‘Andor' and ‘Tracker' close chapters, plus the week's streaming picks
The highly anticipated final arc of 'Andor' arrives next week, with a three-episode block that brings Cassian's epic journey to a conclusion — cue the galactic grief. In this week's 'Catch Up,' our trusty 'Star Wars' expert Tracy Brown is here to entice you to join the bandwagon before Season 2's last installment.
Also in Screen Gab No. 180, our experts recommend a TV show about young love set in Los Angeles that'll make you want to take a drive and listen to a playlist of yearning and heartbreak, and a collection of telecasts of notable Broadway and West End productions. Plus, Justin Hartley stops by Guest Spot to talk 'Tracker.'
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Natasha Lyonne remains unconventional as a sleuth in 'Poker Face' and in her career: The actor is back as Charlie Cale in 'Poker Face,' Peacock's murder mystery series, and for Season 2, Lyonne is adding director to her list of duties on the show.
'The Last of Us' director on Ellie and Dina's relationship: 'This is not just a crush': Director Kate Herron discusses Ellie and Dina's relationship in Episode 4 of Season 2, the 'Take on Me' scene, the infected horde in the subway and introducing Jeffrey Wright's Isaac.
Commentary: From 'The Last of Us' to 'Handmaid's Tale,' women are angry and vengeful. Good: In a number of recent television shows, women aren't merely opposing threats, they are taking action against them, often in openly vengeful ways.
This superfan is buying VHS copies of 'The Mummy.' The size of his collection is shocking: A Long Beach resident is using social media to chronicle his mission to amass the world's largest VHS collection of the 1999 film starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.
Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times
'Next to Normal' (PBS App/ pbs.org)
I love covering the Los Angeles theater scene, but I don't love braving rush hour traffic before taking in a live show. Thankfully, 'Great Performances' is streaming freshly filmed productions from Broadway and the West End, starting with the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning work 'Next to Normal.' This 2024 staging of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's 2008 rock musical stars Caissie Levy, Jamie Parker, Jack Wolfe and Eleanor Worthington-Cox as a suburban family coping with crisis and mental illness. (It's a tearjerker, so be sure to keep your blankets and tissues in tow.) The lineup continues weekly on Fridays, with David Henry Hwang's Broadway comedy 'Yellow Face' starring Daniel Dae Kim (May 16), the musical 'Girl From the North Country,' featuring 20 reimagined Bob Dylan songs (May 23) and a revival of Cole Porter's comedy 'Kiss Me, Kate' starring Stephanie J. Block and Adrian Dunbar (May 30). — Ashley Lee
'Forever' (Netflix)
You don't always get love right on the first try, but it can still be a powerful experience. This modern day reimagining of Judy Blume's groundbreaking 1975 novel from creator Mara Brock Akil captures the intensity of young love. Set in 2018 Los Angeles, the series follows the story of two high school students, Keisha (Lovie Simone) and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.), who are trying to figure out who they're becoming while experiencing the joys and insecurities of being each other's first love. Keisha is a smart and confident track star whose circumstances pushed her to mature early, while Justin is a shy, music-loving guy who struggles with schoolwork. Their first phone call will transport you back in time and summon the butterflies. It helps, too, that L.A. plays a vital role in their love story. Production filmed in real neighborhoods — Keisha's family lives in Crenshaw, and Justin's family lives in the affluent View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood. The pair visit places like the Fairfax District, the Santa Monica Pier and Little Tokyo as the season unfolds. And the soundtrack, which includes tracks from H.E.R, Nipsey Hussle and Victoria Monét, will have your ears in a love trance too. — Yvonne Villarreal
Everything you need to know about the film or TV series everyone's talking about
I have been shouting from every rooftop that 'Andor' is not only one of the best 'Star Wars' stories ever, but one of the best TV shows around. Now I'm here, in your inbox, ahead of Season 2's three-episode conclusion on Tuesday, to say it again.
The show follows Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) before the events of 2016's 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,' where he is introduced as a skilled spy and dedicated leader of the Rebel Alliance who helps steal vital information about the Empire's super weapon — the Death Star. Yes, the events of the original 'Star Wars' could not have happened without the actions of Cassian and his team.
