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      At the Kennedy Center, an Ode to the Arts, and a Gentle Jab at Biden’s Age

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      Billy Crystal, Renée Fleming, Queen Latifah, Barry Gibb and Dionne Warwick are honored; Robert De Niro joked that Crystal is just a few years younger than the president.Rarely is the president of the United States, nestled in his box, the center of attention at the Kennedy Center Honors, the annual awards ceremony that brings a carousel of celebrities, musicians and actors to the stage to pay tribute to lifetime achievements in the arts.But such was the case on Sunday night, when Robert De Niro, celebrating Billy Crystal’s career, marveled at all the honoree had packed into his career.“You’re only 75,” Mr. De Niro said. “That means you’re just about six years away from being the perfect age to be president.”As President Biden grinned, waved and ruefully shook his finger at Mr. De Niro from the presidential box, members of the audience leaped to their feet with applause — some to gawk at Mr. Biden’s reaction from the front row of the balcony.Billy Crystal attending the Kennedy Center Honors. Robert De Niro noted that Mr. Crystal is nearing the age of the president.Paul Morigi/Getty ImagesIt was the only suggestion of politics in an apolitical, if quintessentially Washington event that sees throngs of dignitaries and politicians gather each year to pay tribute to the arts.On Sunday, the Kennedy Center honored artists who not only revolutionized their genres but transcended them: Billy Crystal, the actor and comedian; Barry Gibb, the musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the eldest member of the Bee Gees; Renée Fleming, the opera singer; Queen Latifah, the rapper, singer and actress; and Dionne Warwick, the singer.Ms. Warwick, who has performed five times at the Kennedy Center and previously appeared at the honors gala to perform tributes to two separate honorees, said her reaction to learning that she would be honored was: “Finally, it’s here!”“It’s a privilege to wear this,” she said, gesturing to the signature rainbow medallion given to each honoree.Missy Elliott, performing at the Kennedy Center. She spoke of Queen Latifah, recalling that for her, Ms. Latifah’s “Ladies First” anthem “was saying, ‘You will respect me.’”Gail Schulman/CBSOne of the quirks of these Honors is that the cast of musicians, actors and singers paying tribute to the honorees are kept secret from the attendees, and even the honorees themselves. On Sunday, a nonstop series of bold-lettered names descended on the stage, including Missy Elliott, Jay Leno, Meg Ryan and Lin-Manuel Miranda.The evening blazed through a Broadway-style medley toasting to Mr. Crystal by Mr. Miranda; a showstopping rendition of “Alfie” by Cynthia Erivo, the Tony and Grammy-award winning singer and actress; tributes to Queen Latifah by Kerry Washington and Rev. Stef and Jubilation, the choir Queen Latifah’s mother had belonged to. It was capped by a stirring rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” by Tituss Burgess, Christine Baranski and Susan Graham, and a medley of Bee Gees songs by Ariana DeBose.The honorees Dionne Warwick and Renée Fleming.Paul Morigi/Getty ImagesFor Mr. Crystal, the Kennedy Center conjured the Lower East Side onstage, projecting a likeness of Katz’s Delicatessen as a backdrop for Ms. Ryan, Mr. Crystal’s most famous co-star, in their famous scene together.“This scene really came naturally to me,” Ms. Ryan said, to laughter. “I’ve actually never been around anyone who made faking an orgasm easier.”For Mr. Gibb, musicians including Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton and Paul McCartney on Sunday reflected on his extensive list of songs — more than 1,000, with tracks in different genres, like “Islands in the Stream” and “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” and the Bee Gees hits that made him and his brothers famous.“He taught us how to walk,” Lionel Richie said in a prerecorded video interview, as the famous guitar hook in “Stayin’ Alive” pulsed through the theater.“Kindness and understanding — we seem to be losing that,” Mr. Gibb said. “And we need to grab it back as quickly as possible.”Ms. Fleming, the soprano known as “the people’s diva,” said that she was grateful for the opportunity to highlight the arts.Barry Gibb and Queen Latifah, who were also honored.Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press“Artists really can change hearts and minds and we’re allowed to wrestle with difficult problems and life and death,” Ms. Fleming said. “Because I’m in the opera world, we all die in opera.”But she allowed ahead of the show that she was experiencing a strange reverse form of stage fright. Performing on the world’s biggest stages may be second nature to her, but, she said, “The thing that scares me is sitting in the box!”Queen Latifah, for her part, appeared prepared to soak up the experience. At the State Department dinner on Saturday night, she told attendees how she would “never forget” the moment. And she appeared visibly moved when Ms. Elliott regaled members of the audience on Sunday with the memory of Queen Latifah on television declaring “Ladies first” in her feminist anthem of the same name, at a time when “we kept hearing, ‘It’s a man’s world.’”“She was saying, ‘You will respect me,’” Ms. Elliott said. “‘I will be a leader. I will be a provider. I will be an inspiration to many.’”The show will be broadcast on CBS on Dec. 27. More

