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    How to Watch Hitchcock: 5 Steps to Unlock the Master of Suspense

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    Look up “suspense” in the dictionary, and there should be a little sketch of Alfred Hitchcock’s silhouette next to it. He never won an Oscar — the academy finally gave him an honorary one in 1968 — but the British director is inarguably one of cinema’s most influential auteurs, the kind of filmmaker even a casual movie watcher has heard of.Even if you don’t know his movies, chances are you can recognize the shower scene from “Psycho,” or have seen a spoof of his work on “The Simpsons.” My own introduction to Hitchcock came at the tender age of 3 or 4: In “Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird,” a plane flies over Big Bird in a cornfield to get his attention — a homage to a famous scene from “North By Northwest.”Hitchcock’s work is marked by carefully framed images and a fondness for playing with our emotions, but his greatest talent was making us freak out, and showing other filmmakers how to do that, too. With a selection of his movies now on Netflix, here is a beginner’s guide to understanding how the Master of Suspense creates suspense.‘Rear Window’ (1954)Step Inside a Character’s Point of ViewHitchcock loved to stick us right in the minds of his characters — many of whom are in the throes of obsession and desire — and thus play on our own passions and nerves. “Rear Window” centers on an all-too-familiar pastime for city dwellers: peering curiously, and a tad illicitly, into the neighbor’s window.Jeff (Jimmy Stewart) is a photojournalist who’s stuck in his Greenwich Village apartment because his whole leg, from hip to foot, is encased in a cast. Thus stranded and frustrated, he becomes intrigued by the lives of the people living across the way, an assortment of typical New Yorkers — a composer, a dancer, a lonely single woman, a bickering couple — and he starts to wonder if one of them is a murderer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty,’ Plus 6 Things to Watch on TV This Week

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      The Prime Video show returns with its third and final season — and maybe an answer for Lola’s love triangle.Teenage DreamsTeam Jeremiah? Team Conrad? I’m team “date someone outside the family who aren’t brothers,” but maybe that’s just me. “The Summer I Turned Pretty” follows Lola Tung as Belly, who navigates high school, then college. But the central plot is the will-they-won’t-they relationships between her and two brothers, Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad (Christopher Briney). Based on the young adult novels of the same name by Jenny Han, the series returns with its third and final season, dropping one episode each week — which means we won’t find out whom Belly ultimately chooses until mid-September. Han, who also serves as the creator, co-showrunner, and an executive producer on the show, has teased that the ending of the show might differ from the book’s, so only time will tell. Streaming Wednesday on Prime Video.Musical SpecialsMiley Cyrus at the premiere of “Something Beautiful.”Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Tribeca FestivaMiley Cyrus’s visual album movie “Something Beautiful,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last month, is now coming to streaming. The film, which has the same name as her new album, features 13 songs with their corresponding visuals, all based on a world of fantasy. Streaming Wednesday on Disney+.Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the gang seem to be quite busy this summer — they’re on Coach bags, Uniqlo T-shirts, an entire Kith collection, and now they have to save their favorite summer camp. In “Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical,” the first musical in the franchise in over 30 years, the group is headed on an outdoorsy adventure: Sally is nervous as a first-time camper, Snoopy and Woodstock go on a treasure hunt, and Charlie Brown works to keep their beloved camp’s doors open. Streaming Friday on Apple TV+.Missing PersonsIn 1995, Jodi Huisentruit was 27 years old and working as an anchor for the local news station, KIMT, in Mason City, Iowa. On the morning of June 27, she didn’t show up for work, and when the police later went to her apartment to investigate, they found some of her personal items — including car keys and red high heels — strewn near her car in the complex’s parking lot. She was never found and, in 2001, was declared legally dead. The new three-part documentary series “Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit” features interviews with family members, detectives, witnesses and friends in an attempt to figure out what happened. Streaming Tuesday on Hulu.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      When Streaming Won’t Cut It and You Need the DVD

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      Streaming is dominant for movies and TV shows. But some fans still insist on physical media.Last month, a young man walked into Night Owl, a store in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn that sells Blu-rays, DVDs and even a few video cassettes of movies and television shows, and browsed for several minutes. Eventually he plucked a case from a shelf: A handsome Criterion Collection release of “The Royal Tenenbaums,” the first Wes Anderson movie he had ever seen.“I had a ton of DVDs growing up,” Noah Snyder, 27, said. But reading about the way contemporary conglomerates treat films and television programs on their streaming services had prodded him to acquire physical media again. Snyder cited the actress Cristin Milioti’s recent comments about “Made for Love,” her show that was not only canceled, but removed altogether from the HBO Max streaming platform.“The stuff the CEOs do, they’re bad decisions,” Snyder said. “I don’t want something I love to be taken away like that.”In the last decade or two, the story of physical copies of movies and television has been overwhelmingly one of decline. Blockbuster is essentially gone, streaming is ascendant, Netflix no longer sends DVDs through the mail, and Best Buy no longer stocks them in its stores. Many manufacturers have ceased making disc players. Retail sales of new physical products in home entertainment fell below $1 billion last year, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, an industry association.Jess Mills, left, and Aaron Hamel are the owners of Night Owl, a physical media store in Brooklyn.Ye Fan for The New York TimesYet amid the streaming deluge, there are signs — small, tenuous and anecdotal, but real — of a rebellion. Alex Holtz, a media and entertainment analyst at International Data Corporation, compared Blu-rays to vinyl albums. Holtz, an audiophile, gladly streams new music while on walks, but he buys records he loves. “We’re in a back-to-the-future moment,” he said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How ‘Superman’ Star David Corenswet Won the Role