'Andor' starts five years prior to 'Rogue One's' narrative and tracks the radicalization and transformation of Cassian from disaffected minor delinquent to resistance fighter. That makes the Disney+ show a prequel series of a spinoff prequel movie of the original 'Star Wars' — but don't let this cloak of IP-ified franchise jargon shroud its broader relevance and appeal. 'Andor' is more than just Cassian's origin story.
One of the most mature and overtly political installments of 'Star Wars,' the series is a meditation on how ordinary people respond to an increasingly oppressive authoritarian regime. It's a morally complex story that shows how the actions and inactions of some of these ordinary people can contribute to the rise and retention of said regime, as well as how even the smallest acts of insurrection by others in the bleakest of times can be the spark needed for more to fight back. You don't have to be a Jedi or wield a blaster to be a hero.
And if the show's timely themes weren't enough of a draw, 'Andor' also has more than its fair share of incredible monologues. — Tracy Brown
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they're working on — and what they're watching
The Season 2 finale of the hit CBS show 'Tracker' is Sunday. But is its titular character any closer to learning the truth about his father's death? Based on the novel 'The Never Game' by Jeffery Deaver, the series stars Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw, a professional problem solver who travels the country and uses his tracking expertise to help crack mysteries for private citizens and law enforcement. While the standalone cases keep the season moving, the backstory about Colter's father has been the slow burn looming in the background. Hartley stopped by Screen Gab recently to discuss his penchant for characters with absent daddy issues, whether he'll direct on 'Tracker' and more. — Yvonne Villarreal
As the season nears its end, it seems like we're getting closer to the mystery of what happened to Colter's father. With 'This Is Us,' Kevin knew how his father died, but the audience didn't. In 'Tracker,' Colter is in the dark too. How did your work on 'This Is Us' inform how you thought about Colter and how he moves in the world with that added burden?
I think sometimes the burden of the unknown becomes a kind of engine. It drives how you go about your business. I know that's true for Colter. What happened to his father, the mystery surrounding his death — who might be responsible, who might be hiding the truth from him — all of that weighs heavily on him. Colter has spent his entire life finding missing people, yet the one person who continues to elude him is his father. The story behind his father's disappearance, whether he passed away, died under mysterious circumstances or was murdered, remains unresolved. The way Colter approaches his work, the choices he makes, are directly connected to what he went through as a child. The trauma, the unanswered questions, they shape everything he does. In that sense, I think there's definitely a comparison to Kevin Pearson on 'This Is Us.' And, you know, I've kind of made it a thing: I don't do projects unless the dad dies.
You've directed before on 'This Is Us' and 'Smallville.' Do you see yourself directing an episode of 'Tracker' next season or in the future?
The thing about 'Tracker' that's different from 'This Is Us' and 'Smallville' as well, is that my character is in so many of the scenes. I'd love to direct, as long as it doesn't take away from the production or the limited time we have on set.
I don't know if it will happen next year. Maybe. But again, it would need to be set up properly.
What have you watched recently that you're recommending to everyone you know?
There's just so much good television out there right now. My wife and I watch most of these together. 'Mayor of Kingstown' [Paramount+] — Jeremy Renner is amazing in it, and the whole cast is just incredible. I love that show. For something a bit lighter but still really entertaining, 'The Residence' [Netflix] is fantastic. My friend Susan [Kelechi Watson] is in it, and she's absolutely brilliant. 'Paradise' [Hulu] — my friend Sterling [K. Brown], my brother, is in that. He's fantastic. James Marsden is fantastic, the whole cast really delivers. '1923' [Paramount+] — I loved that. It's got two really solid seasons, limited series style, but really well done. And then 'Reacher' [Prime Video] — my friend Alan [Ritchson] plays Jack Reacher and does a great job. That show's a lot of fun.
What's your go-to comfort watch, the film or TV show you return to again and again?
I actually just watched this again last night, for probably the fourth night in a row. I've probably seen it over a hundred times. I could quote the entire movie. 'As Good as It Gets' [VOD]. I think it's probably the best movie ever made, in every way.
