What's on TV this week—The Hunting Wives and Washington Black
The biggies
(Netflix, Monday, 3:01 a.m.)
Soapy drama The Hunting Wives centers on the liberal Sophie (Brittany Snow), who moves to a deep-red town in East Texas and becomes fast friends (and maybe more) with a wealthy socialite (played by Malin Akerman). When someone drops dead, Sophie and her new clique are identified as the top suspects. Check out The A.V. Club's review of the show on Monday.
(Hulu, Wednesday, 12:01 a.m.)
In this historical-fantasy saga, 11-year-old George 'Wash' Black (Eddie Karanja) flees from the Barbados sugar plantation he was born on to go on globe-trotting adventure. As an adult, Wash (Ernest Kingsley Jr.) settles into a Nova Scotia community and befriends its leader. Sterling K. Brown, Tom Ellis, Shaunette Wilson, and Edward Bluemel co-star. The A.V. Club's review publishes Monday.
Also airing
(Hulu, Tuesday, 12:01 a.m.)
This six-part British series follows a police officer (portrayed by Jing Lusi) who gets caught up in a global conspiracy while escorting a murder suspect (played by Richard Armitage) on a flight to Beijing.
(BritBox, Thursday, 3:01 a.m.)
BritBox's slate expands with Code Of Silence, in which a team of detectives rope in the deaf Alison (Rose Ayling-Ellis) to lip-read in the hopes of thwarting a jewelry heist. The series, which already aired in the U.K., has been renewed for a second season.
Can't miss recaps
(FXX, Wednesday, 10 p.m.)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+, Thursday, 3 a.m)
(HBO Max, Thursday, 9 p.m)
Arriving now
(Apple TV+, Wednesday, 12:01 a.m., season four premiere)
(Comedy Central, Wednesday, 10-11 p.m., season premieres)
Ending soon
(Apple TV+, Wednesday, 12:01 a.m., season one finale)
(Netflix, Wednesday, 3:01 a.m., season one finale)
(Netflix, Thursday, 3:01 a.m., series finale)
More from A.V. Club
The first openly gay baseball player also invented the high five
Whisper Of The Heart left a lo-fi legacy unique to Studio Ghibli
John Oliver calls Colbert cancellation "terrible news for the world of comedy"
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Digital Trends
23 minutes ago
- Digital Trends
Stop what you're doing, and watch these 3 great movies leaving Netflix by August 1
Movies leave Netflix at the end of every month. However, something doesn't sit right with me about Happy Gilmore leaving the service days after the premiere of Happy Gilmore 2. That isn't right! Regardless, it's leaving Netflix by August 1, and there's nothing you can do about it. Happy Gilmore is one of many movies departing soon. The three movies below will depart Netflix with the Adam Sandler comedy. One of our picks might be the most influential horror ever. Find out more below. Recommended Videos We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on HBO Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Psycho (1960) Picking Alfred Hitchcock's best movie is an impossible task. Choosing his most popular picture is more doable. Thanks to a memorable shower scene and its impact on slashers, Hitchcock's most notable movie — to mainstream audiences — is Psycho, his adaptation of the Robert Bloch novel. After Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) steals $40,000 from her employer, she plans to run away with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin). While traveling from Phoenix, Arizona, to Fairvale, California, Marion stops at the secluded Bates Motel for protection from a heavy rainstorm. Inside, she meets the proprietor, Norman Bates (Anthony Bates), a peculiar man with a strained relationship with his mother. Psycho's influence on the horror genre is priceless. Every horror's roots post-1960 can be traced back to Psycho. Stream Psycho on Netflix. Field of Dreams (1989) 'If you build it, he will come.' When writing the history of iconic one-liners, those famous words uttered in Field of Dreams must be on the list. While tending to his Iowa cornfield, farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) hears the 'build it' line and envisions a baseball field. Believing in divine intervention, Ray builds his baseball field and hopes for the best. One night, the ghost of 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) appears on the field and asks Ray if he can play. Soon after, many of Jackson's teammates from the Black Sox arrive and take part in nightly games. For Ray, the baseball field was only the beginning of this journey, as he embarks on a mission of blind faith. For my money, it's the greatest baseball movie ever made. Stream Field of Dreams on Netflix. Matilda (1996) Sometimes, you need an enjoyable children's movie from your childhood as a palate cleanser. For me, that's Matilda, the story of a gifted child based on the Roald Dahl novel. Since birth, Matilda Wormwood (Mara Wilson) has been neglected by her father, Harry (Danny DeVito), and mother, Zinnia (Rhea Perlman). Seeking an escape, Matilda finds solace in education, particularly in reading. When it's time to go to school, Matilda's father enrolls her in Crunchem Hall Elementary School, run by the cruel Miss Agatha Trunchbull (Pam Ferris). The school's only saving grace is Matilda's teacher, the kindhearted Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz). One day, Matilda inherits telekinesis powers, and for the first time in her life, she starts to fight back. Matilda is a feel-good movie that brings out your inner child in the best way. Stream Matilda on Netflix.
