MY WORLD OF TRUTH
Sunday, 16 March 2025
The Leopard to The Studio: 10 of the best TV shows to watch this March PART 2
Good American Family
Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass star as Kristine and Michael Barnett in a series inspired by a tabloid-ready real-life case. The Barnetts adopt a seven-year-old Ukrainian orphan named Natalia Grace (Imogen Faith Reid), who has a rare form of dwarfism, and whose first adopted family has returned her. The trailer hints at a good deal of heightened drama, as Kristine begins to suspect that they do not know the truth about their child's age. "Michael, I don't think she's a little girl," she says, a suspicion that eventually takes the couple all the way to court. Dule Hill plays a detective investigating the tangle of accusations and fears, and it is tangled. The actual events, which began in 2010, are so unusual and the saga so ongoing that it has already inspired three seasons of a documentary series on the Investigation Discovery Channel.
Good American Family premieres 19 March on Hulu in the US and 7 May on Disney+ in the UK
NetflixThe Residence
Netflix is calling this murder mystery from Shonda Rhimes's production company a "screwball whodunit," with Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cupp, a brilliant detective investigating a murder in the White House during a state dinner. With a comic tone and a cast of 157 suspects, it's Upstairs Downstairs at the White House with a corpse, as Cupp questions everyone from the assistant usher (Susan Kelechi Watson) and the pastry chef (Bronson Pinchot) to the president's mother-in-law (Jane Curtain) and oldest friend (Ken Marino). Randall Park plays an FBI agent who investigates with Cordelia, and as the trailer reveals, Giancarlo Esposito plays the murder victim, who had the important job of chief usher and was not popular with his staff. The show was created by Paul William Davies, a writer on Rhimes's White House-set series Scandal, who has gone for a very different tone here. His goal for the show was to "Keep it FUN," he told Netflix. "I want people to be entertained, I want them to laugh." The Residence arrives in a very different political landscape to the one in which it was created, and it will be interesting to see whether finding laughter in the White House now lands as escapist entertainment or tone-deafness.
The Residence premieres 20 March on Netflix internationally
Playground TelevisionWolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light
Viewers in the US have had to wait four months to see the series the Guardian called "utter TV magic" when it premiered on the BBC last November, but here it is. The second instalment of Wolf Hall, it is based on the last of Hilary Mantel's trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, the savvy but doomed advisor to Henry VIII. Just as Mantel set the standard for historical novels, the first Wolf Hall series, adapted from the first two books, did the same for smart, beautifully made historical TV dramas. Nine years later, the ensemble that put that first part together is back, on screen and off, with Mark Rylance as Cromwell, Damian Lewis as Henry and Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Wolsey. The series was adapted by Peter Straughn, who was nominated for an Oscar this year for Conclave (he's good at writing men in robes) and directed by Peter Kosminsky. The story picks up in 1536, the blood still fresh from Anne Boleyn's head rolling, and although history tells us how badly it all ends, watching the court intrigue unfold here in such ravishing detail is exhilarating.
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light premieres 23 March on PBS in the US
Apple TV+The Studio
Hollywood studios are an irresistible target of satire, from Robert Altman's 1992 gem The Player to Armando Iannucci's recent series The Franchise. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the co-creators of this series, have now made them the subject of a very funny romp, overflowing with cameos from real-life actors and directors. Rogan plays Matt Remick, a production executive who longs to greenlight art films. That's an unlikely goal after he is promoted to head of Continental Studios, with the mandate to make commercial hits. One project his corporate bosses insist on: a film based on Kool-Aid. If a product-inspired movie worked for Barbie, why not a soft drink? The first episode includes cameos from Martin Scorsese and Steve Buscemi. Paul Dano, Olivia Wilde, Charlize Theron, Anthony Mackie and many others play outsized versions of themselves. And the casting of the regular characters is inspired. Ike Barniholtz plays Matt's second-in-command and best friend, Catherine O'Hara is the mentor whose job Matt took, and Kathryn Hahn the studio's brash head of publicity.
The Studio premieres 26 March on Apple TV+ internationally
The Leopard to The Studio: 10 of the best TV shows to watch this March PART 1
Daredevil: Born Again
It's right there in the title – you can't keep a Marvel hero down. Or off the screen. After three seasons originally made for Netflix (running from 2015 to 2018), the new Disney+ series brings back the familiar cast of heroes, villains and everything in between. Charlie Cox is Matt Murdoch, aka Daredevil, the blind attorney with superhuman senses that he had once used to fight crime at night, before giving it up at the end of season three. Vincent D'Onofrio is Wilson Fisk, the former mob boss known as Kingpin, now the mayor. "Why did you stop being a vigilante?" Fisk asks Murdoch over a friendly cup of coffee at a diner. No matter. That hiatus won't last much longer, as the punching, kicking and mask-wearing action begins. Jon Bernthal is Frank Castle, or Punisher, a brutal vigilante who, unlike Daredevil, never gave it a second thought.
