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      ‘Cowboy Cartel’ Tells a Galloping Story

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      With a made-for-TV plot, this documentary series explores a ploy by Mexican drug cartels to launder money through the world of horseracing.One of many recreation scenes in the documentary “Cowboy Cartel.”Apple TV+“Cowboy Cartel,” a four-part documentary arriving Friday, on Apple TV+, traces the wild saga of a Mexican drug cartel’s money-laundering scheme through the racehorse market and the F.B.I. agents and journalists who unraveled it. The plot feels ready-made for a TV show, and “Cowboy” sometimes rises to the occasion.The story has all the makings: a determined rookie F.B.I. agent, a jazzy I.R.S. dude, a starchy state attorney, well-sourced reporters, mountains of money, wise horsefolk and a ruthless, blood-soaked cartel. “Cowboy” is admirably lucid about the ins and outs of money laundering, and it nimbly anticipates all the “is everything a criminal does a crime?” arguments a skeptical viewer or defense lawyer may have.Muddy technique adulterates this appealing clarity of thought. B-roll of Texan highways does not illuminate anything, and more egregious is the use of hazy re-enactments. Those are tedious in any true-crime documentary, but here it isn’t (just) banality that irks. It’s that the show is repressing itself, as if in its heart of hearts it wanted to be a spinoff of “Narcos” but had to be a lower-budget documentary instead. It’s the businessperson whose dreams of the stage were denied and who now finds an awful lot of opportunities to turn presentations into song-and-dance numbers. Me? Sing? I couldn’t possib —— well, maybe just this once.The blending of self-aware nonfiction with imprecise, borderline goofy recreations here makes true things feel faker. I can see with my own eyes that the guy in the recreation looks nothing like the guy he’s portraying; am I meant to believe the inanity written on his white board was on a real white board? Flabby scripted dialogue offers so little, especially when the colorful, actual anecdotes offer so much.“Cowboy Cartel” and the talking-heads featured in it know they are in conversation not only with the cultural mythologies of the glamours of crime but also with crime fiction in general. Our wholesome F.B.I. agent solemnly describes one of the captured and convicted cartel bosses as “my Hannibal Lecter,” and other people lament the public’s lack of understanding about the true depravity of cartels. The real goings-on here — the real losses, the genuine conflict, the poignant asides — are enough. More

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      Stream These 12 Movies Before They Leave Netflix in August

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      A ton of great titles are leaving for U.S. subscribers by the end of this month. Catch them while you can.A recent (and worthy) big winner at the Oscars is among the noteworthy titles leaving Netflix in the United States in August, along with a family favorite, an action epic and two franchises of the comic book and slapstick comedy variety.‘The Woman King’ (Aug. 12)Stream it here.Gina Prince-Bythewood has pulled off an unusual (and thrilling) career 180 in recent years, pivoting gracefully from her early, small-scale dramas (“Love & Basketball,” “The Secret Life of Bees” “Beyond the Lights”) to big action extravaganzas like “The Old Guard” and this, its 2022 follow-up. Viola Davis is fierce and unforgettable as Nanisca, the 19th-century general of an all-woman warrior army in the African kingdom of Dahomey, while John Boyega is terrific as the monarch (at least in name) who supports her. But the star-making performances come from Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch and Sheila Atim as warriors in Nanisca’s army — young performers who more than hold their own against their marquee leads. The screenplay, penned by Dana Stevens (with story assistance from the actor Maria Bello) is based on a true story.‘Paddington’ (Aug. 13)Stream it here.Nicole Kidman has played only a handful of outright villains in her long and prolific career, but when she does, she does so with gusto. In this 2014 adaptation by the director Paul King (“Wonka”) of the children’s book series, Kidman appears as an evil museum taxidermist who wants nothing more than to stuff the gentle cartoon bear of the title. It’s a delightfully wild performance, with just the right mixture of menace and camp — and there’s more to love besides, from the warmth of the family dynamic (led by Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville, both charming) to the sweetness of the convincingly integrated animated Paddington (whimsically voiced by Ben Whishaw) to the winking tone, which will entertain children and parents alike.‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (Aug. 22)Stream it here.Once upon a time, it seemed that the Academy Award for best picture would go only to sweeping period epics and turgid literary adaptations. But a few films in recent years have shaken up our conventional notion of “best picture winner,” including the winner of that Oscar for 2022. A madcap hybrid of action movie, slapstick comedy, family drama and brainy science fiction, this busy and brilliant effort from the music video makers turned film directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, a.k.a. the Daniels. Michelle Yeoh won the best actress prize for her role as a meek laundromat owner whose trip into the metaverse unlocks the hero within; Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis picked up supporting actor trophies for their rich and funny turns as her husband and a harried I.R.S. agent.‘Marcel the Shell With Shoes On’ (Aug. 23)Stream it here.What began as a simple stop-motion animation short on YouTube in 2010 became a viral sensation and then, in 2022, this charming feature film. In it, the director Dean Fleischer Camp reprises his role as the human interviewer of Marcel, an inch-long hermit crab shell, assisting him on a journey to find his family. Isabella Rossellini (pitch perfect) joins the cast as his grandmother. The screenplay, by Camp, Nick Pale and Jenny Slate (who voices Marcel), achieves bespoke whimsy without tipping into self-congratulatory twee, thanks in no small part to Slate’s energetic performance, which combines childlike wonder and no-nonsense practicality with a healthy dose of her comic timing.‘Burn After Reading’ (Aug. 31)Stream it here.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