Forbes
36 minutes ago
- Forbes
7 Must-Watch Netflix Movies You Might Have Missed
Suki Waterhouse stars in the 2016 dystopian thriller film 'The Bad Batch.' We all know that feeling: you're scrolling endlessly through Netflix's myriad offerings, passing by the same movies over and over, wondering if this movie is worth watching or if that movie is any good—yeah, it's tough to choose. While many of those films are hyped by the streaming service or gain moments of traction on social media, the simple reality is that many of them will forever remain unknown. But what if we gave seven of those movies another chance? Seven movies that often fly under the radar, that still haven't gotten their moment in the sun, that are still waiting to find their audience, sometimes decades after their release? Well, let's do just that. This list features seven awesome movies on Netflix that aren't super popular. I determined this by arranging over 5,000 Netflix movies on Letterboxd, ranked by popularity. I then found movies buried way down on the list that I've enjoyed in the past, that offer lots of great insights and image, that I believe will provide some much-needed entertainment next time you need a break on the couch. I chose several different genres and styles to appeal to many different movie watchers, so hopefully you find a brand new favorite in this bunch. Good luck, and happy watching! 7 Must-Watch Netflix Movies You Might Have Missed Noah Baumbach became more of a household name after receiving an Oscar nomination for co-penning the Barbie script alongside wife Greta Gerwig. But he was well-respected by many prior to 2023, with Oscar nominations coming for Marriage Story in 2019 and The Squid and the Whale in 2005 as well. But long before those projects—back in 1995, to be exact—Baumbach released his first feature-length film, one that many consider to be his best: Kicking & Screaming. A dry, talky, sneakily profound comedy about post-college limbo, the film follows a group of friends: Grover (Josh Hamilton), Max (Chris Eigeman), Otis (Carlos Jacott) and Skippy (Jason Wiles). As part of what is a refreshingly meandering story that isn't driven purely by plot, these four recent graduates hang out at the same bar, argue about literature and wax poetic about their aimlessness, seemingly unable to move on from their responsibility-free university lives. All the while, Grover mourns a breakup with his girlfriend Jane (Olivia d'Abo), who has left for grad school in Prague. With its episodic structure and sharp, hyperverbal dialogue and many great character performances (including one from the forever-great Parker Posey), Kicking and Screaming wears its Gen X malaise on its sleeve, capturing that very specific post-graduate dread where everything feels both possible and pointless at the same time. Indonesian filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto enjoyed some notoriety for his participation in two of the popular horror anthologies: The ABCs of Death, V/H/S/2 and V/H/S/94. But he's found a special audience on Netflix, where he's released a few of his films—The Night Comes for Us, May the Devil Take You and The Shadow Strays. That final film is the polar opposite of Kicking & Screaming: a ferocious, blood-soaked action film that hits with the velocity of a freight train. But there's so much more than action to be found in its story. Aurora Ribero plays '13,' a 17-year-old assassin raised by a secret international organization known as the Shadows. After a mission in Japan goes array, her mentor Umbra (Hana Malasan) suspends 13 and sends her to Jakarta for monotonous, numbing psych retraining. There, she forms a protective bond with 11-year-old Monji (Ali Fikri), whose mother was lost to a human trafficking ring. After Monji is abducted, 13's violent training resurfaces with explosive force, propelling her on a revenge-fueled rampage through the Indonesian capital's darkest corners. Recalling the unbelievable fight sequences that littered Gareth Evans' popular Indonesian film The Raid, this work of wonder is stuffed to the brim with Tjahjanto's signature style: kinetic camerawork and brutal hand-to-hand choreography, relentlessly conveyed through extended set pieces. Yet beneath the spectacle is a story about conscience and guilt—a story of human connection that makes its revenge story all the more enrapturing. Joaquin Phoenix won a well-deserved Oscar for his portrayal of the Joker—an award that almost served as a retrospective honoring of his past work that went unnoticed by the Academy. For while he received nominations for the likes of Gladiator, Walk the Line and The Master, what is perhaps his greatest (and most devastating) performance got nothing—not even a nomination. The romantic drama Two Lovers follows Phoenix's character Leonard, a man who returns to live with his parents after a broken engagement drives him to attempt to take his own life. With his existence in limbo, Leonard suddenly finds himself torn between two