See ‘Wuthering Heights’ in theaters, rent ‘Marty Supreme,’ stream ‘Eternity’ on Apple TV
Welcome to another edition of Trust Me, I Watch Everything, a weekly guide to all the new movies released on Friday. I’m Kelsey Weekman, a senior entertainment reporter at Yahoo, subbing in for Brett Arnold.
Lots of new releases are hitting theaters this Valentine’s Day weekend, including a polarizing adaptation of Wuthering Heights, the familiar but entertaining drama Crime 101 and the charmingly modern kids movie Goat.
At home, you can rent or buy the high-stress Timothée Chalamet Ping-Pong movie Marty Supreme and the stand-up comedy and divorce dramedy Is This Thing On?
And on streaming services you’re already paying for, the weird-but-spooky Honey Bunch and the quirky-but-sweet Eternity are on offer. I’m not gonna lie, y’all — it seems like streamers are holding back on new releases so they don’t have to compete with the Olympics. Who could blame them?
Read on, as there’s a lot more, and there’s always something for everyone.
🎥 What to watch in theaters
My recommendation: Wuthering Heights
Why you should see it: Everyone wants to know if Wuthering Heights is good. I suppose it’s my job to tell you. It stars Margot Robbie, an Oscar nominee who isn’t quite believable as one of literature’s nastier heroines, and Jacob Elordi, whose ability to portray yearning onscreen catapulted him from star of throwaway teen rom-coms to Oscar nominee. Everything about this movie — its existence, its cultural context and the controversy that began to build before it even came out — gets more complicated from here.
Director Emerald Fennell has a bad reputation among film enthusiasts online: Her movies, like Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, are ridiculously stylish, but some say they fumble their moral and thematic messaging where it counts, swerving commentary about rape culture and class in favor of shock value and vibes. Here she is now with a massive budget to adapt the beloved book she has a deep personal connection to. Reader, I do too. I must disclose that Wuthering Heights is my favorite book, as is the case for many other emotional and verbose women across many generations. There are high expectations for Fennell, who many immediately believed would fumble such precious intellectual property. The scare quotes in the official title Wuthering Heights, as seen in the movie poster, are intended to remind you that this is just one woman’s take on the story. But that’s what you risk when adapting a book. You will have to drop some things (at least half the plot, in this case) and pick some up (several kinky sex acts that, no shade to author Emily Brontë, probably had not graced Victorian public consciousness before her early death).
Let me pause and tell you the plot, in case you don’t remember high school English class: As a child, Catherine’s family takes in Heathcliff, a mistreated boy, and forces him to work with them. Catherine and Heathcliff are best friends, though they are divided by class and status. As she grows up, Catherine realizes, with an air of mean-spiritedness, that she’ll need to marry rich to get out of here. She does so, betraying Heathcliff, who runs off — and unexpectedly also becomes rich. When he returns, they continue their toxic situationship, torturing each other by flirting with their wealthy neighbors, the Linton siblings. They both suck — they’re cruel and sadistic to everyone around them — but they have an otherworldly draw to one another, fueled by a series of some of the greatest lines in literary history: “You say I killed you? Haunt me then!” Come on. “He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” Please. I could go on for ages.
Because this adaptation has to have a reasonable runtime, it zeroes in on that one relationship and drops the second generation of torture Heathcliff and Catherine inflict on one another, in life and beyond. Without that layer of nuance, what’s left is basically fan fiction. It simplifies their trauma and class struggles and omits racial tension that scholars are still debating. But I’d argue that it has to. It’s just one adaptation, with walls made of flesh and comically large strawberries. We have so many other versions out there. This one’s for the fans of aesthetics and sensuality. So, me.
The choice to focus on toxicity and tension makes sense in the broader context of the novel too. When Brontë’s novel was published, critics decried its “vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors.” That same reviewer wrote, “How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery.” In 1848! Good grief!
But back to the movie. Infused with distinct visuals, the most gorgeous anachronistic costuming I’ve seen since Marie Antoinette, original music from party girl poetess Charli xcx and near-incessant horniness between its two leads, it is never boring. After all, Fennell is the woman who gave us those Saltburn bathtub and grave scenes. Valentine’s Day, once the hallowed release date of the 50 Shades of Grey movies, was the perfect time to release this. I can’t say Wuthering Heights is good in all the ways I wanted it to be — I craved a deeper exploration of its themes. But, to paraphrase the source material, I know this adaptation will be with me always and drive me mad.
