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      5 Action Movies to Stream Now

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      This month’s picks include tales of Southern crime, a slick Japanese remake, a hunt for hidden treasure and more.‘Fast Charlie’Rent or buy on most major platforms.I never knew I needed to hear Pierce Brosnan with a Southern accent until Phillip Noyce’s “Fast Charlie.” The former Bond plays the titular “problem solver,” as he calls himself, cooler than a summer breeze. A turf war between his boss, Stan (James Caan in one of his final film roles) and a New Orleans gangster named Beggar (Gbenga Akinnagbe) results in the apparent murder of Stan and his entire crew, pushing Charlie to seek vengeance before Beggar finds him, too. Charlie’s predicament also envelops his lover, Marcie (Morena Baccarin), a sharp-talking taxidermist.Charlie is rendered in the mold of John Wick, if Wick remained in the biz until his actual retirement age. Brosman moves quietly and efficiently while leaning on smartly delivered one-liners. “What do you want?” Beggar asks. “You, not breathing,” Charlie retorts. Some old dogs do well without new tricks.‘The Dirty South’Rent or buy on most major platforms.Another Southern revenge story, this time in Northern Louisiana, occurs in the writer-director Matthew Yerby’s grim and gritty “The Dirty South.” Weighed down by an alcoholic father and an absent, ne’er-do-well mother, Sue Parker (Willa Holland) is on the verge of losing her family bar to the town’s wealthy patriarch, Jeb Roy (Dermot Mulroney), if she doesn’t come up with $30,000 in three days. Lucky for her, Dion (Shane West), a petty pickpocket from an equally broken family, just rolled through town. Sue teams up with Dion to rob Jeb, striking a blow to Jeb’s fief.At its heart, “The Dirty South” is a heist flick. The resourceful Dion teaches the determined Sue the tricks of his trade and quickly falls in love with her. The climatic heist, a brawling affair between Sue and Jeb, is soundtracked by “Carol of the Bells,” ripping the bow from Yerby’s rough and tumble holiday treat.‘Hard Days’Stream it on Netflix.Having previously written about “A Family” and the “The Village,” I’m persistently on the lookout for the Japanese director Michihito Fujii’s next film. His special interest in random bystanders who become stuck in larger, nefarious webs re-emerges in his slick, unhinged remake of the Korean action film “A Hard Day.” Fujii’s “Hard Days” opens on Detective Kudo (Junichi Okada) accidentally hitting a pedestrian with his car. This victim turns out to be at the heart of a battle between a corrupt internal affairs investigator, Yazaki (Go Ayano), who’s tasked with retrieving a key to a vault, and the elderly gangster (Akira Emoto) who is intent on stealing its contents.The messy situation immerses Kudo into a pure comedy, turning scenes requiring subterfuge — a traffic stop or his mother’s funeral — into hilarious near catastrophes. Okada builds his performance from broad physical gags toward a showdown against a crazed Yazaki among the tombstones of a Buddhist temple, not unlike the ending to the classic western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Their battle of the wills even leaves an opening for a sequel.‘The Legend and Hag of Shaolin’Stream it on Hi-Yah!The Chinese director Zhang Dicai’s “The Legend and Hag of Shaolin,” with its faceless white-clad cult following its holy goddess on a trail to a MacGuffin treasure map, certainly qualifies as offbeat. Zhang leans into the comedic potential of this otherworldly premise through the two martial arts warriors — Hong (Gu Shangwei) and Shiyu (Zhao Wenzhuo) — who take the map into hiding. In a country village, the pair run an acupuncture clinic that, despite their best efforts to lay low, becomes a hit with the town’s women.Though corrupt martial arts masters, a romance and a major twist arise, the lighter-than-air fighting is the film’s primary vehicle. Clean frames and fluid choreography imbue Hong’s leaps and slides with balletic grace. The Foley artists, the key engine to any good action film, propel these staged confrontations, making Hong’s trusty spear sound like a whistling crystal searching for blood.‘Robbing Mussolini’Stream it on Netflix.Pietro (Pietro Castellitto) is a small-time gun runner, who, with his sharpshooting partner Marcello (Tommaso Ragno), works to earn a living during the waning days of World War II. Though Pietro deals with the resistance, he isn’t a revolutionary. He’s on the side of earning the kind of money he hopes will impress his girlfriend, Yvonne (Matilda De Angelis), who happens to be the mistress of Achille Borsalino (Filippo Timi), a brutal Fascist commander. After hearing about the Italian leadership’s plan to flee the country with a bounty of gold, Pietro forms a team to steal the treasure first.The Italian director Renato De Maria’s “Robbing Mussolini” is an inspired blending of “Inglourious Basterds” and “Sunset Boulevard,” relying on lush period detail, ornate Art Deco sets and resplendent gowns emblazoned with intoxicating splashes of red. The heist itself, in a nearly impregnable square surrounded by high walls, barbed wire and snipers, is equally imaginative: Long tracking shots capture the bevy of explosions and well-choreographed firefights, with biting precision and arresting flair, on an audacious scale. More

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      in Television

      Love a TV Show? Now You Can Live It.

