If you, like us, have waited years for Severance after that cliffhanger, I can’t imagine you running to anything else first. But it’s just the premiere episode of season two dropping this weekend, so with that extra time head to the movie theater. There’s Severance superfan SZA’s first acting gig alongside Keke Palmer in a gut-busting buddy comedy produced by Issa Rae — an incredible trio, really. There’s also the Robbie Williams chimp biopic that’s caused a ruckus online, some interesting docs, and the return of critic favorites Sing Sing and The Substance in theaters. See! Good stuff.
Featured Presentations
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Severance season two
The excruciating, nearly three-year wait is over: Apple TV+’s critically adored series is back and it’s better than any kinky waffle party. The first season left us with plenty of mysteries: What is Lumon really up to? What did they do with Ms. Casey/Gemma? Why are there goats?! We probably won’t get answers to everything, but the severed employees in macrodata refinement will surely be just as eager to discover the truth as we are. —Tolly Wright
➼ For the Outies who forgot about what happened in season one.
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Nickel Boys
RaMell Ross’s adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel about two friends committed to a nightmarish reform school is a genuine stunner with Ross making the ingenious choice to shoot the film from first person, turning its tragic story into something immersive and enabling a knockout of a last act. —Alison Willmore
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Better Man
Forget Wicked or Emilia Pérez — the craziest musical of recent years is this gonzo biopic about Britpop sensation Robbie Williams, which has stunning numbers and also represents Williams as, no joke, a CGI chimp. —Bilge Ebiri
➼ In case you need it, here’s a beat-by-beat on everything the chimp does in this biopic from getting a hand job to kicking heroin.
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One of Them Days
A Keke Palmer–SZA buddy comedy produced by Issa Rae is a guaranteed good time. Meanwhile Palmer and SZA’s characters, Dreux and Alyssa, respectively, are having a bad time in One of Them Days as Alyssa’s boyfriend blows their rent money causing the duo to spend the whole day searching for a way to get it back before they get evicted. It’s an entertaining comedy with a hilarious supporting cast made up of Janelle James, Katt Williams, Lil Rel Howery, and Maude Apatow.
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The Room Next Door
In Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language film, the Oscar-winning Spanish director brings Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore together for a story about friendship and mortality. Martha (Swinton) is dying from cancer and she enlists the help of Ingrid (Moore) for a trip to the Catskills where Martha can end her life on her own terms. The film is full of beautiful, bold colors, yet the relationship between Martha and Ingrid is the real focus of Almodóvar’s vision. —T.W.
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Wolf Man
After the success of Leigh Whannell’s modern take on the Invisible Man, the filmmaker is tackling another classic horror figure in Wolf Man. Partnering with Blumhouse again, Whannell’s movie stars Christopher Abbott as Blake, a man whose estranged father’s mysterious disappearance leads him to move his family (Julia Garner and Matilda Firth) back to his dad’s house, only to get bit by a werewolf.
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An Update On Our Family
Exploring the popular practice, and murky ethics, of family vlogging, An Update On Our Family is inspired by Caitlin Moscatello’s the Cut piece on the Stauffer family, who adopted a young boy from China and later gave him up for re-adoption.
XO, Kitty season 2
A spinoff of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, this television series focuses on Lara Jean Covey’s sister Kitty (Anna Cathcart) as she goes off to a boarding school in Seoul. Now, it’s the matchmaking younger sister’s time to find love.
Comedy Corner
SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night
It’s a huge milestone year for Saturday Night Live, so naturally, there’s multiple projects to support that fact. This isn’t even the only documentary about it Peacock has out this year. If you’re a fan of SNL, Beyond Saturday Night has four episodes’ worth of never-before-seen footage and interviews with so many people.
Reality Bites
Hollywood Squares
The game show where contestants test their ability to gauge whether famous people are telling lies is back and in prime time. Drew Barrymore will be the permanent center square, but you know she’s going to scooch her way into the others. —Jen Chaney
Animation Station
Harley Quinn season 5
Last season of DC’s best animated series ended with its face-painted heroine declaring “I’m better than a hero. I’m Harley Fuckin’ Quinn!” This season follows her beloved Poison Ivy ditching dingy Gotham for Metropolis. The action-comedy may have a change in scenery but promises to be as explosive and swear-y as ever. —Eric Vilas-Boas
The Macross franchise
Whatever you do, don’t call it Robotech. For the first time in many years, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the original Japanese transforming-robot series created by Shōji Kawamori and the show that was adapted into the American-Japanese ’80s classic, is available to stream in the United States on Hulu. Included in the release are most of the shows and films in the larger Macross franchise, like the ’90s classic Macross Plus — which served as an early showcase of talent for director Shinichirō Watanabe and composer Yoko Kanno, who would collaborate on Cowboy Bebop just a few years later. As far as mecha anime goes, the various Macross entries are among the high-flying-est. —E.V.B.
Back in Theaters
Sing Sing
Get those tissues ready. Based on the real Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program, Sing Sing follows a theater troupe made up of incarcerated men. The main focus is Divine G (Colman Domingo), a talented performer and playwright who has been falsely imprisoned, but the movie’s power comes from its ensemble made up of actual RTA alumni who are naturals on camera. —T.W.
➼ If you didn’t get a chance to see The Substance in theaters, now’s your time to live (or relieve) that bonkers experience.
Remembrance
David Lynch (1946–2025)
“Dreams become other dreams, and there are dreams within dreams, and life itself as depicted is a series or collection of dream situations.”
—Matt Zoller Seitz on Lynch’s surrealist work in Mulholland Drive, which you can rent on Amazon and Apple TV.
For other Lynch standards, which there are many, here are just a few more highlights on streaming:
➼ Blue Velvet, streaming on Max
➼ Eraserhead, streaming on Max
➼ Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Return, streaming on Paramount+
Finally Streaming
A Different Man
The underdog of awards season, Aaron Schimberg’s dramedy has gotten a Gotham for Best Picture and earned Sebastian Stan a Golden Globe for his lead role as a man who undergoes a miracle surgery for his facial deformity yet is still miserable, and even more so when he crosses paths with the charismatic Oswald (a terrific performance from Adam Pearson).
➼ Plus, Luca Guadagnino’s second drama of 2024, Queer, hit digital platforms this week.
Vulture Sports
Bob Uecker (1934–2025)
Famed Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker, known as Mr. Baseball, also died this week. He became famous nationally for his The Tonight Show appearances and for his role as a radio commentator in the 1989 comedy Major League, streaming on Prime Video.
Want more? Read our recommendations from the week of January 10.