Movies Update: Remembering David Lynch
Plus, a chat with Cynthia Erivo
Movies Update

January 17, 2025

Hey, movie fans,

Today, the film world is remembering one of its visionaries, the director David Lynch, who has died at 78. Lynch, best known for audacious films like “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive,” and the television series “Twin Peaks,” had a profound impact on a wide spectrum of culture, and our critics and reporters had a lot to say about his legacy.

In her appraisal, the chief film critic Manohla Dargis wrote that Lynch’s work “showed us what lies beneath; he showed us ourselves.” And the television critic James Poniewozik wrote about how, in “Twin Peaks,” Lynch “jimmied up the floorboards of the American dream and loosed a swarm of evil spirits from beneath.” Our writers also focused on the “Lynchian look,” and where to stream his cryptic output. The director’s peers also paid tribute, and we collected images from Lynch’s career.

Out this week in theaters is the award-winning Brazilian film “I’m Still Here,” which the critic Alissa Wilkinson called “beautiful” and “gutting.” The writer-director Leigh Whannell has a new take on the Universal monster movie “Wolf Man.” And for a bit of levity, there’s the Keke Palmer-SZA buddy comedy “One of Them Days” or, over on Netflix, the Cameron Diaz-Jamie Foxx spy film “Back in Action.”

Enjoy the movies.

CRITICS’ PICKS

Two women sit in the waiting area of a cash advance center. One holds a brochure, the other holds a pen and clipboard.

Anne Marie Fox/Sony Pictures

Critic’s Pick

‘One of Them Days’ Review: Too Broke, Girls

Keke Palmer and SZA play short-on-cash roommates on a mad dash across Los Angeles in this exhilarating comedy.

By Natalia Winkelman

A woman in an elaborate rhinestone bodysuit and feather headpiece.

Roadside Attractions

Critic’s Pick

‘The Last Showgirl’ Review: Pamela Anderson Is Dazzling

The actress stars as a dancer at a Las Vegas revue on its last fishnet leg in Gia Coppola’s sensitive and beguiling film.

By Manohla Dargis

MOVIE REVIEWS

At night, bathed by light, a woman wraps her arms around a man. The two of them stare into each other's eyes.

Lionsgate

‘Wish You Were Here’ Review: One Night Can Change a Life

A tepid romance follows familiar genre lines, but lacks some fundamental appeal.

By Alissa Wilkinson

A man in a tuxedo and a woman in a black pantsuit run through an event space where people are mingling.

John Wilson/Netflix

‘Back in Action’ Review: Surprise! Mom and Dad Are Spies

Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx star as former agents, now parents, who must protect their children. You can guess the rest.

By Ben Kenigsberg

In a game setting, three figures stand on a hill with their backs to us. They're looking out over a smoggy urban landscape.

MUBI

Documentary Lens

‘Grand Theft Hamlet’: The (Game) Play’s the Thing

The film captures two players staging the classic within an online video game, raising fascinating questions about community and connection.

By Alissa Wilkinson

A man stands in front of a window that is cracked with a bullet hole in its center.

Mika Cotellon/Magnet

‘Night Call’ Review: Belgian Brawlers

An ordinary locksmith undergoes an action-hero transformation in this snappy thriller set in Brussels during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests.

By Beatrice Loayza

Two men with machine guns point them at someone or something off camera while in the room of a house.

Lionsgate

‘Alarum’ Review: Mission Forgettable

Sylvester Stallone briefly stabilizes this artless action movie about a rogue agent and his wife on the run.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

A woman in a flannel shirt grabs the arm of a man, who’s sweaty and seething, as they stand inside a tool shed.

Nicola Dove/Universal Pictures

‘Wolf Man’ Review: Howling on the Inside

Julia Garner stars as a weary wife to Christopher Abbott, who might be transforming into a savage animal, in this cabin-in-the-woods thriller.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

A girl in a hijab looks away from the camera and rests her arm on a table.

Stephen Gerard Kelly/Grasshopper Films

‘In the Shadow of Beirut’ Review: Surviving in Sabra and Shatila

This observational documentary tracks four families living in poverty in the capital of Lebanon.

By Nicolas Rapold

ANATOMY OF A SCENE

In a hotel room, a woman grabs onto a man's cardigan, pulling him close to her as they look each other in the eyes.

Niko Tavernise/A24

Anatomy of a Scene

Watch Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson Connect in ‘Babygirl’

The film’s writer and director, Halina Reijn, narrates a sequence.

By Mekado Murphy

NEWS & FEATURES

A black-and-white portrait shows a woman in a draped, cropped white T-shirt and lacy bottom leaning her head to a shoulder. One hand with very long fingernails cups the top of her head; the other is just touching her neck.

Dana Scruggs for The New York Times

Cynthia Erivo Made a Promise to See Her Characters Through

Whether it’s Elphaba in “Wicked” or Celie in “The Color Purple,” the star doesn’t choose parts “frivolously”; she wants roles that stay with viewers.

By Salamishah Tillet

In an animated still set aboard a wooden vessel at sea, a young woman wields a shovel. She’s wearing a Polynesian dress and is surrounded by friends also wearing Polynesian looks.

Disney

Mood Board

What the Songs of ‘Moana 2’ Owe to Beyoncé and ‘Beauty and the Beast’

In writing their first film soundtrack together, the TikTok duo of Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear looked to those influences and “Anchorman.” Of course.

By Sarah Bahr

A man in a coat and winter hat stands behind a camera in the woods, with other crew people behind him.

Nicola Dove/Universal Pictures

Q&A

Leigh Whannell and His Personal Monsters

The writer and director of “The Invisible Man,” 21st-century style, is back with an interpretation of another Universal Pictures monster movie, “Wolf Man.”

By Esther Zuckerman