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      ‘Rise’ Review: Step, Repeat, Recover

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      The French filmmaker Cédric Klapisch’s feel-good dance film follows a professional ballerina returning to the stage after an ankle injury.The amiable dance film “Rise” begins with a wordless sequence backstage at a Parisian ballet performance. The 26-year-old soloist, Elise (Marion Barbeau), is readying for her grand entrance when she spots her boyfriend furtively smooching a fellow company member. Distraught and preoccupied, Elise jams her ankle during a jeté, causing an injury that could require surgery.The remainder of “Rise,” directed by Cédric Klapisch, traces Elise’s lengthy but rather untroubled road to recovery, both of body and of confidence. Much of this coming-of-age work occurs at a picturesque artists’ retreat in a seaside villa where Elise, limping but breezy, accepts a job preparing meals. And what luck that her cooking gig should coincide with the residency of an esteemed contemporary dance troupe — one that includes a break dancing hunk, Mehdi (Mehdi Baki), who Elise had admired back home.This is a sweet, uncomplicated story relayed with enough entrancing dance breaks to fill an American halftime show. In her acting debut, Barbeau, a professional ballerina at the Paris Opera Ballet, is mesmerizing in motion, and her training is obvious; she points her toes even while jogging. Some of the movie’s themes feel labored, such as a drawn-out discourse comparing the rigidity of ballet to the freedom of modern choreography. It drives home a point we already intuit: the dialogue is incidental when the dancing is this expressive.RiseNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Padre Pio’ Review: A Movie in Need of a Miracle That Never Comes

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      In this film directed by Abel Ferrara, Shia LaBeouf gives viewers a contemporary version of the saint — that is, one who curses a blue streak.We are now in the month of June, so the idea of Shia LaBeouf in the title role of a fictionalized biography of the revered and controversial Italian cleric Padre Pio directed by Abel Ferrara has a low probability of being some kind of April Fool’s joke. This is a real movie. And alas, an occasionally rank one.Now Ferrara hasn’t even attempted a conventional biopic of the man born Francesco Forgione at the end of the 19th century, and who, according to some accounts, started displaying stigmata after an illness-plagued childhood. And that’s to his credit. Rather, he’s attempted a sometimes Brechtian consideration of the nodes of political history and spirituality.The movie is set in the Italy between two world wars, during which time Pio was a priest in San Giovanni Rotondo, where he spent his entire life. (And where a 1920 Fascist-initiated massacre of civilians took place; the movie ends with a depiction of it.) Ferrara’s narrative toggles between Padre Pio’s cloistered, spiritually tormented existence and the Socialist and Fascist factions competing to transform Italy at the time.LaBeouf essays a rather, let’s say, contemporary Pio. And completely sinks the picture. Early in the movie Pio is asked by an interrogator about the “countless” women “you had your narcissistic way with.” Who’s under scrutiny here, the character, or LaBeouf himself, who’s recently faced allegations of sexual abuse from more than one woman? Later, a male character played by Asia Argento confesses feeling lust for his own daughter, and LaBeouf’s Pio, utterly callow in spite of his prodigious beard, tells him to shut-the-you-know-what-up. He detaches the movie from the Brechtian and lands it firmly in the territory of “improv scene workshop gone horribly wrong.”Padre PioRated R for themes, violence, Shia LaBeouf’s language. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Falcon Lake’ Review: Pack Water, Sunscreen and Palo Santo

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      Death and desire are bunk mates in this coming-of-age drama set around a lake cabin in Quebec.Directed by Charlotte Le Bon, the coming-of-age drama “Falcon Lake” is a story of summer love steeped in the eeriness of a wilderness slasher. A ghost supposedly haunts the secluded Quebec lake where a 13-year-old, Bastien (Joseph Engel), is vacationing with his family, at a cabin owned by their friends. Chloé (Sara Montpetit), the moody 16-year-old daughter of their hosts, gets a thrill out of playing dead: In one scene, she has Bastien take her picture as she poses on a dirt road like a corpse.Still scrawny and awkward yet overflowing with hormones, Bastien finds Chloé more terrifying — and fascinating — than any bogey. Like “The Virgin Suicides,” the film unfolds from the teen boy’s besotted perspective. But relative to the hapless narrator of Sofia Coppola’s young-adult classic, Bastien grows close to his mysterious object of desire, a Wednesday Addams type without the misanthropic streak. Chloé plays the experienced cool girl with ease, taking Bastien on wine-fueled hiking adventures and to a house party with her obnoxious guy pals. She also casually undresses in front of Bastien as if he’s her kid brother, but Montpetit gives these actions a knowingly flirtatious glint. Chloé is teasing her repressed companion, bringing him out of his shell as she steps out of her own — Chloé gives Bastien a taste of adulthood’s pleasures while Bastien allows her the freedom to be a kid again.