Movies

Our writers offer suggestions for what to watch or listen to while we’re housebound. More

Here are a few of the best events happening Thursday through Wednesday and how to tune in (all times are Eastern).Spotlight on Plays: ‘Love Letters’Thursday at 8 p.m. on YouTubeWatching Bryan Cranston and Sally Field perform a reading of this 1988 play by A. R. Gurney shouldn’t be so different from seeing it live. When it’s staged, the epistolary romance typically features two characters, Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner, sitting next to each other reading their correspondence aloud. In this version, the actors will be performing from home, but onscreen they’ll appear to be side by side. When: 8 p.m., and again at 11 p.m.Where: The Actors Fund YouTube channel, and Broadway’s Best Shows’ YouTube channel, Facebook page and website.Live from the New York Public Library: Stacy Schiff’s ‘Cleopatra’ with Tim GunnThursday at 8 p.m. on ZoomFor more than 2,000 years, Cleopatra has been a magnet for rumors, legends and symbolic associations. When Stacy Schiff’s biography of the ancient monarch was published in 2010, it was celebrated for the way it handled her legacy. “Ms. Schiff strips away the accretions of myth that have built up around the Egyptian queen and plucks off the imaginative embroiderings of Shakespeare, Shaw and Elizabeth Taylor,” Michiko Kakutani wrote in her review for The New York Times. The author will join Tim Gunn, a fashion expert and history fan, to discuss the importance of the past and the complexities of biographical writing. Registration is free and can be completed here.When: 8 p.m.Where: Zoom. Registered viewers will receive an email containing a link and a password to access the conversation. A video recording of the event will be available on the New York Public Library’s YouTube page starting on Friday.Sylvester Stallone Hosts a ‘Rocky’ Watch PartyThursday at 7 p.m. on FacebookThis 1976 boxing film is inspiring but in a slightly unconventional way. The hero, played by Sylvester Stallone, is more tenacious than talented. He prevails, in his own way, because he can take a punch without going down. In that sense, it’s a fitting movie for our current moment, when so many people are on the ropes. Fan can watch the movie and chat with Stallone during this live viewing party. Maybe he’ll have some advice about how to slog through a difficult situation.When: 7 p.m.Where: The MGM Studios Facebook page.Amazon Live: John LegendFriday at 1 p.m. on AmazonThe R&B superstar’s follow up to his 2018 Christmas album won’t drop until June 19. But during this live event, he will perform songs from the forthcoming release, including “Bigger Love,” the title track, and “Conversations in the Dark.” Legend will also talk with fans, who can submit questions for him on his social media posts before the stream begins or use the platform’s chat function to pose them in real time. When: 1 p.m.Where: Amazon Live.Virtual Tango FestivalFriday at 2 p.m. on ZoomSocial distancing guidelines may continue to discourage unnecessary physical proximity for some time, but it’s never too soon to start learning tango, a style of partner dance from South America. This year’s festival, which continues through May 25, will offer instruction for individuals and cloistered couples as well as concerts and lectures on the dance form’s history and its relationship to contemporary issues. Events can be booked individually for $12 or in larger packages.When: 2 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., through Monday at 9 p.m.Where: Zoom. Participants can register on the Philadelphia Tango School website.‘Eureka Day’ Charity ReadingFriday at 8 p.m. on Play-PerViewJonathan Spector’s public-health comedy was topical when it was first staged in 2018. The play follows the board members of a progressive private school that doesn’t require its students to be vaccinated as they try to contend with a mumps outbreak. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has made its central themes, especially its focus on the tension between individual freedom and collective responsibility, even more relevant. For this reading, the cast of the 2019 Colt Coeur Off Broadway production will reunite under the direction of Adrienne Campbell-Holt. Tickets start at $5. Proceeds will benefit the No Kid Hungry campaign and Colt Coeur.When: 8 p.m.Where: Play-PerView.Movement at HomeSaturday on FacebookThe history of techno music in Detroit stretches back to the 1980s when the style was first developed in the area by pioneers like Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. Since 2000, the city has regularly hosted an electronic dance music festival over Memorial Day weekend to celebrate the genre’s roots. Movement, its most recent iteration, has been the standard-bearer since 2006. This year’s live event has been postponed until September, but the organizers have put together a three-day digital dance party to share pulsing beats with those who are in need of a little rhythm and movement.When: May 23 through May 25.Where: The