The Mercury (Pottstown, PA)

New this week: ‘Top Gun,’ Lana Del Rey and ‘Rabbit Hole’

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Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainm­ent journalist­s of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music and video game platforms this week.

Movies

• The Oscar-nominated “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” was one of the high points in documentar­y in the past year. In it, Laura Poitras chronicles the pioneering photograph­er Nan Goldin, juxtaposin­g an intimate survey of her groundbrea­king work in 1970s and 1980s New York and her contempora­ry crusade against the Sackler family, owners of the Oxycontin-maker Purdue Pharma. Goldin, who has herself wrestled with addiction, led the campaign to eradicate the Sackler name from many of the world’s top museums. Though the film didn’t win at the Oscars — something Goldin told me she was surprised to find she wanted — it took the top prize of the Venice Film Festival. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr called the film” a “holistic portrait of an artist’s battle cry.” After debuting Sunday, March 19, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” is available to stream on HBO Max.

• “Top Gun: Maverick” did come away with an Academy Award, for best sound. But one of the biggest box office hits of the year otherwise struck out at the Oscars. After an uncommonly long run in theaters, a lucrative stop on video on demand and a streaming launch on Paramount+, “Top Gun Maverick” arrives on a larger streaming platform Friday, March 24th, when it touches down on Amazon’s Prime Video. In his review, AP Entertainm­ent Writer Mark Kennedy called “Maverick” “a textbook example of how to make a sequel.”

• This month, the Criterion Channel has been paying tribute to the greatest comic artist of the 20th century: Buster Keaton. With five features and more than a dozen shorts, the series is an unbeatable feast. You can’t go wrong but a few highlights: Keaton’s glorious Olympic finale in “College”; his deft ladder balancing act in “Cops”; and his escape, through a high window, from an angry police chief-slashfurio­us-father in “The Goat.” With apologies to Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, nobody did it better.

Music

• Fans of Lana Del Rey got two albums in 2021 — “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” and Blue Banisters” but nothing full-length in 2022. Now she’s got “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” set to drop Friday, March 24. One of the singles, “A&W,” offers a glimpse at the sing-songwriter’s bleak poetry: “Puts the shower on while he calls me/Slips out the back door to talk to me/I’m invisible, look how you hold me/I’m a ghost now.” The album features Jack Antonoff, Father John Misty, Jon Batiste and more.

• Back in 1984, Phil Collins and Philip Bailey had a hit with the song “Easy Lover.” These days, UK pop star Ellie Goulding and Big Sean have a song with the same title that’s just as infectious­ly fun, part of Goulding’s 11-track album “Higher Than Heaven.” The songs marry her ethereal voice to strong dance hooks, from the ‘80s-inspired “By the End of the Night” and “Just 4 You” to the modern pop of “Cure for Love.”

• Do you have what it takes to be a country music’s next big star? Then tune into Apple TV+’s “My Kind of Country,” in which Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton and Orville Peck search for talented amateur artists and invite them to Nashville, Tennessee, for a showcase. Reese Witherspoo­n and Kacey Musgraves also are featured in the series, set to premiere globally on Friday, March 24.

• 6lack is 6ack! The Atlanta singer-songwriter and rapper known as 6lack — pronounced “black” — returns with “Since I Have a Lover,” his first album in nearly five years. The title track is a airy, sweet ode to love with the lyrics: “Feel like a million bucks or somethin’/ Feel like we need to be up to somethin’/ Not tryna press my luck or nothin’/Don’t wanna love you just for fun.” The artist, raised in Zone 6 of Atlanta, has been doing a lot of collaborat­ions since his last album, including Lil Tjay’s “Calling My Phone” and more recently Jessie Reyez’s “Forever.”

Television

• Fans of shows including “Jack Ryan” and “The Recruit,” about low-level government agency workers who get pulled into danger and secret missions, should check out “The Night Agent” on Netflix. It follows an FBI agent tasked with manning an overnight emergency phone that surprising­ly rings during one of his shifts. A desperate civilian is on the other end of the call and together, they find themselves embroiled in a major government conspiracy. The series stars Gabriel Russo and Luciane Buchanan and is based on the novel by Matthew Quirk. “The Night Agent” debuts Thursday.

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