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      Streamers and networks are creating live experiences to promote series like “Squid Game” and “Only Murders in the Building.” But do they amount to anything more than just marketing?On a sun-nuzzled morning in Los Angeles, 25 people filed into a narrow, windowless room. They were about to participate in “Squid Game: The Trials,” an interactive experience based on the popular, dystopian Netflix franchise.A South Korean series about an indebted man who enters a deadly tournament, “Squid Game” was a surprise hit for Netflix two years ago. In November, Netflix released a companion reality series in which 456 players competed, less lethally, for a $4.56 million prize. Now anyone with $39 — or $99 for a V.I.P. pass that includes parking and coat check — can play along in real-time. A ticket is an entree to a 70-minute roundelay of dire versions of children’s playground games, with Korean snacks, claw games and shopping to follow.The original “Squid Game, ” a savage anticapitalist satire, delights in blood sport. The reality version, though gentler, takes a dim view of human nature. But in the rooms of the interactive experience, housed on the former soundstage of “The Price Is Right,” the mood was cheerful, even giddy. “Squid Game” fans — dads and sons, friend groups, couples, a grandmother celebrating her birthday — thrilled to each callback and Easter egg. Many of them had come in tracksuit costume. Once the trials were complete (the grandmother had won, via light cheating), they happily browsed the snack stalls.Some players came to “Squid Game: The Trials” in tracksuit constumes.Jamie Lee Taete for The New York TimesThe event was held in the former home of “The Price Is Right,” but its games were much gorier.Jamie Lee Taete for The New York Times“Squid Game: The Trials” is the latest in a trend of immersive experiences designed to lever an imaginary world into our real one. Referred to as brand activations or brand experiences, these events transform television shows (and films and sometimes consumer products) into multidimensional happenings.“It’s moving and it’s organized and it’s becoming a lot more expected,” Fri Forjindam, whose company Mycotoo specializes in immersive design, said of the trend.This past year, in New York City alone, fans could snuggle on the couch during a “Friends” experience, wander through an opulent theater during an “Only Murders in the Building” experience, solve a murder at “Welcome to the Continental: The Hotel Bar Experience,” dance the night away at a ball out of “Bridgerton” or sip cocktails while ogling Carrie Bradshaw’s shoe closet. Really, the options are legion. (In 2017, the FX series “Legion” rated an experience, too.)“We are bringing a theme park to people,” Marian Lee, Netflix’s chief marketing officer, said. “We are going to where the fans are.”These participatory and walk-through experiences have been part of the media landscape for more than 20 years, but until recently they have been rare and exclusive, the province of events like Comic Con or the South by Southwest festival or some of the splashier premieres. An amalgam of theater, commerce, viral marketing and fan service, they were intended to publicize shows in ways more forceful and creative than a Sunset Boulevard billboard.“You don’t hear from people necessarily about billboards that they see,” said Barrie Gruner, Hulu’s executive vice president of marketing and publicity. “But these types of activations are what really help drive word of mouth.”In recent years, these experiences have multiplied, particularly for prestige shows. “The Walking Dead” has sponsored a zombie-ridden obstacle course. “Game of Thrones” has birthed an interactive studio tour. The pandemic accelerated the trend. Many viewers consumed unusual amounts of television during lockdown. When live events returned, marketing and publicity departments looked for innovative ways to engage those fans. Hulu debuted a “Nine Perfect Strangers” activation in 2021. The next year Netflix created elaborate experiences in multiple cities based on three of its most popular properties: “Bridgerton,” “Money Heist” and “Stranger Things.”“We’ve seen an acceleration, post-Covid, of people wanting to be out,” Lee said. “This is how fans are engaging.”Not every show or movie lends itself to an experience, but many do: Walking away from the “Squid Game” immersion, I stumbled across a lollipop-filled “Wonka” pop-up that had taken over part of a nearby shopping center.An experience based on the Netflix period dramedy “Bridgerton” was styled as a ball.NetflixAn amalgam of theater, commerce and viral marketing, the activations are designed to publicize shows and keep fans engaged.Federico Imperiale/NetflixThese activations offer titles another way to stand out, literally, amid a crowded mediascape. For series, specifically, they offer a way to retain fans between seasons.