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      The Great 2023 Streaming Movies You May Have Missed

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      This collection of gems include character-driven dramas, dark comedies, smart documentaries, and romantic comedies both sunny and disturbing.As 2023 comes to a close, our monthly showcase of hidden gems on your streaming subscription services showcases a handful of worthwhile releases from this year that may have escaped your notice: character-driven dramas, dark comedies, smart documentaries, and romantic comedies both sunny and disturbing.‘A Thousand and One’Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.The writer and director A.V. Rockwell begins this wrenching character drama in New York City circa 1994, and nicely recaptures the look and feel of Gotham indies of that era. But that’s not just window dressing, While ostensibly telling the story of a young woman trying to go straight after a stint at Rikers Island and raise her son, Rockwell folds in relevant reminders of the city’s history in the intervening years and adroitly incorporates them into her characters and their ongoing struggle, reminding us that “quality of life” policing and the dirty business of gentrification are never purely policy issues. Yet it’s more than just a polemic; Teyana Taylor is shattering as the mother in question, Josiah Cross is charismatic and sympathetic as her teenage son, and the revelations of the closing scenes are wrenching and powerful.‘Rye Lane’Stream it on Hulu.A sensation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the debut feature from the director Raine Allen-Miller is a zippily paced and endlessly satisfying compressed-timeframe romantic comedy (think “Before Sunrise” and its follow-ups) with a delightfully of-the-moment voice and feel. Dom (David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) meet-cute in an art gallery bathroom; he’s crying in a stall over a fresh breakup, and she’s nursing a broken heart as well (albeit more quietly), and they wind up spending a few whirlwind hours baring their souls and helping each other settle their romantic scores. It’s a venerable setup, rendered with vibrancy and inventiveness by Allen-Miller, and the screenplay by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia is full of witty, quotable dialogue. But the whole thing would fall apart without the bulletproof chemistry of Jonsson and Oparah; you want them to end up together so much, and that’s half the work of a great rom-com.‘Rotting in the Sun’Stream it on Mubi.Another Sundance breakout, this pitch-black comedy finds the director Sebastián Silva also starring as himself — or rather, a depressed and suicidal version of himself. After nearly drowning at a gay nude beach, Sebastián meets a charismatic but insufferable American influencer, Jordan Firstman (playing himself, and admirably game about it), who tries to engage him in a collaboration. What follows is both psychologically bruising and uncomfortably funny, while posing thought-provoking questions about guilt, privilege and the omnipresence of social media. Most impressively, it reminds us that L.G.B.T.Q. stories don’t have to be about positive representation; Silva allows his queer characters the complexity to be as annoying, difficult and exploitative as his story requires.‘El Conde’Stream it on Netflix.Pablo Larraín, the director behind “Jackie” and “Spencer,” cooks up his most unconventional riff on the biopic yet with this stylized hybrid of dark comedy, social commentary and gore-heavy horror. The premise is delicious, positing that the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell) was, in fact, a literal vampire who faked his own death and went into hiding in the country. The razor-sharp script, by Larraín and the Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderón, ruminates on the parasitic nature of capitalism, wit and intelligence, and the cleverness of the narration (which not only tells the story but wryly comments on it) is topped only by the reveal of who is voicing it. Ed Lachman’s black-and-white cinematography stuns, and Larraín injects the proceedings with genre thrills and bleak laughs.‘Sanctuary’Stream it on Hulu.Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott both make brief but impactful appearances in “Poor Things,” one of the awards favorites of the season; viewers who enjoy that cockeyed meditation on sexual mores will find themselves equally fascinated by the duo’s provocative spring two-hander. Abbott stars as Hal, the wealthy scion of a luxury hotelier who is about to take over as the company’s chief executive; Qualley is Rebecca, who first appears to be interviewing him for the job, but is gradually revealed to be his longtime dominatrix, acting out a scene of his own creation. Their tricky psychosexual exchanges, a complex series of shifting power plays and deeply embedded desires, make for situations both highly dramatic and unabashedly erotic — the kind of movie for grown-ups it feels like they never make anymore, until they do.