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      Stream These 13 Movies Before They Leave Netflix This Month

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      The end of the year brings the end of many licensing agreements for streaming services, so load up your queues now.The end of the year brings the end of many licensing agreements for streaming services, and this month is no exception. We’ll see the departure of a mix of Oscar winners, comedy franchises, indie dramas and action extravaganzas from Netflix in the U.S. So load up your queues now, lest you miss your last chance at these gems. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)‘Fast Color’ (Dec. 10)The ubiquity and (especially as of late) mediocrity of the mainstream superhero movie is particularly galling when reflecting on the commercial indifference with which Julia Hart’s superhero story was received in 2018. Then again, Hart’s wise and wonderful screenplay (co-written with her husband, Jordan Horowitz, who also produces) doesn’t simply deploy the familiar beats and conflicts; this is a character-driven indie drama that just so happens to concern characters with superhuman powers, and that grapples with the real-world implications of their abilities. Lorraine Toussaint is mighty as the patriarch of the family at the story’s center; Gugu Mbatha-Raw is quietly excellent as her troubled daughter.Stream it here.‘The Danish Girl’ (Dec. 15)Tom Hooper’s adaptation of the novel by David Ebershoff was unsurprisingly controversial upon its 2015 release, dealing, as it does, with the true story of the Danish painter Lili Elbe, one of the first people known to have undergone sexual reassignment surgery. But Hooper’s adaptation was criticized for its historical inaccuracies and approach to the material, as well as for centering the narrative on Gerda Wegener, Elbe’s cisgender partner. Those claims are valid, but the film is still worth seeing, primarily for the achievements of its actors. Eddie Redmayne resists the urge to overplay as Elbe, while Alicia Vikander is extraordinary as Wegener; she won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for the role and deserved it.Stream it here.‘A Little Princess’ (Dec. 31)When the director Alfonso Cuarón landed the high-profile assignment of taking over the “Harry Potter” film franchise for its third entry, “The Prisoner of Azkaban,” eyebrows raised across Hollywood — after all, at that point he was best known for helming the NC-17 erotic road trip drama “Y Tu Mamá También.” But the “Potter” gig made complete sense to those who’d seen his 1995 adaptation of this classic children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Taking understandable liberties with the source material, he weaves a tapestry of magic and pathos out of the story of Sara Crewe, who finds her life of privilege turned upside down when her father sends her to a girls’ boarding school.Stream it here.‘Blood Diamond’ (Dec. 31)Quick quiz: Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for the Oscar for best actor for “The Departed” (2006), right? Wrong. He was nominated that year, but it was for a different film: Edward Zwick’s sharp-edged action-drama, set during the Sierra Leone Civil War, starring DiCaprio as a smuggler and mercenary whose initial interest in the conflict is purely monetary. That changes, however, as he joins forces with a fisherman (Djimon Hounsou, also nominated for an Oscar) whose discovery of a giant diamond has put him in the sights of a local warlord. The narrative is predictable, sure. But DiCaprio, Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly, another co-star, are acting up a storm, and Zwick shows his usual adeptness at staging big action sequences.Stream it here.‘Blow’ (Dec. 31)It would be easy to dismiss this 2001 crime drama as “Goodfellas” Lite — it’s based on the true story of a cocaine kingpin, telling the thrilling story of his rise and fall in a jittery, hyperkinetic style, and features a stellar ensemble cast. But as Scorsese cosplay goes, it’s lively and entertaining. The director, the late Ted Demme (“The Ref”), knows when to turn up the heat and when to let it simmer; the screenplay (by the veteran scribes David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes) is detail-oriented and fascinating; and Johnny Depp turns in one of his best performances as George Jung, who made a fortune running drugs for Pablo Escobar. Ray Liotta even turns up as George’s father, an explicit “Goodfellas” shout-out that plays like a blessing on the project.Stream it here.‘Blue Jasmine’ (Dec. 31)Woody Allen’s last great movie, this 2013 comedy-drama won Cate Blanchett an Oscar for best actress, and Andrew Dice Clay the best reviews of his career as a bitter and estranged family member. Blanchett stars as Jasmine, once a rich socialite in New York City, whose husband (Alec Baldwin) fell from grace in a Bernie Madoff-style scandal; she finds herself living in San Francisco with her sister (the wonderful Sally Hawkins) and her working-class boyfriend (Bobby Cannavale, borderline feral). The echoes of “A Streetcar Named Desire” are unmistakable, and undoubtedly intentional; as he did with his Ingmar Bergman riffs, Allen is not just quoting an iconic work but putting his story and characters in conversation with it, and the results are both thoughtful and thrilling.Stream it here.‘Eyes Wide Shut’ (Dec. 31)True to form, Stanley Kubrick’s final film — unveiled four months after his death in 1999 — confounded audiences and critics upon its release, only to grow in reputation and estimation in the ensuing years. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, then still real-life spouses, star as a wealthy Manhattan couple who find their seemingly idyllic marriage rocked by her confessions of desire for a passing stranger. Blind with jealousy, he journeys into the New York night, searching for an illicit affair but stumbling upon something far more insidious. Moody, odd and darkly funny, it boasts one of the greatest closing lines in all of cinema.Stream it here.