Disney’s latest misses the mark for good ol’ House of Mouse magic
Wish With voices by Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine and Alan Tudyk Directed by Chris Buck & Fawn Veerashuthorn Rated PG-13
In theaters Wednesday, Nov. 22
In this fairytale fable timed to Disney’s 100th anniversary celebration, a plucky teenager wishes upon a star and starts a revolution in a magical kingdom ruled by a duplicitous sorcerer. Disney has turned wishing on stars into a corporate mantra; the company’s theme song—from 1931’s Pinocchio—is, as you know, “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Wish is cute and sometimes even clever, but it feels more like a feature-length piece of Disney marketing than a standalone new cinematic chapter, with plentiful wink-wink callbacks to House of Mouse classics (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow Whiteand theSeven Dwarfs) and greatest-hit ingredients copped from the tried-and-true Disney-flick playbook.
Ariana DeBose does a capable job as the voice of Asha, a 17-year-old girl whose brownish Mediterranean skin and cornrowed hair signal Disney’s continuing movie march toward more inclusiveness in its anything-but-white female “princess” characters. She belts out several showtunes with the same gusto she brought to Hamilton on Broadway and 2010’s West Side Story (which won her a Supporting Actress Oscar). But none of the mostly meh musical numbers in Wish seem destined for Disney greatness, much less Academy Awards (like Frozen’s “Let It Go,” The Little Mermaid’s “Under the Sea” or Aladdin’s “Whole New World”).
Chris Pine, best known for his roles as Capt. Kirk in the rebooted Star Trek movie franchise and Gal Godot’s cohort in a pair of Wonder Woman movies, appears to relish his chance to be a preening bad guy as Magnifico (below), who hoards the heartfelt “wishes” of his people in his castle like a collection of blue bubbles, effectively robbing the citizenry of their hopes and dreams.
There’s a talking goat (Alan Tudyk) and a voiceless little fallen star that looks like a cross between a Pokemon and the Pillsbury doughboy. They may become plush toys in Disney’s ever-growing arsenal of movie merchandise, but they don’t make near enough impression to become part of the sidekick hall of fame alongside Flounder, Olaf, Jiminy Cricket and Tinker Bell.
The animation combines an old-school technique (watercolors, especially in backgrounds) with modern computer wizardry, but the result sometimes looks curiously odd and out of place, neither here nor there—and comes across more as cost-cutting than innovation. It’s a peculiar choice for a company that became known as a pioneer of cartoon animation.
The movie’s message also gets lost in the muddle of a plot that mostly tells us, instead of showing us, how important wishes really are. In one of the songs, a woodland creature notes that we’re all “shareholders” in the stars, interconnected parts of—and partners in—an ongoing cosmic mystery. For a century now, Disney has made its multi-generational audience feel like partners in the mysteries of movie magic. I just wish Wish had a bit more of it.
Joaquin Phoenix steps into history as France’s most famous despot
Napoleon Starring Joaquin Phoenix & Vanessa Kirby Directed by Ridley Scott Rated R
In theaters Wednesday, Nov. 22
One of history’s most famous love stories was written in blood. In this expansively, elaborately expensive epic historical biopic, Joaquin Phoenix stars as the French emperor whose military conquests were a brutal backdrop for the domestic battles he waged with his wife, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby).
Director Ridley Scott creates a sumptuous, spectacular saga about Napoleon Bonaparte, the Corsican soldier in the French army who rose quickly within its ranks in the late 1700s to become one of the most wide-ranging military commanders in all of Europe. History remains somewhat divided on Napoleon, with assessments falling along a spectrum of opinion ranging from despotic megalomaniacal dwarf to brilliant military strategist. But this movie mostly splits the difference in favor of a sprawling period-piece portrait of a complicated, obsessive leader and his muddy, bloody times.
The movie establishes its battleground bona fides in the opening 15 minutes, during the close of the tumultuous French Revolution. Marie Antoinette meets her end at the guillotine, a horse gets its head blown off by a cannonball, and Bonaparte reaches into the hole to pull out the steed’s heart—as a souvenir for his mother. War is hell, and Napoleon, his face spattered with fresh blood, develops an early taste for it.
The battle scenes are dynamic, visceral, impressively boom-boomy and gruesomely gorgeous; in one, Napoleon’s army corners retreating Russians on a frozen lake, then fires cannonballs into the ice from a wooded hillside. Bloodied bodies flail helplessly as they sink slowly into the freezing, deathly depths in a winter ballet of red-smeared carnage.
But for Napoleon, all’s fair in love and war. When he isn’t opening his bag of tactical dirty tricks to fight the Austrians, the Russians or the British, he comes home to spar with Josephine. He throws food at her at the dinner table, bonks her in the bedroom like a rabid bunny, scolds her for her infidelity while he’s away doing war stuff (conquering Egypt), and ultimately leaves her for another woman when she’s unable to bear him an heir. But she, somehow, loves him after all that, remaining a central part of the story, an essential part of his story. And he remains obsessed with her. Napoleon is crushed to find out that all the gushy letters he’s been dutifully writing to Josephine have been stolen and sold. And this was centuries before Ebay!
Vanessa Kirby stars as Empress Josephine.
