New this week: ‘Lost Daughter,’ NYE in Nashville, Boba Fett
MOVIES
⏩ Maggie Gyllenhaal’s feature directing debut, “The Lost Daughter,” scintillatingly adapts the 2008 Elena Ferrante novel about maternal ambivalence and a holiday in Greece. The film, which begins streaming Friday on Netflix, stars Olivia Colman as a vacationing professor whose interactions with a boisterous, distracting clan recall her own parenting history, seen in flashbacks with Jessie Buckley.
⏩ In the year-end rush of new movies, it’s been easy to miss Mike Mills’ tender, shaggy indie gem “C’mon C’mon.” The film, which became available Dec. 23 for digital rental and video-on-demand, stars Joaquin Phoenix as a radio journalist who temporarily takes care of his 9-year-old nephew (Woody Norman). Shot in black-and-white and featuring interviews with real kids peppered throughout, “C’mon C’mon” is an openhearted movie about parenting with personal resonances for Mills, Phoenix and Norman.
⏩ Holiday festivity might call for a favorite cocktail or a warm fire, but it can, and should, also mean a Technicolor movie. Thankfully, the Criterion Channel collects titles made with this lush color process so you can run through a glittering array of options to fill some of the darkest days of winter. Drink in “Vertigo,” bathe in “The River” or sink into “The Red Shoes.” Your eyes will thank you.
MUSIC
⏩ CBS’s New Year’s Eve telecast will have a distinctive twang to this year with the fivehour special being hosted in Nashville, Tennessee with 50 performances from country’s biggest names. Dierks Bentley, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Gabby Barrett, Kelsea Ballerini, Zac Brown Band, Miranda Lambert and more will perform on the CBS special, also airing on Paramount+. Bentley, Hunt and
Zac Brown Band will co-headline a free show in Nashville’s Bicentennial Mall, while other performances will be shot at the city’s honky tonks and clubs. The show will be hosted by radio and TV personality Bobby Bones and “Entertainment Tonight” correspondent Rachel Smith.
TELEVISION
⏩ The book is closing on “Dickinson,” the Peabody Award-winning series starring Hailee Steinfeld in a reimagination of Emily Dickinson’s youth. In the series finale streaming now on Apple TV+, the poet’s work is flourishing but there’s strife in her family and across Civil War-torn America. ⏩ A looming figure in the “Star Wars” canon
is coming into his own. “The Book of Boba Fett,” starting Wednesday on Disney+, tracks the bounty hunter and mercenary Fennec Shand as they attempt to claim Tatooine land once controlled by Jabba the Hutt and his criminal syndicate.
⏩ Richard Gere is the narrator for “Earth Emergency,” about a less-prominent aspect of climate change. According to scientists interviewed for the documentary, humancaused global warming activates a natural response from the Earth that releases further greenhouse gases — and makes the planet even hotter. Activist Greta Thunberg and the Dalai Lama are among those featured in the film. The hour-long documentary debuts Wednesday on PBS (check local stations for times) and on PBS.org.