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      John Nichols, Author of ‘The Milagro Beanfield War,’ Dies at 83

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      After decamping from New York to New Mexico, he wrote what was, for a time, among the most widely read novels about Latinos.John Nichols, a New York City transplant to New Mexico whose exuberant novels, notably “The Milagro Beanfield War,” transformed him from an urban gringo into a local idol, died on Monday at his home in Taos. He was 83.The cause was heart failure, said his daughter, Tania Harris.Imbued with a heady pedigree and a peripatetic upbringing, Mr. Nichols evolved instinctively from a cosmopolitan New Yorker and world traveler to a Western writer of the purple sage.He was best known for “The Milagro Beanfield War” (1974), a 445-page political allegory that tells the story of farmers in the fictional town of Milagro Valley who are denied the right to irrigate their farms because water is being diverted to a huge development.“The Milagro Beanfield War” became a crowd pleaser on college campuses, was venerated in his adopted state, and for a while was considered among the most widely read novels about Latinos. In 1988 it was adapted into a film, directed by Robert Redford and starring Rubén Blades, Christopher Walken and Melanie Griffith.“A lot of his work might be characterized as a long slow-motion valentine to the mountains, mesas, high desert, sky and especially people of New Mexico,” said Stephen Hull, director of University of New Mexico Press, which published Mr. Nichols’s memoir “I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer” last year.“He was a comic writer who used tropes of absurdism and excess to depict essential injustices,” Mr. Hull said in an email. “He was deeply affected by a period of time he spent in Guatemala in ‘64-’65, and by the poverty, authenticity, even nobility of his neighbors in northern New Mexico.”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?  More

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      Susan Sarandon Apologizes for Comment About Jews at Rally

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      The Oscar-winning actress said she now regrets “diminishing” the long history of antisemitism in remarks at the rally, which led her agents to part ways with her.The Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon apologized Friday for saying at a pro-Palestinian rally last month that people feeling afraid of being Jewish right now were “getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence.”The remarks drew widespread criticism and soon afterward her agency, United Talent Agency, let it be known that it had dropped her as a client.In a statement posted to Instagram Friday night, Sarandon said that she had been trying to communicate her concern for rising hate crimes. “This phrasing was a terrible mistake,” she said, “as it implies that until recently Jews have been strangers to persecution, when the opposite is true.”“As we all know, from centuries of oppression and genocide in Europe, to the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, PA,” she said, referring to the synagogue shooting that killed 11 and wounding six others in the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, “Jews have long been familiar with discrimination and religious violence which continues to this day.”“I deeply regret diminishing this reality and hurting people with this comment,” she said of her remarks at the Nov. 17 rally. “It was my intent to show solidarity in the struggle against bigotry of all kinds, and I am sorry I failed to do so.”Antisemitic incidents and Islamophobic attacks have soared in New York City, on campuses and online since the Israel-Hamas war began.Sarandon, 77, has long been an outspoken activist for progressive and left-wing causes, sometimes clashing with more moderate liberals in Hollywood, while nurturing a prolific career featuring iconic roles in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Bull Durham” and “Thelma & Louise.” More recently she appeared in the Showtime series “Ray Donovan” and the DC Comics movie “Blue Beetle,” which came out in August. More

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      Why Beyoncé Should Be Considered an Auteur

