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      What ‘It Ends With Us’ Gets Wrong (and Right) About Domestic Abuse

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      Its depiction of love-bombing and psychological abuse rings true, experts say, but other oversimplified aspects could send a dangerous message.A person trying to escape an abusive relationship, on average, needs seven attempts to actually leave. Lily Bloom, the protagonist of the new drama “It Ends With Us,” needs only one.In the hit adaptation of the best-selling Colleen Hoover novel, Bloom (Blake Lively) is a young woman who grew up watching her father repeatedly hit her mother and who sees her own marriage to the seemingly perfect neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni, also the film’s director) deteriorate into physical and emotional abuse. When Bloom learns she’s pregnant with Kincaid’s child after a violent night, she decides to get out.Professionals who counsel domestic violence survivors or work on related issues say “It Ends With Us” is an oversimplified depiction of being in and leaving an abusive relationship. But whether it’s a potential tool for advocacy or an unattainable vision of escaping abuse depends on whom you ask.“I think it’s very likely that people are going to come to the movie and see themselves in Lily,” said Pamela Jacobs, the chief executive officer of the nonprofit organization the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. She said that although “It Ends With Us” had problems, she was surprised by how well it showed abuse overall.The big inaccuracy to professionals is how easily Bloom leaves once she realizes she is being abused. In real life, she would probably have faced stalking, harassment and other escalating pressure tactics, including violence.In “It Ends With Us,” Bloom and her husband peacefully part ways after a single conversation. Jacobs said Bloom’s departure was unrealistically smooth thanks to her financial independence (she owns a flower shop) and unwavering community support, including from her best friend, who is also Kincaid’s sister.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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      ‘Femme,’ ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ and More Streaming Gems

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      A handful of low-key but formidable dramas dominate this month’s under-the-radar recommendations on your streaming subscription services.‘Femme’ (2024)Stream it on Hulu.It’s a deceptively simple premise: The drag performer Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) is badly beaten in a homophobic attack, only to find the main attacker (George MacKay) cruising for companionship months later. Unrecognized out of drag, Jules decides to entrap and humiliate his attacker, and if you think you know where this is going, you’re in for a surprise. Rather than rehashing the tired, simplistic tropes of the revenge thriller, the writing and directing duo Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping explore the emotional complexities of the trap Jules must set — and in doing so, pose compelling questions about Jules’s own sense of self-worth. Stewart-Jarrett is marvelously understated, carefully choosing when to let his character’s carefully cultivated persona slip, while McKay is chillingly convincing in his tricky characterization of a closeted, self-loathing gay man.‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ (2023)Stream it on Netflix.Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is a new sixth-grade teacher who finds out exactly how fragile her sense of trust and idealism is in this harrowing drama from the director Ilker Catak. An atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia pervades this German school, thanks to a rash of petty thefts that have teachers and students alike side-eyeing each other. Carla entraps the seemingly clear culprit, and immediately regrets it. Catak, who wrote the screenplay with Johannes Duncker, squeezes the classroom and faculty spaces like a vice, expertly building operatic tension and discomfort (Marvin Miller’s gripping score does much of the work) out of everyday stress, seemingly careening toward an inevitable, violent conclusion; “I wish it had all worked out differently,” Carla says near the end, and by that point, you’re likely to agree.‘I Smile Back’ (2015)Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.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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      Alain Delon, Godfather of the Belted Trench

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      As a titan of French cinema, he dressed the part, even when playing a killer.Alain Delon, the French film star who died on Sunday at 88, was not big on smiling.He smiles little in “Le Cercle Rouge,” the 1970 caper in which he plays the mastermind of a jewel heist.He smiles little in “La Piscine,” the sexy 1969 thriller in which he plays the boyfriend of a woman whose friendship with an older man drives him to madness.And he smiles little in “Le Samouraï,” the luscious 1967 noir that cemented his status as a titan of French cinema and arguably does as much to glorify fashion as it does a life of crime.That one opens with a shot of Mr. Delon, as a hit man named Jef Costello, lying fully dressed on his bed, staring at the ceiling as he smokes a cigarette.The room is dim and bare. The suit he wears is a beautiful cadet gray. The double-breasted trench coat he puts on before exiting onto the street — well, that quickly becomes its own character.We see Jef step into a car, which is not his car. We know this in part because he carries a bracelet of keys with which to boost it. The shot of him reaching for the correct one serves as an opportunity to show off the thin leather strap of his Baume & Mercier watch.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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      I ❤️ a Hate-Watch. Don’t You?