‘Men in Black’ I / II / 3 (Dec. 31)Barry Sonnenfeld’s original 1997 “Men in Black” remains one of the great popcorn movies — a witty, briskly-paced treat that manages to both send up big-budget, effects-heavy extravaganzas, and simultaneously work as one. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are a pitch-perfect matchup of wisecracking cool and stone-faced professionalism, an oddball buddy movie pairing for the books. Their 2002 follow-up can’t match the laughs or energy of the original, but it’s still a hoot, with Rosario Dawson a welcome addition to the cast. And the final installment, released a decade later, draws on a time-travel plot that primarily serves as a showcase for Josh Brolin’s flawless impression of his “No Country For Old Men” co-star Jones. But it’s such a delicious piece of mimicry, you don’t really mind.Stream “Men in Black” here, “Men in Black II” here and “Men in Black 3” here.‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ / ‘European Vacation’ (Dec. 31)Chevy Chase was floundering badly in the movies — his early films, after leaving “Saturday Night Live” only one year into its run, included such undistinguished efforts as “Modern Problems,” “Under the Rainbow” and “Oh! Heavenly Dog” — when he finally landed his ideal film role. Working from a screenplay by the up-and-coming screenwriter John Hughes (with uncredited contributions by Chase and the director Harold Ramis), the actor was terrific as Clark Griswold, a Chicago suburb-dweller who only wants the perfect cross-country vacation for himself and his family. The film was so successful that Chase (and co-star Beverly D’Angelo) came back three years later to escort his brood across Europe, with similarly silly results.Stream “Vacation” here and “European Vacation” here.‘Point Break’ (Dec. 31)Kathryn Bigelow was still an all-but-unknown genre filmmaker, and Keanu Reeves was still best known for playing Ted in the “Bill & Ted” movies, when they teamed up with Patrick Swayze — then hot off his starring role in the surprise hit “Ghost” — for this tense action drama. The screenplay by W. Peter Iliff (with uncredited rewrites by Bigelow and her then-husband, James Cameron) wasn’t the freshest of stuff, even in 1991: an FBI agent (Reeves) goes undercover in a group of surfer bank robbers and finds himself in too deep with the group’s charismatic leader (Swayze). But Bigelow’s energetic direction keeps things moving at such a hearty clip, the familiarity barely matters; her action beats are furiously paced, her female gaze gives welcome dimension to the testosterone-heavy proceedings and the central dynamic is wonderfully thorny.Stream it here.ALSO LEAVING: “A Clockwork Orange,” “Casino Royale,” “Chocolat,” “I Love You, Man,” “Police Academy,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (all Dec. 31). More

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      Stephen Colbert Is Conflicted Over Oath Keepers Leader’s Conviction

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      Colbert said he felt “pretty darn good” about Stewart Rhodes’s verdict: “and I feel a little bad about that, because the thing I feel great about is somebody else going to prison.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Lock Him Up!A jury convicted the Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes of seditious conspiracy on Tuesday, for his participation in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday night that he was conflicted about feeling “pretty darn good” about the news, adding “and I feel a little bad about that, because the thing I feel great about is somebody else going to prison.”“Rhodes was also found guilty of other bad stuff, which is why he is now facing a maximum of 60 years in prison. That’s a long time, baby. That’s a long stretch. On the bright side, by 2082, the hip new look might be steampunk cowboy pirate.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Now, when you hear the name ‘Oath Keepers,’ you know, and that eye patch, it makes Rhodes sort of seem like a heroic freedom rebel. In reality, he’s a disbarred Yale law grad who wears an eye patch after accidentally shooting himself in the face with his own gun. Oops-a-karma!” — STEPHEN COLBERT“It’s embarrassing, is what it is. That’s like finding out Rambo wears that headband to cover up his ‘live, laugh, love’ tattoo.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“This conviction, make no mistake, is a huge deal. It marks the very first time that a jury has decided that the Jan. 6 violence was the product of an organized conspiracy. Well, yeah! I watched it — it sure seemed organized. I don’t remember any headlines that said, ‘Capitol Meet-Cute Gets Out of Hand.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Rhodes is such a scumbag, even his estranged wife chimed in, saying that the conviction is the first time Rhodes has ever faced consequences. Damn! Damn! That is what you call ‘winning the breakup.’” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (It’s Lit Edition)“December is minutes away from happening, and they got the holidays started in our nation’s capitol tonight. The president and first lady took part in the 100th lighting of the National Christmas Tree. Tonight, thousands of Americans gathered outside the White House to watch an old man flip a light switch.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“The tree, it’s 27 feet tall. They did not chop it down. It is a live white fir tree, it was planted last October, after the previous National Christmas Tree was removed in May of 2021 because it had a fungal disease — the second time that year that a fungus had to be removed from the White House.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingOn Wednesday’s “Tonight Show,” Dolly Parton addressed rumors of a secret unreleased song not be released until 2045.What We’re Excited About on Thursday Night“Stranger Things” star Dave Harbour will talk about his new film, “Violent Night,” on Thursday’s “Late Late Show.”Also, Check This OutChristine McVie of Fleetwood Mac performing at Madison Square Garden in 2014.Charles Sykes/Invision, via Associated PressHere’s a playlist of the 12 best, and best-remembered, songs of Christine McVie, the Fleetwood Mac singer, songwriter and keyboardist who died on Wednesday at 79. More

