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      ‘Wicked Little Letters’ Review: Prim, Proper and Profane

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      Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley elevate a comedy about a weird true tale of defamation and dirty words.“This is more true than you’d think,” handwritten text informs us at the start of “Wicked Little Letters.” I looked it up, and they weren’t kidding. The movie involves tweaks and elisions to history, of course. But at least in its major outlines, the true story matches the film, in which a dour spinster named Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) and her raucous next-door neighbor Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley) tangle over a series of mysteriously obscene letters that started arriving at the homes of people in the English coast village of Littlehampton in 1920. As you may intuit, this movie belongs to a very particular subgenre summed up in one declaration: boy, small English towns are full of weirdos.Directed by Thea Sharrock (who has an impressive two movies out this week — the other is “The Beautiful Game”) from a screenplay by the comedy writer Jonny Sweet, “Wicked Little Letters” is a darkly funny take on the tale, leaning a lot more toward the farce than the darkness. Edith, the oldest daughter in a large and very pious family, still lives with her parents (Timothy Spall and Gemma Jones). They sleep in three twin beds in the same room. They rarely go anywhere and are constantly scandalized.Edith has been under her father’s thumb so long that any will she possessed has been wholly squashed out, which makes her exactly the ideal of feminine virtue for 1920s England. The men have returned from war — those who survived, anyhow — and retaken the jobs and roles women filled, relegating them back to the kitchen and domestic life. Edith, homely but docile, is everything a good Christian Englishwoman should be.And of course, anyone who deviates from Edith’s type is suspicious. Rose, for instance, has committed a quadruple feat of sin: living with her Black boyfriend (Malachi Kirby), having a daughter (Alisha Weir) who dares the unladylike act of picking up a guitar, enjoying a night at the pub and, most of all, being Irish. When she arrived in Littlehampton, she was a figure of affable curiosity to her neighbors, especially Edith. But by the time we meet them, Edith has accused Rose of sending elegantly written obscene letters to her and to the neighbors — letters containing marvelously inventive strings of epithets so vile that I cannot reproduce them in this newspaper. Edith endures the letters with a visage so saintly that you can practically see her halo: “We worship a Messiah who suffered, so by my suffering, do I not move closer to heaven?” she intones to her parents, eyes modestly cast down.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Steve Buscemi’s ‘The Listener’ Looks at Post-Covid Loneliness

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      Tessa Thompson’s still and luminous performance makes this post-Covid drama about loneliness, directed by Steve Buscemi, worth watching.“The Listener” — directed by Steve Buscemi — opens with the sound of an unanswered phone and the thrum of a city before turning its lens on Tessa Thompson’s character, who lies in bed, staring upward, before beginning her late shift as the crisis helpline volunteer “Beth.” Written by Alessandro Camon and shot in 2021, this hushed drama takes on a pandemic many Americans experienced and continue to, even post-quarantine: loneliness.During the shift, callers we never see engage or push against Beth’s patient if practiced prompts. Even amid distress, the callers tend to maintain a frayed, respectful civility. An exception comes in the form of a guy one might call-tag as an incel if insults didn’t feel so at odds with a movie rife with compassion.While some of the characters sound too much like avatars of a cultural moment, there are memorable exchanges: Alia Shawkat voicing a woman whose anguish soars and plunges with a slam poetry lyricism and Jamie Hector portraying a veteran struggling with a recurring nightmare. For their part, Buscemi and Thompson utilize the complementary power of stillness and the close-up to create a portrait of a woman who hears so much and divulges so little.The actor Rebecca Hall brings withering and wry certainty as a college professor working through the philosophical logic and practical logistics of suicide. In a twist, she doesn’t begin with a monologue of despair but with a question that cracks open a mystery that has hung over “The Listener” from the start.The ListenerNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      Rebecca Hall on ‘Godzilla x Kong’ and Finding Her Way in Hollywood

