• A24’s Backrooms opened to $9M in Thursday night previews — surpassing Scream 7’s $7.8M and John Wick: Chapter 4’s $8.9M, and approaching Eternals’ $9.5M — a stunning result for a horror film based on a viral internet meme directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons
• The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a struggling furniture store owner who discovers an interdimensional labyrinth beneath his shop — adapted from Parsons’ own hit YouTube Backrooms web series that became a cornerstone of internet horror culture
• Critical reception has been strong: Rotten Tomatoes reviews describe the film as “extraordinarily effective” atmospheric horror — Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote that “you sit back and settle into the enigmas and the grun[ge]” — and the film has been called one of the most interesting horror releases of the year
• Backrooms is projected to challenge or potentially upset The Mandalorian and Grogu at the box office this weekend — the Star Wars film took $100M over the Memorial Day holiday but was widely considered underwhelming for franchise expectations

The Backrooms were always going to make money. The question was how much — and Thursday night answered it emphatically. A24’s Backrooms opened to $9M in previews beginning at 4 PM, Deadline reported, surpassing Scream 7’s $7.8M and eclipsing John Wick: Chapter 4’s $8.9M. It sits just below Eternals’ $9.5M — a Marvel ensemble film — which makes the comparison all the more striking for what is, on paper, a low-key A24 horror release about a furniture salesman and a labyrinth. The internet meme has officially arrived as a box office force, per Deadline.

The film’s premise stays closer to the source material than you might expect from a mainstream theatrical release. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark, a discount furniture store owner living in the store after a messy separation from his wife. While in the basement, Clark passes through a threshold into the Backrooms — an endless, fluorescent-lit labyrinth of identical yellow rooms that, in internet lore, represents the terrifying wrong-turn you can take out of ordinary reality. Renate Reinsve co-stars. The screenplay was written by Will Soodik, based on the web series that director Kane Parsons began making as a teenager and which accumulated hundreds of millions of views before he was old enough to vote, per the Sentinel Colorado.

What Critics Are Saying

The critical reception has matched the presale energy. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman called the film “extraordinarily effective” as atmospheric horror, writing that it generates genuine unease through craft rather than conventional shock. Rolling Out described it as a film that “burrows under the skin and stays there long after the credits roll” — placing it in the rare category of horror that relies on dread rather than cheap mechanics. Pajiba’s critic wrote that Backrooms “gripped me in ways I wasn’t immediately able to shake off,” and that the longer they sat with it, the more its intentions became clear, per Pajiba.

The film’s Rotten Tomatoes score has been described as great news for horror fans — though the Critics Consensus and full Popcornmeter were still pending as of Thursday evening. The reviews that have come in characterize Backrooms as one of the year’s most interesting horror releases: unsettling in a way that lingers, visually distinct, and carrying more thematic weight than its meme origins might suggest. For A24, which built its reputation on exactly this kind of elevated, difficult-to-categorize genre film, it reads as a signature release, per Collider.

The Internet-to-Blockbuster Pipeline

The box office projections heading into the weekend suggest Backrooms could challenge or outright upset The Mandalorian and Grogu, which took approximately $100M over the Memorial Day holiday but left industry observers underwhelmed — the consensus was that for a Star Wars film, that number is closer to Solo: A Star Wars Story territory than a genuine blockbuster. A strong Backrooms opening weekend would reshape the narrative heading into June. JoBlo noted that the comparison isn’t just statistical: Backrooms earned its preview number from a much smaller built-in fanbase than a Star Wars franchise title, making the per-theater performance potentially more impressive, per JoBlo.

What makes the result notable beyond the raw numbers is what it says about how horror audiences have evolved. The Backrooms as an internet phenomenon — creepypasta, YouTube short films, Reddit lore — built its following without any studio machinery. Kane Parsons made his web series on a camera as a teenager and turned it into one of the defining horror aesthetics of the early 2020s: liminal spaces, wrong-turn dread, the particular horror of a world that looks almost normal but isn’t. A24 acquiring and developing it into a theatrical feature with a real cast and a proper production budget was a calculated bet that that aesthetic had crossover potential. Thursday night’s $9M says it was right, per Rolling Stone.

For Parsons — who is 20 years old and making his feature debut — the numbers represent something different: the validation of an approach to filmmaking that began with a camera and an internet connection, not a film school application. The full opening weekend tracking will arrive over the next 48 hours and will give a clearer picture of where Backrooms lands. But the previews alone have already made it one of the most notable openings in A24’s history.

The post A24’s ‘Backrooms’ Opens to $9M in Previews — Beating ‘Scream 7’ and Rivaling ‘John Wick 4’ appeared first on Cream.

