Movie & Television Reviews

“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.

Five years since the premiere of the first season, the series about the life of Jesus of Nazareth is now garnering over 770 million views of its episodes and has more than 12 million social media followers.

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 psychological thriller “I.S.S.” (Bleecker Street) highlights positive values and teaches a civilizing lesson. But, as penned by screenwriter Nick Shafir, director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s drama of shifting allegiance and unpredictable behavior never gains traction and ultimately registers as a slack, by-the-numbers exercise.

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.

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.

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.”

Tina Fey infuses her script — ultimately derived from Rosalind Wiseman’s 2002 nonfiction book “Queen Bees and Wannabes” — with some sharply observed humor.