What other critics are saying: With a divisive 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, critics are deliciously split on the film. Many of its biggest critiques also contribute to its strengths. Vulture’s Alison Willmore writes that it’s “Fennell’s dumbest movie, and I say that with all admiration, because it also happens to be her best to date” because it focuses on the “smooth-brained sensuality” of its two messy main characters. The Associated Press’s Lindsey Bahr says it’s “oddly shallow and blunt: garish and stylized fan fiction with the scope and budget of an old-school Hollywood epic.” No one can say it isn’t gorgeous, though.
How to watch: Wuthering Heights is now playing in theaters nationwide.
My bonus recommendation: Crime 101
Why you should see it: Chris Hemsworth, allowed to be quiet and thoughtful again amid his stay in Marvel jail, plays a reluctant but extremely competent thief who commits discreet, high-value robberies along the 101 freeway in California. Los Angeles, gritty despite the sunshine and beautiful people, introduces him to a network of characters: the extremely competent but overlooked insurance claims adjuster who could help him pull off one last job (Halle Berry), a schlubby detective with marital issues and a staunch moral compass who’s onto him (Mark Ruffalo), a mentor who thinks he’s gone soft (Nick Nolte), a recklessly violent rival criminal with something to prove (a bleach blonde Barry Keoghan) and a love interest who tolerates a lot of bizarre behavior (Monica Barbaro).
Adapted from a Don Winslow novella, it’s an action movie with limited action, deciding instead to zero in on those characters, zigging and zagging them out of each other’s lives. I loved watching Thor be socially awkward, though his background is a constant mystery to us, with little payoff. Everyone, in fact, hates their jobs and wants more. Why not dive into crime … perhaps at a 101 level, taught by a seasoned baddie trying to make his own way out of the industry?
The film cobbles together tropes, characters and plot points from pretty much every other crime movie, but that worked for me — it’s about theft, after all. When I noticed familiar elements from Heat, Drive and Collateral, they felt like characters too.
What other critics are saying: Everyone agrees — this is basically Heat. Which is a fantastic movie! Ben Kenigsberg of the New York Times writes that “like lovingly warmed leftovers, it has its satisfactions: a charismatic cast, evocative Los Angeles location work, the sort of granular details on diamond couriering and insurance valuation that might give impressionable viewers ideas.” The Associated Press’s Jake Coyle says it’s “lacking in both depth of character and set-piece spectacle, leaving it stuck in the middle of the road.”
How to watch: Crime 101 is now playing in theaters nationwide.
But that’s not all…
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Goat: The animated kids’ movie that seems to be a thinly veiled Steph Curry biopic about the challenges of being a somewhat short athlete is oddly charming! With a colorful and textured art style, a fictional world of animals playing a complex and souped-up version of basketball feels more like a Spider-Verse movie than Space Jam. It’s aggressively modern — is it overloaded with brain-rot slang, or just reliant on constant phone use and one-liners because that’s how the world works now for young people? — and sometimes felt like Cocomelon if it was edited like Mad Max. That made it interesting to me despite the predictability of the plot. Get tickets.
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Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die: A disheveled Sam Rockwell, dressed like a grimy fisherman wrapped in wires, frantically asks the patrons in a Los Angeles diner to help him save the world, claiming to be from the future. What follows is a high-concept, darkly comedic romp through a tech dystopia that’s surprisingly unpredictable for something it feels like we’re seeing satirized all the time: AI, phone addiction and general technological malaise. The ensemble cast, with standouts Juno Temple and Haley Lu Richardson, gives it heart amid the constant twinge of impending doom. It’s directed by Gore Verbinski, who made three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and you can sense that humor throughout. Get tickets.
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Cold Storage: What are legends like Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville doing in a random gory zombie movie where heads and guts explode every few minutes? Slaying, your honor, and keeping Joe Keery of Stranger Things gainfully employed in the monster hunter genre. Keery and Georgina Campbell star as employees of a storage facility that’s home to a zombifying fungus that wreaks havoc on the premises. Come for the over-the-top visual effects — and stay for that too. It’s fun. Get tickets.
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Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie: I didn’t get to see what’s technically the best-reviewed movie of the week, but my friends keep telling me about this mockumentary about a band that accidentally time-travels to 2008. It’s based on a TV show with a cult following, but I’m told that the film’s incessant, absurd funniness breaks down those “Wait, do I have to know these comedians to truly appreciate them?” barriers and mints new fans. Get tickets.