• Obsession, directed by Curry Barker and rated R, follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a shy young man who uses a supernatural novelty item called the One Wish Willow to make his longtime crush Nikki (Inde Navarrette) fall in love with him — with increasingly disturbing results
• Critics have praised the film for grounding its horror in emotional realism, with Collider calling it better than most recent dating-horror thrillers at weaponizing “blurred boundaries, emotional entitlement” — Barker executes the story “with restraint” as the romance curdles into something “uglier, sadder, and genuinely disturbing”
• Inde Navarrette, previously known for a supporting role in The CW’s Superman & Lois, has been singled out for what one reviewer called a “tour de force performance” — and Michael Johnston’s work as Bear has been called a potential breakout moment
• The film has become a box office success; the director had to cut its most brutal scene to avoid an NC-17 rating, landing the film at R

Curry Barker’s Obsession understands something that most horror films about bad romantic fixations don’t: the truly terrifying part comes before the violence does. The premise is deceptively simple. Bear (Michael Johnston) — a shy, infatuated young man working at a small music store alongside his friend group — uses a supernatural novelty item called the One Wish Willow to make his longtime crush Nikki (Inde Navarrette) fall in love with him. What follows, per Collider, is “something uglier, sadder, and genuinely disturbing” as Nikki’s affection spirals into emotional instability and dangerous obsession.

Collider’s review frames the film as the rare modern dating-horror entry that “weaponizes” fears around emotional entitlement and the moment intimacy becomes control — and does it better than most. Barker grounds the story in emotional realism first: the film opens with the familiar rhythms of a rom-com, making Bear’s awkward affection feel almost endearing before the turn. “Forced love is horrifying before bloodshed ever begins” is how Collider summarizes Barker’s thesis — and critics appear to agree he’s made that case effectively.

The Performances

Inde Navarrette carries a psychologically demanding role. Her Nikki goes from relatable crush to someone who bursts into violent episodes, lies to manufacture sympathy, and refuses to leave Bear’s side at social gatherings — her laugh, in one scene described by reviewers, is “too forced and too unnatural” in exactly the right way. Falls Church News-Press called it a “tour de force performance” and noted that Navarrette, of Mexican and Australian descent, handles the complexity “with dazzling believability.”

Michael Johnston’s Bear works as the moral center of a story in which neither the wish-granter nor the wish-giver comes out clean. The role has been described as a potential breakout for Johnston, who has spent years in television and voice work. Cooper Tomlinson co-stars as Ian, with Megan Lawless as Sarah, per Falls Church News-Press. The film is rated R — the director cut its most brutal scene to avoid an NC-17. That the film lands as hard as it does while staying within those parameters is part of what critics are responding to, per Tooele Online.

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• Disney and Pixar have released the final trailer for Toy Story 5 alongside the launch of ticket sales; the film opens exclusively in theaters June 19, directed by Andrew Stanton (who helmed Finding Nemo and WALL-E) and co-directed by Kenna Harris
• Two new cast members have been officially confirmed: Bad Bunny (Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) and Alan Cumming join a returning ensemble that includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Cusack as Woody, Buzz, and Jessie
• Andrew Stanton has confirmed that the story changed completely during development — the film went through a major reimagining from an earlier concept tied to an idea called “Lilypad” before landing on what’s now in theaters
• Stanton also officially confirmed an 84-year-old Disney Easter egg woven into the film: a reference to Bambi (1942), the studio’s earliest touchstone for emotional animated storytelling
• Promotional activity is in full swing: a Buzz Lightyear popcorn bucket is on sale at theaters, and concept art, sketches, and character maquettes from the film are on display at The Art of Pixar Gallery inside Disneyland’s Pixar Place Hotel

The toy box is almost open. With Toy Story 5 less than a month from its June 19 premiere, Disney and Pixar have released the final trailer, put tickets on sale, and confirmed two cast additions that should generate their own conversation: Bad Bunny and Alan Cumming are both joining the franchise.

Per 411Mania, the studio confirmed Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — professionally known as Bad Bunny — and Alan Cumming as new voices in the film alongside the returning core: Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, and Joan Cusack as Jessie. Greta Lee is also in the cast. Neither character’s role has been detailed yet.

The final trailer itself, per Hypebeast, is being read as a deliberate signal about the film’s emotional register — one that leans into the passage of time rather than away from it. “Pixar isn’t afraid to let Woody get old,” was how Hypebeast framed it, noting that the trailer doesn’t shy away from themes of aging and change that have run through the franchise since Toy Story 3 first sent Andy to college.

A Story That Changed Completely

Director Andrew Stanton — whose Pixar credits include Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and the first two Toy Story sequels — has revealed that the film’s story was significantly reimagined during development, per MovieWeb. An earlier iteration tied to an internal concept called “Lilypad” was abandoned in favor of what is now the film, a process Stanton has described as a complete overhaul rather than a course correction.

