What to Watch on TV and at the Movies This Week

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ The Return, R

The Return presents a version of Homer’s Odyssey so stripped down that its star, Ralph Fiennes, 60, makes his first appearance as Ithaca’s King Odysseus stark naked, cheeks up, flung upon the rocky shore of his native Ithaca. The Trojan War champion returns to his decimated home island, where his desperate queen, Penelope (Juliette Binoche, 60), is besieged by suitors. The reunion of Penelope and Odysseus, as well as Fiennes and Binoche, who have not co-starred since The English Patient, is notable for the intense eye-acting of the incomparable duo. But the historical drama, with its hand-woven costumes and bedrock sets, can’t escape resembling an overthought Shakespeare-in-the-park revival. Fully committed to achieving verisimilitude — full frontal and all —The Return clunks its way to an anti-war, pro-love conclusion. —Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)

Watch it: The Return, in theaters

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The Sticky (Prime Video)

Emmy winner Margo Martindale, 73 (Justified), stars as a financially strapped maple syrup farmer who teams up with a Boston mobster (Chris Diamantopoulos) and a sweet-natured security guard (Guillaume Cyr) to rob Quebec’s maple syrup reserve. In the true story that inspired the series, a gang swiped 9,571 barrels of the sweet stuff. But that actual criminal enterprise didn’t include this show's role for Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis, 66, as a trash-talking gunwoman.

Watch it: The Sticky, on Prime Video

Don’t miss this: How Margo Martindale Taps Into StickySweet Crime Saga in AARP Members Edition

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Nightbitch, R

The best maternal body horror since David Cronenberg’s The Brood, this outrageous dark comedy stars Amy Adams, 50, in a pedal-to-the-metal performance as “Mother.” A married artist who put her career on hold to tend her tow-headed toddler in the deep suburbs, she’s naturally exhausted — but discovers it’s not just sleep deprivation. She experiences a strange, inexplicable transformation not listed in the What to Expect manuals. Meanwhile, her nice-but-useless traveling worker-bee husband (Scoot McNairy) isn’t present enough to notice when she begins to grow odd chin hairs, then furry patches and extra nipples on her belly. Her sense of smell becomes acute. She goes from feeling like a powerless stay-at-home mom to embracing her inner dog, connecting with the neighborhood pooch pack. Through the unexpected transformation, “Mother” finds her power in the world and as a mom. Brilliant as movie and metaphor – that’s Nightbitch. – Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)

Watch it: Nightbitch, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ The Order, R

Obsession, suspense and a strong ensemble drive this crime thriller. British actors Jude Law, 51, and Nicholas Hoult play American opposites, a rugged, seen-it-all G-man versus a righteous right-wing rebel leader, at war for the nation’s soul. Based on the real-life bank robberies, bombings and assassination of outspoken Jewish radio host Alan Berg (Marc Maron, 61), carried out by an Aryan Nation splinter group called The Order in the 1980s, the drama is relentless. As antagonists, Law and Hoult are powerful yet restrained in committed performances that drive towards an inevitable combustible climax. – T.M.A.

Watch it: The Order, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Porcelain War, R

From Nantucket to Nashville, film festivals have been awarding grand prizes to this stirring, compact Ukrainian documentary about folk artists who became fighters for democracy. Slava Leontyev (who also co-directs) and Anya Stasenko create whimsical porcelain figures. Come the war, the artists’ lives were irrevocably changed. In a fascinating slice of contemporary Ukrainian life and culture, they remain in embattled territory as Leontyev trains civilians in the use of rifles. The film climaxes with harrowing battle footage, as Russian soldiers raid their Ukrainian homeland, and a voiceover that offers a manifesto for why they must fight to preserve their freedoms, as people and artists. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Porcelain War, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Queer, R

