What to Watch on TV and at the Movies This Week

​​What’s new at the movies …

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Civil War, R

Set in the near future, Civil War follows four disparate war correspondents (Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny and Stephen McKinley Henderson, 74, galvanized by the pitch-perfect Kirsten Dunst). They leave Manhattan via press van, picking across the ravaged countryside to the endangered White House. Their objective: the ultimate scoop, a photo and quote from the president (Nick Offerman, 53) while he’s still occupying the Oval Office. On the road, the quartet makes a series of horror pit stops, climaxing when they catch Jesse Plemons (Dunst’s real-life husband and Fargo costar) red-handed, ditching corpses – and seeking more. In a one-scene role, the actor shatters as a violent, xenophobic, red state militia man. The film, never as daring or nuanced as it needs to be, rests uneasily between Oliver Stone’s provocative war correspondent movie Salvador and Gerard Butler’s ballistic blockbuster Olympus Has Fallen. It’s part political critique, part isn’t-it-cool-when-things-explode — a dystopia at war with itself. —Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)

Watch it: Civil War, April 12 in theaters

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Arcadian, R

Nicolas Cage, 60, appeared in six movies last year, so a new one from the hardest working man in show business is less a cause for celebration than an inevitability. And yet, the always-interesting star refuses to ever phone it in. His latest is a moody postapocalyptic survival tale in the vein of The Road or A Quiet Place that features a father hell-bent on protecting his bickering teenage sons (Jaeden Martell and Maxwell Jenkins) after a mysterious cataclysm unleashes a species of razor-toothed beasties on what’s left of humanity. While Cage is largely off-screen for the second half of the film (no spoilers here), the chief reason to check out Arcadian is the film’s mangy-haired, nocturnal monsters who howl like haunted banshees and shake their ravenous maws with blurry speed. What are they? Where did they come from? Arcadian has no interest in explaining. And somehow not knowing makes them scarier. —Chris Nashawaty (C.N.)

Watch it: Arcadian, April 12 in theaters

Also catch up with …

Ripley (Netflix)

Remember Matt Damon in the 1999 hit film The Talented Mr. Ripley, based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel about Tom Ripley, a talented impostor and killer? Now see Andrew Scott, 47, who shot to fame as the “hot priest” on TV’s Fleabag, as slippery Ripley in a new series adaptation by Steven Zaillian, 71, writer of Schindler’s List.

Watch it: Ripley on Netflix

​Don’t miss this: The Best ‘Talented Mr. Ripley’ Adaptations, Ranked

​Mary & George (Starz)

Killing Eve writer D.C. Moore presents a fictionalized version of the true tale of 17th-century Countess Mary Villiers (Julianne Moore, 63), who maneuvers her hunky son to seduce King James and become the unscrupulous power behind the throne.

Watch it: Mary & George on Starz

Don’t miss this: The 7 Sexiest TV Dramas About Royals

Road House, R (Prime Video)

​The 1989 Patrick Swayze action film gets a 21st-century update, with Jake Gyllenhaal playing a world-weary former UFC fighter who takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys dive bar that seems to attract a very aggro clientele. Brace yourself for bare-knuckle brawling. Many doubted the wisdom of rebooting this much-razzed cult classic — but it broke a record with 50 million viewers, the biggest debut of any Amazon/MGM Studios original in history.

​Watch it: Road House on Prime Video

​STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces (Apple TV+)

Comic turned A-list actor Steve Martin, 78, gets the documentary treatment from A-list director Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?).

Watch it: STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces on Apple TV+

Don’t miss this: 9 Wild and Crazy Things You Didn’t Know About Steve Martin

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ A Cat’s Life, PG

Young Parisian Clémence (Capucine Sainson-Fabresse) discovers an adventurous brown tabby in her attic, adopts him despite maternal resistance and names the kitten Lou. As the furball grows up in this charming, low-tech French film dubbed in English, so does the freckled and curious Clémence. The months pass. They visit the countryside, where Lou gets in touch with his wild side — and a white female playmate — and his owner deals with attachment and loss. Her parents divorce. Lou disappears into the forest. Meanwhile, over time, both cat and kid develop a relationship with the salty loner lady of the countryside, Madeleine (the great comic actress and Captain Marleau star Corinne Masiero, 60). Lovable leaping and nail-biter escapes from wild animals ensue as Clémence discovers the great joys, and attached sadnesses, of loving a cat with a will of its own. She learns empathy and joy, one purr, one death-defying leap, one loss at a time in a rare family movie of gentle pleasures. —T.M.A.

