1190 Best Film & TV Releases Translated Into Hebrew (Page 19)

The Harley Quinn animated TV series has always been about subverting expectations. The basic DNA of the show initially seemed so formulaic (a raunchy take on DC Comics superheroes, scandalous!) before morphing into something much more fun and emotionally resonant. Potentially one-joke characters like Bane have become so delightfully nuanced and messy. Continue Reading →

In the climactic monologue of the original Magic Mike, Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) says, “I don’t want to be a forty-year-old stripper.” It’s an affecting scene that shows that Mike understands the dead-end nature of his current lifestyle and his desire to escape, and it makes the ending where he gives stripping up a satisfying one.  Continue Reading →

The first season of You was a chilling and remarkably trenchant look into the mind of a misogynist. It followed toxic Nice Guy-slash-psychopath Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) as he stalked the object of his affection through New York City’s elite literary circles. An almost Humbert Humbert-like figure, Joe used his narration to manipulate the audience and try to win them over. Even as he began killing people who stood in the way of his desires he kept up the seduction. Continue Reading →

In the strange 21st-century rise of conspiracy theories and cult-like behavior, the most frightening aspect of it is that some people really are true believers. Certainly, there are those who are just trolling, claiming to believe in insane things like Democrats eating Christian babies just to get a rise out of people. But what about those who are serious, who aren’t even textbook “crazy,” just normal people who at some point began to truly believe in chemtrails, or that everything that happens in the world is secretly orchestrated by an underground race of lizard people, or that the end times are here? What if they don’t want to believe these things, but they can’t help it? How do you reason with that? Continue Reading →

A saying goes for bad thespians: “They can’t act their way out of a paper bag!” When it comes to the ensemble for the latest Syfy channel original series, these people can’t act their way out of a deep space cryo chamber. The Ark, also streaming on Peacock, is an intriguing science fiction premise in search of capable hands that can live up to the material, but there are none to be found in this part of the galaxy.  Continue Reading →

Brandon Cronenberg & Chloe Domont direct stylish films about sex & violence among the bourgeoise wealthy. A growing trend in Hollywood film & TV of late has been to put a mirror in front of the idle rich and mock the privileged and avaricious lifestyles they live. Some may say this is happening now because of honest self-reflection in the face of growing and untenable wealth-inequality in this country, but that just sounds gullible to me. It’s probably more so that hedonistic and openly, publicly vapid displays of self-promotion and consumerist propaganda through social media has made it easier to become famous and sponsored by doing less than ever before. Brandon Cronenberg probably has imposter syndrome. In Infinity Pool, his central character James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) is a writer plagued by a lack of inspiration and haunted by a review that boils his career down to only having a rich father-in-law, which affords him the luxury of not needing a real job. His hang-up over this connection through his wife, Em (Cleopatra Coleman), explodes in the open when they have a fight and he tells her to “run back to Daddy.” In formally and thematically finding a voice unto himself apart from his lineage, the younger Cronenberg has cultivated a filmography where the corporeal form is at odds with the sense of identity. His characters constantly feel like empty vessels and thus, the trauma their bodies endure are more a dissociative terror than a deeply internally felt one. Continue Reading →

A household name (and one of the most in-demand creators of color) in network TV and Hollywood over the last decade, Kenya Barris has shepherded tv sitcom universes like Black-ish/Grown-ish/Mixed-ish, collaborated on box office smashes like Girls Trip, and developed franchise revival attempts like Shaft and Coming 2 America. Within these projects, his central preoccupation has been negotiating authenticity in relation to race, class, family, and the self. Continue Reading →

American remakes of British television shows haven’t earned the best reputation despite a few gems over the years. The newest series to make it successfully across the pond, FOX’s new crime drama, Accused, does so with a premise you just can’t mess up.   Continue Reading →

The market for romantic comedies surrounding weddings is right up Jennifer Lopez's avenue. Last year it was Marry Me. Before that, it was The Wedding Planner. But whether she was piercing hearts with her eyes in Out of Sight, or turning up the heat with her performance in Hustlers, Lopez continues to surprise us with her versatility. Shotgun Wedding is more com than rom, allowing Lopez to exercise her killer comedic timing, along with an all-star cast present for a destination wedding that goes sideways. Continue Reading →

The military drama Heroic overcomes cliché to capture structural horror. A significant string of recently released movies centralize crises of faith. The lead suffers abuse, boiling until they burst. Perhaps it’s a sign of the times, a subconscious metaphor for how authoritarianism and the crushing realities of oppressive institutional forces are increasing the temperature and pressure of the citizenry that will inevitably lead to a rupture. In 2022 there was God’s Country, The Beasts, and Women Talking. Now at Sundance, we have Heroic, a Mexican drama unfolding inside a military school. Director David Zonana’s film may resemble several movies that use this same arc. However, it distinguishes itself with careful direction and surreal depictions of how the mind processes abuse and vengeance.   Zonana films hazing rituals and routine drills with an eye for visual geometry that distinguishes power levels. Young recruits, referred to as “potros” (colts), always move on the sides of the frame or undistinguished as square or triangular squadrons when conducting gun rituals. Officers remain centered, maintaining authority with both direct physical presence and as a distant watchful eye.  Continue Reading →

