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      Six Great Movies About Presidents

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySix Great Movies About PresidentsIf you’re looking for some escapism, these films are a good reminder that democracy works.Daniel Day-Lewis took an Oscar-winning turn as President Abraham Lincoln in the 2012 film “Lincoln.”Credit…DreamWorks Pictures and 20th Century FoxJan. 16, 2021When a new president is inaugurated, it’s traditionally an occasion for pageantry and pomp, showcasing the splendor of Washington and reminding the country and the world of the United States’ democratic promise: that power ultimately rests in the will of the people. As we head into these ceremonies next week, it’s a good time to let these movies remind us that the mechanisms of American politics and the institution of the presidency — at their best and worst — have endured for centuries.These six entertaining films are about real and fictional presidents, and are set against the backdrop and complicated culture of our nation’s capital.‘Lincoln’The director Steven Spielberg and the screenwriter Tony Kushner take an unusual approach to telling the story of one of America’s most beloved presidents, focusing mostly on the first months of Abraham Lincoln’s second term, when he cajoled a reluctant Congress into passing a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. Daniel Day-Lewis gives an Oscar-winning performance as Lincoln, capturing the man’s gentle good humor and shrewd — sometimes ruthless — political instincts. The “Lincoln” creative team make the figures from history books look and feel like real people, with complex personalities and motives.Watch it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube[Read The New York Times review.]‘Thirteen Days’The title of this film refers to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Soviet deployment of nuclear weapons not far from the Florida coast pitted John F. Kennedy and his inner circle against both the Russians and their own Joint Chiefs of Staff. The outcome of this story is well-known. (Spoiler alert: The missiles were removed and a potential catastrophe was averted.) But the director Roger Donaldson and the screenwriter David Self still successfully dramatize the tension and paranoia brewing when Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood), his brother Robert (Steven Culp) and his adviser Kenneth O’Donnell (Kevin Costner) scrambled to out-negotiate their rivals.Watch it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube[Read The New York Times review.]‘Seven Days in May’The characters in this jittery 1964 thriller are fictional, but the situation — particularly of late — feels all too real. Kirk Douglas plays a Marine colonel who suspects that a hawkish Air Force general (Burt Lancaster) is organizing a coup against a pacifist president (Frederic March). The director John Frankenheimer (who two years earlier made the similarly pulse-pounding “The Manchurian Candidate”) and the screenwriter Rod Serling adapt a novel by Charles W. Bailey II and Fletcher Knebel into an offbeat war movie, where the soldiers fight in boardrooms instead of battlefields, attacking using clandestine meetings and phone calls.Watch it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube[Read The New York Times review.]‘All the President’s Men’Richard Nixon is at the center of this newspaper drama, even though he mostly stays offscreen. Based on Carl Bernstein’s and Bob Woodward’s account of how they investigated the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post, this film conveys the day-to-day business of gossip, leaks and social networking in the nation’s capital. But it’s also a rousing story about how citizens and journalists can serve as a check on the executive branch, whenever presidents and their staff start imperiously ignoring or bulldozing over federal laws.Watch it on HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube[Read The New York Times review.]‘Dave’One big appeal of movies about presidents is the chance to see how the leader of the free world lives. In this 1993 comedy “Dave,” Kevin Kline plays an ordinary guy who looks just like the president. When the White House staff asks him to pose as POTUS while the real one recovers from a stroke, Dave soon finds himself embroiled in a plot involving scandal, chicanery and romance. What makes this picture so delightful is Kline’s endearingly upbeat performance as someone who genuinely enjoys the privileges of the presidency — from the perks of the White House to the power to improve people’s lives.Watch it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube[Read The New York Times review.]‘The American President’The screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has a knack for creating charismatic and inspiring politicians, as seen in his hit TV series, “The West Wing.” In this 1995 romantic drama, Michael Douglas plays the title character, a Bill Clinton-like centrist Democrat prone to push for popular legislation rather than taking controversial stands. Sorkin’s story (directed by Rob Reiner) is mostly about the widowed president’s love affair with an environmental lobbyist played by Annette Bening. But the movie also imagines an idealized Washington, where the right speech at the right time can change minds and perhaps save a nation.Watch it on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube[Read The New York Times review.]AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in January

