Drama
George R.R. Martin and Robert Redford Producing New Crime Series Dark Winds
George R.R. Martin, Robert Redford, and Graham Roland are executive producing an upcoming crime drama for AMC called Dark Winds. Based on novelist Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee series, the plot follows two Navajo police officers in the southwest US in the 1970s. Fargo’s Zahn McClarnon and The Red Road’s Kiowa Gordon are set to star, with the first season scheduled to premiere in 2022. “I read my first Tony Hillerman novel in 1986 while filming in New Mexico and was immediately hooked,” Redford said in a statement. “Hillerman is a master storyteller, his writing is full of mystery and suspense, set amidst a background that blends traditional oral stories of Native American culture and landscape.” The series will be filmed in and around indigenous tribal lands of New Mexico, with bles...
Bryan Cranston, Annette Bening Starring in Paramount+’s Jerry and Marge Go Large
Paramount+ is making major moves in the original programming game. The streaming service announced Monday that their upcoming film, Jerry and Marge Go Large, has cast Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and The Report star Annette Bening as its leads. The movie is based on the 2018 Huffington Post article of the same title by Jason Fagone. Jerry and Marge Go Large tells the true story of Jerry Selbee, a retired cereal factory worker, and his wife, Marge. While running a successful corner store in Evart, Michigan, a 2,000-person town about 80 miles north of Grand Rapids, Jerry discovered a loophole in the Massachusetts lottery. After buying countless tickets, the couple grossed nearly $27 million over nine years, using their earnings to breathe new life into their small hometown. David ...
Israel lawmakers to vote Sunday on anti-Netanyahu government
After weeks of political wrangling, the Israeli parliament is set to vote Sunday on whether to install a “change” coalition and end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s record 12 consecutive years in power. Announcing the date for the confidence vote, speaker Yariv Levin, a Netanyahu ally, said on Tuesday “a special session of parliament” would debate and vote on the fragile eight-party alliance, after the country’s fourth inconclusive election in two years back in March. Later in the day, the prime minister’s office announced that a march by Jewish nationalists through Jerusalem would go ahead in a week’s time, potentially de-escalating tensions with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group which went to war with the Jewish state for 11 days last month. Israeli right-wing groups had the day b...
The Mosquito Coast Is a Slow Burn That Ultimately Pays Off: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-28T15:00:30+00:00“>April 28, 2021 | 11:00am ET The Pitch: Allie Fox (Justin Paul Theroux)– an ambitious yet incredibly flawed man — goes on the run with his family as government agents zero in on their location. Along the way, they find that peril comes in many forms and the consequences may outweigh even the loftiest ambitions. This seven-part series, adapted from Paul Theroux’s 1981 novel of the same name, highlights man’s flaws as well as the unrelenting power of the environment. The Unseen Friend and Foe: While the series may be about civilization’s own imperfections, it’s hard to miss the presence of Mother Nature. Throughout each episode, viewers are transported to stunning...
The Sluggish Stowaway Still Delivers Thrills and Chills in Space: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-22T21:55:56+00:00“>April 22, 2021 | 5:55pm ET The Pitch: A trio of astronauts: Commander Marina (Toni Collette), Doctor Zoe (Anna Kendrick), and Biologist David (Daniel Dae Kim) find their plans for a two-year research mission to Mars derailed when they discover an unwitting stowaway named Michael (Shamier Anderson). Things go from bad to worse when the trio realize there isn’t enough oxygen on the ship to sustain four people: either one person has to die, or all of them do. In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream: The second Netflix space film in five months, Stowaway is also the second film of its kind (and overall) from director Joe Penna, who also penned the chilly survival film...
What’s Streaming on Netflix in May 2021
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-21T20:05:15+00:00“>April 21, 2021 | 4:05pm ET April showers bring a load of new original content to Netflix in May 2021. After nearly four years and some personal controversy, Aziz Ansari is returning with a third season of Master of None. Other Netflix Originals coming back include Selena: The Series, The Kominsky Method, Lucifer, and a new volume of Love, Death & Robots. The new series Jupiter’s Legacy, an adaptation of the comic book my Mark Millar (Kick-Ass, Kingsman: The Secret Service), is also set to make its debut, as will HALSTON, Ryan Murphy’s limited series with Ewan McGregor. Related Video On the film front, Zack Snyder’s&nb...
