New this week: ‘Nine Perfect Strangers,’ Lorde and ‘Annette’
MOVIES
What’s your appetite for grandiose meta-musicals starring Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard and a puppet baby named Annette? Mileage will almost certainly vary, but Leos Carax’s “Annette,” which opened the Cannes Film Festival last month, is certainly one of the most original movies of the year. After a brief run in theaters, it debuts Friday on Amazon Prime Video, bringing Carax’s audacious and tormented opera into millions of homes.
“Nothing is more addictive than the past,” says Hugh Jackman’s Nick Bannister in the sci-fi thriller “Reminiscence.” The film, written and directed by Lisa Joy is set in a near-future of rising seas and deep nostalgia for an earlier world. In it, a romance leads Bannister down a dark trail into the past. “Reminiscence” debuts Friday in theaters and on HBO Max.
In the flood of documentaries about COVID-19, Nanfu Wang’s “In the Same Breath” was one of the first out of the gate. The film, which premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival, debuts on HBO Wednesday and on HBO Max on Thursday. Wang, the Chineseborn American director of “One Child Nation,” documents the early stages of the pandemic in Wuhan and China’s attempts to shape the narrative around the virus.
MUSIC
Rock pioneer Wanda Jackson, the tiny lady with the big voice who toured with Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, is releasing her final record, “Encore,” on Friday with help from fellow Rock Hall of Famer Joan Jett. Known for her growl on songs like “Let’s Have a Party” and “Fujiyama Mama,” Jackson, 83, retired from touring in 2019, but fans can still hear her tear it up on songs with Jett, Elle King and Angaleena Presley. Meanwhile, Country Music Hall of Famer
Connie Smith is back with her 54th album, “The Cry of the Heart,” out on Aug. 20, that shows why she remains one of the most lauded vocalists in country music.
Lorde is ditching the disc for her new third studio album “Solar Power,” out on Friday. Instead of CDs, fans can buy a plastic-free music box that contains a download card and other extras. She’s due to begin a world tour in February 2022 with stops in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States.
TELEVISION
Nicole Kidman, David E. Kelley and Liane Moriarty teamed for the hit 2019 HBO miniseries “Big Little Lies.” The dynamic trio are back for Hulu’s “Nine Perfect Strangers,” produced by Kelley and based on Moriarty’s eponymous novel about a health resort, the promisingly named Tranquillum House, that caters to stressed-out guests in search of
better lives and selves.
And now for something different: The Disney+ series “Growing Up Animal” follows the “intimate and extraordinary adventure” of babes from the womb, through birth and to their wobbly first steps. Each of the six episodes features a different mom as she protects and nurtures the offspring that rely on her and their own survival instincts. Narrated by Tracee Ellis Ross and debuting Wednesday, the series stars infant chimps, sea lions, elephants, African wild dogs, lions and grizzlies. Say awww.
Sandra Oh is in charge in Netflix’s “The Chair” as Professor Ji-Yoon Kim, the first woman to head the English department at a small university that’s facing big budget woes. The show, from creator Amanda Peet and “Game of Thrones” producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, debuts Friday with six episodes.