Phoenix, who also appeared in director Scott’s Gladiator, is center stage here as one of history’s most consequential and controversial characters, bratty, petulant, temperamental and dictatorial, maybe even batshit crazy; he’s The Joker in a pointy, bicorne hat. “You think you’re so great because you have boats!” he fumes at a British ambassador about England’s naval superiority. Kirby, a distinguished British actress, is elegantly stoic as Josephine, who sticks by her man even when his outbursts reduce her to tears.
The movie notes that Napoleon staged some 60 battles, only losing seven of them—one of which was at Waterloo, a defeat so infamously disastrous it became shorthand for almost any decisive, game-over setback. The historical Napoleon himself became a sort of pop-cultural, comical shorthand—an avatar for domineering behavior, overcompensation for a less-than-imposing stature. (Even though we don’t know how tall Napoleon actually was in real life, the movie suggests he could use a few inches, notably when he requires a boost to peer into an Egyptian sarcophagus and view a mummy’s ancient face.) He’s been the subject of countless movies, including one as early as 1913, and widely parodied, in Bugs Bunny cartoons and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Minions and Night at the Museum.
But this Napoleon is no cartoon, no joke and certainly no dry, dull history lesson. It brings to the big screen a bold new take on the enduring tale one of history’s most endlessly fascinating figures, the forever controversial Frenchman who dominated so much of the known world—and the woman who conquered his heart back home.
Bradley Cooper channels superstar conductor Leonard Bernstein in splendid new biopic
Maestro Starring Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan Directed by Bradley Cooper Rated R
In limited theatrical release Wednesday, Nov. 22; on Netflix Dec.
You don’t have to know much, or anything really, about Leonard Bernstein (who died in 1990) to fall under the spell of Maestro, the majestic musical biopic about the superstar composer and conductor who won seven Emmys, two Tonys and 16 Grammys, wrote the Broadway musical West Side Story, composed symphonies, operas, chamber music and choral masses, and became the first American conductor to lead a major orchestra. He was also the first conductor to take classical music to the general public via television, and he led, at one time or another, almost all the world’s most prestigious symphony orchestras.
He was the famous “face” of classical music for decades.
The film shows Bernstein’s vibrant, exuberant life through the complicated, clouded prism of his relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre (a splendid Carey Mulligan).
Bradley Cooper, who both directs and stars, is nothing short of amazing, morphing (with the help of a prosthetic nose) into the demanding role as the charming, chain-smoking Bernstein, a live-wire, wild-haired musical genius with a voracious, nearly insatiable appetite for life and love. “I want a lot of things,” he says; he wants to write, to conduct, play piano and make a musical bridge for his creativity to become manna for the masses.
He also wants to love both men and women. Which is ok, to some extent, with his wife…until it isn’t. Mulligan gives a searing, carefully nuanced performance as the Chilean-born TV and Broadway actress who sacrificed much of her own career to support her husband’s rising star and become his muse, rearing their family while dealing with his ongoing attraction to other men.
Cooper was previously lauded for his directorial debut, A Star is Born, which received multiple Oscar noms and a pair of Grammys. But Maestro is his magnum opus, a superbly crafted demonstration of his full confidence on both sides of the camera as it sprawls across the decades, from the black and white New York City of the ‘40s through the colorfully swingin’ ’60s, into the go-go haze of the ‘70s and the cocaine-fueled ‘80s. There’s already Oscar buzz for both Bradley and Mulligan (who was herself also previously Oscar nominated, for the stinging #metoo slap of Promising Young Woman.)
You know it’s the holidays when Snoopy placidly floats by a window in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade—just after Lenny and Felicia’s scathing domestic disagreement in the family’s Park Avenue penthouse apartment. I loved the scene where an elderly Bernstein grooves in a nightclub, drunk or coked up or maybe just high on life, to Tears for Fears’ “Shout.” To cop a line from that song, Cooper “let it all out” to become Bernstein so completely and convincingly, I did a double take when images of the “real” Bernstein came onscreen during the credits.
The clothing, the hairdos, the rapid-fire, rat-a-tat-tat dialogue, the changing look of the changing times—all spot-on. And the orchestral concert-hall performances, with Cooper approaching something that looks like ecstasy as he “feels” the notes and slices through the air with his baton, the sound coursing through him—well, it will course through you as well, sweeping you up and away in the grandiose, transcendent power of music. Bravo!, maestro!
John Hamm is a bad hombre lawman in the new season of Fargo.
FRIDAY, Nov. 17 Please Don’t Destroy: The Legend of Foggy Mountain Conan O’Brien and Bowen Yang make supporting appearances in this new Judd (Superbad) Apatow comedy romp about a trio of childhood friends fending off bears, a crazy cult leader and park rangers as they head into the wilderness in search of a fabled treasure (Peacock).
Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story Documentary follows the actor/director (above) and movie mogul as it recounts the mother’s enduring love at the roots of his climb to the top of an industry that didn’t always want to include him (Prime).
Dashing Through the Snow Rapper Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Madison Skye Validum and Lil Rey Howery star in this holiday family comedy about an Atlanta social worker and his Christmas Eve journey with his estranged daughter that helps him find the joy and magic of the holidays (Disney+).