‘Sharksploitation’Stream it on Shudder.The title, for those not in the know, refers to a subgenre of exploitation movies prompted by the earthshaking success of “Jaws”— increasingly silly and derivative stories of shark attacks, grizzled sailors, frustrated scientists, corrupt politicians and swimsuit-clad human sacrifices. Stephen Scarlata’s giddily entertaining documentary tracks the evolution of these pictures, from the direct rip-offs of the ’70s and ’80s to their utterly insane contemporary counterparts, the cheapo disaster hybrids of the “Sharknado” ilk. But it also drills deeper, running down the history of sharks in fiction in general, as well as the (often negative) effects these works have had on the public perception of these much-maligned animals.‘De Humani Corporis Fabrica’Stream it on Mubi.The latest effort from the accomplished documentary filmmakers Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor combines a distinct nonfiction film style — the fly-on-the-wall institutional portrait, most frequently identified with Frederick Wiseman, focusing on a French hospital — and a more experimental approach, utilizing specialized cameras to explore the interiors of the human body during medical procedures. The latter footage, while not for the squeamish, is fascinating, taking a detached and almost fantastical view of our organs and orifices that’s akin to the landscapes of phantasmagorical science fiction. But the straightforward documentary sections are equally transfixing, forgoing talking head interviews for overheard conversations and operating room chitchat (“This guy’s weirdly put together!”), and capturing moments of staggeringly raw emotion and vulnerability. More

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      From ‘Poor Things’ to ‘Barbie,’ a Crybaby Year for Men in the Movies

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      In 2023, male characters pouted elaborately after something they saw as their birthright was put in check.I’ve seen the greatest men of my generation regress into petulant babies — at least in the movies. Over and over in this year’s films, male characters throw elaborate temper tantrums, whining, huffing and raging like toddlers in their terrible twos.At Sundance in January, I joined the audience in cackling at “Fair Play,” in which a bratty finance guy devolves into a childish display of irascibility. Come summer, I saw the trend expand with the boffo success of “Barbie,” in which Ryan Gosling’s Ken makes an entire career out of pouting on the beach. And the fall saw a preschool’s worth of new baby men in “Poor Things,” “Dream Scenario” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” and one great baby man of history in “Napoleon.”The meltdowns themselves varied — one barked like a dog, another blasted music, a few made faces, most yelled, many cried — but the trigger was the same: a perceived loss of power to a woman.In “Poor Things,” that male torment is played for farce. Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) has only recently discovered orgasms when she meets Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a local rake who piques her interest. Their bond is simple: he is besotted; she relishes his sexual prowess. But trouble arrives when the pair voyages abroad and Bella, eager to indulge in new cuisines, sights and lovers, tires of Duncan’s micromanaging. She tries to send the stage five clinger packing, but he keeps popping up, alternating between profanity-laden outbursts and beseeching appeals to reciprocate his devotion.“I am not understanding this complicated feeling,” Bella remarks dispassionately at one point, as Duncan snivels over her sleeping with another man. The line lands as a joke; Duncan’s weepy reaction is entirely uncomplicated. But Bella’s confusion also hits on something real. Duncan doesn’t own Bella, as much as he would like to, and he sees himself as the victim of that reality.The comedy in “Fair Play,” directed by Chloe Domont, is cast in a darker tone, and centers not on concerns about sex, but career. Here, our petulant man is Luke (Alden Ehrenreich), a hedge fund analyst who, early in the movie, loses out on a promotion to his fiancée, Emily (Phoebe Dynevor). This means that Luke reports to Emily, while she wins coveted face time with the boss.To Luke, a silver-spoon-fed nepotism hire, nothing could be more intolerable. “I think I’m handling everything pretty well, given the circumstances,” he snarls at Emily before shrieking about how she “stole” his job.Luke makes his thinking clear: He wanted the promotion, so it belonged to him. This delusion of entitlement is echoed, to an extent, in Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” a tremendous work of drama that follows a novelist, Sandra (Sandra Hüller), after the sudden death of her husband, Samuel (Samuel Thesis). Samuel was also a fiction writer, albeit a more stagnant one, and openly resented Sandra’s success.In one crucial flashback, Samuel instigates a domestic scuffle with his wife. As the quarrel escalates, Samuel calls her selfish, chastises her for not learning his native language and accuses her of stealing his book premise. Finally, he prods, “I’ve given you too much — too much time, too many concessions. I want this time back and you