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in JanuaryEvery month, subscription streaming services add a new batch of titles to their libraries. Here are our picks for January.Dec. 31, 2020, 6:21 p.m. ETNote: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our twice-weekly Watching newsletter here.Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany in “WandaVision.”Credit…Marvel Studios/DisneyNew to Disney+‘WandaVision’Starts streaming: Jan. 15Possibly the most anticipated Disney+ show since “The Mandalorian,” the superhero sitcom “WandaVision” represents the start of a new wave of Marvel Comics TV series and promises to be more eclectic and creative than the grim and gritty action dramas on other networks. In “WandaVision,” two of the odder members of the Avengers — the mutant matter-manipulating Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and the superpowered android Vision (Paul Bettany) — go undercover in suburbia, where they try to fit in by making their lives more like what they’ve seen on television. Disney has mostly been keeping the details of this long-in-production show a secret, but the advertising so far has made it look downright surreal — and absolutely unmissable.Also arriving:Jan. 8“Marvel Studios: Legends”Jan. 22“Pixar Popcorn”Leslie Odom Jr. as Sam Cooke in “One Night in Miami.”Credit…Patti Perret/Amazon StudiosNew to Amazon‘One Night in Miami’Starts streaming: Jan. 15Based on a Kemp Powers play, the historical drama “One Night in Miami” imagines what might have happened during a 1964 meeting at a Miami hotel between Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge). Not long after these four gathered, Ali changed his name from Cassius Clay and declared himself to be a Muslim, Malcolm left the Nation of Islam, Cooke recorded music informed by the civil rights movement, and Brown started winding down his N.F.L. career to devote himself more to activism and acting. Directed by Regina King, the movie frames an evening of celebration and reflection as one long, energizing bull session between four very different men, arguing and joking, away from the scrutiny of a public judging their choices.‘Flack’ Season 1Starts streaming: Jan. 22Anna Paquin gets her juiciest role since “True Blood” in “Flack,” a sort of lower-stakes version of “Scandal,” following public relations “fixers” who do all they can to keep their desperate celebrity clients out of the tabloids. In nearly every episode, someone needs the help of Paquin’s character, Robyn, or her co-workers after being caught in the wrong bed or found at the scene of a crime. A lot of the entertainment value comes from how these shrewd and nurturing professionals — mostly women — work miracles to save some entitled folks who barely deserve their help. There’s some pathos, too, as Robyn manages her messy personal life, but “Flack” is generally more enjoyably soapy than profound.Also arriving:Jan. 8“Herself”Jan. 15“Tandav”Jan. 18“Alone”Jan. 22“Jessy and Nessy”Hailee Steinfeld, center, as the lead in “Dickinson.”Credit…Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Dickinson’ Season 2Starts streaming: Jan. 8The loopy historical dramedy “Dickinson” was part of Apple TV+’s first wave of television shows; and it remains one of the service’s most acclaimed. The second season has all the charms of the first, beginning with Hailee Steinfeld’s winning performance as the poet Emily Dickinson, portrayed as a headstrong young woman who bucks her family’s ideas of respectable femininity. The clever hook of “Dickinson” is that while it is set in the distant American past, the characters behave like they are in a modern suburban TV household — bickering wryly when they’re all together and then later brooding quietly while melancholy pop music plays. Season 2 opens with an admission that the historical record is vague on this phase of the writer’s life (a period not long after her brother married the woman Dickinson loved), but that doesn’t stop the show’s creators from using her poems as a window into her daily romantic despair.