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      She is essentially one on the new film, but she has also demonstrated throughout her career just who is in charge of her art.“I’m excited for people to see the show,” Beyoncé says early in “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” based on her recent world tour and seventh studio album. “But I’m really excited for everyone to see the process.”I’ve long wanted to understand her process better, too, especially because she has taken to rarely giving interviews. Instead she has let her art speak for itself, a risky venture when critics do the interpreting without her input. My interest in her approach is partly scholarly. I regularly teach courses on her and want my students to learn from her observations. But my enthusiasm is also speculative. I often wonder whether our ignorance of her creative practice has minimized and denied her innovation, ingenuity and individual contributions to her own body of work.If “Renaissance” was only a film about her beaming audience, dazzling performances and the making of the tour, that would be more than enough. However, it’s clear early on that Beyoncé is not entirely interested in fetishizing her “process” to validate her artistry. Instead, the movie deconstructs its subject to expand our understanding of her. More poignantly, it critiques how race, gender and genre have limited our ability to see her talent and, by doing so, liberates her from ever again having to prove her singular impact on American culture.It does so by quickly establishing her creative control. The concert itself reveled in Beyoncé’s simultaneous mastery of dance, music, fashion and live performance, which makes her unparalleled among artists today. On the other hand, the film shows her working backstage and sometimes even underneath it. As the tour director, executive producer and creative director, she oversaw everything from hiring and salaries to musical selections, marketing, choreography, costumes and video.But what makes “Renaissance” unique among other great concert films is that she did not just star in it the way the Talking Heads did in Jonathan Demme’s classic “Stop Making Sense” or Madonna in Alek Keshishian’s provocative “Truth or Dare.” Beyoncé also wrote, directed and produced the film. In fact, she has created some of the past decade’s most memorable cinematic musical experiences and should be considered an auteur — in terms of both this film and her career.In this way, “Renaissance” is the culmination of her visual projects, beginning with the visual albums “Beyoncé” (2013) and “Lemonade” (2016); her intimate documentary “Life Is but a Dream” (2013); the 2019 Coachella concert film “Homecoming”; and “Black Is King” (2020), the visual companion she and Blitz Bazawule made for the soundtrack “The Lion King: The Gift.” But by offering the most in-depth document of her vision, preparation and personal sacrifice, the new film goes further than these productions.Beyoncé in a scene from “Life Is but a Dream,” her intimate 2013 documentary.Parkwood EntertainmentThe film opens with Beyoncé commanding our attention in a citron yellow dress, her hair blowing as she belts “Dangerously in Love 2.” She later revisits that moment through a flashback showing her at work with her production team. Via voice-overs and close-ups of her in far more casual clothing, we watch as she gives her team notes about camera angles, lighting and the speed and direction of the mechanical fans. If only we could rewind to that first performance to better appreciate all the technical components that went into making that moment appear so flawless.In another scene in which the entire sound system cuts out as she sings “Alien Superstar” in Glendale, Ariz., the tension really mounts. She and her dancers leave the stage immediately. That’s all the live audience knows. But as a film director, she has the cameras follow her backstage to capture her audio team’s update (“It will be back on in three minutes”). Within that short period, she convinces the wardrobe department she has enough time for a quick costume change, then, in a new outfit, meets with her head of music production to test a new transition to the next song. It is an exhilarating sequence that makes her seamless comeback to the stage even more admirable and shows her remarkable sense of timing and tension as a storyteller and filmmaker.These moments pose the question of why it took her so long to exhibit such a thrilling illustration of her leadership. And then I realized: We were the problem; we just hadn’t listened to her.Beyoncé has spent most of her career telling us she was in charge. As far back as 2004, “Beyoncé: Live at Wembley,” a concert film about her first solo tour, featured the artist at 22 as well as its creative director, Kim Burse, and choreographer, Frank Gatson, discussing how the headliner had helped conceive the show and chose its costumes, songs and choreography. Subsequent documentaries like the short “Beyoncé: Year of 4” and “Life Is but a Dream” focused even more intensely on her artistic independence after she split from her father and longtime manager, Mathew Knowles, and started her own company, Parkwood, to manage herself.She returned to this theme of independence again in “Homecoming,” when, cinéma vérité-style, she shares the inspiration she found in the Battle of the Bands of historically Black colleges and universities; her use of three different sound stages to rehearse with the band, the dancers and her production team; and her intricate collaboration with Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing to design more than 200 outfits for the show. “In the rehearsals, I am directing and watching the show,” she says in “Homecoming” and notes, “I’m in the audience, and I’m able to be on the stage and kind of see the stage at the same time.”And yet even in “Homecoming,” she points out how her team tried to ignore her directives in the lead-up to Coachella. At one point, she expresses her frustration to a film crew that isn’t listening to her when she describes what it will take to translate the energetic performances from the stage to the screen. “Until I see some of my notes applied,” an exasperated Beyoncé warns, “it doesn’t make sense for me to make more.”A scene from “Homecoming,” her 2019 film in which she made clear that she was the director.Parkwood Entertainment/Netflix, via Associated PressBut in “Renaissance,” she explains her crew’s dismissiveness. “Communicating as a Black woman, everything is a fight,” she says, and adds, “I constantly have to repeat myself.” In back-to-back scenes, she shows what that looks like when she tries to buy two separate cameras to film her show. A team member informs her that one camera is unavailable, only to eventually admit that he can find it after she doubts him. In the next scene, she readies herself for the pushback. When someone else tells her the other camera does not exist, she reveals she has already found it online, so it just needs to be purchased. While this exchange is humorous, it is not minor. It is the frequency that makes the second-guessing larger-than-life and, unfortunately, far too relatable, especially for many Black women in positions of authority.Management is one challenge; motherhood is far more demanding. The film pivots to Beyoncé’s ambivalence in allowing her older daughter, Blue Ivy, to perform with her on tour, only for Beyoncé to witness her growth as a young artist. And when we watch Beyoncé thank her mother, Tina Knowles, for protecting her from the more vicious aspects of the music industry, we realize not only that Mama Tina is her maternal template, but also that Beyoncé herself considers her three children, including the twins, Rumi and Sir, fuel for her creative process rather than fully outside of it.After these exchanges, “Renaissance” opens up more and allows its star to reject the idea of solitary genius. Through archival footage, photographs and shots of dancers onstage, Beyoncé showcases the Black queer ballroom culture that inspired her album and concert choreography. She also pays homage to iconic Black women like Diana Ross and Tina Turner, who influenced her career, and to her hometown, Houston, where she was a founding member of the girl group Destiny’s Child. By exploring her indebtedness to a people and place, she confidently embraces her own contributions alongside those of her community and her collaborators. The payoff: She paints a more transparent portrait of the creative process.Whether “Renaissance” will dampen criticism regarding her generous sharing of credits or drive a new appreciation of her artistry remains to be seen. By the end, Beyoncé declares she is ready for the next phase of her life and finally feels free.May this film be the last time she has to repeat herself. More

