Cinema News: Movies Update: ‘King Richard’ and More

November 19, 2021

By Mekado Murphy

Movies Editor

Hey, movie fans!

It's the time of year when new films in the Oscar conversation are rolling out each week. One big contender is the biopic "King Richard" (in theaters and on HBO Max), starring Will Smith as the father of the tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. It's a Critic's Pick. In his review, A.O. Scott calls it "old-fashioned entertainment, a sports drama that is also an appealing, socially alert story of perseverance."

And on Netflix is "Tick, Tick … Boom!," the feature directing debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda, starring Andrew Garfield as the "Rent" composer Jonathan Larson. The critic Amy Nicholson writes that Garfield "gives Larson an endearing vulnerability."

If you're looking for some big-hearted (and big-budgeted) nostalgia, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" is here. Manohla Dargis calls it "a cautious, painlessly watchable kid-centric romp." A kid is also central to a smaller film opening this week, "C'mon, C'mon." In that, Woody Norman plays a boy who spends some time with his uncle (Joaquin Phoenix) in the midst of a family crisis. Dargis calls it "a story about love and the eternal tug of war between self-interest and caring for others."

Enjoy the movies!

Warner Bros

Critic's Pick

'King Richard' Review: Father Holds Court

Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis play the parents of Venus and Serena Williams in a warm, exuberant, old-fashioned sports drama.

By A.O. Scott

Kimberley French/Sony Pictures

'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' Review: A Play for Nostalgia and Merch

Jason Reitman, son of the original "Ghostbusters" director, delivers a toothless film with Paul Rudd as a love interest and plenty of cutesy ghosts.

By Manohla Dargis

Macall Polay/Netflix

'Tick, Tick … Boom!' Review: A Bohemian's Rhapsodies

Andrew Garfield stars as Jonathan Larson, the composer and lyricist of "Rent," in this meta-musical directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

By Amy Nicholson

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CRITICS' PICKS

Magnolia Pictures

Critic's Pick

'Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn' Review: No Sex, Please, We're Romanian

A viral video scandal ensnares a Bucharest schoolteacher in Radu Jude's biting, bawdy and brilliant Covid-age fable.

By A.O. Scott

National Geographic Documentary Films/NEON

Critic's Pick

'The First Wave' Review: How to Fight a Virus

The documentary tracks the first four months of the novel coronavirus in March 2020, as it overwhelms works at a hospital in Queens.

By Teo Bugbee

MOVIE REVIEWS

A24	'C'mon C'mon' Review: Are You My Mommy? In Mike Mills's latest film, Joaquin Phoenix plays an uncle who takes care of his precocious nephew during a family crisis. By Manohla Dargis

Mark Mainz/Netflix

'The Princess Switch 3' Review: Meow, It's Fiona's Turn

A golden star on loan from the Vatican to crown the holiday tree in tiny Montenaro has been stolen. What's a royal family to do?

By Helen T. Verongos

Eliza Morse/Bleecker Street

'India Sweets and Spices' Review: Gossip, Secrets and Biting Laughs

A party invitation exposes a family and a community in this Geeta Malik feature starring Sophia Ali.

By Lisa Kennedy

Lionsgate

'Zeros and Ones' Review: Plague and Paranoia

Abel Ferrara's lockdown experiment is a spooky political thriller with a double dose of Ethan Hawke.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

Netflix

'Procession' Review: Art as Exorcism

In this experimental documentary streaming on Netflix, six survivors of abuse within the Catholic Church use filmmaking to confront traumatic memories.

By Ben Kenigsberg

Netflix

'Prayers for the Stolen' Review: Coming of Age Among the Poppies

Tatiana Huezo's feature film is based on a novel about girls growing up in Mexico in communities terrorized by opium cartels.

By Beatrice Loayza

Gordon Parks/The Gordon Parks Foundation, via HBO

'A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks' Review: Defining Portraits

This documentary celebrates how the work of the great photographer Gordon Parks brought a nuanced fidelity to Black experience.

By Nicolas Rapold

Screen Media

'Black Friday' Review: Killer Sales Bring Killer Customers

In this horror-comedy, a group of resentful retail workers struggle to survive as shoppers overtaking their toy store are ravaged by a zombie plague.

By Lena Wilson

NEWS & FEATURES

Charlotte Hadden for The New York Times

Jamie Dornan Goes Back to 'Belfast,' but Not Without Worry

This Oscar contending drama takes Dornan from "Fifty Shades of Grey" into prestige filmmaking, though many things about the film hit awfully close to home.

By Kyle Buchanan

Vinegar Syndrome Pictures

With 'New York Ninja,' Lights, Camera and, Finally, Action

The 1984 kung fu film was shot, but it wasn't completed. Now, with a new director and newly recorded dialogue, the film sees the light of day.

By Eric Grode

Ruven Afanador for The New York Times

Inside Jane Campion's Cinema of Tenderness and Brutality

In "The Power of the Dog," her first movie in 12 years, the filmmaker ventures into the American West — and the inner worlds of cruel, complicated men.

By Jordan Kisner

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STREAMING RECOMMENDATIONS

Amazon

Five International Movies to Stream Now

This month's picks include a Polish procedural, a Kazakh dark comedy, a Tunisian social-realist drama, and more.

By Devika Girish

Eduard Grau/Weinstein Company

The Best Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now

New films, and classics, just keep coming, but you don't have to drill down to find the finest selections to stream. We'll do the heavy lifting. You press play.

By Jason Bailey