owe it to me.”The gender dynamics of “Anatomy” are thornier than those in “Fair Play,” but the two films play well side by side. Triet and Domont share an interest in how power seesaws in contemporary straight relationships. By positioning their couples within the same professions and then pushing them to the brink, the filmmakers are conducting a kind of test. In this more equitable era, how do men and women balance being a good partner with self-realizing? At what point does envy trump affection? Is there any going back after it does?These are familiar questions with murky answers. The past decade has seen a cavalcade of bloated, juvenile men throw hissy fits after something they saw as their birthright — authority, prestige, admiration — was put in check. These spectacles can be sinister, pathetic and comical all at once, a semi-contradiction that movies, designed to pull in both directions, are ideally suited to dissect.No film this year synthesized these ideas more plainly than one about a plastic doll. Near the end of “Barbie,” once the Kens unlink arms and Gosling’s Ken stomps into the Dreamhouse, Barbie (Margot Robbie) hurries to comfort him. He sobs. She says she likes him as a friend. And then the pair agree to dismantle Barbieland’s system of male supremacy and instate a more just society.Wiping away tears, Ken confesses, “To be honest, when I found out the patriarchy wasn’t about horses, I lost interest anyway.” It’s funny to think it could be so easy. It’s excruciating to know it’s really not so hard. More

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      It Was a Year of Superhero Fatigue on the Big Screen

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      Audiences are showing fatigue when it comes to Marvel’s box office behemoths of recent years. Based on what they were served in 2023, it’s hard to blame them.At the center of 2023’s “The Marvels” is Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, who, if you’ll recall from the 2019 film “Captain Marvel,” destroyed the all-powerful A.I. leading the Kree empire. Joining Carol Danvers is Monica Rambeau, a.k.a. Photon a.k.a. Pulsar a.k.a. Spectrum, who was first introduced in “Captain Marvel,” then later featured in the Disney+ series “WandaVision,” where she was granted superpowers after an encounter with reality-altering witches. And joining these two Marvels is the teenage New Jersey native Kamala Khan, a.k.a. the titular character of the Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel.”That’s a lot to take in, which is why the first few minutes of “The Marvels” is just a series of flashbacks designed to catch the audience up before the action even begins. Even for dedicated fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the amount of prerequisite knowledge required to watch any M.C.U. movie or show nowadays is tantamount to a college course.And it seems like audiences are tiring of the constant homework assignments. A year of diminishing box office returns is more proof that the casual superhero moviegoer is becoming more and more of a rarity given how much is being asked of them, which is full, multiplatform investment.These franchises are spelling their own downfalls, as the price of entry into the fandoms has become frustratingly high for the dedicated disciples of these worlds, and not at all worth it for casual viewers or prospective new fans. This year has been a prime of example of what happens when a pop-culture movement takes hold of an industry and then overreaches. We’re witnessing Ragnarok.The barrage of offerings and the uniform, assembly-line quality of the plot structures make it easy to forget that the M.C.U. used to excel at providing entryways for those too intimidated or simply not enticed by the grand Avengers throughline. In the series’ Phase One, “Captain America: The First Avenger” jumped to the past for a World War II period piece and “Thor” offered a mystical world of Norse gods. “Guardians of the Galaxy” ventured out even further, to a universe larger than what was happening in Avengers central, with its own funky soundtrack, and “Ant-Man” fittingly zoomed in to a more playful, humbler superhero story. These films not only allowed prospective fans more opportunities to step into the mythology but also added texture to the franchise, diversifying the tones and genres of the films so every new one didn’t feel redundant or strangled into a larger plot.Opening weekends became cultural watershed moments, with the box office numbers to back them up. A-list stars, thrilling action sequences — summers were defined by the superhero blockbuster, with audiences glued to their seats through the M.C.U.’s signature mid- and post-credits scenes, as the films insisted on holding fans at attention until the very last word. The 2010s were defined by the likes of “Black Panther,” “Guardians” and the “Avengers” movies, which for the most part were warmly received by critics and enthusiastically devoured by fans.But Marvel’s narrative fatigue has been building for a while now; in fact, I wrote about this creeping danger as “Avengers: Endgame” and its three-hour runtime landed in theaters. But it isn’t just the storytelling structure that’s been hurting; it’s that middle “c” in the acronym, the cinematic element, that has also declined.