There are roughly 47,000—oh, wait, a new Netflix Original just dropped; make that 47,001—TV shows and movies coming out each week. At Obsessed, we consider it our social duty to help you see the best and skip the rest.
We’ve already got a variety of in-depth, exclusive coverage on all of your streaming favorites and new releases, but sometimes what you’re looking for is a simple Do or Don’t. That’s why we created See/Skip, to tell you exactly what our writers think you should See and what you can Skip from the past week’s crowded entertainment landscape.
See: Hit Man
Hit Man kicks off Glen Powell’s big summer—he’ll be back in Twisters next month—with a major bang. The heartthrob’s latest is hysterically funny and packed with suspense, making it another hit (wink) for one of Hollywood’s most charismatic leading men.
Here’s Caspar Salmon’s take:
“Richard Linklater has always been fascinated by language, particularly in the Before trilogy and, within that, particularly in Before Sunset, where both lovers are chatty but Ethan Hawke, as Jesse, dominates conversation, exploiting his facility for sweet-talk to seduce Céline (Julie Delpy). The subsequent films in the trilogy course-correct that imbalance, with Delpy having more input in the screenplay: Céline starts to meet Jesse’s dreamy romanticism with a frank, no-nonsense irony.
Thoughts of those films come to mind, at times, when watching Linklater’s latest, Hit Man, in which Glen Powell plays Gary Johnson, a cop who moonlights as a pretend hitman in order to arrest people seeking the services of a contract killer. All he needs to do is extract a clear demand for a killing and money for the service, and the arrest can be made. Gary, at the outset of the story, is a shy and somewhat bumbling professor of philosophy who works as an investigator in his spare time and who, when a colleague suddenly falls ill, is asked to step in at the last minute and encounter a man who is seeking the services of a professional killer.”
Robot Dreams.
Wild BunchSee: Robot Dreams
Robot Dreams might be entirely dialogue-free, but its moving, beautifully animated story about love and friendship will enchant viewers of all ages, proving that words aren’t necessary when to convey the power of real, life-changing companionship
Here’s Coleman Spilde’s take:
“If you heard the film Robot Dreams be called among the five Best Animated Feature nominees at this year’s Oscars ceremony and said, ‘What the hell is that?’ you are not alone. This intrepid little movie, directed by Spanish filmmaker Pablo Berger, has taken its sweet time making its way to the United States. After premiering to raves at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Robot Dreams slowly trickled down through a few other festivals and had a brief, under-the-radar Oscar-qualifying run in the US. But the film’s distributor, Neon, didn’t get it widely in front of stateside eyes before the Oscars, leaving many to question its release strategy and go so far as to claim it bungled the movie’s momentum entirely.
While there’s merit to wondering whether the film might have been bigger with a different approach to its release, such questions fall away once you’re seated in front of Robot Dreams, which draws you in from its opening shots of a vividly illustrated 1980s New York City. Here, a bipedal canine named Dog languishes inside his apartment, channel surfing between playing rounds of Pong. The glow of his television distracts him from his window, where he can glimpse other animal couples and friends enjoying their time together. When Dog spots a TV ad for a mail-order mechanical friend named Robot, he jumps at the chance for some companionship, and Robot Dreams’ sweet story takes off.”
(l-r) Faith Omole, Sarah Kameela Impey, Juliette Motamed, and Anjana Vasan in We Are Lady Parts.
Saima Khalid/WTTV Limited/Peacock/C4See: We Are Lady Parts Season 2
We Are Lady Parts returns after three years for its second season, a delightful melange of feminist rock band humor and serialized drama. While the plotting can occasionally be a little shaky, it’s easy to forgive in a show so original and wholly confident.
Here’s Jesse Hassenger’s take:
“It’s been three years since an all-female, all-Muslim band burst onto the TV scene with We Are Lady Parts, a single-camera British sitcom about rockers in their twenties navigating the traditions of both Islam and punk. If that seems like a long gap between TV seasons, just think of what it feels like for a fledgling musical act. While the on-screen time elapsed between seasons appears closer to one year later than three, life’s clock keeps ticking for the central quartet and their dedicated manager (Lucie Shorthouse).
Since cautious, well-behaved Amina (Anjana Vasan) finally, fully committed to the band in the Season 1 finale, Lady Parts has coalesced into a gig-booking, fan-accumulating, repertoire-expanding actual band. But they don’t have a full record or next-level success to show for it. No one feels that more acutely than Saira (Sarah Kameela Impey), the band’s founder and frontwoman. On the cusp of 30, she’s feeling desperate for a mark of accomplishment that won’t sell out her punk-rock ideals. To borrow a phrase from Girls5eva, which debuted on Peacock the same year as Lady Parts, she’s hoping to enter ‘album mode.’”
Jim Henson Idea Man.
Disney+See: Jim Henson Idea Man
Jim Henson Idea Man is a lovingly made tribute to the late, massively influential puppeteer. Directed by Ron Howard, who approaches Henson’s archives from a place of obvious affection, it’s a doc that both kids and adults will watch with the same reverence.
Here’s Isaac Feldberg’s take:
“As warm, fuzzy, and deeply felt as a hug from Fozzie Bear, Ron Howard’s new documentary takes the measure of Jim Henson, the man behind the Muppets (and Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth), as both a creative genius and a family man, exploring his revolutionary spirit and dedication to craft across a 36-year career.
In Jim Henson Idea Man, which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and streams on Disney+ starting May 31, Howard tenderly eulogizes the late puppeteer and animator while traveling the span of his life—no small feat for a 108-minute documentary, but one that Howard attempts by proposing a broader paean to Henson’s ingenuity rather than diving too deeply beneath the surface.”
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