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      Watch Natalie Portman Study Julianne Moore in ‘May December’

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      The director Todd Haynes narrates a sequence from the film where Portman, playing an actress, gets makeup tips from the woman (Moore) she’s portraying.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.Two women apply makeup in front of a mirror.In the hands of some directors and performers, a moment like this might feel perfunctory. But when the director is the critically acclaimed Todd Haynes, and the performers are the Oscar winners Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, this kind of scene takes on layers of meaning.The moment happens in “May December” (streaming on Netflix), which tells the story of an actress, Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) whose latest job is to portray Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore), a woman who became known for a scandal more than two decades ago involving a sexual relationship with a seventh-grader, whom she would eventually marry.Elizabeth has gone to Savannah to spend time with Gracie and her family, and study her for the part. In this scene, Gracie shares her makeup routine while the two stand at a mirror. It’s one of several sequences in the film involving mirrors and long takes.In an interview discussing those decisions, Haynes said that he wanted to “let the camera just hold and observe what goes on in these people’s lives, and this actress’s entree into their life, shattering the protection and castle walls that they’ve built around this family since that scandal occurred.”Haynes said that while most scenes with Elizabeth frame her as the interrogator, this is one of the few times when Gracie asks Elizabeth questions.With the mirrors and the merging of personalities in this shot, Haynes cited Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona” as an influence. And he praised his performers for pulling it off.“A shot like this is a great idea, but it doesn’t work unless you have Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman.” he said.Read the “May December” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

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      Best Movies and TV Shows Streaming in December: ‘Reacher,’ ‘Doctor Who’ and More

