NEW TO STREAM
Rundown of what’s arriving on entertainment platforms
MOVIES It took Diana Nyad more than 30 years
and five tries to swim from Cuba to the Florida Keys. “Free Solo” filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Nyad,” streaming Nov. 3 on Netflix, dramatizes her feat of endurance, along with the perseverance of her closest friends and collaborators. Annette Bening plays Nyad, who was 60 when she began training herself again for the open-ocean swim.
In a standout supporting performance, Jodie Foster plays her friend and trainer Bonnie Stoll. In my review, I wrote that there is enough here to help the film “if not swim against the tide of sport-biopic convention then at least ride a swift current to the finish line.”
In “Quiz Lady,” a 30-something accountant
named Anne (Awkwafina) has watched every episode of “Can’t Stop the Quiz” since she was 4 years old. After her pug is kidnapped and held for ransom, Anne and her estranged sister Jenny (Sandra Oh) embark on a mission to get Anne on “Can’t Stop the Quiz,” a show resembling “Jeopardy!” in which Will Ferrell plays an Alex Trebek-like host. “Quiz Lady” debuts Nov. 3 on Hulu.
The formidable trio of Jessie Buckley,
Riz Ahmed and James Allen White anchor director Christos Nikou’s “Fingernails,” a sci-fi drama set in a near future where couples can use science to determine if they’re meant to be together. In the film, which debuts Nov. 3 on Apple TV+, Buckley and White play a couple with a 100% positive score, proving that they’re soulmates. But things get complicated when Buckley’s character hits it off with a colleague (Ahmed).
MUSIC The singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett,
who turned his unique brand of beach bum soft rock and “Margaritaville” escapism into a lifestyle and movement, died in September. As the music world continues to mourn the loss of a giant, Mailboat and Sun Records have teamed up to release his final album on Nov. 3, a posthumous release titled “Equal Strain on All Parts,” recorded earlier this year. The set features Paul McCartney, Emmylou Harris, Lennie Gallant, Angelique Kidjo, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Buffett’s lighthearted, good-time jams live on, as evidenced on the previously released tracks, “My Gummie Just Kicked In” and “Bubbles Up.”
“Highway Desperado,” out Nov. 3, is the 11th
studio album from country musician Jason Aldean, released on the heels of his first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single, the controversy-creating “Try That in a Small Town.” Produced by Michael
Knox, Aldean says “Highway Desperado” takes inspiration from his live show. “I think when I look
back on it, I built my career early on my live show, and have been on the road touring since I was 18 years old,” Aldean said in a news release.
In 2008, after having been on a hiatus as a group
for 12 years, Boston boy band New Kids on the Block returned with a new album, “The Block.” This year, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the album responsible for the second chapter of their career, NKOTB will release “The Block: Revisited,” on Nov. 3. It includes four previously unreleased tracks as well as a new remix of their single “Dirty Dancing” featuring a new generation of boy band: Dino, DK and Joshua of the bestselling K-pop group Seventeen.
For some, Australian-viaZimbabwe
rapper-singer Tkay Maidza’s unique vocal tone might be most closely associated with her cover of the 1988 Pixies’ song “Where Is My Mind?” as utilized in an Apple AirPods commercial. But it’s her original work that deserves attention. “Sweet Justice,” her sophomore album that follows 2016’s
self-titled debut and a 2020 EP series — is an eclectic collection of soulful electronics and psychedelic production elevated by her playful flow and smooth vocal tone. The album will be released Nov. 3.
— Maria Sherman, Associated Press
TELEVISION Before Charmaine Wilkerson’s novel
“Black Cake” was published in 2022, Oprah Winfrey secured the TV rights in a bidding war, and it’s now a new Hulu series. The first three episodes of “Black Cake” dropped Nov. 1, with new episodes released weekly. It follows Benny and Byron, adult estranged siblings whose mother has died and left them a mysterious flash drive with the details of her family history, explaining how she arrived in California from the Caribbean in the 1960s. The story also connects to a Caribbean Black cake from their heritage.
Another popular novel, the WWII-themed
“All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr, has also been turned into a series. Shawn Levy directs the story of Marie (played by newcomer Aria Mia Loberti) as a blind young woman in hiding in German-occupied France and a Nazi soldier named Werner (Louis Hoffman). He’s an orphan who was drafted against his will and the show explores how they’re linked by a radio broadcast, despite their different backgrounds.
The four-episode series also stars Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie and is now on Netflix.
The animated historical drama “Blue Eye
Samurai” about a mixed-race, revenge-seeking female samurai in Japan is already getting praise for its use of 2D and 3D artistry. Maya Erskine voices the lead character, Mizu, alongside Masi Oka, George Takei, Randall Park, Kenneth Branagh, Brenda Song, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Darren Barnet. “Blue Eye Samurai” drops Nov. 3 on Netflix.
Naturalist David Attenborough
narrates a long-awaited third installment of the “Planet Earth” series. The new episodes use modern technology including drones, submersibles and high-speed cameras to capture both awe-inspiring views of nature and the heartbreaking struggles of wildlife because of climate change. “Planet Earth
III” debuts Nov. 4 on BBC America and AMC+.
In 2021, National Geographic
premiered the limited series called “9/11: One Day in America,” to critical acclaim. A second installment called “JFK: One Day in America” premieres Nov. 5. The three-part series has previously unseen testimony from surviving witnesses to create an oral history of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The 60th anniversary of his death will be Nov. 22. “JFK: One Day in America” will also stream on Disney+ and Hulu.
— Alicia Rancilio, Associated Press
VIDEO GAMES The bad news: Humanity is extinct. The good
news: Our robot descendants are fans of human culture. In “The Talos Principle II,” you are an artificial intelligence on a mission to figure out how people screwed it all up, and maybe avoid repeating their mistakes. The 2014 original, from the Croatian developer Croteam, was one of the more challenging puzzle games of its generation. The studio is promising a wider array of 3D brainteasers in the sequel, with new techniques like gravity manipulation and mind transference — not to mention “questions about the nature of the cosmos and the purpose of civilization.” If you dig mind-benders like “Portal” and “The Witness,” you probably already have “Talos II” on your wish list for PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.
Another highly regarded European studio,
France’s Don’t Nod, is back with another intriguing puzzle game, “Jusant.” The goal here is to climb to the top of a gigantic, mysterious tower, but as you ascend, you’ll discover different environments and artifacts from a lost civilization. I found it exhausting to just watch the preview, but the developer — best known for the time-twisting adventure “Life Is Strange” — describes “Jusant” as “a meditative journey.”
And you have an adorable companion, a watery blob named Ballast, to ask for clues when you get stuck. Start the conquest now on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.