Big Shot Scores While Relying on Familiar Sports Tropes: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-19T21:30:25+00:00“>April 19, 2021 | 5:30pm ET The Pitch: It’s The Mighty Ducks with high school girls’ basketball instead of hockey, as an hourlong TV show instead of a movie. Another Underdog Story: That pitch may seem reductive, but Big Shot really doesn’t have much on its mind — at least in the three episodes made available to critics — aside from being a redemption story with youth sports as the backdrop, as a plucky, young team turns its prospects around thanks to a new coach who doesn’t really want to be there. A major difference is in the ages of the students. Whereas the original Mighty Ducks were pre-teens, the players here are teenagers, thus enabling co-creator David E...
Mare of Easttown Shows the Emotional Labor of Caregiving: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-18T22:20:33+00:00“>April 18, 2021 | 6:20pm ET The Pitch: Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) is a local hero in the titular small Pennsylvania town. Twenty-five years after making the game-winning shot in a high school basketball tournament, she’s now a police detective and local savior of sorts. But community faith in Mare is beginning to wane as she has not been able to find Katie Bailey (Caitlin Houlahan) a young mother who disappeared and is presumed dead. The murder of another young mother on the one-year anniversary of Katie’s disappearance reignites the cold case and plunges Mare into a word of dark cruelty and impossible choices. Craig Zobel’s new HBO miniseries is a dour, but re...
Concrete Cowboy Rides Into a Summer of Predictability: Review
The Pitch: Idris Elba has the gravity and laconic cool to make a great cowboy, and clearly Netflix knows this. Before the star-studded Western The Harder They Fall arrives later this year, though, Elba is saddling up for a less traditional take on the genre. Enter Concrete Cowboy. Based on Gregory Neri’s 2009 novel Ghetto Cowboy, the coming-of-age story follows Cole (Caleb McLaughlin), a troubled teenager who’s been sent to stay with his father Harp (Elba) in North Philadelphia for the summer. Harp, as we learn, is involved with a group of Black cowpokes who ride and tend to a stable of horses in the city. Cole takes a liking to this club, but also can’t shake his loyalty to an old friend who sees drug-dealing as his ticket out of the neighborhood. This may sound mildly outlandish, but it’...
Rachel Sennott Is an Anxiety-Ridden Revelation in Shiva Baby: Review
The Pitch: A bisexual college student struggling to figure out her career path (Rachel Sennott) attends a Jewish funeral service with her parents, where she attempts to juggle well-meaning family friends, a run-in with her ex-girlfriend, and an accidental encounter with her sugar daddy. Social Anxiety on Steroids: Never have I wanted to attend a family function less than in Shiva Baby, Emma Seligman’s grand-slam of a feature directorial debut. Old flames, sugar daddies, and painfully awkward altercations with relatives are the sparks that set this 75-minute marathon of full-body-cringe rolling — and from the second Danielle sets foot into the Shiva, neither Seligman nor the torrent of stressors lets up. To create genuine anxiety and stress in an audience is no easy task, and to sustain tha...
Tom Holland Is Miscast In the Ambitious, Messy Cherry: Review
The Pitch: “Sometimes I wonder if life is wasted on me,” Cherry (Tom Holland) drawls wryly to us, godlike and incessant in his narration. When we meet him, he’s holding up a bank, and it’s not the first time. But how would a nice young man fall into such disrepute? From there, we rewind to see the life choices Cherry has made that led him to this point — from his furtive romance with a young classmate named Emily (Ciara Bravo) to the torment and torture of his days as an Army medic in Iraq, to the subsequent opioid addiction that would lead him to a life of bank-robbing to fund his drug habit. CHERK ‘Em If You Got ‘Em: In many ways, it’s going to be hard for Cherry to overcome its first real brush with public notoriety — a strangely-glitched version of the poster that messed...
What’s Streaming on Hulu in March 2021
Busy times for Hulu in March. On the features front, Frank Grillo will try to escape a time loop in Boss Level, Eva Green will train for space in Proxima, Soleil Moon Frye captures her Hollywood youth in kid 90, and Devon Sawa learns the consequences of living off the grid in Hunter Hunter. Meanwhile, National Geographic will explore the life and legacy of Aretha Franklin in Genius: Aretha: Complete Season 3, the second season of FX’s Breeders begins, and Justin Roiland’s Solar Opposites returns for seconds. The back catalogue additions aren’t too shabby, either. Martin Scorsese’s Shine a Light is refreshing for these pandemic times, Wes Anderson’s Rushmore is always worth a 45th rewatch, and who doesn’t love a good horror like The Social Network. Check out the full list below, which also ...
