The Eternaut (TV 2025): Argentina. A toxic, apocalyptic snowfall kills millions. A group of friends sheltering at home survive and set out to get answers, but as they do, even more mysteries pile up like snowdrifts. Based on a 1950s graphic novel. The look and feel is gritty. The plot isn't resolved. C+
Your Friends & Neighbors (TV 2025): John Hamm is a lovable rogue, a hedge fund manager who is fired and burglarizes neighborhood homes to maintain his lifestyle. Easy pickings, right? But things spiral out of control. Not quite satire or comedy, call it drama but never serious. B+
The Studio (TV 2025): Seth Rogen's satire of the head of a Hollywood movie studio. He skewers producers, directors, actors, marketers, distributors, but none too cruelly, which takes the bite out of it. Rogen himself is the sad sack butt of most jokes. C+
The Four Seasons (TV 2025): Remake of 1981 original movie. Follows the same formula: Three couples go on vacations together throughout the year, gradually exposing personal flaws and rifts in friendship. Light, fun entertainment in eight, easy-to-swallow bites. B-
The Four Seasons (1981): Original movie by Alan Alda with an ensemble cast. Story of three couples who take vacations together. Spring starts with fun and games, but as the year wears on, things get less fun as everyone gets on each other's nerves. More like a light TV movie than a serious drama. B-
Mickey 17 (2025): Satire by Bong Joon Ho. A man volunteers for dangerous missions on a long space voyage. He's expendable because his body can be 3D printed anew each time he dies. As much broad comedy as satire, the movie works on multiple levels. Maybe the satire targets a bit too much, making it a bit too long. B+
Nosferatu (2024): Remake of the 1929 Gothic horror classic. Faithful to the original, meaning it won't be scary enough for modern audiences. A dark, soulless story that marches relentlessly to its inevitable conclusion. Beautiful noir cinematography. C+
Fountain of Youth (2025): Big budget, treasure hunt, adventure movie in the tradition of Indiana Jones, but with only a fraction of the wit and charm. Ignore the plot details stretched beyond plausibility and just go along for the ride and it can be fun. B-
Saturday Night (2024): Dramatization of the chaos before air time of the first episode of SNL. Somehow, the show made it to air. Some actors nail their original cast roles. Lorne Michaels is portrayed as having no control. Probably best for big fans. So-so or worse for the rest. C+
Wilding (2023): Dramatization of a real story of an English couple who decide to rewild their failing 3,500 acre estate. It's always a work in progress, but they seem to be making progress, although the movie fails to address the economics of the plan. Inspiring if not compelling moviemaking. B-
The Sandlot (1993): Family-friendly nostalgia from the '90s about growing up playing
baseball in a neighborhood sandlot — in 1962, just like I did. A Christmas
Story did the nostalgia better. So did TV's The Wonder Years. But this movie
comes in a close third. I don't know why it's not better known. B-
Aftersun (2022): Divorced dad and 11 yr-old daughter vacation at a beach resort in Turkey. Mostly seen from the girl's point of view as she's coming of age and trying to figure out what's going in her father's life. Requires patience and empathy from audience, as there is little action. B-
Industry - S01 (TV 2020): A steaming, uh, streaming soap opera. New grads hired at an investment bank get six months to prove their worth to the firm. Instead, they spend their time on sex, drugs, and in abusive working relationships. I won't be watching seasons 2 and 3. C-
The Acolyte (TV 2024): Young girl wants to become an apprentice Jedi. Her twin sister thinks Jedi are evil, perhaps with good reason. Plot centers on how connected these two sisters are, to each other and to the Force. Series lacks the sense of fun that made the original Star Wars such a hit. C+
The Electric State (2025): An alternate reality 1990s universe where robots lose an uprising against humans. Evil humans run the world by tapping into the brain of a genius boy. Plot is messy but it's the robots who are the stars of this child-friendly, sci-fi, dystopia. Critics hate it. C+
2073 (2025): Mostly clips of various kinds of catastrophes strung together for 90 minutes with brief breaks to see a woman living in apocalyptic end times of 2073. No plot. No characters. Mind-numbing and pessimistic. D-
Paradise - S01 (TV 2025): After an apocalyptic event causes the government to evacuate to an underground city in Colorado, the President is murdered. His bodyguard has to solve the murder while trying to rescue his own wife, who was left behind and may be dead. The episode 7 flashback is thrilling and answers so many questions. B+
Twisters (2024): Earnest young woman who studies tornados in order to learn how to calm them has to contend with storm-chasers who do it for the social media likes. Expect people to change. romance to blossom, and you start wondering who the good guys are. B-
Love Lies Bleeding (2024): A tale of lust, love, quiet desperation and outbursts of violence in a dysfunctional family whose delicate balance is upset when a stranger comes to town, a female bodybuilder with her own dark secrets. Realism is interspersed with moments of surrealism that make you go, "WTF". B-
Casdo Lake (2024): Texas's only natural lake is the setting for a spooky supernatual, mysterious something. It affects multiple generations of one family over many decades and causes seizures and disappearances and wolves, and maybe...time travel? Just figuring out how everyone is related is challenging enough in this half-baked mystery. C-