Welcome to Trust Me, I Watch Everything, a weekly guide to all the new movies out each Friday and where to find them. This week’s buzziest release is Minions & Monsters, the third Minions film and seventh entry in the Despicable Me universe. Alternatively, you spend America’s 250th birthday with Young Washington, a biopic about one of America’s founding fathers.
If you’d rather have a movie night at home, you can rent or buy a slew of new releases, including Obsession, the breakout box-office sensation and super-creepy horror flick.
And on streaming services you’re likely already paying for, the third entry in Millie Bobbie Brown’s Enola Holmes franchise debuts on Netflix, while the sequel to Ready or Not with Samara Weaving hits Hulu.
Intrigued? Let’s get into it!
What to watch in theaters
The biggest release: Minions & Monsters
Why you should take your kids to see it: This $5 billion-dollar franchise for children didn’t have to make a feature-length love letter to making movies that’s as full of references from the silent era and the Golden Age of Hollywood as it is to more modern allusions like Spielberg movies and a literal George Lucas cameo, but I’m glad they did. The nods to George Méliès, Citizen Kane, Metropolis and the antics of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd may be lost on your toddlers, but film critics, and hopefully parents at large, should appreciate them. The Minions are now the kings of Hollywood, and they’re paying their respects!
Minions & Monsters, the third standalone Minions film, but seventh overall in the Despicable Me universe, tells the story of how the Minions conquered Hollywood, became movie stars, lost everything, unleashed monsters onto the world and then banded together to try to save the planet from the mayhem they had just created. It’s Babylon for babies; those yellow guys are Singin’ in the Rain!
As someone mostly aware of the Minions through pop culture osmosis rather than actually watching the previous films, I still found most of the jokes that involve shoving these creatures into cinema history to be clever, funny and kind of impressive. They work as slapstick for children, but have more value to the cinephile parents whose kids dragged them to the theater.
When the movie shifts gears to focus on the actual plot and the titular monsters that were promised, it’s less engaging and more slapdash, but I doubt the intended audience of children will mind. There are a couple of off-color jokes that arguably go too far, including a beheading gag that was maybe a bit much for a movie that I took my 3-year-old to, but it’s more confusing than upsetting. There are so many subplots that the throughline is hard to find, but those sequences serve a dual purpose in referencing the types of movies being paid homage to here.
As a former cinema studies major, Minions & Monsters played to my specific interests, and I appreciated that my kid and I could both have fun watching it. Since these movies inherently owe a debt to silent-era comedy, making that connection explicit within the film itself is meaningful and may even inspire kids to seek out the classics; nobody tell them the Minions don’t appear! Between Minions & Monsters and Jackass: Best and Last, the legacy of Buster Keaton is alive and well.
What other critics are saying: Appealing to the film dorks paid off, as it’s the best-reviewed entry in the series! The Los Angeles Times’ Amy Nicholson writes, “I’ll admit, I snorted the first time I saw a TikTok of teens gussied up in suits to see a Minions movie. But after watching Minions & Monsters make nods to Metropolis and Casablanca, I understand.” Adds Damon Wise at Deadline: “The whole thing is an anarchic delirium reminiscent of the kind experienced by Bart and Milhouse after drinking an all-syrup Super Squishee; thankfully, the comedown is quick and relatively painless.”
How to watch: Minions & Monsters is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Another option: Young Washington
Why you should skip it: It’s July 4 weekend, so here comes a patriotic pic with quite the logline: “Before he led a nation, George Washington was a young soldier thrown into a global conflict. With alliances crumbling and war closing in, he must choose who to trust and confront the leader he’s becoming.”
But Young Washington is one of those biopics with a script so on-the-nose that it feels like its characters are aware that what they’re doing is Very Important and will one day be part of History. It also engages in the arguably more annoying trope of highlighting a key detail everybody already knows and hammering it into the ground (we’ve all heard the cherry tree story, so little George is always chopping down trees). It more often than not plays like a movie that 30 Rock‘s Jenna Maroney would star in as George’s mother — Mary Louise Parker in the role is similarly jarring.