“A lot of shows can get hot for a season or two, but we’re really looking and interested in sustained success,” Gruner, from Hulu, said. “In order to do that, you need more than fans, you need advocates.”These brand extensions take different forms, which typically gesture toward older varieties of entertainment. Some resemble museum exhibits. Others, which can involve dozens of actors, resemble plays.“They’re not theater,” said Sarah Bay-Cheng, an academic who studies the intersections of theater and media. “But they are theatrical.” And now some of them are in fact theater, as in the case of “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a prequel that recently opened in London.Not every activation invites or demands absolute fidelity to its source material, though an experience risks disenchanting fans if it deviates too far. While streamers and networks typically outsource activations to external marketing farms, those firms tend to work closely with writers and producers to preserve the spirit of the work.“We’re all making sure that we’re coming to it from a place of authenticity,” said Forjindam, who has helped to design experiences for “Stranger Things,” “The Mandalorian” and “Westworld.” “And then from there, you break all the rules.”An “Only Murders in the Building” activation included props and costumes from the show.Mo DaoudGuests were invited to solve the mystery of the most recent season.Mo DaoudA recent “Only Murders in the Building” experience, held in September at Upper Manhattan’s United Palace theater, where the show had filmed, was a faithful, playful recreation of the show. Guests could wander onstage, backstage and through the lobby, surveying actual props and costumes from the show. Using special flashlights to illuminate clues, they could attempt to answer the most recent season’s whodunit just days before the finale aired.A week later and a few miles downtown, at “Welcome to the Continental: The Hotel Bar Experience,” fans would encounter all-new characters and an original mystery, inspired by the Peacock series “The Continental,” a prequel to the “John Wick” franchise. Inside the Beaver Building, which had lent its facade to the movies, ticket holders, who were encouraged to dress as assassins, were free to move from room to room, engaging actors at will. Or they could congregate at the bar and swallow some very strong cocktails.“We wanted guests to feel like they were the main character in their own show,” said Ollie Killick, whose company, Fever, designed the experience.But is the show really about them? Or are activations like these merely a means to a marketing end? If an experience delights fans, those fans, by documenting and posting, often in meticulous detail, become part of a show’s advertising campaign.An event to promote “The Continental,” a “John Wick” prequel, included an original mystery and cocktails.Bryan Bedder/Peacock“We do look at social buzz,” said Shannon Willett, the chief marketing officer at Peacock. “We want people to have a great time, have that great experience, post on social, talk about that experience to other people.” Though expensive to produce, such immersions will have a greater impact on fans and will likely lead to more social media impressions than a traditional billboard or print ad.Netflix’s Lee put the emphasis elsewhere. “For us, it’s about the fans,” she said. “We don’t approach it as advertising.” Netflix recently announced a plan to open destinations known as Netflix Houses, where fans can engage in rotating live experiences while also eating branded food and shopping for souvenirs.Though perhaps not conceived as an advertising ploy, a venue like this achieves some of what advertising intends, building brand identification and loyalty. And they may lack the intellectual and emotional nourishment that theatrical or museum experiences might offer.Last year, in Toronto, Bay-Cheng attended the “Bridgerton” ball. She was named the diamond of the season, which involved confetti, glitter and great fanfare. “It was just this amazing moment of totally unearned adoration,” she said.While she enjoyed the ball and understands these activations as reflecting the desire for a live experience, she worries that the form is inherently limiting, feeding fans more of what they already enjoy rather than challenging them with something new.There were true challenges at “Squid Game: The Trials.” (The marbles were nearly impossible.) And if the experience could not be reasonably mistaken for theater or art, it did provide moments of exhilaration, affection, collaboration and joy, which is more than most billboards can say.Had it felt like living inside the show? “No,” a woman said after the final challenge. “But it was fun.”Why would a person pay to immerse herself in a dystopia, albeit a fun dystopia? Mike Monello, whose company, Campfire NYC, designed the “Only Murders” experience, has one theory. If you love something, he believes, then you must want to share it, even if the thing you love, as in “Squid Game,” is a caustic drama with an alarming body count.“Opportunities like this offer people a chance to get together with your tribe and experience something unique,” Monello said. “We have the need to share in the things we love. And it’s a lot more fun to do it in person.” More

