769 Best Releases From the Genre Drama (Page 10)
Boston Strangler
SimilarBoys Don't Cry (1999) Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Erin Brockovich (2000), Monster (2003), The Straight Story (1999),
Studio20th Century Studios,
Considering the lurid details of it (let alone that it was never solved), it’s curious that Netflix, America’s number one source for grisly true crime documentaries, has yet to cover the Boston Strangler. It’s a fascinating story largely because the man who was long believed to be the Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, almost certainly didn’t act alone, and may not have even killed all of the thirteen women whose deaths were originally attributed to him. DNA evidence years after the fact conclusively linked DeSalvo, convicted of rape and later murdered in prison, to just one victim. At the time of his arrest, both police and the media were so eager to bring the city-wide hysteria to an end that they pointed at him for all the murders, only quietly conceding after DeSalvo was in jail that there was likely more than one strangler, and that the case was still open. Nearly sixty years later, the other twelve murders remain unsolved. Continue Reading →
Extrapolations
SimilarMurder Most Horrid, Pope John Paul II, Santa Evita, The Gold Robbers, Three Days of Christmas, White House Plumbers,
Watch afterCitadel, Severance, Succession,
Ted Lasso The Big Bang Theory, The Night Agent,
Much of the pre-release buzz about AppleTV+’s new original series Extrapolations was concerned with its potential to be preachy. In much the same way this writer doesn’t mind a bit of emotional manipulation in entertainment, I can be fine with preachiness. Some things are worth preaching about. Extrapolations’ flaw isn’t that it has a soapbox and is using it. It’s that it’s such a mess. Continue Reading →
Ted Lasso
Created byBill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, Jason Sudeikis, Joe Kelly,
StarringAnthony Stewart Head, Billy Harris, Brendan Hunt, Brett Goldstein, Cristo Fernández, Hannah Waddingham, James Lance, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Swift,
Juno Temple Kola Bokinni, Nick Mohammed, Phil Dunster, Toheeb Jimoh,
Considering the number of statues, attention, and fans the series has collected over two seasons, it may feel odd to call Ted Lasso Season 3 a chance at a comeback. However, given the backlash that seemed to accumulate during the back half of the second season, it isn’t entirely off the mark. Viewers and critics (not this one, make of that what you will) expressed frustration with the show’s messier tone and longer episodes. Additionally, even as the show pierced it, people’s appetite for Ted’s (Jason Sudeikis) positivity had rapidly grown thin in some quarters. Continue Reading →
You
SimilarAround the World in 80 Days, My Holo Love, The Summer I Turned Pretty,
StarringEd Speleers,
You Season 4 Part 1 depicted its antihero protagonist, Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), at his most straightforwardly heroic. He was teaching classes, avoiding romance, and trying not to commit any more murders. At least, that’s what Joe told himself and the audience in his omnipresent narration. It was a notable and perplexing turn for a character who viewers first met stalking, kidnapping, and murdering the object of his demented affections. Continue Reading →
Creed III
SimilarDie Hard 2 (1990), Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), Godzilla Raids Again (1955), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), Raging Bull (1980),
Watch afterThe Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023),
StudioMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
Round three of twelve. Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan)—the fresh-out-of-retirement undisputed heavyweight champion of the world—faces Damian "Diamond Dame" Anderson (Jonathan Majors)—the ruthless-came-from-eighteen-years-in-prison reigning champ. Growing up in a group home, Adonis and Damian were brothers—united by care for one another in a callous system and a shared love of the sweet science. Continue Reading →
Daisy Jones & the Six
The story of Daisy Jones & The Six begins, fittingly, at its dramatic end. The show opens with the members of the titular band taking their seats for a series of talking-head interviews before a title card that reads, “On October 4, 1977, Daisy Jones and the Six performed to a sold-out crowd at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.” Despite being one of the biggest bands in the world at that time, “It would be their final performance.” From there, we jump back in time to learn exactly how Daisy and the five members of the Six (yes, five) became a band. Continue Reading →
School Spirits
Some pray high school will never end. Some feel like it goes on for a painful forever. For Maddie Nears (Peyton List), those desires and hyperbolic thoughts may have become quite literal. If you die on her high school’s campus of unnatural causes, you apparently hang around with the other ghosts until you figure out how to move on. Imagine finding out the afterlife is real and you’ll never leave your high school again in the same moment. Continue Reading →
Palm Trees and Power Lines
SimilarA Real Young Girl (1976), Copying Beethoven (2006),
Watch afterJohn Wick: Chapter 4 (2023),