That said, it’s surprisingly competent in the action department, if only briefly, with battle sequences that are well-shot and edited, and production design that’s convincing despite the presumably smaller-than-your-average-biopic budget. That is, unfortunately, undone by the clear use of generative AI during these sequences, which predictably sticks out like a sore thumb.
The problem is otherwise almost entirely on a script level. The dialogue is full of clichés that characters repeat over and over again; someone was particularly proud of a line during a chess game about pawns being able to take knights.
Young Washington is OK enough to become a staple on CRT televisions wheeled into middle-school classrooms when the history teacher has had a bit too much to drink the night before. It’s not too concerned with legit history, though, and would rather just tell an inspirational story in a way that reads like CliffsNotes.
What other critics are saying: Reviews are split pretty evenly down the middle. Deadline’s Pete Hammond calls it “sanitized,” but notes that “even if this movie feels like it more comfortably belongs on the History Channel instead of a wide summer break in theatres, it fills the bill for patriotism over this Fourth of July weekend.” Owen Gleiberman at Variety writes, “Young Washington is just competent enough to create that crisp tug of schoolkid patriotism the books we read as children provided. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you’re not an adult confusing feel-good heroism with the lessons of history.”
How to watch: Young Washington is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Movies newly available to rent or buy
The biggest release: Obsession
Why you should watch it: Ever since Jordan Peele broke the glass ceiling and then rolled around bloody in the shards, other sketch comedians have begun making their way to the horror genre, most notably the Whitest Kids U’ Know’s Zach Cregger, the man responsible for Barbarian and the Academy Award-winning Weapons.
Then came the YouTubers, like Markiplier, whose self-distributed Iron Lung immediately changed pretty much everything we know about how box-office hits work, and YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann, whose crowdfunded Shelby Oaks was bought and distributed by Neon.
Enter Curry Barker, a hybrid sketch comedian and YouTuber who gained fame after self-distributing a found-footage horror film on YouTube called Milk & Serial. His debut feature film, Obsession, has become the box-office story of the year, earning nearly $400 milion worldwide so far on a budget of just $750,000. It continues to inspire headlines about the longstanding box-office milestones it’s broken, including becoming the first movie released outside the Christmas window to increase its earnings for three consecutive weekends since Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial way back in 1982. But back to the movie itself.
Obsession is a pitch-black horror-comedy that takes a Tales From the Crypt or The Twilight Zone-sized “be careful what you wish for” monkey’s paw tale and brutally stretches it to feature length. In the film, Bear (Michael Johnston) is firmly in the friend zone with a girl he’s madly in love with, Nikki (Inde Navarrette in a fantastic, star-making debut performance), and can’t bring himself to let his feelings be known, no matter how hard he tries. In desperation, he breaks a “One Wish Willow” and wishes for her to love him “more than anything in the world.” He gets exactly what he asks for and soon discovers that some desires come at a sinister price.
The extremely dark comedy comes from the fact that, as it becomes clearer and clearer that something is wrong with Nikki, at every turn, “nice guy” Bear ignores obvious warning signs and is happy to have his way, no matter what the real Nikki wants, which surely is not this. He’s happy to go on having sex with and building a life with this woman who, before the wish was made, we’re told was completely uninterested in him.
It’s a movie that takes aim at a certain breed of selfish man who couldn’t care less about a woman’s personhood and agency as long as he gets what he wants, pushing that idea to extremes over and over again. She duct-tapes his door shut so he can’t leave, and he just pries it open as if it’s no big deal. By the time she gets rather … let’s say jealous, when he’s in a car with another woman, he may have finally learned his macabre lesson.
The film is at its best whenever Navarrette is onscreen. Her transcendent performance from the sweet and kind girl next door to the demonically obsessive, jealous, codependent-to-a-fault girlfriend is chilling, and she really nails the assignment.