Movement website, Facebook page and YouTube channel, and the Beatport and Paxahau Twitch channels.A Virtual Reading of ‘Our Lady of 121st Street’Saturday at 8 p.m. on the LAByrinth Theater Company websiteMany of the online offerings that have cropped up recently try to provide their beleaguered viewers a dose of positivity and optimism. But gallow’s humor can sometimes be more effective at clearing the gloom than its sunnier entertainment counterparts. This play by Stephen Adly Guirgis about a stolen corpse and the dysfunctional mourners who have gathered in its honor definitely tends toward the darker end of the comedic spectrum. Laurence Fishburne, Dierdre Friel and Bobby Cannavale will join eight of the original cast members from the 2003 cast for the free reading.When: 8 p.m.Where: The LAByrinth Theater Company website.Memorial For Us AllSunday at 6 p.m. on InstagramThis Lincoln Center series gives people who have lost someone to the coronavirus a way to join a larger community to honor the deceased, grieve together and begin the healing process. Each Sunday, a new performer lends their talents to the secular remembrance. Kelli O’Hara, the acclaimed actress and singer, will be this installment’s featured talent. She’ll sing several tunes, including Stephen Sondheim’s song “Take Me to the World” from the musical “Evening Primrose,” and Cole Porter’s “So In Love” from “Kiss Me Kate,” which she starred in last year on Broadway. Names of loved ones who have died from the virus can be submitted online to be included in the ceremony.When: 6 p.m. Past ceremonies are available on demand on the Lincoln Center website.Where: The Lincoln Center Instagram page, YouTube channel, Facebook page and website.National Memorial Day ConcertSunday 8 p.m. on YouTubeThis year’s commemoration of American military personnel who have died while serving is bound to be even more poignant than usual. Over the past few months, many civilian workers who were deemed essential have also had to put their lives on the line for their fellow citizens. Christopher Jackson, who originated the role of George Washington in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “Hamilton,” will kick off the tribute with his rendition of the national anthem. Cynthia Erivo, Trace Adkins and Renée Fleming are among the other performers scheduled to appear. And Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise will host.When: 8 p.m. The concert will be available on demand through June 7.Where: The PBS YouTube channel, Facebook page and website.Parade of HeroesMonday at 11 a.m. on FacebookUnder normal circumstances, many of us would gather on Memorial Day for processions that honor the country’s fallen soldiers and ring in the unofficial beginning of summer. These events have been canceled or retooled to comply with social distancing guidelines. This virtual gathering hosted by Kathie Lee Gifford will feature performances the singer-songwriter Tori Kelly, the Lincoln Way Marching Band and Acapop! KIDS, a group of young a cappella performers. LL Cool J, Rob Lowe and Mario Lopez will also participate.When: 11 a.m.Where: The Ancestry Facebook page and YouTube channel.Tap Family ReunionMonday at 5 p.m. on JoyceStreamIn celebration of National Tap Dance Day, the Joyce Theater is streaming selections from “And Still You Must Swing,” a piece by the art form’s pre-eminent practitioner Dormeshia, that was performed at the New York venue in 2019. She performs alongside Derick K. Grant and Jason Samuels Smith, two other tap masters, and Camille A. Brown, a dancer and choreographer known for her explorations of African-American identity. A conversation among Dormeshia, Grant and Smith, moderated by Aaron Mattocks, will be posted at 6 p.m.When: 5 p.m. The stream will be available for 24 hours.Where: JoyceStream.A Tribute to Peggy LeeTuesday at noon on the Grammy Museum websitePeggy Lee, one of the 20th century’s most important influences on jazz and pop music, would have turned 100 on Tuesday, and the Grammy Museum is commemorating the occasion with a look at her life, music and legacy — complete with a birthday toast. Tune in for a previously taped panel discussion with Holly Foster Wells, Lee’s granddaughter; Tish Oney, author of “Peggy Lee: A Century of Song”; and artists who were inspired by Lee, including Billie Eilish, Eric Burton of Black Pumas, and K.D. Lang. There will also be a virtual exhibit with rare artifacts from Lee’s life.When: The panel discussion will stream at noon. The exhibit goes live at 2 p.m.Where: The Grammy Museum website.Virtual Selected Shorts: Choose Your Own RealityWednesday at 7:30 p.m. on YouTubeDuring crises, it can be difficult to sort what is true from what’s false, and what’s real from what’s imagined. In this installment of the Symphony Space series “Selected Shorts,” B.D. Wong, Marin Ireland, D’Arcy Carden and Paul Giamatti will read stories that suggest the nature of reality is tough to pin down even at the best of times. When: 7:30 p.m.Where: The Symphony Space YouTube channel.Maya Salam contributed research and reporting. More

