Here’s a curated collection from the Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s coming to TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.
Movies
• Multiverses are all the rage. After its theatrical release in May, “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness” arrives Wednesday on Disney+. In it, Benedict Cumberbatch takes a look back at Marvel’s Mystic Arts character and considers some of the fallout from recent developments in the MCU, particularly regarding Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff. Directed by Sam Raimi, the film bears some of the “Evil Dead” filmmaker’s comedic horror marks. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr said the whole plot juggling “feels a bit like a spinning wheel”. But “Doctor Strange” isn’t the only multiverse movie available at home right now. One of the hits of the year, the brilliant existential mixer “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, starring Michelle Yeoh, is currently available for digital rental.
• In another universe, “The Man From Toronto” would be released in theaters by Sony Pictures. But the action-comedy starring Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson was instead postponed during the pandemic and instead sold to Netflix, where it will debut on Friday, June 24. Patrick Hughes, who helmed “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” directs the buddy comedy starring Hart as an ordinary guy brought into Harrelson’s hitman’s life when they are mistakenly booked into the same Airbnb.
• If you haven’t seen it yet, “RRR,” quite possibly the movie of the summer, is streaming on Netflix where the international sensation consistently ranks among the streamer’s most-watched movies. The Indian blockbuster, directed by SS Rajamouli, is a three-hour Telugu-language show set in 1920s colonial India about a pair of revolutionaries (played by Ram Charan and NT Rama Rao Jr.) who team up to an outlandish rescue mission with some truly stunning action sequences. As viewers learn, the dizzying, outlandish heights of “RRR” far exceed the brilliance of most Hollywood fare.
— AP screenwriter Jake Coyle
Music
• Rock’s coolest new name is back when Soccer Mommy releases ‘Sometimes, Forever’, an album with some weirdness and weirdness. Lead songwriter Sophie Allison teamed up with Oneohtrix Point Never producer Daniel Lopatin for a breakout album, with textured stuff layered into every track. “Shotgun”, the first single, is a propulsive and brilliant love song for a partner who only keeps cold beer and ice cream on hand. “The only things we really need,” she sings. Let’s drink to that.
• French Montana celebrates its sixth studio album, “Montega”. Its first single “Alcatraz” names J. Lo, Kay Flock, Joe Rogan, Dr. Dre, James Harden, Nelly, DaBaby, Steve Jobs and Yo Gotti. French Montana’s latest studio album, “They Got Amnesia,” peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album chart and No. 59 on the US Billboard 200 chart. French Montana hopes to do better this time around, on new singles “Drive By” featuring Baby Face Ray, and “Blue Chills”, with the line, “The version of me in your mind is not my responsibility.”
• Country star Luke Combs will release his new album, ‘Growin’ Up’, on Friday June 24, kicked off with the regrettable, midtempo lament ‘Tomorrow Me’, about a lover the next morning a little worried about what which will happen tonight. Produced by Combs, Chip Matthews and Jonathan Singleton, “Growin’ Up” is Combs’ third studio album following 2019’s “What You See is What You Get” and “This One’s For You.” The new record consists of 12 songs, including Combs’ current single, “Doin’ This,” a sweet ode to musicians who don’t do it for fame or fortune.
— AP Entertainment writer Mark Kennedy
Television
• Mark Twain, meet Jon Stewart. The former “Daily Show” host, political gadfly and activist receives the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Award for American Humor during a Tuesday special on PBS. Dave Chappelle, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver are among the peers who greet him during the pre-recorded ceremony, with Bruce Springsteen offering a musical tribute. There are plenty of jokes and loving barbs for Stewart, as well as reflections on his contributions. Chappelle calls it “a miracle to see you working. You are a cure for what is hurting this country.”
• In “Gordita Chronicles,” the pursuit of the American dream isn’t so dreamy for a youngster uprooted from Santo Domingo by her father’s job transfer to Miami in the 1980s. The coming-of-age comedy adult in 10 episodes, which debuts in full Thursday on HBO Max, stars Olivia Goncalves as Cucu “Gordita” Castelli, with Juan Javier Cardenas and Diana Maria Riva as her parents and Savannah Nicole Ruiz as her status- conscious big sister. Eva Longoria directed the pilot episode and serves as an executive producer for the series.
• The so-called awards season is endless, as evidenced by Daytime Emmys and BET honors. The nominees for the Daytime Emmy Awards, which airs Friday, June 24 on CBS, include the dramas “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “Days of Our Lives.” Hosts of the ceremony are Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner of “Entertainment Tonight”, with Tamron Hall, Natalie Morales and Jerry O’Connell among the presenters. Top nominees for the 2022 BET Awards (Sunday, June 26) include Doja Cat, Ari Lennox and Drake. Taraji P. Henson will host the ceremony honoring black accomplishments in music, television, film and sports, along with Sean “Diddy” Combs to receive a lifetime achievement award.
— AP television writer Lynn Elber
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