Monarch: A Legacy of Monsters Kurt Russell and his actor son, Wyatt, star in this generation-spanning series (with both Russells playing the same character, decades apart) based on the movie’s “Monsterverse,” where creatures like Godzilla and King Kong roar and rule (above) (Apple TV+).
SATURDAY, Nov. 18 Christmas Plus One Emily Alatalo and Corey Seiver star in this holiday flick about an unmarried sister looking for her soulmate and the magazine writer who helps her Christmas wish come true (9 p.m., Lifetime).
Kennedy Peter Coyote narrates this eight-part documentary about our 35th U.S. president, timed to the 60th anniversary of his assassination and featuring more than 70 new interviews with people who knew him, worked with him and admired him (8 p.m., History).
SUNDAY, Nov. 19 The Elf on the Shelf: Sweet Showdown New competition series finds Santa and his Scout Elves joining cake master Duff Goldman to challenge teams of sweet-centric bakers to make edible showpieces that capture the season (8 p.m., Food Network).
The Cunninghams wish you a Merry Christmas!
A Very Merry MeTV Beginning tonight and continuing (off and on) until Christmas, watch holiday-themed episodes of your favorite retro TV shows, including The Brady Bunch, The Waltons, All in the Family, Sanford and Son, The Twilight Zone, Gilligan’s Island, The Beverly Hillbillies, Happy Days (above) and more (begins 12 noon, MeTV).
MONDAY, Nov. 20 Spellbound New teen fantasy series follows a vivacious 15 year old girl (Hailey Melody Romain) who relocates from America to study at the Paris Opera School in France, where she discovers a book of spells that changes her life and illuminates her surprising true identity (Hulu).
Wisdom Gone Wild A filmmaker collaborates with her elderly mother as they confront the “wisdom” gleaned from the creeping shadows of dementia, in this moving documentary (check listings, PBS).
TUESDAY, Nov. 21 Fargo Jon Hamm, Juno Temple and Jennifer Jason Leigh are among the cast for the fifth installment of the juicy, award-winning progressive crime drama, this time set almost-contemporary Minnesota and the Dakotas. And tonight’s episode—and the whole new series, actually—has some cool “callbacks” to events in the iconic 1996 Coen Brothers movie that started it all (10 p.m., FX).
Leo Adam Sandler, Jason Alexander, Cecily Strong, Bill Burr and other funny folks provide voices in this cute animated coming-of-age age tale (above) centered on a classroom pet, a 74-year-old lizard (Netflix).
Groundbreakers Learn how Title IX—the game-changing legislation that guaranteed all people, regardless of gender, equal access to federally funded sports programs—shaped the lives of eight young woman who went on to excel in the fields of tennis, basketball, soccer, gymnastics and flag football (check local listings, PBS).
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 22 Good Burger 2 New sequel to the ‘90s hit (based on a Nickelodeon comedy series) stars Kenan Thompson, Jillian Bell, Lil Rel Howery and Kel Mitchell as employees at a fast-food chain (Paramount+).
Squid Game: The Challenge New spinoff of the streaming hit series as new challengers enter the competition in hopes of a nearly $5 million reward that would change their lives—if the “Challenge” doesn’t end them (Netflix).
Genie Melissa McCarthy stars in this holiday fantasy (above) about an ancient genie summoned for an unlikely mission—to help a man (Paapa Essiedu) who’s lost sight of his marriage and his family (Peacock).
THURSDAY, Nov. 23 The Naughty Nine Danny Glover stars as Santa in this movie comedy about a group of youngsters planning a heist of Santa’s North Pole village to get the presents they think they deserve (Disney+).
The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS Kick off the holiday with this annual network coverage of one of New York City’s iconic celebrations, a festive process down Sixth Avenue with jolly old St. Nick himself bringing up the rear (9 p.m., CBS).
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Is there anything she can’t do? Dolly Parton tears it up with some of rock ‘n’ roll’s legendary artists for her latest album, Rockstar, including Sting (on “Every Breath You Take”), Ann Wilson of Heart (“Magic Man”), Peter Frampton (“Baby I Love Your Way”), Deborah Harry of Blondie (“Heart of Glass”), Paul McCartney (“Let It Be”), Pat Benetar (“Heartbreaker”), members of Lynyrd Skynyrd (“Free Bird”) and more on this 30-song collection, that proves why, Dolly, we will always love you.
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Now you soar with season one of the Apple TV+ sci-fi drama series For All Mankind (Sony Home Entertainment)—with Joel Kinnaman, Casey Johnson and Shantel VanStanten among the big ensemble cast—as rocket scientists and astronauts push the boundaries of space exploration.
The highly acclaimed movie about the man who invented the atomic bomb and unleashed it into the world comes to Blu-ray and DVD with Oppenheimer (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), with more than three hours of special features.
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If you love Hollywood history, you’ll flip for George Hurrell’s Hollywood (Running Press), the newly updated edition of vintage Tinseltown portraits taken by the great Hollywood “glamour” photographer of the 1920s and ’30. Hurrell, who worked for many of the major studios, photo’d just about everyone across multiple decades, including icons like Bogart, Garbo, Rita Hayworth and Joan Crawford. Author Mark Viera ties some 400 eye-catching images together with words about Hurrell’s long-lasting influence and how his images shaped Hollywood’s visual history.