The French director Bruno Dumont returns to the subject of his galvanic 2018 “Jeanette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc” in this not-quite-sequel.While the real-life Joan died at 19, and has often been played in film by actors a lot older, here Dumont recasts Lise Leplat Prudhomme, now not yet 12, to play Joan the warrior and eventual martyr. The movie doesn’t depict any battles, instead presenting simply staged scenes of Joan’s consultations and prayers and pronouncements. While “Jeanette” depicted a young Joan singing and dancing to arty metal-inflected music, in this movie, she stands still while dreamy electronic pop songs, sung by an unseen voice, function as interior monologues.Here and in the earlier picture it’s perhaps easy to apprehend Dumont’s approach with a “What’s this oddball up to now?” smirk. But if Dumont is joking at all, it’s a form of what used to be called “kidding on the square.”[embedded content]In a scene on a sandy knoll, Joan talks with a captain, Gilles de Rais (Julien Manier), who would become a notorious child killer in later years. Dumont makes Gilles her philosophical opponent. His face adorned with boils and pustules, all freshly bleeding, he upbraids Joan for her battlefield address, saying she ought to speak less of the divine and more of looting opportunities for victorious soldiers.“He who says that is the worst of men,” she shoots back. Some of her associates, mildly repulsed by Gilles but sympathetic to his perspective, suggest she appeal a bit to her soldiers’ baser instincts. Her response: “Men are what they are. But we must think of what we can be.”Dumont’s depiction of the French priests who try her is striking. Eager to deliver her to “the secular arm,” so that she can be executed without their taking any responsibility, the men are egotistical, cynical and bombastic in a way that’s contemporary without breaking the particular period spell the movie creates.Speaking of contemporary, one of the priests wears a robe with a cowl that makes him resemble Emperor Palpatine of the “Star Wars” franchise. Once that hood is finally pushed back, some may recognize Christophe, the famed French pop balladeer. He wrote and sang all the movie’s songs in a gravelly, delicate, unsettling falsetto. His performance here combines ominous strength with heartbreaking fragility. As it happens, Christophe died in April, of the emphysema from which he had suffered for some time. He was 74.Joan of ArcNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 17 minutes. Watch on Film at Lincoln Center’s virtual cinema. More

No seasoning wimps need show up in the enviable kitchen of Diana Kennedy, the famed cook and British expat who has devoted most of her life to chronicling and conquering Mexican cuisine. And in Elizabeth Carroll’s debut documentary, “Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy,” a group of eager acolytes try not to flinch beneath her gimlet gaze and salt-seeking palate. Kennedy may be pushing her centenary, but her words are as sharp as her flavor profiles.Having spent six decades traveling far and wide to research Mexico’s regional recipes, Kennedy is still shockingly active. As she cooks and teaches in her solar-powered ranch in the mountains of Michoacán, bouncing to markets along rutted roads in her small truck, her director follows closely and listens to her opine on everything from chiles to having children. Kennedy, tiny and talkative, has a lot of opinions; her director, however, is content to observe and admire.[embedded content]As are the movie’s interviewees, mainly culinary notables like Alice Waters and José Andrés, who pop up now and then to voice their awe. Non-foodie friends or surviving family (Kennedy, a longtime widow, was married to the New York Times journalist Paul P. Kennedy) are notably absent, as is any hint of romantic partners (though Kennedy’s spicy candor opens doors that Carroll disappointingly declines to walk through).What remains is a lively and uncritical portrait of a woman as passionate about composting as chilaquiles, one who will pitch a fit if you put garlic in your guacamole. More curious and combative than the movie around her, Kennedy is as much anthropologist as chef, her deep love for her adopted country palpable.What I wanted, though, was a lot more salt.Diana Kennedy: Nothing FancyNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. Watch on virtual cinemas. More