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      in Television

      Studios Are Loosening Their Reluctance to Send Old Shows Back to Netflix

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      When building their own streaming companies, many entertainment studios ended lucrative licensing deals with Netflix. But they missed the money too much.For years, entertainment company executives happily licensed classic movies and television shows to Netflix. Both sides enjoyed the spoils: Netflix received popular content like “Friends” and Disney’s “Moana,” which satisfied its ever-growing subscriber base, and it sent bags of cash back to the companies.But around five years ago, executives realized they were “selling nuclear weapons technology” to a powerful rival, as Disney’s chief executive, Robert A. Iger, put it. Studios needed those same beloved movies and shows for the streaming services they were building from scratch, and fueling Netflix’s rise was only hurting them. The content spigots were, in large part, turned off.Then the harsh realities of streaming began to emerge.Confronting sizable debt burdens and the fact that most streaming services still don’t make money, studios like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have begun to soften their do-not-sell-to-Netflix stances. The companies are still holding back their most popular content — movies from the Disney-owned Star Wars and Marvel universes and blockbuster original series like HBO’s “Game of Thrones” aren’t going anywhere — but dozens of other films like “Dune” and “Prometheus” and series like “Young Sheldon” are being sent to the streaming behemoth in return for much-needed cash. And Netflix is once again benefiting.Ted Sarandos, one of Netflix’s co-chief executives, said at an investor conference last week that the “availability to license has opened up a lot more than it was in the past,” arguing that the studios’ earlier decision to hold back content was “unnatural.”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?  More

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      in Television

      ‘Carol & the End of the World’ Review: An Affirming Apocalypse

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      An animated Netflix miniseries, about a quiet woman navigating the last days of the planet, looks for hope where you wouldn’t expect to find any.In Netflix’s new animated miniseries “Carol & the End of the World,” the question is not whether the apocalypse can be averted. The rogue planet that is definitely going to collide with Earth in about seven months is steadily growing larger in the sky. Humanity has accepted its fate; heroics are of no use. With the time they have left, people are out partying, traveling and hang-gliding, all of which are now clothing optional.Amid the bacchanal, the question — at least for Carol Kohl, an introverted 42-year-old woman in an unnamed American city — is what to do if you don’t care to join the fun. Carol is a happy creature of habit, and she does not see why the imminent end of the world means that anything has to change. Her wealthy parents may be spending their days naked and in a passionate throuple with her father’s hunky caregiver, but Carol just wishes she could still go to Applebee’s after work. What she would really like to do is to go to work, period.“Carol & the End of the World,” which premiered on Friday, was created by Dan Guterman, an Emmy-winning comedy writer and alumnus of The Onion who has worked on a small but interesting roster of shows that includes “At Home With Amy Sedaris,” “The Colbert Report,” “Community” and “Rick and Morty.” His new series has elements of science-fiction and dystopian workplace mystery, but it’s essentially a gentle, cleareyed coming-of-middle-age story. Carol is remarkable in her unremarkableness, and the show’s tension lies in whether she will come into her own in the little time she has left. Guterman doesn’t exactly find hope in the apocalypse, but he holds out for common humanity and a flicker of redemption.The actress and stand-up comedian Martha Kelly voices Carol with an abashed drone that has a core of dogged resolve. (She played another low-key character, Martha the claims adjuster, on the Zach Galifianakis comedy “Baskets.”) Carol is an odd, lonely, awkward duck, but she is that by choice. Her sister, who is spending her last days trotting the globe with younger men and compulsively skydiving, says: “She always did her own thing. Do you know how hard that is? I always do what everyone else does.”The world of the show has a surface realism and a fairy-tale logic: No one is going to work, but somehow the trains still run and cable news networks still report; benignly silent soldiers fold laundry and ring up groceries. Traveling the mostly empty, gently trashed streets of the city (the whimsical, colorful animation is by Bardel Entertainment, the Canadian studio that also does “Rick and Morty”), Carol discovers the mysterious venue around which the story revolves: a bustling, brightly lighted accounting department in which towers of paper are shuffled for no obvious purpose or any apparent employer. For Carol it’s nirvana, but even here she has trouble getting with the program. She is determined both to learn the office’s secret and to instill some camaraderie in its silent, shellshocked work force.Carol’s new sense of purpose sends her and two co-workers, the formidable Donna (Kimberly Hébert Gregory) and the effervescent Luis (Mel Rodriguez), on missions that have a dry, deadpan comic edge. The 10 half-hour episodes are also fleshed out with separate story lines involving Carol’s family (Bridget Everett is the voice of her frenetic sister, Elena), and a sad father (Michael Chernus) and son (Sean Giambrone) with whom Carol is briefly embroiled. Some of the later episodes take on stylized forms, like a riff on an “Endless Summer”-style surfing documentary or a human resources investigation recounted in true crime voice-over.Guterman and his fellow writers, Kevin Arrieta and Noah Prestwich, let the story wander here and there, and their epiphanies can be small-bore; if you’re not on the show’s wavelength, you may find it aimless or mundanely sentimental. But it has a shaggy, slightly ethereal charm and sympathetic characters whose varied reactions to the end of the world ring largely true. “Carol & the End of the World” resonates with all the medical, meteorological and political terrors that animate the current wave of apocalyptic entertainments, but it’s not out to scare you or to lecture you. It’s for people like Carol who live inside their heads and need a little more time to emerge, even when the world is on fire. More

