Movies Update: Anne Hathaway, Bod Odenkirk and a mummy

April 17, 2026

	By Mekado Murphy

Hey, movie fans!

In wide release this week, you’ll find Anne Hathaway as a pop star and Bob Odenkirk as (once again) an unassuming action hero. And for those of you who want your mummy, there’s one of those, too.

Hathaway stars with Michaela Coel in the off-kilter musical drama “Mother Mary,” and our chief film critic, Manohla Dargis, praised those performances, and little else, in her review. She wrote, “Both stars draw you to them, even when the movie goes from enigmatic to outright silly and irritatingly nonsensical.”

After “Nobody” and “Nobody 2,” Odenkirk is back to kick more butt in reticent ways with “Normal,” about the sheriff of a small town who discovers that town’s big secret. In her review, Jeannette Catsoulis wrote that the film “navigates its cartoonish excesses with expected competence.”

And about that mummy. In his review of “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy,” Nicolas Rapold wrote that the movie “revives one of cinema’s most storied monsters with a suitably macabre makeover, but it spins out in the attempt.” If you’re wondering who Lee Cronin is and why his name is part of the movie’s title, you can find out more on that here.

We have more reviews, news and features below, including thoughts on some hit movies as of late that are making us ask, Is the movie star back?

Keep reading to find out, and enjoy the movies.

A woman in blue holds a white cloth around another woman.

Eric Zachanowich/A24

‘Mother Mary’ Review: Anne Hathaway Strikes a Pose

The actress plays a pop star who reunites with Michaela Coel’s fashion designer. But the spectacle you see onscreen is far more engaging than the dialogue.

By Manohla Dargis

A man in a tan sheriffs uniform stands indoors, holding a mug and looking forward.

Magnolia Pictures

‘Normal’ Review: This Town Is Anything But

Bob Odenkirk plays a sheriff who uncovers a dangerous secret in this hyper-violent, small-town crime caper.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

A girl in a nightdress stands over a woman on the floor, looking scared.

Patrick Redmond//Warner Bros. Pictures

‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Review: Fresh From the Sarcophagus

The movie revives one of cinema’s unforgettable monsters with a macabre makeover, but it spins out in the attempt.

By Nicolas Rapold

A collage of three people from movie scenes: a man with glasses and a mustache on the left, a woman with long wavy hair in the center, and a man with glasses, a tie, and an ID badge on the right.

From left: A24, Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate; Jonathan Olley/Amazon MGM Studios

Critic’s Notebook

Is the Movie Star Back? Sort Of.

Box office earnings seem no longer won by name alone. From “Project Hail Mary” to “F1,” celebrities are campaigning overtime on screens large and small to lead to hits.

By Robert Daniels

CRITICS’ PICKS

A girl in a swimsuit sits in the grass with a video recorder. Two people are near her, and there are two balloons in the grass.

Janus Films

Critic’s Pick

‘Blue Heron’ Review: Rewinding Time to Find a Brother

Sophy Romvari’s superb debut feature blends memory, documentary and fiction to process a family wound.

By Alissa Wilkinson

A young man, right, in a bucket hat, presses his face to the shoulder of a young woman with gold and brown curls, sitting at the beach on a sunny day with blue skies.

Oscilloscope Laboratories

Critic’s Pick

‘Mad Bills to Pay’ Review: Growing Up Unexpectedly

A girlfriend’s pregnancy upends the life of a young man in the Bronx in this first feature by Joel Alfonso Vargas that unspools with sedulous care.

By Natalia Winkelman

MOVIE REVIEWS

A man looks out toward Times Square inside a glass-walled building.

Sam Cullman/Easy Money Productions/The Forge

Documentary Lens

Trying to Explain the Strange Universe of Cryptocurrency

“Everyone Is Lying to You for Money,” directed by Ben McKenzie, gives a solid introduction to virtual currency, and its traps.

By Alissa Wilkinson

A woman with dark curly hair in a ponytail and a light shirt smiles with eyes closed in a softly lit room, surrounded by other out-of-focus people in the background.

Special

‘Erupcja’ Review: Dancing Through the Ash

Charli XCX stars in this drama about a young woman who can’t quite tell the difference between freedom and fleeing.

By Brandon Yu

A man in sunglasses and a suit suits outside, next to a man in a camouflage military uniform.

Cohen Media Group

‘Eagles of the Republic’ Review: How Authoritarians Clip Wings

In the director Tarik Saleh’s latest feature on contemporary Egypt, a movie star is made to appear in a propaganda film.

By Ben Kenigsberg

A woman stands with a horse, next to two young boys, on a large plot of dirt against a blue sky.

Kino Lorber

‘Amrum’ Review: A Moral Awakening

In this World War II-era coming-of-age drama, a young boy living on a remote German island questions his parents for the first time.

By Beatrice Loayza

Two men are being held by a number of soccer officials in bright, lime-green shirts.

Ben Rothstein/Amazon

‘Balls Up’ Review: Offend It Like Beckham

Two condom salesmen, Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter Hauser, embark on a bawdy, digressive picaresque in Peter Farrelly’s defiantly lowbrow film.

By Calum Marsh

NEWS & FEATURES

A woman with short curly hair and red lipstick has a look of distress as a dirty, decomposed-looking hand caresses her face.

Warner Bros. Pictures

‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Is Out. Wait, Who’s Lee Cronin?

The latest take on Universal’s “Mummy” franchise has a director you may not know. We explain who he is, why his name is in the movie title and what he brings to the “Mummy” world.

By Carlos Aguilar

An actress looks over a script while a director makes adjustments before filming a scene.

Ricci Shryock for The New York Times

In Kannywood, a Film Scene Thrives Despite Censorship

A city in Northern Nigeria has turned into a moviemaking machine, churning out hundreds of productions a year.

By Ricci Shryock

A black-and-white photograph taken from above of two men grappling in a boxing ring and a referee.

Larry Fink, via MUUS Collection

Why Do People Flock to the Rocky Statue? This Show Aims to Find Out.

This spring, the Philadelphia Museum of Art invites the bronze boxer inside to center an exhibition on why we make monuments and what they mean.

By Mekado Murphy

A black and white movie still showing a man standing on a fire escape with a sign reading “Rent Strike.”

Anne Chauvet/The Film Desk

Rewind

‘No Picnic’ Is a Walk Down Mean Street Memory Lane

This Philip Hartman movie, shot in the East Village in 1985 and now restored, shows at Film Forum through April 23.

By J. Hoberman

The Rise and Fall and Rise of Michael Jackson

A new biopic is the latest move in the Jackson estate’s posthumous — and lucrative — rehabilitation campaign.

By Mark Binelli

STREAMING RECOMMENDATIONS

A man in a black shirt and headphones seated in front of recording equipment.

Columbia Pictures/Filmways Pictures, via Getty Images

Five Free Movies to Stream Now

This month’s picks make up a quintet of paranoia that speaks to the ethos of unease and dread endemic to the modern moment

By Brandon Yu