Christmas comes early for movie fans with Jeremy Arnold’s Christmas in the Movies (Running Press), a lavishly illustrated, freshly expanded examination of some of the most beloved holiday flicks of all time, including what makes them bona fide “Christmas movies.” You’ll love revisiting The Shop Around the Corner, It’s a Wonderful Life,White Christmas, Home Alone and—yes—Die Hard, among the 35 featured films.
Two Oscar-winning actresses do a delicate dance around a dicey subject built on tabloid fodder
May December Starring Natalie Portman & Julianne Moore Directed by Todd Haynes Rated R
In limited release Friday, Nov. 17; on Netflix Dec. 1
A Hollywood actress preps for a provocative, ripped-from-the-headlines role in this deliciously dark exploration of sexual manipulation, forbidden love, deep-dish obsession and the porous boundary between entertainment and reality. Taking its title from the shorthand phrase for a relationship with a wide age gap between partners, May December pairs two formidable Oscar-winning actresses in a delicate dance around a dicey subject: a scandalous liaison and the sexual exploitation of a child.
Natalie Portman stars as Elizabeth, a well-known TV actress who comes to the small Southern town of Savannah, Ga., to spend some time with the real woman she’ll be playing for “reel” in a movie about a decades-old chapter from her disreputable past. Julianne Moore is Gracie, a character closely based on Mary Kay Letourneau, the infamous schoolteacher who was sentenced to seven years in prison in the ‘90s for inappropriate sexual relations with one of her students, a 12-year-old boy that she pleaded guilty to raping when he was a sixth grader.
Like Letourneau, Gracie and her student/lover later married and started having children. He’s 36 years old now as we meet him as the movie opens, a dad with twins about to graduate from high school and another—born while Gracie was in the hoosekow—enrolled in college. Clearly Joe (in a solid, heart-wrenching performance by Charles Melton) is carrying the emotional baggage of a lost youth, an emotionally stunted man-child thrust into adulthood too soon. And unlike the Monarch butterflies he raises as a hobby, Joe can’t emerge from his confining, life-defining cocoon of fate with Gracie. There’s no way he can leave his past behind, spread his wings and just fly away from it all.
As Elizabeth researches her role, she tries to get inside Gracie’s head, to understand what makes her tick. Gracie, herself lost in her own cocooned concocted fantasy of a wholly consensual, misunderstood relationship, resents the intrusion of show biz, shining the glare of its spotlight into her life. And Joe is caught in the middle, where eventually a line is crossed and Elizabeth discovers that she and Gracie may not be that different, after all.
Director Haynes, a lauded filmmaker whose previous work includes Carol, Mildred Pearce, Dark Water and biopics on Bob Dylan and Cher, walks this precariously tense familial tightrope (there’s even a bar band doing a ragged rendition of Leon Russell’s song 1972 hit “Tight Rope”) with dollops of subversive humor, analogies for predators and prey, and scathing swipes at America’s apparently insatiable appetite for true-crime programming, boldly biting the Netflix hand that feeds his project. A scene in a dress shop, in which fitting-room mirrors resemble the myriad reflections in a carnival funhouse, suggests that fabrication and real experience have become nearly indistinguishable from each other, conveniently merged for our carnivorous consumerism, our entertainment and amusement.
Even though Moore tends to chew the scenery here and there, taking her performance over the top into meaty melodrama and campy cheese, she does convey the skewed reality of a woman who did the crime and did the time, but now spends her days refusing to confront any of it or the damage it caused. Portman is the audience’s surrogate, looking into a situation and trying to understand it, then being pulled deep into it.
Together, they pull you into this tawdry tale based on taboo fodder, elevating it in the process to something much more profound, and more unflinchingly honest.
Emma Stone is cursed, NCIS goes Down Under & Blake ‘s ‘Barmageddon’ is back
THURSDAY, Nov. 10 The Curse Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder (above) star in this new series with Rosemary’s Baby vibes about a newly married couple trying trying to conceive a child—and disturbed by something that sure feels like a curse (10 p.m., Paramount+ with Showtime).
For All Mankind The acclaimed space-race drama blasts off tonight for season four, as a NASA flight director (Wrenn Schmidt, above) and other Mars colonists work on an asteroid mining operation that could change the future of everything on Earth (Apple TV+).
Salute to Service: A Veterans Day Celebration Host Jon Stewart and the United States Army Field Band honor service members past and present alongside a star-studded lineup of musical guests, including country entertainer Mickey Guyton, singer/songwriter Amanda Shires and Broadway star Mandy Gonzalez (9 p.m., PBS).
SATURDAY, Nov. 11 Legends of the Fork Celebrity baker, chef and entrepreneur Buddy Valestro (below) visits restaurants across America to find the secrets of their success (9 p.m., A&E).
Devil on My Doorstep Jenna Dewan—one of Lifetime’s “stock players”—and Steve Kazee star in this thriller about a delivery dispatcher obsessed with a homeowner, who becomes obsessed too. Enough obsession for a new Lifetime movie (8 p.m., Lifetime).