‘Palmer’Starts streaming: Jan. 29Justin Timberlake mutes his big pop star personality considerably for the small-scaled drama “Palmer,” a movie about a chastened ex-con trying to get his life back on track in his small Southern hometown. Alisha Wainwright plays a local teacher who feels drawn to Palmer after she sees how he takes care of a neglected neighbor boy who is teased at school because he loves toys and clothes designed for girls. The “misfits are people, too” message is uplifting, though the film’s real selling point is its cast, which also includes the phenomenal Juno Temple as a well-meaning mother who struggles with impulse control.Also arriving:Jan. 15“Servant” Season 2Jan. 22“Losing Alice”John Lurie in “Painting With John.”Credit…HBO MaxNew to HBO Max‘Tiger’Starts streaming: Jan. 10The 2020 docu-series “The Last Dance” set a high bar for in-depth, behind-the-scenes sports stories, filled with glory and scandal. HBO’s two-part “Tiger” isn’t as dazzling, but it’s at least playing in the same league. Though it is missing a central interview with the golfer Tiger Woods himself, this mini-series does include input from many of his friends and colleagues, who speak about the private Woods — good and bad — that few golf fans have ever gotten to see. “Tiger” features remarkable footage from throughout Woods’s career (including his amateur years, which were unusually well-documented thanks to his prescient parents). But in between the scenes of a once-in-a-generation athlete dominating his sport, this documentary also covers the immense pressure that was placed on him. And it is frank about what happened when the man began to crack.‘Painting With John’Starts streaming: Jan. 22In the early 1990s, the avant-garde musician John Lurie created and hosted the lovably bizarre series “Fishing With John,” a low-key nature and interview show that frequently took surreal turns. Lurie’s new project, “Painting With John,” plays things just a little bit straighter. Like an oddball version of Bob Ross, Lurie starts each episode teaching viewers about art but ends up talking more about life, spinning personal anecdotes and sharing his insights and beliefs. He does paint, too; and the colorful close-ups of Lurie’s canvasses combined with the hushed growl of his voice makes this an unusually relaxing show.Also arriving:Jan. 14“Search Party” Season 4Jan. 21“Gomorrah” Season 3Jan. 24“Euphoria” Special, Part 2Jan. 29“The Little Things”New to Hulu‘Jann’ Seasons 1 & 2Starts streaming: Jan. 29Fans of lighthearted and character-driven Canadian sitcoms like “Schitt’s Creek” should enjoy “Jann,” a similarly sweet and dryly satirical comedy about a former jet-setter adjusting to a career downturn. The singer-songwriter Jann Arden plays a cartoony version of herself: a musician who had a few chart hits in the 1990s but has since dealt with health problems, relationship woes, family crises and a changing pop music market. In the show’s two seasons so far — both already hugely popular in Canada — the amiable Arden has been willing to look silly as she spoofs the foibles of a showbiz exile. But she and her fellow “Jann” creators Leah Gauthier and Jennica Harper have also balanced the character’s persistent state of embarrassment with strong and stirring elements of underdog melodrama.Also arriving:Jan. 1“Like a Boss”“Save Yourselves!”Jan. 13“Everyone Is Doing Great” Season 1Jan. 15“Endlings” Season 2“The Ultimate Playlist of Noise”Jan. 22“Derek DelGaudio’s In & of Itself”“The Sister”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Zosia Mamet’s Week: Log Cabin Living

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyRecently ViewedZosia Mamet’s Week: Log Cabin LivingThe former “Girls” star, who played a mordantly comic lawyer in “The Flight Attendant,” spends her days at the barn and her nights with David Sedaris and Meryl Streep.Zosia Mamet, who stars in “The Flight Attendant,” with her horse, Ten: “She’s the love of my life (don’t tell my husband) so just being with her makes me happy.”Credit…Heather Sten for The New York TimesDec. 22, 2020, 10:40 a.m. ETWhen Zosia Mamet auditioned for “The Flight Attendant,” Kaley Cuoco unexpectedly booped her on the nose. Mamet reacted by swatting her hand away, and a relationship was born.“We had this immediate chemistry,” said Mamet, who is best known as the “Girls” naïf, Shoshanna Shapiro, “and the scene, just like lava, flowed out of us.”In “The Flight Attendant,” the zingy thriller on HBO Max that just finished its first season, Cuoco plays the booze-swilling Cassie Bowden, who picks up a passenger on a flight then wakes up in Bangkok with his dead body in bed beside her — and no memory of the night before. Mamet is her best friend, Annie Mouradian, a stony-faced lawyer who keeps the F.B.I. at bay using skills she cultivated while representing mob wives.At the moment, Mamet is nesting in New York’s Hudson Valley, with her husband, the actor Evan Jonigkeit, and their dog, Moose. But she more or less lives at the horse stables down the road, doling out snuggles and peppermints to her thoroughbred, Ten. In a Zoom interview from her 1920s Sears catalog cabin, with a log wall behind her, Mamet talked about life in and out of the riding ring, and her seasonal affliction. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Thursday MorningWoke up at 8. I’m a big-time sleeper. My husband says I could sleep through anything. But I wanted to get up early to give Moose a good long walk. First things, first: coffee, made in a French press with a big chunk of oat milk. I used to be quite picky about the brand of coffee, and I’m not anymore. I know this is a controversial point for snobby coffee drinkers, but we love a flavored coffee in our house, like a hazelnut or a vanilla.Mamet is nesting with her husband, the actor Evan Jonigkeit, in the Hudson Valley. Credit…Heather Sten for The New York TimesThursday AfternoonThe barn is about a 25-minute drive from our house so I normally either do NPR, Howard Stern, music or a podcast. I love a good podcast. Today was the new Whitney Cummings with Alison Brie. I didn’t get past the opening but that alone was killing me. They were talking about the frustration with stores putting stickers on things that you can’t get off, and it leaves this horrible residue. The struggle is real.My horse, Ten, sadly has a boo-boo in her front right foot, so she’s currently on what’s called stall rest, which is basically the equivalent of bed rest for a human. I’ve been gone for almost a month, and she’s developed this very sweet silly habit of trying to nibble on every part of me. Yesterday it was my beanie. Today it was the arms of my jacket. But she’s the love of my life (don’t tell my husband) so just being with her makes me happy.Evan is still in Pittsburgh shooting a new Netflix show called “Archive 81,” so we chatted on my drive home. We like to stay as much a unit as possible. I went out there for three weeks, and then I came home a little bit earlier than him because I wanted to be with Ten. The minute I found out she got hurt, he was like, “If you need to go home, I’ll understand.”Thursday EveningMy best friend, Emma, claims that I was an elf in a previous life. I do all the Christmas shopping for both of our families and all of our friends, so I’m currently set up in our living room surrounded by presents, my Christmas 2020 Excel spreadsheet, wrapping paper, scissors, ribbon, tape. All the essentials. I listened to Alabama Shakes. Evan proposed to “I Found You,” and sometimes when I miss him, I put them on.I’m in bed with a hot water bottle because I’m 90 and watching “The Queen’s Gambit.” I’m trying to savor it because I just think it’s so good. No, I have not learned chess. A card game like rummy, that’s my jam. Chess is too much for my brain to handle.I have a book problem, and there is a stack on my bedside probably 10 books high. I’m currently halfway deep into the latest David Sedaris, “The Best of Me,” and loving every second. I adore him. I’ve read almost all of his books and also listened to a lot of them on tape. His writing is so wonderful to begin with, but then when you hear him reading his writing, it just elevates it to the next level.Friday MorningEvan is the one that got me into the routine of putting music on first thing in the morning. It sets the tone for the day. Whitney Cummings mentioned the Lone Bellow the other day on her podcast, and I hadn’t listened to them in forever, so that’s what was on this morning.Spotify very kindly made me a 2020 playlist of the things I’d listened to most, so I put that on my drive to the barn. It was cold but sunny, so it was more of a sing-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-with-the-window-slightly-down than listen-to-a-podcast kind of day. A few faves on the playlist: Red Hearse, Lucy Dacus, Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, Phoebe Bridgers. Portugal. The Man is also on there; Nathaniel Rateliff, who came out with a solo album this year that’s super beautiful and lovely. Oh, there’s this great album that I love called “Trio.” It’s Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. Sometimes when I’m cleaning the house, I’ll listen to it on repeat because their harmonies sound like angels.“My husband is like, ‘How do you spend six hours at the barn?’”Credit…Heather Sten for The New York TimesFriday AfternoonI got to the barn and first had to say hi to Tenny because she’s my princess unicorn, so she needs treats and kisses. Then I got to ride a Polly Pocket-size pony named Snickers. I had my lesson with my amazing trainer Vanessa. I got to ride one of our barn’s trusty steeds named Junior, who gave me a run for my money.My husband is like, “How do you spend six hours at the barn?” Well, we have to untack the horse. When we jump them, we wash their legs and spray them with liniment that keeps their legs healthy. Then we clean all of our tack. It’s part of the process that I love just as much as the riding — the care of the horse, the care of my tack.I stopped at Michaels because I needed a wreath hanger for our door. In middle and high school, there