“Falcon Lake” is a handsome, intriguing feature directing debut from Le Bon; a naturalistic teen romance spiked with mystique, thanks to its subtly menacing deep-woods setting and quivering 16 millimeter cinematography by Kristof Brandl. Death and desire swirl around the film’s charged atmosphere, though Le Bon has trouble meaningfully bringing out these elements in the narrative itself, hastily throwing in ambiguities in the last act to create a weightier sense of drama. The effect falls flat.Falcon LakeNot rated. In French and English, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Concerned Citizen’ Review: He Cares a Lot

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      An Israeli’s guilt over an act of police brutality he indirectly caused is the crux of this drama from Idan Haguel.Ben (Shlomi Bertonov) lives with his boyfriend, Raz (Ariel Wolf), in a gentrifying neighborhood of Tel Aviv. They got a great deal — the apartment would have cost twice as much in a more central area of the city. And Ben has already done his part to spruce up the block by planting a thin tree across the street.So it bugs him when he sees two Eritrean immigrants chatting by the sapling, with one leaning against it in a way that could snap it. He talks with them, and the issue seems resolved. But when Ben spots the man leaning again, he calls the authorities. He lies and says the city planted the tree. A little while later, out of his window, he sees one of the young men savagely beaten by police.The guilt Ben feels over the violence he caused — it may even have been a killing; he initially doesn’t have confirmation of the victim’s fate — is the driving force of “Concerned Citizen,” an Israeli feature from the writer-director Idan Haguel. Did Ben overreact? Is he a secret racist? He mentions the incident to various people, but always fudges the specifics to disavow his involvement. He tries to sell the apartment without Raz’s knowledge.Haguel builds this brief but densely structured film in an interestingly modular, rhythmic way, thanks to a percussive score by Zoe Polanski and occasional, abrupt cuts to black following key scenes. But the movie’s ending is far too easy: It gives Ben a second chance to prove his true values, as if the consequences of his previous failure could be waved away.Concerned CitizenNot rated. In Hebrew, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      Stream These 9 Shows and Movies Before They Leave Netflix in June

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      An eclectic mix of titles are leaving the service for U.S. subscribers by the end of the month. Catch them before they’re gone.In the month to come, Netflix in the United States will bid farewell to an eclectic mixture of genre movies, sketch comedy, reality TV and romantic comedies, as well as a beloved family feature and a documentary exploration of a peculiar corner of the entertainment industry. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)‘Bathtubs Over Broadway’ (June 8)One of the most delightful documentaries of recent years, this 2018 charmer chronicles how the “Late Show With David Letterman” writer Steve Young stumbled onto the long-forgotten world of “industrial musical theater”: original musical productions, created specifically for corporate events and solely to inspire sales, that nevertheless provided steady paychecks and opportunities for performers, composers and designers for decades. What begins as an ironic fringe interest, discovered while sifting through vinyl oddities, becomes something of an obsession for Young, and the film evolves into a quiet love letter to ephemeral art.Stream it here.‘The Mole’: Seasons 3-4 (June 13)One of Netflix most unexpected (but enjoyable) resurrection projects has been the reboot of the reality competition series “The Mole.” The streamer premiered its latest season, hosted by MSNBC’s Alex Wagner, last fall — 14 years after the show’s fifth and presumably final season aired on ABC. And for nostalgia’s sake, it also licensed the third and fourth of the original seasons. Those were the “Celebrity Mole” years, so viewers can enjoy the host Ahmad Rashad (the original host was Anderson Cooper) guiding viewers in the hunt for the saboteur among a group of decidedly mid-2000s celebs, including Stephen Baldwin, Angie Everhart, Kathy Griffin, Dennis Rodman and Frederique van der Wal.Stream it here.