SCREEN TIME
What’s new on your screens this week: Ed Sheeran, ‘The Voice,’ ‘The Golden Bachelor’ and Wes Anderson returns
This week’s new entertainment releases include an album from Ed Sheeran centered on his relationships, a spinoff of “The Bachelor” starring a 72-year-old widower and Wes Anderson returns for a second time this year with “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Jesse L. Martin returns to NBC in “The Irrational,” playing a behavioral science expert with a keen understanding of what makes people tick, and Reba McEntire joins “The Voice” as a coach for a new season. Also, Eve Hewson stars as a single mother to a 14-year-old boy in Ireland who both turn to music in “Flora and Son.”
Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are Wes Anderson’s movie “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and Jesse L. Martin returns to NBC in “The Irrational,” playing a behavioral science expert.
Movies
John Carney, the director of “Sing Street” and “Begin Again,” has a new musically inclined charmer in “Flora and Son,” coming to Apple TV+ on Friday. Eve Hewson stars as a single mother to a 14-year-old boy in Ireland who are both having a rough time of it. In an attempt to “change the narrative” she signs up for remote guitar lessons, with a California based instructor played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. AP Film
Writer Jake Coyle wrote that it’s a star-making turn for Hewson. “Hewson’s confident, charismatic leading performance has enough grit and spunk to light up the screen,” he wrote, adding that, “Carney, who wrote and
directed the film, has a way of not hitting the cornball notes too hard and mixing in enough humor to keep the saccharine tones from overpowering.”
It doesn’t seem real that we could have two
Wes Anderson movies in a year, but sometimes good things do happen. In addition to “Asteroid City” (on Peacock), Netflix has “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” a Roald Dahl adaptation starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the title character that started streaming on Wednesday. Clocking in at just under 40 minutes, the glowingly reviewed film is and the first of four rolling out shortly after including “The Swan” (Thursday), “The Ratcatcher” (Friday) and “Poison” (Saturday).
“Other People’s Children,” an intelligent
French gem from director Rebecca Zlotowski, follows a 40-year-old teacher Rachel, (played by the wonderful Virginie Efira) who embarks on a relationship with a man (Roschdy Zem) who has a 4-year-old daughter. Rachel has no children of her own, and is satisfied with her life, but also finds herself developing a strong attachment to the little girl as the three
inch closer and closer to feeling like a family. The “new girlfriend” rarely gets this sort of nuanced, empathetic treatment and Efira brings life and lightness to a complex but never tragic character. There are wonderfully comedic scenes and those that will pull on your heartstrings too — and, of course, Paris isn’t hard on the eyes either. The film opened quietly in the U.S. earlier this year but will be available to stream on MUBI starting on Friday and should not be missed.
— Lindsey Bahr