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      Judge Declares Mistrial in Danny Masterson Rape Case

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      A jury in Los Angeles said it was deadlocked on the three charges against the actor known for his role in “That ’70s Show.”A judge on Wednesday declared a mistrial in the rape case against Danny Masterson after a jury said it was deadlocked on charges that the actor raped three women at his home in the Hollywood Hills in the early 2000s, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.Known for his roles in the sitcom “That ’70s Show” and the Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” Masterson, 46, was fired in 2017 amid sexual assault allegations.The jury could not reach a decision on the three charges of forcible rape that the actor faces in Los Angeles County Superior Court. If convicted, Masterson could face 45 years to life in prison.Opening arguments in the case began on Oct. 18. Deliberations began on Nov. 15 and reached a deadlock three days later, jurors told the judge, who instructed the jury to continue deliberating after a weeklong break for Thanksgiving. When the court met again on Monday, two jurors with Covid-19 were dismissed and replaced with two alternates, resetting the deliberations, The Associated Press reported.The district attorney’s office said in a statement on Wednesday that “we will now consider our next steps as it relates to prosecuting this case.”“While we are disappointed with the outcome in this trial, we thank the jurors for their service,” the statement said. “We also want to give our heartfelt appreciation to the victims for bravely stepping forward and recounting their harrowing experiences.”Masterson’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Masterson’s case involved accusations by two of the women that the Church of Scientology, to which they and Masterson belonged, discouraged them from reporting the rapes to law enforcement. The church strongly denied that it pressures victims.Philip Cohen, who represented Masterson in the trial, had sought to limit discussion of Scientology in court, telling the judge in October that it would unfairly bias the jury and force the defense to fight a “war on two fronts,” The Los Angeles Times reported.But the judge, Charlaine F. Olmedo, found that Scientology was relevant to the case, and that the women could testify about their belief that church policy discouraged them from reporting the accusations to law enforcement, The Times reported.According to a trial brief filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Masterson raped a woman, identified only as Jen B., in April 2003 after she went to his house to pick up keys and he gave her a red vodka drink. About 20 or 30 minutes later, she felt “very disoriented,” the brief states.According to the brief, Masterson raped her after she regained consciousness on his bed. She reached for his hair to try to pull him off and tried to push a pillow into his face, it states. When Masterson heard a man yelling in the house, he pulled a gun from his night stand and told her not to move or “say anything,” adding expletives, the document states.The trial brief says that Masterson raped a second woman, identified only as Christina B., who had been in a relationship with him and had lived with him for six years.In November 2001, the document says, she awoke to Masterson “having sex with her” and told him to stop. “I fought back,” she said, according to the document. “I tried pushing him off me and saying, ‘No, I don’t want to have sex with you.’” She also pulled his hair, and he hit her, the document states.In December 2001, she had one or two glasses of wine at a restaurant with Masterson and woke up naked in her bed the next morning, feeling that it hurt to sit down or go to the bathroom, the brief states. She said she went downstairs and confronted Masterson, and he acknowledged having sex with her while she was unconscious, the document states.The brief says that Masterson raped a third woman, identified only as N. Trout, who occasionally saw him at parties and gatherings and, like him, was in the Celebrity Centre branch of Scientology.Sometime between October and December of 2003, she went to his house, where he handed her a glass of wine and told her to take off her clothes and get in his hot tub, where “everything started becoming blank,” the brief states. He assaulted her in the shower and on a bed, the document states. She told him, “No, I don’t want to do this,” according to the document.Two of the women spoke to officials in the Church of Scientology about the assaults, according to the brief.Jen B., after seeking the church’s permission, verbally and in writing, to report the rape, received a written response from the church’s international chief justice that cited a 1965 policy letter regarding “suppressive acts,” the brief states.To her, the response signaled that if she were to report a fellow Scientologist to the police, “I would be declared a suppressive person, and I would be out of my family and friends and everything I have,” the brief states. Still, she reported the rape to law enforcement in June 2004, the document states.The woman identified as Christina B. said that when she reported the rape to the church’s “ethics officer” or “master at arms,” the officer told her, “You can’t rape someone that you’re in a relationship with” and “Don’t say that word again,” the document states.The officer showed her “policies and things in the Ethics Book about high crimes in Scientology.” One of them was “reporting another Scientologist to law enforcement,” she said, according to the brief.She understood that, if she went to the police, “the church would have ultimately destroyed” her and declared her a “suppressive person,” the document states.The woman identified as N. Trout told her mother and best friend about the rape, but not the church, the brief states.“If you have a legal situation with another member of the church, you may not handle it externally from the church, and it’s very explicit,” she said, according to the brief. She added that she “felt sufficiently intimidated by the repercussions.”In an in an emailed statement on Oct. 21, the church accused prosecutors of injecting Scientology into the trial and misrepresenting its doctrines and beliefs “to stir up passion and prejudice in the uninformed.”“The church does not discourage anyone from reporting any alleged crime nor tell anyone not to report any alleged criminal conduct,” it said in the statement. “The church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of Scientologists, or of anyone, to law enforcement. Quite the opposite. Church policy explicitly demands Scientologists abide by all laws of the land.” More