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      Even before he became the linchpin of a new superhero universe, David Corenswet took great pride in being reliable.“I don’t know whether I’m a good actor in the sense that I see people onscreen and think, that’s a good actor,” he said. But what he does know, and what he aspires to, is that people can count on him. It’s a reputation Corenswet has cultivated since he was a child actor, when he once delivered his lines so efficiently during a commercial shoot that the crew got to go home early.“I want people to feel that every day that my name is on the call sheet is going to be a better day — a little bit of an easier day, and maybe a more fulfilling day,” he said.Now, Corenswet’s reliability will be put to its ultimate test. The 32-year-old is playing the iconic title character in James Gunn’s “Superman” reboot, which arrives in theaters this weekend burdened by big expectations. It’s the first feature from the newly rebranded DC Studios, which previously managed some successes (“Wonder Woman,” “Man of Steel”) and a passel of bruising bombs (“Justice League,” “The Flash,” “Shazam: Fury of the Gods”) in its efforts to keep pace with Marvel’s highly lucrative cinematic universe.David Corenswet wasn’t immediately sold on the role of Superman: “When the easy conversation is so exciting, I want to have the hard conversation: Let’s talk about what could go wrong.”These days, though, even Marvel is facing headwinds: In a market saturated with comic-book content, audiences don’t always show up for cape-and-tights spectaculars the way they used to. Warner Bros. is betting that Gunn, who was hired to co-lead DC Studios after directing Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy, can restore the luster to its superhero shingle. But the future of the DC slate, including next year’s “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,” hinges largely on just how high “Superman” can soar.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Can ‘Superman’ Fly Above Today’s Polarized Politics?

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      The director of the reboot, James Gunn, called the superhero from the planet Krypton “an immigrant,” thrusting the summer popcorn movie into an Earthbound culture war.He may be faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But can he transcend our polarized politics?This, it turns out, may be too big a job even for Superman.The reboot of “Superman” that was released in theaters on Friday is already sparking intense discussions — and a fair bit of criticism — from right-leaning media figures, even before many have had a chance to see the film.Much of the commentary has centered around an interview that the movie’s director, James Gunn, gave to The Times of London in which he spoke about the hero’s journey from Krypton to Kansas to Metropolis.“I mean, Superman is the story of America,” Gunn said. “An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”America? Great. Kindness? Awesome. Those are points on which fans of the world’s most recognizable superhero seem to agree.But an immigrant? That characterization — of a guy who, yes, was born on another planet and then traveled to Earth — has entangled the new “Superman” in the very Earthbound culture wars of 2025, amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      Rebekah Del Rio, Mournful Singer of ‘Mulholland Drive’ Fame, Dies at 57

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      Rebekah Del Rio, the virtuosic singer best known for her forlorn Spanish-language rendition of Roy Orbison’s “Crying” in David Lynch’s 2001 film “Mulholland Drive,” died on June 23 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 57.Her death was confirmed by the Los Angeles County medical examiner, who said the cause was under investigation. Ms. Del Rio disclosed in 2018 that a malignant tumor in her brain had been surgically removed. In her final months, she told friends that the cancer had returned.In a career marked by misfortune and tragedy, Ms. Del Rio, a self-taught vocalist, never made it beyond the music industry’s revolving door. But her transcendent vibrato found a home in a surreal corner of Hollywood occupied by Mr. Lynch.One day in the mid-1990s, Ms. Del Rio, a young country singer, arrived at Mr. Lynch’s Los Angeles home for an introductory meeting arranged by their mutual agent, Brian Loucks. The instructions Mr. Loucks gave her were simple: Show up on time, look cute and be ready to perform “Llorando,” her a cappella version of Mr. Orbison’s “Crying.”Dressed head to toe in light blue, she sang until Mr. Lynch cut her off halfway through. He ushered her into his home recording studio, where she recorded the song in a single take.“Ding dang, Rebekah Del Rio, that was aces!” she recalled him saying.That recording would be heard in a pivotal scene in “Mulholland Drive,” at a fictional nightclub called Club Silencio. Ms. Del Rio, who is introduced as “La Llorona de Los Angeles,” emerges onstage from behind a velvet curtain wearing a dark red minidress, with smudged mascara and a crystalline teardrop under her right eye.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      How James Gunn Modeled Superman’s Dog Krypto After His Own Pet