Stanton has also confirmed a piece of Pixar trivia that fans have been speculating about: the film contains a deliberate reference to Bambi (1942), confirming an 84-year-old Disney Easter egg embedded in the movie. It’s a nod that fits the franchise’s history — the original Toy Story, released in 1995, turned 30 last year, and the series has long traded in callbacks to Disney’s foundational work.

On the promotional side, a Buzz Lightyear popcorn bucket is now available at theater concessions, and Disneyland’s Pixar Place Hotel has opened The Art of Pixar Gallery, featuring concept art, character sketches, and maquettes created during production. Toy Story 5 is in theaters June 19.

The post Bad Bunny and Alan Cumming Are Joining ‘Toy Story 5’ — Plus: What the Final Trailer, Easter Eggs, and Story Changes Tell Us About June’s Biggest Pixar Film appeared first on Cream.

• The Breadwinner, Nate Bargatze’s feature film debut, opens in theaters Friday via Sony; he plays Nate Wilcox, a Nashville Toyota salesman forced to manage his three daughters while his wife (Mandy Moore) travels to South Korea for a business opportunity she pitched on Shark Tank
• The supporting cast includes Kumail Nanjiani, Colin Jost, Will Forte, Zach Cherry, Martin Herlihy, and Kate Berlant; the real Shark Tank investors appear as themselves in a cameo sequence
• Critical reception has been mixed-to-lukewarm: Hollywood Reporter calls it “inoffensive to the point of total boredom,” while ComingSoon gives it a 6/10 and calls it “surprisingly watchable” with the Shark Tank scene as a standout
• Bargatze co-wrote the script with Dan Lagana; it is adapted from material in his own stand-up, and he confirmed the film’s end credits include clips of the actual stand-up routines the movie scenes are based on
• Bargatze personally suggested to theater owners that they offer discounted tickets under what he’s calling the “Nate Rate” — and says they were immediately on board; he also gave an update on his planned Nashville theme park Nateland, saying it is “far along” with land secured

Nate Bargatze has spent years selling out arenas with stand-up. Starting Friday, he’s trying to sell tickets to a movie. The Breadwinner, his first feature film, opens in theaters via Sony with a premise that’s very much in his wheelhouse: a good-natured dad, out of his depth, trying to hold things together while his wife gets a shot at something bigger.

Bargatze plays Nate Wilcox — the character shares his first name, which is either charmingly self-aware or exactly what you’d expect — a Toyota salesman in Nashville whose wife Katie (Mandy Moore) gets the chance to take her organizational business system overseas after a Shark Tank appearance. Nate agrees to stay home and care for their three daughters (Stella Grace Fitzgerald, Birdie Borria, Charlotte Ann Tucker) for two weeks. Chaos, in the PG-rated sense, ensues.

The director is Eric Appel, who co-wrote the script with Bargatze and Dan Lagana. The supporting cast includes Kumail Nanjiani as a preening rival colleague, Colin Jost as a fellow stay-at-home dad, Will Forte as a useless roofer who basically moves in, and Kate Berlant in what critics describe as a criminally underused role.

What the Critics Are Saying

The reviews are in, and they’re mostly polite about their reservations. Hollywood Reporter called it “inoffensive to the point of total boredom” and “thoroughly bland,” noting that Bargatze’s deadpan stand-up persona works on stage but “onscreen he seems mostly on the verge of a coma.” The review acknowledged the film wastes a talented supporting cast on one-note roles.

ComingSoon was warmer, giving it a 6/10 and calling it “surprisingly watchable” for a film with low expectations. The review praised a Shark Tank sequence where Nate is summoned from backstage mid-doughnut bite and single-handedly tanks the pitch — “sharp, well-timed” — as the kind of joke the movie needed more of. The film’s heavy product placement for Toyota, Walmart, and KFC also got called out as one of its stranger quirks: ComingSoon described it as “Product Placement: The Movie.”

UPI’s review filed via Yahoo News landed somewhere in the middle: nostalgic for the kind of inoffensive mid-budget comedy that used to come out every week but noted the film bends over backwards to avoid any real conflict. “The Breadwinner would never go there,” the review noted of a missed opportunity for sharper domestic comedy, “lest it broach a method with which an audience member might disagree.”

Bargatze on the Film — and What Comes Next

Bargatze, speaking to Hollywood Reporter ahead of the release, described the project as closely tied to his real-life material. His actual daughter’s personality is spread across all three fictional daughters in the film. “Charlotte — the youngest [in the movie] that’s very outgoing and can start dancing and was very funny — we see a lot of that in my daughter when she’s at home with us,” he said. A horse that walks through the front door in one sequence — and really did have to be brought into a real family’s house — also made an impression. “The horse could act better than I could,” he said.

