Movies Update: Kevin Costner bids for a franchise.

And "A Quiet Place" returns with a prequel.
Movies Update

June 28, 2024

Hey, movie fans!

Will you be finding A Quiet Place to watch a film this weekend or do you have another plan on the Horizon?

A movie from a known saga and a movie from a hope-to-be-known saga are both out this weekend: Kevin Costner's first installment from his planned western cycle "Horizon" and the chilling prequel "A Quiet Place: Day One."

In her review of the Costner movie, the critic Manohla Dargis calls it a "big, busy, decentered western." And in her review of the "Quiet Place" entry, the critic Elisabeth Vincentelli singles out Lupita Nyong'o's performance as "sensational," writing that the thriller "is at its very best whenever Nyong'o's face fills the screen, like the postapocalyptic heroine of a silent movie."

A couple of high-profile titles are also on streaming this week, including the documentary "I Am: Celine Dion" (on Amazon Prime Video) and the rom-com "A Family Affair" with Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron. And overall, this week has an eclectic mix of movie options. Find something great to watch, and enjoy the movies!

CRITICS' PICKS

A teenage boy and a woman lie on a blanket on the grass.

Sideshow/Janus Films

Critic's Pick

'Last Summer' Review: A Shocking Affair to Remember

Few directors get as deeply under the skin as Catherine Breillat, a longtime provocateur who tests the limits of what the world thinks women should do and say and be.

By Manohla Dargis

In close-up, three people sit on a sofa, embracing one another.

Searchlight Pictures

Critic's Pick

'Kinds of Kindness' Review: Everybody's Looking for Something

Yorgos Lanthimos returns with a twisted fable triptych about dominating and being dominated.

By Alissa Wilkinson

In an outdoor scene, a woman in a white short-sleeved blouse gazes ahead with a rapt expression, seemingly watching a show; a little girl with wavy red hair and glasses leans into her.

A24

Critic's Pick

'Janet Planet' Review: A Sticky Summer Full of Small Dramas

Annie Baker's debut feature film is a tiny masterpiece — a perfect coming-of-age story for both a misfit tween and her mother.

By Alissa Wilkinson

MOVIE REVIEWS

Celine Dion, wearing a dark outfit, raises her arms above her head and looks upward.

Amazon Studios

'I Am: Celine Dion' Review: You Saw the Best in Me

Dion's voice made her a star. A new documentary on Amazon Prime Video brings her back to Earth, showing her intimate struggles with stiff person syndrome.

By Chris Azzopardi

A woman in a white suit, a man in a black suit and a young woman in a patterned blazer stand talking.

Tina Rowden/Netflix

'A Family Affair' Review: A Rom-Com With a Third Wheel

When Zara (Joey King) realizes that her mom (Nicole Kidman) is dating her boss (Zac Efron), she tries to split them up.

By Glenn Kenny

A teenager with a black T-shirt and shorts, and a purple fringed crop jacket, arms outstretched, walks alongside a woman in a sleeveless tunic and jeans. They are both smiling.

Apple TV+

'Fancy Dance' Review: The Search for a Sister

This debut feature about a missing woman on an Oklahoma reservation is an imperfect but palpably emotional portrait of desperation and hard-won hope.

By Brandon Yu

A woman with bleach-blonde hair sits smiling in the back of a taxicab.

Phedon Papamichael/Sony Pictures Classics

'Daddio' Review: Two for the Road

Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson outclass a humdrum script as two people who talk — and talk — in a New York City taxicab.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

A man in a vest and white shirt stands outside next to a boy holding a lollipop.

Cohen Media Group

Review: In 'June Zero,' There Are Many Ways to See the Past

Jake Paltrow's film braids three fictional stories around the 1962 execution of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi official and war criminal.

By Nicolas Rapold

A woman lies in a hospital bed with a meal in front of her and a smirk on her face.

Sandbox Film

'Confessions of a Good Samaritan' Review: An Altruistic Story

In Penny Lane's newest film, she turns the camera on herself to document her experience donating a kidney to a stranger.

By Natalia Winkelman

Outdoors, five people sit around a dining table looking at a figure offscreen.

David Chizallet/Oscilloscope Laboratories

'The Vourdalak' Review: Blood Relations

An endangered French aristocrat is stranded with a benighted rural family in this tragicomic fairy tale.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

In a film still, four people, one woman in the driver's seat and three male passengers, are in a dusty car. All are looking back at something out of frame.

Cinema Guild

'Music' Review: Oedipus Rocks

An ethereal, experimental new drama retells the story of the mythical Greek hero.

By Beatrice Loayza

NEWS & FEATURES

A still from the movie

Disney/Pixar

Critic's Notebook

I Saw My Anxiety Reflected in 'Inside Out 2.' It Floored Me.

In a way that's both cathartic and devastating, Pixar's latest portrays how anxiety can take hold, our critic writes.

By Maya Phillips

In a scene from the movie, Celine Dion is seen in profile, clenching a fist and making a face.

Amazon Studios

Celine Dion Had a Medical Emergency. The Camera Kept Rolling

Irene Taylor, director of the new documentary "I Am: Celine Dion," talks about the decision to include a grueling scene of the pop star in crisis.

By Annie Aguiar

In a scene from the movie, Kevin Costner, in western garb, stands outdoors surrounded by trees and points a gun at something out of the frame. Behind him in the distance are a tent and a few people milling around.

Richard Foreman/Warner Bros.

Kevin Costner Is Pursuing His Western Dream. Will Audiences Follow?

To make "Horizon," he put his own money on the line and left "Yellowstone," the series that revived his career — all with little Hollywood support.

By Nicole Sperling

Three men in suits of brown or gold stand on a stage holding microphones. Each is extending an arm.

Randall Michelson & Bernardo Flores

'The Lion King' at 30: Jason Weaver Sang for Simba but Few Knew It

The actor was playing a young Michael Jackson when Elton John spotted him. Three decades later, the new attention to his legacy is "gratifying."

By Ashley Spencer

STREAMING RECOMMENDATIONS

On a stairwell, a man in a wool coat chats with a man with a trench coat draped over his shoulders.

Criterion Collection

Three Great Documentaries to Stream

This month's picks look at a summer in Paris, a summer at the Olympics and the heat of the erotic thriller.

By Ben Kenigsberg

A man, shown in profile, operates a movie projector.

Kino Lorber

Seeking Serious Cinema on Streaming? Try Kino Film Collection.

The service is an art house answer to what's missing on some of the more popular streamers.

By Jason Bailey

A man with a bloody face stands in the rain.

Warner Bros.

Five International Movies to Stream Now

This month's selections include a Japanese serial-killer thriller, a Pride Month pick from Sri Lanka, a Malaysian drama about undocumented street hustlers and more.

By Devika Girish

Two Black men made up as blonde white women stand talking in a hotel lobby.

Joe Lederer/Columbia Pictures

Critic's Notebook

'White Chicks' at 20: Comedy Beyond the Pale

The Wayans brothers' subversive comedy is smarter than you remember.

By Robert Daniels

A man in a brown jacket and a cap walks with a man in uniform across a street.

Dog Eat Dog Films

Critic's Notebook

'Fahrenheit 9/11' at 20: Revisiting the Fear and Anger

Michael Moore's hit documentary isn't a prosecutor's brief but a political and emotional appeal, rooted in the ways in which the country's burdens are unequally borne.

By Nicolas Rapold

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