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      Rebecca Hall stood in front of an easel, her face contemplative. She moved a paintbrush gently on a palette, then applied the paint to the canvas. This was in her studio, a converted barn next door to where Ms. Hall lives in upstate New York with her husband, the actor Morgan Spector, and their 5-year-old daughter, Ida.When she’s not acting, Ms. Hall paints as a way of channeling her creativity. Her father, Sir Peter Hall — who founded the Royal Shakespeare Company — once warned her about dividing her talents. “He said that it’s very hard to do more than one thing, which really haunted me for a really long time,” Ms. Hall said. “Increasingly, though, I refuse to stay in one lane.”This, in many ways, is Ms. Hall in a nutshell: unwilling to be boxed in, an artist at heart. At 41, Ms. Hall is considered by some to be one of her generation’s most talented actresses. She possesses an unnerving maturity and an unparalleled capacity for versatility. She can so thoroughly embody a character that, as the New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis once wrote, “she becomes your way into the movie as well as the reason you keep watching.” But her career choices reveal a circuitous route toward stardom, a push and pull between projects with famous directors and actors and those on a much smaller scale, including independent films and stage productions.Most recently, she appears in this month’s “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” a big-budget monster film. In it, she plays Dr. Ilene Andrews, an anthropological linguist, who serves as a maternal Jane Goodall-type figure for Kong. It’s the type of heavily marketed blockbuster that a younger Rebecca Hall might have objected to altogether. So why did she choose to do it?“The cynical answer is you don’t get to be an artist in this day and age without doing some of those,” she replied. “But I’m also a straight-up lover of cinema, and that involves all kinds of cinema. I don’t have the mentality of, ‘Oh, I’ve got to do one for them, and then I can do one for me.’ There’s also a huge amount of fun in it, and I’m proud of the end result.”Ms. Hall in this month’s big-budget film “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.” She is “a straight-up lover of cinema, and that involves all kinds of cinema,” she said.Dan McFadden/Warner Bros. PicturesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What is Night Flight Plus? A Streaming Alternative to Netflix and Hulu.

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      If you’ve got six bucks and want to be adventurous, try this streaming service for some wild fringe programming.For this month’s spotlight on lesser-known but worthwhile streaming services, we turn our attention to a name that will mean much to a certain type of Gen-Xer: Night Flight Plus. For those too young to remember (or too old to care), “Night Flight” was a late-night mainstay on the USA cable network from its debut in 1981 through its conclusion in 1988, airing for four to six hours over weekend nights. It was primarily a home for music videos, especially in its early years when the still-nascent MTV had not yet cornered that market. “Night Flight” aired a wider variety of acts, and originated many of the eventual staples of MTV’s programming — video countdowns, artist profiles and the like.But the show was never just a video magazine, and when MTV became a brand unto itself, “Night Flight” proudly proclaimed itself to be “more than just music television.” In fact, it was more like a digital variety show, intermingling music video packages with an assortment of alternative programming: cult and camp movies, aired in their entirety; short films by up-and-coming experimental filmmakers; offbeat cartoons, both new and vintage; segments spotlighting hot new stand-up comedians and sketch artists; and oddball throwback TV episodes. Every episode of “Night Flight” is a wild, unpredictable ride, where the only criteria for inclusion is coolness.Night Flight Plus airs a curated selection of those original episodes, and if that were all it offered, it would still be well worth the $5.99 per month. But Night Flight Plus has extended the anything-goes spirit and mission of the original show, offering up not only those episodes but also the wild, fringe programming that filled its margins; those shows and films are now available at the push of your button, rather than a network’s.So you can choose from a wide array of music documentaries and concert performances, soft-core romps and retro horror favorites, exploitation pictures and forgotten television. There are sidebars of films from the fringe auteurs like Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Andy Milligan and Penelope Spheeris. And several boutique home media labels, including Arrow Video, Blue Underground, Grindhouse Releasing, Something Weird and Vinegar Syndrome, have made their most popular titles available for subscribers.Again, this is all six bucks a month, which makes Night Flight Plus the best overall value among the subscription streamers — at least, for a certain kind of pop-culture obsessed weirdo. (You know who you are). Here are a few recommendations:Night Flight: Full Episode (7/14/84): If you’re an ’80s survivor looking for a full-scale nostalgia overdose, then go directly to the selection of “‘As Aired’ Episodes With Commercials,” which are, as promised, full and original two- and three-hour shows that even include vintage commercial spots (and their distinctive, earworm jingles). All are delightful, but this one is my favorite, and a quintessential example of the show’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach. It features a robust assortment of delightfully of-their-moment music videos, including “Magic” by the Cars, “Breakin’ … There’s No Stopping Us” by Ollie & Jerry and “Lucky Star” by Madonna (“one of today’s hottest rising stars”); an episode of the show-within-the-show “Radio 1990,” spotlighting David Lee Roth and Van Halen; a featurette on that summer’s goofy jungle adventure film “Sheena”; and an installment of the 1950s sci-fi adventure series “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.” Throw in those ads, which include both of Michael Jackson’s ’84 Pepsi spots, and it’s like stepping into a time machine.TV Party: “The Sublimely Intolerable Show”: If your tastes veer into even more eclectic realms, Night Flight Plus features a handful of vintage public access TV shows — chief among them “Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party,” a deliciously low-fi, shot-on-tape snapshot of the downtown New York art and punk scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The show was hosted by the writer and scene chronicler O’Brien and the Blondie co-founder Chris Stein, and was directed by the “No Wave” filmmaker Amos Poe. The hip-hop godfather Fab 5 Freddy was a frequent guest and occasional cameraman, and other guests included Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Byrne and Deborah Harry. You can watch the excellent 2005 documentary on the show — or you can leap right in with this typical episode, in which the energetic music and hip-as-hell cocktail party vibe aren’t even disrupted by the relentless technical difficulties.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Martin Scorsese to Headline a Religious Series for Fox Nation

