The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
New this week: Shakira, Paul Simon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kristen Wiig and Princess Peach
Chef and restaurateur Jose Andrés invites actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Bryan Cranston and O’Shea Jackson Jr. over for dinner in a new TV special and Jake Gyllenhaal starring in an update of the pulpy cult classic “Road House” are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Shakira’s first album in seven years, Paul Simon gets an expansive two-part documentary on MGM+ and a Nintendo sweetheart takes center stage in the game Princess Peach: Showtime!
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM
• Fresh off its Oscar success, Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” — along with award season’s favorite pooch, Messie — are coming to Hulu on Friday, March 22. The French courtroom drama stars Sandra Hüller as a wife accused of murdering her husband (Samuel Theis) by pushing him out a high window in the French Alps chalet. The film effectively puts their marriage on trial while offering Hüller an engrossing platform for all her cunning as a performer. “Anatomy of a Fall” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and best original screenplay at the Academy Awards. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr called it “a smartly constructed and wholly engaging whodunit, courtroom thriller, marriage drama and, at some points, satire.”
• Doug Liman gives the 1989 cult classic “Road House” a pulpy modern spin with Jake Gyllenhaal as a former UFC fighter hired as security for a seedy Florida Keys bar. Jessica Williams plays the owner of a road house under siege from a crime syndicate that eventually brings in even more muscle, and a dose of mania, in a fearsome fixer played by mixed-martial-arts fighter Conor McGregor. Though Liman, the director of “Edge of Tomorrow” and “Swingers,” has pleaded for the film to be theatrically released, “Road House debuts Thursday on Prime Video.
• Paul Simon gets an expansive two-part documentary with “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon,” from filmmaker Alex Gibney. After the first half premiered March 17 on MGM+, part two lands on Sunday, March
24. “In Restless Dreams,” which premiered last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival, surveys the varied chapters of Simon’s career, including his many years as a duo with Art Gunkunkle,
the recording of his 1986 album “Graceland” and the still unfolding, and music-making, life of the 82-year-old songwriter.
NEW MUSIC TO STREAM
• Shakira returns with her first new album in seven years, “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” (“Women don’t cry anymore” in English, a lyric lifted from her smash hit “Music Sessions Vol. 53” with Argentine producer Bizarrap). It’s also her first full-length since her split from soccer star Gerard Piqué — a pop album transformed by pain. “While writing each song I was rebuilding myself,” the Colombian musician said in a statement. “While singing them, my tears transformed into diamonds, and my vulnerability into strength.” Seven of the album’s 16 tracks have been previously released — including “TQG” with Karol G (also featured on Karol G’s “Mañana Será Bonito” album, one of AP’s picks for the best of 2023,) “Te Felicito” with reggaetonero Rauw Alejandro, “Copa Vacía” with Manuel Turizo and more. “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” is the sound of reclamation for Shakira — and an addictive listen.
• There are eras to Waxahatchee, the musical moniker of Katie Crutchfield. Her story begins in the D.I.Y. power pop-punk of her band P.S. Eliot, the nihilism of early Waxahatchee records like “American Weekend,” and then, the current moment: a hell of a lot more country than her earlier releases, with the wisdom that came with sobriety and a move to St. Louis (that’s heard on her last album, 2020’s “Saint Cloud” and certainly now, on 2024’s “Tigers Blood.”) There’s a lot to love here: like the acoustic ballad “365” and the Americana-flavored “Bored.” There’s also MJ Lenderman of the Asheville, North Carolina, indie rock band Wednesday, a new collaborator. It’s hard not to cozy up to the warmth of their harmonies on “Right Back to It,” a song — like many on this album — that celebrates the privilege of certain romantic mundanities, like settling into a long-term relationship.
• A debut album is an introduction. A sophomore release can be a make-or-break moment: Who is this person as an artist, what do they have to say, and are we still listening? Enter Fletcher, the queer pop powerhouse signed to Capitol Records who first broke out with the 2019 viral hit “Undrunk.” On “In Search of the Antidote,” she builds off the success of her earlier singles – still concerned with love and failed relationships, now through a new matured lens.