On the ticket pricing front, Bargatze said he came up with what he’s calling the “Nate Rate” — a suggestion that theaters offer discounted tickets for families — and that the response was immediate. “I want The Breadwinner to be a movie everybody can come see. Families, grandparents, kids — everybody,” he told Hollywood Reporter. “Theaters were very supportive right away. They’ve been just as excited about it as I have.”

He also gave an update on Nateland, his planned Nashville theme park, which he’s been teasing for a while. “We’re narrowing down on a site, and we’ve got some land,” he said. “I’m hoping we can announce a lot more stuff later in the year. We’re even now creating what the park is going to be looking like and the rides and just the experience.” As for what kind of movies he wants to make next: “I want to really live in that PG, PG-13 range and just really continue to build that trust with the audience.”

The Breadwinner is in theaters now.

The post Nate Bargatze’s Feature Debut ‘The Breadwinner’ Opens in Theaters — Here’s What the Reviews Say appeared first on Cream.

• John Travolta makes his directorial debut with Propeller One-Way Night Coach, now streaming on Apple TV — adapted from his own 1997 semi-autobiographical novella about an 8-year-old boy’s first flight in December 1962
• His daughter Ella Bleu Travolta plays a flight attendant named Doris; his siblings Margaret and Ellen Travolta also appear in the film
• The film had its world premiere at Cannes — where Travolta received a lifetime achievement award and went viral for his beret — and its domestic premiere at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
• The New York Times called it a "time capsule of midcentury pleasures" that "doesn’t soar, but does reach a comfortable cruising altitude"; the film runs just over an hour and had a $20 million budget
• Cinematographer Paul De Lumen, an assistant film professor at the University of Tampa, shot the film and accompanied Travolta to Cannes

John Travolta has been many things on screen — Vinnie Barbarino, Tony Manero, Vincent Vega. On Friday, he becomes something new: a director.

Propeller One-Way Night Coach, Travolta’s debut behind the camera, begins streaming on Apple TV this week after a run that took it from the Cannes Film Festival to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The film is based on the novella Travolta published in 1997 — a semi-autobiographical story about a boy named Jeff who, on a December night in 1962, boards a cross-country flight from Idlewild Airport in New York to Los Angeles with his mother Helen, a working actress chasing a promised shot at Hollywood.

Jeff, played by newcomer Clark Shotwell, is an aviation obsessive who keeps flight schedules in a Buster Brown shoe box and watches planes from beneath the flight paths near his home. The overnight journey becomes the adventure he’s always imagined. Kelly Eviston-Quinnett plays his mother.

The family casting is hard to miss. Ella Bleu Travolta — John’s daughter — plays Doris, a flight attendant who walks the aisle toward Jeff while "The Girl From Ipanema" plays, and per the New York Times, "may well be the youngster’s first love." Margaret Travolta plays the boy’s grandmother; Ellen Travolta appears as a friendly passenger. All five of Travolta’s siblings are in the film in some capacity.

The Cannes Moment

The film screened at Cannes earlier this month, where Travolta received a lifetime achievement award from the festival — and drew just as much attention for the beret he wore on the Croisette, which quickly circulated online. He piloted his own plane to the festival. Cinematographer Paul De Lumen, who shot the film and is now an assistant professor at the University of Tampa, made the trip with him.

"To go with him and to experience the festival with his team was so beautiful," De Lumen told Fox 13. "Cannes is the top, top festival for filmmakers." De Lumen, a 20-year industry veteran, said he and Travolta shared a unified vision for the film’s perspective: "It was so fun getting in that mind frame of looking at the world through this child who’s on this great adventure with his mom."

The domestic premiere followed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York before the film’s Apple TV release.

What Critics Said

The New York Times described the film as a "time capsule of midcentury pleasures," noting its lingering shots of engines and fuselages, a soundtrack of cocktail-lounge standards, and period details including the Eero Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center. The review acknowledged that "some viewers may find ‘Propeller’ a tad affected" but said "the wistfulness of this memory film is precisely what charms, because it’s steeped in a fondness for a bygone moment that’s so palpably personal to Travolta." The verdict: it "doesn’t soar, but it does reach a comfortable cruising altitude."

The film runs 61 minutes and carries no rating.

The post John Travolta’s Directorial Debut Is Here — and His Daughter Ella Bleu Steals a Scene appeared first on Cream.