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      in Theater

      Review: Onstage, the ‘Stranger Things’ Franchise Eats Itself

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      “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a London theater show based on the Netflix series, pummels the audience with sensory overload and its lavish budget.As theatergoers took their seats, a buttery waft of popcorn in the auditorium was an indicator of what was to come. “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” — a spinoff of the hit Netflix series, “Stranger Things” — brings a high-octane, TV-movie sensibility to the stage, pummeling the audience with horror-show frights and sensory overload: eerie smoke effects, mind-boggling levitations, scary vocal distortions reminiscent of “The Exorcist” and noise — so much noise.Directed by Stephen Daldry (“Billy Elliot: The Musical”; “The Crown”) and written by Kate Trefry and Jack Thorne in collaboration with the TV show’s creators, the Duffer brothers, the show runs at the Phoenix Theater, in London, through Aug. 25, 2024. It’s a gaudy, vertiginous fairground ride of a play, exactly what you’d expect from a show co-produced by Netflix: Cheap thrills, expensively made.“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” is billed as a prequel to the Netflix series, which is set in the fictitious town of Hawkins, In., during the mid-1980s. The location is the same, but the year is 1959, and the play tells the origin story of Henry Creel, who appears as a malevolent sociopath in Season 4. We meet him here as a troubled, withdrawn adolescent (played with great aplomb by Louis McCartney) burdened with psychic, clairvoyant and telekinetic powers of unknown provenance.Henry, a newcomer to Hawkins, strikes up a tentative friendship with another oddball, Patty Newbie, played with a winning blend of naïve compassion and halting self-doubt by Ella Karina Williams. The two youngsters bond over their shared, deeply uncool, love of comic books and, somewhat improbably, land the lead roles in their high-school musical. When several of its cast members find their household pets mysteriously killed, Henry appears to be implicated. His peers take it upon themselves to investigate, and stumble, “Blair Witch”-style, into a baroque nightmare.Henry and Patty Newbie, played by Ella Karina Williams.Manuel HarlanAmid the horror, the play carries a sentimental message about young misfits finding solace and community. Patricia, an adoptee, never knew her mother (“My whole life I’ve been the girl from nowhere,” she laments,) and feels a kinship with Henry because he is misunderstood. He reassures her by pointing out that many of their favorite comic book characters are orphans: “Having no parents is basically a prerequisite to being a superhero.” Similarly, Henry is desperate not to let his strange powers define him. (He insists: “I’m not a freak! I’m normal!”)In these respects the tale is redolent of Young Adult fiction, but the can-do vibes are served up with a bleak twist, since the odds — as we know from Season 4 — are stacked against Henry. A research scientist, Dr. Brenner (Patrick Vaill), ostensibly enlisted to help him, has nefarious motives; the influence of Henry’s father, Victor (Michael Jibson), who has severe PTSD from World War II, is also a source of intrigue. All avenues lead, inexorably, to a big conspiracy involving a secret government program. The supporting cast comprise a panorama of recognizable social types — dumb jocks, deadbeat boyfriends, vapid bimbos, oafish policemen — whose antics provide light relief.Miriam Buether’s set evokes 1950s small-town life with a nostalgic, homey touch: a crescent of school locker rooms for the high school scenes, the community church and a local liquor store are elegantly rendered. Later on, a government psychiatric facility is a neon-lit, white brickwork affair, cold and clinical.In the show, Henry meets with Dr. Brenner (Patrick Vaill), right, a research scientist with questionable motives.Manuel HarlanSome of the backdrops are staggeringly elaborate. The opening scene, depicting a nautical disaster, is like something from a Hollywood action movie. In keeping with this aesthetic, the sound, by Paul Arditti, is quite simply relentless. Thunderously loud crashing sounds occur with nerve-shredding frequency — the “jump scare” technique beloved of horror movies. Henry’s paranormal powers are obscurely connected to electromagnetic energy, so there are lots of buzzing electrical noises whenever he has one of his moments.In its totality, the production is lavish to the point of embarrassment, and the sheer scale of the thing is hard to reconcile with the play’s rather modest intellectual aspirations and lack of originality. One is left simultaneously impressed and a little bewildered. Haven’t television and cinema already got these bases covered? Is this what theater is for?“Stranger Things” first aired in 2016. It’s over four years since Mike Hale suggested, in his Times review of Season 3, that the show might be suffering from “franchise fatigue.” The original concept had a certain straightforward appeal — weird goings-on in a backwoods town, sinister machinations of shady state agencies, sympathetic nerds getting a chance to shine — but it was never quite strong enough to sustain serious longevity. The show powered on regardless, because there was money to be made.“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” achieves what it sets out to do, and die-hard fans will surely lap it up — but it may well prove to be a death throe. The real spectacle here is that of a franchise eating itself.Stranger Things: The First ShadowThrough Aug. 25, 2024 at the Phoenix Theater, in London; uk.strangerthingsonstage.com. More