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Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
The 21 movies we're most excited to see this fall
Hollywood put up decent numbers this summer and we'd be lying if we told you we didn't find much to like (even if it didn't always come in a cape). But just as inevitably as the warm months wane, ambitious actors will attempt to play rock icons. Accents will be summoned, some of them mastered. Epic musicals involving witches, wicked or otherwise, will find their conclusions. Oscar winners will play Nazis. Jared Leto will continue to do what only Jared Leto does. Pathos will be mined from the tale of a wrestler. These are the things we expect from a robust fall season and the upcoming one will not disappoint. Here's what our staff is most anticipating. In a near-future America ruled by a totalitarian regime (ah, the movies), several young men take part in a nationally televised endurance contest with one brutal rule: Stop walking and you die. Adapted from Stephen King's novel first published under his Richard Bachman alias in 1979, 'The Long Walk' is directed by 'Hunger Games' veteran Francis Lawrence, who knows his way around dystopian survival stories. The march heads toward an ending only one contestant can reach, with Cooper Hoffman ('Licorice Pizza') among the participants and Mark Hamill in villain mode as the implacable Major overseeing the ordeal. The contest unfolds in broad daylight as cameras and soldiers turn the asphalt into an arena. Adaptations of King books have been around for decades, but few promise the kind of slow, creeping dread this premise invites and the political overtones of militarized spectacle are hard to miss. Wear comfortable shoes and hydrate accordingly. — Josh Rottenberg The award for the most intriguing combo of Hollywood's fall season has to be Scarlett Johansson and June Squibb. Johansson had a hit this summer with 'Jurassic Park Rebirth' while the 95-year-old Squibb has repeatedly scored praise for her recent performances, including 2024's 'Thelma' in which she played a grandmother seeking revenge after being targeted in a scam. Both are winning accolades for 'Eleanor the Great,' which marks Johansson's debut behind the camera as director. Squibb stars as the lonely title character who falsely claims to be a Holocaust survivor, then privately frets as her lie snowballs into something unfixable. The film was an audience favorite at Cannes, ranking among The Times' 10 best films at the festival. — Greg Braxton Paul Thomas Anderson, who gave us the oil-soaked intensity of 'There Will Be Blood,' the sleazy excess of 'Boogie Nights' and the knotty elegance of 'Phantom Thread,' is not the obvious choice to direct a big-budget Imax action-thriller, which is exactly why 'One Battle After Another' feels like an event. Loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel 'Vineland,' the film transplants the book's tangle of political grudges to a modern-day context of former activists forced back together when their long-vanished enemy resurfaces. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a drug-and-booze-addled revolutionary trying to rescue his kidnapped daughter, with Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall and Alana Haim as his comrades, Benicio del Toro as his wild-card ally Sensei Sergio and Sean Penn as their white-nationalist antagonist, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw. Anderson last adapted Pynchon with the loopy, stoner-inflected 'Inherent Vice,' but here he's working on a grander scale. Shot on 35mm VistaVision, 'One Battle After Another' will be a rare chance to see Anderson bring his sly digressions, oddball humor and tonal whiplash to a canvas usually reserved for Bayhem. — Josh Rottenberg It's being described by early marketing as an exploration of bonds between fathers, sons and brothers through 'personal journeys and generational conflicts,' which honestly could describe 80% of all movies ever. Fortunately, though, plot is not the headline; casting is. 'Anemone' has apparently forced Daniel Day-Lewis out of the retirement he announced in 2017. And for a good reason: Day-Lewis co-wrote the film with his son, Ronan Day-Lewis, a New York-based painter who also directs. This will be the second time Day-Lewis the elder has come out of retirement — he left acting in the late '90s, only to return after Martin Scorsese convinced him to do 'Gangs of New York,' after which he won two more Oscars. (Not to put too much pressure on 'Anemone.') The film also stars Sean Bean, Samuel Bottomley, Safia Oakley-Green and Samantha Morton. — Mary McNamara What's the Rock cooking? Another crafty career pivot from face to heel: specifically, from being the face of too many franchises with too few critical hits, to teaming up with Benny Safdie, one of the beloved bad boys of indie cinema. 