• One studio has attempted to make a preemptive $10 million offer for Curry Barker’s next original project — before he’s pitched a single idea
• The offer is “attempted” because Universal already holds right of first negotiation for Barker’s next feature; he’ll pitch to Universal executives first
• Barker, 26, came from YouTube — his debut feature Obsession made more money in its second weekend than its first, a near-unheard-of box office feat
• THR, which broke the story exclusively, described his rise as “a generational shift of where the industry’s next filmmakers could come from”

Curry Barker hasn’t told anyone what his next movie is. He doesn’t need to. Hollywood is already throwing eight figures at it.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, one studio has attempted to make a preemptive offer of $10 million for Barker’s next original project — sight unseen, no pitch, no logline, nothing. The 26-year-old filmmaker hasn’t even had his meeting with Universal yet, which matters because Universal holds the right of first negotiation for his next feature. That prior deal means any other studio’s offer is technically an attempted offer, not a done deal. But the fact that a competitor is willing to drop eight figures without knowing what they’re buying tells you everything about Barker’s current standing in Hollywood.

The context: Barker came from YouTube. His debut feature, Obsession, was low-budget horror — the kind of film that typically fades after its opening weekend. Instead, it increased its box office haul in its second weekend, a feat that defies normal theatrical patterns and signals genuine audience word-of-mouth rather than front-loaded opening night crowds. The second-weekend spike turned heads across the industry.

THR framed his ascent as something larger than one filmmaker getting hot: “his meteoric ascension heralds a generational shift of where the industry’s next filmmakers could come from.” The implied argument is that the pipeline from YouTube to theatrical filmmaking — which Barker appears to be proving out — could reshape where studios look for talent in the coming years.

Barker will meet with Universal executives soon to pitch his new project. Whatever he brings into that room, at least one other studio has already decided it’s worth $10 million before hearing a word of it.

The post Hollywood Is Throwing $10 Million at Curry Barker — and He Hasn’t Pitched Anything Yet appeared first on Cream.

• Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opened to $98M domestic over the four-day Memorial Day weekend — the lowest opening in Star Wars theatrical history, below Solo‘s $103M in 2018
• Disney had projected $102M; worldwide gross reached $167M, nearly covering the $165M production budget in its first frame
• A24’s Backrooms pushed hard for No. 1, with a $40M+ debut that would rank as the studio’s highest-grossing opening ever
• Audiences on Rotten Tomatoes called it “a perfectly enjoyable low-stakes popcorn movie” — families, not franchise obsessives, drove the turnout
• The film stars Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin, with Jeremy Allen White and Sigourney Weaver in supporting roles, directed by Jon Favreau

The first Star Wars movie in seven years won the Memorial Day box office. It also posted the lowest opening in Star Wars theatrical history. Both things are true, and depending on who you ask, that’s either a crisis or exactly what Disney expected.

The final numbers for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu came in at $98 million domestic for the four-day holiday weekend — $81 million for the traditional three-day — with a worldwide total of $167 million. Disney had projected a four-day domestic figure of $102 million on Sunday, revised slightly to $100 million by Monday evening. The actuals came in softer still.

The comparison that keeps surfacing is Solo: A Star Wars Story, which opened over Memorial Day 2018 to $103 million domestically and is widely remembered as the franchise’s most significant box office stumble. The Mandalorian and Grogu fell short of that. In terms of raw opening weekend numbers, it is now the worst-performing Star Wars film in the franchise’s theatrical history.

The Case for Not Panicking

The production budget was $165 million — modest by current blockbuster standards. The film covered it globally in its opening weekend, before accounting for marketing costs. That’s not a bomb. It’s also not the sequel trilogy, which was chasing different demographics entirely.

IndieWire made the most useful observation: “Families, Not Fanboys, Drove The Mandalorian and Grogu Box Office — and Disney Is Fine with That.” The film was never engineered for the Reddit-and-YouTube corner of the fanbase that dissected The Last Jedi frame by frame. It’s a family adventure about a space dad and his small green son, and families showed up for it.

Audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes reinforced that read. The consensus from viewers called it “a perfectly enjoyable low-stakes popcorn movie” that delivered on the relationship between Din Djarin and Grogu and “exciting action set pieces.” Nobody walked out angry. Nobody is writing think-pieces about betrayal.

Comicbook.com pushed back on the broader narrative, arguing that “what everyone is getting wrong about the box office” is the comparison itself — that The Mandalorian and Grogu was never competing against The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi. Those films drew audiences who grew up with the original trilogy and were hungry for a return. This film drew people who watch The Mandalorian on Disney+ and wanted to see it bigger. Those are different audiences with different behavior patterns.

The Backrooms Factor

The weekend’s other major story was A24’s Backrooms, the adaptation of internet horror creator Kane Parsons’ YouTube IP, which opened with an estimated $40 million or more — a figure that would represent the highest opening weekend in A24’s history. That a sub-$10 million horror film from a first-time narrative director effectively challenged a Star Wars movie at the Memorial Day box office is its own kind of story, and one that studios are going to be studying for a while.