‘The Mist’ (June 21)The writer and director Frank Darabont’s third adaptation of Stephen King’s work was a far cry from his earlier, emotionally hefty, Oscar-courting films “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile”; if those were not what we think of as a “Stephen King movie,” this 2007 take on King’s 1980 novella certainly was. Set primarily in the supermarket of a small Maine town enveloped in a mysterious murky fog, the story features supernatural forces, killer creatures and protagonists cracking under pressure. It also features stellar performances from a stacked ensemble (including Andre Braugher, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Thomas Jane and Toby Jones) and one of the bleakest endings to ever sneak its way into a mainstream movie.Stream it here.‘Chappelle’s Show’: Seasons 1-2 (June 30)Say what you will about his current preoccupations (and there is much to say), but there’s no denying the impact, power and sheer comic virtuosity of Dave Chappelle’s Comedy Central sketch series, which scorched cable airwaves for these two brief seasons, from 2003 to 2004. (Chappelle notoriously walked off the show during production of its third season, with only enough material for three episodes in the can.) But in that brief time, a handful of memorable characters and sketches — including Chappelle’s impersonations of Rick James and Lil’ Jon and sketches about a blind Black white supremacist and a celebrity “racial draft” — became immediate comic sensations and pop culture reference points.Stream it here.‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ (June 30)There may have been better early-2000s romantic comedies, but this 2003 hit from Donald Petrie may be the most early-2000s romantic comedy. All of the conventions are present and accounted for: an impossibly gorgeous, opposites-attract central couple (Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey); a plotline centering on a secret wager; Kathryn Hahn stealing scenes as our heroine’s BFF. But what it lacks in originality it makes up for in verve, with Hudson and McConaughey creating considerable sparks and Petrie directing with the proper, light-as-air touch.Stream it here.‘Jerry Maguire’ (June 30)In retrospect, it was really kind of genius — artistically and commercially — of the writer and director Cameron Crowe to combine the most stereotypically “dude flick” (the sports movie) with the most stereotypically “chick flick” (the romantic comedy). Yet by doing so, he proved how simplistic and suffocating such labels could be. In telling the story of a high-powered sports agent (Tom Cruise) whose nervous romance with a single mom (Renée Zellweger) makes him a better agent and a better man, Crowe drafted an unlikely Venn diagram, in which the common concerns of family, integrity and loyalty are of equal weight and audiences can’t help but root for both the underdog team and the unlikely couple.Stream it here.‘Puss in Boots’ (June 30)The “Shrek” movies made untold truckloads of money, but strangely, their most lasting cultural footprint seems to have come in the form of a side character who didn’t even appear until “Shrek 2.” Yet the suave, swashbuckling, Puss in Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas, became not only one of the most popular characters in the series but also the star of his own delightful adventures. This 2011 treat offered the expected thrills and giggles for the little kids as well as some Easter eggs for their parents, including Banderas’s reunion with his “Desperado” co-star Salma Hayek and energetic voice performances by the likes of Guillermo del Toro, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Sedaris and Billy Bob Thornton.Stream it here.‘The Taking of Pelham 123’ (June 30)The original 1974 film adaptation of the crime novel “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” was so steeped in the specific circumstances of Fun City-era New York City that it was probably impossible for a remake to reanimate its specific, grimy thrills. But Tony Scott’s 2009 version offers up its own pleasures. Scott’s frequent leading man Denzel Washington brings tormented complexity to the grizzled hero, whose shift at M.T.A. dispatch is disrupted by a madman (John Travolta) whose crew takes over a subway car and holds its passengers hostage. And James Gandolfini is wonderful (and miles from Tony Soprano) as the city’s mayor.Stream it here.‘World War Z’ (June 30)Max Brooks’s 2006 novel about a zombie apocalypse was both a no-brainer for film adaptation (again, it details a zombie apocalypse) and a challenge, as so much of its power came from its epistolary-style, “oral history” structure. Those challenges made for something of a troubled production, and the stories of expensive reshoots and 11th-hour rewrites were so plentiful that it’s somewhat surprising the picture is as coherent as it is — well-crafted, tense and thrilling, alternating effective character beats with chilling set pieces.Stream it here.Also leaving: “Philomena” (June 19), “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” (June 29). More