Watch it: A Cat’s Life, in theaters

⭐⭐☆☆☆ Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, PG-13

The surviving Ghostbusters — let’s call them Distinguished Gentlemen of the Supernatural — are back for the second time since 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Frozen Empire dispenses with the heartland treacle of Afterlife and brings us back to the franchise’s New York origins. One cheer for that. The cast is appealing back to front: Dan Aykroyd, 71, Bill Murray, 73, Ernie Hudson, 78, and Annie Potts, 71. They even bring back William Atherton, 76, the EPA jerk from the 1984 picture, now the mayor. Paul Rudd, 54, Carrie Coon (The Leftovers), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) and Mckenna Grace (The Handmaid’s Tale) are the newbies. Another cheer for that. But if only the filmmakers could’ve shoehorned some actual jokes into this overstuffed confection, or served up action that didn’t look like it was edited in a digital shredder! —Glenn Kenny (G.K.)

Watch it: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, in theaters

Palm Royale (Apple TV+)

Kristen Wiig, 50, plays a divorcée trying to break into 1969 Palm Beach high society in a highly promising miniseries with the most illustrious comedy cast of the year: Carol Burnett, 90, Laura Dern, 57, Allison Janney, 64, Julia Duffy, 72, Josh Lucas, 52, and Ricky Martin, 52.

​Watch it: Palm Royale on Apple TV+

​Don’t miss this: 10 Quick Questions for Carol Burnett on AARP Members Only Access​

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)

In the 20th season of the steamy hospital drama, we’ll see the aftermath of multiple cliff-hangers featuring two crucial smooches and two near-death experiences, by a patient (Sam Page) and his surgeon (Kim Raver, 54). The titular Dr. Grey (Ellen Pompeo, 54), won’t be a regular anymore, but she’ll do voice-overs and maybe even appear on screen. “It’s not a complete goodbye,” Pompeo says.

Watch it: Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 9 p.m. ET on ABC

Don't miss this: Broadcast TV Preview 2024: The 20 Best Free Shows Headed Your Way

And don't miss this: 9 Quick Questions for Chandra Wilson of ‘Grey's Anatomy’ on AARP Members Only Access

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ One Life, PG

“Whoever saves one life saves the world entire,” to paraphrase the Talmud. In One Life, a fact-based Holocaust drama, modest English stockbroker Nicholas Winton ferries Jewish children to London from Czechoslovakia at great risk. Nazi forces hover at, then cross, the border as WWII looms. In the movie’s most suspenseful sequences, bespectacled young Winton (Johnny Flynn) sweats and worries, scrambling to do the right thing by the endangered children. Decades later, a retired Winton (Anthony Hopkins, 86, shuffling meaningfully) remains obsessed with his guilt over the lost and unsaved. He channels his obsession by trying to raise attention for this forgotten effort that preserved over 600 kids. Then, in 1988, the BBC’s That’s Life program reunites Winton with some of the survivors and their 6,000 heirs. In a karmic kiss, their reconnection enriches Winton’s life. Hanky, please, for the humanitarian the U.K. press dubbed the “British Schindler.” —T.M.A.

​Watch it: One Life, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Arthur the King, PG-13

Spoiler alert: The dog lives! If you’re like me, the prospect of a movie costarring a heroic animal can invoke PTSD from childhood classics like Old Yeller, Bambi or Marley & Me. You still might still need some Kleenex for Arthur the King, but they’ll be happy tears. Scrappy Arthur, the wounded street dog that endurance athlete Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg, 52) meets on the streets of the Dominican Republic and feeds a meatball, winds up tailing Light’s team of adventure racers through a brutal 10-day, 435-mile trek, kayak and climb through the jungle. Arthur becomes part of the squad in its last-ditch bid to win the Adventure Racing World Championship. The setup can be formulaic and heartwarming with a capital H at times. But Wahlberg is so unaffected and authentic as the obsessive racer who wants to win at any cost – until he meets Arthur – that many of his scenes with the dog ring remarkably true. (The film is based on the true story of Swedish adventure racer Mikael Lindnord, who met the real-life Arthur in an Ecuador race and brought him back to Sweden to live with his family.) A modest film that says a lot about what winning really means. —Dana Kennedy (D.K.)

