‘Knives Out’
'Brick' director Rian Johnson takes a break between 'Star Wars' movies to deliver this old-school, all-star Agatha Christie homage.
We picked the best TV shows and movies to stream so you don't have to.
'Brick' director Rian Johnson takes a break between 'Star Wars' movies to deliver this old-school, all-star Agatha Christie homage.
Based on an ultraviolent comic book series, "The Boys" depicts its heroes as motivated not by the desire to help humanity but by a craving to help themselves to its spoils.
After a lifetime of being told by everyone else what to do, a woman in her mid-20s uses her natural wit to build a stand-up comedy career after her Upper West Side New York City life falls apart.
There's a sequence in “Just Mercy” — one of many — that will shake you to your soul. It's the late 1980s, and Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), a young African-American lawyer in crisp gray suits…
A CIA agent made famous by one of America's best-known spy novelists fights terrorism around the world.
An odd-couple angel and demon attempt to avert the apocalypse in order to continue enjoying their unusual partnership.
The smartest writing in "Fleabag" Season 2 unfolds as Phoebe Waller-Bridge more and more directly interrogates a narrative device she's used since the beginning: breaking down the fourth wall.
A dark mystery unfolds when four young women — three students and their teacher — suddenly vanish on Valentine's Day 1900.
Based on the work of Swedish artist Simon St?lenhag but transplanted to the American heartland, "Tales From the Loop" places in counterpoint the sweep of midwest prairie and the machinations of…
A person is "uploaded" into a digital heaven, but finds that his problems only multiply once there.
Picking up where Season 1 left off, Janelle Monáe plays a person whose eroded memory conceals an involvement at the goings-on of the cryptic Geist corporation.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt brings reassuring resolve to Patrick Vollrath's skillful, solemn, slightly hollow spin on an old-school airborne disaster movie.
Adapting a distinctive literary voice probably isn't the easiest task a first-time director can choose, so credit is due actor Clark Duke for heading very much thataway with his feature debut behind…
Series follows a package of cocaine across the Atlantic and the drug cartels that transport the illicit cargo.
A musical remake of the early-'80s rom-com teen movie romance saturated in kitschy cover songs.
Australian TV game show hosted by Rebel Wilson pits comedians against each other to see who can make the other laugh first.
The arrival of a show like "Little America" is no accident. Each chapter of Apple TV Plus' new anthology series centers on the journeys of immigrants and first-generation Americans who end up in the…
Minhal Baig’s camera gives high school senior Hala (Geraldine Viswanathan) plenty of respectful space as the American Muslim teen skateboards to class, writes in her journal, and touches herself in…
In the grand, hoary tradition of Disney nature documentaries, "The Elephant Queen" presents the plight of African pachyderms as a story with heartrending characters and traditional narrative arcs
This flagship AppleTV+ program takes on a number of provocative topics, including and especially gender issues emanating from the toxic swamp of the breakfast-hour television industry.
Hailee Steinfeld stars in a glossy re-imagining of Emily Dickinson's teenage years.
A historical finance caper starring Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson as 1950s entrepreneurs who had to become con artists to be players in the banking business.
The first moon landing looms large in American history as a vital landmark of innovation national pride, and even the evolution of news as entertainment. The country, and likely the world, simply…
Given just how colossal the video game industry is, it’s pretty wild that more TV shows haven’t tried to delve deeper into it (except, of course, when in need of inspiration from some previously…
Chris Evans stars here as Andy Barber, an assistant district attorney in greater Boston whose idyllic life is interrupted when his son, Jacob is accused of killing a classmate.
The Apple TV Plus comedy came back on May 22 for a socially distanced scripted special that brought all its characters back together, apart.
As with just about any phrase that gets repeated over and over throughout the years, “representation matters” has threatened to become a benign catchall for Hollywood’s ills. But the saying is…
A year ago, Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond, of the Beastie Boys, premiered an extended theatrical evening in which the two got up onstage and chronicled the band's 30-year history, from soup to nuts…
Ten minutes into “Central Park” comes the kind of true-blue Broadway group number that brings every character and chord crashing together in a burst of overt ambitions and desires. There’s Owen…
A funny and compassionate comedy about a 30-something couple who try for adoption after realizing they're unable to have children themselves.