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      Meet Greta Lee, the Star of “Past Lives”

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      She’s known for playing offbeat characters in “Russian Doll,” “High Maintenance” and “Girls,” but Greta Lee is winning raves for her restrained performance in “Past Lives.” It almost didn’t happen.“I’ve played a lot of larger-than-life people,” Greta Lee said. “This is entirely different. I was really attracted to what that could be, and whether or not I could pull it off.”Chantal Anderson for The New York TimesGreta Lee shines at playing the entrancing oddball, the scene-stealing weirdo you can’t take your eyes off of.Over the years, the actress has channeled Soojin, an entitled, self-absorbed gallerist who thinks she’s poor but isn’t (“Girls”); Hae Won, a nail salon technician who can party with the best of them, in this case, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (“Sisters”); and Maxine, the free spirit on “Russian Doll” caught in an inescapable time loop with her best friend, played by Natasha Lyonne.What Lee hasn’t gotten to play much are characters who are, to use her word, restrained.For many actors, restraint is not necessarily something to strive for. “A lot of times, as performers, we’re fighting this unspoken desire to show you can do something,” she said. “To show that you understand the assignment.”Audiences will get to see a bit more restraint and a lot more of what Lee can do in the A24 drama “Past Lives,” which opens June 2. After years of making the most of small parts, the actress’s talents have long been there to see for anyone with eyeballs, whether she was performing on Broadway (briefly) or in some of TV’s most groundbreaking comedies. All that was needed for Lee to move up was the right role — in this case, her first leading role, one that almost didn’t come her way.In “Past Lives,” she plays Nora, a Korean Canadian playwright who reunites with the childhood sweetheart she left behind in Seoul when her family immigrated 24 years before. The film also stars Teo Yoo (“Love to Hate You”) as Hae Sung, the man who still wonders what might have been, and John Magaro (“Not Fade Away”), as Nora’s husband Arthur, a writer forced to wonder what might have been, too, when Hae Sung comes to New York for a short but affecting visit.Teo Yoo and Lee in “Past Lives.” Initially the roles went to other performers.A24In many ways, Nora is about as far from Lee’s roster of scene-stealing roles as you can imagine: measured and still rather than riotous or offbeat; the humor, when it comes, wry. It’s a breakthrough performance in a film that has already earned rave reviews (The Times described it as “a gorgeous, glowing, aching thing”) after it premiered at Sundance and played the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. The Los Angeles Times called her turn a “career-making performance,” while The Hollywood Reporter singled out the “extraordinary depths” of her portrayal of Nora.“I’ve played a lot of larger-than-life people,” Lee said. “This is entirely different. I was really attracted to what that could be, and whether or not I could pull it off.”The role almost eluded Lee, an experience she related one afternoon in a coffee shop in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. “I felt absolutely certain that it was not going to go my way,” she recalled.IF NORA IS NOTHING LIKE many of Lee’s previous party-girl characters, neither is Lee herself. She’s a mother, for starters, of two young boys with her husband, Russ Armstrong.On set, “Greta is like a Hunter S. Thompson-meets-Fellini character,” Natasha Lyonne said in an interview. “She’s a total original.”And while Lee’s characters can seem infinitely too cool to be seen with you or your friends, she herself isn’t above getting excited about all sorts of things, including how kind and receptive everyone has been about this latest movie of hers. “I’m going to show you,” she said, pulling out her cellphone. She played a tiny clip she had shot on her phone of the blocks-long line at a recent screening of “Past Lives.” “It keeps going! Still going. Still going. Isn’t this completely wild?”Lee, now 40, was born in Los Angeles and spent most of her childhood here. The daughter of Korean immigrants and the oldest of three, she experienced much of her early life as a series of firsts. “I was the first kid to be an American citizen in the family, the first to go to school here, just navigating all these things,” she said. “I always had a burning fire to prove something, either to myself, or to whatever authority figure there was in my life.”Growing up, she loved sports (“there are Olympic wrestlers on my dad’s side”) and musical performance. She played the piano, studied opera, sang Liza Minnelli