“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” was the highest grossing superhero movie of the year. Marvel Studios/DisneyConsider the latest batch of superhero offerings: Of this year’s films, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” made the most money, but was dour, off-putting and didn’t offer the closure that the trilogy had seemed to move toward; this sequel was ultimately meant to serve as a changing of the guard, introducing a new lineup of Guardians. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” was widely panned, and for good reason; it got tangled up in its psychedelic pseudoscience with no payoff but a mishmash of poorly executed visual effects. On the DC Comics side, the most impressive feat “The Flash” managed was casting a problematic lead actor as not one but two versions of the same character in a tedious time-travel plot that had already been pulled off more successfully in the TV series of the same name.And though “The Marvels” was set up to be the big superhero blockbuster of the fall, it was a rote example of the form — unimaginative, unremarkable and purely targeted to audiences already in the know. It has performed miserably since its November release, with Disney president Bob Iger (who oversees Marvel Studios) taking the rare step of publicly admitting the movie’s shortcomings. It’s the worst-performing M.C.U. film so far, and a perfect representation of the exhaustion on both the creative side and audience side.Back when these superheroes were still on print pages and not big and little screens, Stan Lee, the godfather of American comics and the creator of many of these characters, used to include what he called “Bullpen Bulletins” in his issues. These informal letters to readers, including announcements, promotions and context for and commentary on his work, were indicative of Lee’s relationship to the fandom. He fostered a community around his heroes, built from the ground up: He maintained a dialogue with fans, treating them as not mindless consumers but highbrow connoisseurs of the art form.Whatever “Bullpen Bulletin” factor may have ever existed with today’s superhero consumers seems to be fading fast. As franchises — particularly the M.C.U., fueled by Disney’s multibillion-dollar appetite — continue to grow and threaten ever more, ever greater crossovers, it’s becoming more difficult to understand what their endgame is (pun intended) when it comes to their fans. Who wants to watch 30 films and 10 TV series to engage with a franchise that continues to spread itself too thin at the expense of quality filmmaking?Nostalgia alert: Michael Keaton dons the Batman suit once again, with Ezra Miller in “The Flash.”Warner Bros. PicturesThat will be left only to the completionists, who have invested this much time and effort and will see these stories through to the end, and to the fans held hostage by their own nostalgia. There’s a reason the latest go-to cinematic gimmick is callbacks to decades-old incarnations of heroes: the trifecta of Spider-Men in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and the alternate Batmen from “The Flash.”These cameos don’t serve the ambivalent 10-year-old who never saw Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies or Michael Keaton’s Batman. Neither do the several minutes of catch-up flashbacks explaining all the story lines leading into a new movie.The franchises continue to risk fatiguing their current fans and alienating potential ones. More stand-alone films, more inventiveness, more diversions from the grand plots and cookie-cutter setups would give these stories and their fans room to explore, but instead we’re stuck in a cycle of ever-expanding multiverses, narratives and timelines that even the best S.H.I.E.L.D. agents would find impossible to keep straight.The ultimate irony? These commercial superhero machines know exactly how their approaches can be self-sabotage … because they keep offering stories in which their heroes fall into the same trap. The antagonist of “The Marvels” opens rifts that tear through space and time, introducing other realities that can collide and destroy everything. In “The Flash,” Barry Allen (the hero’s alter ego) has to explain to an alternate version of himself that they can’t keep manipulating the time stream. “These worlds,” Barry says, looking at the C.G.I. representations of space and time around him, “they’re colliding and collapsing.” “We did this,” he continues. “We’re destroying the fabric of everything.”Superhero movies changed the industry. No matter what you think about them as art, the upswing of these comic book stories from the margins to the drivers of popular culture was swift and remarkable. But now these Clark Kents and Bruce Waynes and Rocket Raccoons and various Marvels risk orchestrating the end of this Age of Heroes.But like in every superhero movie, there’s hope yet: Stories that end. Characters who die. Universes where the stakes are real and cameos and meta-commentaries aren’t just crutches to bait audiences. Stories that don’t cling to a crumbling concept but perhaps start fresh in another corner of the universe.Superhero movies used to be super. The heroes are still as strong as before. They just need the movies to match. More

