SCREEN TIME
BEST MOVIES AND SHOWS TO WATCH THIS WEEK INCLUDE ‘CHERRY,’ ‘BLOODLANDS’ AND KIDS’ CHOICE AWARDS
Here’s a collection of the best of what’s arriving on TV and streaming services this week.
‘Cherry’
Anthony and Joe Russo, the filmmaking brothers behind the “Avengers” movies, pivot in a different direction on “Cherry,” a new drama about PTSD and drug addiction. Tom Holland stars as a combat medic who suffers psychologically after returning from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. A doctor prescribes him OxyContin, and his subsequent opioid addiction leads to a life of bank robbing. The film, based on Nico Walker’s best-selling semi-autobiographical novel, premieres Friday on Apple TV+. In their first directorial project since “Avengers: Endgame,” the Russos employ their blockbuster aesthetic on a stylized and self-indulgent American crime drama.
Preston Sturges films
The late days of winter, let alone of a pandemic, can drag anyone down. It’s a good time to break out some Preston Sturges. Thankfully, on Sunday, The Criterion Channel will launch an eight-film series of the screwball master — a body of work that stands as one of the sublime and most absurdly entertaining in all of movies. Many of them come from Sturges’ early ‘40s blitz: “The Great McGinty,” “Christmas in July,” “Sullivan’s Travels,” “The Palm Beach Story,” “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek.” But look out, also, for 1948’s lesser-known “Unfaithfully Yours,” a daringly sinister comedy in which a conductor (Rex Harrison) spends a concert fantasizing about how he’ll respond to the wife (Linda Darnell) he believes has had an affair. For slapstick, it is gloriously dark.
Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards
Grown-ups don’t have a lock on awards shows, as Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards proves once again. The ceremony promises to be a virtual
“wild ride” that, yes, will include slime. Among the creative solutions to pandemic-era safety: interactive video walls that bring celebrities and families at home together. Top nominees include Justin Bieber, who is scheduled to be among the performers; Ariana Grande; “Stranger Things” and “Wonder Woman 1984.” Kenan Thompson of “Saturday Night Live” will host the event airing
7:30 p.m. Saturday on channels including Nickelodeon and Nick Jr.
‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’
Here’s an anniversary we all fervently hope is one-anddone: that of the coronavirus pandemic. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is marking the dire milestone Thursday with a special episode titled the “Coronaversary Show.” Biden administration cabinet member Pete Buttigieg, who was a substitute host a year ago to the day, is back as a guest along with Joel McHale and musical guest Adam Duritz. The episode, billed as a commemoration of “our national incarceration,” airs at 11:35 p.m. on ABC.
‘Bloodlands’
A decades-old cold case involving a series of disappearances is at the heart of the Irish crime thriller “Bloodlands,” debuting Monday, March 15, on the Acorn TV streaming service. James Nesbitt stars as a veteran detective forced to explore his own troubled past during the investigation. The country’s history also is part of the mystery: The missing vanished just before the 1998 peace agreement to end Northern Ireland’s entrenched sectarian violence. The four-part drama’s cast includes Charlene McKenna (“Peaky Blinders”) and Ian McElhinney (“Game of Thrones”).