Kings, Lady Gaga and Girls Gone Wild
by Jamie Joffe, culture editor
November serves anticipated releases packed with more drama and dysfunction than your family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Here is what I’ll be watching.
HBO Max and in theaters
All hail “King Richard.” Finally, here is a film the whole family can enjoy. Ten seconds into the trailer, I was sobbing. This inspirational sports biopic follows the journey of the Williams sisters, better known as Venus and Serena. Will Smith is said to ace (!) the role of undeterred father and coach Richard Williams who, with a potent mix of love and discipline, steers his daughters from Compton to tennis courts, breaking color barriers and setting new standards for women of color. Bring tissues.
Apple TV+
Based on a true story, this eight-episode series stars Will Ferrell as Marty Markowitz, a prominent but socially awkward businessman having a midlife crisis. Markowitz seeks the help of Dr. Isaac Herschkopf, a manipulative psychiatrist played with devious precision by Paul Rudd. The doctor/patient relationship lasts for 27 years, growing increasingly bizarre over time as Herschkopf isolates, then takes over Markowitz’s family, business and the rest of his life. Let’s pray he had good health insurance.
Showtime
Twenty five years after a plane crash leaves a high school girls’ soccer team stranded in the wilderness for 19 months, the women are forced to reunite and revisit the truth about their survival struggle. Filled with Lord of the Flies vibes, this psychological drama series slowly unveils the teen girls’ decisions and behaviors in flashbacks that grow increasingly more harrowing as hunger and desperation take hold. I present a real danger to others when I miss a meal, so I understand why this situation gets ugly fast. Not a bad idea to hold off on this one until after dinner.
In theaters Nov. 24
Fashion, sex, drugs, murder – and Lady Gaga? We’re so in. Directed by Ridley Scott and featuring a star-packed ensemble led by Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons, “House of Gucci” chronicles the famed fashion family. Looking for a Thanksgiving movie featuring a family more dysfunctional than yours? Head to theaters to meet the glamorous Guccis.
Netflix
Back in March 2020, the world was introduced to COVID-19 … and “Tiger King.” Both went viral. While we were baking sourdough bread and hoarding toilet paper, mullet-sporting Joe Exotic’s antics captivated the quarantined country. With people as wild as the animals, the docu-series saga of the animal sanctuary continues. More madness and mayhem are promised, even though Joe Exotic is incarcerated. Then again, so is my cousin, but she always shows up at dinner.
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