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      ‘Rose’ Review: My Sister’s Keeper

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      Niels Arden Oplev’s drama about two sisters, one of whom is a woman with schizophrenia, on a bus tour of France brims with genuine feeling.In the honest and heartfelt Danish drama “Rose,” two sisters take a bus tour to France. The elder, Inger (Sofie Grabol), lives with schizophrenia, and resides in a psychiatric clinic where she receives care from staff and coddling from her mother. The younger, Ellen (Lene Maria Christensen), sees the vacation as an chance to bond with her sister, whom she believes could benefit from more independence.The writer-director, Niels Arden Oplev, based the film in part on his own experiences, and the movie keenly illustrates how stigma surrounding mental illness hurts neurodivergent people and their families. Oplev locates a source of this strain in Andreas (Soren Malling), a fellow bus tourist bent on treating Inger as a liability and a nuisance. Outside-world triggers for Inger are multifarious — she refuses to bathe and often carps about walking — but none prove as potent as Andreas’s scorn, which sets hurdles throughout the trip.“Rose” is partly a road movie, and there is a fascinating dissonance in staging small moments of friction on grand stages like Versailles and Normandy. That the film takes place in the weeks after Princess Diana’s death adds an extra layer of tension; the theme of accidents and the morbid curiosity that attends them hovers like a specter.But the ultimate power of “Rose” lies with Grabol, who inhabits Inger with grace. Using facial expressions and body language, she brings to life the character’s mood swings, her divided impulses toward anxiety and adventure. Alongside Oplev’s commitment to genuine feeling and complexity — you won’t find easy solutions here — Grabol’s performance shines.RoseNot rated. In Danish, French and German, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. Rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      Best Arts Photos of 2023

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      Peter Fisher for The New York Times2023 in Retrospect: 59 Photographs That Defined the Year in ArtsDeadheads, ballerinas and Mick Jagger: As 2023 winds down, revisit a memorable handful of the thousands of images commissioned by our photo editors that capture the year in culture.Marysa Greenawalt More

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      In 2023, Movie Audiences Wanted Comfort, Not Superhero Spectacle

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      Movie audiences flocked to Taylor Swift, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” but were cooler toward returning superheroes like the Flash, Captain Marvel and Aquaman.Hollywood’s movie factories run on conventional wisdom — entrenched notions, based on experience, about what types of films are likely to pop at the global box office.This year, audiences turned many of those so-called rules on their heads.Superheroes have long been seen as the most reliable way to fill seats. But characters like Captain Marvel, the Flash, Ant-Man, Shazam and Blue Beetle failed to excite moviegoers. Over the weekend, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” which cost more than $200 million to make and tens of millions more to market, arrived to a disastrous $28 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada. Overseas moviegoers chipped in another $80 million.In the meantime, the biggest movie of the year at the box office, “Barbie,” with $1.44 billion in worldwide ticket sales, was directed by a woman, based on a very female toy and spray-painted pink — ingredients that most studios have long seen as limiting audience appeal. An old movie-industry maxim holds that women will go to a “guy” movie but not vice versa.“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” collected $1.36 billion, a second-place result that also stunned Hollywood; studios have a troubled history with game adaptations. “Oppenheimer,” a three-hour period drama about a physicist, rounded out the top three, taking in $952 million and contradicting the prevailing belief that, in the streaming era, films for grown-ups are not viable in theaters.“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” stunned the film industry by bringing in $1.36 billion.Nintendo/Nintendo/Universal Studios, via Associated Press“Without question, change is afoot — audiences are in a different mood,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office numbers. “The country and the world are not in the same place. We’ve had seven years of divisive politics, a severe pandemic, two serious wars, climate change and inflation. Moviegoers seem less interested in being overwhelmed with spectacle and saving the universe than being spoken to, entertained and inspired.”The biggest box office surprises of the year fell into the “spoken to” category. “Sound of Freedom,” a crime drama that cost $15 million to make, catered to the far right, an audience largely ignored by Hollywood, and generated $248 million in ticket sales, on a par with “The Eras Tour,” which targeted Taylor Swift fans and also cost about $15 million.