New this week: ‘Don’t Look Up,’ new ‘Matrix’ and ‘Sing 2’
MOVIES
— Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem star as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Aaron Sorkin’s “Being the Ricardos,” a smart and quippy showbiz pic that takes audiences behind the curtains of a tricky relationship on an especially fraught week of “I Love Lucy.” “Being the Ricardos” will be available on Amazon Prime Video on Monday.
— It’s hard to believe it’s been 22 years since the red pill/blue pill conundrum came into our lives, but Lana Wachowski has come back to make us question our realities once more with “The Matrix Resurrections,” in theaters and streaming on HBO Max starting Wednesday. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss return as Neo and Trinity in massive cast that includes Yahya AbdulMateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Christina Ricci and Priyanka Chopra. And if you need a little refresher before diving into the fourth installment, the first three are also currently streaming on HBO Max.
— Leonardo DiCaprio leads an all-star cast including Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep in “Don’t Look Up,” an end of the world comedy that starts streaming on Netflix on Friday. Directed and co-written by Adam McKay, who also took on the Cheneys in “Vice” and the financial crisis in “The Big Short,” this climate change allegory features DiCaprio and Lawrence as scientists who discover an extinction-sized comet that’s headed towards Earth.
— Tireless “Hamilton” creator LinManuel Miranda lent eight original songs to Disney’s latest animated charmer, “Encanto,” about a magical Colombian family and the one daughter who seems to have missed out. Families who didn’t get to go to the theater to see it at Thanksgiving will have another chance when the film hits Disney+ on Friday, right in time for the Christmas break.
MUSIC
— A live posthumous album by Chuck Berry is being released this Christmas time as a digital download. “Live From Blueberry Hill” is taken from performances recorded between July 2005 and January 2006 at Blueberry Hill café in St. Louis, one of Berry’s favorite places to play.
— New music from U2 is included in the soundtrack for the animated “Sing 2,” which opens Wednesday. The film sequel — which features the band’s singer and songwriter Bono voicing a character called Clay Calloway — also features “bad guy” by Billie Eilish, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John and Scarlett Johansson singing U2’s “Stuck In a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.”
TELEVISION
— TCM is in marathon mode, running holiday movies — or those with enough spirit to count — nonstop this week through Christmas Day.
— Tune in for the Kennedy Center honorees, stay for the impressive line-up of actors, singers and comedians on hand to salute their contributions to American culture in the 44th annual “Kennedy Centers Honors.” The twohour special airs 9 p.m. Wednesday on CBS.
— In the grand tradition of British ghost stories for Christmas comes “The Mezzotint,” debuting Friday on the BritBox streaming service. Rory Kinnear stars as university museum curator Mr. Williams, who receives an engraved picture that appears to show simply a country house at night.