Everyone will be singing even more about Bruno when Disney+ launches a sing-along version of Encanto. A PBS documentary profiles Ukraine’s man of the moment, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Oscar winners Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway star in Apple’s docudrama about the rise and fall of WeWork. Comedian Amy Schumer tells a darkly funny story of personal growth in the dramedy Life and Beth. Oscar nominee Jesse Plemons headlines the Netflix thriller Windfall. Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas are in Deep Water as a couple with a murderously open marriage. Lily Tomlin gets a Career Achievement Award at AARP’s 20th anniversary Movies for Grownups Awards (which also honors top TV shows).
Encanto
Consider this a public-service warning for parents whose ears constantly ring with the young ones singing along (or TikTokking) to “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Disney’s smash hit Encanto. This and the rest of the score, including the Oscar-nominated Dos Oruguitas, will be even easier to self-accompany during the next screening now that Disney+ has dropped a new sing-along version of the film with words on the screen. (Later this year, the streamer will provide similar on-screen lyrics for Frozen, Frozen 2 and the animated and live-action versions of Beauty and the Beast.)
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Zelenskyy: The Man Who Took on Putin
He has riveted the world stage and inspired untold millions with his pleas for peace since the Russian attack on Ukraine began, but who is Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy? A new documentary from ITN Productions charts the unlikely rise of an actor/comedian to the forefront of geopolitics, becoming a wartime leader with a masterful grasp social media and TV, which reached an apex this week with his address to Congress.
Apple TV+
WeCrashed
The latest big-business docudrama exposé (in the wake of Showtime’s Uber-focused Super Pumped and Hulu’s The Dropout) stars Oscar winners Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway as WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann and wife Rebekah. The eight-episode series mirrors their love story in the rise and fall of the once-hot startup that crashed spectacularly in 2019.
Hulu
Life & Beth
You may not always know whether to laugh or cry with Amy Schumer in this 10-episode dramedy as she goes on a personal journey as Beth, a Manhattan wine distributor given to whines when it comes to her family relationships and her sudden engagement to a narcissistic co-worker. An unexpected loss sends Beth back to her Long Island roots where flashbacks reveal more of her character even as she finds herself drawn to an eccentric vineyard keeper (Michael Cera). Look for fun cameos throughout, including Hank Azaria as a funeral director and David Byrne as a concerned doctor.
Netflix
Windfall
Oscar nominee Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog) stars opposite Emily in Paris’ Lily Collins and How I Met Your Mother’s Jason Segel in a suspenseful three-hander that may have you questioning who’s the good and bad guy in this scenario. It begins when wealthy CEO Plemons and wife Collins arrive at their Ojai, California vacation home only to discover it’s being burgled by a drifter (Segel) who takes them hostage.
20th Century Studios
Deep Water
Yet more star-driven intrigue when Ben Affleck and Knives Out’s Ana de Armas star in director Adrian Lyne’s (Fatal Attraction) steamy adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith psychodrama. They’re Melinda and Vic Van Allen, whose unhappy marriage is also a seemingly open one, in which she is allowed to have affairs (including with hunks like Finn Wittrock) as long as she doesn’t leave him. But why do her lovers seem to always die or disappear?
Presley Ann/Getty Images for the Los Angeles LGBT Center
Movies for Grownups Awards
Alan Cummings hosts the 25th anniversary ceremony honoring films and TV shows that appeal to the 50-plus audience. Grace and Frankie’s Lily Tomlin will receive the Career Achievement Award, which could be a nice consolation prize should she lose her TV Actress nomination to runaway favorite Jean Smart of Hacks. Best Picture nominees are Belfast, King Richard, The Power of the Dog, West Side Story and Being the Ricardos. TV series nominees are Hacks, Ted Lasso, The Chair, The Crown and Succession, with Mare of Easttown vying for best limited series against Halston, The Underground Railroad, Maid and Nine Perfect Strangers.
Inside Friday TV:
- NCAA College Basketball Tournament: Men’s basketball first round continues with games (starting at 12:15 pm/ET) on CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV, while the women’s college basketball tournament gets underway (starting at 11:30 am/ET) with games on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNN. For a complete schedule, go to ncaa.com.
- True Crime Watch: Two months after his death, the notorious multimillionaire/murderer Robert Durst (immortalized in HBO’s The Jinx) is the subject of a two-hour report on ABC’s 20/20 (9/8c), which includes an exclusive interview with L.A. Deputy DA John Lewin, the lead prosecutor in the trial that led to Durst’s conviction. On Dateline NBC (9/8c), correspondent Dennis Murphy looks into the connections between the disappearances of two women, one in Washington D.C. and the other in neighboring Virginia, two decades apart.
More streaming:
- On Disney+, a new version of family favorite Cheaper by the Dozen stars Zach Braff and Gabrielle Union as parents of a blended brood of 12. Also, the documentary More Than Robots, from director Gillian Jacobs, follows four teams of global teens competing at a 2020 robotics competition.
- Among the titles new to Netflix: Netflix’s animated Human Resources, which is decidedly not for children. The Big Mouth spinoff reveals creatures like Hormone Monsters and Shame Wizards who help get humans get through the various stages of life. The voice cast is bananas (including Helen Mirren and Hugh Jackman). For thrills, Sweden’s post-apocalyptic thriller Black Crab stars Noomi Rapace as part of a crew traversing an icy archipelago to deliver a package that could end a devastating war.