Any movie containing the line “You need to grab that hacksaw and start on his legs” is already halfway to winning me over, and Philip Barantini’s “Villain” does not disappoint. Populated by men with fists like shovels and faces like bruised fruit, this British crime drama has, for all its grime and gutter maneuvering, an unusual, mournful dignity.For that we can thank Craig Fairbrass, who plays the aging ex-con Eddie Franks with a pained nobility that sets him apart from the motormouthed Cockneys who typically throng movies like this. Emerging from a long stretch, Eddie can’t catch a break. His estranged daughter (a beautifully expressive Izuka Hoyle) wants nothing to do with him, and his useless brother, Sean (George Russo), is running the family pub into the ground while shoving the takings up his nose. Worse, Sean is in debt to a pair of pitiless local gangsters (Robert Glenister and Tomi May) who are disinclined to accept an I.O.U.[embedded content]As straightforward and deliberate as its title — even the punches land with studied force — “Villain” has no side or swerves: just a slow accretion of aggravation as Eddie is nudged irresistibly toward old behaviors. Along the way, though, despondent glimpses of the void between Eddie’s past and a present he struggles to recognize deepen the character and guarantee our sympathy.The result is an exceedingly well-made first feature, a simple genre movie elevated by strong visuals, potent performances and a mood that falls somewhere between resignation and guttering hope. With no small amount of heart, Barantini has taken familiar ingredients and hard-boiled them into a meditation on the improbability of late-life atonement. And the inadvisability of choosing manual over power tools.VillainRated R for snorting, stripping, swearing and hammer time. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. Rent or buy on Amazon, Apple TV, FandangoNOW and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

After her tycoon father dies under frantic, fast-cutting circumstances (so much so that this movie’s opening minutes look like a trailer, or a parody of one), Lauren (Lily Collins) gets the short end of the stick, money wise, and something worse. She’s made the ward of a man, played by Simon Pegg, whom her father has held captive in a bunker on the family’s property for untold years.Collins’s character, an idealistic prosecutor, is the one family member who doesn’t hew to its rapacious, arguably anti-humanist values. But on discovering her dad’s victim, she acts like a hysterical entitled clod.[embedded content]This gains her little in terms of moral standing. But “Inheritance,” directed by Vaughn Stein, insists on maintaining Collins’s heroine status. In part to satisfy its plot twists, but also to connote an especially complacent acceptance of the idea that horrible rich idiots running the world is just the way things are. Ick.Pegg is reported to have lost considerable weight to play his role, and from the neck down he does appear famished; too bad he sports a wig that looks as if it were stolen from the props department of “Yacht Rock.” He tips his hand to the true nature of his character by (spoiler alert?) delivering some dialogue with the flat affect associated with Anthony Hopkins’s most famous film role.This movie aspires to generate the kind of rich-people-you-love-to-hate juice of cable TV series such as “Billions” and “Succession.” Ultimately, “Inheritance” doesn’t even get to the level of “Dynasty.”InheritanceNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes. Rent or buy on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

Bruce Willis was doing his part for video on demand even before the pandemic made it the norm for watching movies. In recent years, he has cultivated a side gig droning through supporting roles in uninspired thrillers that barely surface in theaters. The latest obscurity is “Survive the Night,” a flabby hunk of meat that the director, Matt Eskandari, hasn’t bothered to season.Willis plays a retired sheriff who regards his son, Rich (Chad Michael Murray), as a chronic unassertive loser. Rich, a disgraced doctor facing bankruptcy, has taken a job at a countryside clinic and moved with his wife (Lydia Hull) and daughter (Riley Wolfe Rach) to his parents’ farm.[embedded content]Rich has hardly settled in when two criminal brothers — Jamie (Shea Buckner), a violent hothead, and Matthias (Tyler Jon Olson), the slightly more humane of the pair — trail him from the clinic. Holding the household hostage, the brothers demand that Rich repair Matthias’s leg, badly bleeding after Jamie impulsively held up a gas station.It’s possible to imagine a tight, suspenseful version of this home invasion chestnut, but “Survive the Night” is paced to run out the clock. Matthias warns Jamie not to kill people, then warns him again. Medical urgency fails to preclude brother-brother and father-son outpourings that only slow things down. And as bored as Willis has looked in recent movies, you can’t expect him to muster interest in a line like “I’ve been with scum like you my whole life. You’re all the same.”Survive the NightRated R. Shooting and suturing. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. Rent or buy on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More