Outer Range, Minx and Better Nate Than Never

     My Top Three This Week

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers.It is hard to believe that April is almost over and May is just around the corner. If you are ready to go to the big screen for light hearted entertainment check out The Lost City with Sandra Bullock, Brad Pitt and Channing Tatum. It is the perfect blockbuster to ease into full time movie going. Finally the small screen is getting some new content too.

1)  Outer Range streaming on Prime is a genre mash up. The series is a perfect blend of Western Sci-Fi. A rancher Royal Abbot (Josh Brolin) discovers a sinkhole on his property. He soon discovers the mysterious properties of the hole and what it might mean for his future and his family's future. Lili Taylor as his long suffering wife is probably one of the best performances I have seen her in. Two unpredictable sons, a missing daughter-in-law, a feisty granddaughter and a very suspicious stranger makes this also a family drama. A property line dispute with a neighboring eccentric rancher (Will Patton) and his boys add tension that resonates . Imogen Poots as Autumn the hippy stranger adds a whole other level to this very Twin Peaks storyline.

2) Minx a HBO Max Original is a hugely entertaining series focusing on the beginnings of female empowerment in the form of the male centerfold. Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond) is looking for a backer for her feminist magazine and is being turned down right and left. Then at a convention she connects with a porn publisher Doug (Jake Johnson) who takes a chance on her concept and transforms it into a magazine with male centerfolds and a feminist bent. There is a great ensemble of actors and a very exciting story set in the seventies when anything could happen. It is so great to see a really good character actress Lennon Parham shine in a role and Michael Angarano (Will and Grace) as well as Jessica Lowe as Bambi and Idara Victor as Tina. Jake Johnson is probably the best I have seen him. A great binge watch.

3) Better Nate Than Never  a movie streaming on Disney+ is a completely different matter. This is a great coming of age story for a young gay Broadway baby who sneaks to New York with his bestie to audition for a role in the new musical of Lilo and Stitch. He hangs out with his cool actress aunt played by Lisa Kudrow. This so completely needed for Disney after all the Florida brouhaha concerning " Don't Say Gay " bill. 13 year old Nate played by the extremely talented young Rueby Wood will be a Broadway star- he toured as a young Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and he has the singing chops to command a stage. Aria Brooks as his bestie Libby is a fine actress who discovers the truth about her best friend and supports him in every way. The song "No One Gets Left Behind" rivals Let it Go from Frozen. Check out the movie and the soundtrack on I Tunes.

Life & Beth, Pieces of Her and Upload

    My Top Three This Week

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. It has been a minute since I last posted but I have been looking for some good content out there and it has been hard to find. The new season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is losing a little ground and as much as I love the characters and their journey I want a better story line next season but they pulled out all the stops for the finale so I will be back. I have a few things I am really liking right now though.

1) Life & Beth, a Hulu Original is a brilliant vehicle for Amy Schumer which is why she wrote it and created it for herself. Schumer is Beth- a sales rep for a mid level wine distributor who has let herself fade into the background of her life. She settles for a narcissistic boyfriend who proposes to her during her mother's memorial service. Her life was on track to be a series of small disappointments when something creates a change and she wakes up and wants something different. She moves back to her mother's house in Long Island and reconnects with some of her old friends and starts working with a family winery. She meets a farmer who farms the crops on the winery whose simple life seems richer than her own. That farmer is played by Michael Cera and he brings out something in her that no else could. Through a series of flashbacks to her childhood we see the events that shaped her life with an alcoholic father with great casting of Michael Rapaport. Her relationship with her younger sister Ann ( the very talented Susannah Flood) and her best friend Maya (hilarious Yamaneika Saunders) and just the likability of Schumer in this role made it one of my favs.

2) Pieces of Her streaming on Netflix is a wild unpredictable rollercoaster and a highly addictive binge watch for me. Personally I will watch anything with Toni Collette in it and this was no exception. A young Andy (Bella Heathcote) is witness to a horrific mall killing and her mother Laura (Collette) savagely kills the young man who committed the murder. When the media hails her as a reluctant hero, Laura tries to keep her daughter and herself out of the spotlight. Someone from her past comes on and Laura sends Andy on the run with a suitcase full of money and new identities for Laura. Andy soon discovers she is in a dangerous cat and mouse game and nothing and no one in her life can be trusted.

3) Upload season two streaming on Prime is just as hilarious as season one. This is probably the funniest series on television right now. The plot line set in the future where a young Nathan Brown ( Robbie Amell) dies mysteriously and his conscious uploaded in a virtual afterlife where money can get you everything including a guardian angel Nora (Andy Allo) working for the evil money grabbing Horizon. There is a resistance to the inequality in the world and Nora and Nathan join the forces against the machine. This may not sound like a comedy and this series created by Greg Daniels (Parks and Recreation and The Office) but it is witty, smart and funny as anything I have seen lately. Some great performances by Allegra Edwards, Kevin Bigley and Owen Daniels.