When the slick and calculating Barret (Ben Caplan) offers Isaac (Jonathan French) a five-day job “babysitting” Barret’s adult niece Olga, who needs “company” at her “isolated” childhood home, Isaac, a drifter suffering from some kind of amnesia and the mental fog that goes with it, is confused. Barret claims to be an old friend, but…

No one qualifier accurately describes the comedy special “Bo Burnham: Inside.” The same goes for the multi-talented Burnham who writes, directs, sings, edits, and composes, and can tell a striking joke across all these art forms. The irony, of course, is that “Bo Burnham: Inside” restricts Burnham to a box, one with four walls, three windows,…

It has been almost 20 years since the hand-drawn animation film “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” which was then followed by the 2017 Netflix series, “Spirit Riding Free.” The new “Spirit Untamed” is not a sequel, and it is computer-animated, with more focus on the humans than the horses. But it is true to the, well, spirit…

Stephen King is consistently exceptional at starting stories and adaptations of his work are increasingly unsuccessful at ending them. “Lisey’s Story” is another example, like CBS All Access’ “The Stand” and HBO’s “The Outsider,” that proves the rule. Apple TV+’s adaptation of what King has described as his favorite novel is lushly produced, thoughtfully cast, and…

With source material written before the pandemic and a production that began life pre-COVID as well, Netflix’s brilliant “Sweet Tooth” may not be a direct commentary on what the world has been through in the last year, but the presence of that real-world echo is undeniable. It’s a show about a devastating virus that leads…

While revisiting 2002’s “Better Luck Tomorrow,” I noticed again some of myself in its Asian-American high school characters. Their world is very different from mine but in many aspects, these kids are as smart, competitive, and pressured as I was during my high school years. I understand their ennui and suffocation to some degree, though I would…