Netflix Inc

Subterms

    More stories

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Television

      What Does Shane Gillis Want (to Get Away With)?

      by

      How do you profit from a sudden windfall of attention?That’s what’s confronting the man-children of “Tires,” the Netflix sitcom from the comedian Shane Gillis, at the beginning of its recently released second season. The question digs at them both onscreen and behind the cameras.The show’s first season, which aired last year, felt like a tentative demo — a lo-fi experiment in bawdy, blue-collar yuksmanship. Season 2 is crisper and slicker. The clothes fit better. The lighting is sharper. And the auto repair shop at the show’s center is thriving, or something like it. The spoils of success are trickling in.Gillis, a frisky bear of a man who deftly tangles with the absurdities of contemporary culture and politics, is one of the standout comedic talents of the past few years. His humor is playful and plugged in, and delivered approachably. But he has at times deployed offense, or the appearance of it, in ways that have rendered him still something of an outsider from the mainstream, despite his huge popularity.“Tires,” an episodic sitcom on a major streaming platform, is first and foremost an opportunity to bridge that divide. Can the edgelord comedy that’s defined the nü-bro movement of the past few years come out and play?That remains to be seen. “Tires” is too inert to be offensive — curiously (purposely?) stakesless and edgeless for one of the few performers capable of making comedic hay of the current paroxysms around ideological purity (on all sides). Itchier provocations can be found in one Michael Scott monologue on a random episode of “The Office,” or truer right-leaning red meat on any of Tim Allen’s sitcoms.Gillis, left, stars in “Tires” as a mechanic at a Pennsylvania car repair garage.NetflixWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Review: Singing, Slinging and Slashing

      by

      Beyond the somewhat silly premise of this Netflix animated film is a charming, funny and artfully punchy original universe.Lest you roll your eyes and think of it as a four-quadrant-friendlier version of “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” “KPop Demon Hunters” immediately establishes its premise, getting any prospective scoffing out of the way.For generations, a voice-over intro explains, girl groups have used their popular songs to secretly trap hordes of demons underground and keep the world safe. The latest group on their trail? Huntrix, a K-pop girl band that, in its fight against the sinister Gwi-ma (Lee Byung-hun) and his demons, is close to completing the Golden Honmoon, a protective barrier that will permanently keep evil forces at bay. But the girl group soon faces its toughest challenge yet: a demon boy band.With that somewhat silly logline behind us, what we’ll find in this Netflix animated film, directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, is an original universe that is charming, funny and artfully punchy.It’s a Sony Pictures Animation film that shares a kind of lineage with the studio’s recent hit “Spider-Verse” franchise that is most apparent in the similar visual style. But otherwise what it borrows mostly is a more holistic and technical sense of the cinematic, a philosophy of approach that is rare in big-budget animation films. The action sequences are fluid and immersive, the art is frequently striking and the music (catchy, if formulaic earworms) is a properly wielded and dynamic storytelling tool.And as for the cheesy girl group vs. boy band story, Kang and Appelhans have a sly sense of humor about it all, too; the movie is funniest when it pokes at pop culture that is highly manufactured, from K-pop to K-dramas to mass-produced singing competitions — the very things the film itself would never stoop to.Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

    • 88 Shares129 Views

      in Television

      ‘The Waterfront’ Brings More Murder to Netflix

      by

      Created by Kevin Williamson, this new drama set in North Carolina is a pulpy family saga of violence and secrets, land and legacy.“The Waterfront,” a Netflix drama created by Kevin Williamson, is set in North Carolina in a small coastal town. The Buckleys are local royalty — not only in the sense that they’re well known and powerful, but also in that they’re tortured by their circumstances and deeply resent one another, even as they feel a duty to protect the family.The show is one of many to follow the “Yellowstone” model, a family saga of violence and secrets, of huffy men and sly women, of distinctive names (Cane, Harlan, Diller, Hoyt). It is also about land that’s been in this family for generations, gosh darn it — land that’s our legacy if only the cruelties of debt and developers would abate.Our gruff patriarch is Harlan (Holt McCallany), a drunk and a womanizer with heart troubles and a shady past. His wife, Belle (Maria Bello), has her own valuable secrets and runs the family restaurant. Their son, Cane (Jake Weary), meddles with the fishing side of the business, and their daughter, Bree (Melissa Benoist), tenuously sober and trying to rebuild a relationship with her surly teenage son (Brady Hepner), wants more responsibility in the family’s enterprises. But Belle isn’t so sure she’s ready. Cane has gotten himself into a spot of trouble with a drug ring, and suddenly his side hustle is a bigger and bigger problem.Only three of the eight episodes of “The Waterfront” were made available for review, so I cannot speak to its stamina or big arcs. But these early chapters do a few things well.Whatever its flaws may be as it goes on, “The Waterfront” does not start slow — it knows how to escalate. The bodies start piling up quickly and surprisingly, the double-crossing starts right away and the flirtatious glances turn to naughty trysts within an episode. Mysterious strangers do not remain so mysterious or strange for too long. The show often lacks texture, but it compensates with earnest momentum.The series also has dark fun with its setting, and its moody crimes include murder by fishing net, intimidation by dunking someone as shark bait and hiding a body in a swamp in the hopes that alligators will take care of the rest.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares129 Views