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      Jimmy Kimmel: Trump’s ‘Not a Racist — He Just Eats With Them’

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      Kimmel poked fun at Mike Pence asking Donald Trump to apologize for a recent dinner, saying, “He hasn’t even apologized for trying to kill you.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Dinner With SchmucksOn Tuesday, Jimmy Kimmel reported that “several prominent Republicans have distanced themselves from” Donald Trump’s “dinner with schmucks,” including former Vice President Mike Pence.“Even Mike Pence took some time during the world’s saddest book tour to weigh in on that ill-advised meal with the K-K-Ye,” Kimmel said, referring to Pence’s Monday night interview with NewsNation’s Leland Vittert. (Pence said that he believed Donald Trump should apologize for having dinner with a white nationalist, but that he doesn’t believe Trump is an antisemite or a racist.)“No, he’s not a racist — he just eats with them.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“I love Mike Pence telling Donald Trump to apologize. Donald Trump hasn’t even apologized for trying to kill you, you think he’s going to apologize for this?” — JIMMY KIMMEL“[Imitating Mike Pence] He can’t be a racist! He also wanted to kill me, a person lacking all color! I’m a manila envelope taped to a beige wall.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Pence wasn’t the only Republican trying to distance himself from the former president. Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy tweeted, ‘The former president hosting racist antisemites for dinner encourages other racist antisemites. These attitudes are immoral and should not be entertained. This is not the Republican Party.’ Counterpoint: Yes, it is.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (Another Round Edition)“Today, the U.S. beat Iran 1-0 to advance to the next round of the World Cup. Yes! U.S.A.! I just hope this doesn’t ruin our incredible friendship with Iran.” — JIMMY FALLON“When asked how they beat Iran, the U.S. coach said, ‘We found their secret game plan in a box at Mar-a-Lago.” — JIMMY FALLON“This is a weird one to root for because, you know, you’d think the U.S. versus Iran would be like Rocky versus Drago. But there’s a revolution going on right now in Iran led by women and young people who are speaking out against the vicious regime that runs that country, and the players for Iran have shown a lot of courage in this tournament. They even refused to sing their national anthem, which resulted in the Iranian government threatening to torture their families, so they weren’t exactly villains. It’s like finding out the shark in ‘Jaws’ is an endangered species — you don’t know who to root for.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Americans haven’t been this fired up about soccer since we remembered it existed last week.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingPam Grier talked with Trevor Noah about her new podcast, “The Plot Thickens,” on Tuesday’s “Daily Show.”What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightDolly Parton will promote her new holiday special on Wednesday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutBilal Baig is a creator and star of “Sort Of,” a comedy that suggests that almost everyone is in transition in one way or another.Yael Malka for The New York Times“Sort Of” star Bilal Baig returns for a second season of their HBO Max series on Dec. 1. More

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      A Thanksgiving Binge Menu: 7 Fall Shows You Might Have Slept On

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      If your holiday plans don’t include passing out in front of a football game.My childhood Thanksgivings involved television in a very specific sense: After the big meal, all the men in the family would retire to the living room and promptly fall asleep in front of a football game.The ratings for the National Football League being what they are, there are clearly still plenty of people who will spend Thursday with the Lions and Vikings and Bills, oh my, whether conscious or not. But if your taste in entertainment runs toward something less concussive, you could use those free hours to catch up on shows you missed during the frantic fall months. Here is a holiday menu of recent series worth discovering or returning to.‘Entrapped’The single season of the Icelandic crime drama “Entrapped” that you’ll find on Netflix is actually the third season of a series better known as “Trapped,” created by the filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur; the first two installments, from 2016 and 2019, are available from Amazon Prime Video. But “Entrapped,” whose story begins in a clash between a biker gang and an Icelandic religious sect, can be enjoyed on its own. The mystery is free-standing, and in any case the series has always been less about the particulars of murder than about the cranky, dour nobility of Andri, the cop played with exquisite stolidity by Olafur Darri Olafsson. (Streaming on Netflix.)