New this week: ‘Spirited,’ ‘Nope’ and ‘Slumberland’
MOVIES
In “Nope,” Jordan Peele has once again made a rarity in Hollywood: a wholly original film that was also a box-office hit. In his third film as writer-director, following “Get Out” and “Us,” Peele extends his darkly unsettling oeuvre into science fiction. The film, arrives Friday on Peacock after a theatrical run this summer in theaters, is about a mysterious alien force that hovers in the clouds above a California ranch.
Family films have been few and far between in theaters lately, but they're proliferating on streaming services. One of Netflix's biggest forays into the field yet is “Slumberland,” a $90-million fantasy adventure by “Hunger Games” director Francis Lawrence. The film debuts Friday on Netflix.
The holiday movies are also already merrily making their way onto home screens. “Spirited,” a riff on “A Christmas Carol” starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, debuts Friday on Apple TV+.
MUSIC
Neil Young & Crazy Horse have a new 11-track studio album, “World Record,” produced by Rick Rubin and Young. The first track, “Love Earth,” is a relaxed love ballad to the planet, with the lyrics “Love Earth, such an easy thing to do/Love Earth, ‘till the water and the air is pure” and a video of a barefoot Young walking in the wilderness. The new album examines the state of Earth, its uncertain future, and even Young's relationship with cars (on “Chevrolet”).
Scotty McCreery fans have reason to smile: A small truckload of new songs from his 2021 “Same Truck” album recording sessions. “Same Truck: The Deluxe Album” is out Friday. “Nothin' Right” is one of six new tracks featured on the deluxe album.
Broadway stars and husband and wife Colin Donnell and Patti Murin release their first joint album, “Something Stupid,”
on Friday. The couple tackle 12 tracks by Bruce Springsteen, Sara Bareilles, Jason Robert Brown, Paul Simon and more.
TELEVISION
Chris Hemsworth, aka “Thor,” puts himself to the test in National Geographic's “Limitless,” part of an effort to discover the human body's durability and how best to confront aging. Created by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, the six-part series debuts Wednesday on Disney+.
He was born Steamboat Willie in a 1928 animated short, but like a lot of older stars he rebranded with a catchier name. He's finally getting the documentary treatment with “Mickey: The Story of a Mouse,” debuting Friday on, natch, Disney+. The product of Walt Disney's fertile imagination, Mickey became beloved by children and adults and a cash mouse for
Disney's growing entertainment empire. The chipper Mickey also proved an adaptable icon, as detailed in the film from director Jeff Malmberg and producer Morgan Neville (both of whom worked on the Fred Rogers documentary, “Won't You Be My Neighbor?”).
Fox Nation's four-part series marking the 150-year history of magnificent Yellowstone National Park has the appropriate host in Kevin Costner, star of the Paramount+ drama “Yellowstone.” In “Yellowstone: One-Fifty, “debuting Sunday, Costner follows the path of an 1870s geological expedition in the western region that later became the first U.S. national park; visits Yellowstone during an inhospitable winter with minus-40 degree temperatures, and explores the park's thousands of years of human history.