      in Television

      Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Busy Caring for a Pony, Pig, Donkey and Malamute

      by

      The longtime actor, now starring in “FUBAR,” on his many animals, good cigars and wanting his kids to outshine him.Arnold Schwarzenegger was smoking a cigar on his patio in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, lamenting all the things that he had decided to trim from his list of 10 essentials. Most of all his five kids.“I cannot live without my children,” he said on a video call as his pet pig, Schnelly, wandered around. “I need to be in touch daily.”Schwarzenegger was sounding a lot like Luke Brunner, his character in the Netflix series “FUBAR,” which just began streaming its second season. In it, he plays the world’s best spy, and perhaps its most overprotective father, who learns that his daughter is a C.I.A. operative with an ego, just like Dad is.“She says, ‘When they say Brunner, I don’t want them just to talk about you. I want them also to talk about me,’” he said. “It’s the same thing as it is in real life with Patrick, my son, being an actor now and being big time and doing fantastic shows,” including a star turn this year in Season 3 of “The White Lotus.”Was the elder Schwarzenegger feeling a bit competitive? “I hope and wish that he will do bigger things than I’ve ever done,” he said before elaborating on his love of chess and driving his M47 tank. “It’s fantastic when kids are performing better than their parents because that is largely because of them, and it’s also because of you. It’s upbringing.”These are edited excerpts from the conversation.ChessI learned to play chess with my father and did that pretty much every day. I have collected chess sets from all over the world, but now 99 percent of the time you play on an app with your friends in Austria or Germany or Hungary or Russia — wherever they are.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Busy Caring for a Pony, Pig, Donkey and Malamute

      by

      The longtime actor, now starring in “FUBAR,” on his many animals, good cigars and wanting his kids to outshine him.Arnold Schwarzenegger was smoking a cigar on his patio in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, lamenting all the things that he had decided to trim from his list of 10 essentials. Most of all his five kids.“I cannot live without my children,” he said on a video call as his pet pig, Schnelly, wandered around. “I need to be in touch daily.”Schwarzenegger was sounding a lot like Luke Brunner, his character in the Netflix series “FUBAR,” which just began streaming its second season. In it, he plays the world’s best spy, and perhaps its most overprotective father, who learns that his daughter is a C.I.A. operative with an ego, just like Dad is.“She says, ‘When they say Brunner, I don’t want them just to talk about you. I want them also to talk about me,’” he said. “It’s the same thing as it is in real life with Patrick, my son, being an actor now and being big time and doing fantastic shows,” including a star turn this year in Season 3 of “The White Lotus.”Was the elder Schwarzenegger feeling a bit competitive? “I hope and wish that he will do bigger things than I’ve ever done,” he said before elaborating on his love of chess and driving his M47 tank. “It’s fantastic when kids are performing better than their parents because that is largely because of them, and it’s also because of you. It’s upbringing.”These are edited excerpts from the conversation.ChessI learned to play chess with my father and did that pretty much every day. I have collected chess sets from all over the world, but now 99 percent of the time you play on an app with your friends in Austria or Germany or Hungary or Russia — wherever they are.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in Movies

      Action Movies to Stream Now: ‘Exterritorial,’ ‘Fear Below’ and More

      by

      This month’s picks include a gaslit mother, a hungry shark, vengeful French cops, and more.‘Exterritorial’Stream it on Netflix.Sara (Jeanne Goursaud), a German war veteran, is moving to the United States with her son, Josh (Rickson Guy da Silva), to accept a job when he is abducted in the consulate. Although Sara begs for help, the consulate’s smarmy security officer, Eric (Dougray Scott), claims her son was never with her.Like “Flightplan,” another film about a mother searching for her missing child, “Exterritorial,” written and directed by Christian Zübert, makes gaslighting a juicy subject for an action thriller. In her pursuit, which is often slowed by her post-traumatic stress disorder, Sara discovers a secret drug ring and an imprisoned whistle-blower (Lera Abova). An expert in hand-to-hand combat, Sara also engages in bone-rattling scrums with consulate personnel. The oppressively white and bright setting, the psychological angst felt by Sara, and Zübert’s insistence on long takes make “Exterritorial” succeed as a frustrating fight for recognition.‘Fear Below’Rent or buy on most major platforms.In the director Matthew Holmes’s striking shark movie “Fear Below,” a diving team — Clara (Hermione Corfield), Jimmy (Jacob Junior Nayinggul) and Ernie (Arthur Angel) — is hired by a rugged gangster named Dylan (Jake Ryan) to salvage boxes of gold bars trapped in a truck at the bottom of a deep and dirty river. It’s a simple job complicated by a deadly female bull shark circling the treasure.“Fear Below” is both politically conscious — using its 1940s Australian background to comment on the sexism and racism of the era — and downright thrilling. While the wrathful Dylan is an easy-to-hate heel, the shark is commandingly elusive. The dingy water means the bloodthirsty predator can appear anytime, and the extreme close-ups in the divers’ helmets adds to the limited visibility. The two angles combine for a shark movie that ends with a crunch.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares179 Views

