New this week: Lady Gaga, one last ‘Trip’
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.
Movies
Lynn Shelton movies The weekend brought the painful loss of Shelton, the 54-year-old filmmaker and a unique voice in indie cinema. If her movies aren’t familiar, they’re worth seeking out for their soft edges, light comic touch and freewheeling improvisation. She made the most natural, warm-hearted movies out of almost sitcom-like comedic plots. You might start with her 2012 film “Your Sister’ Sister” (for rent on Amazon, Apple), a romantic comedy of wild pivots with Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt and Mark Duplass. She often dug deeply into discomfort, particularly in her 2009 breakthrough, “Humpday” (streaming on Tubi). Duplass and Joshua Leonard star as two straight friends who, for a kind of ironic art project, pledge to have sex with each other. Her character studies were rich, maybe increasingly so, including 2018’s “Outside In” (streaming on Netflix), with Edie Falco as a high school teacher who helps a former student (Jay Duplass) get out of prison.
“The Trip to Greece” The fourth and final installment of one of cinema’s most humble but impression-filled franchises, “The Trip to Greece” is a last hurrah for Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. After trips to England’s Lake District, Italy and Spain, they and director Michael Winterbottom again hit the road for an odyssey of meals, jokes and occasional reflections on growing older, this time while on the path of Odysseus. Debuts today for rent on video-on-demand and digital platforms.
Canceled Cannes The Cannes Film Festival would have normally wrapped up this week and handed out its top prize, the Palme d’Or. It’s a mammoth absence in the movie year, but you can still program your own festival of past Cannes hits. Recent prize-winners like Hirokazu Kore-eda’s beautifully tender “Shoplifters,” Bong Joon Ho’s diabolical “Parasite” and Celine Sciamma’s exquisite “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” are streaming on Hulu. The Criterion Channel is hosting a series of former Palme d’Or winners, including Abbas Kiarostami’s “Taste of Cherry” and Roberto Rossellini’s “Rome Open City.” And on Amazon Prime, you can soak up the Cannes sunshine with Hitchcock’s Cote d’Azur classic “To Catch a Thief,” with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly speeding along the French Riviera coastline.
— Film writer Jake Coyle
Music
The 1975 The 1975’s 22-track fourth studio album kicks off in strong form with a monologue from climate change activist Greta Thunberg. What follows is music, from raging rock to dreamy pop, that proves why this British band continues to reach new heights with each album release. “Notes on a
Conditional Form,” out today, is the follow-up to the Grammy-nominated “A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships,” an album that won the foursome two BRIT Awards and two Ivor Novello Awards.
Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande The Grammywinning divas come together for a duet called “Rain on Me,” to be released today. The song is from Gaga’s new album “Chromatica,” which comes out May 29 and was originally planned for release in April but got pushed backed because of the coronavirus pandemic. “Rain on Me” is the second duet Grande has released this month following “Stuck With U,” her collaboration with Justin Bieber.
Tomorrow X Together The K-pop band released a new EP on Monday and for the first time, it features a song co-written by all five of its members. SOOBIN, YEONJUN, BEOMGYU, TAEHYUN and HUENINGKAI co-wrote “Maze in the Mirror,” one of the six tracks from “The
Dream Chapter: ETERNITY.” The EP is a mix of genres, including pop, hip-hop and alternative R&B.
— Music editor Mesfin Fekadu
Television
Most series have wrapped their current runs or will soon, including Fox’s “The Masked Singer,” which aired its season finale Wednesday. But “DC’s Stargirl,” which debuted at 8 p.m. Tuesday on
CW, is just getting started. Brec Bassinger (“School of Rock,” “The Goldbergs”) stars as high school sophomore Courtney Whitmore, aka Stargirl, who inspires an offbeat group to join the battle against villainy. Geoff Johns’ comic book writing career began with the creation of Stargirl, who is reimagined in the series along with the Justice Society of America, first of the superhero teams. The series is available on the streamer service DC Universe.