POKÉMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU (2019) 8 p.m. on HBO; stream on HBO platforms. The first live-action movie based on the Pokemon franchise is sure to please fans of the video game series â€" less so film buffs. Tim (Justice Smith) arrives in Ryme City, where Pokémon and humans coexist, after his father, who is a detective, seemingly died in a car accident. He meets the fuzzy and adorable title character (voiced by an amusing Ryan Reynolds), who suspects Tim’s father may not be dead. The pair team up with a young journalist (Kathryn Newton) and search the city’s seedy streets for answers. The movie, directed by Rob Letterman, places colorful Pokémon creatures in a neo-noir ascetic, a juxtaposition that recalls “Who Framed Roger Rabbit†(1988). While that adds some visual eye-candy, most critics have said the film could have used a more ambitious plot.
What’s StreamingAMERICA N BEAUTY (1999) Stream on Amazon or Hulu; rent on Google Play, iTunes, Vudu or YouTube. With Sam Mendes’s Golden Globe-nominated war drama “1917†in theaters this week, revisit his feature directorial debut, “American Beauty,†before it leaves Amazon Prime Video and Hulu on Dec. 31. Lester (Kevin Spacey) is an advertising executive in the suburbs who is going through a midlife crisis. He’s drowning in his own sorrow until he meets his daughter’s cheerleader friend Angela (Mena Suvari) and becomes infatuated with her. As he tries to impress her, other plotlines unfold. New neighbors move in, his daughter starts a relationship and his wife has an affair. The characters’ lives come together in a powerful climax, which leaves the moral of the story up to interpretation. The film made a splash when it first opened 20 years ago, taking home five Oscars, including best picture.
BETTER THINGS Stream on Hulu. The high s and lows (well, mostly lows) of aging take center stage in the third season of this dramedy series, now available on Hulu. The creator, director and star Pamela Adlon plays Sam, an actress and single mother of three in Los Angeles who is confronting menopause and her 50th birthday. Her children are going through their own changes: leaving for college, getting their periods, smoking marijuana. This is the first season Adlon worked on alone after her co-creator, Louis C.K., left the show in 2017. In his review for The New York Times, James Poniewozik named the season a Critic’s Pick and wrote that the series “kept its voice while taking on a structure that’s ingeniously both impressionistic and more cohesive.†The show is set to return for a fourth run next year.
HOT GIMMICK: GIRL MEETS BOY (2019) Stream on Netflix. In this Japanese drama, teenager Hatsumi (Miona Hori) is manipulated by her neighbor Ryoki (Hiroya Shimizu) and for ced to become his slave. When Hatsumi’s handsome childhood friend Azusa (Mizuki Itagaki) moves back to town, they start to date. But Ryoki’s jealousy and Azusa’s ulterior motives prove dangerous.
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