Among the increasingly insane and dangerous culture wars we’ve found ourselves thrust into in recent years is whether or not merely explaining to a child what it means to be queer or transgender is inappropriate. For the rational-minded, it teaches children empathy and acceptance. For those less so, it’s akin to showing them pornography, and corrupting their innocence. The word “grooming” is used, although no one seems to know exactly what that means, except that it’s inflammatory and effectively shuts down any hope of a productive conversation. Continue Reading →
Servant
Haunted house stories have always been my favorite. There's something so thrilling and unsettling about a place that feels and reacts to the people that occupy it. As I got older, I learned that haunting could mean many things. It could mean memory. It could mean joy, despair, humor, or fear soaking into the brick and mortar or reflecting our experiences back at us. If you look at it that way, isn't every house haunted? Continue Reading →
Стъклен дом
In 2019, the Walt Disney Company released Avengers: Endgame, the culmination of an 11-year-long project of crossovers, callbacks, foreshadowing, and franchising. The result was, for a time, the single highest-grossing film in cinematic history. This success seemed to mark the undisputed coronation of the superhero movie as the defining film genre of the modern era. But just a few months earlier, to quieter but not unsuccessful fanfare, another superhero film was released, one whose foundations were laid long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe's were, a film that was, in its way, an epic farewell to a cinematic universe. M. Night Shyamalan's Glass is the third and final film of his "Eastrail 177 Trilogy," a trilogy of supernatural thrillers that rely not on pyrotechnics and action but on sincere, intimate moments of character. Continue Reading →
Split
Old tropes never die; they just fade away, and most not a minute too soon. Among the well-trod movie and T.V. plot devices that have been retired in the past decade is the "split personality," a favorite of mystery and horror, in which a character has a hidden "evil" side that commits nefarious deeds, usually without the "good" side's knowledge. Though its roots can be found in Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, its popularity peaked from the 70s well into the 90s, thanks mainly to Florence Rheta Schreiber's Sybil, purportedly a true account of a woman's struggle with split personality disorder, later called multiple personality disorder and now referred to as dissociative identity disorder, or D.I.D. for short. Continue Reading →
The Visitor
Rural Pennsylvania. No one moves, and the woods surround them. The trees shudder. A whip snaps around a branch. Cut to the forest below, a denim-clad hero emergesIIndiana Jones on his latest adventure. Continue Reading →
Signs
I am sitting in the waiting room at an Urgent Care in Maine, waiting to see someone about a mild allergic reaction to a bee sting. It is August 2003, and I am thirteen years old. While my mother and I wait, I look up at the muted television, and suddenly I can't breathe. The news broadcast is carrying a live feed of what I recognize as the Brooklyn Bridge, and to my horror, thousands of people are streaming across it, trying to get out of New York City. My first thought, before I stammer to my mother that she needs to ask for the remote, that she needs to turn up the volume, that she needs to call our family and see if they're safe, is: It's happening again. We manage to unmute the waiting room television and watch, frightened, as the news breaks of the massive blackout that has paralyzed the Northeast. No one knows the cause, and I convince myself: It is happening again. Continue Reading →
The Consultant
When Christoph Waltz is at his best playing a villain in films like Inglorious Basterds, he presents as gentle and almost naively sweet before revealing an endless capacity for cruelty. At his worst, as with his Blofeld, he presents as all menace and violence and ends up with the effectiveness of a kitten. The former is delightful to behold; the latter can crash an entire film. Unfortunately, The Consultant forces Waltz to be the menacing kitten. Continue Reading →
Jesus Revolution
SimilarAnna and the King (1999), Brubaker (1980), Free Willy (1993), Freedom Writers (2007), Mississippi Burning (1988), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006),
StudioLionsgate,
We’ve all been there. You turn on the radio and an incredible song is playing you’ve never heard before in your life. It’s a soaring rock anthem that chills you with goosebumps and makes you feel alive. Is this an Unforgettable Fire-era U2 song? Is this my new favorite band? The music ends, and the DJ jumps in with something like, “Praise be to God. That was Soul Eternal, with their hit single “Let the Spirit Thrive” only on your Christian Rock station 104.7!” Continue Reading →
Carnival Row
One of the biggest downsides of making such gorgeous, sprawling fantasy television epics is the agonizing wait between seasons. This is acutely felt at Amazon, in particular, as they seem to have cornered the fantasy television market. Fans are already gnashing for a new season of big-budget offerings like The Wheel of Time, and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Of course, no show has suffered more for the delays than Carnival Row Season 2. Season 1 aired in 2019, an interminable wait for any dedicated viewer. Continue Reading →
Hello Tomorrow!
