The fourth weekend of April has some of the month’s best new movie additions over at HBO Max.
This weekend heralds the streaming premiere of 2025 awards juggernaut Marty Supreme, so if you missed it in theaters and didn’t feel like paying $19.99 to rent it, now’s your chance to watch it.
Watch With Us also wants to highlight two other excellent movies that were recently added to the platform, including Dust Bunny, an indie action-fantasy starring Mads Mikkelsen and Sigourney Weaver.
Read on for all three of our selections.
‘No Hard Feelings’ (2023)
Long Island native Maddie Barker (Jennifer Lawrence) is a 32-year-old Uber driver and bartender who’s on the brink of losing her childhood home to bankruptcy. Desperate to keep a roof over her head, Maddie responds to an unusual Craigslist ad from a wealthy couple (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) who are equally desperate for someone to date their introverted 19-year-old son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) so he can break out of his shell. Looking to boost Percy’s confidence before he heads off to Princeton, they promise Maddie a Buick Regal if she succeeds. As time runs out, Maddie races to meet this seemingly impossible challenge so her life doesn’t totally fall apart.
With No Hard Feelings, Lawrence establishes herself as a romantic comedy heavyweight, using her ample talents to balance both perfect comedic timing (and a knack for slapstick and physical comedy) and believable dramatic moments with ease. Even though the movie occasionally plays it too safe, No Hard Feelings is still a charming rom-com with laugh-out-loud moments, an original, absurd plot and charming chemistry between Feldman and Lawrence. The film also quietly succeeds as an exploration of arbitrary coming-of-age markers and the way growing up can be a challenge at any age.
‘Marty Supreme’ (2025)
In 1950s New York City, Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) will stop at nothing to be the world’s top ping pong player. After managing to hustle his way into a spot in the British Open, he loses in the final round to a deaf Japanese player named Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi). Back at home, Marty sulks over his loss but is as determined as ever to make it big, even as the world around him seems to be unraveling at the seams — and all because of his own actions. Between an affair with an older woman, money he owes, a lost dog, a stint in jail and the possible reality that he’s the father of an as-yet-unborn baby, poor Marty just can’t seem to catch a break.
Despite losing all nine of its Academy Award nominations this year, Marty Supreme is still an awards-worthy movie, and Chalamet more than earned his Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Deeply informed by the narrative and stylistic chaos of director Josh Safdie‘s previous, co-directed movies like Good Time and Uncut Gems, watching Marty Supreme is like having the most fun anxiety attack of your life. Richly textured with breakneck pacing and lived-in performances from seasoned A-listers like Gwyneth Paltrow and non-actors like director Abel Ferrara alike, Marty Supreme is a can’t-miss work of art.
‘Dust Bunny’ (2025)
Eight-year-old Aurora (Sophie Sloan) believes that a monster under her bed killed her parents, so she asks her neighbor, an anonymous hitman in apartment 5B (Mikkelsen), to kill it for her. 5B realizes that it was likely assassins who mistakenly killed Aurora’s parents while looking for him, but when he informs his handler, Laverne (Weaver), he is advised to kill Aurora. After 5B picks off a hitman who had come for the child, a brief visit with a children’s protection agent reveals that Aurora has a history of parental figures mysteriously disappearing. But in choosing to protect Aurora, 5B will need to battle more than just assassins.
Dust Bunny marks the feature directorial debut of television native, Bryan Fuller, the creative mastermind behind such series as Hannibal, Pushing Daisies and American Gods. Dust Bunny reunites Fuller with Hannibal lead Mikkelsen, and finds the Hannibal Lecter actor working in perfect, delightful harmony with his much younger co-star, Sloan. The film is so enchanting, imaginative and visually impressive that you can overlook the somewhat light narrative. But as the movie clearly prioritizes evoking feeling over a strong story, it succeeds in crafting something affecting and surprisingly moving.
Read the full article here