Daredevil: Born Again premieres 4 March in the US and 5 March in the UK on Disney+.
The Leopard
Luchino Visconti's 1963 classic film, The Leopard, is still one of the most opulent, romantic, political-historical epics of all time, with Burt Lancaster as the Prince of Salina, head of a fading aristocratic family, and Alain Delon as his revolutionary nephew, Tancredi. Both are caught between the past and the future in 1860s Sicily during the upheaval that unified Italy into one country. Netflix has adapted Giuseppe di Lampedusa's novel, the basis for the film, into this lavish six-part series, cast largely with Italian actors and shot in locations throughout Sicily. Kim Rossi Stuart plays the Prince, the leopard of the title, clinging to his old ways. Saul Nanni is Tancredi, whose love affair with Angelica (Deva Cassel) forms the romantic centre of the story, even while revolutionaries storm the streets and Tancredi has to choose his own path, with his uncle or with a new order.
The Leopard premieres 5 March on Netflix internationally
NetflixEverybody's Live with John Mulaney
In his consistently droll voice, John Mulaney has leap-frogged through genres, from a series of priceless stand-up specials to appearing in – and writing – instant-classic Saturday Night Live sketches like Lobster Diner, and last year's John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in LA, a series of six live talk-show episodes presented over consecutive nights. At once sending up and using the tropes of an old-time talk show, Everybody's in LA was such a critical and popular hit that Mulaney returns with this 12-episode series, each show live once a week. Everybody's Live promises a similar meta/retro mix as the last run, which had some amazing, funny guests – David Letterman and Bill Hader on the same episode, a surprise appearance by Will Ferrell – viewer call-ins, and offbeat topics like coyotes in Los Angeles. Richard Kind returns in the role of announcer/sidekick, along with Saymo the delivery robot, in a show that is both goofy and satirical.
Everybody's Live with John Mulaney premieres 12 March on Netflix internationally
NetflixAdolescence
Stephen Graham is everything everywhere all at once these days (no bad thing). He plays a Victorian-era boxer in A Thousand Blows, which just premiered, and is both star and co-creator with Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) of this psychological drama which has an unsettling theme. Graham plays Ed Miller, whose 13-year-old son, Jamie, is accused of murdering a girl who went to his school. Ashley Waters (Top Boy) plays a detective investigating the murder, and Erin Doherty (the crime boss in A Thousand Blows) is the psychologist assigned to treat Jamie. Each of the four episodes is shot in one continuous take, playing out in real time, which might add to the tension. The real test will be how effective that strategy is. Adolescence is directed by Philip Barantini, who made the one-shot approach so effective in the 2021 film Boiling Point (which, need we add, stars Stephen Graham).
Adolescence premieres 13 March on Netflix internationally
PeacockLong Bright River
In this drama that mixes elements of the police procedural with a family story of addiction, Amanda Seyfried plays Mickey Fitzgerald, a beat cop in Philadelphia assigned to the neighbourhood where she grew up, a place ravaged by the opioid crisis. When several women are serially murdered, she suspects the case might lead her to her sister, Kacey (Ashleigh Cummings), an addict and sex worker who has disappeared. The show weaves between past and present, with flashbacks to the sisters' fraught relationship and divergent paths, as Mickey deals with life as a single mother and with her increasing obsession with finding Kacey. The show has a lot to live up to. It is based on a bestselling novel by Liz Moore, who cowrote the series with its showrunner, Nikki Toscano. NPR called the book one of the Best of 2020, and if that's not enough, Barack Obama put it on his list of favourite books of the year.
Long Bright River premieres 13 March on Peacock
Apple TV+Dope Thief
Ridley Scott directed the first episode of this crime series, which becomes more than the typical drugs-and-criminals thriller thanks to its lead actors. Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta, If Beale Street Could Talk) and Wagner Moura (Civil War) play old friends in Philadelphia with a small-time scam. Posing as agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, they pretend to raid drug houses while really searching for cash to steal. By the end of episode one, they have targeted the wrong meth lab, and are on the run from both real government agents and the dealers whose business they literally blew up in an explosion. Henry and Moura bring unusual sympathy to the characters as the show combines the tension of their life-or-death danger with the stories of the people they care about and try to protect. Henry's character is especially affecting in his love for the stepmother who raised him (Kate Mulgrew). Peter Craig, a co-writer of The Batman and Top Gun: Maverick, created the series, which has a gritty texture that recalls The Wire.
