Movie & Television Reviews

Capsule reviews of theatrical movies available now for streaming or scheduled for broadcast on network or cable television as well as notes on TV programming for the same week.

“Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora” (Ubisoft) is an open-world action-adventure game that takes place concurrently with the movies. Its narrative, however, tells a standalone tale. While the experience as a whole is safest for grown-ups, it may also be acceptable for older adolescents.

Renowned filmmaker Greta Gerwig, fresh off the success of her record-breaking box office hit “Barbie,” is gearing up for her next major project — the adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ beloved children’s series, “The Chronicles of Narnia,” for Netflix.

Capsule reviews of theatrical movies available now for streaming or scheduled for broadcast on network or cable television as well as notes on TV programming for the same week.

The year is young. Still, it seems unlikely that 2024 will produce any piece of supposed entertainment more repellent than the animated TV series “Hazbin Hotel.”

In his feature debut, “American Fiction” (Amazon MGM), writer-director Cord Jefferson pulls off an impressive balancing act. In adapting Percival Everett’s 2001 novel “Erasure,” Jefferson successfully blends wry social satire with the serious tale of an emotionally isolated central character.

Cultivating bees may be regarded as a rather peaceful and meditative pursuit. But that doesn’t stop the title character of the preposterous action flick “The Beekeeper” (Amazon MGM) from going berserk when provoked.

In his classic 1945 novel “Brideshead Revisited,” Catholic author Evelyn Waugh charted the intense, quasi-romantic and possibly sexual bond between two male students at Oxford University. The premise of Waugh’s work is echoed in the black comedy “Saltburn.”