Backrooms had the same weekend that The Mandalorian and Grogu was supposed to own. The fact that it didn’t is part of why the post-weekend discourse has been so loud.

What Comes Next

Jon Favreau directed and produced the film, with Pedro Pascal returning as Din Djarin alongside Jeremy Allen White and Sigourney Weaver. The film’s global run is just beginning — international markets will matter considerably for how the final numbers look by the time it leaves theaters.

The Ringer framed the weekend with the starkest possible take: “The Mandalorian and Grogu Is the End of Star Wars as We Know It.” Their podcast brought in Star Wars superfan Van Lathan to discuss who the movie was actually made for and whether it marks an end of an era for the franchise at large. It’s a reasonable question, even if the answer isn’t as clean as the headline suggests.

Star Wars last opened a movie in theaters in December 2019. Seven years later, the franchise came back with a family film that opened below expectations and still made its budget back in four days. Whether that’s a failure, a pivot, or just the new reality of a franchise that peaked a decade ago probably depends on how much you loved the sequel trilogy — and whether you have a kid who cried when Grogu showed up on the big screen.

The post The Mandalorian and Grogu Opened to a Series-Low $98M — Here’s Why Disney Isn’t Panicking appeared first on Cream.

• Power Ballad opens in limited release May 29 and expands wide June 5, directed by John Carney (Once, Sing Street)
• Paul Rudd plays Rick Power, an American living in Dublin who leads a wedding band called the Bride and Groove; Nick Jonas plays Danny Wilson, a former boy bander making his solo debut
• The plot: Rick and Danny bond at a late-night jam session, Danny steals Rick’s chorus, the song becomes a hit, and Rick heads to Los Angeles for recognition — or revenge
• SXSW critics cheered the film’s feel-good comedy vibe; Mashable called it “a far echo” from Carney’s best work; Collider gave it an 8/10 in their summer preview
• Full cast: Havana Rose Liu, Jack Reynor, Peter McDonald, Sophie Vavasseur, Beth Fallon, Marcella Plunkett — and Jonas is heading straight from this to Camp Rock 3

The setup sounds like a pitch someone wrote on a napkin at a music industry party, and they probably did: Paul Rudd as a washed-up wedding singer, Nick Jonas as the untouchable pop prince who steals his song, and a road trip to Los Angeles for justice. Director John Carney — the man who made Once — is behind the camera.

Whether that combination delivers is the question critics can’t agree on. Power Ballad opens Thursday in limited release, with a wide expansion on June 5, and the conversation around it has been running hot since its SXSW premiere.

The Film

Rudd’s character, Rick Power, came to Dublin from America fifteen years ago on tour with his rock band. He met a woman, stayed, had a daughter, and gradually made peace with a quieter version of the dream. Now he fronts a wedding band called the Bride and Groove, playing covers at receptions and keeping his own songs mostly to himself.

One wedding gig changes everything. Rick and Danny Wilson (Jonas) end up in a late-night jam session that both men walk away from feeling genuinely good about — a rare moment of real connection between two musicians from completely different worlds. Then Danny releases a solo single. It’s built around a chorus Rick wrote and played for him that night. It’s a number one hit.

What Carney does with Rick’s reaction is the film’s most interesting move: he doesn’t make Rick furious. He makes him hopeful. Rick believes he just needs to find Danny, have a conversation, get his credit or his check. It’s only when Danny’s snarling manager, Mac Darling (Jack Reynor), starts actively blocking every approach that Rick and his chaotic best friend Sandy (Peter McDonald) pack their bags for Los Angeles.

Hollywood hijinks ensue, as Mashable put it — though not everyone found the hijinks particularly funny.

What Critics Are Saying

SXSW was warm. Collider, which got an exclusive first-look image ahead of release, gave the film an 8/10 and placed it firmly in Carney’s lineage of music-driven stories that find emotion in the gap between who people wanted to be and who they became. “A tale rooted in the disparity between the music of yesteryear and the music of today,” their preview noted, pointing to the broader dynamic between Rick’s analog sincerity and Danny’s polished pop machine.

Mashable was less convinced. Their review, which ran the same day as the film’s wide publicity push, called it “a warmly silly movie with a big heart, an appreciation of music, and a happy ending” — and then spent most of its word count explaining why that wasn’t quite enough. “Power Ballad itself never ignites, or even sizzles. Its flame is squelched before it begins.”

The core complaint: the film promises a real showdown between a busted has-been and a pop prince, and then backs away from anything that might actually sting. “For a film that is centered on someone who is undeniably angry, Power Ballad is weirdly toothless.”

