Welcome to Believe me, I watch everythinga weekly guide to notable new films releasing or becoming available every Friday.
This week we bring to the big screen one of the hottest releases of the year: Nathan Fielder’s recently announced only Elizabeth Holmes documentary, You can see everything, which is as good, if not better, than early reviews indicated. Also available now: Whale fall And Street fighter.
If you prefer a movie night at home, you can rent or buy Boyfriend, the bizarre horror movie about an evil children’s TV series mascot, or Runner, the Alan Ritchson-Owen Wilson buddy action comedy you didn’t know you needed.
And on streaming, you’ll find two straight-to-streaming debuts in Margaret Qualley’s romantic drama Tearjerker. The love of your life, And Sacrifice on Netflix. There are also many interesting documentaries available recently.
Let’s go!
🎥 What to watch at the cinema
The most buzzed release: You can see everything
Why you should rush and see it: You’ve probably never seen anything like this You can see everything, a documentary that plays like a definitive statement about the unknowability of others and how a person’s “truth” is not necessarily… true. This implies that the documentary form itself is inherently manipulative and far from objective, as it attempts to extract honesty and authenticity from disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes.
You can see everything is the feature film debut of Nathan Fielder, a comedian whose non-fiction comedy shows Nathan for you And The repetition serve as much a twisted form of anthropology as pure cringe comedy, all involving real people who know they’re on television but not that they’re on a comedy show. The film is co-directed by Lance Oppenheim, a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker whose first non-documentary film is also currently in theaters: Chris Hansen’s film. Prime time.
The premise is this: About a month before she is sent to prison, famous Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her family’s every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic criminal turns into a breathtaking three-year journey into the abyss. Fielder himself is featured on camera almost as much, if not more, than Holmes and her husband, Billy Evans, who is a whole other can of worms himself.
Fielder’s clumsy and obtrusive style provides some crazy moments. He and his film crew are currently living in Holmes’ house, and there are as many laugh-out-loud moments as there are deeply disturbing ones. You won’t soon forget beating a few eggs. A sequence in which Fielder shows Holmes, who claims that his extremely literal nature is the cause of the misunderstanding that others would call a fraud, the famous Abbott and Costello “Who’s on first?” The comedy is both hilarious and enlightening, easily one of the most memorable scenes I’ve ever seen in a documentary. Is semiotics really his problem?
The film evolves into something even more fascinating as Fielder battles with Holmes and her insistence that she has done absolutely nothing wrong and that her fall from grace is just a huge misunderstanding. Ultimately, it seems to be playing with the idea that multiple things can be true simultaneously.
The action then moves forward two years and becomes something completely different that those familiar with Fielder’s work will immediately recognize: a meta-deconstruction of the documentary form and the idea of ​​performance.
The less said about the second half the better, even if it’s one of the most gripping films I’ve seen in a theater in ages. There was something very special about experiencing a three-hour documentary in front of a packed house; everyone laughed at the same time and leaned forward in their seats together. The way the film wants the audience to sympathize with Holmes one minute, then step back to wonder exactly why the filmmakers would show you this moment, is another layer, using form as function to emphasize its point.
You can see everything is a brilliant film that looks like it could and should become the first documentary ever nominated for Best Picture. It’s an incredibly timely document about a post-truth society. The couple Fielder, known for their cinematic manipulations, and Holmes, an alleged master manipulator currently serving a sentence, form a perfect couple. You can seen it all, but have you done it?
What other reviews are saying: This is one of the highest rated films of the year. AP’s Lindsay Bahr summed it up best: “Want something you’ve never seen before? Here it is.” Amy Nicholson of the Los Angeles Times writes: “The biggest attack on Holmes is the very existence of this documentary. Who on Earth would really want Fielder, the human equivalent of a skunk, to spend his final moments with his loved ones while he does his best to stink up the place?
How to watch: You can see everything is now playing in cinemas nationwide.
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Another solid option: Whale fall
Why it’s a mixed bag: “Austin Abrams Finds Himself in a Situation” has become a film genre in its own right, and just weeks after the release of Resident Evil, he got himself into another mess.