‘Little Demon’The creators of this animated coming-of-age comedy on FXX — Darcy Fowler, Seth Kirschner and Kieran Valla — are all actors as well as writers, and that shows in the believability of the characters who populate its casually raunchy, hex-positive universe. Chrissy (Lucy DeVito) is the angry, alienated teenage daughter of a single mom, Laura (Aubrey Plaza); the twist is that her family is broken because her dad (Lucy DeVito’s real-life father, Danny) is literally Satan. The show was a little unfocused and ordinary at first, but around the middle of its 10-episode season, it morphed into a tough and genuinely touching family saga that just happened to involve a lot of interdimensional sex and liquefying of souls. (Streaming on Hulu.)“Pantheon” is a somewhat “Matrix”-like story about uploading human consciousness to the cloud.Titmouse Inc/AMC‘Pantheon’Based on short stories by the rising science fiction star Ken Liu, “Pantheon” is a story about the consequences of uploading human consciousness to the cloud that has a family resemblance to “The Matrix.” But its effectiveness comes from its modesty and seriousness of purpose — the way it stays close to the earth while imagining limitless digital worlds. (It’s also a corporate-conspiracy thriller in which the corporation isn’t always the worst actor on the stage.) The investigations and battles in this animated drama on AMC+ take place mostly in virtual-reality landscapes while the non-virtual characters — including a feisty, heroic teenager (Katie Chang) and her sometime ally, a preternaturally gifted hacker (Paul Dano) — pace around their living rooms wearing headsets. There’s still time to binge the eight episodes of the first season before the second and final season arrives next year. (Streaming on AMC+ and Amazon Prime Video.)‘The Serpent Queen’Starz has always made room for costume dramas that are as much about shedding costumes as they are about fidelity to any recorded history. (See “Spartacus,” “The White Princess,” “The Spanish Princess,” “Black Sails,” “Outlander,” et al.) “The Serpent Queen,” starring Samantha Morton as Catherine de Medici, is in this tradition; it’s a rock ’n’ roll historical drama that puts period dress on characters who move and talk with thoroughly modern sensibilities (sometimes straight into the camera), and matches a 16th-century look with a contemporary pop sound. And it manages to not only avoid being outright irritating, but to be surprisingly entertaining, largely because of Morton’s shrewd, steely performance as the overachieving Catherine. Already the queen of France in the show’s present, she schemes and politicks while recounting her colorful history to a servant girl she takes on as her personal maid (Sennia Nanua). (Streaming on Starz.)Charlie Hunnam, left, and Shubham Saraf in a scene from “Shantaram,” based on the autobiographical novel from Gregory David Roberts. Roland Neveu/Apple TV+‘Shantaram’In his first TV series since his seven-season run on “Sons of Anarchy,” Charlie Hunnam plays an escaped Australian convict who lands in 1980s Bombay — a few steps ahead of the police, embroiled with local criminals and bewitched by a mysterious Swiss beauty (Antonia Desplat). Based on an autobiographical novel by Gregory David Roberts, this Apple TV+ series presents the familiar elements of bohemian adventure and peril in warm climates with style and some genuine tension. (Streaming on Apple TV+.)‘The Simpsons’Is there life after 30? There is for “The Simpsons,” which has felt rejuvenated in its 34th year on Fox. The episode that has received all the attention is “Lisa the Boy Scout” from Oct. 9, a hugely enjoyable exercise in metafoolery. But the season has been sharp week in and week out. “The King of Nice,” in which Krusty the Clown reinvents himself as a cuddly, dancing daytime talk show host — and Marge discovers her true calling as his producer — is a tightly assembled, perfectly pitched satire; “From Beer to Paternity,” in which Homer and Lisa go on a road trip with Duffman to help repair his relationship with his daughter, is unexpectedly moving. High hopes for Sunday’s episode, the season’s ninth, which bears the promising title “When Nelson Met Lisa.” (Streaming on Hulu.)A scene from the Netflix reboot of “Unsolved Mysteries.”Netflix‘Unsolved Mysteries’When Netflix and the “Stranger Things” executive producer Shawn Levy rebooted this venerable true-crime series in 2020, they classed it up, giving it an overhaul that moved it in a more documentary direction — a deliberate pace, a calm demeanor, no reliance on narration. (Robert Stack, the show’s longtime host, is a shadowy presence in the opening credits.) You suspect that someone involved is a big fan of Errol Morris; the investigations may not be any more thorough or balanced than those in lower-rent cable shows, but there’s an elegance to the presentation that sucks you in. The third season, which has grown to nine episodes, continues the practice of mixing in the occasional U.F.O. sighting among the steady diet of unsolved deaths. (Streaming on Netflix.) More

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      Late Night Ponders Trump’s Dinner With Kanye and a White Supremacist

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      “I can’t imagine having dinner with someone so disgusting,” Stephen Colbert said. “And you have no idea which of those three guys I’m talking about.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Three’s CompanyKanye West visited Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last week, bringing along a white supremacist and Holocaust denier, Nick Fuentes.“I can’t imagine having dinner with someone so disgusting,” Stephen Colbert said on Monday. “And you have no idea which of those three guys I’m talking about.”“You know it’s a bad sign when Kanye West is only the third most controversial person at your dinner table.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Now, just in case ‘Holocaust denier’ doesn’t get the point across, Fuentes is not a good guy. He has spread antisemitic conspiracies, he is considered a white supremacist by the Anti-Defamation League, attended the Unite the Right in Charlottesville in 2017 and the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6. That is the alt-right EGOT, as in, EGOT zero hugs as a child.