SUNDAY, Nov. 12 Beacon 23 Sci-fi thriller love story set in the far reaches of the Milky Way involves a government agent (Lena Hedley, below) and an ex-military man (Stephan James) trapped together in a Beacon, a lighthouse for far-flung interplanetary travelers, with an AI whose motives aren’t initially clear (MGM+).
Good Cop, Bad Cop New series recounts detectives pursing complicated murder cases with startling twists: The perps are fellow member of law enforcement (10 p.m., Investigation Discovery).
MONDAY, Nov. 13 NCIS: Sydney Sit back and set sail for the first international edition of the hugely popular TV franchise, filmed on location Down Under and elsewhere as a new team of special agents is tasked with keeping criminal waves at low tide in one of the most contested region of ocean in the world. Starring Olivia Swann and Todd Lasance (10 p.m., CBS).
The Ladybird Diaries New series tells the inside story of one of the most influential and least understood First Ladies in history, featuring audio from some 123 hours of personal and revealing diaries Lady Bird Johnson began recording after the assassination of JFK in 1963 and continuing through her husband’s turbulent administration (Hulu).
Barmageddon Hosts Blake Shelton, Carson Daly and Nikki Garcia return for season two of the “bar games” fun (below) as celebrity guest compete in drunken axe throwing, air cannon cornhole, keg curling and more (11 p.m., USA Network).
TUESDAY, Nov. 14 A Murder at the End of the World Murder series about a tech-savvy, Gen Z amateur sleuth (Emma Corwin) who becomes part of something deadly and sinister as a part of a group invited to a remote retreat by a reclusive billionaire (Clive Owen) (Hulu).
Chopped: Julia Child’s Kitchen Chef competitors put their expertise to the test in this five-part TV tournament with the grand prize of a Julia Child-themed trip to France (8 p.m., Food Network).
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15 CMT Smashing Glass New musical special spotlights trailblazing and groundbreaking artists, including honorees Tanya Tucker and Patti LaBelle, with performances and tributes from many others (8 p.m., CMT).
The Battle to Beat Malaria Oh, great: Something else to worry about—the return of this mosquito-borne mega-threat that continues to plague the globe (9 p.m., PBS).
THURSDAY, Nov. 16 Best. Christmas. Ever! Heather Graham, Brandy Norwood and Jason Biggs star in this new holiday movie (above) about a couple of old friends brought together again by fate in the Christmas season (Netflix).
Terror Lake Drive The anthology series returns for season three as a new South Georgia family mysteriously inherits a luxury vacation home that lures them into the troubled lakeside grounds that so horrified other characters previously (ALLBLK).
Julia Eight-episode second season of the original dramatic series about the iconic food star as Julia Child grapples with her rising celebrity, host her own TV cooking show and returns home to France, to find that her success has changed everything (Max).
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Get some post-Halloween terror tingles early with The NunII (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment), the sequel to the 2018 horror hit in the Conjuring universe, as a demon nun wrecks more horrifying havoc in 1956 France. Starring Taissa Farmiga.
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Dogs bark, birds chirp and cows moo. But only humans “talk,” and sometimes, well, we say a real mouthful! Jason Travis Ott’s Grandiloquent Words (Countryman Press) presents a marvelous look at unusual verbiage, antiquated phrases and fancy-schmantzy, high-falootin’ argot that have festooned our language for centuries.
Find out all about one of the world’s most famous fashionistas in The World According to Yves Saint Laurent (Thames and Hudson), which corrals the visionary couture icon’s maxims and musings on style, elegance, women, models, color, accessories and much more. A fascinating first-person look into the French-born designer who ultimately launched an eponymous fashion empire.
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Beatles fans will flip their wigs over the fantastic new reissue of the career-spanning “Red” and “Blue” anthhology albums, available in both CD and vinyl, with all the band’s singles and B-sides from 1962 to 1970, plus new tracks—and the supergroup’s “last” song, “Now and Then,” a John Lennon original given finishing touches by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
Annette Bening’s in deep, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ushers in new members, saddle up with an historic Black lawman & Tim Allen ho-ho-ho-ho’s once more!
FRIDAY, Nov. 3 NYAD Annette Bening (above) stars in the real-life story of athlete Diana Nyad, a world-class swimmer who gave up the water in exchange for a career as a sportscaster—but, at the age of 60, decides to compete again in a 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida. Spurring her on: her coach, played played by two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster. It’s a tale of tenacity, friendship and the triumph of the human spirit (Netflix).
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction 2023 Sheryl Crowe, Willie Nelson, Bernie Taupin, Link Wray and The Spinners are among the musical elite coming into rock music’s hallowed space, tonight, ushed in with tribute performances by Brandi Carlile, Elton John, Dave Matthews, H.E.R. and others (Disney+).
SATURDAY, Nov. 4 Mulan Watch the 2020 live-action remake (below) of the 1998 animated Disney tale of an adventurous Chinese girl (Yifei Liu) who grows up to become a champion warrior in the Imperial Army. It was nominated for two Oscars (8:05 p.m., Freeform).
You’re Not Supposed to Be Here New thriller drama flick stars Chrishell Stause and Diora Baird as a same-sex couple who don’t exactly feel welcome when they arrive at their getaway cabin in a remote mountain town (8 p.m., Lifetime).