The most upsetting aspect of Obsession is an element relegated mostly to the background: how Barker makes clear that something else has taken control of Nikki and implies that the real Nikki is stuck in a Get Out-like sunken place. The bits that really get under your skin are when the real Nikki breaks through for a fleeting moment, only to go back to her wish-fulfillment mode. I wish the film dove deeper into those terrifying details rather than gory provocations and uncomfortable laughs. That said, those scenes are appropriately messed up, and the jokes are pretty funny.
Obsession may become a little repetitive by the end of its nearly two-hour runtime, but it’s still a worthy horror debut that plays like an announcement of multiple talents to watch despite some pacing issues. At 26, Barker has already lined up several high-profile projects, including a remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Expect to see newly anointed scream queen Navarrette dominating the genre for years to come.
What other critics are saying: It’s easily netting the best reviews for a horror movie in quite some time. The AV Club’s Monica Castillo writes, “With a simple premise and one unassuming wish, Barker immerses his audience in a dark scenario that only escalates in tension and carnage. It’s the kind of horror movie that makes a viewer uneasy almost from the start and doesn’t let up.” William Bibbiani at TheWrap declares, “Barker understands, if nothing else, that everything he’s doing is wrong and people need to suffer for trying to enjoy it. And if that includes the audience, well … it’s no wonder.”
How to watch: Obsession is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
Another big release: The Devil Wears Prada 2
Why you should watch it: Legacy sequels have become so commonplace in Hollywood that they’re no longer just for the mega-budget genre pictures: Even The Devil Wears Prada, a beloved workplace comedy that earned Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination for her iconic turn as Miranda Priestly, a character based on real-life Vogue editor Anna Wintour, gets a chance to catch up with its characters 20 years later.
The worst legacy sequels play like Super Bowl commercials, in which actors return as characters we love, but in a way that feels unsatisfying and a little desperate, like when Ellie Sattler, Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant turned up earlier this year to sell us on Xfinity.
Thankfully, The Devil Wears Prada 2 feels like it could be the model going forward, as it updates its story for a modern era in a way that’s unexpectedly smart, clever and sadly, maybe even a little too real, especially for audience members who happen to work in media. It ends up being a movie about the death of print journalism, the rise of algorithmically driven “content” and how every institution is being gutted to make a few more dollars for the billionaires in charge. It’s also very funny, despite opening with Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs getting laid off from her job as an investigative reporter at a print newspaper.
Meanwhile, at Runway, the magazine where Andy was Miranda’s assistant 20 years ago, her former boss is ushering the company through a very 2026 PR crisis that requires someone like Andy to come in and fix it. This leads them to reencounter Emily (Emily Blunt), who now works at Dior, flipping the power dynamic. Priestly needs to grovel to get Dior’s approval, since the company relies on Dior’s ad money. And because it’s 2026, the magazine barely exists, and nobody clicks on its online-only content — except for other culture reporters and writers, Priestly notes at one point, which is such a specific barb at Twitter-addicted journalists that you’d think it was written by one.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 uses the blueprint of a 20-year-later sequel to provide an earnest update on the industry it famously depicted back in 2006, and that honest approach goes a long way. The movie makes a meal out of material that sounds broad and groan-worthy on its face — like Miranda Priestly being subjected to more stringent HR oversight — because the writers and the audience both know the characters well enough for it to play as genuine instead of schticky. It’s hard not to laugh at Priestly, wondering if her missing assistant was “human trafficked” and also being aware that she’s not allowed to say things like that anymore. “She used to throw her coats at people,” one of the new interns says.
It also functions as a poignant love letter to the people still putting in the work that used to make up magazines, now found in bite-size pieces on your TikTok feed. Its ultimate message is that journalism still matters, which is a heartening one in an era rife with misinformation and when trust in the media hits all-time lows, and one you likely didn’t see coming from a movie about the inner workings of a fashion magazine.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 manages to do all of that while being as charming and fun as the first film, in a well-made movie that cares enough to travel to the locations depicted. What a concept! Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt all don’t miss a beat slipping back into the roles, and it’s nice that those characters actually had something to say rather than sell us the latest home phone and internet package. It may be even better than the original.