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“When news got out about this Nick Fuentes guy and the ex-president started getting a lot of criticism, he put out a statement saying, ‘Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about.’ OK, not sure ‘I was only scheduled to have dinner with one famous antisemite’ is the defense he thinks it is.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Just to recap, Kanye West went to Mar-a-Lago to have dinner with Donald Trump, which sounds like the beginning of a joke. And as his plus one, he brought a well-known white supremacist/Holocaust denier, and Trump claims he didn’t know about that. And if he didn’t know, which is worse: Having the guy over for dinner or having no idea you’re letting a racist random into a house that was, until very recently, full of unguarded top secret documents?” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Tasting Menu Edition)“This dinner was a multicourse tasting menu of crazy, but we don’t know exactly what happened, because it’s become a real ‘he said, Ye said.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“For instance, Kanye plans to run for president again, and after the meal, he claimed, ‘I think the thing that the ex-president was most perturbed about, me asking him to be my vice president.’ What?” — STEPHEN COLBERT“This will make him nuts. We even made a bumper sticker that I think he’ll like. It says ‘YeTrump.’ Someone print these up.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“He has no problem hosting a guy who wants to go ‘Defcon 3 on the Jews’ or the Holocaust denier that he brought to dinner with him, who he got along with. But if you ever suggest he should be Number Two on someone’s ticket, Trump would be like, ‘You disgust me, sir.’” — TREVOR NOAHThe Bits Worth WatchingThe “Emancipation” star Will Smith told Trevor Noah how he’s been spending his time since the infamous Oscars incident.What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightKate Berlant will appear on Tuesday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This OutWhile sorting through the boxes of his mother’s belongings, Anderson Cooper found himself unsure of what to do with all the strong feelings. So he started documenting them.Sinna Nasseri for The New York TimesAnderson Cooper’s new podcast “All There Is” digs into his own family traumas, as well as those of others. More

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      Mo Brings Plenty Was About to Quit Acting. Then Came ‘Yellowstone.’

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      The actor wasn’t satisfied with the Native representation he saw onscreen. Now he’s helping TV’s biggest drama get it right.In a scene from Season 3 of the hit neo-Western series “Yellowstone,” Mo, the steady right hand and loyal fixer of the Native American power broker Thomas Rainwater, lights some sage and lets the smoke waft through Rainwater’s office. They’re about to meet with Angela Blue Thunder (Q’orianka Kilcher), a hard-charging Native lawyer with a take-no-prisoners attitude toward going after the Montana ranch land owned by John Dutton (Kevin Costner).Angela contemptuously douses the sage with water, but Mo — played by the actor Mo Brings Plenty — with a “who is this person?” look on his face, relights it after she leaves, allowing his boss to breathe in some of its healing powers. The moment contains both seriousness and subtle humor.“In our culture, we use these items to cleanse the space and protect the mind,” Brings Plenty said in a recent video interview from Fort Worth, Texas, where “Yellowstone,” on Paramount Network, had its Season 5 premiere screening this month. “But burning sage and sweet grass has become a fad and has been culturally misappropriated,” he added, and those substances “are sacred to us.” For Brings Plenty, getting these details right is crucial.“On and off the set, Mo really tries to be a bridge connecting Indigenous people with our industry in film,” said Kilcher, who is of Indigenous South American heritage. “It’s amazing to see all the good work that he’s doing.”In a series that takes great care with its Native American characters and story lines, Brings Plenty keeps it as real as anyone. Onscreen he exudes a quiet strength, even when his character is executing some of the show’s frequently unsavory business. Offscreen he’s an adviser and a trusted confidante of the “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan and his creative team. He even wrangles horses.Playing a character who started off as Rainwater’s nameless driver, Brings Plenty has gradually become a regular presence, especially in episodes that involve Native rituals. At the end of Season 4, he conducts a hanbleceya, a sort of vision quest, for Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes), a white character married to a Native American woman, Monica (Kelsey Asbille). In a moving scene from the most recent episode, which aired on Sunday, he oversees a burial ritual for the son that died at birth after Monica was in a car accident.From left, Gil Birmingham, Brings Plenty and Luke Grimes in Season 5.Paramount NetworkThat last sequence hit home for Brings Plenty, whose mother lost three infant sons when he was a child. “It was a powerful moment, and very real for me,” he said.Brings Plenty, 53, was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation, in South Dakota — though his mother is from the Cheyenne River Reservation and he has relatives on the Rosebud Reservation, also both in South Dakota.“I spent time on all three reservations, so I always say I grew up in the Lakota Nation,” he said.His interest in acting dates back to the days when he would ask children on the reservation why they didn’t have more pride in their identity. The most common answer? They never saw themselves on TV.