HOLLWYOOD, CA — From space adventures to open‑road thrills, this weekend’s watchlist moves between frontier grit, surreal escapes and unwavering resilience — stories streaming now or landing in select theaters.
Leading the charge is “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a Star Wars movie rooted in frontier grit, followed by the roadside dread of “Passenger.”
“I Love Boosters” kicks the energy into anarchic overdrive, while “The Boroughs” adds a dose of sci‑fi mystery to the mix.
And closing out the slate, “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” twists domestic chaos into darkly comic danger.
Ready to dive in? Scroll down for the full lineup, with deeper explorations below that unpack performances, themes and craft in greater detail.
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What To Watch This Weekend
“The Mandalorian and Grogu”
Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, Jeremy Allen White; directed by Jon Favreau
In the stillness before the assault, the battlefield erupts. Sirens blare, troopers scramble and blaster fire ricochets off steel as the Mandalorian Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) breaches an Imperial remnant stronghold with Grogu watching, wide-eyed, the Force humming around him.
It is a sharp, frenetically engaging start for Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a striking overture that quickly recedes into the Western sci-fi grit that has long defined this corner of “Star Wars.”
Favreau leans into grounded frontier texture rather than the mythic sweep of the original trilogy, instinctively translating his Disney+ series to a theatrical canvas rooted in the franchise’s scrappier corners.
Set after the fall of the Empire in “Return of the Jedi,” the film follows Din and Grogu on a New Republic mission to Nal Hutta, where Colonel Ward sends them to negotiate the release of Rotta, Jabba’s long-missing son. What begins as a modest rescue spirals into a frontier struggle shaped by Hutt politics, droid armies and lurking threats, all while deepening the duo’s quiet, father-son bond.
Favreau keeps the emotional focus intimate, stretching the show’s episodic cadence into creature encounters, detours and pauses of companionship while keeping the storytelling deliberately restrained.
The director gives familiar “Star Wars” machinery — from battered starfighters to looming AT AT walkers — a grounded heft that carries into the action, where the theatrical canvas lends each choreographic beat more air and texture.
For all its modesty, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” remains sturdy and engaging, a reminder of why the Mandalorian storyline endures.
“Passenger”
Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, Melissa Leo; directed by André Øvredal
A young couple’s van-life escape curdles into supernatural dread in André Øvredal’s “Passenger,” a lean 94-minute horror thriller that turns the open road into a trap with no exits.
Jacob Scipio stars as Tyler and Lou Llobell as Maddie, partners drifting through a cross-country trip whose carefree rhythm fractures after they witness a violent highway accident. What follows them from the crash site is not shock or guilt but something far more predatory — a demonic presence known only as the Passenger, played with unnerving physicality by Joseph Lopez.
Øvredal, whose genre instincts shaped “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” and “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” builds the film around momentum and mood: headlights slicing through darkness, long stretches of asphalt swallowed by silence, and a creeping sense that the couple’s van has become a moving coffin.
Federico Verardi’s cinematography leans into stark contrasts and roadside desolation, while Christopher Young’s score coils around the film with a low, pulsing dread.
Melissa Leo appears as Diana, a figure whose cryptic warnings deepen the film’s folklore-tinged menace.
Though the emotional throughline sometimes thins beneath the chase, “Passenger” sustains a taut, relentless grip — a supernatural pursuit that turns the freedom of the open road into something claustrophobic and inescapable.
“I Love Boosters”
Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige; directed by Boots Riley
Boots Riley directs “I Love Boosters,” a maximalist crime comedy set in a surreal Bay Area where shoplifting becomes both survival strategy and political theater.
The movie centers on a crew of boosters — led by Corvette (Keke Palmer) — who target luxury fashion houses with inventive, high‑stakes heists. When fashion mogul Christie Smith (Demi Moore) is accused of stealing one of their designs, the crew shifts from boosting to fighting back, setting out to upend the fashion empire that profits from their creativity.
Riley builds the film around movement and momentum — bodies in motion, ideas in collision and a world that feels both heightened and pointedly recognizable.
Natasha Braier’s cinematography leans into bold color, graphic framing and urban surrealism, while Tune-Yards’ score threads jittery percussion and elastic melodies through the film’s shifting tones.
Don Cheadle appears as Dr. Jack, a theorist whose wry guidance frames the boosters’ rebellion within a larger political and cultural context.
At times, the film’s ambition threatens to outrun its emotional core, but “I Love Boosters” remains a vibrant, unruly ride — a world where rebellion is style, strategy and survival all at once.
“The Boroughs”
Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Clarke Peters; created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews
“The Boroughs” conjures a pristine New Mexico retirement community where the quiet surface hides something predatory.
Alfred Molina plays Sam Cooper, a widowed engineer whose arrival coincides with strange nighttime disturbances, pushing him to join fellow residents — Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare and Clarke Peters — in confronting an enemy that seems to manipulate time itself.
Creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews build the eight‑episode sci‑fi mystery around character drama and supernatural tension. Cinematographers Matthew Jensen and Michelle Lawler give the cul‑de‑sacs and desert horizons an eerie stillness, paired with John Paesano's unsettling score.
Geena Davis, Carlos Miranda and Jena Malone add texture to a community where every neighbor carries history, suspicion or loss. In the end, “The Boroughs” becomes a story of resilience.
“Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed”
Tatiana Maslany, Jake Johnson, Jessy Hodges; created by David J. Rosen
In Apple TV+’s “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed,” newly divorced fact‑checker Paula (Tatiana Maslany) becomes convinced she’s witnessed a kidnapping during a late‑night cam session, propelling her into an investigation that collides with her custody battle and her faltering career, all against the backdrop of youth‑soccer chaos.
Creator David J. Rosen and director David Gordon Green steer the story into a dark comedic thriller about reinvention under pressure, while Maslany’s standout performance keeps the story emotionally tethered.
The ensemble — including Jake Johnson, Jessy Hodges, Jon Michael Hill, Charlie Hall, Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg and Dolly de Leon — rounds out a world where every conversation seems to hide a secret, a motive or a misdirection.
Expect surprising twists and turns, punctuated by action‑filled bursts of panic and humor.