'The Smashing Machine' — Safdie's first film since 'Uncut Gems' (which he co-directed with his brother Josh) and Johnson's most intriguing release since 2013's underappreciated 'Pain & Gain' — stars the former wrestler as MMA fighter Mark Kerr, who won multiple gold medals in the '90s and early aughts while getting slammed by the painkiller addiction that enabled him to keep getting back in the ring. Kerr shared his story in a 2002 HBO documentary of the same name. It'll be interesting to see how (or if) the harsh truth of combat sports gets the manic Safdie treatment. Best-case scenario: No holds will be barred. — Amy Nicholson Italian director Luca Guadagnino ('Call Me by Your Name,' 'Challengers') likes erotic stories that flirt with disaster. He tweaks the audience's moral compass, and 'After the Hunt' sounds like a dangerous spin on his risque business. The #MeToo-adjacent thriller stars Julia Roberts as a college professor who freezes when her favorite student ('The Bear's' Ayo Edebiri) lodges an assault accusation against her favorite colleague (Andrew Garfield). Counter-accusations ensue, leaving Roberts' character unsure whom to believe and paranoid that this blame tsunami will cause her own ethically dubious past to surface. Guadagnino has hinted that he's interested in teasing out how different people (and generations) disagree on the definition of consent. The early buzz is that Roberts has seized onto the opportunity to deliver her richest performance in ages and it's worth noting that Guadagnino has yet to win his first Oscar. — Amy Nicholson Kathryn Bigelow, the Oscar-winning director behind 'The Hurt Locker' and 'Zero Dark Thirty,' is an expert at turning real-world crises into procedural pulse-pounders. In 'A House of Dynamite,' she trades the battlefield for the White House, tracking a team of officials scrambling to respond to an incoming-missile alert in near real time. The stacked cast includes Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Greta Lee, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos and Jason Clarke. Shot with you-are-there immediacy by cinematographer Barry Ackroyd and edited by Fincher veteran Kirk Baxter ('The Social Network'), it's Bigelow's first feature in eight years, since her period crime drama 'Detroit.' This time, it's situation rooms, red phones and competing chains of command. The fuse is bureaucratic and the stakes are global. — Josh Rottenberg The most terrifying movie of the year, unsurprisingly, is about a mother just trying to get through a day — or maybe it's her whole life? Rose Byrne stars as Linda, a Montauk therapist in an emotional tailspin: she's tending to a sick daughter with a mystery illness that prevents her from eating normally, there's a hole in her ceiling that's gushing water, her husband is MIA and she's desperate for counsel from her own aloof therapist (Conan O'Brien). Mary Bronstein's sophomore feature skillfully takes a darkly funny look at the harrowing isolation and chaos of motherhood, often zooming in on Byrne's face as she's pushed to the brink. It's also worth mentioning that rapper ASAP Rocky plays James, an unlikely partner-in-crime with a gnarly internet browser history whom Linda comes to know when her water disaster forces her to move into a motel. The A24 film, which counts Josh Safdie among its producers, earned raves out of this year's Sundance and critics are already heralding Byrne's performance as Oscar-worthy. — Yvonne Villarreal AI continues to evolve onscreen — for every Entity threatening the end of civilization in 'Dead Reckoning,' there's a M3GAN 2.0 ready to come to our aid with an eye roll. 'Tron: Ares' looks to split the difference: Mean-looking skyscraper-sized machines face off against Jared Leto. Never mind. You didn't watch these movies for the plots anyway. Besides the welcome return of a cameoing Jeff Bridges from the 1982 Atari-era landmark, the new movie brings on Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross doing a proper industrial-rock score under their old moniker Nine Inch Nails, a soundtrack they've called 'grittier' compared with their other stuff like 'Challengers.' That's reason enough to go, head-bobbing your way through lightcycle race sequences to the groove. A summer movie smuggled into the fall? Fine, we'll need a few of those, especially as the awards drumbeat gets deafening. — Joshua Rothkopf Do you remember comedies? Do you remember the experience of going to a movie theater and laughing with a room full of complete strangers? Do you remember Aziz Ansari? 'Parks and Recreation,' yes. But also the charming rom-com Netflix series 'Master of None,' the one that Ansari starred in and co-created, often writing and directing as well. It's been a minute. Ansari was set to make his feature film directorial debut in 2022, but production was halted and never resumed due to a complaint of inappropriate behavior lodged against Bill Murray. Now we finally have Ansari's first feature, a comedy about a guardian angel (Keanu Reeves) swapping the lives of a struggling gig worker (Ansari) and his wealthy boss (Seth Rogen). Think of it as 'Trading Places' with a dash of Wim Wenders. It could be sublime. It could be a train wreck. But it's an original story from a multi-hyphenate who was viewed, not that long ago, as a major talent. I'm interested. — Glenn Whipp At their boldest, movies can demand a reckoning, a reconsideration. Iran's Jafar Panahi swept into Cannes with this sad and furious political thriller, about the lingering aftermath of a torture master's abuses, taking the Palme d'Or in an almost cosmic reversal of fortunes for a filmmaker who has often suffered in prison or under house arrest, his art forbidden. 