      in Television

      Review: Thomas Vinterberg’s ‘Families Like Ours,’ on Netflix

      by

      In Thomas Vinterberg’s series on Netflix, climate change forces a country to close, and everyone has to leave.The mini-series “Families Like Ours” on Netflix has an attention-grabbing premise: An entire country, Denmark, decides to shut itself down before climate change can do the job for it. Six million Danes start looking for new homes. Relocation plans are drawn up with Scandinavian efficiency, but European neighbors look upon waves of relatively well-off white refugees with the same distaste they show for Africans and Middle Easterners.The seven-episode series is the first from the Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, known for founding the no-frills Dogme 95 movement with Lars von Trier and, 26 years later, being nominated for a best director Oscar for “Another Round,” which won best international feature in 2021. The handsomely appointed “Families Like Ours,” which Vinterberg wrote, with Bo Hr. Hansen, and directed, breaks just about every rule in the Dogme manifesto, as his films have all along. It is a high-class consumer item, deliberate and hushed.It does, however, have something in common with his one true Dogme film, “The Celebration” from 1998. It subjects an extended Danish family to pressure and traces the fissures of guilt and dependency, the outbreaks of bad behavior and gallantry, that result. “The Celebration,” released when Vinterberg was 29, did this via transgressive, occasionally puerile black humor; “Families Like Ours” offers restrained, tasteful domestic drama. The contrast is startling, but the underlying satisfactions are similar.The new series (it premiered Tuesday on Netflix) will be categorized as a climate-change drama, and it is that. The story appears to take place in an unspecified but near future when waters have risen and efforts to hold them back have met with varying success. But the evidence of danger is mostly offscreen; the crisis is suggested through newscasts and ominous puddles. Vinterberg imagines that the climate crisis will arrive not in floods and heat but in bureaucracy and confusion — endless lines, indecipherable rules, arduous journeys, a constant assault on hope. His vision may not be easily dramatic, but it is convincing.(The overall premise is a more difficult sell. Would the Danes, as disciplined and regimented as they might be, really leave their country as obediently as the series portrays? Wouldn’t many congregate on high ground and fight to stay? The show’s failure to take on that possibility is a problem.)The show is also defined, in part, by the obvious reversal it plays on our expectations for stories about refugees. It is formerly comfortable white people who are standing in the lines, yelling across bank counters and nakedly pleading for handouts and favors. They are shocked by the conditions they face once they make it to Paris or Bucharest.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares189 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Tyler Perry’s Straw’ Review: The Accidental Bank Robber

      by

      A single mom in Atlanta (Taraji P. Henson) is having a very, very, very bad day.In “Tyler Perry’s Straw,” Janiyah (Taraji P. Henson), a single mom in Atlanta, is having a very, very, very bad day. Her morning was already ragged when the writer-director piles onto her woes a demeaning landlord, a bullying boss, a distant school administrator, a line of disgruntled grocery customers and a road-raging, off-duty police officer. Did we mention that Janiyah winds up in the wrong office at the wrong time in the wrong state of mind?As detectives arrive to a bloody crime scene at the grocery store where she clerks, Janiyah is across the parking lot at her bank, trying to cash her paycheck. Only she doesn’t have identification, and the teller is being a stickler. Soon, Janiyah is waving a gun, something is flashing red in her daughter’s see-through backpack and she has made hostages of the bank employees and a handful of aging customers. Sherri Shepherd portrays Nicole, the branch manager who tries to diffuse the situation, having amped it by telling the police that Janiyah has a bomb.Teyana Taylor (“A Thousand and One”) brings fierce focus to a deteriorating situation as Detective Kay Raymond. The security footage at the grocery store didn’t lie, but Detective Raymond intuits something more has sent Janiyah to the desperate standoff. She steps in as a negotiator.Perry, an unapologetic purveyor of melodrama, mercilessly teases the tension. Will Janiyah hurt the hostages? Will the authorities make a sad situation worse? The ending is perhaps too twisting for its own good. But Henson — so deeply committed to her character’s emotional cratering — still makes us care.StrawNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More