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      The Oscar-winning director is the latest Hollywood name to sign up for the Fox News streaming platform, joining Kevin Costner, Rob Lowe and Dan Aykroyd.Martin Scorsese has agreed to spearhead a documentary series about Christian saints for Fox Nation, the subscription streaming service run by Fox News Media.“Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints,” which begins airing in November, will be hosted, narrated and executive produced by Scorsese, the decorated director of classic films like “Taxi Driver” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Fox Nation is set to formally announce the series on Wednesday.Since its debut in 2018 as a companion service to Fox News, Fox Nation has expanded into entertainment and general-interest programming as it aspires to become a kind of Netflix for conservative audiences. The streaming network already boasts shows with Hollywood stars like Kevin Costner (“Yellowstone: One-Fifty”), Rob Lowe (“Liberty or Death: Boston Tea Party”) and Dan Aykroyd (“History of the World in Six Glasses”).The Scorsese series, created by Matti Leshem, dramatizes the stories of eight saints, including Joan of Arc, John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, Francis of Assisi and Thomas Becket.“I’ve lived with the stories of the saints for most of my life, thinking about their words and actions, imagining the worlds they inhabited, the choices they faced, the examples they set,” Scorsese said in a statement. “These are stories of eight very different men and women, each of them living through vastly different periods of history and struggling to follow the way of love revealed to them and to us by Jesus’ words in the gospels.”Along with narrating re-enactments of the saints’ stories, Scorsese will also host on-camera discussions with experts. Four episodes will stream on Nov. 16, with the concluding quartet of episodes released in May 2025. The series is directed by Elizabeth Chomko and written by Kent Jones.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Best of Late Night, at the Movies and Beyond

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      The new horror-thriller “Late Night With the Devil” isn’t the only time late-night hosts, shows and sets become fodder for on-screen moments in film and TV.The new horror-thriller “Late Night With the Devil” stars David Dastmalchian as the host of “Night Owls With Jack Delroy” where, on Halloween night 1977, an occult-themed episode takes a dark turn during the live broadcast. Shot in a found-footage way that unearths the “lost” episode, the movie (now in theaters, streaming on Shudder on April 22) is a satirical throwback to the era’s supernatural and religious fanaticism, with a notable nod to “The Exorcist.” And it is one of the most recent in a string of late-night moments that make their way to the big and small screens.Late-night hosts past and present have lent their sets (and sometimes themselves) to projects, while fictional nods and fake hosts pop up elsewhere. From Gucci campaigns featuring James Corden interviewing Harry Styles to several “Simpsons” cameos and sendups, to David Letterman crossovers on “Seinfeld,” “The Larry Sanders Show” and “Roseanne,” late-night hosts play a particularly present role in popular culture. Below is a select look at the times late-night television has smartly made its way into fictional movies and TV.‘Looking for Love’ (1964)Rent on Apple TV or Amazon.In this film directed by Don Weis, Connie Francis stars as Libby Caruso, an aspiring singer who initially found success peddling a line of women’s clothing. Booked on “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” to talk fashion, Libby makes mention of her singing and sees her life change after Carson invites her to perform a song.‘The King of Comedy’ (1983)Stream it on Hulu.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Truth vs. Alex Jones’ Review: How Conspiracy Theories Work