'It Was Just an Accident' has revealed more to me in thinking about it, especially about the precarity of everyday manners. Without ruining it, the closest comparison is to something like 'Death and the Maiden.' When the tables are turned, is revenge itself a moral dead end? Based on an especially tough-minded piece of writing, this is a film that will get you contemplating pettiness and righteousness both. There's no fall movie season without the Palme winner and last year's 'Anora' went all the way. — Joshua Rothkopf There is still something astonishing that Greek-born filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has become as commercially successful and awards-friendly as he has, given that his work tends to be abstract, allegorical and at times willfully off-putting. Nothing if not unpredictable, Lanthimos now offers up a remake of the 2003 South Korean film 'Save the Green Planet!' in which a pair of activists kidnap a pharmaceutical executive they believe to be a space alien, with Jesse Plemons as one of the plotters and Emma Stone as their target. Lanthimos' work often combines dark comedy and an unexpected romantic streak with a potent political charge and his latest film looks to tap into the volatile energy of conspiracy theories and radical anti-corporate sentiments. Stone, who won an Oscar for her performance in Lanthimos' 'Poor Things,' continues to use her Hollywood star power to champion challenging filmmakers. This is their fifth film together. — Mark Olsen The cynical take would be: This is a naked attempt at the same commercial success as music-themed dramas like 'A Complete Unknown' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' But Bruce Springsteen and the raw, stripped-down recordings of his 1982 'Nebraska' album seem earnestly in opposition to such artless gamesmanship. Adapted and directed by Scott Cooper, the film stars Jeremy Allen White (perfectly suited for a post-'The Bear' step into movie stardom), along with Jeremy Strong as Springsteen's faithful manager Jon Landau and additional supporting turns from Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham, Gaby Hoffmann, Odessa Young and Marc Maron. A soulful, searching '70s-style character study on the making of a now-classic '80s album with some of the most exciting performers of 2025 is both slightly counterintuitive and something that makes total sense. — Mark Olsen That title seems to have lost a comma since Cannes, but who cares? Director Lynne Ramsay has no patience for grammatical formalities and her latest burns with the punk ferocity of her finest film, 2002's 'Morvern Callar.' Ramsay has found a fellow traveler in Jennifer Lawrence, who, these days post-'Causeway,' is reinventing herself in a focused, fearless register. It's impossible to watch 'Die My Love' and not be hypnotized by its swampy psychodrama: the violent postpartum death throes of a marriage that has little reason to continue. Lawrence and her co-star, Robert Pattinson, play a city couple who move to Montana only half-believing in their own future together. Ramsay teases out something delicate and distracted in both of them. You'll hear about these sex scenes. There's more to the movie than that. — Joshua Rothkopf In November 1945, two dozen high-ranking officials of the Nazi Party were charged with crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. At their center was Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler's second-in-command. Not surprisingly, Göring is a central character in the upcoming James Vanderbilt film 'Nuremberg.' Based on Jack El-Hai's 2013 book 'The Nazi and the Psychiatrist,' 'Nuremberg' focuses on the relationship between Göring, played by Russell Crowe, and Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek), the psychiatrist tasked with determining if Göring and the other Nuremberg defendants were capable of standing trial. Though in hindsight Göring's conviction seems inevitable, many of the Allied leaders had initially preferred summary execution to prevent the Nazis from gaining any kind of sympathy. Bombastic, unrepentant, with a ribald sense of humor and a defense that leaned heavily into his desire to make Germany great again, Göring came out swinging. It is difficult to imagine an actor better suited to this role than Crowe, just as Malek seems a perfect fit for Kelley, who never recovered from his discovery that the Nazis 'were no different from a group of intelligent executives anywhere.' — Mary McNamara Director Dan Trachtenberg rejuvenated the 'Predator' franchise with his 2022 prequel 'Prey,' a period piece that pitted a ferocious young Comanche warrior (Amber Midthunder) against a new iteration of the iconic alien hunter while also weaving in conflict with terrestrial interlopers. I've been ready for Trachtenberg's next offering from this world ever since. While 'Prey' was set during Earth's past, 'Predator: Badlands' moves the action to a remote planet in the future. There are no human protagonists needed to outmaneuver a deadly alien foe this time around. 