SUNDAY, Nov. 5 JFK: One Day in America Three-part documentary takes viewers through every moment of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 60 years ago, with first-person accounts from those who were there (8 p.m., Nat Geo).
Lawmen: Bass Reeves David Oyelowo (above) stars in this new streaming series about one of the most legendary lawmen of the Old West, who rose from enslavement to become the first Black U.S. Marshal west of the Mississippi, arresting more than 3,000 outlaws. With Barry Pepper, Donald Sutherland and Dennis Quaid (Paramount+).
First Lady of BMF: Tonesa Welch Story Michelle Mitchenor stars in this new series about a middle-class Detroit woman in the 1980s who launched a notorious drug empire (BET+).
Lost Women of Highway 20 Producer Octavia Spencer (above) explores the trail of missing and murdered women along a ghostly stretch of Oregon roadway in this true-crime docuseries (9 p.m., ID).
MONDAY, Nov. 6 3-Day Weekend Take virtual tour—or learn what to see in person—in one the Southeast’s most lovely college towns, Chapel Hill, N.C. (9:30 p.m., ACC).
Three Chaplains Documentary about Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military, fighting to maintain a balanced devotion to Islam, the Constitution and the American military (10 p.m., PBS).
TUESDAY, Nov. 7 The Curse of Oak Island The buried treasure hunt deepens in season 11, as the team of excavators continues to dig on the Nova Scotia island for clues to a 200-year-old mystery, encountering some surprising new evidence that confirms earlier rumors about its source (9 p.m., History).
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8 The Buccaneers Set in 1870s London, this new series follows a group of American girls who burst onto the tightly corseted scene, kicking off an Anglo-American culture clash and rattling stiff upper lips. Starring Kristine Frøseth, Alisha Boe and Josie Totah (Apple TV+).
The Santa Clauses Tim Allen continues (above) in the role he launched back in 1994 with season two of this TV-series spinoff, in which his character’s plans to “retire” from saving Christmas are complicated when he can’t find a suitable successor for the job (Disney+).
THURSDAY, Nov. 9 Colin From Accounts Hit Aussie comedy series starts streaming in the U.S., with stars Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall as two people brought together by a nipple flash, a car accident and an injured dog (Paramount+)
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How did streaming services gobble up eyeballs from “traditional” TV? Find out in Pandora’s Box (William Morrow), author Peter Biskind’s thoroughly engaging breakdown of the “revolution” by which TV supplanted movies as the leading format of entertainment, beginning with HBO’s The Sopranos.
What do “ancient” doodads have to do with the modern world’s colossal engineering feats? A lot! That’s what you’ll learn in Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (WW Norton), by Roma Agrawal, an award-winning structural engineer notes how seven teeny-tiny things have been instrumental in the way we now work and live.
Long live the Queen! The royal legacy certainly lives on in Cecil Beaton: The Royal Portraits (Thames & Hudson), an illustrated examination of how the British photographer’s work with the royal family shaped the public face of the House of Windsor across five decades.
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It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but you can get in the mood for the holiday season with Chicago Christmas Complete (Rhino), which pulls from all three of the iconic rock band’s Yuletime albums of yore for this 3-CD collection of classics, including “My Favorite Things,” “O Christmas Tree,” “Here Comes Santa Claus” and “Wonderful Christmas Time,” which features Dolly Parton.
Have a very Cher Christmas (Warner Records) with the iconic pop diva’s first-ever holiday album, featuring some all-star guests (Stevie Wonder, Darlene Love, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Bublè) on a super slate of seasonal songs, including “Run Run Rudloph,” “Please Come Home for Christmas,” “Santa Baby” and four new originals.
BRING IT HOME
Now that the new season of Fargo is about to start (Nov. 11), you can revisit the movie that started it all. Fargo (Shout! Studios)—which was nominated for seven Oscars (and won two) after its release in 1996—is now available in a hi-def 4K edition, with loads of bonus features, including a rolled poster of original theatrical art, a limited edition glass snow globe, commentary by director of photography Roger Deakins, interviews with the Coen Brothers and their star, Frances McDormand, and more!
Get in the holiday mood with the Lifetime 12-Movie Collection, Vol. 5 (Lionsgate), a ho-ho-ho-romantic roundup of a dozen of the network’s Christmas-themed romances, featuring such all-stars as Jodie Sweetin, Maria Menouos and Patti Labelle.
Hop in the hot rod for the new American Graffiti 50th Anniversary edition (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), which marks the cinematic milestone with its first release in 4K Ultra HD. The 1973 classic marked beginnings and breakthroughs of the movie careers of Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Suzanne Somers and Richard Dreyfuss, plus director George Lucas, who would (of course!) go on to make Star Wars.
Break out the eggnog for The Office: Complete Christmas Collection (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), and ho-ho-ho along with Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) and the other Dunder Mifflin gang in seven holiday classics, including “A Benihaha Christmas,” in which an off-site lunch turns into seasonal shenanigans.
And you better watch out! In Violent Night (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), Santa Claus is coming to town, and he’s not taking any sh*t from anyone when he tumbles down the chimney and into a home that’s in the process of being invaded and robbed. David Harbour is terrific as a St. Nick with a few bones to pick—and break.