This earnest series further mythologizes the compelling true story of Hilde Lysiak, a young reporter who broke a local murder case when she was 9 years old.
A comic look at the first season of the women's baseball league in 1943, Penny Marshall's fourth film benefits from the joy of baseball being played by women having the time of their lives.
TV has been trying to recapture the magic of "The Twilight Zone" for decades. Since it went off the air for the first time in 1964, the CBS anthology series that merged horror with humanity has been…
"Discovery" is a promising addition to the "Trek" canon if it capitalizes on the conflicts at its core, and if it embraces the ambiguity and complexity baked into its DNA.
Certainly, this represents a bit more ambitious storytelling for older kids, and perhaps a few adults with the geek gene.
Three housewives deal with domestic drama, infidelity and murder in this soapy time-jumping drama.
Abandoning a linear timeline, 'Interrogation' mines the aftermath of a gruesome murder, with a young man imprisoned, perhaps wrongfully.
Now on season 40, the castaway-themed reality TV show which pits contestants against each other in remote locations is a reliable reality juggernaut.
Secret agent Danger Mouse and his timid assistant Penfold foil plots and complete missions in this kid-centric toon.
Each under-10-minute segment airs daily and features an anchor named James Smartwood parodying the top news stories of the day and interviewing real-world guests.
Living in oblivion as a retiree, Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) is called back to duty by the sudden appearance of Dahj, who seems connected in some way to old "Trek" pal Data.
"The Good Fight," a spinoff of "The Good Wife" and the flagship of the streaming service CBS All Access, has a slightly more jagged and splintered atmosphere than its predecessor.
Psychic medium Thomas John helps Chicago residents connect with lost loved ones from their past and find closure.
Al Gore's crusade to raise awareness of global warming gets a useful platform in "An Inconvenient Truth." Davis Guggenheim's docu is a straightforward record of the lecture Gore has toured for years…
Airplane! is what they used to call a laff-riot. Made by team which turned out Kentucky Fried Movie, this spoof of disaster features beats any other film for sheer number of comic gags.
Adapted by playwright-actor Peter Hedges from his 1991 novel, the small-scale film depicts the Grapes, a rural family that has every right to qualify as dysfunctional.
Teaming of Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson at their best makes this film an enormously enjoyable offering, adding bite and sparkle when sentiment and seamlessness threatens to sink other parts of…
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is an unparalleled technical achievement where animation is brilliantly integrated into live action.
SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains mild spoilers for "Avengers: Endgame." The culmination of 10 years and more than twice as many movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Avengers…
'The Mandalorian' is a grim Western of a show that's less concerned with capturing the magic of 'Star Wars' than roughing it up a bit.
The true story of a preteen girl in Uganda who becomes an unlikely chess prodigy.
This classic dream-world rendition of a magical English nanny who one day arrives on the East Wind and takes over the household of a very proper London banker and changes the lives of everyone…
This adventure tale of a neurotic clown fish's search for his errant son zips along swimmingly with cheeky comic flair.
The number 4 typically doesn't bode well for film franchises, which understandably has quite a few "Toy Story" fans feeling nervous. When it comes to constructing dramatic arcs across multiple…
If you're afraid of heights, "Free Solo" is not the film for you. It's a nerve-racking, vertigo-inducing portrait of a man who scales cliffs with none of the usual safety gear — no ropes, no harness…
In this Disney-fied adaptation of the popular YA novel about a 12-year-old criminal mastermind, the title character is no longer bad.
Out of the vast universe of nature documentaries, I don't think I'm alone in finding films about life under the sea to occupy a special place. The very fact that they exist, of course, is amazing…
In “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” there's a lightsaber duel that's pretty fantastic — not because of any unprecedented whirling-action whoa! factor (we have, after all, been through one or two…
"Elephant," narrated by Meghan Markle, follows a herd of elephants as they spend eight months trekking 1,000 miles back and forth across the Kalahari Desert in search of water.