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      in Television

      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Netflix in December

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      Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic, “Maestro,” and a “Chicken Run” sequel highlight this month’s slate.Every month, Netflix adds movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of December’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)‘May December’Now streamingBased loosely on the story of Mary Kay Letourneau — a woman who made tabloid headlines in the 1990s for having a sexual affair with a teenage boy, whom she later married — this arch melodrama stars Julianne Moore as the scandal-plagued Gracie Atherton-Yoo, who is about to be played in a movie by Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), a popular TV actress. As Elizabeth spends time with Gracie to try and understand her life better, her questions disrupt the Atherton-Yoo family and push Gracie’s husband, Joe (Charles Melton), to reflect more deeply on what happened to him when he was a kid. Directed by the venerable indie filmmaker Todd Haynes (best-known for “Far from Heaven” and “Carol”), “May December” is at times discomfiting and at times darkly funny. It’s an artful, absorbing look at a performer using the excuse of researching a role as a way to explore the taboo.‘Leave the World Behind’Starts streaming: Dec. 8The “Mr. Robot” writer-director Sam Esmail adapts Rumaan Alam’s novel “Leave the World Behind,” about a Brooklyn family that rents a vacation home on Long Island, right before a massive cyberattack leads to power blackouts and internet outages across the country. Complicating the situation further, the house’s owner G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) shows up with his daughter, Ruth (Myha’la), asking to take refuge — a request that rankles his renter, the cynical misanthrope Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts). Ethan Hawke also stars as Amanda’s genial husband, Clay, who tries to make peace and to protect the Sandfords’ kids as the natural world around them starts to go haywire. Esmail leans into the eerie beauty of a collapsing society while also probing the tense relationship between these privileged strangers — of similar social backgrounds, yet divided by race — as together they navigate the early days of a possible apocalypse.‘Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget’Starts streaming: Dec. 15This sequel to Aardman Animation’s hit 2000 film “Chicken Run” features a mostly new cast, voicing the original’s beloved characters. Thandiwe Newton now plays Ginger, who in the first movie led a band of rebellious poultry on an escape mission, fleeing an egg farm for the safety of a remote island bird sanctuary. In “Dawn of the Nugget,” Ginger and her mate Rocky (now voiced by Zachary Levi), need to break into a factory, to save their daughter, Molly (Bella Ramsey), and to keep their former captor Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) from exacting revenge on all of chicken-kind with her fast-food innovations. The veteran animator Sam Fell (who previously co-directed Aardman’s “Flushed Away”) takes over as the film’s director, working from a script co-written by the original’s screenwriter, Karey Kirkpatrick.‘Maestro’Starts streaming: Dec. 20After the critical, commercial and Oscar success of Bradley Cooper’s 2018 directorial debut, “A Star Is Born,” the actor takes an even bigger swing with his second film: a biographical drama exploring the life, loves and career of the esteemed American composer Leonard Bernstein. Cooper plays Bernstein and Carey Mulligan plays Felicia Montealegre, who became the musician’s wife and conscience, remaining a valued companion even throughout his extramarital affairs. “Maestro” balances glimpses of Bernstein’s personal life with a celebration of his efforts to bring music education to the masses. Cooper and his crew also bring some visual splendor, making the film look as lush and richly detailed as the kinds of movies Bernstein would have seen in his 1950s heyday.‘Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire’Starts streaming: Dec. 22The “300” and “Justice League” director Zack Snyder launches his second Netflix franchise (following his “Army of the Dead” series) with this ambitious space opera, inspired by the science-fiction and martial arts movies and comic books that Snyder loved in his youth. “Rebel Moon” is set on Veldt, a relatively peaceful satellite within a vast and tyrannical interstellar empire. When the powers that be suddenly take an interest in Veldt, a former imperial soldier named Kora (Sofia Boutella) finds herself having to recruit an eclectic band of locals to fight against the authoritarian regime. The first movie has been divided into two parts, although with the time Snyder has reportedly put into mythology-building — and that the production team has put into set-building — expect more stories to be told in this universe.Also streaming now:“Sweet Home” Season 2“Blood Coast” Season 1“The Archies”“Hilda” Season 3“I Hate Christmas” Season 2“My Life with the Walter Boys” Season 1Coming soon:Dec. 12“Under Pressure: The U.S. Women’s World Cup Team”Dec. 14“The Crown” Season 6, Part 2Dec. 15“Carol & The End of the World”“Face to Face with ETA: Conversations with a Terrorist”Dec. 22“Gyeongseong Creature” Season 1Dec. 25“Star Trek: Prodigy” Season 1Dec. 26“Thank You, I’m Sorry”Dec. 27“Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare”Dec. 28“Pokémon Concierge” Season 1Dec. 29“Money Heist: Berlin” Season 1 More

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      in Movies

      ‘The Archies’ Review: A Masala Milkshake at Pop’s, Anyone?