women: the sweet and stable daughter of a business associate, Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), and the fragile, unpredictable neighbor involved with a married man, Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow). The love triangle that unfolds symbolizes Leonard's torn psyche: Michelle represents desire, uncertainty, emotional risk, while Sandra embodies love, dependability, future promise. Director and writer James Gray (who also created We Own the Night and The Immigrant) avoids clichés in this transfixing story, using Leonard's unstable condition to explore several ideas: how bipolar disorder shapes one's indecision and relational hesitations; how the struggle between passion and pragmatism mirrors a broader search for self; how self-forgiveness and self-acceptance are essential in pointing us in the proper direction. When baseball nerds describe Nolan Ryan's career as an MLB pitcher, I'm not sure his dominance can be properly conveyed via stats alone: his 5,714 strikeouts are more than 800 ahead of the second-place Randy Johnson; only Gerrit Cole's 326 strikeouts come near Ryan's season-best of 383 strikeouts; he has three more no-hitters (seven) than the next closest, Sandy Koufax; and on top of it all, Ryan was still throwing 95+ mph into his 40s, an accomplishment practically unheard of. So if you want to see such supremacy in action, then watch Facing Nolan. Yes, there's plenty of information and stories about Ryan's storied career, which fully detail his reputation as an unstoppable pitcher. But what makes the documentary stand out is how it balances the myth with the relatable, humble man: a Texas rancher, husband and father whose drive was grounded in love and hard work, not just athletic prowess. Featuring interviews with baseball legends like Randy Johnson, Craig Biggio, Roger Clemens, Pete Rose, this documentary from Bradley Jackson not only offers insight into how he achieved such a ferocious fastball (often clocking in over 100 mph), but also how his Texas values—his integrity, his resilience, his loyalty to family and his home—were crucial ingredients for one of the most intimidating figures ever to step on the mound. Do you love genre-bending post-apocalyptic thrillers? How about when they mix Mad Max-style wastelands with cannibalistic horror and tender romances set in a lawless Texas desert? If that kind of movie sounds too impossible to exist, then you haven't seen The Bad Batch—and that needs to be fixed immediately. Conceived by director/writer Ana Lily Amirpour (whose first feature, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, was met with critical acclaim) as 'Road Warrior meets Pretty in Pink,' this gritty, unapologetically weird slice of body horror showcases the auteur's ambition to fuse brutal aesthetics with surreal romanticism, employing an evocative, almost hypnotic aesthetic that's filled with constant tonal shifts, from eerie notes of silence to sudden bursts of violence. The film centers on Arlen (Suki Waterhouse), a young woman literally branded as part of the 'bad batch,' who is dropped into the desert and immediately captured by a group of cannibals. After a brutal escape, Arlen drifts through a wasteland populated by scavengers, bodybuilders and misfits—including a mute drifter known only as Miami Man (Jason Momoa) and a hedonistic cult leader called The Dream (Keanu Reeves). These ever-watchable characters make the jagged but immersive world imagined by Amirpour all the more intoxicating, showcasing the director's world-building talents as she takes a bold, creative leap from her first feature. If you're not up on Emma Seligman, the director of Bottoms, then you're not up on one of the most exciting voices in comedy right now: her ability to turn everyday situations, from family gatherings at funerals to unsure romance amidst high school politics, allows her to craft small worlds that feel huge; her razor-sharp dialogue allows her to turn social anxieties into moments of both hilarity and dread; and her comedic timing is as much about silence, glances and pacing as it is about punchlines. She has such a unique voice, and it was fully on display in her debut feature, Shiva Baby. The film centers on college student Danielle (Rachel Sennott), who attends a shiva with her parents. But little does she expect to run into her sugar daddy, Max (Danny Deferrari), nor her ex-girlfriend, Maya (Molly Gordon), at an event filled with intrusive relatives and nosy family friends. Adapting her own short film with razor-sharp efficiency, Seligman stands out in her debut because of her ability to tell stories from perspectives that rarely get center stage—her protagonists are often queer, complex, and flawed, allowing her comedy to explore identity with nuance rather than stereotypes. Drawing on her own Jewish upbringing and millennial experiences, Seligman crafts characters who feel both highly specific and widely relatable, resulting in an empowering collaboration with Sennott