Playing a gay character is not new to Queer star Daniel Craig, 56, a nominee for Best Actor in AARP's Movies for Grownups Awards. Before his career became a James Bond supernova, Craig played Truman Capote's criminal love interest Perry Smith in 2006's indie Infamous, about the writing of In Cold Blood. Now, in an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ 1985 kinky classic novella, the Bond star portrays Burroughs-like protagonist Lee. The middle-aged drunk looking for love in the dive bars and dark alleys of Mexico City becomes enamored with, and seduces, a young expat (Outer Banks's Drew Starkey). In the explicit and raw drama, Craig submerges himself in the character of an unbonded,  unbound, insecure, gay American on the perpetual cruise. —Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)

Watch it: Queer, in limited theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  Wicked, PG 

To quote Kermit the Frog, it’s not easy being green. That goes double for Elphaba. Oscar-bound singer-actress Cynthia Erivo plays the future Wicked Witch of the West in a two-film adaptation of the fourth-longest-running Broadway show (a reimagining of 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz). While Elphaba is struggling to realize her latent powers and overcome her own father’s anti-green prejudice, the younger enchantress attends a Hogwarts-style school. It’s peopled with a glittering cast: the fabulous Michelle Yeoh, 62, as the headmistress, Ariana Grande as that pretty, magic princess in a bubble Glinda, and Jonathan Bailey as the naughty boy love interest Fiyero. Invited on a special trip to Oz, Elphaba meets the perfectly cast Jeff Goldblum, 72, having great fun as the Wizard himself. Between glorious songs and massive old-Hollywood-style dance numbers, amid magnificent sets and stunning costumes, the audience discovers how the original flying monkeys got their wings, how the yellow brick road got its name, and what pushed a nice spirit like Elphaba to mount a broom and embrace the dark side. Built to last, Wickedenchants. –Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)

Watch it: Wicked, in theaters

 Don't miss this: 'Wicked' Star Michelle Yeoh Has Long Said Enough Is Never Enough—“I Want More!”

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Gladiator II, R

Twenty-four years after Ridley Scott’s Gladiator scored five Oscars, Scott, 87 on Nov. 30, returns to the Colosseum to revive the sword-and-sandal epic for a new generation. Critics’ darling Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers) muscles up as Lucius, the slave-turned-fighter longing to break free. The movie is big and brash in so many ways, filled with jaw-dropping spectacles — a battle to the death in a flooded arena infested with sharks, a contest between man and angry rhino — all aided by CGI but thrillingly real. There are no surprises in the David vs. Goliath plot – Denzel Washington, 69, commands as a wily Roman noble, Pedro Pascal seduces as a Roman general, and Fred Hechinger and Joseph Quinn amuse as the dissipated, effete, ruthless co-emperors of Rome. Will the lowly gladiator upend the current order? You betcha. Lucius’s glorious, bloody, twisty, escapist Roman road to victory holds audiences captive from beginning to end. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Gladiator II, in theaters

​Don’t miss this: Winter Movie Preview 2024 in AARP Members Edition

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Red One, PG-13

Amazon plunked down $250 million on this Yuletide action-comedy, a diverting if busy attempt to update the Santa Claus legend for the Marvel generation. The head of North Pole security (Dwayne Johnson, 52) teams up with a deadbeat dad/hacker (Chris Evans) after a surprisingly buff Santa (J.K. Simmons, 69) gets kidnapped the day before Christmas Eve. Jake Kasdan, who directed the last two Jumanji movies, has a knack for world-building, and he tosses a sackful of thematic and genre elements into the mix like some overstuffed snow globe. But when the flakes settle, we’re left with a satisfying holiday entertainment about embracing our inner child. Bonus points for Simmons’s turn as a gym-rat Santa who bulks up for an annual gift-giving marathon that burns 134 million calories. —Thom Geier (T.G.)