💸 Movies newly available to rent or buy
My recommendation: Marty Supreme
Why you should see it: Timothée Chalamet is probably going to win an Oscar for playing Marty Mauser, the fictionalized version of a real-life table tennis player whose pursuit of greatness makes him a menace to everyone around him. Directed by Josh Safdie (as is every pulse-pounding character study of an infuriating guy who’s essentially running a series of errands that keep going wrong), it’s half panic attack, half roller coaster and all electric.
Pulsing with anachronistic ’80s synth music — I’ve had “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears on heavy rotation since I saw it months ago — it’s sonically and visually captivating in its production design and cinematography and relentlessly stressful until the very last moment. I was so passionate about it, I bought merch, like one might for a sports team they support. On that note, there’s shockingly little Ping-Pong in it for a film that Chalamet reportedly spent years training to play well.
As my colleague Brett Arnold says in his review from December, the ensemble is the “most Mad Libs-ian supporting cast ever assembled”: Gwyneth Paltrow’s return from a six-year acting break, breakout star and worthy recipient of nepotism (her mom is Pamela Adlon) Odessa A’zion, Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, rapper Tyler, the Creator, magician Penn Jillette, filmmaker Abel Ferrara, The Nanny herself, Fran Drescher and at least one guy from a random viral video.
Perhaps most fascinating, though, is the intrigue surrounding the film’s promotion — Chalamet spent weeks galavanting through various stunts and interviews with the swagger of a professional athlete at the top of his game. Even when he won a SAG Award for playing Bob Dylan, he shamelessly took the stage to announce that he’s in the pursuit of greatness. Was he in Marty Mode already, or is he just like this? Did he inspire the character, written with him in mind, or did the character seep into his brain the way Elvis’s accent took hold of Austin Butler? With three Oscar nominations and a cool $2 billion at the box office to his name at 30, does it matter?
What other critics are saying: It has nine Academy Award nods, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Chalamet. The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager eloquently nailed it: It’s a “150-minute-long heart attack of a film in which its protagonist, repeatedly and dangerously, crashes out and is narrowly revived.” Haters, like Odie Henderson at the Boston Globe, had beef with Marty himself — he calls him a “deeply unlikable character whose many transgressions and nasty choices are so easily forgiven by other characters that it drags the film into the realm of incredulity.”
How to watch: Marty Supreme is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
My bonus recommendation: Is This Thing On?
Why you should see it: Despite not actually laughing at any of the stand-up comedy in this movie about a stand-up comedian, I still liked the movie! Will Arnett shows off his dramatic chops — BoJack Horseman fans know he’s got ’em — as the lead, a man named Alex adjusting to midlife while going through a divorce with someone he seems to actually like and finding his way in the comedy scene.
Laura Dern plays his ex, Tess, a lovely and logical woman trying to move on from Alex while at one point dating a guy played by Peyton Manning. She needed more screen time, but that’s the case for pretty much every project she’s in. If I’m being honest, there’s not enough Amy Sedaris either, though she’s a delight as a comedy club’s emcee. Is This Thing On? was directed by Bradley Cooper, who’s on an incredible hot streak after helming and starring in the 2018 remake of A Star Is Born and 2023’s Maestro, though the Academy and I agree that this one just wasn’t quite as interesting as the others. Cooper is also in this movie as a guy named “Balls,” who’s just as funny as the name necessitates.
What I loved most about the movie wasn’t necessarily the sum of its parts, but what it made me think about: How, when a marriage falls apart, it’s not always for a specific reason, but a slow dissolution of passion and friendship lost to time and passivity. As Dern’s character puts it, being unhappy during a relationship is not the same as being unhappy with one, and it takes active work from both parties to overcome that. No spoilers, but it’s not actually as much of an anti-Valentine’s Day movie as you might think.
What other critics are saying: Most critics liked it, and their most common qualm is the fact it just doesn’t have as much bite as other divorce movies. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman calls it “an observant, bittersweet and highly watchable movie … like a James L. Brooks movie with hipper camerawork.” For IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio, it was “often lethargic and listless.”
How to watch: Is This Thing On? is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
But that’s not all…
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Sweetness: A teenager meets the rock star she’s obsessed with, finding, as fans often do, that he’s actually less of a role model and more of a huge mess, still battling the addiction that he claims to have overcome. She sets out to fix him, like a Gen Z Misery. You’ll want to root for her throughout the thriller, though, despite her deranged and extremely violent actions, which escalate in silliness throughout. Rent or buy.