Later this year? — Nov. 19, 2020, to be exact — will mark the 25th anniversary of the premiere of “Toy Story,” the first feature from Pixar. In 1995, that movie launched the digital-animation…
With her horned headpiece, impossible alabaster cheekbones and high-camp attitude, Maleficent looms as by far the most iconic villain Disney ever created. Landing Angelina Jolie to play the "Sleeping…
Combining the suspense of old Saturday morning serials with the gusto of an action pics, Ben (Nicholas Cage) must steal the Declaration of Independence to unravel the mystery of America's founding…
Based on William Goldman's novel, this is a post-modern fairy tale that challenges and affirms the conventions of a genre that may not be flexible enough to support such horseplay.
In "Watchmen," based on the 1980s DC Comics series whose popularity demands adaptation, Damon Lindelof ambitiously tackles how individual people are wrecked by history
A trio of 'Drag Race' alums travels to the Bible Belt and other conservative pockets of the country giving drag makeovers to local LGBTQ and straight residents, in preparation for a live show that…
Going forward, what will Hollywood do when it needs a Kevin Spacey type? The disgraced Oscar winner is precisely the actor a movie like "Bad Education" calls for: Cory Finley's audacious second…
Each week the former "Daily Show" corespondent seeks to address different problems and issues society faces that viewers may not be fully informed about.
"Betty" looks like how being a teenager feels. Shot during a vibrant New York City summer, the show zips alongside its characters as they weave through traffic, across parks, over bridges on their…
Powerful, understated performances from Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga carry director Jeff Nichols' oh-so-sensitive portrait of a mixed-race marriage forbidden in 1958 Virginia.
Since its 2011 debut, HBO's landmark drama has smashed records and redefined the scope of TV as we once knew it.
A documentary revels in Natalie Wood's homespun sensual charisma, but the film is also haunted by her death.
Up-and-coming writer Arabella's carefree existence comes to a violent end when she is sexually assaulted in a nightclub and is forced to reevaluate her life, her career, friends and family.
The new reality competition series is a celebration of ballroom culture and shines a gorgeous, sleek spotlight on its fearsome dancers, who have traditionally had to shine bright in dusky clubs.
Anna Kendrick stars as Darby, a young woman whose perfectly rom-com career rise in the art museum and auction-house world in New York City is not matched by confidence or self-knowledge in her…
Elmo and the "Sesame Street" welcome guests and play games, with Elmo asking his parents if he may "be excused to go do Elmo's talk show."
“On the Record,” a documentary that presents the former music executive Drew Dixon's accusations of sexual harassment and rape against the hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons (it includes several other…
A single performer's double act is among the showier maneuvers that can be attempted on film. There's the technical aspect: Getting one actor, twice, into the same frame — or cutting to fool the mind…
For as long as there have been romantic comedies, there have been erstwhile lovers making convoluted bets and flirty deals with so little basis in reality that they might as well be science fiction…
Host John Oliver devotes each weekly episode to breaking down one issue and explaining it to viewers, including an impassioned argument for defunding the police after the death of George Floyd, in…
Late in the run of an episode of "Little Fires Everywhere," Hulu's new literary adaptation, our attention is divided between two women in different situations, both of them precarious and pushing…
Incredible. That's the word that comes to mind with Benjamin Ree's "The Painter and the Thief," a stranger-than-fiction friendship story in which vérité techniques produce unbelievable results. I…
No matter the destination, there are inevitabilities built into "boy meets girl" stories. They meet, they flirt, they kiss, they fight, they fall in love. But the best of them dig past the surface to…
It's hard to overstate how good "Atlanta" is. It's such a subtle and complete show that saying more feels inept and superfluous, like tacking on post-its to a framed painting.
The docu-series tries to convey the sweeping arc of Clinton's personal story and how it intersects with some of the country's most formative historical moments.