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      For the furry sidekick, Krypto, in “Superman,” the director James Gunn found inspiration — and a physical model — in his own unruly pet.About three years ago, the director James Gunn was trying to figure out the arc of what would become his new blockbuster “Superman.” Then he adopted a dog.He named the scruffy rescue Ozu, after the Japanese filmmaker known for his serene works. At about 8 months old, Ozu the dog was not at all peaceful. After surviving a hoarding situation, Ozu was fearful of humans and intensely destructive. He chewed up furniture, shoes and even a $10,000 computer. He also ate one of Gunn’s wife’s tampons out of a wastebasket, necessitating a trip to the vet. Gunn realized that if Ozu had been superpowered, the damage would have been even worse.“It was where the movie came together for me,” he said in a video call.Gunn decided that his version of Superman would have not just a dog, but a bad dog who could fly. He wrote the opening sequence in which Superman (David Corenswet), defeated for the first time ever, calls out to the canine Krypto to help drag him to the Fortress of Solitude. Krypto — who, like Ozu, is poorly behaved — jumps all over his master, seemingly causing more pain before doing his duty.“The universe we normally see Superman living in in movies is usually this lone, serious superhero and then people and then that’s it,” Gunn said. “This Superman exists in a different sort of universe where there are flying dogs.”While Krypto has a long history in the comic books, he has never been featured in any of the live-action Superman movies.Jessica Miglio/DC and Warner Bros. But Ozu served as more than just inspiration. Gunn’s pup also became the physical model for Krypto, who is computer-generated so he can do things like soar through the sky and attack villains. Krypto is a little bigger than Ozu and has white fur instead of gray, but otherwise he’s a dead ringer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      ‘Madea’s Destination Wedding’ Review: Hellur, Bahamas

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      Tyler Perry returns as a series of characters, and this time, the real struggle for the family is boarding a plane.Tyler Perry reached a milestone this year: Two decades of “Madea” movies. The bigger-than-life female character Perry created for the stage has been entertaining audiences and confounding critics since the first “Madea” movie, “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” hit theaters in 2005.As the title suggests, that picture leaned a little heavier into melodrama than broad comedy, despite the fact that Perry, as he would continue to do over the next two decades, played Madea as a kind of burlesque who wore outlandish dresses and substantial padding, and painted the character in broad strokes.In “Madea’s Destination Wedding,” the 13th “Madea” movie, she continues to take no prisoners when affronted. It begins with our heroine confronted by some would-be stickup kids at a service station; she douses their car with gasoline and lights it on fire as they speed away.The narrative gets more domesticated after this. Madea’s niece Tiffany (Diamond White), the daughter of her nephew Brian, is having a destination wedding in the Bahamas. Perry also plays Brian, in conventional guy clothing. Perry also plays Brian’s father, the white-haired, feckless Joe. In one scene, the three characters banter on the front stoop of a house. The sequence demonstrates Perry’s adroitness as a multicharacter performer; the dialogue is delivered with admirable timing and intonation. And his staging, shooting and editing show that he’s become an equally deft filmmaker.That said, the movie’s comedic family members yield a group workshop style of comedy that sometimes bogs down the narrative. The movie arguably has the longest plane-boarding scene in the history of cinema, followed by the longest hotel check-in scene. But if Madea speaks your movie love language, it’s all about the journey, not the destination.Madea’s Destination WeddingRated PG-13 for language and themes. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      in Movies

      ‘Wild Diamond’ Review: The Reel World

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      In this French coming-of-age drama, a young woman auditions for a reality show to escape life at home.In “Wild Diamond,” the dream of reality TV stardom is one young woman’s salvation — a way out of her bleak life in southern France.But should a 19-year-old have to commodify her sexuality in the name of self-worth? Does it become more understandable — or more unsettling — when we learn she’s driven by emotional neglect?Even if we didn’t witness the fame-obsessed Liane (Malou Khebizi) shielding her younger sister from their mother’s sex sounds in the next room, or see the threat of eviction, we’d still sense trouble at home just by her frantic determination to make it onto “Miracle Island.”Liane auditions for the hit reality show, which might be her best shot at breaking free from the confines of her troubled family. But when she tattoos her abdomen — wincing in pain, then calmly flaunting the fresh ink for her thousands of TikTok followers — you want to show her another path. Moments like these crystallize, to heartbreaking effect, the movie’s uneasy compassion for influencer culture.Originally a short film by the writer-director Agathe Riedinger, this feature debut unfolds in waves of tension and release. Khebizi brings palpable desperation to the role of Liane, despite the limited script, while the cinematographer Noé Bach intimately frames Liane like we’re intruding on her space. Her glittering ambitions stand out all the more against this unadorned naturalist look.Eventually, we find out whether Liane got the role. But the film’s most haunting question remains: Which reality is safer — the one she’s learned to survive, or the one that tempts her with its illusion of hope?Wild DiamondNot rated. In French, Italian and English, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters. More