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      When it premiered in 2017, I quite liked “The Bold Type,” a television series about three 20-something women working at a fictional magazine called Scarlet. Although the show could tend toward after-school special, with the characters learning important lessons about speaking your truth, facing your sexuality or getting regular gynecological examinations, its heartwarming conventions — young women living their editorial dreams in the big city — worked their magic on me.My love began to curdle during the third season. That’s when a new guy is brought into the office to spearhead Scarlet’s weirdly late foray into online publishing (it was set roughly in 2019). For reasons I couldn’t fathom, he referred to the magazine’s website as “The Dot Com.” Over and over and over again.To someone who’s spent her career in digital media, this was a bridge too far. It suggested that the show’s writers hadn’t ever worked in this world, hadn’t talked to anyone who did, maybe had never read a magazine. My annoyance grew in the fourth season, as the star columnist (a fount of bad ideas) got “her own vertical,” by which the show meant “a blog.” What was going on?I found myself declaiming to friends and colleagues about how deranged this turn of events was. I kept watching, but only to get annoyed at the things that I used to excuse as creative license: plot holes, improbable couplings, messed-up New York City geography. What I’d once enjoyed, I now hate-watched.Hate-watching is a weird thing. There is so much to see, do, hear, read: Why spend precious time, in an age of nearly infinite media, plopped in front of a bad show to pick it apart? It’s like gorging yourself on a disgusting meal not because you’re hungry, but because you want to gripe about it later. Or taking a vacation with someone you find excruciating, not because you don’t have any actual friends, but because you want to bellyache afterward about all the stupid things they said and did.Yet hate-watching is now part of the cultural conversation and arguably contemporary life. Chalk it up to morbid curiosity: We start watching a show because it looks appealing, but we keep watching because we want to complain about it at happy hour. It’s fun to be the person who describes a particularly terrible story arc or performance to our friends’ disbelief. Besides, it’s better than whatever is on the news.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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      Where to Stream the Films of Alain Delon

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      A look at 10 standout films featuring the actor, who died on Sunday at 88.Most reviews of the films Alain Delon made at his 1960s and ’70s peak mention either his beauty or his inscrutability. Very often they bring up both.Despite his looks, the French star, who died on Sunday at 88, was not a typical leading man. He did not do romance and mostly avoided the relationship dramas so popular in his home country, even though he won his single César Award for one, “Notre Histoire” (1984). For the most part, Delon steered clear of lighthearted fare — the over-the-top spaghetti swashbuckler “Zorro” (1975) is one of the few such outliers. Instead, Delon will forever remain associated with the bleak thrillers and noirs he focused on after the mid-1960s. Sometimes he played the cop, other times the criminal. Always he looked as if he was withholding something — as an actor, he was never afraid of silence.Luckily, a large number of Delon classics are available to stream. Here are 10 of the best ones, in chronological order.‘Purple Noon’Stream it on the Criterion Channel; rent or buy on Apple TV or Amazon.Has there ever been a more handsome, conscience-free psychopath than Delon’s Tom Ripley? The actor was 25 when his breakthrough hit came out, in 1960, and his magnetism made the character’s dangerous pull on men and women completely inevitable. Delon is a major reason this film remains one of the best Patricia Highsmith adaptations ever, and his youthful cockiness and lethal charm continue to burn the screen.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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      Awkwafina Won’t Forget This Play’s Monologue Anytime Soon