‘Priscilla’ tells a melancholy tale of the little girl who married a king
Priscilla Starring Cailee Spaeny & Jacob Elordi Directed by Sofia Coppola PG-13
In wide theatrical release Friday, Nov. 3
Like the B-side to a smash hit record, Priscilla flips the familiar Elvis Presley story to put the focus on someone other than Elvis. Cailee Spaneny (most recently seen in HBO’s murder mystery Mare of Easttown) is a revelation as the young Army brat who meets Presley when she’s only 14. (“Just a baby,” he tells her, almost admiringly, when she reveals to him her age.) Euphoria hunk Jacob Elordi plays Elvis, early in his ascent to the top of the world as he begins to woo the wide-eyed 9th grader while still a G.I. stationed overseas in Germany, then finishing his military service and skirting her away to Graceland, his Memphis mansion.
As she’s done in other films (like Marie Antionette, Lost in Translation and The Beguiled), director Sofia Coppola explores the experience of another young woman in an off-balance power dynamic. It’s a curious (and yes, admittedly creepy) relationship as Priscilla is swept away by the singing superstar, 24 at the time, only to become increasingly dissatisfied as a virtual captive in his castle. At six-foot-five, Elordi is considerably taller than Presley was, and his Elvis literally towers over the diminutive Spaeny, more than a foot shorter; their scenes together make a striking visual metaphor for the disparity of a grown, worldly adult man with an adolescent plucked from the nest of home, family and familiarity.
Priscilla is an arty, elegant film, a moody, often melancholy exploration of the girl who left her initially skeptical parents and eventually became Presley’s wife in 1967, when she was 22. (It’s based on Priscilla’s own 1985 memoir, Elvis & Me.) We’re transfixed as young Priscilla settles into her new habitat, a garishly ornate, male-dominated kingdom of sycophantic hangers-on, frenzied fans and a pill-popping husband who introduces her to drugs and tries to groom her into his expectations. Elvis is a control freak who chooses her clothes, dictates her makeup and hair style, and forbids her to accompany him on tour or movie sets. “Keep the home fires burning,” he tells her, while Priscilla comes to suspect he’s carrying on affairs with his Hollywood costars—like Swedish bombshell Ann-Margaret and Nancy Sinatra, Frank’s daughter—and possibly other women as well.
Elvis also has a mean, petulant, unpredictable streak; “I’ve got my mother’s temper,” he tells her after impulsively hurling a chair her way, missing her head by inches. And he has, um, intimacy issues in the bedroom.
As Pricilla’s rock and roll fantasy unravels (leading to their divorce in 1973), we come to see that Elvis and ‘Cilla have something in common; they’re both prisoners. He’s shackled to his fame, while she’s his bird kept in a gilded cage, a little girl lost in a dream, staring wistfully out Graceland’s windows to see what’s on the other side. Priscilla is her story, certainly, but it also surely chips away at the fabled mythology of the complicated superstar with whom she spent more than a decade of her young life.
Bringing an anti-discrimination fighter on the sideline of history into the spotlight
Rustin Starring Colman Domingo Directed by George C. Wolfe PG-13
In theaters Nov. 3, available on Netflix Nov. 17
Half a century before he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2013, Bayard Rustin made his mark as a ferociously dedicated anti-discrimination crusader. Though he’s been marginalized by history and somewhat shuffled into the sidelines of the bigger Civil Rights story, Rustin organized one of the largest peaceful protests ever, which in 1963 drew a crowd of some 250,000 to a massive demonstration on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and provided the stage for Dr. Martin Luther King’s monumental “I have a dream…” speech. And it led, nine months later, to the passing of the landmark legislation of the Civil Rights Act, officially prohibiting discrimination based on sex, race, color or national origin.
Rustin’s planning for that historic day in D.C. is the framework of this stirring biopic (produced by Barack and Michelle Obama) starring Colman Domingo. The versatile Tony-winning stage actor—who’s also appeared on TV’s Fear the Walking Dead and Euphoria—gives a dynamic, Oscar-baiting star turn as the pacifist leader whose behind-the-scenes activism was often hampered by his open homosexuality, his former ties to the Communist Party and his non-mainstream (Quaker) religious background. As if being Black in America in that tumultuous era wasn’t perilous enough by itself, Rustin was sometimes slurred as a “pervert and a traitor.”
A large ensemble cast rounds out the story as various politicians, union heads and Black movers and shakers swirl—often contentiously—around Rustin. There’s Jeffery Wright as combative Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell; lauded stage and screen star Audra McDonald is NAACP leader Josephine Baker; British thespian Amil Ameen plays MLK, the young firebrand Baptist preacher who became a Civil Rights icon. But Chris Rock seems a bit misplaced; the well-known comedian never really feels comfortable (or believable) in the stern and serious groove as Black activist Roy Wilkins.
The movie itself is mostly standard fare as biopics go; it’s a bit wordy, dialogue-heavy and stagey, like a play that decided to become a movie instead. But it gives plenty of room for Domingo—in real life an openly gay actor—to shine as the Black idealist on the margins of the Civil Rights movement, who believed in freedom for all through Gandhi-esque nonviolence even in the face of violence. Rustin, who’s conspicuously missing a molar from a beating by a cop, later tells someone else to hit him on the other side of his mouth, for “symmetry.”