Hello Tomorrow! is a lot like its lead character Jack Billings (Billy Crudup). It looks great, for one. For another, it keeps dancing in the hopes that you won’t catch on to exactly how hollow its charms are, even when the music stops. And, like Billings, you almost want Hello Tomorrow! to get away with it. Unfortunately, they’re both running confidence games that they can’t land. Continue Reading →
Sharper
SimilarDie Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Léon: The Professional (1994), Taxi Driver (1976),
Watch afterBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022),
StarringSebastian Stan,
StudioA24,
We love movies about con artists, because they’re always glamorous, with attractive, elegantly dressed people slickly seducing their marks. It’s far sexier and intriguing than the sad reality of con artistry, which mostly seems to involve catfishing lonely people on dating sites, or swindling them out of cash on behalf of a made-up charity. No one likes to think about how easy it is to be fooled by someone who’s simply a good liar, it makes more sense that these things happen as part of an elaborate scheme created by a network of seasoned professionals alternately working together and stabbing each other in the back. Apple TV+’s Sharper scratches that particular itch, and looks good doing it, but ultimately feels a bit hollow, and has twists that are far more transparent than they should be. Continue Reading →
The Accidental Getaway Driver
Watch afterShortcomings (2023),
Divinity disappoints while The Accidental Getaway Driver surprises in this selection of genre offerings from the fest.
No amount of recasting could have possibly saved Eddie Alcazar's Divinity from its state of terminal confusion. That's a shame considering the number of the relatively famous names involved. They include, most mystifying of all, executive producer Steven Soderbergh.
A bewildering stew of sci-fi, social commentary, and general weirdness, the title refers to a drug developed by renowned scientist Sterling Perce (Scott Bakula) to prevent death. Ironically, he died before completing his work. Thankfully (?), his son Jaxxon (Stephen Dorff) solved the formula and sold it to the masses. It appears to do the job of forestalling death but with an unexpected side effect--the inability to reproduce. Continue Reading →
A Little Prayer
A pair of films about family, A Little Prayer & L’Immensita, explore the ties that bind and tear apart.
Angus MacLachlan’s A Little Prayer stars David Straithairn as Bill, the head of a family-owned sheet-metal business. He lives in a quiet Winston-Salem suburb with his wife, Venida (Celia Weston). His son/co-worker David (Will Pullen) and daughter-in-law Tammy (Jane Levy) also reside in the guest house on the property. The family is clearly close-knit. Bill even shares a particularly strong bond with his daughter-in-law.
When Bill begins to suspect David is having an affair with the office secretary (Dascha Polanco), he is aghast, seemingly mostly on Tammy’s behalf. He does what he can to try to get David to break things off, but things turn out to be more complicated than initially believed. As Bill tries to make things right, he must come to terms with his relationship to both David and Tammy. Continue Reading →