More stories

  • in

    The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Netflix in April

    “Sex and the City” and a new adaptation of “The Talented Mr. Ripley” highlight the new offerings this month.Every month, Netflix adds movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of April’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.)‘Sex and the City’ Seasons 1-6Starts streaming: April 1The latest HBO original to land on Netflix is one of the network’s most popular and influential series: a fast-paced and quippy dramedy that helped prove a cable TV show could be at the center of the cultural conversation. Adapted from a Candace Bushnell newspaper column by the writer-producer Darren Star (in close collaboration with the writer-director Michael Patrick King), “Sex and the City” premiered in 1998. It stars Sarah Jessica Parker as the columnist Carrie, who meets up regularly with her friends Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) to dine at New York hot spots and dish about their love lives. With its romantic melodrama, raunchy jokes and fabulous fashions, this show has been a comfort watch for women and men for over 25 years.‘Ripley’Starts streaming: April 4The writer-director Steven Zaillian becomes the latest filmmaker to adapt Patricia Highsmith’s novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” turning the book into an eight-episode mini-series that aims to capture more of the nuances of Highsmith’s slippery antihero. Andrew Scott plays Tom Ripley, a small-time New York con artist who is hired by a shipping magnate to travel to Italy and check in on the idle heir Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), a man Ripley barely knows. Clumsily at first — and then more confidently — Ripley integrates himself into the life of Dickie and his girlfriend, Marge (Dakota Fanning), before mapping out a way that he could live the couple’s jet-setting lifestyle forever. Shot in black-and-white, Zaillian’s “Ripley” takes the character back to his pulp-noir roots, emphasizing the dark desperation at his core.‘Scoop’Starts streaming: April 5In 2019, Prince Andrew tried to quell a growing scandal about his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by sitting for an hourlong TV interview with BBC Two’s “Newsnight.” The interview went horribly for the prince, who suspended his royal duties not long after it aired. The movie “Scoop” is about that bombshell “Newsnight” special. Rufus Sewell plays Prince Andrew, while Gillian Anderson plays Emily Maitlis, the journalist who calmly, persistently grilled him. The director Philip Martin and the screenwriter Peter Moffat cover the prep that the royal family and the Maitlis team put in before the conversation. “Scoop” though is primarily about Sam McAlister (Billie Piper), the producer who landed the interview by persuading all concerned that, whatever the outcome, this was a story that needed to be told, for the sake of Epstein’s victims.‘The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem’Starts streaming: April 5During the 20-plus years that 4chan has been online, the website has rarely gone more than a few months without being at the center of some radical social movement — or some disturbing controversy. The directors Giorgio Angelini and Arthur Jones (who previously collaborated on the documentary “Feels Good Man,” about the Pepe the Frog meme) try to make sense of 4chan’s turbulent existence in “The Antisocial Network,” a film that traces how some adolescent jokes and pranks evolved into conspiracy theories, public protests and cyberterrorism. Through interviews with some of the most influential 4chan (and 8chan) users, Angelini and Jones end up covering topics as far-reaching and significant as Rickrolling, Anonymous, Occupy Wall Street, Gamergate, QAnon and the Jan. 6 riots.‘City Hunter’Starts streaming: April 25Tsukasa Hojo’s “City Hunter” franchise started as a manga serial in 1985 and has since been adapted into multiple anime series and animated movies, along with video games and a few live-action movies. The latest live-action film comes from the director Yuichi Satoh and the screenwriter Tatsuro Mishima, who make it easy on “City Hunter” newcomers by starting at the beginning of the story, when the suave private detective Ryo Saeba (Ryohei Suzuki) begins working with his late ex-partner’s tomboy sister Kaori Makimura (Misato Morita). The two of them patrol the flashy, modern streets of Tokyo’s Shinjuku area, looking cool as they offer help to the helpless.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

  • in

    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Blade’ and the CMT Music Awards