“Sound of Freedom” came from Angel Studios, an independent company in Provo, Utah, that supported the film with an unorthodox “Pay It Forward” program, which let supporters buy tickets online for those who otherwise might not see it. In a big break from Hollywood norms, Ms. Swift cut out the middle company (a studio) and made a distribution deal directly with AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest theater operator.“Our phone has been dancing off the hooks since the day we announced the ‘Eras Tour’ project,” Adam Aron, AMC’s chief executive, told investors on a conference call in November, referring to “alternative content” opportunities.Comscore, which compiles box office data, projected on Sunday that North American ticket sales for the year would reach about $9 billion, a 20 percent increase from 2022. (Before the pandemic, North American theaters reliably sold about $11 billion in tickets annually.) The average price for an adult general admission ticket in the United States was $12.14, up from $11.75, according to EntTelligence, a research firm.Worldwide ticket sales are expected to exceed $33 billion, an increase of 27 percent, partly because of a surge in Latin America. (Before the pandemic, worldwide ticket sales easily exceeded $40 billion annually.)Hollywood’s climb back from the pandemic is expected to stall in 2024. With fewer movies scheduled for release — studio pipelines were disrupted by the recent strikes — ticket sales will decline 5 to 11 percent next year, depending on the market, according to projections from Gower Street Analytics, a box office research firm.Reading box-office tea leaves is like pontificating about symbolism in works of fiction: Any halfway plausible theory works. But studio bosses need something, anything, to guide them as they make billion-dollar judgment calls for the seasons ahead.Here are five takeaways from this year:Moviegoers want comfort.People reach for nostalgia in times of stress, and movies that reminded audiences of the past — while also managing to feel fresh — have been succeeding. “Barbie,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Wonka” and the retro-feeling “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” allowed people to revisit their childhoods. “Insidious: The Red Door” hit pay dirt by bringing back the franchise’s original stars.“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” could have tapped into nostalgia to become a hit. Instead, a huffing and puffing Harrison Ford, 81, simply reminded Indy fans that they, too, are getting old. “Dial of Destiny” cost Disney $295 million to make and took in a flaccid $384 million. (Theaters keep roughly 50 percent of ticket sales.)Tessa Thompson and Michael B. Jordan in “Creed III.”Eli Ade/MGMArt film has a pulse.Sophisticated dramas with modest budgets and aimed at older audiences have been showing signs of life after two years in the box office I.C.U.The streaming era has forever shifted the bulk of prestige film viewing to the home, analysts say. But theaters found a modicum of success in 2023 with offerings like “Past Lives,” a wistful drama with some Korean dialogue, and Hayao Miyazaki’s animated “The Boy and the Heron.” The bespoke “Asteroid City” managed $54 million.Early box office results have also been promising for Oscar-oriented films like “Poor Things,” a surreal science-fiction romance, and “American Fiction,” a satire about a writer who puts together a fake memoir that turns on racial stereotypes.Bigger is not better.For the past decade, Hollywood has kept audiences interested in sequels by making each installment more bloated and often nonsensical than the last. Bigger! Faster! More!That strategy may need rethinking — it’s just too expensive, analysts say, especially with Chinese moviegoers souring on American blockbusters. “Fast X,” the 10th movie in the “Fast and Furious” series, cost an estimated $340 million and took in $705 million worldwide, including $140 million in China. By comparison, “Furious 7” in 2015 cost $190 million and collected $1.5 billion, including $391 million in China.Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick.”Scott Garfield/Paramount PicturesTom Cruise’s seventh “Mission: Impossible” spectacle, released in July in the wake of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” cost roughly $290 million to make and collected $568 million, including $49 million in China. The sixth “Mission: Impossible” in 2018 cost $178 million and generated $792 million, with Chinese ticket buyers chipping in $181 million.Increasingly, franchise sequels and spinoffs need to feel fresh to succeed. Lionsgate, for instance, delved deeper into the High Table underground crime organization in “John Wick: Chapter 4” and introduced “Hunger Games” fans to a new story line (and cast) in the prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” Both movies were hits. Lionsgate even revived its “Saw” horror franchise by shifting the narrative back in time.