TFW you have to work on Sunday but all you want to do is keep bingeing Season 4 of The Crown. I watched the first two episodes and I can’t decide who I love most: Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth, Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher, or Emma Corrin as Diana. Also Josh O’Connor’s Prince Charles continues to be a fascinating not-quite-antihero. Can’t wait to dig in for more (literal) palace intrigue.
In the meantime, I did warn y’all a couple weeks back that we were sliding into holiday movie szn, and, among this week’s trailers are a holiday rom-com with Kristen Stewart, as well as an update of a classic YA novel, and a Bruce-Willis-kicks-space-alien-ass offering. Plus the cast of the Fresh Prince are back together. Versatility ftw!
happiest season
I feel like this movie could easily become ensnared in romcom cliches without strong performances from its stars, so when I saw Dan Levy in the cast I was immediately reassured. Abby (Kristen Stewart) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis) are a couple in love planning to spend the holidays with Harper’s family, except —plot twist— she’s not out to them yet. “This holiday everyone’s secrets are coming out” is the movie’s tagline and I’m holding out hope it adds something new to the romcom genre. Happiest Season debuts on Hulu November 25th.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion
Ah the nostalgia may push me over the edge here. I was smack in the middle of the target audience for the original run of The Fresh Prince in the early 1990s and seeing the cast together again, all grown up, is warming my cold Gen-X heart. Will Smith, Alfonso Ribeiro, Tatyana Ali, and the rest of the cast — including the original Aunt Viv, you guys!!— remember the late James Avery, who played Will’s Uncle Phil. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion hits HBO Max November 19th.
Inside Pixar
A new series on Disney Plus looks at the people who work at Pixar, the studio responsible for lovely animated films that make parents of young children cry (looking at you, Finding Nemo, Inside Out, and Toy Story). Is it a little self-serving for Disney, which owns Pixar, to run a “look at how cool this company is” on its Disney Plus channel? Eh, maybe. I’m still going to watch, and hopefully find out who exactly is responsible for my parental trauma once and for all. Inside Pixar is now streaming.
Breach
A plague has wiped out most of Earth’s population (eek) and 300,000 survivors, including Bruce Willis and Thomas Jane, are headed to “New Earth” in a very safe spacecraft where nothing will go wrong and no one will turn into a hideous drooling space monster. Haha I jest, of course, and since this is a Bruce Willis movie you know there will be gunfire and witty quips sprinkled throughout the mayhem. I got a strong Aliens vibe from the trailer but there’s some black goo involved that seems like a callback to The X-Files. Breach is in select theaters and streaming on demand starting December 18th.
Black Beauty
Apparently this adaptation of the 1877 Anna Sewell novel of the same name adds some new elements and while not everyone loves the new plot developments (check the comments on the video) I’m actually sort of intrigued. The book was an autobiography of a horse— told from his point of view— which described some of the animal cruelty that was prevalent in Sewell’s day. In the new movie, Black Beauty is an untamed, traumatized female horse, voiced by Kate Winslet, who connects with Jo, a teenage girl mourning her family. Black Beauty comes to Disney Plus November 27th.