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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, Disney+, Hulu and More in August

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      “Batman: Caped Crusader,” “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “OceanXplorers” and “Only Murders in the Building” will be streaming.Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of July’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.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ Season 1Starts streaming: Aug. 1In 1992, the animator Bruce Timm cocreated “Batman: The Animated Series,” which appealed to kids and to older comic book fans with its combination of punchy crime stories, 1940s-Hollywood-inspired imagery and colorful costumed villains. Timm is back on the creative team (with Matt Reeves, J.J. Abrams, Ed Brubaker and others) for the new series “Batman: Caped Crusader,” which looks and feels a lot like the old show, albeit a degree or two more adult. Hamish Linklater takes the place of Kevin Conroy as Batman, channeling Conroy’s deep voice and dry humor for some episodic stories set in the early days of the superhero’s career, when the Gotham gangs are running the city.‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2Starts streaming: Aug. 29This visually dazzling fantasy series returns for a second season, continuing to tell the story of how and why the magical and destructive rings in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” novels came into existence. Season 1 functioned a little like a mystery, as Middle-earth’s various races — elves, humans, dwarves, Harfoots and others — tried to determine what had become of the Dark Lord Sauron, who had torn their world apart and then disappeared. The villain’s whereabouts was revealed in the season finale; and now in Season 2, “The Rings of Power” will cover the ways his re-emergence sows distrust and dissension among the factions who once stood against him. This season will also bring in some bits of Tolkien lore unseen in “The Lord of the Rings” movies, including an appearance by the fan-favorite Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear), a very old and sublimely gracious soul.Also arriving:Aug. 1“Influenced” Season 1Aug. 5“Judy Justice” Season 3Aug. 8“60 Day Hustle” Season 1“The Mallorca Files” Season 3“One Fast Move”Aug. 15“Jackpot”Aug. 22“Classified” Season 1Aug. 26“No Gain No Love”Keith Kupferer (center, at head of the table) in “Ghostlight.”Luke Dyra/IFC FilmsNew to AMC+‘Ghostlight’Starts streaming: Aug. 30A critical favorite, this slow-burning drama is about a sullen, temperamental construction worker named Dan (Keith Kupferer), who makes a surprising, spontaneous decision to join a local theater troupe that is preparing to mount a production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Inspired in part by the company’s resident diva, Rita (Dolly de Leon), and in part by the play’s themes, Dan begins to come of his shell after an extended period of grief that has also affected his relationship with his wife (Tara Mallen) and daughter (Katherine Mallen Kupferer). (They are also his actual wife and daughter.) The movie’s writing-directing team of Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson withhold the details of the movie family’s trauma for a while, so that the audience can first appreciate the power of theater for its own sake, before exploring the ways it can be transporting.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

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      Arrest Warrant Issued for ‘Power Rangers’ Actor Hector David Rivera

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      Mr. Rivera, whose stage name is Hector David Jr., was charged with battery in Idaho after a video showed him pushing an older man who used a walker, the police said.An arrest warrant was issued on Wednesday for an actor who appeared for years as the Green Ranger in “Power Rangers” films and television shows, after a video showed him pushing a man in his 60s who used a walker, the police in Idaho said.The actor, Hector David Rivera, 35, was charged with misdemeanor battery in Idaho after video surfaced on Friday showing him in a dispute with the older man, said Carmen Boeger, a spokeswoman for the Nampa Police Department. Nampa is a city west of Boise with over 100,000 people.The video, captured on Friday on a bystander’s dashboard camera, begins with a dispute over a parking spot between a man wearing a New England Patriots jersey and another who is using a walker. It ends with the first man shoving the other one to the ground before climbing into a black truck. He later drove away, the department said.The 14-second video has no audio and does not show the full interaction. But the truck appears to be parked in a space for people with disabilities, and Ms. Boeger said that the dispute began over a parking spot.Video released by the Nampa Police Department in Nampa, Idaho, showed Hector David Rivera, an actor in the “Power Rangers” franchise, pushing an older man to the ground in a parking lot.Nampa Police DepartmentThe Nampa police identified Mr. Rivera by posting the video on the department’s social media pages and asking the public for assistance, Ms. Boeger said. An arrest warrant was issued on Wednesday, and the victim’s name was not released.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