“So I thought, ‘How do I change that?’” he said. “Because I wasn’t on TV either.”He added: “The misrepresentation of us has been occurring for so long.” He saw an opportunity to be the change he wanted to see.He started in theater, worked his way into stunt riding (“I knew I could fall off a horse and take it”), then began landing supporting roles in film and television (“Hell on Wheels,” “The Revenant”).But just a few years ago, he was ready to pack it in and return to his ranch in Kansas. Appreciative of his opportunities, he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the Native representation he saw onscreen. He felt discouraged. He and his family agreed that he would wait until the end of the year to make a decision. That’s when “Yellowstone” came calling.Gil Birmingham, who plays Thomas Rainwater and has been friends with Brings Plenty for several years, likes to tell the story of how the character Mo got his name on the show. Sheridan had not given the character a name — he was just Rainwater’s driver — and during one of the many scenes between Birmingham and Brings Plenty, Birmingham called his old friend by his real name: “Mo”(short for Moses).“So Taylor decided that he was going to use that name for the character as well,” Birmingham said in a phone interview. “When Mo is out and about, it’s pretty funny because people tend to call you by your character name, and it happens to be his real name. There’s no distinction there for fans.”When fans do recognize Brings Plenty in public, it’s often because of his braids, which hang below his waist. As with most matters in Mo’s world, the braids carry cultural significance.“We wear two braids as men to honor the gifts of the women,” he said.“One strand” of each braid “represents the higher power,” he continued. “The second strand represents the Earth, which is also a physical being. The third strand represents our spirit. It’s a reminder that if we can live with that balance of all things, and we bring them all together, it makes a braid that is strong.”For Sheridan, Brings Plenty’s overriding quality is truthfulness.“There is a real honesty to Mo’s acting — a comfortable vulnerability,” Sheridan said in an email. “One of the great things about long-form storytelling is that it allows me to react to actors who really shine. Mo began as a co-star on the show, and now he is a series regular. That is how much his portrayal leapt from the screen.”“Mo brings a great stability and a great loyalty, and you just have a sense that you’re being protected and you’re safe with Mo around,” Birmingham says of Brings Plenty’s character. Barrett Emke for The New York TimesThe dynamics among the Native American characters on the broadly drawn “Yellowstone” are probably the show’s most nuanced. Thomas Rainwater, the most prominent Native character, did not grow up on the reservation; he is a suit-and-tie-wearing graduate of Harvard Business School who applies his knowledge to his duties as chairman of the Confederated Tribes of Broken Rock. Mo did grow up on the reservation; one could argue that he operates closer to the culture than his boss. Angela Blue Thunder is also from the reservation, and she has scores to settle with the Dutton family.They all have one thing in common: They want the land that they see as rightfully theirs — and that the Duttons fiercely protect as their own.“Mo brings a great cultural anchoring, and a perspective that tries to balance out the kind of world that Thomas Rainwater is operating in — that is, a system of laws and paradigms that aren’t familiar for, or operated by, the Native people,” Birmingham said of Brings Plenty’s character. “Mo brings a great stability and a great loyalty, and you just have a sense that you’re being protected and you’re safe with Mo around.”These are heady times for Native American representation on television, with a great quantity and range of characters and stories. “Dark Winds,” on AMC +, follows two Navajo policemen investigating a mysterious double murder. ABC’s “Alaska Daily,” about the doings of a scrappy Anchorage newspaper, shines a light on the crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women, a subject also featured on “Yellowstone” and in Sheridan’s 2017 film “Wind River” (its cast includes Birmingham and Asbille of “Yellowstone”). Hulu’s “Reservation Dogs,” a droll comedy about four teenagers growing up on an Oklahoma reservation, won a prestigious Peabody Award.“‘Yellowstone’ was the catalyst to make room, to give space and inspiration for others to get involved with Native stories and give Native people opportunities,” Brings Plenty said. “We’ve often been left behind, but the way I see it and understand it, Taylor Sheridan said: ‘Come on, let’s go. That’s enough of you guys being back there. Let’s bring you up to the forefront.’”Sheridan says it’s a matter of accuracy.“One cannot accurately tell the story of the West without telling the story of the original inhabitants of the region,” he said. “Sure, ‘Yellowstone’ is highly dramatized, but the story lines are all rooted in truth. To ignore the impact of our settlement on Native people is to tell half the story. And the Native American half has been habitually ignored by the entertainment industry. We don’t ignore it. We look right at it.”For Brings Plenty, it’s all about honoring his culture and his ancestors — not just other Lakota, but all Native Americans.“My grandparents, they always said: ‘Speak Indian. Dance Indian. Sing Indian,’” he said. “They never said, ‘Speak Lakota’ — everything was Indian. So we try to remember those teachings and pass them on.” More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Love Actually’ 20-Year Reunion and ‘Barmageddon’