Rustin hails this little-known racism fighter who worked from the sidelines to harness the power of peace to make walls fall, move mountains and work toward a world-changing “symmetry” of equality for everyone.
Emily Blunt hustles pain, a marathon of ‘Beetlejuice,’ a killer kid & heavy metal Halloween
FRIDAY, Oct. 27 Pain Hustlers Emily Blunt stars in this new twisty movie (coming off its limited theatrical run tonight and onto streaming) as a jobless blue-collar mom who finds a lifeline—and more drama than she bargained for—when she meets a pharma sales rep (Chris Evans) and his boss (Andy Garcia) and finds herself in middle of a dangerous racketeering scheme, below (Netflix).
Shorsey Jared Kelso stars in this new comedy series about a Canadian hockey team determined to never lose again (Hulu).
SATURDAY, Oct. 28 Beetlejuice In the spirit of Halloween fun and a gonzo performance by Michael Keaton, settle in for 24 hours of the 1998 horror comedy costarring Geena Davis, Winona Ryder and Alec Baldwin (3 p.m., TBS).
Would You Kill For Me? The Mary Bailey Story Melissa Joan Hart stars in this movie (above) based on the true story of an 11-year-old girl coaxed into killing her abusive stepfather by her mother and grandmother (8 p.m., Lifetime). Lifetime).
SUNDAY, Oct. 29 The Guilded Age Season two begins of the ornate period drama from Downton Abbey’s Julian Fellowes, about high life in the late 1800s. Carrie Coon, Cynthia Nixon, Jack Gilpin, Nathan Lane and Audra McDonald are among the sprawling cast, above (Max).
Hocus Pocus Thirty years ago, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy starred in this now-classic Disney Halloween film as a trio of Salem witches who stir up a cauldron of trouble. Now you can re-watch it on its anniversary (8 p.m., ABC).
MONDAY, Oct. 30 Mayflies British dramatic series about life, love, dying and the passage of time stars Martin Compston and Tony Curran, in a touching story adapted from a novel by Andrew O’Hagan (Acorn TV).
Hellhouse LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor Horror flick about a group of young cold case investigators who dare to stay overnight at a place where a series of grisly and unsolved murders occurred in the 1980s (Shudder/AMC+).
TUESDAY, Oct. 31 Heavy Metal Halloween In addition to other spooky-entertainment programming throughout the day, tonight brings a trio of musical rock docs all in the spirit of the season: Songs about the devil, songs about murder and songs about magic. Happy Halloween! (AXS TV).
Live With Kelly and Mark The daytime hosts put on their creative costumes and usher in a bunch of celebrity guests for this Halloween special (syndicated, check local listings).
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 1 Ancient Earth: Humans How did we get here? Using cutting-edge animation, this eye-opening new documentary traces the history, evolution and spread of the planets’s most advanced mammals, the upright humanoids (9 p.m, PBS)
Black Cake Based on a bestselling novel by Charmaine Wilkinson, this new streaming drama series follows about a pair of modern-day siblings as they discover the legacy of the mother, who disappeared off the coast of Jamaica in the 1960s under suspicion of murder (Hulu)
Ryan Ashley is a judge on the tattoo competition series ‘Ink Masters.’
Ink Master New season of the tattoo competition series begins tonight with host Joel Madden, the lead singer of the band Good Charlotte, returning to host more epic ink battles (Paramount+).
THURSDAY, Nov. 2 All the Light We Cannot See Mark Ruffalo, Ari Mia Loberti and Hugh Laurie lead the cast of this limited series (below), based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a blind French girl and her father fleeing German-occupied Paris with a legendary diamond to keep it from falling into the hands of Nazis (Netflix).
Kingdom Business Season two of the drama series further explores the lives of fictional gospel music characters in a state of chaos after lust, love and denial have created a rift in the “kingdom.” With Yolanda Adams, Michael Jai White, Loretta Devine, Louis Gossett Jr. and Michelle Williams (BET+).
READ ALL ABOUT IT
One of the most storied songwriters in all of music, Willie Nelson, tells all in Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Songs (William Morrow), in which the “Red Headed Stranger” digs into the details of 160 of his tunes, plus his superstar collaborators and friends, his extended musical “family” and the themes that have inspired him. It’s a must-have for Willie-philes!
BRING IT HOME
DC’s Blue Beetle, about a young man (Xolo Maridueña) gifted with extraordinary powers who decides to become a superhero, comes to DVD after its short theatrical run.
It’s bigger, fatter and Greek-er than ever. It’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, writer/director Nia Vardolos’ latest installment of her quasi-autobiographical romcom trilogy, which comes to DVD loaded with bonus content, including commentary and behind-the-scenes features about making the picture on location in (where else?) Greece.
NOW HEAR THIS
Beatles fans will groove to the super new 2023 editions of the band’s career-spanning albums, 1962-1966 and 1967-70 (known as the “Red” and “Blue” LPs), which contain all the hits—plus, now, one last Beatles song, “Now and Then,” written and sung by John Lennon with contributions from Paul McCarthy, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and finally finished as a post-Beatles single, 40 years later, by McCarthy and Starr. The Apple Corps/Capitol/UME release is available on CD and vinyl.
The Media Tourist 