Watch it: Arthur the King, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Dune: Part Two, PG-13

Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan compares this incredibly epic film of Frank Herbert’s SF classic to The Empire Strikes Back, which outdid the original Star Wars. He’s got a point. It’s an eye-popping, sonically stunning, highly original story with massively more action, character and plot than the 2021 Dune: Part One. Timothée Chalamet is more vibrant as Paul, the hero battling the Nazi-esque Harkonnens, and the grownups are great: Javier Bardem, 54, and Josh Brolin, 56, as his friends and mentors, Christopher Walken, 80, as the evil Emperor and Stellan Skarsgård, 72, as the Jabba the Hutt-like Baron Harkonnen. The amazingly confusing plot mostly holds your interest, but it’s the images that stick with you: Paul riding the giant sand worm, warriors erupting from the ground like skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts, rallies straight out of Triumph of the Will, fabulous battles. It’s like a trip to other planets. —T.A.

Watch it: Dune: Part Two, in theaters

​Don’t miss this: Everything You Need to Know Before You Watch Dune: Part 2

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bob Marley: One Love, PG-13

Kingsley Ben-Adir, who played Malcolm X in the Oscar-nominated 2020 One Night in Miami ..., delivers a smartly focused performance as reggae legend Bob Marley. He nails the late star’s Jamaican patois (you sometimes wish the film had subtitles), but what’s missing is the Soul Rebel who brought stadiums of fans to their feet. You can feel director Reinaldo Marcus Green straining against the family-approved biopic format, in which less attractive episodes such as infidelities and arrests get only a glancing mention. When the focus stays on Marley’s singular talent — for example, a lingering scene in which he and the band piece together the classic tune “Exodus” — One Love succeeds in getting things together so you can feel all right. —Thom Geier (T.G.)

Watch it: Bob Marley: One Love, in theaters

Don't miss this: Ziggy Marley reveals his father’s final words to him on AARP Members Only Access

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Taste of Things, PG-13

Not since Babette’s Feast has there been a culinary movie so delicious. In this sensual French period entry for the Oscar, which was overshadowed by the more serious contemporary best picture nominee Anatomy of a Fall, Juliette Binoche, 59, leads the way around a large, rustic kitchen in 1889 France. The actress is graceful, passionate and mysterious as Eugenie, a chef whose culinary talent and skills border on the mystical. Employed for two decades by the famed gourmet Dodin Bouffant (Binoche’s ex-partner Benoît Magimel, 49), the magnificent first act finds her cooking with mouthwatering detail, her hands never still or unsure, her concentration absolute. From this emerge the delicate flavors of her collaboration and consensual no-strings sexual relationship with Bouffant, the nurturing of an apprentice and an appreciation for food preparation as its own genius. The Taste of Things is a yummy version of a life well lived, where dinner isn’t a meal between dusk and dark, but a daily celebration of life for as long as it lasts. —T.M.A.

Watch it: The Taste of Things, in theaters

​Don’t miss this: 8 Quick Questions for Juliette Binoche on AARP Members Only Access

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Poor Things, R

Emma Stone goes far out on a limb — and then leaps without a net — in her second outrageous collaboration with Yorgos Lanthimos, 50 (The Favourite). Stone delivers a sexy, physically demanding and outlandish performance that exists in an artistic universe far, far away from the mainstream gloss of Spiderman’s saucy girlfriend Gwen. She plays Bella Baxter, a young suicide given an electric shock at a second life by the compassionate but cray-cray scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (a sublimely ridiculous Willem Dafoe, 68). His bumpy, scarred visage reflects his predilection for self-experimentation, while Bella is his beauty. Mark Ruffalo, 56, flexes his comic chops as a Bella-obsessed gent who has no idea what she’s capable of — or of his own limitations. Part Frankenstein, part Galatea, Bella has a learning curve that’s swift, unexpected and driven by unrestrained appetites. Although Poor Things occasionally careens into extreme whimsy, it’s a gorgeously shot, designed and costumed portrait of an incomparable woman on the verge of a fantastical breakthrough. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Poor Things, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Boy and the Heron, PG-13

Long ago, when my two grown kids were little, I adored animation. Then it became something like eating too many hot dogs — I never again craved wieners or hyper cartoons. The major exception is the creations of Japanese genius Hayao Miyazaki, 82. His latest movie is true to form: unhurried, tender and wise. Nearly every frame of this artistic masterpiece inspires awe. His visions of undulating waters, flickering flames and sunlight cracking cloud cover have sublime detail, composition and color. The story itself offers wonder, humor and life lessons that don’t reduce to “Eat your broccoli.” The hero of this feature, which Miyazaki claims to be his last, is a motherless boy. Mahito encounters a heron, a magical creature symbolizing good luck, a fowl capable of moving among three elements: earth, water and air. Together, bird and orphan cross the thin membrane between life and death, encountering strange and marvelous creatures, and inhabiting a visually thrilling story that represents the very best in bold contemporary animation and popular art. —T.M.A.

Watch it: The Boy and The Heron, in theaters​​