Movies Update: Summer moviegoing heats up.
Plus, Tribeca Festival picks.
Movies Update
June 6, 2025

Hi, film fans!

We’re in the thick of summer moviegoing and I’m especially enjoying the range of choices in theaters right now.

There’s “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” with Tom Cruise’s amazing action work for the director Christopher McQuarrie. My colleague Leah Greenblatt has a terrific look at how he pulled off a scene that required him to hang from a plane. (The insurer was probably as stunned as fans were.)

Then there’s the gruesome “Bring Her Back,” the rare horror film to feature Sally Hawkins, the Oscar-nominated actress better known for working with directors like Guillermo del Toro and Mike Leigh. In an interview with Erik Piepenburg, she explained that she had signed on to play a foster mother with some unorthodox caregiving practices because of the script by Danny and Michael Philippou, the brother horror auteurs from Australia. “The writing just hits hard, and you know it comes from a place of real understanding,” Hawkins said.

Finally, for a complete change of pace, try Wes Anderson’s “Phoenician Scheme,” starring Benicio Del Toro as a shady businessman hoping to reconnect with his daughter, a nun played by Mia Threapleton. If that name isn’t familiar, it might help to know that her mother is Kate Winslet. Or maybe not. Despite the connection, Threapleton told us she came by her love of film independently and when she learned she had landed the Anderson role, she curled up and sobbed: “I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

Whatever you decide to watch, enjoy the movies!

CRITICS’ PICKS

A child with a buzz cut puts their hands to glass. A woman stands on the other side, holding out her hands.

Ingvar Kenne/A24

Critic’s Pick

‘Bring Her Back’ Review: A Foster Mother Like No Other

Sally Hawkins plays a menacingly unhinged foster parent to two bereaved siblings in this emotionally potent chiller.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

MOVIE REVIEWS

A man with a beard smiles while looking down through a metal gate, with the blue sky and sunlight visible in the background. The scene is viewed from below, emphasizing the perspective.

IFC Films and Shudder

‘Dangerous Animals’ Review: Here, Sharky Sharky!

The Australian director Sean Byrne combines the serial killer and shark movie subgenres into a trashy good time.

By Jason Zinoman

A woman holds her child, wrapped in a colorful blanket, while standing in what appears to be a hospital.

Chip Bergmann/Perry Well Films 2, via Netflix

‘Tyler Perry’s Straw’ Review: The Accidental Bank Robber

A single mom in Atlanta (Taraji P. Henson) is having a very, very, very bad day.

By Lisa Kennedy

Two men in a rural town in Italy wave at someone off-camera.

Vertical Entertainment

‘I Don’t Understand You’ Review: Murder and Mayhem in Italy

The film follows dads-to-be Dom (Nick Kroll) and Cole (Andrew Rannells) as they make a series of disastrously wrong turns during their anniversary trip.

By Chris Azzopardi

Two brothers look at the camera.

Aborarama

‘The Last Twins’ Review: A Rare Holocaust Story

Erno Spiegel was spared because he was a twin. He went on to help others at Auschwitz, as detailed in this documentary by Perri Peltz and Matthew O’Neill.

By Beatrice Loayza

Two priests sit in church pews, having a conversation.

XYZ Films

‘The Ritual’ Review: An Exorcism to Forget

Al Pacino speaks in an exaggerated accent and Dan Stevens looks overly concerned in this movie directed by David Midell.

By Glenn Kenny

A young woman speaks into a microphone at a public meeting, with people seated behind her. Some hold signs reading TENANTS DEMAND RENT CONTROL! The room appears crowded and attentive.

Steph Ching/Voces

‘Slumlord Millionaire’ Review: Costs of Living

A documentary looks at New York City residents pushing back against housing troubles.

By Ben Kenigsberg

In the front of a camper van, a person in a monkey costume is in the driver’s seat and the passenger looks over at them, surprised.

Sunrise Films

‘Sunlight’ Review: A Man Wakes Up in a Camper, Monkey at the Wheel

In Nina Conti’s absurdist love story, a radio host and a new friend have nowhere to go but up.

By Nicolas Rapold

ANATOMY OF A SCENE

Article Image

Larry D. Horricks/Lionsgate

Anatomy of a Scene

Watch Ana de Armas Fight Using Kitchen Utensils in ‘Ballerina’

The director Len Wiseman narrates an action sequence from “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.”

By Mekado Murphy

NEWS & FEATURES

A photo from on set of “Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning” shows Tom Cruise standing on a yellow plane. There are cameras rigged to the plane and Cruise looks towards a cameraman who is pointing a camera at the actor.

Paramount Pictures

How They Pulled Off That Wild ‘Mission: Impossible’ Plane Stunt

Creating Tom Cruise’s pivotal scene for “The Final Reckoning” required months of grit, G-force training and a little hypothermia.

By Leah Greenblatt

A woman with dark, curly hair stands in a doorway holding the handle, looking serious. She wears a brown sweater and patterned skirt, with one hand stained red with blood. Sunlight and greenery are visible outside, while overstuffed shelves frame her.

Ingvar Kenne/A24

In ‘Bring Her Back,’ Sally Hawkins Takes Horror to Heart

In a rare interview, the actress discusses tackling a difficult, sensitive and often dastardly role in the latest offering from Danny and Michael Philippou.

By Erik Piepenburg

Article Image

Paramount Pictures And Skydance/Paramount Pictures, via Associated Press

The Women Who Try to Keep Pace With Ethan Hunt

Over eight installments, the “Mission: Impossible” franchise has never quite found the perfect match for Tom Cruise’s world-saving spy.

By Esther Zuckerman

A woman wearing a fur coat stands in the center of a neon-lit space with pink and blue lights, surrounded by people dancing in the background. She looks directly at the camera with a confident expression.

Lionsgate

A Pirouette Through ‘John Wick’ Lore

With the release of “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina,” a guide to the expanded Wick cinematic universe.

By Robert Ito

A bleak-looking group of people stand with, in the center, a person in a trench coat with a skull perched on top.

Janus Films, via The American Cinematheque

Misery Loves Company? Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair Hits a Nerve.

Movies that are major downers, it turns out, are a big film festival draw. “Sometimes the world is such that you just need to wallow a little bit.”

By Brooks Barnes

In a moody portrait, a woman in a brown tweed blazer with the sleeves pushed up looks somberly at the camera.

Max Miechowski for The New York Times

Wes Anderson’s Newest Star Finds Inspiration Everywhere (Even a Napkin)

Mia Threapleton is Kate Winslet’s daughter but she’s intent on making her own way in Hollywood. That includes her deadpan nun in “The Phoenician Scheme.”

By Sarah Bahr