📺 Movies newly available on streaming services you may already have
My recommendation: Eternity
Why you should see it: In a time when love triangles are all the rage in media, Eternity still manages to bring new, well, afterlife to the genre with existential stakes. The story follows a woman named Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) who, newly dead, has a week to decide which of her great loves to spend her life-after-death with. Will she pick her steadfast husband of 65 years (Miles Teller) or the passionate man she lost when he died young (Callum Turner), who has in turn been waiting for her to reunite with him for 67 years? Why does she have to choose? Well, because they said so. Indecision would mean everlasting relegation to “the Void,” which sounds like it sucks. I guess polyamory did not make it to heaven.
Another piece of media that likens the afterlife to bureaucracy, you say? Yes. But this isn’t The Good Place. Both are quirky and packed with jokes, but Eternity is much shorter (obviously, it’s not a TV show) and cuter than it is smart. That’s what you need sometimes. The world-building is fun — our characters weave through different time periods, retaining the look of the age they were when they were happiest, which is a crucial plot point. They navigate past memories and even various heaven settings: Space World, Paris World, Mountain World and Beach World! Fun.
It’s also a great reminder that Olsen is one of the best actresses we’ve got, and that Teller was once a go-to leading man, charming and attainable. Turner, engaged in real life to international pop star sweetheart Dua Lipa, is very handsome. No spoilers, but from watching the trailer, you can probably predict the ending. That’s like life, isn’t it? It’s all about the journey.
What other critics are saying: Reactions from critics are a mixed bag. David Fear of Rolling Stone says it “feels filtered through a late 1990s quirkfest vibe, complete with goofy visual gags,” which I believe is a compliment. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman finds that it overstays its welcome by trying to do too much, like “a bauble that tries to stretch itself into a boutique dream.”
How to watch: Eternity is now streaming on Apple TV.
My bonus recommendation: Honey Bunch
Why you should see it: Imagine you wake from a coma with scattered memories of the past and are guided to an experimental health center in the remote wilderness by your doting husband, whose tender care and good humor set you at ease. Then your memories start to return, and they’re scary. This place is pretty scary too — there are mysterious people and weird sounds, and suddenly it seems like your husband might be taking control of you more than he’s caring for you. That’s the premise of Honey Bunch, a movie that’s as much about the confines of marriage and the ease of manipulation as it is a wild ride.
Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie play the couple bouncing back and forth between love and all-out war through the smallest actions and turns of phrase. Remember the meme where people were asking their partners if they’d still love them if they were a worm, and incorrect answers would be swiftly punished despite their absurdity? They turned that into a movie, which is a little bit too long but so twisty you can’t help but surrender to it. Jason Isaacs is briefly in it as a dad coming unhinged — so a lot like his character in The White Lotus, without the Southern accent.
Like Wuthering Heights in its bold color scheme and gothic elements, Honey Bunch is unafraid to reference past movies, which, without spoiling anything, can be a bit distracting. Oh, to let your hair blow in the wind while you hold tightly to your lover, wondering if this situation is more toxic than it’s worth! Its strongest point — besides correctly asserting that body horror is inevitable when you choose to spend forever with someone — is that it never loses its characters to archetypes. When you expect them to fall into clichés … they do, but then they zig and zag again.
What other critics are saying: There aren’t a ton of reviews out yet, but they’re pretty good. Slant magazine’s Steven Scaife lauds the stars’ “lived-in performances,” though “much of the dialogue is stilted and artificial in its cleverness.” IndieWire’s Jake Cole writes that the film is “one of the few of the recent batch of body horror pictures to recognize the genre’s capacity for tragedy over allegorical statement and shock value.”
How to watch: Honey Bunch is now streaming on Shudder.
But that’s not all…
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Relationship Goals: In what’s essentially a Hallmark Christmas movie set vaguely during light jacket season, Kelly Rowland plays a TV news producer who really wants to be a showrunner. We know this because she announces it within the first three minutes of the film, her two best friends linked arm in arm with her as they walk into their shared day job. A new guy at the office, played by Cliff “Method Man” Smith, becomes her rival, also vying for the job as he insists they produce a segment about a celebrity pastor, whose new self-help book infects the minds of every character in the film with cliché mantras and purity culture ideals. It’s both trite and completely bonkers. Now streaming on Prime Video.
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.
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