What other critics are saying: Reviews are strong, but there are some detractors. The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin writes that “Hathaway and Streep are at the respective peaks of their comedic powers.” Jake Coyle at the Associated Press, however, writes, “I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who just wants to see … these actors together again. But the movie, well stocked in Prada, could have used a bit more of Streep’s unflappable devil.”
How to watch: The Devil Wears Prada 2 is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
But that’s not all …
Blades of the Guardians. (Well Go USA Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection)
Blades of the Guardians: Legendary Hong Kong martial arts filmmaker Yuen Woo-ping returns with this epic that features some of the best fight choreography you’ll see this year, next to The Furious. Dao Ma, the “second most wanted fugitive,” is entrusted by his benefactor, the chief of the Mo family clan, to take on a mysterious mission escorting the “most wanted fugitive” to Chang’an. It’s frankly set piece after set piece that delivers big time; if you’re into Wuxia flicks, don’t miss this bloody affair that answers the question, “what if Mad Max: Fury Road had swords in it?” Rent or buy.
Movies newly available on streaming services you may already have
For the family: Enola Holmes 3
Why it’s a mixed bag: I caught up with the previous two films ahead of this sequel, and I was delighted and charmed by both. Enola Holmes 3, sadly, is the weakest entry in the series thus far, largely dropping its infectious, silly-on-its-face energy — this Holmes knows jiu jitsu, for example — for plodding earnestness and overly complex plotting. It’s self-serious and too busy.
Adventure follows detective Enola Holmes to Malta, where her plans to tie the knot unravel when brother Sherlock’s disappearance plunges her into a perilous case. Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill both return, but the film sidelines Sherlock early, ostensibly to give Enola the chance to shine on her own. Alas, all that does is remind us how great their dynamic was in the past and how it’s sorely missing here.
That problem infects the entire movie: for the first time in the franchise, it really starts to feel like we’re watching an offshoot of Sherlock Holmes rather than the introduction of a new related but entirely distinct character with her own set of skills and stories. The film bends backward to include villains and characters we’re familiar with —again! — which is underwhelming. The central mystery isn’t much to work with either and feels more like world-building box-checking than genuinely engaging, fresh material.
Enola Holmes 3 is a case of diminishing returns, where the natural charm has worn off and the radical feminist politics that have always been tied to the story now feel tossed in rather than well-conceived. The film’s shortcomings, though, prove in their own way that the character is worthy and that she just needs better material; the formula works when it’s done properly.
What other critics are saying: Most seem to agree with my assessment. Kate Erbland at IndieWire writes, “The mystery at hand, while complicated, doesn’t really offer that much to unravel.” TheWrap’s William Bibbiani puts it simply: “Enola Holmes 3 lacks the energy, the heft and the personality that made her previous adventures so satisfying.”
How to watch: Enola Holmes 3 is now streaming on Netflix.
Another option: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
Why you should maybe watch it: Way back in late 2019 — nearly seven years ago, if you can believe it — Ready or Not, Parasite and Knives Out all debuted in quick succession, and a new subgenre was born.
“Eat the rich” movies have since invaded multiplexes and streaming services to the degree that new ones — like the recent Glen Powell vehicle How to Make a Killing, for example — are likely to induce eye rolls and groans more than interest. The list also includes recent flicks like The Menu, The Hunt, Infinity Pool, Triangle of Sadness, Saltburn, Glass Onion and dozens more that are too unremarkable to recall.
This is all to say that Ready or Not 2 — appropriately subtitled Here I Come, capitalizing on a titling opportunity that took the Now You See Me team an entire extra movie to figure out — arrives at a time when my arms begin to fold at the very idea of yet another movie where a bunch of evil rich people explode into bloody piles of viscera. Thankfully, the movie ups the stakes in a way that’s just knowingly silly enough to work.
The film opens Halloween II-style, just moments after Grace (Samara Weaving) survives an all-out attack from the Le Domas family from the first movie. Our heroine discovers she’s reached the next level of a Satanic game for the High Seat of a world-controlling council. Four rival families are hunting her to win the throne, and whoever wins rules it all. This time, she’s accompanied by her estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton).
