Zola, Felicity Jones film pick of the streamers
Here’s a collection curated by the Associated Press’s entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV and streaming services:
Movies
• It’s the last day on Earth in Los Angeles and Zoe Lister-Jones’ Eliza is spending it wandering the streets on foot with her younger self (Cailee Spaeny) in the surprisingly sweet apocalyptic comedy How It Ends. Although technically a pandemic film — Lister-Jones and her husband, Daryl Wein, filmed it during early lockdown with a murderer’s row of their talented friends in cameo roles (Olivia Wilde, Lamorne Morris, Fred Armisen, Colin Hanks, Helen Hunt, Nick Kroll and many couple of strippers on a road trip to Florida, will be available on VOD Friday. The film, from director Janicza Bravo, is a trippy and surreal journey through a seedy, neon-lit world of strip clubs, racial tensions and sex workers that A’Ziah King (Taylour Paige) finds herself unwittingly wrapped up in after forging an ill-fated connection with Stefani (Riley Keough). Zola is, without a doubt, one of the wildest movies of the year. • Author Jojo Moyes knows good romance and the latest novel of hers to be adapted is The Last Letter From Your Lover, coming to Netflix on Friday. Felicity Jones stars as a journalist who uncovers some love letters in the archives revealing an affair in the 1960s between a socialite (Shailene Woodley) and a financial journalist (Callum Turner) who is writing about her husband (Joe Alwyn). Augustine Frizzell directs this generation-spanning love story with glimpses to the past and a search for how their love story ended.
Television
• PBS’s In Their Own Words returns to examine the lives and influence of “intriguing figures in recent history” through interviews, archival footage and, as the title has it, what the subjects themselves have said. The new specials began Tuesday with
Pope Francis, the first pontiff from the Americas. Rock ’n’ roll legend Chuck Berry’s life and music are examined in the July 27 episode, which includes a Keith Richards interview. In
Diana, Princess of Wales, airing Aug. 8, John Travolta and biographer Andrew Morton are among those heard from. (Check local PBS station listings for air times.)
• Here’s the score on Ted Lasso: The Apple TV+ series earned 20 nominations for September’s Emmy Awards, including for best comedy and acting nods for star and producer Jason Sudeikis and six of his castmates. If you missed the much-admired freshman season, there’s time to binge on its clever, sweet-natured humour before season two debuts Friday. • The Tokyo Olympics begin Friday with, as usual, the opening ceremony (live on CBC and NBC at 3:55 to 8 a.m. PT). The pandemic-affected games will be strikingly different, with most events held in near-empty venues under the shadow of COVID19. The armchair audience can choose from thousands of hours of coverage on platforms including CBC, NBC and Amazon.