are horseback riding teams called [Interscholastic Equestrian Association], and there’s a whole show circuit. Our barn has one, and each year they take old horse shoes and paint them red, blue, green, silver or gold, and they make wreaths and sell them to raise money for the I.E.A. team. So I got one.Friday EveningI spent a little time decorating. I love Christmas more than anything. My maternal grandmother had this way of making Christmas exceptionally magical. There were all of these traditions, and the house was full of smells and sounds and lights. We always decorated the tree together. I’ve been enamored with magic since I was little, and what is more magical than Christmas? I’m the person who will sit on the stairs with all the other lights off at night and just watch the tree.I finally realized I was starving so I went with tacos. I listened to Phoebe Bridgers’s new holiday album, which is heartbreaking and gorgeous and sadly only four songs, so I had it on repeat for a bit. Then I put on “The Prom,” which was delightful, while wrapping presents. Elf duties.Saturday AfternoonI love Marc Maron’s podcast, and a friend recommended his episode with Glenn Close, so I finished that up on the way to the barn. What an epic human. What a crazy life. I had no idea she was in a cult!There are a few podcasts I’m obsessed with. I love “You Must Remember This,” which is all about old Hollywood. On the drive to Pittsburgh, I listened to “Dr. Death.” Oh my God, it’s crazy and fascinating. It’s about this surgeon who keeps botching all of these spine surgeries, but everyone’s too afraid to report him to the medical board. So he just keeps moving from hospital to hospital and paralyzing people. It’s very dark, but it was a six-hour drive, so it kept me entertained.Saturday EveningI’m about to start wrapping more presents while watching “Let Them All Talk.” Then it’s a pit stop for some of my banana bread that is my favorite thing ever. It’s gluten- and dairy-free with like five ingredients and yes, I know — Covid/lockdown/banana bread — but I’ve been making this literally for years. So please, no judgment.Sunday MorningWe were having a barn-decorating contest at the farm today so I decorated Ten’s stall with a unicorn theme. I didn’t win, but it’s just an honor to be nominated or whatever.Sunday AfternoonAfter the judging for the stall-decorating contest, we all gave our secret Santa gifts. Then I took down Ten’s decorations because she almost ingested a 10-foot-long piece of tinsel.Sunday EveningI headed home to wrap more gifts and hang with Moose. I really want to watch “PEN15,” but Evan and I watch that together so I can’t. So perhaps an old movie, possibly “Death Becomes Her.” I just realized that there seems to be a Meryl Streep theme going on here. Listen, I love me some Meryl — I mean, who doesn’t — but I definitely didn’t do that on purpose. Although what says, “It’s the holidays!” more than Meryl Streep? So I guess that’s it: I’m just in a very Meryl Christmas mood.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Mariah! Dolly! Carrie! 2020 Can’t Quarantine This Cheer

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storycritic’s notebookMariah! Dolly! Carrie! 2020 Can’t Quarantine This CheerPop stars try to pull off a Christmas spectacular in tough times, with three sparkly but heartfelt specials now on streaming services.Pop divas in holiday sparkle: from left, Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey and Dolly Parton.Credit…From left: Anne Marie Fox/HBO Max, Apple TV Plus, CBSDec. 18, 2020, 9:00 a.m. ETWith the C.D.C. advising against faithful friends who are dear to us gathering anywhere near to us, it’s understandable that we all might need some extra assistance getting into the holiday spirit this year. One of the few bright spots of the season, though, is the abundance of new Christmastime musical specials, helmed by some of our most beloved and benevolent divas. Thank the streaming wars, in part: HBO Max, Apple TV+ and CBS All Access have all jockeyed to get a different A-list angel atop their trees, perhaps in hopes that they’ll persuade you to subscribe to one of their services before your long winter hibernation (or at least forget to cancel before your free trial is over.) Whether gaudy, glorious excess or down-home simplicity, each offers a different take on a perplexing question: How do you stage a Christmas spectacular in decidedly unspectacular times?First up is Carrie Underwood, whose “My Gift: A Christmas Special From Carrie Underwood” is streaming on HBO Max. A companion piece to her recent first holiday album, the stately and reverent “My Gift,” Underwood’s special finds her fronting an orchestra led by the former “Tonight Show” bandleader Rickey Minor. Featuring duets with John Legend and, adorably, her 5-year-old son Isaiah (whose pa-rum-pa-pum-pums are impressively on point), “My Gift” is relatively light on pizazz — save for