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      Holiday fare arrives, with “Candy Cane Lane,” and “Dr. Who” and “Shape Island” specials. “Percy Jackson” and “Culprits” also land this month.Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of December’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘Candy Cane Lane’Starts streaming: Dec. 1Eddie Murphy reunites with his “Boomerang” director Reginald Hudlin for this fantastical, special-effects-driven holiday comedy. Murphy plays Chris Carver, a suburbanite whose obsession with winning his neighborhood’s lights and display contest leads to him making a deal with a malevolent elf named Pepper (Jillian Bell), who secretly plans to trap her new client permanently in the form of a plastic figurine. When Pepper’s dark magic leads to every gift in the song “The 12 Days of Christmas” coming to life and wreaking havoc in the Carver family’s quaint community, Chris and his wife, Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross), have to enlist their children and Pepper’s previous victims to try and prevent the spell from ruining Christmas.‘Reacher’ Season 2Starts streaming: Dec. 15Alan Ritchson returns as the hulking, nomadic ex-military policeman Jack Reacher, for a second season of mystery-unraveling and bone crunching. This batch of episodes is based on Lee Child’s novel “Bad Luck and Trouble,” and sees the beefy do-gooder calling on some old colleagues — Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan) and David O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos) — to help him figure out who is killing the members of Reacher’s former U.S. Army MP Special Investigations unit. As with Season 1, this latest round of “Reacher” combines fisticuffs and shootouts with scenes of friends and strangers alike marveling at the eccentricities and capabilities of the stoic hero.Also arriving:Dec. 6“Hollywood Houselift With Jeff Lewis” Season 2Dec. 7“Coach Prime” Season 2Dec. 8“Merry Little Batman”Dec. 12“The Farads” Season 1Circle (voiced by Gideon Adlon), Square (voiced by Harvey Guillen) and Triangle (voiced by Scott Adsit) in “Shape Island: The Winter Blues,” a holiday special.Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Shape Island: The Winter Blues’Starts streaming: Dec. 1Based on a series of picture books by the author Mac Barnett and the illustrator Jon Klassen, the charming animated series “Shape Island” teaches young kids about friendship via quiet, simple stories about three very different shapes: the nerdy Square (voiced by Harvey Guillén), the goofy Triangle (Scott Adsit) and the cool and wise Circle (Gideon Adlon). In the holiday special “The Winter Blues,” Circle and Triangle try to cheer Square up by inventing a monster-themed holiday; but they struggle to maintain the illusion when their pal starts asking too many questions about the magical yeti they created. The show’s adorable sets and characters look even more enchanting covered in ice and snow, though as always the core appeal is the interactions between these three, who reap the rewards of companionship by making an extra effort to get along.Also arriving:Dec. 1“Frog and Toad: Christmas Eve”“The Snoopy Show: Happiness Is Holiday Traditions”Dec. 6“John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial”Dec. 15“The Family Plan”From left: Leah Sava Jeffries, Aryan Simhadri and Walker Scobell in “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.”Disney+New to Disney+“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” Season 1Starts streaming: Dec. 20A decade ago, when pretty much every popular young adult fantasy fiction series was being adapted into megahit movies, the first two books in Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson saga hit the big screen. Both did OK with audiences, but neither became a sensation on the level of the Harry Potter or Hunger Games films. So Riordan and the writer-producer Jonathan E. Steinberg are now trying something different with the novels, starting over at the beginning and telling Percy’s story as a Disney+ TV show. Walker Scobell plays the young hero, who discovers he is the secret son of Poseidon. Percy joins forces with other gods, demigods and magical creatures for adventures that bring the perils of ancient myths into the modern world.“Doctor Who Holiday Special: The Church on Ruby Road”Starts streaming: Dec. 25For the 60th anniversary of the long-running British science-fiction series “Doctor Who,” the show’s former writer-producer Russell T Davies is overseeing a series of specials that feature — for a brief stretch — the return of the actor David Tennant, playing a new version of the time-traveling Doctor he had previously played from 2005 to 2010. Disney+ will be carrying all three of those specials (“The Star Beast,” “Wild Blue Yonder” and “The Giggle”); and then with that nostalgia trip out of the way, Davies will begin the new “Doctor Who” season with a holiday-themed special, “The Church on Ruby Road,” which will properly introduce the next Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa. Details about what Davies has planned are being kept under wraps for now; but fans of the franchise are looking forward to some of the series’ biggest changes in years.Also arriving:Dec. 1“The Shepherd”Dec. 2“Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder”Dec. 8“Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Christmas Cabin Fever”Dec. 9“Doctor Who: The Giggle”Dec. 22“What If…?” Season 2From left: Tara Abboud, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Gemma Arterton and Kirby in “Culprits.”Des Willie/DisneyNew to Hulu‘Culprits’ Season 1Starts streaming: Dec. 8The writer-director J Blakeson — best-known for the clever thriller films “The Disappearance of Alice Creed” and “I Care a Lot” — adapts the crime fiction anthology “Culprits: The Heist Was Just the Beginning” into a pulpy, structurally complex series, set in the aftermath of a caper. Nathan Stewart-Jarrett plays an aspiring restaurateur who is living a peaceful life with his fiancé when he discovers that someone is trying to kill everyone who was involved in a heist he participated in years ago. Each “Culprits” episode jumps between the present day and the past, filling in the details about the original crime, which was masterminded by a hyper-controlling boss (Gemma Arterton). The show is partly a mystery and partly a character study, considering the long-term effects of a criminal gang’s big score.