Female Film Critics 24/375
Sarah Snook is one of our most formidable actresses. Now she stars in All Her Fault, a mystery thriller that pivots on every parent’s worst nightmare. When Marissa Irvine (Snook) arrives to pick up her five-year-old son Milo (Duke McCloud) from a playdate in a Chicago suburb, she discovers that the woman who answers the door doesn’t have her child – and there never was a playdate. Milo has been kidnapped.
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Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the first film in the British romantic comedy franchise to skip a US theatrical release and go straight to streaming on Peacock. That’s probably a wise choice because Bridget Jones’ fans are older now and it’s fun to watch at home. Still a grieving widow, idiosyncratic Bridget (Renee Zellweger) desperately misses her beloved late husband, Mark Darcy, four years after he was killed on a humanitarian mission in Sudan. That pervading sorrow extends to their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. Although Bridget’s former lover/boss – now best friend – ever-flirtatious Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) offers support, meaning that he’ll watch the kids so she can occasionally get out of her London home, her love life is nonexistent.
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Director Roland Emmerich recruited Anthony Hopkins to head the cast and created a cutting-edge virtual production to replicate ancient Rome for his first television series Those About to Die, streaming on the Peacock network. This brutal, bloody sword-and-sandal epic explores despicable trickery and feverish gambling in the world of Circus Maximus chariot racing and, although it’s derivative, disjointed, repetitive and somewhat incoherent, it should whet your appetite for Ridley Scott’s upcoming Gladiator 2, scheduled for release later this year.
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Stop whatever you’re doing and go watch this powerful documentary right now. (It’s streaming on NBC and Peacock.) Focusing on “one of the most significant nuclear accidents in United States history,” In the Dark of the Valley is a vital call for action to hold corporations accountable for the harm they cause in their insatiable pursuit of profits. Melissa Bumstead, a Southern California mom, begs the powers to be to “do the right thing” and clean up the Santa Susana Field Lab, whose toxic waste may have been responsible for the leukemia her nine year old daughter, Grace, has already survived twice. It turns out Grace is not the only child in the neighborhood to have gotten a rare form of cancer and there are far too many cases to believe it’s merely a coincidence. Melissa Bumstead, a Southern California mom, begs the powers to be to “do the right thing” and clean up the Santa Susana Field Lab, whose toxic waste may have been responsible for the leukemia her nine year old daughter, Grace, has already survived twice. It turns out Grace is not the only child in the neighborhood to have gotten a rare form of cancer and there are far too many cases to believe it’s merely a coincidence.
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Whatever you think of the premise of Five Nights at Freddy’s, this PG-13 horror film based on the wildly popular gaming franchise knows its young fan base well. From the tactile details of its arcade setting to the design of its animatronic characters and how it handles its frights, the film takes obvious care to deliver a fun gateway horror film for those old enough to find this year’s Haunted Mansion too cute but too nervous to take on The Nun. I’d place it in the same space as 2019’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, with creepy imagery, jump scares, and good use of sound, but nothing that should keep anyone up at night.
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Paying tribute to a beloved national icon for her birthday, NBC will celebrate Carol Burnett’s illustrious career with Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love. The two-hour special will air at 8 p.m. ET/PT April 26 and will stream next day on Peacock. Filmed at Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles, the star-studded special will feature an A-list lineup of musical performances and special guests, who will come together to share their love for one of the most cherished comediennes in television history.
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With the enduring success of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek and its various spin-offs, it’s been established that spaceship adventures attract an audience – initially, at least. Whether or not viewers will stay with Dean Devlin’s The Ark for the long-haul is another matter indeed. Filmed on-the-cheap just outside Belgrade, Serbia, the casting is obviously international. Production designer Randal Groves combines practical feasibility with the laws of physics, including the utilization of deployable, metallic solar sails that unfold from the hull like golden-hued origami.
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A nine-time Grammy Award winner, Blige joins just 10 other artists to ever receive the prestigious Billboard Icon Award, which recognizes outstanding musicians who have achieved excellence on the Billboard charts and have made an indelible mark on music itself. Since the award’s inauguration in 2011, past recipients include Neil Diamond, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion, Cher, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Garth Brooks and P!NK.
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NBCUniversal has named Kelly Campbell the president of its Peacock streaming service. She will be responsible for Peacock’s streaming business and work closely with leadership across NBCUniversal television, film, news and sports on Peacock live and original programming. She will be based in the Los Angeles area.
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