Dope Thief premieres 14 March on Apple TV+ internationally
Disney's Snow White to Mickey 17: 10 of the best films to watch this March
Disney's Snow White
Disney's Snow White is a live-action/ CGI remake of Walt Disney's first ever feature-length cartoon, 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but it's proven to be more controversial than the studio's other remakes. Some bigoted social-media posters objected to the casting of Rachel Zegler, an actress with Colombian heritage, as Snow White; Zegler was hit by another backlash when she described the prince in the original cartoon as a "stalker"; Peter Dinklage said that the portrayal of the dwarves was "backwards"; and Stuart Heritage in the Guardian slated the trailer as "arguably the ugliest thing ever committed to screen", adding that "the design of the new dwarves feels like something that would be deliberately shown to prisoners of war to break their spirit". On the other hand, Disney's Snow White boasts new songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman) and a screenplay co-written by Greta Gerwig (Barbie), so its modern take on a classic fairy tale could still be a gold mine, or even a diamond mine.
Released in cinemas internationally on 21 March
A24Death of a Unicorn
If you like twisty satirical chillers set in the exclusive enclaves of super-rich eccentrics (Glass Onion, Blink Twice, The Menu – you know the sort of thing), then you're in luck: A24 has two on offer this month. In Death of a Unicorn, a father and daughter (Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega) are driving through a nature reserve owned by the father's wealthy boss (Richard E Grant) when their car crashes into a unicorn. Yes, it turns out that these fairy-tale creatures are real, and so are the magical healing properties they're reputed to have. Grant's character and his family – played by Tea Leoni and Will Poulter – are keen to exploit these properties, so a team of scientists sets about slicing up the animal's body to determine whether it really can cure cancer. Meanwhile, Opus (released on 14 March in the US) features Ayo Edebiri as a young reporter invited to the compound of a reclusive rock star played by John Malkovich.
Released on 28 March in the US and 4 April in the UK
Claudette Barius/ Focus FeaturesBlack Bag
Two months on from the release of Steven Soderbergh's last film, Presence, the ever-busy director is back with Black Bag, a spy thriller written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park). Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender play a British married couple who are also suave secret agents – a combination which isn't a problem until the wife is suspected of treason and the husband has to investigate. "I [thought] it might be interesting to make [Edward Albee's play] Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but George and Martha are in the intelligence community," Soderbergh told The Hollywood Reporter. "What would that be like? So it's a very, very specific take on people who are in the intelligence business but also have complex personal, emotional lives." The stellar cast includes Tom Burke, Regé-Jean Page and Marisa Abela, along with two former James Bond regulars, Pierce Brosnan and Naomie Harris.
Released on 14 March in cinemas internationally
Courtesy of Warner Bros PicturesThe Alto Knights
The Alto Knights is a crime thriller about two rival Italian American mob bosses, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, who go from being best friends to archenemies in 1950s New York. It's directed by Barry Levinson, who made Bugsy, it's scripted by Nicholas Pileggi, the co-writer of Goodfellas, and it stars none other than Robert De Niro, so a fact-based gangster film could hardly have a more promising team behind it. The most intriguing part of the project, though, is that De Niro plays both Costello and Genovese, with just enough prosthetic make-up to stop the characters looking like identical twins. Levinson's explanation for this surprising casting? "As kids, they were very much the same," the director said in Empire. "Two guys were almost one, then they suddenly not only divide, but ultimately become enemies." Whether or not you're convinced, you can't complain about having two De Niro performances for the price of one.
Released on 21 March in the UK, the US, Canada, Ireland and Spain
Courtesy of Warner Bros PicturesMickey 17
Five years after Bong Joon Ho's Parasite won the Oscars for best picture, best director, best screenplay and best international feature film, the Korean writer-director is back at last with an English-language science-fiction caper. Adapted from Edward Ashton's novel, Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey, a lowly labourer on a spaceship bound for an ice planet in the year 2054. He is killed on a regular basis, but he is always "reprinted", with his memories and personality intact. But what happens when someone makes a mistake, and two different incarnations of Mickey are alive at the same time? David Ehrlich says in IndieWire that: "the best and most cohesive of Bong's English-language films [is] his biggest swing to date, a wry, delightful, and resoundingly sweet mega-budget space adventure that doesn't seem to be aware that it was made by a major American studio". On the other hand, the BBC's Hugh Montgomery felt that Mickey 17 was a "serious disappointment".
