This week’s episode mixes sharp indie character work, a disappointing monster reboot, physical media pickups, and Chloe taking over with a stacked Butting In lineup.
From Chandler Levack’s excellent Mile End Kicks to a rough new take on The Mummy, plus Chloe diving into Project Hail Mary, The Faculty, and more, this is one of those episodes that swings from festival-film discovery to pure genre comfort food.
🎬 Fresh For Your Eyeballs
First up is Mile End Kicks, Chandler Levack’s new film and one I’d been waiting on for a long time. After loving I Like Movies, I was really excited for this one, and it absolutely delivers. Barbie Ferreira plays a 24-year-old music critic who gets pulled into the messy orbit of an indie band she’s covering, and the whole thing feels like a deeply personal, almost autobiographical character piece from Levack herself.
What works best is the writing—Levack has this incredibly natural conversational style—and Ferreira is fantastic here. It’s about being young enough to think you know everything and then getting hit hard by reality the second you leave your comfort zone. It’s smart, funny, and one of those films I really wish more people were talking about.
Then there’s The Mummy, and unfortunately this one just didn’t work for me. Lee Cronin’s attempt at a terrifying new mummy film had promise, especially with the horror pedigree behind it, but it never really lands. There are some strong ideas here—including finally casting Egyptian actors in key roles—but the film itself just isn’t very good. I honestly think Cronin should’ve fought harder against some of the choices made here.
💿 On The Blu / New To The Library
This week’s pickups were stacked.
I added Abbott Elementary Season 4, which I’m still catching up on and loving more as I go. It scratches that Modern Family / The Middle network-comedy itch perfectly, and Quinta Brunson continues to be hilarious.
I also grabbed Over the Garden Wall, Cartoon Network’s first miniseries, with a fantastic voice cast including Elijah Wood, Melanie Lynskey, and Christopher Lloyd. It feels like one of those animated gems I absolutely needed in the collection.
Then there’s A Lot Like Love, which was an easy upgrade from DVD for me because Amanda Peet being the romantic lead is basically enough to get me to buy a movie.
And yes, I’m still on my mission to own everything Hanna-Barbera, so I added The New Fred and Barney Show too. Completionist brain wins again.
🎙️ Butting In (Chloe’s Segment)
Chloe’s segment this week is loaded.
She starts with Project Hail Mary, aka “the Ryan Gosling butt,” and dives into the big sci-fi adaptation everyone’s talking about. Then she checks out a smaller horror title with a basement pit from hell and some genuinely creepy ideas, even if it gets messy by the end.
She also watched Albert Nobbs, pulled in entirely by YouTube Shorts and the promise of Glenn Close in period-drama mode. Chloe loved the setting and the upper-class drama, though the ending left her feeling a little underwhelmed despite how well the film handles its themes.
And finally, she watched The Faculty, somehow for the first time. Thankfully, it absolutely worked. Robert Rodriguez’s high-school body-snatchers thriller still holds up, and Chloe loved the cast, the late-90s Dimension chaos, and discovering baby Josh Hartnett in full terrible-haircut mode.
🔮 A Taste of Next Week
Coming up next week:
Michael
Fuse
Mother Mary
Erupcja
Apex
Orangutan
Sound of Falling
Stranger Things: Tales of ’85
Man on Fire
…and more.
New episodes of What The Hell Should I Watch? drop every Friday at 9 a.m. Pacific.
Steve Stebbing 