Constantly remaking their own properties, from cartoon, to stage musical, to live action movie again, usually means Disney has run out of original story ideas. The live action “Mulan” (Disney +, streaming) doesn’t have the songs of the original (though the themes bubble up). Yifei Liu stars as the title character, a young woman who becomes a warrior but saves the empire.
It stars a lot of top Asian stars, is full of magical, gravity-defying battles, and has more dead people than probably any other Disney movie (though no blood). Meant to open in theaters, it’s sporting a huge one-time fee to watch – $30! — but will be available to stream for free in December.
As I begin the big new novel of Charlie Kaufman, I will pause to watch the new movie he’s releasing today. Kaufman, the author of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Being John Malkovich” “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is writer and director of the new “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” (Netflix, streaming). Based on a novel by Iain Reid, it stars Jessie Buckley as a woman who takes a road trip to meet the odd parents of her new boyfriend (Jesse Plemons). The parents are Toni Collette and David Thewlis and things get odd as far as relations to time, which one might expect.
Hilary Swank stars as the American leader of an international mission to Mars in the new series “Away” (Netflix, streaming), half of which deals with the family she’s leaving home at the same time (Josh Charles plays the hubby). It’s dull in a way space dramas shouldn’t be, and the spaceship scenes meant to show zero gravity are distractingly clumsy.
A second season begins for the raucous superhero saga “The Boys” (Amazon Prime, streaming), with Aya Cash of “You’re the Worst” added as Stormfront.