Movies Update: Is this Tom Cruise’s worst movie?
Plus, it’s scary movie season
Movies Update
October 2, 2026

Hey movie fans!

Happy October! The leaves are changing, the temperature is dropping, and the time has come to fill your screens with blood splatter. That’s right — it’s scary movie season, and Erik Piepenberg has a list of classics new and old that will keep you busy at least until Halloween night. Some favorites of mine on the list: “Candyman” (with a smooth and scary Tony Todd), “Jennifer’s Body” (the bisexual Bible) and “Martyrs” (not for the faint of heart).

Also, the New York Film Festival continues. Last week I said that the hottest ticket was probably the Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim documentary “You Can See Everything,” and this week a long line of people hoping for standby tickets (some who showed up as early as 2:30 a.m.) confirmed that.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, “Digger,” from the director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and starring Tom Cruise as a flailing oil tycoon, has garnered largely perplexed reactions. “‘Digger’ is such a lumbering white elephant of a movie that it almost makes you sorry for everyone involved,” Manohla Dargis wrote in her review. As someone who made “Birdman” my entire personality in 2014, I feel a responsibility to see it anyway.

Whatever you see (everything or not) enjoy the movies!

CRITICS’ PICKS

Sian Clifford, lounging on an inflatable flamingo, in front of a pool with a country estate in the background.

Obscured Releasing

Critic’s Pick

‘Lady’ Review: The Grande Dame and the Director

A loopy mockumentary starring Sian Clifford as a delusional aristocrat is surprisingly moving.

By Alissa Wilkinson

An image of an anonymous subject and the filmmaker Yuval Abraham on a rooftop in Tel Aviv.

The Guardian/IFC Center

Critic’s Pick

‘NAZA’ Review: Intimate Interviews About War’s Human Costs

This haunting documentary, by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, interviews anonymous Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers as they recount their military actions in Gaza.

By Manohla Dargis

MOVIE REVIEWS

A woman in a red dress and a man in a tuxedo stand together in a dimly lit, crowded room.

Alisha Wetherill/Amazon MGM Studios

‘Verity’ Review: Magnificent Confession

Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson vie for Josh Hartnett and the moral high ground in this batty melodrama.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

A woman looks away from the camera in a backyard.

Kino Lorber

‘Atonement’ Review: Looking for Forgiveness

Based on a true story, this film centers on an American Marine trying to contact the family of the Iraqis he killed.

By Glenn Kenny

A woman and a man hold hands walking past a graffiti-covered wall. The man is looking up, and the woman is looking at him.

Quantrell Colbert/Perry Well Films 2/Netflix

‘Tyler Perry’s Doing Life’ Review: A Mysterious Hero

Perry’s latest melodrama follows a romance between a prison inmate and the woman he saved during a riot.

By Brandon Yu

A woman (left), seen in profile, looks out of the corner of her eye. She is standing next to a man (right) holding a camera.

Hades Films/Variance Film

‘The Influencer Project’ Review: Terminally Online

A content creator receives harassing messages in this found-footage horror movie set in Copenhagen.

By Natalia Winkelman

A still with Connor Storrie and Tourialay Akbari in a car. Akbari is driving.

Sunrise Films

‘April X’ Review: Before He Was Ilya

Connor Storrie (“Heated Rivalry”) plays a grifter on a search to find his sister, who disappeared after a deal gone wrong.

By Erik Piepenburg

An image of a man in a suit and a woman in a white blouse holding a rose.

Netflix

‘The Widower: ’Til Death Do Us Part’ Review: More True-Crime Sensationalism

A new Netflix documentary looks at the winding road to getting a conviction in a Las Vegas murder case.

By Ben Kenigsberg

NEWS & FEATURES

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Sinna Nasseri for The New York Times

Kyle MacLachlan: David Lynch’s Singular Weirdo Is Secretly a Normie

The actor still hasn’t come to grips with the loss of David Lynch. He talks about that, his hesitation about taking a role in “Sex and the City” and his new memoir.

By Melena Ryzik and Sinna Nasseri

A black-and-white portrait shows Ali staring at the camera. He wears a light-colored beanie, glasses with transparent frames, and a plaid jacket. His chin is resting on his stacked fists.

Thea Traff for The New York Times

Mahershala Ali and Bassam Tariq on an Action Film Rooted in Faith and Love

“Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” was conceived well before the star and the director met for “Blade.” But it was fatherhood that informed the new movie.

By Sadiba Hasan and Thea Traff

A woman sitting in a chair looks at a laptop that a man dressed in period costume and wig is holding inside an ornate room.

Andrew Durham

20 Years Later, Sofia Coppola’s ‘Marie Antoinette’ Is Back at Versailles

Once criticized for its modern soundtrack and pastel aesthetics, the director’s portrait of royal ennui is now being honored in the chateau where it was filmed.

By Laura Cappelle

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MGM

‘Showgirls’: The Gratuitous, Surreal Bomb That Was Maybe Brilliant

The reception to Paul Verhoeven’s lurid 1995 melodrama starring Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan and Gina Gershon was humiliating, but it’s since become a thought-provoking camp favorite.

By Maya Salam

STREAMING RECOMMENDATIONS

A man stands with arms crossed in a mostly empty art gallery, with framed pictures arranged on the floor along the walls.

Janus Films

Three Great Documentaries to Stream

This month’s picks feature an unfinished opera, an excavation of Chilean history and teen environmental sleuths.

By Ben Kenigsberg

A man in a fedora operates a piece of machinery on a boat deck as another man looks on in the background.

Aura Entertainment

Five Action Movies to Stream Now

This month’s picks include killer sharks, vengeful lawmen and an umbrella-gun assassin.

By Robert Daniels