Ready or Not: Here I Come takes the John Wick sequel route by adding a bunch of silly world-building mythology that basically amounts to “the richest families in the world are all part of an Illuminati-like secret society.” It adds a literal book of bylaws to the proceedings and an emcee of sorts in a new character played by Elijah Wood, who, unfortunately, is saddled with tons of exposition about how the game works.
Despite being a same-as-last-time-but-more-style sequel, it works well enough because its tongue is firmly planted in cheek. The film shows its hand early with a delightful cameo from legendary filmmaker David Cronenberg as the head of a powerful family, watching a war unfold on cable news, making a phone call saying “ceasefire now,” and seeing the newscast break news of the instant change he just called for. I appreciated the big swing, but people who loved the low-stakes antics of the single evil family in the first film may be disappointed.
The cast being totally game for the goofiness certainly helps; Buffy legend Sarah Michelle Gellar and beloved The Pitt star Shawn Hatosy join the fray as the children of Cronenberg’s character, who aim to kill Grace and take the throne for themselves. Weaving is great again here, even if she had more of an arc in the first film. In this one, her character is in full primal-scream mode from the jump, understandably so, but I found her hardening over the course of the original to be a key selling point.
Newton is good enough, but doesn’t have much to do; the bickering sister angle feels shoehorned in and grows a bit tired. At one point, she makes reference to how shocking it is every time someone explodes, which made me laugh, considering the opposite is true for anyone who’s seen Ready or Not and filmmaking team Radio Silence’s other, weirdly similar film, Abigail. It’s so expected that it’s now boring, and characters reacting in a “WTF?!” fashion was already old when they busted it out last time.
It’s hard for a 2026 “eat the rich” movie not to feel completely dated, but the go-bigger approach helps Ready or Not 2’s cascade of exploding rich folks feel fresh.
What other critics are saying: Reviews are pretty mixed. Amy Nicholson at the Los Angeles Times writes, “No spoilers, but it’s no coincidence that Here I Come finally gets more interesting once it tires of hide and seek. Finding a fresh plot twist is the only way it ekes out a draw.” The AV Club’s Andy Crump was kinder, musing, “Weaving is great at expressing helpless surrender and whiteknuckle petrification. … The effect of her performances is cathartic, frequently hysterical and key to Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come‘s success.”
How to watch: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is now streaming on Hulu.
Natalie Grace in Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. (Patrick Redmond / © Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection)
But that’s not all …
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy: This is an attempt by the filmmaker behind Evil Dead Rise to make a name for himself by utilizing “IP” we all know and ostensibly make it his own. Unfortunately, by the end of its unforgivable two-hour, 15-minute runtime, all that’s revealed is that he made a bog-standard possessed-child movie, wrapped in some Egyptian trappings. It’s impressively mean, which I normally appreciate in a big studio movie, but it rubbed me the wrong way due to the tonal whiplash. Read my full review here. Now streaming on HBO Max.
Wasteman: This tense and upsetting prison drama is a two-hander in which both performances elevate the lurid material. It’s a movie about the prison system and how it can corrupt even those trying to do the right thing within it, and what redemption looks like. David Jonsson, who you may recognize from scene-stealing turns in Alien: Romulus and The Long Walk, and Tom Blyth, of the most recent Hunger Games flick and the Netflix rom-com The People We Meet on Vacation, are both sensational here. It’s a suffocating and tragic film that really makes you understand how violence begets violence, and a terrific actors’ showcase for its two stars. Now streaming on Mubi.
That’s all for this week! We’ll see you next Friday, when the live adaptation of Moana hits theaters.
Looking for more recs? Find your next watch on the Yahoo 100, our daily list of the most popular movies of the year. And for family-friendly picks, check out our kid-approved summer movie guide.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
‘ O artigo anterior foi obtido e traduzido do site internacional da celebrity.land ’ Source Link