the eight (!) increasingly dramatic costume changes. As Underwood’s stylists told “People” magazine in an article devoted entirely to all of her different “My Gift” outfits, the fact that the country powerhouse wouldn’t be moving around the stage much gave them an opportunity to “break out these giant confections of tulle and sequins that would never really be appropriate for any other event.” The most memorable is a crimson-tinged Diana Couture dress-and-cape number that suggests a cross between a bridal cake-topper and Jude Law on “The Young Pope.”A scene from “Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special,” which features guests like Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande.Credit…Apple TV PlusThe splendor and stirring purity of Underwood’s voice is powerful enough that even a plunging ball gown adorned with literal angel wings cannot overshadow it. Underwood’s most sublime belting, though, doesn’t come until the penultimate set of songs, when she absolutely blows the roof off “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “O Holy Night.” It’s enough to make the relative restraint of the rest of the show pale in comparison. “We really wanted this special and my album to be something that people would return to year after year and not feel dated,” she told “People” and, accordingly, there’s nary a nod to 2020 in sight. It’s a safe choice in a production so full of them that, despite its ample cheer, ends up feeling a little hermetic and snoozy.An offering not as worried about time-stamping itself is “Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special,” a star-studded entry from Apple TV+ in the Yuletide streaming wars. It’s certainly the most plot-heavy of the bunch (a neurotic elf played by Billy Eichner must restore Christmas cheer to a world low on tidings by booking an impromptu Mariah concert, or something), and the one with a wardrobe that most frequently luxuriates in the lack of F.C.C. oversight of streaming content. Perhaps when she wrote “All I Want For Christmas Is You” she was singing to double-sided tape.Though a tad convoluted, Carey’s special is full of one-liners and knowing winks; when the elf has trouble tracking her down, she informs him, “It’s called elusive, darling.” Woodstock makes a brief, animated cameo (perhaps to remind us that Apple owns the streaming rights to the “Peanuts” specials, too), which provides a segue into Carey’s gorgeous, sultry rendition of “Christmastime Is Here.” A lot happens throughout these overstuffed 43 minutes, and the special could have done without some of the bells and whistles. The whistle notes, however, are another story.The most diva-licious moment of the whole affair comes when Carey is joined by two very special guests, Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande — who she stages behind her, so that they end up looking like the Supremes to her Diana Ross. Classic elusive chanteuse. By the song’s finale, though, she’s invited them both to stand beside her and riff. It provides the opportunity for something the world has been waiting for ever since a young Grande earned the nickname “Baby Mariah”: They look at each other respectfully, inhale deeply, and harmonize their whistle notes. This must be the exact sound heard when the Covid-19 vaccine enters one’s bloodstream.In “A Holly Dolly Christmas,” Dolly Parton offers the crackling warmth of a hearth.Credit…CBSA woman who might know is Dolly Parton, generous Moderna vaccine trial donor and star of the heartwarming CBS special “A Holly Dolly Christmas.” An hourlong show originally made for Sunday-night broadcast on CBS (and now streaming on CBS All Access), hers is the most traditional of the bunch, and hardly the flashiest: “It’s not a big Hollywood production show, as I’m sure you’ve noticed,” Parton says, gesturing around a set meant to look like a homey church. But she also specifies, “We have managed to do this show safely …. testing, wearing masks and social distancing.”Parton is such a charismatic presence that she doesn’t need guest stars, plot twists, or costume changes to keep this a transfixing show. Whether she’s hamming it up during “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” or filling the spiritual “Mary, Did You Know?” with empathic emotion, her special offers the crackling warmth of a hearth. Before singing her classic “Coat of Many Colors,” she tells a moving story about her late mother’s selflessness, her painted eyes brimming full of tears the entire time. Just try not to cry along with her.Earlier in the fall, Stephen Colbert showed just how tall an order that is, when he was reduced to tears after Parton burst into a ballad a cappella during their televised interview. “Like a lot of Americans,” he explained, “I’m under a lot of stress right now, Dolly!” It’s nothing to be ashamed of, though: Plenty believe there’s something deeply cathartic about Parton’s voice and her overall demeanor. As Lydia R. Hamessley writes in her recent book “Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton,” “For many listeners, the restorative effect of Dolly’s music seems to flow to them directly from Dolly herself, so they often experience her as a healer.” Which sounds like something we could all use right about now. As Parton spins yarns about her humble beginnings and sings songs of enduring faith in the face of despair, “A Holly Dolly Christmas” might, actually, be an effective cure for the 2020 holiday blues.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Best Comedy of 2020

