedly gentle “Last Flight Home” rescues a rare grace from the inherent performativity of saying goodbye. The director’s camera encourages her family to make themselves vulnerable and meet the moment head-on, while legal euthanasia offers them enough control over the timeline to let go of their precious Eli with love in both hands. Read IndieWire’s full review.
“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” (directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon)
Distributor: Sony
Where to Find It: Theaters
Whatever associations you may have with Lyle the crocodile, you probably didn’t imagine him crooning like Shawn Mendes. Based on Bernard Waber’s beloved children’s book originally published in 1965, the existence of a “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” movie proves nothing is sacred in Hollywood — especially nostalgic childhood storybooks.
If a CGI crocodile with the dulcet tenor of a pop idol seems at odds with Waber’s freehand illustrations, Javier Bardem is perfectly in step as eccentric showman Hector P. Valenti, star of stage and screen. Bardem’s lesser-seen playful side is on full display in “Lyle,” as he hoofs his way across New York City with madcap gusto. The minute he leaves the croc to fend for himself at the house on East 88th Street, his absence is sorely felt by all — not just lonely Lyle. Along with a few bouncy numbers from “The Greatest Showman” duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Bardem is the driving force behind “Lyle,” and the train loses major steam without its kooky conductor. Read IndieWire’s full review.
“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile”
Sony Pictures Releasing
“Pretty Problems” (directed by Kestrin Pantera)
Distributor: IFC Films
Where to Find It: Theaters, plus various VOD platforms
Anyone expecting “Pretty Problems” to turn into a biting satire about wealth will be sorely disappointed, as the script brings a melon baller to a knife fight on the few occasions when it dips its toe into social commentary. Kestrin Pantera’s film is much more interesting when it explores Lindsay and Jack’s reaction to the way the other half lives. The opulent displays of wealth serve as a Rorschach test for their stagnant marriage, with Lindsay admitting how badly she wants to live in this world and Jack realizing that he’ll never be the kind of partner who will get her there. Read IndieWire’s full review.
“TÁR” (directed by Todd Field) — IndieWire Critic’s Pick
Distributor: Focus Features
Where to Find It: Theaters
“TÁR” is so much more than the Great American Movie about “cancel culture” — a phrase that it humiliates with every movement — but this dense and difficult portrait of a female conductor’s fall from grace also demands to be seen through that singular lens from its very first shot. Todd Field’s thrilling, deceptively austere third film exalts in grabbing the electrified fence of digital-age discourse with both hands and daring us to hold onto it for 158 minutes in the hopes that we might ultimately start to feel like we’re shocking ourselves.
“TÁR” is a provocation full of slow-motion suckerpunches and the driest of laughs (even its accented title is a knowingly pretentious in-joke) and yet Field seems as uninterested in trolling his liberal audience as he is in patronizing them. That sounds like a tough needle to thread for a film so micro-targeted that it opens with a long, long scene of its subject onstage for an expository conversation with The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik, who needs no introduction. Read IndieWire’s full review.
“To Leslie”
“To Leslie” (directed by Michael Morris)
Distributor: Momentum Pictures
Where to Find It: Theaters, plus various VOD platforms
Michael Morris’ “To Leslie” is a redemptive drama about a poor Southern white lady played by Andrea Riseborough, who wins $190,000 in the state lottery and only learns the value of sharing after she’s drank all her cash away. But for a while there, the film is almost as slippery and elusive as the actress who plays its title role.
Is it going to be — as the first stop along its episodic first half would suggest — a gruesome scream-fest between a bottom-of-the-bottle alcoholic and the semi-adult son (Owen Teague) who’s trying to give her a second chance? Is it going to be the trashy throwdown that’s teased by Leslie’s “The Real Housewives of Nowhere, Texas”-style reunion with her old best friend Nancy (Allison Janney in regal biker queen mode) and her partner Dutch (Stephen Root, sporting a camo headband and a flowing wig)? Is it going to be the kind of story that offers a ray of light at the end of the tunnel, or does Leslie just wash up on the streets of her hometown so that she can die on the same patch of dirt where she was born? Read IndieWire’s full review.
“Triangle of Sadness” (directed by Ruben Östlund)
Distributor: NEON
Where to Find It: Theaters
It’s been a long two years since audiences ran away from the American remake of “Force Majeure” like it was a killer avalanche cascading towards their families, so perhaps Ruben Östlund — the rascally Swedish filmmaker whose other features include “Play” and 2017’s Cannes-winning, take-no-prisoners caricature of the art world, “The Square” — has just forgotten that other people are perfectly capable of making toothless, watered-down versions of Ruben Östlund movies. He may have dug that particular hole, but he’s under no obligation to fill it himself.
Alas, the much-anticipated “Triangle of Sadness” — which features Woody Harrelson as the alcoholic communist captain of an 100-meter superyacht once owned by Aristotle Onassis, and which ought to be Östlund’s most hostile and ambitious comedy yet — is frustratingly obtuse by the time it even leaves port. Read IndieWire’s full review.