The idea that the technology industry has the power not just to reshape the world in which we live but — through acts of creative destruction — build a new one overlaying and eventually supplanting…
Comedy series follows a pair of 13 year-old best friends braving middle school circa 2000. Co-creators Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle play adolescent versions of themselves.
It took a long time for me to realize what about the evolution of “The Handmaid’s Tale” makes it feel so much less urgent in its third season. It’s not simply that it’s moved well beyond the confines…
In this 'Love, Simon' spinoff, Victor (Michael Cimino) is also closeted, but as he writes to the now legendary Simon via Instagram DM, their vast differences are laid bare.
Host Padma Lakshmi speaks on activism, the shortcomings of legacy food media, and why this show is her most personal yet.
A coming-of-age comedy based on Ramy Youssef's life as a first-generation Egyptian American trying to balance his Muslim and American identities.
The degree to which the mockumentary format popularized by “The Office” has reinvented television comedy is hard to overstate. It’s not merely the direct-to-camera “confessional”-style interviews…
Shirley Jackson was a real person, a writer best known for her twisted short story "The Lottery," although the version presented in Josephine Decker's "Shirley" feels more like a character from one…
When asked about the founding of Formula E, a motorsport circuit that uses only electric cars, its current leader, a former Spanish politician named Alejandro Agag, lights a stogie and tells the…
Watching even a minute of "Mrs. America" makes it obvious which network it belongs to. It follows, to the letter, in the grand tradition of FX dramas that have long cultivated a brand of meticulous…
The experiment known as Biosphere 2 may be best remembered now — when remembered at all — as something that spawned "Bio-Dome," the godawful 1996 comedy that is nonetheless many people's favorite…
Audiences have been comparing Josh and Benny Safdie's "Uncut Gems" to a cocaine rush since it premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. I wouldn't know, but it's a trip all right: (Adam Sandler)…
For Jo Koy, filming his latest comedy special in the Philippines was what he calls an item on his bucket list. In "Jo Koy: In His Elements" — his third special on Netflix, out on June 12 — he shares…
Forget about spelling them. There are words in "Spelling the Dream" that mere mortals may not even be able to say, even after a spelling bee pronouncer repeats it, gives the language of origin…
Italian mystery follows teenage twins who must uncover a shadowy family mystery after their mother vanishes.
The Jeffrey Epstein case — really, an impossibly massive series of cases, playing out over decades as lives were ruined by the late financier and convicted sex offender — would seem to lie at the…
Platt performs covers of Elton John and Brandi Carlile hits and opens up about coming out as gay to his parents. Concert recorded on the last stop of the Tony winner's tour for album "Sing to Me…
On the official White House website, one can find detailed bios of America's 42 first ladies. Most open with some variation on the phrase "So-and-So was the wife of President Such-and-Such" — e.g.…
To love classic Hollywood and live in the world at the same time is hardly the greatest of conundrums, but a conundrum it is. It means being transported by the craft and the art of films made under…
Spike Lee explores the twin traumas of the war in Vietnam and racial injustice at home in an ambitious but uneven adventure movie committed to expanding history.
That doctors have difficult jobs is among the points TV has made most forcefully throughout the medium's existence. The genre has long since entered its baroque period, larding on helicopter crashes…
The Fab 5 bring their emotional makeovers to Philadelphia.
In the final season, Liberty High School's senior class is preparing for graduation, but keep a dangerous secret buried, as well as face "heartbreaking choices" that may impact their futures forever.
Hannah Gadsby is the Michael Jordan of standup in one way — her stated plans to retire shouldn't be taken seriously.
In the new season, Phil Rosenthal's food-tasting adventures take him to Marrakesh, London, Chicago, Montreal and Seoul.
Deep into “Dead to Me,” Judy (Linda Cardellini) screws her entire face up in wrenching pain, eyes brimming with nascent tears as her best friend Jen (Christina Applegate) stares on in cold fury. It’s…
It's not every day, or even every year, that a romantic comedy touches a nerve of reality — and is drop-dead funny, and becomes an acclaimed awards-bait hit. So when a director makes the rare…