    Syfy airs the 1998 vampire movie. The CMT Music Awards are live in Austin, Texas.For those like myself who still haven’t cut the cord, here is a selection of cable and network TV shows, movies and specials that broadcast this week, April 1-7. Details and times are subject to change.MondayAMERICAN IDOL 8 p.m. on ABC. At this point in the season, most contestants are headed home. But for a lucky handful, the journey continues. This week, the famed singing competition show will reach its final showcase round, where the remaining hopeful vocalists have one last chance to impress the judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie and earn a spot in the Top 24.TuesdaySENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995) 8 p.m. on TCM. Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant are just a few noteworthy names to star in Ang Lee’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s first novel. “Mr. Lee is after something more broadly accessible, a sparkling, colorful and utterly contemporary comedy of manners,” Janet Maslin wrote in her review for The New York Times. “He achieves this so pleasantly that ‘Sense and Sensibility’ matches the Austen-based ‘Clueless’ for sheer fun. Not bad, considering that these characters respond to any awkward social circumstance by talking about the weather.”WednesdayRick Harrison, center, with his son Corey as they are filmed appraising an item at their pawn shop in Las Vegas.Isaac Brekken for The New York TimesPAWN STARS DO AMERICA 8 p.m. on History. Step out from behind the glass and join Rick Harrison, Corey Harrison and Austin Russell (known as Chumlee), the proprietors of Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, as they pound the pavement in search of unique items with supreme historical — and monetary — value. The family-owned and -operated shop was made famous when “Pawn Stars” first premiered on History in 2009 and fans have been lining up in front of the store to take a peek inside ever since. From the Vegas Strip to all corners of the United States, their search for collectibles continues. While you may not always see them strike a deal, you’re always guaranteed a chuckle and a reminder that all that glitters is not gold.TWISTER (1996) 8 p.m. on AMC. “Dorothy and Toto Had It Easier,” reads the headline of the review of “Twister” for The Times. Shall we compare the tornado that gingerly transports Dorothy — and her little dog, too — from Kansas into the land of Oz to the Oklahoman superstorms in this film that explode diesel trucks, turn barns into toothpicks and level entire towns within seconds? While there’s no shortage of courage or brains in Dr. Jo Harding (Helen Hunt) and Bill Harding (Bill Paxton), two spirited storm chasers, heart is the element in question here, with a divorce looming much like the darkening clouds in the distance. Keep a weather eye on the horizon as they navigate their failing romance and battle against the forces of nature.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

  • in

    Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead Check In to ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’

    The first time that Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead shot a scene together, they were in a bathtub, mostly naked. McGregor, in a maximally unflattering wig, was sticking his gut out as far as it would go.“You were just trying to be as grotesque as you could be,” Winstead said affectionately.This was on a recent afternoon in the chilly basement of a midtown hotel where McGregor and Winstead perched on a love seat, his jacket over his shoulders, his hand on her knee. They met in 2017, on the set of the third season of “Fargo,” co-starring as Ray Stussy, a hapless parole officer, and Nikki Swango, his grifter sweetheart. (McGregor also played Emmit Stussy, Ray’s twin.) Two years later, in 2019, they filmed “Birds of Prey” but did not share scenes. They are also both participants in the “Star Wars” franchise — McGregor in the ’90s and ’00s films and the more recent “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series, Winstead in “Ahsoka” — though again they did not share scenes. In 2021, Winstead gave birth to their son. The next year, they married.Now, they have reunited onscreen for “A Gentleman in Moscow,” which premiered Friday on Paramount+ and debuts Sunday on Showtime. An adaptation of Amor Towles’s novel, it stars McGregor as Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a mustached aristocrat sentenced to house arrest in a luxury hotel in the years following the Russian Revolution. Winstead appears as Anna Urbanova, an actress and the count’s sometimes girlfriend. Somehow, in the confines of the hotel, they make a life.McGregor plays a Russian count imprisoned in a luxury hotel and Winstead an actress who becomes his companion.Ben Blackall/Paramount+ with ShowtimeIn an hourlong conversation, in a hotel somewhat more modest than Moscow’s Metropol, they discussed claustrophobia, facial hair and the benefits and detriments of working with a spouse. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.How did you get involved with “A Gentleman in Moscow”?EWAN MCGREGOR It came to me first. I loved the grand nature of the drama, the love and loss and romance. I feel like it’s rarer and rarer to get a chance to play that stuff. At the heart of it, it’s about a man who’s learning to be a husband and learning to be a dad and crawling out of his ideas of the aristocratic way of life to find who he really is.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