'Badlands' centers a young Predator outcast (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) who encounters an android (Elle Fanning) created by the 'Alien' franchise's Weyland-Yutani Corp. while on his quest to hunt the deadliest of beasts. The idea of a Predator and a synthetic's odd-couple team-up was intriguing even before the visual of an alien warrior carrying half an android on his back grabbed this 'Star Wars' fan's attention. — Tracy Brown As the follow-up to their breakthrough collaboration on 'The Worst Person in the World,' Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier and actor Renate Reinsve return with 'Sentimental Value,' which won the second-place Grand Prix award when it premiered at Cannes earlier this year. In a richly layered study of family, legacy and nothing less than the purpose of art, Reinsve plays an emotionally fragile actor whose filmmaker father (a galvanizing Stellan Skarsgård) has written a part for her. After she refuses to even consider it, feeling that the baggage between them is too fraught, he moves on to casting an American ingenue (Elle Fanning), who may not be up to the demands of the role. (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Reinsve's sister is also something of the film's sneaky secret weapon.) Able to switch moods and tones with a stylish, skillful ease, Trier brings out the best in all the film's performers, mixing a knowing, bittersweet humor with deep insights. — Mark Olsen Did we dream it at Sundance? A classically proportioned drama about the building of the American West, mostly seen from the eyes of one logger, that approaches the quiet grandeur of a Terrence Malick movie? Nope, 'Train Dreams' is here and there's something about its poise and intimacy that makes it feel, finally, like Netflix has a big awards winner, provided viewers can get beyond Joel Edgerton's bushy beard. The performance is taciturn and nonverbal; he's got a mouthpiece in Will Patton's folksy narration, but what Edgerton is doing is worth leaning in for, complex and fascinating. Co-written by Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, the team behind 'Jockey' and 'Sing Sing,' and adapted from Denis Johnson's 2011 novella, this gorgeous movie could put you in mind of a less frenetic era and also, via its piney fog-shrouded exteriors, of the country that still exists beyond all our noise. — Joshua Rothkopf An aging movie star reflects back on his life and career, contemplating what it was all for as he heads to Europe to receive a lifetime achievement award. The new 'Jay Kelly' stars George Clooney but is also in some ways about George Clooney — or at least the kind of existential crisis that only someone like George Clooney could truly understand. The latest film directed by Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote the screenplay with Emily Mortimer, 'Jay Kelly' may also be full of the filmmaker's own inner ruminations following the dismissive response to 2022's 'White Noise,' his previous film, and the overwhelming success of 'Barbie,' which he co-wrote with Greta Gerwig. The stacked cast of 'Jay Kelly' includes Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Stacy Keach, Jim Broadbent, Mortimer and Gerwig. Baumbach's signature serio-comic touch, in which the humor lacerates as much as the drama, should be in full effect here. — Mark Olsen Seven years ago, a movie fan tweeted at director Edgar Wright to ask if he'd ever helm a remake. 'The Running Man,' Wright replied — and now he's done just that. Prescience has always been part of this action-thriller's hold on the imagination. Stephen King dreamed up the idea of a deadly TV competition in 1982, years before 'Survivor' brought the thrill of watching real-life desperation into our living rooms, and set his dystopian story in the then-distant future of 2025. Today, King's grim satire doesn't seem quite as far-fetched, so Wright's challenge will be making sure his update still packs a wallop. Glen Powell has stepped into Arnold Schwarzenegger's running shoes as a gritty, hardscrabble contestant who flees for his life, with Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo, Lee Pace, Michael Cera and Katy O'Brian rounding out the cast. Here's hoping this long-awaited project makes it across the finish line with panache. — Amy Nicholson It feels like I've been holding space for Part 2 of Jon M. Chu's musical extravaganza for as long as film star Cynthia Erivo stretched out that final 'aaaaaaaaaaahhh' battle cry in the showstopping 'Defying Gravity' number. Adapted from the long-running