numbers at the local mall, took modern-dance classes, competed in classical music festivals (and won). “I know a lot of Italian arias and German art songs,” she said.After high school, Lee attended Northwestern University in the hopes of going into musical theater. “Back then it was ‘Miss Saigon,’ ‘South Pacific,’ ‘The King and I,’” she said. “It’s kind of sad to think about now. It was so limited in what it could be. But it was still enough for me to feel like there was something here that I deeply want to be a part of.”For a time, she hustled for any type of role or gig. “I was meeting rejection and obstacles, and I remember feeling constantly like I was falling behind,” she said, recalling the five-year stretch when she booked just a few TV episodes.Still, all that auditioning paid off. In 2010, Lee found herself on Broadway in a revival of “La Bête,” a comedy in iambic pentameter set in the 17th century and starring David Hyde Pierce and Joanna Lumley. Even then, she was multitasking. “I would do that play, and then change out of my corset and walk around the corner to MTV’s ‘TRL’ studios, where I was a VJ.”Supporting parts in celebrated series like “High Maintenance,” “Girls” and “Inside Amy Schumer” followed. In 2019, Lee landed regular roles on the streaming series “Russian Doll,” which finished its second season last month, and “The Morning Show,” which has been renewed for a fourth season.“I think the path I took, as an Asian American woman, was different from what is conventional,” Lee said. “Certain points in my life during this journey didn’t always make sense to other people. But it makes so much sense to me now.”Chantal Anderson for The New York TimesLee read the script for “Past Lives” the following year and was immediately captivated. “It really stood out in terms of what a romantic drama could be,” she said. “It’s not a conventional love story or love triangle. And the woman at the center of the story is really different from others I’ve seen in other films.”Not long after that first read, “I got a phone call from an assistant, asking if I was available for an important meeting” at a restaurant in the Village, she said. “I assumed I had gotten the job!” But the assistant had the wrong number, and it turned out the message, unrelated to “Past Lives,” was for Greta Gerwig.In fact, Lee wasn’t even being considered for the part. For months, Celine Song, the writer and director of “Past Lives,” had been looking at other Noras, other Hae Sungs. “They cast it with two other people,” Lee said.According to Song, the oversight had little to do with Lee herself. The film’s story is loosely based on the true-life reunion of Song, her American husband and her Korean school pal, which took place when the director was 29. “When you’re young, you think that being 29 is so interesting and cool and meaningful,” Song said. “So I was trying to find somebody at 30, or even in their twenties, and Greta, of course, was in her late 30s.”“It was really stupid,” Song admitted.AFTER SONG CAME TO HER SENSES, she contacted Lee. A year had passed since Lee had first read the script, but she still remembered it: her soul-mate film, she called it. Could she meet with Song, via Zoom, that day? After a video audition that stretched on for two and a half hours, with Lee reading key scenes as Song played the two male leads (“Celine makes an excellent Arthur and Hae Sung,” Lee said), Song offered Lee the part on the spot.The film began shooting in summer 2021. To help the actors convey the feeling of being reunited with someone after 24 years, when you’ve only communicated over Skype, Song kept Lee and Yoo apart as much as possible. “She told us, you guys can’t touch,” Lee said.For Yoo, “during the rehearsal process, the instinct is to say goodbye naturally, with a hug,” he said. “And Celine was like, no, no, no, you guys, no touching.” I’m allowed to touch and hug, she told them, but Yoo and Lee got shooed away when they tried.Song insisted that the actors were all in, and that she never had to scold them to keep them in line. “Is that what they’re saying?” she asked, with a laugh. “No, no. I think they wanted to go along with the trick.”Of course the actress balked, Lee said, at least at first. “I was like, we’re all professionals here, and there’s a question of, how much of this needs to be actualized? We’re acting. But I think we all wanted to support her vision of this, and I was also curious to see how this might affect the process.”“It was really visceral, that first moment when we hug each other,” Yoo said. “So I was glad that we were able to capture that, and the audience gets to experience it.”Much of “Past Lives” was filmed in New York, as Nora shows Hae Sung around the city during a particularly dreary, rain-soaked week. The shoot was a reunion for the cast — not with, say, a long-lost sweetheart, but with the city itself. Song and the three leads had all lived in New York when they were coming up. Lee and Yoo had spent years in the East Village as struggling actors: Yoo, above a pizza joint at the corner of Avenue A and St. Marks Place; Lee, above a Thai restaurant in a small apartment she shared with three other women.