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s NotebookBest Comedy of 2020Comedians like Leslie Jones, Chelsea Handler and Hannibal Buress adjusted to the new abnormal, turning to Zoom, YouTube, rooftops and parks.The pandemic halted most live performance but comedians adjusted and adapted. Clockwise from bottom left: Leslie Jones, Eddie Pepitone, John Wilson and Ziwe Fumudoh.Credit…Clockwise from bottom left: Rahim Fortune for The New York Times; Troy Conrad; HBO; Chase Hall for The New York TimesDec. 15, 2020, 5:59 p.m. ETThe comedy boom finally busted. Not only did the pandemic shut down comedy institutions, but New York clubs like Dangerfield’s, which was half a century old, and the stalwart The Creek & the Cave closed for good, as did the city’s branches of the improv powerhouse, the Upright Citizens Brigade. At the same time, comedians adjusted to the new abnormal, transitioning to Zoom and Instagram Live, and to shows in parks and on rooftops. It was a period of experimentation and stagnancy, contraction and accessibility, despair and occasional joy. In a low year, here were the highlights:Funniest SpecialDo you find an angry blue-collar guy yelling about being high on molly funny? Does the phrase “Stalin on Spotify” amuse you? Do pivots from ragingly unhinged roars to an NPR voice make you lose your breath in laughter? No? Not to worry: Eddie Pepitone will still delight. An overlooked master of the form, he’s perfected a persona of the silly grump that makes anything funny. Smart comedy that aims for the gut, his new special (available on Amazon Prime) is titled “For the Masses,” but he jokes that is by necessity, in one of several insults of his audience: “I would be doing jokes about Dostoyevsky if it wasn’t for you.”After leaving “Saturday Night Live” in 2019, Leslie Jones had a viral year that included the Netflix special “Time Machine.”Credit…Bill Gray/NetflixBest Complaint About 20-SomethingsLeslie Jones made the most of her first year after “Saturday Night Live.” Not only did she go viral roasting the clothes, furniture and décor of cable news talking heads in social media videos, but she made a dynamite Netflix special, “Time Machine,” where she castigated today’s young people for failing to have fun. “Every 20-year-old’s night,” she preached, “should end with glitter and cocaine.”Best 20-Something CounterAbout six weeks after the release of Jones’s special, the breakout young comic Taylor Tomlinson made an impressive Netflix debut with “Quarter-Life Crisis”; in it, she says she’s sick of people telling her to enjoy her 20s. “They’re not fun,” she said exasperated, in one of many cleverly crafted bits. “They’re 10 years of asking myself: Will I outgrow this or is this a problem?”Best Opening GambitBy describing her special in detail, beat by beat, at the start of Netflix’s “Douglas” — Hannah Gadsby’s follow-up to “Nanette” — she seemed to be eliminating the most important element of comedy: surprise. But like Penn & Teller deconstructing the secrets of magic while hiding some new ones, she just found a new way to fool you.In his YouTube special “Miami Nights,” Hannibal Buress told a story about an encounter with a police officer that led to his arrest.Credit…Isola Man MediaBest Closing StoryIn his funniest and most stylish special, “Miami Nights,” on YouTube, Hannibal Buress ended on a 20-minute story about an unsettling encounter with a police officer in Miami that led to his arrest. It’s a master class in comic storytelling that sent himself up, skewered the police, hit bracingly topical notes with throwaway charm while adding on a coda that provided the visceral pleasures of payback. It’s stand-up with the spirit of a Tarantino movie.Best Silver LiningOne nice side effect of the shutdown for live comedy is that in transitioning to digital, local shows became accessible to everyone with an internet connection. So it was a nostalgic treat that the weekly Los Angeles showcase Hot Tub, which pioneered weird comedy in New York before moving to the West Coast, once again became part of my comedy diet, via Twitch. While there were many new faces, much hadn’t changed, like the eclectic and adventurous booking and the dynamite chemistry of its hosts Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler.Best Alfresco SpecialStreet comedy, a subgenre