Watch it: Red One, only in theaters 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Real Pain, R

Holocaust humor is rare, but A Real Pain is a counterintuitive outlier: vivid, moving, funny and emotionally devastating. Lanky actor/playwright Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed this bold family dramedy based on his own experience visiting his late great-aunt’s haunted hometown. The short and snappy, never sappy, film rides along with American cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji Kaplan (Succession’s Kieran Culkin). David has organized a trip to Poland, their grandmother’s homeland. Their guided group tour culminates in a visit to the Nazi death camps, before they peel off to see their late grandmother’s house. David appears to be high-functioning OCD; Benji is seemingly bipolar, the life of the party one moment, the next a disruptive agent — a real pain. The Kaplans’ neurotic jaunt unfolds as a lively, insightful, conflicted, emotional exploration of generational trauma and mental illness. Culkin spins brilliantly in the flashier part, Eisenberg’s troubled partner on the rocky road to a visceral understanding of the mantra “never forget.” —Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)

Watch it: A Real Pain, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Emilia Pérez 

Director Jacques Audiard’s rampageous musical fantasia/crime drama stars Karla Sofía Gascón as a ruthless Mexican drug lord who hires a high-powered attorney (Zoe Saldaña) to find him a doctor so he can transition to female and start a new life under a new name: Emilia Pérez. He doesn’t tell his young wife (Selena Gomez), who goes from clueless to furious. The initially upright attorney helps run the gangster biz, and it gets harder and harder to separate the good guys and gals from the bad, and tragedy from comedy. Plus, everybody keeps breaking out into exuberant song. Who knew Saldaña was such a terrific singer? And who says a violent gangster film can’t also be a musical, and more over the top than any opera? —Tim Appelo (T.A.)

Watch it: Emilia Pérez, in theaters and on Netflix

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Heretic, R

​Ecclesiastical horror may make audiences think about The Exorcist in all its iterations, but in this taut three-hander issues of religious doctrine, faith and belief intersect with scary movie staples. Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher), two perky young Mormon missionaries proselytizing in Boulder, CO, knock on one last door for the day as a storm breaks. With a twinkly smile, bespectacled Mr. Reed (a wily Hugh Grant, 64, leaning into playing the heavy) invites the young women in for blueberry pie, Cokes and theological discussions. When the young women become increasingly uncomfortable, they discover themselves in a locked-house mystery with deadly consequences. Chatty but chilling. – T.M.A.

​Watch it: Heretic, in theaters

​⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Anora, R

​The hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold movie returns in Cannes Film Fest top prizewinner Anora. The titular Brooklyn sex worker (an incandescent Mikey Madison, a likely Best Actress nominee) plies the pole and private dance rooms wearing little more than a chain and a bubble butt. When her boss introduces her to Ivan (Mark Eidenshtein), the scion of a Russian mob clan, she names her price to be his girlfriend for a week. The cute, goofy guy is loaded but defines fecklessness. A quickie Vegas wedding gives Ani hope she can attain the luxe life of a Kardashian without selling her flesh. But when Ivan’s parents jet in from Moscow to annul the match, all hell breaks loose in an antic, comic, visceral way. Ivan goes AWOL, his folks go batty, and the feral Anora keeps fighting for a fleeting autonomy. In an awards season of overlong seriousness, Madison’s Anora pops like Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Anora, in theaters now

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Conclave, PG

Ralph Fiennes, 61, ascends to the head of the Best Actor line in Edward Berger’s tense pontifical thriller that transfers the conflicts of Succession to the Vatican’s private chambers. When the existing pope expires, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Fiennes) must organize the Conclave, the secret meeting of cardinals to elect the successor. Lawrence, spurning the papal mitre himself, must navigate the political scrum of rivals and attendant conspirators. These include conservative throwback Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto, 71), ambitious Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow, 79), the wise-but-weak Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci, 63) — and a little-known ringer Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz). Isabella Rossellini, 72, is a grace note of strength, speaking truth to power as Sister Agnes. Even for those that have never sat on the edge of their pew at mass, this battle for the soul of the church is sure footed, suspenseful, satisfying and executed without a scrap of fat — a prime movie for grownups. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Conclave, in theaters