Throughout history, criticizing the governing authorities has been a sure-fire way to lose your home or your head. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi enjoyed the Saudi Arabian ruling royal family’s confidence for years. Then he began to speak and write openly against his country’s perceived failure to embrace democratic and social reforms.

There’s no shortage of suspects in PBS’ new four-part miniseries Flesh and Blood. Even the deceased’s identity and cause of death—accident or murder—remain unknown, at least during the first two episodes. In a series of flashbacks, individuals answering questions from a detective (David Bamber) paint a picture of a family enmeshed in rivalry and deceit. Their recollections piece together the events that led to the probable foul play.

The young woman who turns sheets at the local motel has a story, and it might be more remarkable than her menial chores suggest. The new film Yellow Rose tells such a story—an unpretentious, heartfelt tale about a Filipina teen who writes country songs in her Texas motel bedroom.

The Keeper is a new film inspired by the life of Bert Trautmann, a German soldier who became a star goalkeeper for the Manchester City football (soccer) team. Trautmann (David Kross) stays in England after release from a Lancashire POW camp at the end of World War II. He works for a grocer, Jack Friar (John Henshaw), and plays goalkeeper for the local football team Friar manages. Henshaw gives a memorable turn as a lovable lout.

The new film Heaven offers a positive message of hope for people broken by sin and sorrow. But artistic and theological quirks detract from the film starring, written, and directed by Angus Benfield. 

Former social media company executives tell all in the new Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. The practices that have made Facebook, Google, and other platforms wealthy and powerful are “bringing out the worst in society,” former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris alleges. 

Social media services record “every single [online] action” and run them through complex algorithms, according to former Twitter exec Jeff Seibert. The better these formulas predict people’s internet habits, the more advertisers pay.

Cinephiles familiar with the work of Christopher Nolan know the writer-director has a burden for brain-bogglers. It took a second viewing of his 2010 film Inception—winner of four Oscars, including two for best sound mixing and best sound editing—for me to make some sense of its dream-within-a-dream framework. 

Nolan’s new mind-bending, time-rending film Tenet proved to be an even more frustrating affair for my first trip back into a movie theater since COVID-19 put the kibosh on indoor big-screen outings. The film’s sound design, of all things, was the culprit.