of some legend, was all but dead when the pandemic pushed stand-up outdoors. By the fall, several comics, like Chelsea Handler and Colin Quinn, even made specials there, working crowds whose laughter did not echo against walls. The sharpest was “Up on the Roof” by the workhorse comic Sam Morril (it’s his second punchline-dense special of the year), the rare person to translate New York club comedy to rooftops (with the help of cameras on drones).Cole Escola portrays a cabaret performer in his YouTube special, “Help! I’m Stuck! With Cole Escola.”Credit…Cole EscolaBest Sketch ComicWhen comedic dynamo Cole Escola produced his own special featuring deliriously bizarre characters wrapped in pitch-perfect genre spoofs, and released it on YouTube under the title “Help! I’m Stuck! With Cole Escola,” he was surely not trying to embarrass networks and streaming services for never placing him at the center of his own show. But that’s what he did.Best New Talk ShowThe charismatic Ziwe Fumudoh has long been comfortable creating and sitting in the tension between the comedian and the audience in small alt rooms, but in her interview show on Instagram, she repurposed this gift for cringe and applied it to probing conversations on racism with guests like Caroline Calloway and Alison Roman. It made for essential viewing during a protest-filled summer.Best Siblings“I Hate Suzie” provided serious competition, but the best British comic import this year was “Stath Lets Flats,” which found a home on HBO Max. This brilliantly observed office comedy focuses on the mundane travails of an awful real estate agent and his sister. Jamie Demetriou (who created the show) starred, along with his real-life sister Natasia, better known in the United States because of her dynamite deadpan in the FX vampire comedy “What We Do in the Shadows.” The show is cringe comedy whose beating heart comes from their relationship. Look out Sedaris siblings. A new talent family has arrived.The stand-up comic Beth Stelling released a special on HBO Max titled “Girl Daddy.”Credit…HBO MaxBest Debut SpecialThe stand-up comic Beth Stelling’s pinned tweet is from 2015: “I’ve been called a ‘female comic’ so many times, I’ll probably only be able to answer to ‘girl daddy’ when I have children.” This year, she released a knockout special on HBO Max titled “Girl Daddy.” It’s a virtuosic performance, conversational while dense with jokes — with a portrait of her father, an actor who works as a pirate at an Orlando mini-golf course, that manages to be scathing, loving and sort of over it, all at the same time.Best Experimental ComedyIt’s a good sign for adventurous work that last year’s winner (Natalie Palamides’s solo shocker “Nate”) is now a Netflix special. But the revelation this year was HBO’s “How To With John Wilson,” a kind of reality show about New York City that pushed formal boundaries while unearthing the hidden and the overlooked in poignant, funny new ways.Best DirectionIn one of her final projects, Lynn Shelton masterfully shot the latest Marc Maron special “End Times Fun,” on Netflix, demonstrating that great direction doesn’t need to be about showy camera movements. Her shot sequences emphasized and played against Maron’s jokes, working together effortlessly, like dancing partners that intimately know each other’s moves. Two months later, in May, she died of a blood disorder. Memorializing her movingly on his podcast, Maron, her boyfriend, said: “I was better in Lynn Shelton’s gaze.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Warner Bros. Trades Box Office for HBO Max, but Stars Still Want Their Money

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeHoliday TVBest Netflix DocumentariesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTrading Box Office for Streaming, but Stars Still Want Their MoneyIf studios are no longer trying to maximize ticket sales, what will that mean for often lucrative pay packages tied to a film’s performance in theaters?The actress Gal Gadot received more than $10 million from Warner Bros. after the studio decided “Wonder Woman 1984” would not have a traditional theater release.Credit…Chris Delmas/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBy More

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      Warner Bros. Says All 2021 Films Will Stream on HBO Max Right Away

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeHoliday TVBest Netflix DocumentariesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWarner Bros. Says All 2021 Films Will Be Streamed Right AwaySeventeen movies will each arrive in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously, the biggest challenge yet to Hollywood’s traditional way of doing business.Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson in “Dune,” one of 17 films Warner Bros. will release in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously next year.Credit…Chia Bella James/Warner Bros.By More