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      Colin Jost Will Host the New ‘Jeopardy!’ Pop Culture Spinoff

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      “Pop Culture Jeopardy!” is expected to begin production in August and will stream only on Amazon Prime Video.If you have enjoyed Colin Jost’s dispatches from Tahiti for the Olympics surfing events and are hoping to see more of him, you’re in luck: On Wednesday, Sony Pictures Television announced that he will be host of the new game show “Pop Culture Jeopardy!”Jost, 42, is a veteran writer for “Saturday Night Live” and has anchored its Weekend Update segment since 2014 alongside Michael Che. “Pop Culture Jeopardy!” — a spinoff of the juggernaut “Jeopardy!,” which has run for decades on broadcast TV and in syndication — will stream only on Amazon Prime Video.Jost was selected for his “sharp wit and intelligence,” Suzanne Prete, president for game shows at Sony Pictures Television, which produces the show, said in a news release. “He’s smart and quick, like our contestants, and we know he’ll be able to keep up with them while making this new series his own.”“What is: I’m excited,” Jost said in the statement, riffing on the “Jeopardy!” answer format.In the pop culture version of the show, contestants will play in teams of three in tournament-style events, racing to answer questions in a variety of categories like alternative rock, the Avengers and Broadway. Production of the show is expected to begin in August.The spinoff is part of a yearslong expansion of the “Jeopardy!”-verse, as the show’s producers have called it, which will also include special tournaments. The flagship show also has seen plenty of change since Alex Trebek, who had hosted “Jeopardy!” for 37 years, died in 2020. A lengthy, revolving host audition resulted in Mike Richards, then the show’s executive producer, being chosen to host, only to be pushed aside after revelations that he had made offensive comments on a podcast. Then the role was shared between the actor Mayim Bialik and the former “Jeopardy!” champion Ken Jennings until last year, when Bialik announced that she had been removed from the show. Jennings has since settled in as the sole host. More

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      Richard Gadd Says ‘Baby Reindeer’ Was ‘Emotionally True’ but ‘Fictionalized’

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      Richard Gadd, the show’s creator, said in a court filing that Fiona Harvey, who is suing Netflix for defamation, harassed him in real life but that the show is a dramatic retelling.After Netflix was sued by a woman who claimed that she inspired the stalker character on the hit series “Baby Reindeer,” the show’s creator, Richard Gadd, said in court papers filed Monday that he had been stalked by the woman in real life but that the series was a “fictionalized retelling.”In a declaration filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Mr. Gadd said that the woman, Fiona Harvey, harassed him in many of the same ways the character Martha stalks Mr. Gadd’s character, Donny, on “Baby Reindeer,” which claims to be “a true story.”Mr. Gadd said that in real life, Ms. Harvey visited him constantly at the bar where he worked and sent him “thousands of emails, hundreds of voicemails, and a number of handwritten letters,” some which were sexually explicit or threatening. But he also argued that “Baby Reindeer” is “a dramatic work.”“It is not a documentary or an attempt at realism,” Mr. Gadd wrote in the filing. “While the Series is based on my life and real-life events and is, at its core, emotionally true, it is not a beat-by-beat recounting of the events and emotions I experienced as they transpired. It is fictionalized, and is not intended to portray actual facts.”Mr. Gadd gave his declaration in support of a motion filed by Netflix seeking to dismiss the defamation lawsuit Ms. Harvey filed last month.Ms. Harvey claimed in the suit that the character Martha was based on her, and that the series defamed her by portraying the character as a convicted stalker who at one point sexually assaults the character played by Mr. Gadd. In her lawsuit, Ms. Harvey said she had never been convicted of a crime and had never sexually assaulted Mr. Gadd.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

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      ‘Kleo’ Review: Spy vs. a Lot of Other Spies