Broadway musical, the bifurcated epic is mostly set before 'The Wizard of Oz' and explores the origins of green-skinned Elphaba (Erivo) before she became known as the Wicked Witch of the West and her complex dynamic with rival-turned-friend Glinda (Ariana Grande). The first movie, which introduced the young women as students at Shiz University who developed an unlikely friendship after being forced to bunk together, ended with Elphaba learning about the dark realities of oppression within Oz's Emerald City and launching onto a path of resistance, quite literally, by taking flight on her getaway broomstick and fleeing the city. This second half will explore the diverging roads the two friends take as they become the adversaries we originally came to know through Dorothy and Co.. It's hard to say which will be more entertaining, the promotional tour or the actual movie. — Yvonne Villarreal
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
The best movies and TV shows to watch this fall
While this was a summer of box office sequels and 'Love Island' Season 7 watch parties, the fall landscape for movies and TV feels much crisper. Sure, there are repeats on a form, but there's a unique direction to the wind. While 'The Paper' is a loose spinoff of 'The Office,' lead actor Domhnall Gleeson tells The Times the mockumentary about a struggling newspaper has its own feel. Then there's drama 'The Lowdown' from Sterlin Harjo, co-creator of 'Reservation Dogs,' starring Ethan Hawke. One of our critics intriguingly calls it Tulsa noir. On the big screen, Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle After Another' brings wild energy, while Scarlett Johansson makes her directorial debut with 'Eleanor the Great,' a Cannes audience favorite. And as an extra special treat, we got the guys from 'Spinal Tap II: The End Continues' to dish in character — animal print pants and all. The movie and TV offerings here are just the beginning of our fall preview coverage. In the wings for after Labor Day: what's new in music, books, dance, theater and museums. Bookmark this page to stay in the know. — Brittany Levine Beckman, Entertainment and Features editor
Axios
2 hours ago
- Axios
Charlotte culinary duo gets national TV spotlight
"Fork & Hammer," the reality TV show about local restaurateurs Jeff Tonidandel and Jamie Brown, will premiere at the newly-restored Carolina Theatre next month. Why it matters: The husband-and-wife duo launched Crepe Cellar in NoDa during the 2009 recession without prior restaurant experience. Since then, they've built a thriving family-run empire comprising local beloved spots — Haberdish, Supperland, Ever Andalo, Growlers, and Leluia Hall — all while raising a family, preserving historic buildings and navigating Charlotte's evolving culinary landscape. Driving the news: Tickets are on sale for the Oct. 7 premiere. Charlotteans will get a first look one week before the show debuts nationwide. PBS North Carolina will air Fork & Hammer every Wednesday, starting Oct. 15, at 2pm and on Sundays, starting Oct. 19, at 11:30am. Season 1 will air on PBS stations nationwide this fall, with exact dates and times rolling out market by market. What to expect: The series follows the couple as they run their five businesses, manage more than 230 employees, open their newest restaurant, Leluia Hall, and save the Leeper-Wyatt building, one of the oldest retail structures in the South End area. The evening kicks off with a lobby meet-and-greet, followed by the 26-minute first episode, "It Started with a Crêpe," which revisits the couple's first restaurant, Crêpe Cellar Kitchen & Pub. Tennis champion and Charlotte resident Andy Roddick will moderate a live Q&A with Tonidandel and Brown after the screening. Behind the scenes: The 10-episode first season, produced by Susie Films and presented by SCETV, will be distributed nationally by American Public Television. "It's entrepreneurship, it's risk-taking, it's the real behind-the-scenes of what it takes to keep these places going," Brown tells Axios. Flashback: Susie Films, a Charlotte-based production company, reached out to Brown and Tonidandel after spotting them on the 2023 cover of Charlotte magazine. From there, Susie Films pitched the concept to several outlets, including Netflix, Magnolia, Food Network and PBS. They raised $1 million from sponsors to produce the show, including ETV Endowment of South Carolina, Trust20, the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, and Biltmore Estate Winery. The big picture: Charlotte's food scene is heading to the national stage in more ways than one. "Fork & Hammer" is coming to TVs across the country at the same time Charlotte is earning fresh culinary cred, from being named host city for "Top Chef" season 23 to the Michelin Guide's expansion into the Southeast. Between the lines: Congress recently cut $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, forcing its shutdown by early 2026 and leaving PBS and NPR stations scrambling, with layoffs, hiring freezes and emergency fundraising drives.
