What to stream: The Weeknd album, Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell, ‘SNL' music and ‘Babygirl'
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press' entertainment journalists: Director Robert Zemeckis' 'Here' with Tom Hanks, Sterling K. Brown returns to TV as a Secret Service agent and there's a sequel to 'Citizen Sleeper,' the surprise gaming hit of 2022.
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM JAN. 27-FEB. 2
– Rival weddings collide in 'You're Cordially Invited,' a comedy about double-booked destination nuptials starring Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell. The film, streaming Jan. 30 on Prime Video, unites a pair of stars from different realms of comedy in Witherspoon, who's planning a wedding for her sister (Meredith Hagner), and Ferrell, whose daughter (Geraldine Viswanathan) is getting married. In the Nicholas Stoller-directed movie, the two families share a Georgia island wedding venue.
— Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson star in Halina Reijn's 'Babygirl' (on premium video-on-demand beginning Tuesday), a kinky and darkly comic erotic thriller from A24. Kidman stars as a married Manhattan chief executive who falls under the intense sway of a new intern (Dickinson), leading to some memorable sex games of manipulation and control. In my review, I praised 'Babygirl' as 'a sometimes campy, frequently entertaining modern update to the erotically charged movies of the 1990s, like 'Basic Instinct' and '9 ½ Weeks.''
— Robert Zemeckis' 'Here' has already lived many lives since opening in theaters last October. It was roundly dismissed by critics at release, only to continue to pick up defenders as the year came to a close. 'Here' gets a second chance Thursday on Netflix. The film, starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, fixes the camera, for seemingly one long take, on one plot of land, from the time of dinosaurs up until modern day. In his review, AP's Mark Kennedy wrote, 'It's not so strange after a while — so bursting with life is each shot and vignette — but there's a gnawing feeling that we're in some sort of film experiment, like testing an audience on how long they'll watch old security camera footage.'
— AP Film Writer Jake Coyle
NEW MUSIC TO STREAM JAN. 27-FEB. 2
— Live from your Peacock subscription, it's Saturday night! On Tuesday — and premiering the day before at 8 p.m. ET on NBC — is the release of a new 'Saturday Night Live' special, 'Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music.' The three-hour program, directed by Grammy and Academy Award-winner Questlove and Emmy Award winner Oz Rodriguez, will spotlight memorable 'SNL' music performances across the the show's incredible run. It will feature sketches, performances and over 50 interview subjects, including Bad Bunny, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, Mick Jagger, Dua Lipa, Darryl DMC McDaniels, Tom Morello, Kacey Musgraves, Olivia Rodrigo, Paul Simon, Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake.
— It is the end of an era, and no doubt, one heck of a closer. On Friday, Jan. 31, The Weeknd will release the final album in his record-breaking trilogy that began with 2020's 'After Hours' and 2022's 'Dawn FM.' It reaches its coda with 'Hurry Up Tomorrow.' So, what can listeners expect from one of the biggest names in pop — and the only artist to have 25 songs with 1 billion streams on Spotify? The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, is keeping the details close to his chest. But if this collection of songs comes close to something like 'Blinding Lights,' well, expect them to stick around for a while.
— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman
NEW SHOWS TO STREAM JAN. 27-FEB. 2
— Since 'This Is Us' aired its series finale in 2022, Sterling K. Brown has had voice roles in animated shows and has concentrated on film work. He is back on TV with a new series called 'Paradise' also created by Dan Fogelman. Brown, also an executive producer, plays a Secret Service agent for the U.S. President (James Marsden) and discovers a murder that leads to shocking revelations. The first three episodes will debut on Hulu on Tuesday (with a linear rollout of the premiere on Hulu and FX). It will then drop weekly on the streaming service.
— Noah Centineo's 'The Recruit' returns to Netflix with a second season after a long delay due in part to the Hollywood strikes. The actor plays a lawyer with a new job at the CIA who quickly finds himself embroiled in international politics. The show is suspenseful, compelling and funny. Centineo still has the charisma that charmed viewers of the 'To All the Boys' movies and it carries over for an older demo with this series. 'The Recruit' season two premieres Thursday on Netflix.
— The true crime docuseries 'Scamanda' unravels the web of lies of Amanda Riley, a woman who faked having cancer and collected sympathy, money and gifts while she did it. Journalist Charlie Webster first told Riley's story in a podcast of the same name and has teamed up with ABC News to bring it to TV. The series begins airing Thursday on ABC and also streams on Hulu next day.
Alicia Rancilio
— Citizen Sleeper, a haunting survival adventure set aboard a decrepit space station, became a surprise hit in 2022 by mixing clever gameplay with a caustic take on very-late-stage capitalism. Designer Gareth Damian Martin is now expanding on that world with Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector. Once again, you're an android on the run from the corporation that built you, but now you have a rickety spaceship at your command. That gives you the freedom to bounce around the asteroids of the Starward Belt, where you can search for replacement parts, recruit crew members and take on high-risk contracts — as long as you can keep your own mechanical body from glitching out. Liftoff begins Friday, Jan. 31, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC.
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