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      Directed by Dan Reed (“Leaving Neverland”), the documentary offers a lesson in how conspiracy theories work and shows how parents confronted Jones in court.Even though the legal battle between Sandy Hook families and the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been thoroughly covered, it is still hard to watch him in the documentary “The Truth vs. Alex Jones” without experiencing a wave of nausea.Directed by Dan Reed (“Leaving Neverland”), the film methodically lays out the horrors that families in Newton, Conn., faced on Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary. Parents of the victims share memories from that morning before their children left for school. Daniel Jewiss, the lead investigator, walks viewers through how the slaughter unfolded.Then the documentary shows how, just as the parents were dealing with unfathomable grief, Jones, through his Infowars broadcasts, began promoting the idea that the shooting was a hoax. As he continued to spread falsehoods, people who latched on to such claims harassed the families. Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed at Sandy Hook, describes the harassment as coming in waves. “It was almost like I knew when Alex Jones said something,” he says in testimony excerpted in the film.If there is value in seeing these events recapped, it is in the power of seeing the parents confront Jones in court. (Over two trials, in Texas and Connecticut, they won more than $1 billion in damages.) It is also in the horror of seeing just how confidently Jones deflects questions and tries to steer proceedings to his advantage — denying the families what Alissa Parker, Emilie’s mother, calls “a moment of reflection” from him.“The Truth vs. Alex Jones” offers a lesson in just how vicious and pervasive conspiracy theories can become and a chilling portrait of how little they may trouble their purveyors.The Truth vs. Alex JonesNot rated. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute. Watch on Max. More

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      The Invention of a Desert Tongue for ‘Dune’

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      Language constructors for the movies started with words Frank Herbert made up for his 1965 novel but went much further, creating an extensive vocabulary and specific grammar rules.In Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi “Dune” movies, Indigenous people known as Fremen use a device to tunnel rapidly through their desert planet’s surface.The instrument is called a “compaction tool” in Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, “Dune,” on which the films are based. But the professional language constructors David J. Peterson and Jessie Peterson wanted a more sophisticated word for it as the husband and wife built out the Fremen language, Chakobsa, for “Dune: Part Two,” which premiered earlier this month.They started with a verb they had made up meaning “to press” — “kira” — and, applying rules David Peterson had devised for the language before the first movie, fashioned another verb that means “to compress” or “to free space by compression” — “kiraza.” From there, they used his established suffixes to come up with a noun. Thus was born the Chakobsa word for a sand compressor, “kirzib,” which can be heard in background dialogue in “Dune: Part Two.”For language constructors — conlangers, as they are known — such small touches enhance the verisimilitude of even gigantic edifices like the “Dune” series. If the demand for conlangers’ work is any indication, filmmakers and showrunners agree.“There’s a very big limit to what you can do with anything approaching gibberish,” said Jessie Peterson, who holds a doctorate in linguistics. “If you just shouted one word in gibberish, that would probably be fine. If you shouted a phrase of two words, OK. But if you tried to do a whole sentence structure in gibberish, it would fall apart very quickly. If somebody needed to respond or repeat information, it won’t cohere.”Other languages are a significant part of the “Dune” films as well. For “Part One,” David Peterson devised a chant for the emperor’s fearsome military forces, the Sardaukar, and the sign language of discreet hand gestures employed by the central Atreides family.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More