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      The archly humorous, high-body-count Netflix series about an ex-Stasi assassin is like “Killing Eve” with a more discernible heartbeat.“Killing Eve” went off the air in April 2022. “Kleo” came along four months later. The offbeat, darkly comic, cold-war-related spy thriller abhors a vacuum.The German writers and producers Hanno Hackfort, Bob Konrad and Richard Kropf, who created “Kleo” for Netflix, evidently were not afraid of comparisons to the popular “Killing Eve,” which ran for four seasons on BBC America. Kleo Straub (Jella Haase), their East German protagonist, is a lethal assassin with a guileless pride in her abilities, reminiscent of Villanelle, the “Killing Eve” role that brought Jodie Comer an Emmy.Kleo also comes with her own version of Sandra Oh’s Eve, here a West German cop named Sven Petzold (Dimitrij Schaad) — an operative from the other side who is obsessed with Kleo and whose on-and-off, cat-and-mouse, will-they-or-won’t-they relationship with her is the show’s emotional center. And the two series share a style: the spy caper as darkly humorous fairy tale, shifting between mordant, violent theatricality and mordant, goofy comedy.But “Kleo,” whose second season premiered last week on Netflix, is its own show, and, depending on your taste, it might be the better of the two. It is lighter and more straightforward in its storytelling and its humor, but just as moving and involving. It doesn’t have the filigree of “Killing Eve,” the same degree of baroque inventiveness, but it is ingenious in its own more casual, more human way.And it is less of a self-contained hall of mirrors than the earlier show; it benefits from being about something real, even if its relationship to history is stretched to the breaking point. Season 2 returns to the fraught period between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification in 1990, with Kleo, the former off-the-books Stasi hit woman, still pursuing a personal mission of revenge that is somehow mixed up with the fate of the two Germanys.The jokes, the suspense, the melodrama and the violent action of “Kleo” are all contained within a vivid portrait of post-fall Berlin. Everyone is quick to take advantage of the moral and political vacuum, from Thilo (Julius Feldmeier), the spectral techno-music junkie who becomes Kleo’s roommate and confidant, to all the Russian, American and East and West German spymasters who use her for their own purposes. The settings, in Berlin and other Central and Eastern European locales, are always visually absorbing, simultaneously candy colored and brutalist drab.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

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      Jon Stewart Recaps a Pretty Eventful Week in Politics

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      “In the span of a week, Democrats have gone from the despair of a certain Trump presidency to the joy of a statistical tie,” Stewart said on “The Daily Show.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.‘Ref! Ref! Open Your Eyes!’Jon Stewart, back on “The Daily Show” after a hiatus, had a lot of catching up to do on Monday.“In the span of a week, Democrats have gone from the despair of a certain Trump presidency to the joy of a statistical tie.” — JON STEWARTThe swift rise of Kamala Harris as the Democrats’ likely nominee after President Biden’s withdrawal got a lot of reaction from conservatives on cable TV. Stewart surveyed the responses, which ranged from calling it a “coup” to suggesting that Harris, because she has Indian roots, isn’t really Black.“[Imitating a conservative pundit:] ‘Two races? In one person? Now I’ve seen everything. I heard she sent her DNA to 23 and Me, and it broke the computer. I don’t know what to do! Goodness gracious.’ If these people ever saw a Pizza Hut/Taco Bell, they’d lose their [expletive] minds: ‘What is this, a D.E.I. restaurant?’” — JON STEWART“But I get it! If I thought I had this thing in the bag, and you were going to be going up against old Joe Biden, and then they pull this, I’d be like, ‘Ref! Ref! Open your eyes! How can you not see they’re coup-ing? They’re coup-ing!’” — JON STEWART“[Imitating Donald Trump:] Do you have any idea how much money on “Let’s Go Brandon” ear bandages I’ve spent?” — JON STEWART“Your candidate’s Donald Trump. His catchphrase is literally, ‘You’re fired!’ He’s the Anna Wintour of authoritarian wannabes. Donald Trump hired 44 cabinet members — 75 percent of them want nothing to do with the guy. His secretary of state called him a [expletive] moron. His chief of staff said, ‘He’s the most flawed person I’ve ever met.’ You know why he needs a new vice-presidential running mate? I’ll tell you why — he tried to get the last one killed.” — JON STEWART, responding to pundits’ allegations that Harris is an unpleasant boss“But you know what? I do understand that they’re upset. It makes sense. So how about we do this? Out of fairness. I’m a fair person. You can replace your old guy, too!” — JON STEWARTThe Bits Worth WatchingPresident Biden’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, talked about Harris and other things on “The Daily Show.” (The other shows are taking the week off, incidentally.)What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightJon M. Chu, the director of “Wicked,” will appear on Tuesday’s “Daily Show.”Also, Check This OutMarina Abramovic “embracing” the ocean on Fire Island in early 2024. Marco AnelliAt 77, the performance artist Marina Abramovic is creating new work with plans to continue past 100. More