“Each of those movies did something different than the prior,” said Adam Fogelson, vice chair of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. “It wasn’t just ‘spend more, make it bigger, make it louder and cram in more action.’”Some audience patterns remain intact.Horror continued to be a reliable performer, with “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and “M3gan” starting new franchises for Universal and its Blumhouse affiliate. Together, the two films cost $32 million. They collected a combined $469 million. Also notable was “The Nun II,” which cost Warner Bros. about $22 million and took in $366 million.Superheroes may be down, but they’re not out. Marvel’s rollicking, well-established “Guardians of the Galaxy” series returned for a third chapter and generated $846 million against a $250 million budget. Sony’s bold, anime-influenced “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” cost an estimated $150 million and collected $691 million.Stars matter.The conventional wisdom in Hollywood has been that movie stars are essentially part of the past. A celebrity name above the title no longer carries that much weight with ticket buyers. The underlying “intellectual property” is what fills seats.People pay to see Barbie, not Margot Robbie.Except that Mattel and various studios tried for at least 20 years to turn the toy into a live-action movie star. It took Ms. Robbie in the role (and Ryan Gosling as Ken) to finally make it happen. Other movies that benefited from star power in 2023 included “Wonka,” with Timothée Chalamet, and “Creed III,” anchored by Michael B. Jordan.Stars don’t have heft? Try telling that to the producers of “Gran Turismo,” “Haunted Mansion,” “Dumb Money” and “Strays,” all of which disappointed at the box office and arrived when their casts were barred from promoting their work because of the SAG-AFTRA strike. More

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      What’s on TV This Week: New Year’s Eve Specials and ‘Time Bomb Y2K’

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      Several networks air countdown-to-2024 specials. And HBO releases a documentary about mass hysteria in the final days of 1999.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, Dec. 24-31. Details and times are subject to change.MondayMariah Carey and Billy Porter during last year’s “Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All!”James Devaney/CBSMARIAH CAREY: MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! 9 p.m. on CBS. In November 2022, Mariah Carey went on a mini-tour performing a show with some holiday songs, featuring (obviously and most importantly) her hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” The concert she performed at Madison Square Garden is returning to small screens to liven up the Christmas mood after all the presents have been unwrapped, the spiked hot cocoas are kicking in and the tension with a relative over a politics has eased to a silent simmer.TuesdayTHE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). If you’ve ever wondered how the prince actually got put into the nutcracker, Alan Cumming is here to tell you. This version of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” takes the story from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1816 book, and Cumming recounts it as an orchestra plays along.WednesdayTHE 46TH ANNUAL KENNEDY CENTER HONORS 8 p.m. on CBS. These honors took place on Dec. 3 in Washington, but now we get to see snippets of the ceremony and some of the performances. This year’s honorees are Dionne Warwick, Billy Crystal, Queen Latifah, Renée Fleming and Barry Gibb; as is tradition, each star was treated to special performances by others, including Missy Elliott, Rob Reiner, Dove Cameron and Michael Bublé.Robin Roberts on the set of ABC News’s “Year 2023” special, which airs on Wednesday.Jennifer Pottheiser/ABCTHE YEAR: 2023 9 p.m. on ABC. This recap show, hosted by Robin Roberts and other ABC News anchors, dives into some big moments from 2023, such as the Eras Tour, Barbenheimer, the actors’ and writers’ strikes and the “Vanderpump” Scandoval. Ronald Gladden, our sweet Everyman from “Jury Duty,” Missy Elliott (she’s everywhere this week!) and some of the cast of “Dancing With the Stars” are set to make appearances to discuss a year that, for me at least, has simultaneously felt like it just started and also won’t end.Thursday27 DRESSES (2008) 3 p.m. on FX. Now that Christmas is behind us, I can get back to my regularly scheduled romantic comedy viewings. Katherine Heigl stars as Jane, who has a crush on her boss, George (Edward Burns), and also happens to be a hopeless romantic who religiously reads the vows section of the newspaper. When her pesky younger sister comes to town (my words, not hers) and starts dating George, Jane has to decide just how good of a sister she wants to be. James Marsden also stars as Kevin, a wedding reporter, who is somehow charming despite the fact that he always pops up at the most inconvenient times.FridayTHE WORLD ACCORDING TO FOOTBALL 8 p.m. on Showtime. This show, hosted by Trevor Noah, is closing out its run with an episode