  • in

    ‘Saturday Night Live’ Presents Trump Bibles

    Ramy Youssef hosted this weekend’s episode, which also spoofed immigrant fathers and Flaco the owl.Former president Donald Trump’s recent foray into the business of selling his own Bibles provided plenty of comic fodder for “Saturday Night Live” on Easter weekend, including an opening sketch that, for a moment, seemed like a sincere retelling of the resurrection of Jesus.This weekend’s broadcast, hosted by Ramy Youssef and featuring the musical guest Travis Scott, began with a voice-over recounting that the resurrection was witnessed by three women “who had come to anoint the body of Jesus and tend to his tomb.”Following an aside from one of the women played by Sarah Sherman (who wryly observed, “When we’re done grieving, maybe we should come up with a girl’s name other than Mary”), the stone of the tomb was rolled away to reveal a glowing light.“Is it Jesus?” asked another woman, played by Heidi Gardner.“Basically, yes,” answered James Austin Johnson, in his recurring role as Trump. “Happy Easter, everybody,” he declared as he entered. “As it was stated in the Bible: ‘Guess who’s back, back again. Shady’s back.’”Johnson noted that it was “the time of year when I compare myself to Jesus Christ,” which is “just a thing I do now, and people seem to be OK with it.”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

  • in

    Chance Perdomo, Star of ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,’ Dies at 27

    Mr. Perdomo, who died in a motorcycle accident on Friday, played the pansexual warlock Ambrose Spellman in the Netflix series.Chance Perdomo, the British actor known for his roles in the series “Gen V” and “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” died on Friday. He was 27.Mr. Perdomo died in a motorcycle accident, Larissa Saenz, a representative for him, confirmed in a statement on Saturday. The statement said that the “authorities have advised that no other individuals were involved.” It was not immediately clear where the accident happened.Mr. Perdomo played the pansexual warlock Ambrose Spellman in the Netflix series “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” and Andre Anderson, a superhuman with magnetic manipulation abilities, in “The Boys” spinoff series “Gen V.”He was born on Oct. 20, 1996, according to his representative, in Los Angeles and raised in Southampton, England. Details on survivors were not immediately available.Mr. Perdomo had described himself as “a Black child raised by a Latino mother in a white society with two nationalities.”He landed a small part on an episode of “Hetty Feather,” a British children’s drama set in the Victorian era, after graduating from Peter Symonds College in Winchester, where one of his majors was theater.He told The New York Times in 2020 that although the role was “one or two lines,” it was enough “to take that leap of faith” and pursue acting full time.Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television said in a statement posted to a “Gen V” social media account that they were “devastated” by the news of Mr. Perdomo’s death.The account also shared a statement from the producers of “Gen V” in which they said they “can’t quite wrap our heads around this.”“Even writing about him in the past tense doesn’t make sense,” the statement added.Variety reported that production on the second season of “Gen V” had been “delayed indefinitely” after the news of Mr. Perdomo’s death.In Britain, Mr. Perdomo was known for starring in “Killed by My Debt,” a television movie based on the true story of a young courier who dies by suicide after two traffic tickets grow into a crushing debt.In an interview posted on social media, he recalled a conversation he had with his mother when he was about 2 years old. He told her he had two things he aspired to.“She said, ‘What do you want to be?’” he said. “I said I want to be the first Black president of the United States, and I want to be on ‘Barney.’”Mr. Perdomo went on to describe the differences between his roles on “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” and “Killed by My Debt.” Of his work, he said: “It’s been quite a year. Quite a couple of years.”“Visual mediums are great tools to be able to get messages and get thoughts across,” he added.He said that connecting with someone emotionally could help lead a person to think differently and “that can change perspectives and hopefully lead to more of a permanent change.” More

  • in

    J.B. Smoove of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Thinks You Should Get Out More

    Although he plays a sort of permanent houseguest on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “I tell young people all the time to go places,” he says.J.B. Smoove has been here before.“This is almost like the old ‘S.N.L.’ story,” he said, referring to when he lost his writing job on “Saturday Night Live” in 2006. “Something has to go away for something to come in.”This time, what’s ending is “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” on which he plays Leon Black, Larry David’s foulmouthed houseguest who never left.What’s coming in is Smoove Season.“Larry might be ready to hang them up,” he said. “I’m ready to take them off. This is my time to introduce all things that I love” — among them, producing and his new lines of watches and hat boxes. “I think there’s something really interesting about building something that you’re always building. It is never finished.”In fact, Smoove still isn’t certain that this 12th and final season of “Curb” is actually its last.“I never know what the temperature is because as the world keeps changing, Larry keeps thinking of ways to get us through it and explain it to us in his way,” Smoove said on a video call before talking about sharp suits, cigar cars and his beloved R.V. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1Close DancingMy wife, Shah, calls me Twinkle Toes. I started in a dance crew when I was younger. And man, I’ve been dancing my whole life. My wife and I, any event we go to, we are literally the life of the party. We like dirty dancing. We like to do our little moves. And we dance even better when we know people are watching us.2Suits, Shoes, ShadesThat is the J.B. look right there. I would wear a suit every day if I could. It forces your posture. You have to purposefully have your suit to the point where you have to breathe in and then you button your top button and you don’t exhale for the rest of the night. If that belly is sticking out, you are not doing that suit justice.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