‘The Mission’Starts streaming: Dec. 8Back in 2018, the Christian missionary John Allen Chau made international news when he was killed while illegally trying to make contact with a secluded island tribe. The National Geographic documentary “The Mission” digs beneath all the online jokes and outraged reactions to Chau’s death, offering a more thoughtful reflection on who this young man was — and a more detailed consideration of how the drive to convert hostile strangers has had a long and often tragic history. The film’s co-directors, Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (who previously made the excellent documentary “Boys State”), bring a fair-minded approach throughout, taking fervent faith seriously while also acknowledging the damage it can do.Also arriving:Dec. 6“We Live Here: The Midwest”Dec. 9“Maestra”Dec. 11“Science Fair: The Series”Dec. 13“Moving” Season 1“Undead Unlock” Season 1Dec. 14“Blue Jean”“Dragons: The Nine Realms” Season 8Dec. 15“CMA Country Christmas”“Such Brave Girls” Season 1Dec. 18“Archer: Into the Cold”Dec. 20“Dragons of Wonderhatch” Season 1Dec. 22“Maggie Moore(s)”Dec. 26“Letterkenny” Season 12Carol and Charles Stuart, as seen in “Murder In Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reckoning.” Ira Wyman/Sygma via Getty Images/HBONew to Max‘Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reckoning’Starts streaming: Dec. 4In 1989, a woman named Carol Stuart was shot and killed in Boston. During the investigation into the murder, her husband, Chuck, described the shooter as a Black man. It was later discovered that he wasn’t being entirely truthful; but by the time the case was closed, the city’s long-simmering racial hostilities had boiled over. Directed by Jason Hehir (best-known for the Emmy-winning Chicago Bulls docu-series “The Last Dance”), the three-part “Murder in Boston” features archival news footage and new interviews that, working in conjunction, explain what the cultural environment was like in Boston in the 1970s and ’80s and how the Stuart case represented a turning point.Also arriving:Dec. 5“Great Photo, Lovely Life: Facing a Family’s Secrets”Dec. 12“Trees and Other Entanglements”Dec. 16“Leo Reich: Literally Who Cares?”Dec. 21“Gary Gulman: Born on 3rd Base”Dec. 28“Oprah and ‘The Color Purple’ Journey”Dec. 30“Time Bomb Y2K”Michael Jackson, center, in the documentary “Thriller 40.” Paramount+ with SHOWTIMENew to Paramount+ with Showtime‘Thriller 40’Starts streaming: Dec. 2The director Nelson George’s “Thriller 40” goes deep on one of the best-selling albums of all time, serving as an unofficial conclusion to a trilogy that was begun by Spike Lee’s two Michael Jackson documentaries (one about the years leading up to “Off the Wall,” and one about the making of “Bad”). George and his crew interview some of the personnel who worked on the “Thriller” LP and its groundbreaking music videos; and they also speak with some famous fans (including Usher, Misty Copeland, Mark Ronson and Mary J. Blige), who talk passionately about what “Thriller” means to them. The main selling point for this documentary, though, is all of the rare video and audio from the studio, where Jackson and his producer Quincy Jones shaped the songs that would go on to dominate the pop charts, expanding the commercial and creative possibilities for Black artists.Also arriving:Dec. 1“The World According to Football”Dec. 5“Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too?”Dec. 7“The Envoys” Season 2Dec. 8“Baby Shark’s Big Movie”Dec. 11“The Billion Dollar Goal”Dec. 12“Born in Synanon”Dec. 15“Finestkind”Tony Shalhoub returns as Adrian Monk in “Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie.”Peter Stranks/PEACOCKNew to Peacock‘Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie’Starts streaming: Dec. 8Fourteen years after the USA Network’s long-running, Emmy-winning detective dramedy “Monk” aired its series finale, most of the cast returns for this sequel movie, which catches fans up on how the obsessive-compulsive sleuth Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) has been doing in the decade since he finally solved his wife’s murder. In short? Not great! Rattled by the pandemic and feeling adrift without murders to investigate, Monk finds a renewed sense of purpose when someone close to his family dies under mysterious circumstances, possibly at the direction of an arrogant billionaire (James Purefoy). In “Mr. Monk’s Last Case,” Monk once again has to overcome his neuroses with the help of his friends and former colleagues, working together to make the world feel a little saner.Also arriving:Dec. 1“The Exorcist: Believer”Dec. 8“Christmas at the Opry”Dec. 12“Barry Manilow’s a Very Barry Christmas”Dec. 15“A Saturday Night Live Christmas Special”Dec. 21“Dr. Death” Season 2 More