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      Archie and pals get radicalized when their hometown, now conveniently relocated in India, is threatened by corporate overlords.Namaste from Riverdale! In “The Archies,” the director Zoya Akhtar transplants the all-American comic book hamlet to India, where the Anglo-Indian teenager Archie Andrews (Agastya Nanda) is up to his usual tricks, dating both Betty (Khushi Kapoor) and Veronica (Suhana Khan).Set in 1964, this inessential Bollywood-tinged fantasia is two and a half hours of soda shops, chaste dates, candy-colored petticoats, and athletic musical numbers choreographed to a mix of modern-ish new tunes and classics like “Wooly Bully.” Akhtar, who wrote the script with Ayesha Devitre Dhillon and Reema Kagti, is fearless in her fanciful reorientation. Why not?It’s an extravagant stunt perked up by moments of absurdity. Reggie (Vedang Raina) invents beat-boxing; the kids applaud a quote from Jean-Luc Godard: “Cinema is truth 24 times a second.” Mostly, however, it’s rote shtick. Jughead (Mihir Ahuja) chows down on some kind of burgers while Archie and his girlfriends flirt, fight and flirt some more.Suddenly, the focus shifts from how much Riverdale hasn’t changed to how much it might under threat of a corporate takeover. This wheezy old save-the-town plot only holds our interest because of our long acquaintance with the characters who are now being radicalized. It’s strangely compelling to watch Archie transform into an anticapitalist activist. “I can’t just live my life for kicks,” he sings, “Everything is politics — hey, hey!”The cast is tasked solely with looking chipper and gyrating enthusiastically. The ladies do a saucy number on roller skates; later, Khan’s vampy Veronica lands a back flip. The film does its darnedest to dazzle from its lavish production design to its showboating cinematography. For good measure, Akhtar slaps cartoon-style exclamations on the screen: “Smack!” “Pow!” and, for Hindi speakers, “Dhishoom!”The ArchiesNot rated. In Hindi and English, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 21 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      Obamas’ Vision for Hollywood Company: ‘This Isn’t Like Masterpiece Theater’

