The final season of “Outer Banks” and a new album from Anthony Hopkins (yes, Sir Anthony Hopkins) are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Weezer’s 20th album, the survival horror game “The Sinking City 2” and “Mother Mary,” which kicked off Anne Hathaway’s incredibly prolific year in theaters.
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— Anne Hathaway’s epic year at the movies (which is still going at full throttle with “The End of Oak Street” and the upcoming “Verity”) didn’t start with “The Devil Wears Prada 2” or “The Odyssey,” but with “Mother Mary,” David Lowery’s experimental film about a pop star (Hathaway) and her estranged designer (Michaela Coel). In his review for the AP, Film Writer Jake Coyle called it “a fitfully spellbinding chamber drama that grows more operatic with every stitch,” adding that “Hathaway makes not just a believable pop star but an indelible portrait of an artist’s ego in extremes.” But, Coyle wrote, “the movie belongs to Coel … ‘Mother Mary’ is the story of an exorcism, and she’s the exorcist.” It debuts on HBO Max on Friday.
— Coel also stars in one of the year’s best two-handers, “The Christophers,” which arrives on Hulu on Saturday. Written by Ed Solomon and directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film is a kind of heist movie in disguise, in which a pair of wannabe heirs (James Corden and Jessica Gunning) hire a restoration specialist and sometimes forger (Coel) to covertly finish a series of paintings by their famous father Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen). In my review, I wrote that it was “a meditation on art, legacy, creativity and the oh-so-touchy subject of who has the right to critique,” with sharp performances from all.
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— And finally, it’s a Zahn family affair in “She Dances,” starring Steve Zahn and his daughter Audrey as a father and daughter reconnecting after tragedy on the way to a dance competition. It’s also a “Reality Bites” reunion with Ethan Hawke. Directed by Rick Gomez, the film received warm reviews out of the Tribeca Film Festival and is set to debut on Peacock on Friday.
— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
— Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins will release his debut album, “Life Is a Dream,” Friday via Decca Records. Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and recorded at London’s Alexandra Palace in April, the album is a 12-track collection of classical compositions crafted over six decades. “My first love, or vocation really, is music,” the 88-year-old actor told the AP earlier this month. The generational talent picked up piano at 4 and wrote his first piece, a waltz, in 1960. He was 22 at the time. “Life Is a Dream” reflects his life and childhood in Wales — possessing what he describes as a “melancholy and sadness,” but ultimately, beauty.
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— Power pop-punk band Weezer will release their landmark 20th album on Friday. It’s self-titled, but no doubt fans will refer to it as “the Gold Album,” continuing in their tradition of color-identified records. The single “We Might as Well Be Strangers” is a standout, featuring the idiosyncratic vocals of Karly Hartzman, lead singer of the indie rock group Wednesday.
— Also on Friday: English singer-songwriter Sam Smith will release their fifth album, “Hazel Eyes.” It’s a follow-up to 2023’s “Gloria” — which features the sexy and sacrilegious “Unholy” collaboration with Kim Petras, the track that gave Smith their most recent Grammy win. This time around, Smith offers warm love songs. It’s a welcome change of pace from their previous heartbreak material.
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— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman
— The first two episodes of Season 2 of “Average Joe” drop Wednesday on Paramount+. The action-comedy stars Deon Cole as a plumber in Pittsburgh whose life becomes complicated — and dangerous — when he learns that his dad, who recently died, owes $10 million and a car to the Russian mob. Joe can’t catch a break in the new season either. Now in Cape Town, Joe once again finds himself over his head.
— “Outer Banks” kicks off its fifth and final season Thursday on Netflix. The show follows a group of friends from working-class families in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. They call themselves “Pogues,” a nod to the pogy, a small baitfish at the bottom of the food chain with strong survival instincts. We begin the season with the Pogues grieving the death of one of their own. They set out on both a treasure hunt and a quest for revenge.
— AP Writer Alicia Rancilio
— It has taken longer than expected for “The Sinking City 2” to make it out of development. Then again, it comes from Ukraine’s Frogwares studio, and it isn’t easy to get a game out the door with a war going on. The new survival horror game is based on H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction, so be prepared to fight plenty of scaly, squishy, many-tentacled monsters as you explore a flooded Massachusetts town in the 1920s. Frogwares found a cult audience with 2019’s “The Sinking City” after building a reputation for more cerebral challenges with its Sherlock Holmes games. If you like your horror cosmic, the portal opens Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.
— Lou Kesten