“Emotionally manipulative” is a criticism of television and film I’ve always struggled with evaluating. If it is doing its job, any show or movie should emotionally manipulate you, at least a bit. It’s why you can go into a dark cineplex feeling a bit in the grip of the blahs and emerge high on the story of Nic Cage and his best swine friend. So know, when I declare Dear Edward “emotionally manipulative as hell,” that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Continue Reading →

What would you do to know your parents? Not just as parents, but as people—even long after their deaths? How would you make the most of a horrendous moral quagmire you had no choice in getting dragged into—and what would you do when that quagmire, for all its familiarity, finally became too much to bear? On a broader level, what makes us human—and what remains when we're gone? Director/writer Yeon Sang-ho asks and answers these questions in his out-now-on-Netflix science fiction film JUNG_E. It's a solid, thoughtful film that shines thanks to its leading trio and Sang-ho's skill at depicting and delving into the uncanny. Continue Reading →

Grief hits us all differently. For therapist Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel, also one of three Shrinking creators), the death of his wife led him to a year-long bender. The audience encounters him on his last night of drinking, drugs, and sex workers whom he pays not for sex but just to hang out with him. His neighbor Liz’s (Christa Miller) repeated pleas to stop waking her and her husband Derek (Ted McGinley) in the middle of the night with his “parties” finally break through. Continue Reading →

Alice, Darling may tout itself a psychological thriller in its marketing, but that leads audiences astray. This isn’t Repulsion or Mulholland Drive. Instead, it’s a startlingly accurate portrayal of domestic abuse. Continue Reading →

That ‘70s Show That ’70s Show first aired on Fox in 1998. Throughout the seasons, viewers watched Eric Forman (Topher Grace) and his motley crew of friends as they got into hijinks in ’70s Wisconsin. The friends often met in Eric’s basement, forging bonds through pot-fueled smoky clouds. There were highs, both metaphorically and literally, culminating in a finale in 2006. It’s only fitting that the nostalgia trip continues with the spinoff That ’90s Show. It’sa fun sequel series that plays with elements of the original series while establishing its own path.  Continue Reading →

Night Court’s first time on the television dial ran nine seasons from 1984 to 1992. Throughout its run, NBC paired it with such sitcom titans as The Cosby Show, Cheers, and Family Ties. Far and away the oddest of the quartet, it never caught fire critically or creatively in the same way. Nonetheless, its off-center charms worked their magic on enough people to make it a syndicated favorite and to get referenced by the likes of 30 Rock.  Continue Reading →

The working relationship between author Robert Caro and editor Robert Gottlieb, now over a half-century-long, has delivered five completed books with a sixth on the way. Judged by the numbers alone, that may not seem like an especially impressive output. However, the extraordinary amount of acclaim and influence these works have garnered tell a different story. One could convincingly mount a case for the two having the most significant author-editor relationship of our time. Perhaps even one to rival such legendary collaborators as Thomas Wolfe and Maxwell Perkins or T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. Continue Reading →

When last we left Kingstown, MI, the town was recovering from a brutal prison riot that left plenty of guards and scores of prisoners dead. Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) has proven nowhere near the adept fixer his deceased brother (Kyle Chandler) was. The town paid the price. Continue Reading →

Disaster vacation films are a dime dozen. Audiences see a sun-drenched location and they know – something is afoot. Nonetheless, Hulu is looking to join the genre with their newest, The Drop. Directed by Sarah Adina Smith, The Drop follows a group of friends as they gather for a destination wedding, only to have a shocking incident disturb the celebration. The Drop may not reinvent the “trip gone wrong” trope. Still, its stellar cast and sharp director know how to dig deep to find the weird unease hanging around friends on vacation.    Continue Reading →

Koala Man may be a brand-new Hulu cartoon, but viewers sitting down to watch its first season may feel like they’ve stumbled onto a rerun. The show’s steady stream of apocalyptic threats and graphic deaths echoes executive producer Justin Roiland’s Rick and Morty, and its animation style is disappointingly derivative of Bento Box Entertainment’s adult cartoons (Hoops or Brickleberry, for instance, though Aussie studio Princess Bento produced Koala Man itself). It may be the only small-screen program dedicated to a middle-aged dude in a koala mask fighting crime, but Koala Man is far too derivative for its own good.  Continue Reading →

Vesper (Raffiella Chapman, His Dark Materials), a lone teenager clad head to toe in weatherbeaten cold-weather gear, expertly ferrets her way through a blighted field. She's looking for the remains of dead crops—critical samples for her ongoing bio-engineering research. A floating drone—humanized by an awkward, endearingly childish face that's been carved on it—accompanies her. Her father, Darius (Richard Brake), pilots the drone. Left paralyzed and fragile by war and a relentless artificial biosphere, Darius does what he can for his daughter. In the distance stand colossal machines long left to rust, their purpose obscure. Continue Reading →