Released from 6 March in cinemas internationally
NetflixCHAOS: The Manson Murders
The horrifying story of how Charles Manson brainwashed his followers to murder innocent people in 1969 has been told in many dramas and documentaries: Quentin Tarantino even included it in Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. But Chaos, a book by Tom O'Neill with Dan Piepenbring, argues that there is more to the story than the official version of events. According to Elisabeth Garber-Paul in Rolling Stone, the book ponders: "the links between one of America's most notorious criminals and the government's super-secretive mind-control program MKULTRA", and asks some disturbing questions: "What explains the similarities between government funded, LSD-fueled mind-control experiments, and Manson's techniques? And why were there so many people in his orbit who seemed to have ties to the CIA?" Now this investigation, which consumed 20 years of O'Neill's life, serves as the basis of a documentary by Errol Morris, the legendary director of The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War and The Pigeon Tunnel.
Released on 7 March on Netflix internationally
NetflixThe Electric State
Directors Anthony and Joe Russo and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely worked together on two of the biggest hits in cinema history, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Their next collaboration, The Gray Man, wasn't so well-received, but their new film sees them return to their comfort zone, ie, it's a visual effects-packed science-fiction epic. Based on an illustrated novel by Simon Stålenhag, a Swedish artist and author, The Electric State is set in a dystopian alternate 1990s where the human race has won a war against robotkind, and the remaining "bots" have been exiled to a walled-off desert called the Exclusion Zone. Millie Bobby Brown plays an orphaned teenager, who treks across the Zone in search of her long-lost brother, and Chris Pratt plays a war veteran who goes with her. The only trouble is that the film's story is quite different from the novel's, and some of Stålenhag's fans aren't happy. "Fan expectations are complicated," Joe Russo told Digital Spy. "There are characters that are directly out of the graphic novel and then there are characters that are completely invented and inspired by it."
Released on 14 March on Netflix internationally
Courtesy of TIFFThe Penguin Lessons
One of this month's two "having-your-life-changed-by-a-pet-you-didn't-really-want" comedy dramas (the other being The Friend), The Penguin Lessons is based on a memoir by Tom Michell, and is directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty). Steve Coogan plays Tom, an English teacher who gets what he imagines will be a cushy job in a boys' school in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1976. But there are two complications. One is that Argentina is in the midst of a military coup. The other is that Tom rescued a penguin he found drenched in oil on a beach, and now the bird won't leave him alone. Luckily enough, the penguin's presence in his classroom helps to motivate his pupils – and it might just teach the cynical Tom a lesson or two. Isabella Soares says in Collider that: "Cattaneo's latest project is delightful and meaningful", thanks to Coogan's "charming" performance and "the script's keen eye for comedy in the face of a tumultuous backdrop".
Released on 28 March in the US
Courtesy of TIFFThe Friend
Two films adapted from novels by Sigrid Nunez premiered last year, both of them musings on death and friendship among literary New Yorkers. One was Pedro Almodóvar's The Room Next Door, which won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival; the other is The Friend, which stars Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, and the most gigantic canine to be squeezed into a Manhattan apartment since Clifford the Big Red Dog. Watts plays an author named Iris, and Murray plays her roguish mentor Walter. After he kills himself, Iris has to look after his Great Dane, and finds that the dog is sadder about Walter's death than most of the human beings who knew him. Steve Pond in The Wrap says: "The Friend juggles the happy, the sad and the bittersweet while somehow managing not to lose the lightness that has kept it afloat."
Released on 21 March in the US
Courtesy of TIFFMisericordia
Alain Guiraudie, the French writer-director of the award-winning Stranger by the Lake, returns with another blackly comic, sexually charged thriller. Félix Kysyl plays Jérémie, a young man who returns to his rural hometown for the funeral of his mentor, a local baker. The baker's widow (Catherine Frot) invites him to stay in the family home, and perhaps even take over the family business, much to the resentment of the couple's grown-up son, Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand). And then someone disappears in the mossy woodland by the village. Isaac Feldberg at RogerEbert.com calls Guiraudie's film "another elegantly haunting dissection of the power dynamics shaping queer sexuality, this time in the form of a fantastically tender, alluring, and peculiar small-town tale of murder, desire, and repression".
Released on 14 March in Spain, 21 March in the US, and 28 March in the UK and Ireland