According to the book by Daniel Kraus, Whale fall tells the story of a man who, after the death of his father, goes diving off the coast of California in search of his remains, only to be swallowed by an enormous sperm whale. While trapped in his womb with only an hour of oxygen, Jay realizes that the hard-earned lessons his father passed on to him could be the key to his escape.
Whale fall is at its best when focusing on the aforementioned “Austin Abrams in the belly of a whale” situation; Unfortunately, a good portion of the running time is devoted to melodramatic flashbacks depicting Abrams’ character’s strained relationship with his late father, played by Josh Brolin. Both actors give it their all and are very good, but the film is downright boring in these sections, and there are too many of them.
Every time we get to the action inside the whale, it is intense and engaging and forces you, the viewer, to wonder what you would do in such a nightmare scenario. The practical effects go a long way, including the stomach-whale set they built for Abrams to fit inside. The specifics of the inner workings of the whale’s digestive system are also appropriately crude and frightening. There’s acid in there that burns your skin!
Whale fall builds on the promise of its premise, just enough to earn a recommendation, even if it’s a little disappointing whenever the guts of a whale aren’t on screen.
What other reviews say: They like him quite well. The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager calls it “a biblical calamity that plays out in dizzying, stifling fashion” and “proves to be fun genre pulp.” The Guardian’s Ben Lee, however, wasn’t sold. “Switching between a family drama of introspection and hackneyed advice (“Survivors survive!”) and the more immediate rush of thrashing, squelching, splashing and panic adapted to the 4DX makes Whale fall a disorienting and frustrating experience,” he wrote.
How to watch: Whale fall is now playing in cinemas nationwide.
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And another big release: Street fighter
Why it’s a mixed bag: Maximalism is appreciated in Street fighter, which unfortunately has way too much plot for a movie based on a coin-operated arcade fighting game.
Every time it gets to work with its cartoonish violence – sometimes literally rendered in animated form, so often that you wonder why they didn’t just make a cartoon movie instead – it delivers on the promise of over-the-top antics. It’s loud, it’s colorful, and the score makes it feel like you’re playing an old 8-bit game. The vibes match the ’90s arcade energy they’re going for.
The problem is that Street fighter spends way too much time spinning its wheels, setting up its story, its characters and their motivations. These are all basic elements required in most films, of course, but ones that, I can assure the filmmakers, no one cares much about in this specific film.
The plot: In 1993, ex-Street Fighters Ryu and Ken Masters are thrown back into action when the mysterious Chun-Li recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, destiny and fury. But behind this battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to confront each other and the demons of their past.
The fights, unfortunately, seem more like afterthoughts. Hilariously, just like the Mortal Combat an adaptation from a few years ago, which just got a sequel that I’ve already completely forgotten about, this film has a perfect premise for “endless satisfying fight scenes” but fails to deliver on its promises. There is an actual tournament where people compete against each other, but many fights take place off-screen or are “cancelled” for plot reasons. It’s bizarre that both sets of big-budget fight films emphasize “lore” and plotting to make sure the action sings.
Street fighter fans may enjoy seeing these characters on screen again – this is the third attempt, after Jean-Claude Van Damme’s 1994, which was a success, and the bomb of 2009. Legend of Chun-Li — but more casual moviegoers looking for a good time may find themselves exhausted.
What other reviews say: She is largely eliminated, but she has her defenders. The AP’s Jake Coyle writes: “As much as you might think that a Street fighter The movie, good or bad, would at least provide some frankly entertaining hand-to-hand combat, it’s so complicated and chaotically designed that it makes a game with six buttons seem relatively nifty. William Bibbiani of TheWrap, however, writes that “(director Kitao Sakurai’s) raw enthusiasm for making this zany action film is contagious. I’m not sure Street fighter meets all conventional standards of quality, but it is undeniably its own particularity.”
How to watch: Street fighter is now playing in cinemas nationwide.
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But that’s not all…
Vanessa Redgrave in The Devilswhat is…
Gn entert