“I was the first kid to be an American citizen in the family, the first to go to school here, just navigating all these things,” Lee said. “I always had a burning fire to prove something.”Chantal Anderson for The New York Times“We were shooting on the actual streets I lived on in the East Village when I was just starting out as a young 20-something, really desperate for work and trying to make a living,” Lee said. “It’s embarrassing to put it this way, but I guess it did feel somewhat like destiny.”In addition to “Past Lives,” Lee returns this fall as the network executive Stella Bak in the third season of “The Morning Show.” “I think people are really going to be excited about her arc on this season,” Lee said.She’s also set to appear in “Problemista,” an A24 comedy written, directed and starring Julio Torres. Greta plays a painter unfairly maligned by an art critic (Tilda Swinton). The part is small, Torres said, but memorable. “Greta has a way of staying with you even when you haven’t seen a lot of her, which is a very powerful thing to have,” he said.Right now, however, Lee’s focus is on “Past Lives.” All those other experiences she’s gone through, the stage work and revivals, the sketches and half-hour comedies, the TV dramas and voice actor work, she said, have all helped prepare her for this moment.“I think the path I took, as an Asian American woman, was different from what is conventional,” she said. “Certain points in my life during this journey didn’t always make sense to other people. But it makes so much sense to me now.”“I feel like I’ve been working really hard,” she added, “to make sure I was ready for the day when a role like Nora Moon would come my way.” More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘The Idol’ and ‘Dave’

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      HBO premieres its new series from the creator of “Euphoria,” and the show starring Lil Dicky wraps up.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, May 29 — June 4. Details and times are subject to change.MondayWHITE HOUSE PLUMBERS 9 p.m. on HBO. This mini-series starring Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux, based on the Watergate scandal, is wrapping up its run this week. Over the course of the five-episode run, Harrelson and Theroux play E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, who bug the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee during the 1972 presidential election. From there, we all pretty much know the rest of the story.From left: Josh Hamilton, Sydney Sweeney and Marchant Davis in “Reality.”Courtesy of HBOREALITY 10:05 p.m. on HBO. Set in 2017 and based on a true story, this new show follows Reality Winner, an Air Force veteran and National Security Agency contractor as she is questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for leaking a classified report about election interference. The dialogue in the show, starring Sydney Sweeney, is taken from the real F.B.I. transcripts from Winner’s questioning.TuesdayAMERICA’S GOT TALENT 8 p.m. on NBC. Entering its 18th season, the show that celebrates talents and strange party tricks of all kinds is back with its first round of auditions this week. Terry Crews is returning as the host and Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel and Sofía Vergara will all be back as judges.WednesdayDAVE 10 p.m. on FXX. This semi-autobiographical show about the rapper Dave Burd, a.k.a. Lil Dicky, is wrapping up its third season this week with Dave ending his quest to find love. The show, which originally started as a story about a man in his late 20s who believed he was destined to become one of the greatest rappers of all time, has slowly turned into a show about Dave actually being a rapper, touring around and finding modest success.SECRETS OF THE DEAD: ABANDONING THE TITANIC 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic has had countless retellings; from the 1997 film to many documentaries, there is not a lot left unknown or uncovered. But in this documentary, investigators talk about a lesser-known detail: When the Titanic was sinking, another ship in sight sailed away instead of helping the people freezing to death in the water. Who was on the ship that sailed away? This documentary finds out.ThursdayElvis Presley and Ann Margaret in “Viva Las Vegas.”Agence France-PresseVIVA LAS VEGAS (1964) 6:30 p.m. on TCM. Elvis Presley plays a musically gifted racecar driver (naturally), who goes to Las Vegas to win enough money to buy a new car so he can enter the Grand Prix, but he ends up loosing all his earnings. While trying to make his money back, he falls into a love triangle with a swimming instructor (Ann-Margret) and another racecar driver (Cesare Danova). “Whatever it isn’t, ‘Viva Las Vegas’ remains friendly, wholesome and pretty as all get-out,” Howard Thompson wrote in his 1964 review for The New York Times.FridayOCEAN’S 11 (2001) 7:30 p.m. on TNT. If you’ve seen these films, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and lots of other big names, you know the three rules: “Don’t hurt anybody, don’t steal from anyone who doesn’t deserve it, and play the game like you’ve got nothing to lose.” That’s how Danny Ocean (Clooney) and his accomplices pull off one of the most elaborate casino heists that Vegas has ever seen. “For those not so taken by the star power, this new ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ is the equivalent of a domineering team you can’t stand that enters the Super Bowl,” Elvis Mitchell wrote in his review for The Times. “Even if you don’t like the players, the odds are so good that it’s tough to bet against them.”SaturdayThe Carolina Hurricanes played the Florida Panthers during Game Four of the Eastern Conference Final during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.Bruce Bennett/Getty ImagesSTANLEY CUP FINALS 8 p.m. on various networks. After a long hockey playoff season with lots of ups and downs (see: the Seattle Kraken beating the Colorado Avalanche), we have arrived at the finals, with the Florida Panthers playing either the Vegas Golden Knights or the Dallas Stars in Game 1.SundayLeonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in “Titanic.”Paramount Home EntertainmentTITANIC (1997) 6 p.m. on VH1. After watching the Titanic documentary, tune in for this whooping 3-hour-plus fictionalized account, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as Jack and Rose, lovers who meet on the ship. Come for the love story and decadence, stay for the harrowing scenes of characters meeting terrifying deaths. “Beyond its romance, ‘Titanic’ offers an indelibly wrenching story of blind arrogance and its terrible consequences,” Janet Maslin wrote in her review for The Times.THE IDOL 9 p.m. on HBO. The production of this show, starring Lily-Rose Depp and Abel Tesfaye (a.k.a The Weeknd), got a rocky start and was eventually taken over by the “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson. Now it is finally coming to small screens. The show, which has been marketed by HBO as the “sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood,” follows an aspiring pop star (Depp) and her relationship with Tedros (Tesfaye), a self-help guru. “There’s a lot of dirty talk so grossly delivered by the Weeknd that you may need to mute and switch to closed captioning,” the Times reporter Kyle Buchanan wrote about the show after seeing the first two episodes at Cannes Film Festival. More

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      ‘The Machine’ Review: A Hard-Partying Comedian Pays for His Sins

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      In a movie extrapolated from one of his stand-up bits, Bert Kreischer is dragged to Russia to face a gory but still comedic reckoning.The star of this picture, Bert Kreischer, is one of those popular stand-up comedians who’s not zeitgeist-adjacent enough to generate much in the way of think pieces or buzz. But in the late 1990s, as a student at Florida State University, he was the subject of a Rolling Stone magazine profile that named him “the top partyer at the Number One Party School in the country.”The late 1990s were a while ago, and today Kreischer is a hefty 50-year-old who looks mildly partied out. That’s part of his shtick — he performs stand-up while shirtless. In “The Machine,” he plays a fictionalized version of himself, initially in a penitent mode — a family man who’s royally ticked off his clan. At his daughter’s 16th birthday party, Bert and his carpet salesman dad, Albert, are accosted, at gunpoint, by the mobster Irina (Iva Babic) and taken to Russia, where Bert is to make amends for his part in a drunken train robbery decades before.This gore-steeped shaggy dog story is extrapolated from an actual Kreischer bit. As they dodge a score of Slavic psycho killers who are after an heirloom Bert stole, father and son hash out their issues (of course).You may wonder, if Kreischer is such a popular stand-up comedian, why he hasn’t done more television and movie acting. Well. Here he hits his marks and stays in his persona lane, but he’s not a performer who can carry a movie. Mark Hamill, as his dad, comes closer to crusty-old-man territory than one might have predicted. He’s practically Wilford Brimley.The director Peter Atencio has gotten reasonable results in the absurdist meta-comedy realm (“Keanu,” for instance), but he can’t cook with these ingredients. Even when the relentlessly salty humor gets fully crass (a dog is thrown out a high window), the product is bland.The MachineRated R for language, gore and extreme partying. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. In theaters. More