Also available this week:
“Operation Seawolf” (directed by Steven Luke)
Distributor: Shout! Studios
Where to Find It: Select theaters, plus various digital platforms
“Piggy” (directed by Carlota Pereda)
Distributor: Magnet Releasing
Where to Find It: Select Alamo Drafthouse theaters, expansion to follow next week
“Project Wolf Hunting” (directed by Kim Hong-sun)
Distributor: Well Go USA
Where to Find It: Select theaters
“Terrifier 2” (directed by Damien Leone)
Distributor: Cinedigm in partnership with Iconic Events
Where to Find It: Select theaters
New Films on VOD and Streaming, Including Premium Platforms and Virtual Cinema
“Hellraiser” (directed by David Bruckner)
Distributor: Disney
Where to Find It: Streaming on Hulu
It’s not likely that any review, positive or negative, will effect the reception of the latest “Hellraiser,” now the 11th addition to the cult horror franchise. Once certain properties attain cult status, its followers will delight in any offering, even if only to fuss over its ranking in the canon. Based off of Clive Barker’s 1986 novella and originally adapted by Barker in one of the great writer-to-filmmaker transformations, “Hellraiser” belongs to the freaks, punks, and fetishists who saw themselves in the S&M-inspired looks and story of unhinged sexual exploration.
Unfortunately, all of the kinky perversion has been scrubbed clean from the new version, with only a nice gay couple left in its place. It’s Disney does “Hellraiser,” which — incidentally — is exactly who paid for this latest iteration the classic. Read IndieWire’s full review.
“Hellraiser”
screenshot/Hulu
“Luckiest Girl Alive” (directed by Mike Barker)
Distributor: Netflix
Where to Find It: Streaming on Netflix
The irony of “Luckiest Girl Alive” isn’t just reserved for the title: Isn’t it ironic how those who brutalize others are the ones who never seem to feel pain? In the vein of viral ’90s-set series “Yellowjackets” and “Cruel Summer,” “Luckiest Girl Alive” relies on flashbacks to frame the tentacles of trauma more than two decades later.
Mila Kunis stars as women’s magazine editor Ani FaNelli, who seems to have the perfect Manhattan life in the perfect apartment with the perfect fiancé (Finn Wittrock). That is, until a true crime documentarian approaches Ani to find out what really happened at her prestigious high school all those years ago that lead up to the deadliest private school shooting in American history. “Luckiest Girl Alive” is based on Jessica Knoll’s bestselling 2015 novel of the same name, and Knoll adapted the screenplay herself, with “Handmaid’s Tale” director Mike Barker helming the film. Read IndieWire’s full review.
“Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” (directed by John Lee Hancock)
Distributor: Netflix
Where to Find It: Streaming on Netflix
Stephen King has written any number of perceptive and bone-chilling stories about moral strength, innocence lost, and the psychic battle that has raged between good and evil since the beginning of time. His 2020 novella “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” — an anti-tech fable about a teenage boy who befriends a reclusive billionaire, buys the old man an iPhone, slips the device into his casket when he dies for some reason, and then starts receiving ominous text messages from the same number after the funeral — is definitely not one of them. Such bottom-drawer source material proves to be an insurmountable disadvantage for John Lee Hancock’s Netflix adaptation of the same name, a downcast and thoroughly dreadful supernatural drama that somehow fails to mine even a moment of fun out of a cautionary tale premised on the idea that your smartphone might literally be a portal to hell. Read IndieWire’s full review.
“The Redeem Team”
“The Redeem Team” (directed by Jon Weinbach)
Distributor: Netflix
Where to Find It: Streaming on Netflix
LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, “The Last Dance” producer Jon Weinbach, and NBA Entertainment team up for a fully authorized but thoroughly absorbing Netflix documentary about the 2008 United States men’s Olympic basketball team and their quest to recapture the gold medal glory that our country had once taken for granted. That long and arduous process became the stuff of a classic American sports movie, as the NBA’s biggest stars — brought together by a reserved but militaristic coach — put aside their individual egos to play for each other and the people back home.
“The Redeem Team” is that movie to a tee. It’s every bit as candied and superficial as you might expect from such a self-mythologizing stroll down memory lane, but its subjects bring some occasional edge to it (I cackled at James recalling the moment when he realized “we about to beat the shit out of Spain”), and the documentary’s slickness befits the story of a team that had been created to promote the NBA on the world stage. Read IndieWire’s full review.
Also available this week:
“Acid Test” (directed by Jenny Waldo)
Distributor: Giant Pictures
Where to Find It: Various digital platforms
“Significant Other” (directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen)
Distributor: Paramount
Where to Find It: Streaming on Paramount+
“The Visitor” (directed by Justin P. Lange)
Distributor: Blumhouse Television, EPIX
Where to Find It: Various digital and VOD platforms, streaming on EPIX in December
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