THE SMALL SCREEN
NEW STREAMING MOVIES AND TV THIS WEEK
“Descendant”: Margaret Brown’s standout documentary takes a wide lens to the discovery of the Clotilda, the last known ship to bring African captives to the American South for enslavement. As Brown has said, the discovery of the ship — sunk near Mobile, Ala., after it brought 100 Africans in the mid-19th-century decades after the international slave trade had been outlawed — is “just the tip of the iceberg.” Speaking to many of the Clotilda descendants and others in the community around Alabama’s Africatown, where many of them settled, Brown ruminatively explores past and present, heritage and community. The film was a prize-winner at the Sundance Film Festival. PG. Available on Netflix. 1 hour, 49 minutes. “Raymond & Ray”: In Rodrigo Garcia’s comedydrama, Ethan Hawke and Ewan McGregor play half-brothers reunited for their father’s funeral. Written and directed by Garcia (“Nine Lives,” “Albert Nobbs”) and produced by Alfonso Cuaron, the film mixes catharsis and comedy as the two reckon with the damage done by the abusive father. R. Available on Apple TV+. 1 hour, 45 minutes. “Documentary Now!”: The purported goal of IFC’s “Documentary Now!” is to honor innovators in the genre. Its real mission, of course, is to make us laugh, and it has garnered the usual impressive names for the six-episode season that began Wednesday. Helen Mirren is back as host, with guest stars including Cate Blanchett, Harriet Walter, Jonathan Pryce, Nicholas Braun and legendary pop singer Tom Jones. The twopart season opener, written by John Mulaney, stars Alexander Skarsgard as a German filmmaker fighting nature and more to make his masterpiece — as in “Burden of Dreams,” which detailed Werner Herzog’s quest to make 1982’s “Fitzcarraldo.” TV-14. Airs on IFC and streams on AMC+.
‘ARGENTINA, 1985’
Despite a tone that’s tidier and more deliberate than the average courtroom drama, Santiago Mitre’s fact-based drama “Argentina 1985” — which relates the civilian trial of the leaders of Argentina’s military junta — manages to be a rousing crowd-pleaser. Ricardo Darín plays Julio Strassera, the federal prosecutor whose methodical ways belie his nickname: “Loco.” Maybe Strassera was considered crazy for even taking the case, not to mention prosecuting it with a staff of young and untested assistants. And who would blame him for hesitating? There were bomb and death threats, and many in the conservative Catholic country were initially on the side of the defendants. But slowly, over the course of the film, Strassera prevails in holding the officers to account for crimes that include extrajudicial kidnapping, torture and murder. (If there are fireworks here, they’re the subdued but emotional statements of some of the junta’s victims.) It’s a stirring if subtle true story, one whose outcome left the Strassera we meet in the film — and are rooting for throughout — somewhat disappointed. But that’s only because this is a tale of justice, not vengeance. As a member of Strassera’s team puts it, “We’ll give (the defendants) what they didn’t give their victims: a fair trial.” R. Available on Amazon Prime Video. Also playing at Digital Gym Cinema. In Spanish with subtitles. 2 hours, 20 minutes. “Ghostwriter”: The 1990s children’s series returns today, with new stars Princess Mapp, Nour Assaf and Daire McLeod. As the pals attempt to solve an ongoing ghostly mystery, they find themselves in the company of characters inspired by “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” “Charlotte’s Web” and other stories. TV-G. Available on Apple TV+.
“Adventures in Moviegoing”: With Halloween approaching, a rush of horror films are making their way to most streaming services. One currently streaming series on the Criterion Channel takes a different tack, with 11 films picked by Ari Aster, the director of a few of the most nightmare-inducing films of recent years: “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.” In “Adventures in Moviegoing,” Aster chooses films that have shaped his life, from Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Sansho the Bailiff” to Lucrecia Martel’s “The Headless Horseman.” Available on Criterion Channel.
“Dangerous Game: The Legacy Murders”: Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Jon Voight star in a suspense thriller about members of a family whose reunion at a remote mansion turns less festive when they find themselves trapped inside and forced to play a deadly survival game. R. Available on demand. Contains strong violence, gore and crude language throughout. 1 hour, 36 minutes.
There’s a promising newcomer with the animated series “Oni: Thunder God’s Tale,” which features Momona Tamada, Craig Robinson and George Takei in the voice cast. In a world of “oddball gods and monsters” inspired by Japanese mythology, untested Onari is determined to guard her village from the enemy called the “Oni.” TV-PG. Available on Netflix.