about the football — or soccer for us Americans — culture in Qatar. The episode will look specifically at the $220 billion the country, which drew criticism over its treatment of migrant workers and its anti-L.G.B.T.Q. policies, spent hosting the 2022 World Cup.SaturdayA still from “Time Bomb Y2K.”Brian Langley/HBOTIME BOMB Y2K 10 p.m. on HBO. At the end of the 1990s, a fear started to arise about a computer bug that came to be called “Y2K.” According to the theory, one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 2000, computer software could malfunction because the last two numerals of the year were 00, which could wreak havoc such as power failures, grounded planes and inoperative life support machines. People were loading up on guns and water; President Bill Clinton appointed a Y2K czar. In the end, computers easily adjusted to the 2000 date stamp. But this new documentary examines the concerns of the time through interviews with computer experts, survivalists, scholars, militia groups, conservative Christians and pop stars.SundayCNN NEW YEAR’S EVE LIVE WITH ANDERSON COOPER AND ANDY COHEN 8 p.m. on CNN. To tequila or not to tequila — that has been the question surrounding this special for the past couple of years. This will be Cooper and Cohen’s seventh year doing this show together, but the executives at CNN banned them from drinking alcohol during the live broadcast last year, to Cohen’s vocal displeasure. It is unclear if the two old friends will be slinging back shots, but what we do know is that Jeremy Renner, Neil Patrick Harris, the Jonas Brothers and Enrique Iglesias are set to make appearances.DICK CLARK’S PRIMETIME NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN’ EVE WITH RYAN SEACREST 2024 starting at 8 p.m. on ABC. The traditional ball drop may be in New York City, but this New Year’s Eve show takes it all around the world. NewJeans is set to perform in South Korea, Post Malone will be at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Las Vegas and Ivy Queen will be live in Puerto Rico. And of course, cameras will be rolling in Times Square to count down to midnight. More

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      ‘The Crime is Mine’ Review: Courtroom Tango

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      In this showbiz screwball, an aspiring actress and her lawyer best friend spin a murder accusation into a shot at fame.Filmmakers know that the courtroom is a hell of a place to put on a show — and this year, French movies like “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Saint Omer” have put women on trial to dramatize, not so much their crimes, but the gendered biases that make them look criminal.“The Crime is Mine,” a snappy showbiz screwball, takes this feminist conceit and adds stardust and firecrackers to the mix. Directed by François Ozon — a French director known for his winking subversions of genre — the film puts a twist on the trope of the spotlight-seeking murderess: the women in the film want us to know they did it.Freely adapted from a 1934 play by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil and set in a vintage Paris, the film revolves around the roommates Madeleine (Nadia Terezkiewicz) and Pauline (Rebecca Marder), two dead-broke ingénues angling for a break. In the opening scene, Madeleine, a blonde bombshell who dreams of her name in lights, comes home distraught after a slimy theater producer Montferrand (Jean-Christophe Bouvet) attempts to rape her. And Madeleine’s beau, a Buster Keaton look-alike, announces his plans to marry a wealthy heiress and keep Madeleine as his mistress. Hours later, the cops swing by — Montferrand is dead and the revolver on Madeleine’s dresser looks awfully fishy.The lofty investigating magistrate (Fabrice Luchini, marvelously ludicrous) thinks he’s got it figured out: Lowlife bohemian that she is, Madeleine must’ve killed Montferrand after he rejected her bid for a part. Pauline, a bi-curious attorney, steps in: no, no, it was actually self-defense.Several versions of what might have happened are shown in grainy black-and-white, like reels in a silent film. Ultimately, the truth is what plays best before a crowd. In court, aided by a script written by Pauline, Madeleine performs the part of the feminist hero to roaring applause, front-page glory and job offers for the juiciest parts.Odette Chaumette (Isabelle Huppert), a once-famous silent film star with a Norma-Desmond-size chip on her shoulder (and a showy persona to match), appears, demanding a cut of the spoils. The always-magnetic Huppert has played her share of tabloid murderesses, but, here, she trades out her trademark visceral steeliness for a coy and irreverent narcissism. The threat she poses to Madeleine and Pauline’s hard-won fortune carries the film’s even cheekier second act.“The Crime is Mine” is the epitome of a comfort film, decked out in old-Hollywood nostalgia and unfolding at an auctioneer’s clip. Its fun and games are deceptively smart — all the more because the women know their angles so triumphantly well.The Crime is MineNot Rated. In French and Spanish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. In theaters. More