that's driven by strong, unconventional characters. Dystopian movies are a dime a dozen (heck, there's even another one on this list), but using the zombie formula as a deadpan ode to ennui and small-town Americana is definitely a unique approach—one that writer/director Jim Jarmusch utilized nearly 40 years into his legendary career (he also created films like Down by Law, Dead Man and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai). The result is The Dead Don't Die, a commentary via absurdity, a film that riffs off zombie godfather George Romero's anticapitalist undercurrents (think Dawn of the Dead) but also brings that message into the 21st century with MAGA hats, juvenile detention and environmental disaster denial. Set in the sleepy rural town of Centerville, the cast includes Bill Murray as Chief Cliff Robertson, Adam Driver as the stoic Deputy Ronnie Peterson and Tilda Swinton as the town's Harley-riding mortician, Zelda Winston. When the dead start rising from their graves, the townspeople are caught off guard. And instead of the usual frantic panic, Jarmusch lets the apocalypse unfold with bizarre calmness: Murray and Driver patrol in sloth-like formation, Zelda welds coffins for fun and Jarmusch himself even pops up onscreen as Officer Ronnie's aging hippie father. The cast is rounded out with so many great actors, from Chloë Sevigny to Steve Buscemi to Danny Glover to Austin Butler to Selena Gomez—seriously, the list goes on. They all come together for a film that treats horror convention with ironic distance: zombies shuffle, characters muse and apathy often feels more dangerous than the undead.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
What Would Americans Really Do for $1 Million? New Survey Reveals Shocking Truth
Americans would ditch love, betray friends and even risk their lives for a seven-figure payday, a new survey reveals. Over 40% would walk out on their romantic partner in a heartbeat for a cool million, according to a poll of 2,000 people by Gamblizard, a website that tracks and shares online casino deals. And plenty of Americans seem willing to risk their own skin, too. 4 Friendship, love and ethics all take a back seat when seven figures are on the table, according to a new survey on money and morals. New Africa – Nearly half, 46%, said they'd step right into a real-life 'Squid Game' — the Netflix hit where contestants face certain death — to pocket $33 million, just like the winner on the show. Even more chilling, four in ten Americans said they would gladly bankrupt a stranger to secure $33 million for themselves. Another 46 percent said they might consider it, depending on whose finances were at risk. Nearly 60% would ditch technology entirely and live off the grid, and forget Netflix and chill: 41% of Americans would completely swear off sex for that same million-dollar check, the survey found. An alarming 15% admitted they'd frame a friend for a crime they didn't commit to get their hands on that kind of cash. 4 The hit series 'Squid Game' pits desperate players in deadly games for money — and nearly half of Americans say they'd sign up in real life for $33 million. New Africa – But Americans do have priorities, with 10 percent saying they would reject the money if they couldn't share it, while 21% value social media access more than a million bucks. More than half would reject the cash if their parents controlled it, and 38% would hesitate if their enemy benefited too. The findings 'reveal more about human psychology than moral decay,' said Nina Mazar, behavioral scientist at Boston University's Questrom School of Business. 'While some people might never compromise their values regardless of the sum, others have thresholds — and the data suggests that as incentives rise, more people admit they'd waver.' But Carnegie Mellon University economics and psychology professor George Loewenstein thinks the issue runs deeper. 4 The survey suggests that when the stakes are high enough, even the most unthinkable choices start to seem tempting. New Africa – When money's tight, people are more willing to stretch their morals to make ends meet, he said. Some might laugh off these survey answers as just hypothetical fun, but Loewenstein warns the truth might be darker. 'Are these responses likely to reflect real behavior? They probably understate the actual fraction of people who would actually do these things if faced with the temptation,' said Loewenstein, who specializes in social and decision sciences. Ben Bradley, a philosophy professor and ethics expert at Syracuse University is worried about the nation's moral compass. 4 A shocking number of Americans say they'd dump their partners without hesitation if it meant walking away with a million-dollar check. New Africa – 'People often think they would act a certain way when confronted with a scenario, but are wrong,' he said. 'Framing a friend for murder is much more disturbing. A non-trivial number of people regard morality as a sucker's game.'