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      With three new films on Netflix, Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, is pursuing projects in different genres that aren’t always uplifting.The film “Leave the World Behind” centers on the idea of mistrust and how easy it is for humans to lose empathy for one another when faced with a crisis. It is at once unnerving, misanthropic and bleak and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, it’s produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground.Set to become available on Netflix on Friday, it is one of three films from Higher Ground that will be released within a month of one another on the streaming service. The others are “Rustin,” a biopic about a gay Civil Rights era activist, Bayard Rustin, and “American Symphony,” a documentary tracking the relationship between the musician Jon Batiste and his partner, Suleika Jaouad. Together, the films provide the best evidence of the five-year-old company’s attempts to evolve from an earnest, feel-good brand to one that is more complex and focused primarily on good storytelling centered around, Mr. Obama said, people who are dealing with “the tensions that are in our society.”“It’s taken a while for us to remind our team at Higher Ground, as well as the creative community in Hollywood, that this isn’t like Masterpiece Theater — not everything we do has to fit on PBS,” Mr. Obama said in a phone interview. “We are known to watch other things.”Those familiar with Mr. Obama’s lists of his favorite books, movies and TV shows know that his interests are varied. (When he named Amazon’s raunchy superhero show “The Boys” as one of his favorites in 2020, it shocked the show’s creator and its fans.)“I’m a bit of a sucker for science fiction, dystopias or thrillers,” he said. “Michelle jokes that my favorite movies involve horrible things happening to people and then they die, whereas she actually likes fun, uplifting stories that make her laugh.”In the past 18 months, the company has made its ambitions known to Hollywood by signing with the talent agency Creative Artists Agency to improve its access to new material; agreeing to an audio deal with Amazon’s Audible Originals after parting ways with Spotify; and, in April, hiring a senior executive with film and television experience, Vinnie Malhotra from Showtime.Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali in a scene from “Leave the World Behind.”NetflixSam Esmail, the director of “Leave the World Behind,” is known for a paranoid and dark outlook on society, as represented by “Mr. Robot,” the acclaimed thriller series he created. He was surprised his path ever crossed Mr. Obama’s. But when they discussed “Leave the World Behind,” which is based on Rumaan Alan’s novel that was a pick of Mr. Obama’s, Mr. Esmail said he was heartened that the former president was not interested in shying away from the themes of the film, whose starry cast includes Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali.“He really didn’t want to pull punches,” Mr. Esmail said. “He wanted to have these characters face the truth about the fragility of our society and how do we reckon with that. I found that refreshing.”Some in the Hollywood trade press criticized Netflix’s deal with Higher Ground, struck in 2018, as being more about name recognition than actual content. “Rustin” and “Leave the World Behind” are the first narrative feature films from the company.“There’s plenty of reason to believe that it could be a vanity brand,” said Ted Sarandos, the co-chief executive of Netflix, who last year extended the initial four-year deal for another two years. “But they got street cred right out of the gate.”He referenced Higher Ground starting out with “slightly lower stakes things,” like Ms. Obama’s kid-oriented food show “Waffles + Mochi” and documentaries like “Crip Camp,” which centered on disability rights, “American Factory,” which highlighted the plight of blue-collar workers in a globalized society and won an Oscar for best documentary.Michelle Obama in a scene from “Waffles + Mochi.”Adam Rose/Netflix“I think this year, with ‘Rustin’ and ‘Leave the World Behind,’ you can see the scope and scale and potential for the ambitions that they have, and we have for them,” Mr. Sarandos said.Among the projects Higher Ground has in development is a film adaptation of “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by David W. Blight. Regina King is set to direct, with a script by Kemp Powers, reuniting the duo behind “One Night in Miami.”But now the company is also expanding into other genres: It has grabbed the rights to S.A. Cosby’s best-selling crime thriller “All the Sinners Bleed,” which it will produce with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, and to “Hello, Beautiful” by Ann Napolitano, a family drama that was a pick in Oprah Winfrey’s book club. Both will be made into series for Netflix.Ms. Obama is also working closely with Lupita Nyong’o, who will produce and star in a romantic comedy called “Fling,” based on a novel by J.F. Murray. An unscripted series called “Boomin Love,” about older people finding companionship, is currently in production with a Harvard-trained behavioral scientist, Logan Ury, who is serving as one of the on-air experts.“These might not be something people expect,” Mr. Obama said of the upcoming projects. “I think we’re now in a place where we’re branching out into different genres, and people are starting to probably get the signal that ‘Oh, if we’ve got a good story that doesn’t neatly fit into what we expect Higher Ground might be interested in, they still might be a good partner for us.’”In a scene from the documentary “American Factory,” two women working at Fuyao glass company in Ohio, in 2019.Netflix, via Everett CollectionProducing projects based on high-profile novels, which have a built-in fan base, could augur well for Higher Ground, whose output so far has had respectable reviews though none have topped Netflix’s weekly top 10 most-watched lists.Still, there are plenty in Hollywood who find themselves star-struck by the Obamas. When Mr. Obama visited C.A.A.’s offices in September, agents flooded into the company’s conference room and later described the day with words like “magical” and “the greatest.” Matthew Heineman, who in his 20 years as a documentary filmmaker has embedded with vigilantes fighting drug cartels and American special forces stationed in Afghanistan, said he was “nervous” walking into the restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard for what he described as a “surreal” meeting with the former president about “American Symphony.”The couple is known to give notes on scripts and will look at various edits as a project moves through post production, though Mr. Obama says he does so “with great humility.”“One of the great pleasures of being president is everybody having an opinion about how you can do your job and frequently from people who have no idea what it’s like to do your job,” he said.“Michelle and I do not aspire to be full-time Hollywood moguls,” Mr. Obama said.Stephen Voss/NetflixDespite the projects ahead, Mr. Obama said the couple intended to continue spending just 10 to 15 percent of their time nurturing Higher Ground, especially as the 2024 election approaches and they are called to the campaign trail.“Michelle and I do not aspire to be full-time Hollywood moguls,” he said.For the projects they do choose, however, their support can make the difference. Bruce Cohen, a producer of “Rustin,” credits the Obamas with getting his film made after HBO passed on it years earlier.“Once you have them in your corner, it gives you a really good chance,” he said.And Mr. Heineman, whose film documents Ms. Jaouad’s battle with leukemia, was able to form a partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Be the Match organization, which helps connect patients to bone marrow donors, because of Higher Ground, he said. “The idea of trying to make an impact with the film was something that was important to him and important to me,” Mr. Heineman said, referring to Mr. Obama.While Mr. Obama was no stranger to Hollywood — since his early days of campaigning for the presidency he found a welcoming audience among the show business elite — he has found that working in this business has taken some getting used to.“It’s ironic that the private sector is made out to be this hyper-efficient thing, and the government is plodding, slow,” he said. “I think part of it is ideological and part of it is people’s experience with the D.M.V.“Everything takes so long — decisions, contracts, scripts,” Mr. Obama said. “We organized a major address or a G20 meeting in three weeks. Getting somebody to read a script in three weeks is lucky, much less write a script in three weeks.” More