A Art Tv Review

 Before entering an ostrich enclosure, Frank, an animal control officer, slips something into his partner’s back pocket. It’s a stick of beef jerky, and within seconds, Frank is cracking up as the flightless birds chase his hapless colleague. That’s the general vibe of “Animal Control,” a new sitcom from Fox. Here, “Community” alum Joel McHale plays Frank, an ex-cop who was fired after trying to root out corruption. (This is a clever trick to sidestep the current national conversation about policing: Our complicated protagonist was kicked off the force for being too virtuous.) His partner, a Fred who goes by Shred (Michael Rowland), also came to this particular force through an unconventional path; he’s a former professional snowboarder whose laid-back character suggests that, deep down, he never left the slopes. Creators: Bob Fisher, Rob Greenberg, Dan Sterling Stars: Joel McHale, Vella Lovell, Michael Rowland Their relationship is the backbone of “Animal Control,” but that backbo...

 Renate Reinsve, the protagonist of “The Worst Person in the World,” is a protective mother who comes under fire in Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s drama that leaves you perplexed. There’s a very good scene in “Armand,” the first film written and directed by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann. We’re inside an elementary school in Norway. Elisabeth, the mother of a student, has been summoned to the school to appear before a panel of teachers.  Director: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel Writer: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel Stars: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Endre Hellestveit She’s informed, bit by bit, that her six-year-old son, Armand (we never see him, or any other child, which is odd, since the entire film is about children), may have sexually abused one of his classmates. Because Elisabeth believes she has a well-adjusted son and that a six-year-old cannot be guilty of abuse of any kind, she looks at her interrogators with a look of skeptical contempt. An...

 Writer-director Christopher Andrews’ feature directorial debut, “Bring Them Down,” certainly lives up to its title, as it does nothing to lift the spirits. The film centers on feuding Irish shepherds whose shared pastoral environment sinks into desolation. A disagreement between neighboring families escalates into a bloodbath, and they wage war that destroys the innocent and hunts down the guilty.  Andrews tells the story through a lens so relentlessly bitter and grim that his direction begins to bleed vanity. He pushes his characters into a hole of violence where moments of levity are rarely found. While the outward brutality wears thin and becomes repetitive, the characters’ inner conflict maintains intrigue. Their journeys become more complex as the film shifts between perspectives of toxic masculinity. The lush rolling hills of rural Ireland are punctuated with generational rage. Director: Chris Andrews Writers: Chris Andrews, Jonathan Hourigan Stars: Christopher Abbott, ...

 Directed by Dan Levy Dagerman, “You, Me & Her” takes audiences on a journey through the complexities of a ten-year relationship, blending drama and comedy seamlessly. The story begins with Mags (played by Selina Ringel) and Ash (played by Ritesh Rajan), a couple struggling with the routine and challenges of a decade-long relationship. As their problems escalate, they decide to take their first post-baby vacation to Mexico. But what they least expected was that their attempt to reconnect and find the spark in their marriage would involve someone else. Director: Dan Levy Dagerman Writer: Selina Ringel Stars: Sydney Park, Anna Campbell, Selina Ringel The chance encounter with Angela (played by Sydney Park) seems predestined, injecting some new energy and excitement into the lives of Mags and Ash. The premise of the film, coupled with the chance encounter with Angela, a free-spirited digital nomad, adds a unique twist that propels the narrative forward. The central plot revolves a...

 In the animated children's film Dog Man, a guy's head is replaced by the head of his faithful dog, a sometimes absurdly funny film that nonetheless struggles to fill its 89-minute running time. Based on a popular graphic novel series I'd never heard of, Dog Man leans heavily on its ridiculous, on-the-nose brand of humor to offset a throw-your-spaghetti-at-the-wall story that somehow manages to stick and not stick at the same time. Director: Peter Hastings Writers: Peter Hastings, Dav Pilkey Stars: Pete Davidson, Poppy Liu, Lil Rel Howery Doug is arrested dressed as Marilyn Monroe while trying to flee the scene of a gang war massacre with his beloved babies, and Dr. Evelyn Decker (Jojo T. Gibbs) must solve the riddle of the fluid, adaptable Dog Man through her baroque narration of his life. Doug is polite, well-mannered, and so well-versed in the Bard that his story is Shakespearean. Is he Viola, Richard II, Falstaff, or Iago? Is he Hamlet or Juliet? Avenging angel or demon...

 A surprisingly constructed, if overly complicated, sci-fi fable about how humans put unfair expectations on relationships, Sam and Andy Zuchero’s bold love story is best when its human stars are onscreen. On the most literal level, the deceptively edgy Sundance newcomer “Love Me” is about the relationship between a buoy adrift at sea and a satellite orbiting Earth. Sam and Andy Zuchero’s eccentric cosmic romantic comedy takes place in a time after humans have become extinct, when the only references to surviving machines are a massive hard drive full of data scraped from search engines and social media sites. Audiences can root for the two devices, or they can immerse themselves as much as they want in this highly unconventional love story, projecting themselves onto artificial intelligence characters embodied (in various forms) by Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun. Directors: Andrew Zuchero, Sam Zuchero Writers: Sam Zuchero, Andrew Zuchero Stars: Kristen Stewart, Steven Yeun Beauti...

 Desire Lines is a hybrid film that understands the issues it wants to address but struggles to find the formal means. Part conventional interview documentary, part experimental dramatization, it is a record of the gay and transmasculine experience. As individual interview subjects and in role-playing pairs, the subjects discuss the specificities of this experience, from transphobia among cis gay men and difficulties in hooking up to a lack of HIV awareness in trans men and the gender euphoria found in intimacy and fetishism. Several also discuss the intersection of racial identity with homosexuality and the normative whiteness of gay male spaces. These interviews offer a good introduction to the film’s thematic throughline, though nothing here is likely to strike anyone who has spent time in trans spaces, even just online. But the film is not trying to be an essay. It argues for the importance of archiving trans history and experiences, and calls out the invisibility of gay trans ...

 Comedies are hard to come by these days. They either don't exist at all (a fact that makes me pretty bitter because who doesn't like to laugh?) or if they do exist, they're just plain bad. That's why I was surprised that One of Them Days got made. The film, directed by Lawrence Lamont from a script by Syreeta Singleton, is an old-fashioned buddy comedy that we don't see much of. While that sometimes works against it, One of Them Days is fun and delightfully absurd. Keke Palmer and SZA are great together and it's their chemistry and interactions that largely work. The idea came to me while watching One of Them Days, an enjoyable buddy movie that has the exact contours and hairy charm of a stoner comedy without actually participating in it. Like Craig and Smokey, Jesse and Chester, and Harold and Kumar before them, Dreux (Keke Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA) are a pair of cool underdogs with a seemingly simple task — raising $1,500 for rent before the day is out — that ...

Even for viewers who are familiar with the world of anime, it remains surprising how the genre can bring something new years after its creation. Recently, DanDaDan became a surprising hit not only for its approach of mixing supernatural and extraterrestrial stories, but also for its unique animation style. In a similar path, the new Netflix series Sakamoto Days, based on the manga series created by Yuto Suzuki, quickly establishes its own identity, and could be one of the best shows of the year, depending on how it is handled in the coming weeks. Since Netflix releases episodes on a weekly basis, as has become common for both anime and K-dramas on the platform, this review covers only the first two episodes of Sakamoto Days. Despite not revealing much about where the story is headed, these episodes provide a pretty clear picture of what we can expect in terms of the tone of the series while also presenting a threat that will likely unfold in the coming weeks. Creator: Yuto Suzuki Stars...