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      ‘La Syndicaliste’ Review: Power Plays

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      Isabelle Huppert plays a union representative swept up in a byzantine conspiracy in this French movie, which is based on a true crime.Sometimes the best reason to watch a movie is because Isabelle Huppert is in it. That’s pretty much true of “La Syndicaliste,” a tangled if certainly watchable French true-crime drama about dirty political doings in the nation’s nuclear energy industry. Filled with men and women with furrowed brows, running and declaiming and sometimes explosively blowing their tops, the movie yearns to be a 1970s-style American thriller but is basically just a vehicle for Huppert’s talents. Even when it’s unclear what her character — a labor representative — is up to, she commands your attention with feverish focus and urgency.Huppert plays Maureen Kearney, a leading union representative of Areva, a state-controlled French nuclear technology company. A no-nonsense, hard-charging official, Maureen takes her mandate seriously — Areva has more than 50,000 employees when the story opens in 2012 — and her resentful male colleagues somewhat less seriously, at least outwardly. She’s brassy and a bit flashy (she likes perilously high heels and slashes of red lipstick) and close to her boss at Areva, Anne Lauvergeon (Marina Foïs), a smooth number who’s about to lose her job because, as she explains, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to replace her before the next election.It isn’t obvious why Sarkozy thinks that firing Anne will help him; she suggests it’s because she’s a woman, stoking the gender war that percolates throughout this movie. Whatever the case, Sarkozy fires Anne, eventually losing the presidency to François Hollande, all of which adds real-world context to the story without illuminating it. The director Jean-Paul Salomé gives the movie a lively pace, but he crowds it with filler scenes, too many characters and political arcana. He also throws in an allusion to Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” — cue the blond chignon — that does his movie no favors. (Salomé wrote the script with Fadette Drouard.)“La Syndicaliste” follows Anne as she tries to work with her new boss, Luc Oursel (an amusingly villainous Yvan Attal), a patronizing sexist who cozies up to Maureen even as he busily conspires against her. The extent of his schemes begin to emerge after a whistle-blower sneaks Anne a document showing that a shadowy figure who heads up another state-controlled utility, E.D.F., is clandestinely negotiating with a Chinese consortium to build low-cost plants. (Got it?) The idea is to turn E.D.F. into a world nuclear power and ruin Areva, which Maureen helpfully explains, “will be awful for our employees.”The scheme proves worse for Maureen, who tries to bring attention to the E.D.F. plan, only to be largely met with indifference. As she continues rattling cages, she is met with escalating hostility, and then one grim morning while she’s home preparing for a big government meeting, an intruder puts a mask over her head and rapes her. Much of the rest of the movie involves Maureen navigating the aftermath of the assault as she submits to invasive medical examinations and police interviews that grow progressively antagonistic. The cops are stumped — there are no fingerprints, witnesses or surveillance visuals — and then they accuse Maureen of inventing the rape as a way to gin up sympathy for her political struggles.Based on a 2019 book of the same title by Caroline Michel-Aguirre, “La Syndicaliste” never satisfyingly meshes the story’s corporate-political thriller elements with Maureen’s traumatic ordeal. Salomé’s handling of the rape doesn’t help. The movie opens right after a maid finds the bound Maureen in the basement of her home, and then the story flashes back several months at which point it begins to unwind chronologically. That’s fine, even if the structure is drearily familiar, but it ends up turning the rape into a narrative high point, which is just gross. Huppert, who makes her character’s pain and rage visceral, is enough.La SyndicalisteNot rated. In French and Hungarian, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute. In theaters. More