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      The stars of the beloved holiday movie reflect with Diane Sawyer, and USA airs a preview of Blake Shelton’s new celebrity game show.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Nov. 28-Dec. 4. Details and times are subject to change.MondaySOUTHERN HOSPITALITY 9 p.m. on Bravo. The Bravo-celebrity and business owner Leva Bonaparte is starring in this new reality show, which is a spinoff of “Southern Charm.” In this series, cameras follow Bonaparte and her staff as they run the Charleston, S.C., restaurant Republic Garden & Lounge. Fights, drama and hookups are sure to be on the menu.BARMAGEDDON 11 p.m. on USA. Drinking games like keg curling, beer pong and flip cup are not just for college house parties anymore. Blake Shelton and Carson Daly are bringing the fun to Shelton’s Nashville bar, Ole Red, to compete in drinking-related challenges, with the professional wrestler Nikki Bella in tow as host. This week, there is a special preview of the show before the full season starts on Dec. 5. Guests include Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow and Jay Pharoah.TuesdayTHE LAUGHTER & SECRETS OF LOVE ACTUALLY: 20 YEARS LATER 8 p.m. on ABC. It might be hard to believe that its been nearly 20 years since we first experienced the “to me, you are perfect” sign, Hugh Grant as a prime minister dancing to “Jump (For My Love),” and Emma Thompson opening a Joni Mitchell CD instead of the necklace she thought she was getting. Diane Sawyer is sitting down with Grant, Thompson and others to discuss the beloved 2003 holiday movie, including what was going on behind the scenes (one not-so-fun fact: Grant did not want to do that famous dance sequence).The cast of “Ranked” as seen in HBO’s “My So-Called High School Rank.”HBOMY SO-CALLED HIGH SCHOOL RANK 9 p.m. on HBO. This new documentary is kind of like “High School Musical” — but real life. The story follows students at Granite Bay High School, near Sacramento, Calif., as they put on a production of their musical “Ranked,” which focuses on the difficult process of college applications. After the production, high schools around the country including Fordham High School for the Arts in New York City and Ripley High School in West Virginia reach out to Granite Bay see if they can put on their own production of the show.WednesdayCHRISTMAS IN ROCKEFELLER CENTER 8 p.m. on NBC. The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, which stands 82-feet tall this year, is making its New York City debut with a ceremonial tree lighting and a range of celebrity guests. Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani will be performing a duet of their song “You Make It Feel Like Christmas”; and Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Andrea Bocelli and the Radio City Rockettes will be in attendance — to name just a few.SECRETS OF THE DEAD: ABANDONING THE TITANIC 8 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The details around the sinking of the Titanic are by no means unknown at this point, but this documentary investigates a question about a lesser-known detail: Who was the captain of the ship that was seen within view of the passenger liner as it sunk? Shortly after the maritime disaster, the SS Californian and its captain, Stanley Lord, were accused of abandoning the Titanic but were later exonerated — so who exactly was out there?LOVE WITHOUT BORDERS 9 p.m. on Bravo. Social experiments turned reality dating shows are all the rage these days (just watch “Love Is Blind” or “Are You the One?”). This new show follows five people who have not had much luck finding love at home in the United States, so they travel around the world to meet up with people who are supposedly their perfect matches. They have to travel at a moment’s notice without even seeing a picture of the person they are to meet.ThursdayDolly Parton in “Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas.”Katherine Bomboy/NBCDOLLY PARTON’S MOUNTAIN MAGIC CHRISTMAS 8 p.m. on NBC. Dolly Parton plays herself in this musical within a musical based around the magic of Dollywood around Christmastime. Throughout the production, Parton goes on a journey to her past, which teaches her a lesson about the importance of the holiday. The star-studded cast includes Jimmy Fallon and Miley Cyrus.FridayDON’T WORRY DARLING (2022) 7:55 p.m. on HBO. This film, which premiered in September after some iffy moments on the press trail, stars Harry Styles and Florence Pugh as a seemingly perfect couple with a happy-looking life — until it all starts to fall apart. “The movie’s take on gender roles is stinging,” Manohla Dargis wrote in her review for The New York Times. “But its targets are amorphous (yes, agreed, sexism is bad) and carefully nonpartisan, and its take on the prison-house of the traditional feminine role — what Betty Friedan called the ‘happy housewife heroine’ in her 1963 classic ‘The Feminine Mystique’ — is shallow.”MATT ROGERS: HAVE YOU HEARD OF CHRISTMAS? 10 p.m. on Showtime. This holiday special, based on Matt Rogers’s live show of the same name, has it all: music, sketches and celebrity guests — all with the goal of Rogers being able to crown himself the “Pop Prince of Christmas.” Bowen Yang, Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson join him on his mission.SaturdayWill Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel in “Elf.”Alan Markfield/New Line ProductionsELF (2003) 7 p.m. on AMC. Before viewing, make sure you’re fully stocked on waffles, maple syrup and marshmallows because Buddy the Elf’s diet, while shocking, can also induce some serious sugar cravings. Will Ferrell plays Buddy, a human man who was accidentally transported to the North Pole as a toddler and raised as one of Santa’s elves. As he grows up and notices that he is a couple of feet taller than everyone else, he feels like he no longer fits in and travels to New York City to try to find his real father. Turns out, he does not fit in there either, and chaos ensues as Buddy embraces the holiday spirit more than his family.SundayCHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945) 4 p.m. on TCM. Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) is a food-column writer whose recipes and tales about family life on a farm keep the war hero Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) entertained while he recovers in a hospital. Elizabeth’s publisher — who does not know that it has all been a charade and that Elizabeth doesn’t have the picturesque life that she pretends to have in her column — suggests that she hosts Jefferson for Christmas dinner. More