What to stream: Billy Joel sings, Dora explores and ‘Food, Inc. 2’

A Billy Joel concert special celebrating his residency at Madison Square Garden and Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal playing cowboys and former lovers in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Strange Way of Life” 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: a sequel to the powerful documentary “Food, Inc.,” a reboot of “Dora the Explorer” on Paramount+ and Linkin Park’s first career-spanning greatest hits collection.

Movies to stream

■ A song can transport you back to a different time in your life with just a note. The new film “The Greatest Hits,” starring Lucy Boynton, draws on this idea and makes it literal for a woman mourning the death of her boyfriend (David Corenswet, aka the new Superman). The random bouts of time travel, which can happen any time a familiar song comes on the radio, make it tough for her to live in the present and move on. The film comes from writer-director Ned Benson, who made the underappreciated “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” and of course boasts a great soundtrack including Beach House and Roxy Music. “The Greatest Hits” is streaming on Hulu starting Thursday.

■ Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal play cowboys and former lovers in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Strange Way of Life,” his 31-minute Western streaming on Netflix starting Sunday. At the film’s Cannes premiere last year, Almodóvar, who famously turned down the opportunity to direct “Brokeback Mountain,” said unlike the characters in that movie, he imagined these guys were really gunslingers in the vein of “The Wild Bunch.” AP Film Writer Jake Coyle wrote at the time that “it’s delightful to see Almodóvar at work in a new genre, yet just as at home, filling the frame with pops of color (Pascal’s character wears a lime green jacket) and flourishes of emotion” and that it “extends yet another vibrant chapter in Almodóvar’s filmography, now in its fifth decade.”

■ Sixteen years after “Food, Inc.” changed the way many think about where their food comes from, filmmakers Robert Kenner and Melissa Robledo reunited with “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” author Michael Pollan and “Fast Food Nation” writer Eric Schlosser to take another look at the current state of food in the U.S. With a special focus on the rights of farmworkers and the downsides of corporate consolidation and ultra-processed foods, “Food, Inc. 2” is available on VOD starting today. — AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

Music to stream

■ There is peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, peace and love, and Billy Joel and Madison Square Garden. Some things just go together. Joel and MSG have long been synonymous; he’s sold out more shows than any other performer at the famed venue, first performing there in 1978. To celebrate his triumphant run, a new concert special, “The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden —

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3.” There were surprises like “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and “Cocaine Bear” and sleepers like “Anyone But You.”

There were also moments of successful innovation, including Taylor Swift and Beyoncé’s groundbreaking partnership with AMC Theaters to release their concert films, circumventing traditional studio middlemen. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour “made over $260 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing concert film of all time. Toho studios also self-distributed its first film ever, with “Godzilla Minus One,” which made over $114 million worldwide even with a limited release in the U.S.

But there were flops and disappointments too, and some of the tried-and-true genres like superhero movies proved to no longer be the industry supporting tentpoles that they once were. Streamed entertainment continues to be a formidable competitor for eyes and dollars as everyone continues to recover from the pandemic. In 2024, theater owners and studios are also having to grapple with a changed and somewhat depleted pipeline of films following the work stoppage caused by the dual Hollywood strikes.

But O’Leary said that a “great reimagination” is underway.

“Inflection points like these are moments of opportunity,” he added. “And this last year has shown me that the future of this industry— indeed, the state of this industry—is limitless.”

Charles Rivkin, the chairman and CEO of the Motion

Picture Association, talked about the importance of film productions in the U.S., which he said “bolster communities” and account for 2.74 million American jobs. He also made an impassioned plea to combat piracy, which he said costs theaters more than $1 billion at the box office, and hopes to work with Congressional leaders to put for “site-blocking” legislation.

Rivkin closed by quoting best documentary winner and AP journalist Mstyslav Chernov’s Oscars speech from earlier this year, in which he said that “Cinema forms memories and memories form history” while accepting the statuette for “20 Days in Mariupol.”

Chernov’s words, Rivkin said, “Reminded us of the power and impact of what we do.”