The Nick Jonas Question

Here’s where things get genuinely interesting. According to Mashable, the film splits its lead actors cleanly down the middle — and not in the way the marketing suggests.

Rudd throws himself into the comedy. He is, as ever, the most committed guy in any room, and his physical work here is reportedly enthusiastic. The problem, per Mashable, is that his singing sounds processed — potentially autotune-enhanced — which undercuts the film’s entire argument about musical authenticity. A wedding singer who can’t convince you he’s actually singing is a real structural problem.

Jonas, meanwhile, flips that equation entirely. “Jonas can sing the hell out of these pop songs. But when it comes to the comedy, he’s as wooden as the acoustic guitar Danny gifts to Rick.”

It’s the kind of critical observation that lodges in your brain. Two actors, each strong in exactly the category where the other falls short, paired in a film that needs both of them to work at once.

The Carney Comparison

Power Ballad is the fourth time Carney has told a version of this story — music as the thing that connects people across distances they couldn’t otherwise cross — and the fourth time critics have measured it against the one that started everything.

Once came out in 2007. It cost almost nothing. It starred Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová as two musicians falling in love on the streets of Dublin, shot in early digital with a scrappiness that felt like a feature rather than a limitation. The soundtrack won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The film launched a real band and eventually a Broadway adaptation. “That movie felt like magic,” Mashable’s review noted, and the line lands not as nostalgia but as a measuring stick.

Sing Street in 2016 earned nearly the same affection. Both films had something Power Ballad, by most accounts, doesn’t quite find: the sense that no one but Carney could have made this exact movie, about these exact people, right now.

Begin Again, Flora and Son, and now Power Ballad are the other Carney films — the ones that are pleasant and musical and easy to watch, but that “lean into tedious Hollywood tropes about love and music,” as Mashable’s review put it. The SXSW crowd disagreed. The film is 98 minutes and ends happily. Audiences who turn up for Paul Rudd in a feel-good comedy will probably leave satisfied.

What’s Next for Nick Jonas

Collider’s piece noted something that reframes the entire Power Ballad release: Jonas is heading from this directly into Camp Rock 3. The detail adds an odd meta-layer to a film already about a former boy bander trying to prove he’s more than his past. Jonas is, in fact, a former boy bander trying to prove he’s more than his past. Whether that casting is irony or genius probably depends on how charitable you’re feeling toward the third act.

For what it’s worth, the full cast also includes Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms), Sophie Vavasseur (Flora and Son), Beth Fallon, and Marcella Plunkett as Rick’s wife — a group of actors that, on paper, should have had more room to breathe than the film apparently gave them.

Power Ballad opens May 29 in limited release. The wedding band plays on.

The post Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas’s Power Ballad Is in Theaters This Week — SXSW Loved It, Mashable Didn’t, and the Truth Is Somewhere in Between appeared first on Cream.

• Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day opens June 12, 2026, and Emily Blunt just gave the most detailed look yet at what the film is actually about
• Blunt plays Margaret, a meteorologist who gains unexplained abilities and becomes a target of a shadowy government trying to suppress alien knowledge
• Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo co-star; screenplay by David Koepp, based on Spielberg’s original story
• Universal Pictures is hiding 1,000 origami cardinals with free Fandango ticket codes in New York, Los Angeles, and Kansas City this Wednesday
• Fans across social media are connecting the film’s plot to the Pentagon’s recent real-world release of classified UFO files — and the theories are something

Steven Spielberg hasn’t made a movie about aliens since War of the Worlds in 2005. Twenty-one years later, he’s back. And if Emily Blunt’s description of Disclosure Day is any indication, he hasn’t lost a single step.

In a new featurette released this week, Blunt broke down the premise of the June 12 thriller in terms more specific than any trailer has offered yet. Her character is Margaret, a meteorologist. Then the world changes.

“This film is such an original science fiction story about the idea of non-human life existing on other worlds — that we are not alone,” she told ComingSoon. “Margaret is suddenly imbued with these abilities she’s never had before. [She] and Daniel, they are the holders of this world-changing secret. And so they are being hunted down by the highest form of a shadowy government who are trying to stop them from revealing this truth to the world.”

The “Daniel” she’s referencing is Josh O’Connor’s character. They’re not just being chased — they’re being erased.

What Spielberg Showed at CinemaCon

April’s CinemaCon was notable for one thing above everything else: it marked Steven Spielberg’s first-ever appearance at the convention. He didn’t show up empty-handed.

The private trailer screened for theater owners included footage that no one has seen publicly yet. The Hollywood Reporter described a pivotal scene where Blunt’s Margaret — unable to speak during a live weather broadcast — starts emitting sounds that make no linguistic sense. Then O’Connor’s character watches the footage and says: “It’s math.” They have an emotional meeting shortly after. “I know you,” he says. “I know you, too,” she answers.