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      “It gives me the chills right now thinking about it,” said the actress and comedian, who stars in the film “Jackpot!” with John Cena and Simu Liu.When Awkwafina started training for Paul Feig’s action-comedy “Jackpot!” — about the winner of a dystopian California lottery — her co-star, the professional wrestler John Cena, had some advice.“It’s kind of obvious science, but your brain is a muscle, so you have to work it out every day,” she said, explaining his theory in a video call from Los Angeles. “He was learning jazz piano in his trailer.”Now Awkwafina, a scene-stealer in “Ocean’s 8” and “Crazy Rich Asians” and a Golden Globe winner for “The Farewell,” has established a routine incorporating physical and mental exercise. And, she added, a new relationship that doesn’t exist for her in any other capacity.“I’ve definitely begun my fitness journey because of this movie,” she said, ticking off squats, planks, weight reps and posture exercises. “But honestly, it’s like play. It’s fun and it’s thrilling and you want to do well.”She also spoke about the book her mother gave to her before she died; her karaoke go-to, Cam’ron’s “Hey Ma”; and crossing the language divide with “My Cousin Vinny.”These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1Fried Egg and Soy Sauce on Top of White RiceMy grandma used to make that for me, and it’s a little bit of a Broke Boyz meal. There’s something so warm about the rice and the egg that feel like a hug.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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      All the ‘Alien’ Movies, Ranked

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      With “Alien: Romulus” hitting theaters, the 45-year-old series is getting a new jolt of life. How does the latest film stack up against its predecessors?Just like the space creature it’s named after, the 45-year-old “Alien” franchise has proved hard to kill: Every time you think the series has been dealt a death blow by a disappointing installment, a new movie rolls around, rekindling fans’ hopes. Following that pattern, here comes “Alien: Romulus” in theaters, seven years after “Alien: Covenant.”The series (all the older titles are streaming on Hulu) has endured for many reasons. Thematically, it has touched, often in a pioneering way, on many subjects we now confront daily: corporate malfeasance, science gone rogue, artificial intelligence, cloning and the very meaning of life. And it has done so by pitting regular working stiffs against the cryptic title life form, whose motivations boil down to reproducing their own kind, and exterminating everybody and everything else in a viciously gory manner.Whether you are new to the “Alien”-verse, need a refresher or are looking for a spirited argument, here is a ranking of the seven core movies, on a scale of one 👽 (not too spooky) to 👽👽👽👽👽 (terrifying).1979‘Alien’ 👽👽👽👽👽Few films are so perfect that you can’t imagine changing anything; Ridley Scott’s brilliant second feature, written by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, is one of them. Lured to an isolated moon by a mysterious signal, the crew members of the towing ship Nostromo run into a terrifying life form that decimates them one by one. In just under two hours, the grittily realistic yet eerily poetic “Alien” modernizes cinematic space creatures, reinvents bio-horror and anticipates the contemporary discourse about capitalist greed and artificial intelligence. It also introduces to the science fiction canon the xenomorph (the creature’s biomechanical-looking life stage, a biped with a double set of fangs) and an action heroine for the ages in Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). Even the trailer was amazing. No notes.1986‘Aliens’ 👽👽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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      Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni and the ‘It Ends With Us’ Drama, Explained

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      What’s happening onscreen has become secondary to the conversation about differences between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, her co-star and director.The Blake Lively romantic drama “It Ends With Us” revolves around a florist, and the film’s marketing campaign, including the red carpet and the posters, has been entirely floral-themed. But the press tour has hardly come up roses.The movie itself is a box office hit, earning $50 million after its release last weekend. The plot centers on Lily Bloom (Lively), who escapes a rough childhood, opens her dream flower store and soon meets her seemingly dream guy, Ryle Kincaid, played by the film’s director, Justin Baldoni.Based on a best-selling Colleen Hoover novel, “It Ends With Us” is ultimately about breaking the cycle of domestic violence that entraps one generation after another. But the film has been at the center of a surprisingly varied number of controversies that have raised a number of questions:Has there been a rift between Baldoni and the cast?Hints that things were off first surfaced at the New York and European premieres. Though Baldoni was in attendance, he wasn’t posing for the cameras with anyone else involved in the movie and wasn’t participating in joint interviews. Fans speculated that this was a marketing tactic, given that he plays an abusive husband. The theory seemed to be that the distance was a statement about not romanticizing the relationship between the Lively and Baldoni characters.But that conjecture was quickly discarded when it emerged that Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, other cast members and even Hoover had unfollowed Baldoni on social media. The interpersonal drama was fueled by reports of conflict during the making of the film — all of it related by anonymous sources, of course.Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, at the New York premiere. Cindy Ord/Getty ImagesDoes the rift involve Ryan Reynolds?Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, secured the rights to the book in 2019, and in 2023 it was announced that Lively had signed on to star. Crucially, both had executive producer roles.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