  • in

    Louis Gossett Jr., 87, Dies; ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ and ‘Roots’ Actor

    His portrayal of a drill instructor earned him the Oscar for best supporting actor. He was the first Black performer to win in that category.Louis Gossett Jr., who took home an Academy Award for “An Officer and a Gentleman” and an Emmy for “Roots,” both times playing a mature man who guides a younger one taking on a new role — but in drastically different circumstances — died early Friday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87.Mr. Gossett’s first cousin Neal L. Gossett confirmed the death. He did not specify a cause.Mr. Gossett with Susan Sarandon and Christopher Reeve after winning the Oscar for “An Officer and a Gentleman” in 1983.Associated PressMr. Gossett was 46 when he played Emil Foley, the Marine drill instructor from hell who ultimately shapes the humanity of an emotionally damaged young Naval aviation recruit (Richard Gere) in “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1982). Reviewing the movie in The New York Times, Vincent Canby described Sergeant Foley as a cruel taskmaster “recycled as a man of recognizable cunning, dedication and humor” revealed in “the kind of performance that wins awards.”Paramount, via Everett CollectionMr. Gossett told The Times that he had recognized the role’s worth immediately. “The words just tasted good,” he recalled.When he accepted the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1983, he was the first Black performer to win in that category — and only the third (after Hattie McDaniel and Sidney Poitier) to win an Academy Award for acting.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

  • in

    ‘Renegade Nell’ Review: When the Highwayman Is a Superwoman

    In a new series for Disney+, the creator of “Happy Valley” and “Last Tango in Halifax” imagines a sometimes-superpowered 18th-century justice warrior.The British television writer Sally Wainwright may not be a household name in the United States, but for more than a decade she has been turning out television shows whose variety and consistently high quality few writer-producers can match.“Scott & Bailey,” which premiered in 2011, was a smart, tart buddy-detective procedural. The blended-families drama “Last Tango in Halifax” (2012) was finely tooled, irresistible hokum, reflecting the lessons Wainwright learned during her tenure on the venerable soap opera “Coronation Street.” She raised her game with “Happy Valley” (2014), a terrific series about the intertwined work and home lives of a doggedly heroic policewoman. And she segued into costume drama with “Gentleman Jack” (2019), a fact-based Victorian saga of lesbian romance and financial maneuvering that was, like the others, well made, well acted and highly engaging.The shows have a couple of through lines. They all take place in or near Wainwright’s home ground of Yorkshire, in northern England. And they all focus on tough, take-charge women — often women whose commitment to what they know or think is right can make them a little hard to live with.Wainwright’s latest show, “Renegade Nell,” whose eight episodes premiered Friday on Disney+, takes her down some new paths. The action moves south, toward London (it was filmed in Oxfordshire), and further back in time, to the early 1700s. And in a significant departure, Wainwright dabbles in the supernatural: Her heroine, the commoner Nell Jackson, can summon otherworldly strength and agility to battle the black magic wielded by her higher-born foes.Nell, played by Louisa Harland of “Derry Girls,” is another Wainwright heroine who must learn how to harness her strength and high spirits, and not do collateral damage to her family and friends. (She gets called “unnatural,” an epithet also applied to the protagonist of “Gentleman Jack” when she acts in ways women are not supposed to.) Nell’s challenge is greater, though, because the strength is so unexpected. Stumbling upon a stagecoach robbery, she is about to be shot when a tiny light appears and gives her ruffian-bashing, bullet-dodging capabilities.The light turns out to be a winged humanoid named Billy, played by Nick Mohammed of “Ted Lasso,” who returns to bail out Nell whenever she is in danger (though not always as promptly as she would like). And she is in danger a lot: Her new powers, combined with some complicated and tragic circumstances, turn her into a fugitive suspected of multiple murders and eventually put her in the unlikely position of saving the British crown from a Jacobite invasion. (Thematically, it’s helpful for Wainwright that the actual monarch at the time, who faced an actual coup attempt, was a woman, Queen Anne, played in the show with an arch sang-froid by Jodhi May.)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