The trailer also gave the first clear look at the film’s alien creature. CBR, which has been covering Disclosure Day extensively, noted the deliberate parallel to Spielberg’s earlier approach with E.T.: the movie isn’t about the reveal, it’s about what the alien’s presence means emotionally and morally for the humans who encounter it.

The film runs 145 minutes. Rated PG-13. Written by David Koepp — the same David Koepp who wrote Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

You Can Win Free Tickets — But You Have to Go Find Them

Universal Pictures is doing something genuinely fun for the ticket on-sale period. This Wednesday, 1,000 origami cardinals will appear at locations in three cities. One hundred of those birds in each city hold unique Fandango codes for two free tickets to see Disclosure Day in theaters.

New York: Brookfield Place, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. Kansas City: City Market, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT. Los Angeles: Lake Hollywood Park, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT.

It’s the kind of marketing move that only works if people care enough to show up. Based on the pre-release buzz, that doesn’t seem like a problem.

The Fan Theories Are Getting Wild

Here’s where things get genuinely eerie.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon publicly released a collection of previously classified files related to UFO and UAP investigations — photos, videos, audio recordings. The timing with Disclosure Day is… pointed. And the internet has noticed.

Perez Hilton rounded up the reaction, and the range is something. Some fans are treating it as pure coincidence and great marketing luck. Others have gone full conspiracy. “Imagine if real alien disclosure actually happens the same week this movie releases,” one X user wrote. “Marketing genius.” Another went further: “Perhaps Spielberg didn’t invent this, he was briefed. Disclosure Day could be predictive programming 2.0.”

The more measured takes focused on the trailer’s strange clicking scene — Blunt speaking in sounds that defy translation — as something unsettling on a structural level, not just a narrative one. “Instead of alien speech or possession, it may be showing something more disturbing: human language collapsing under something it can’t translate,” one TikTok user wrote in a breakdown that racked up attention.

Blunt, for her part, has kept the emphasis on the film itself. “These new extraordinary gifts that have been bestowed upon them challenge the characters’ values and their beliefs in what’s possible,” she said of Margaret and Daniel’s predicament.

Spielberg’s extraterrestrial trilogy — Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., War of the Worlds — each found a different emotional register for the same core question. Disclosure Day opens June 12. Whatever it’s doing, it’s doing it at exactly the right moment.

The post Emily Blunt Breaks Down Her Role in Spielberg’s Disclosure Day — and the Internet Is Already Convinced It’s Real appeared first on Cream.

• Pressure is a WWII drama about the 72 hours before D-Day, centered on the meteorologists whose weather forecast determined the invasion
• Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser play rival forecasters — Scott as British meteorologist James Stagg, Fraser as his American counterpart
• The film is directed by Anthony Maras and based on David Haig’s 2014 stage play
• Reviews are largely positive, with Andrew Scott drawing particular praise for his performance
• The Wrap is the main outlier, calling it “middling” — most critics land between “absorbing” and “superb”

You have probably never spent much time thinking about the meteorologists of D-Day. Pressure would like to change that.

The new WWII drama — directed by Anthony Maras and based on David Haig’s 2014 stage play — focuses on the 72 hours before June 6, 1944, and specifically on the clash between two rival forecasters: James Stagg, the British meteorologist played by Andrew Scott, and his American counterpart played by Brendan Fraser. General Eisenhower needed a weather window. The two men couldn’t agree on when — or whether — one was coming. The fate of the Allied invasion hung on whoever he believed.

It is, as IGN put it, “compelling, quality dad content” — which is a better compliment than it sounds.

The Reviews

Variety called it “handsome and efficient,” saying the film doesn’t quite claim that a weatherman won the war but “wouldn’t mind one bit if that’s what you came away believing.” The Hollywood Reporter praised Scott specifically, calling his performance “superb” and the film “tense.” Deadline described it as “thrilling” and noted that Eisenhower’s impossible choice between the two men generates genuine dramatic pressure.

The lone significant dissent comes from The Wrap, which found the historical anecdote too thin to sustain a full feature. It’s a reasonable concern — the premise is narrow — but the majority of critics seem to feel Maras and his cast make it work.

Scott vs. Fraser

The matchup is interesting on paper and apparently delivers in practice. Scott has been on a remarkable run since Ripley and All of Us Strangers; Fraser, following his Oscar win for The Whale, continues to make deliberate choices. Putting them across a table from each other in a room where the stakes are genuinely enormous turns out to be a good idea.

Pressure is in theaters now.

The post Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser Fight Over the D-Day Weather Forecast in ‘Pressure’ appeared first on Cream.