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“Night Court” and “Schitt’s Creek” star Dan Levy’s directorial debut, “Good Grief” are some of the new television and movies headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are some new game shows on Fox and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” stomping onto Amazon Prime.
— Director J.A. Bayona knows his way around an agonizing survival story. In 2012, he gave audiences a harrowing look at a family’s experience during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and now he’s back with “Society of the Snow,” about the Uruguayan Air Force Flight that crashed in the Andes mountains in 1972. The disaster has been recounted and studied in many books and movies over the years, including Frank Marshall’s 1993 film “Alive.” But Bayona was inspired to take another look after reading Pablo Vierci’s “Society of the Snow.” Bayona has said that he wanted to tell the stories not only of the survivors but of those who didn’t, in a “documentary style.” The Spanish-language film was selected to represent Spain in the Oscars and has been shortlisted for best international film. “Society of the Snow” is now streaming on Netflix.
Netflix also has Dan Levy’s directorial debut, “Good Grief” coming on Friday. Levy, who also wrote, co-stars alongside Luke Evans, Ruth Negga and Himesh Patel as a widower who has recently lost his husband and takes his friends to Paris for some soul-searching.
— The Criterion Channel has several treats for January, including a series on cat movies (from “That Darn Cat” to “Inside Llewyn Davis”), an ode to Ava Gardner (including “The Barefoot Contessa” and “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman”) but perhaps the most January of all the collections is James Gray’s New York. The films include his 1994 debut “Little Odessa,” in which Tim Roth plays a hit man who has come back to Brighton Beach and the intoxicating romance “Two Lovers,” with Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow as the beguiling Michelle. And if that wasn’t enough Joaquin for you, they’ll have “The Yards,” “We Own the Night” and “The Immigrant” as well.
— And over on Prime Video are two movies that didn’t get the best reviews, but if you’re intrigued and have an Amazon Prime account they’re there for the sampling. First there is the globetrotting action pic “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” which centers on the charismatic stars Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback who travel from Brooklyn to Peru. Directed by Steven Caple Jr., it is technically a sequel to “Bumblebee.” There’s also Garth Davis’ “Foe,” a sci-fi psychological thriller with Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. Both start streaming on Friday.
Fox is adding some new game shows to its roster in the new year. Rob Lowe executive produces and hosts a new trivia show called “The Floor” while Anthony Anderson and his mother Doris Bowman co-host the musical “We Are Family.”. The latter was originally intended to star Jamie Foxx and his daughter Corinne but the Oscar winner, who experienced an undisclosed medical condition in 2023, will now executive produce. Both shows will also stream on Hulu.
— The acclaimed Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building” comes to broadcast television in early 2024. The comedy whodunit stars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez as neighbors in a posh New York apartment building who start their own true crime podcast after another resident is murdered. The first three episodes of season one began airing on ABC on Tuesday.
— Season one of NBC’s rebooted “Night Court” ended on a cliffhanger, with the return of original series regular Marsha Warfield in an unexpected spot. Season two, which launched Tuesday and arrives the next day on Peacock, picks up where last season left off. The rebooted show stars series original John Larroquette and Melissa Rauch as the new night court judge.
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Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/entertainment.