Have a wonderful weekend. |
This weekend I have … 22 minutes and a preschooler. |
 | | A scene from "The Gumboot Kids."Amazon |
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When to watch: Now, on Amazon. |
If you've ever gazed longingly at some facets of homesteader Instagram, try this serene but engaging show for little kids. (It is technically three short-format shows — "Scout & The Gumboot Kids," "Daisy & The Gumboot Kids," "Jessie & The Gumboot Kids" — but it is packaged in 22-minute blocs.) Two stop-motion mice, Scout and Daisy, explain the natural world and suggest simple craft projects, followed by a dreamy acoustic pop-folk song that rounds out both the literal and figurative aspects of that episode's lesson. It's all very charming and calm and aspirational, a wholesome wooden toy made in Canada rather than a screaming plastic gun that plays "Baby Shark" on electric whistle. |
… an hour, and I should tidy up in here. |
 | | A contestant hammers away on "All That Glitters."HBO Max |
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Rejoice, fans of earnest British reality contest shows, for this is truly our era. "Glitters" is a jewelry-making competition, so get ready to absorb the exact specifications of what defines a bangle, etc., while a handful of designers battle over who can make the most securely-clasping locket. I wonder if perhaps the pendulum has swung a little too far toward decorousness; the contestants, the jewelry, the judging, the editing, even the eliminations are all tentative, bordering on withdrawn. It picks up as the season goes along, and I happily binged the whole thing, but this is more of a keep-you-company than a drop-everything show. |
… several hours, and I need a summer TV project. |
 | | Mads Mikkelsen in a scene from "Hannibal."Brooke Palmer/NBC |
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When to watch: Now, on Hulu. |
There was a surprising amount of hand-wringing when "Hannibal" left Netflix last month — surprising because the dazzling and grotesque show, starring Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter, was and still is available on Hulu. There are only 39 episodes, but it's too gruesome to binge, which makes it ideal for the kind of night when you need the A.C. to blast directly into your heart for an hour before you can even consider limping to bed. It's also perfect for summer 2021 in particular because the human body has never seemed more disgusting yet more alluring, which is among the central themes of "Hannibal." |
Your newly available movies |
 | | Alec Baldwin voices Ted Templeton in "The Boss Baby: Family Business."DreamWorks |
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A busy holiday weekend brings a number of high-profile movies to streaming, including the star-packed Steven Soderbergh caper "No Sudden Move" on HBO Max and the animated sequel "The Boss Baby: Family Business" on Peacock's premium service. Amazon, meanwhile, offers the sci-fi-action movie "The Tomorrow War," starring Chris Pratt as a high school biology teacher who is summoned by time travelers to fight aliens in the future. |
Some independent films are available via "virtual cinemas," which share the rental fees between distributors and theaters. Unless otherwise noted, other titles can generally be rented on the usual platforms, including Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube. SCOTT TOBIAS |
There are some good laughs throughout, though none feel particularly novel. And the continued attempts to make corporate culture into something cute and funny by adding a pacifier seems out of touch with how harshly we criticize toxic workplaces now. — Maya Phillips (Read the full review here.) |
'Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over' (A Critic's Pick; virtual cinema) |
The footage of her on the road with her current band, Retrovirus, shows [Lydia Lunch's] mastery of live performance and also highlights her very urban sense of sarcasm; sometimes she suggests no-wave's answer to Fran Lebowitz. — Glenn Kenny (Read the full review here.) |
The schematic for "No Sudden Move" remains perfectly intact, and the thing itself works pretty much according to the specifications. A consumer-rating agency would give it high marks for safety and efficiency, but it never leaves the showroom. — A.O. Scott (Read the full review.) |
'Till Death' (A Critic's Pick) |
There are no profound psychological struggles, high-concept theatrics; no groundbreaking subversions of formula. Instead, this straightforward romp focuses its attention on its cunning and no-nonsense scream queen. — Beatrice Loayza (Read the full review.) |
As for the extraterrestrials, we're almost an hour in before we see one: Bleached, tentacled and maximally toothy, they're so exhaustingly aggressive it's a relief to learn that, like the Creator, they're only active for six days a week. That's about as long as this 140-minute assault feels, with its crude dialogue ("We are food, and they are hungry"), overexcited score and characters so formulaic they might as well be cereal-box figurines. — Jeannette Catsoulis (Read the full review here.) |
'White on White' (A Critic's Pick; Mubi only) |
Distressingly beautiful and subtly provocative, "White on White," the slow-burn second feature from the Spanish-Chilean director Théo Court, considers the casual violence of image-making against a 19th-century backdrop of flesh-and-bones barbarism. — Beatrice Loayza (Read the full review.) |
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