What to Watch on TV and at the Movies This Week

Your Netflix Watch of the Week is here!

Big Mistakes, Season 1

Fans of Schitt’s Creek, rejoice! Dan Levy, the star and cocreator of that wonderful (and sorely missed) show, returns to episodic television with this gonzo comedy series about a pair of dysfunctional siblings who are blackmailed into the world of organized crime. This one sounds highly promising — not only because Levy is an ace when it comes to delivering eye-rolling punch lines, but also because the ensemble cast includes Taylor Ortega, Laurie Metcalf, 70, and Elizabeth Perkins, 65. 

Watch it: Big Mistakes, April 9 on Netflix

Don't miss this: The Best Things Coming to Netflix This Month

Your Prime Video Watch of the Week is here!

Sarah’s Oil (2025, PG)

In this faith- and fact-based drama, Sarah Rector (Naya Desir-Johnson), the Black grandchild of Creek Indians, is bequeathed 160 acres of undeveloped land in Oklahoma in 1913. She’s convinced the land holds oil — and so are several predatory moguls who try to swindle and threaten her and her family. Sarah finds an unlikely ally in a quick-talking wildcatter (Zachary Levi) who develops a conscience despite his roguish instincts. This is an old-fashioned feel-good, David-versus-Goliath drama.

Watch it: Sarah’s Oil, April 15 on Prime Video

Don’t miss this: The Best Things Coming to Prime Video this Month

New at the movies this week

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ The Christophers, R

In this intelligent portrait of the artist as an old crank, James Corden and Jessica Gunning play the greedy adult children of painter Julian Sklar (Sir Ian McKellen, 86, in fine fettle), who hire artist-forger Lori Butler (a quietly commanding Michaela Coel) to surreptitiously “restore” an early series of their father’s paintings worth millions. The crime looks doable: His London studio is a hoarder's paradise, with priceless canvases cluttering an unused bathtub. Largely an entertainingly witty two-hander between McKellen and Coel, the film still delivers emotional payoff: Once they team up to foil the heirs’ plans, Julian finds a way back to his artistic and emotional roots while Lori has a chance to overcome past trauma and get a showing of her original artwork. With Steven Soderbergh, 63, directing on a smaller canvas than his 2025 spy thriller, Black Bag, The Christophers is a gem. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: The Christophers, April 10 in theaters

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Hamlet, R

Just because every ambitious actor wants to play the prince of Denmark doesn’t mean that every audience wants to watch Hamlet again. In this adaptation moved in time and place to a contemporary, wealthy South Asian enclave in London, Riz Ahmed portrays the grieving prince returning home for his father’s funeral. He arrives to discover that his uncle Claudius (Art Malik, 73) plans to wed his mother, Gertrude (Sheeba Chaddha, 53), to snatch the crown with the help of Polonius (Timothy Spall, 69). I am not someone who tends to favor transplanted Shakespeare productions, but the new setting adds a tense Succession feel, and the play within the play unfurls as a vibrant Indian-influenced dance number. While Ahmed struggles (a bit too much) about whether to be or not to be, it may be worth a theater ticket to witness a tremendous character actor like Malik (remember The Jewel in the Crown?) put his stamp on the coveted role of the murderous Claudius. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: Hamlet, April 10 in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Stranger, R

Easily the year’s most beautiful black-and-white film, director François Ozon’s drama based on the famed 1942 novella by Albert Camus is more than a feast for the eyes; it’s a challenge to societal expectations and notions of identity. Set in exotic 1930s French Algeria, an ordinary but emotionally detached clerk Meursault (the endlessly watchable rising star Benjamin Voisin) lives alone. When his mother dies, he shows almost no emotion, going through the motions of mourning, plunging into an affair with a secretary (Rebecca Marder), then aiding a sleazy neighbor with an Arab mistress and ultimately, shooting that woman’s brother. These are the stations of the Camus narrative cross, but it’s Meursault’s emotional detachment, passivity and resistance to social norms that has him facing the guillotine for his crime. The French film is spare, elegant and perfectly cast, making for an incomparable literary adaptation that leaves nothing lost in translation. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: The Stranger, April 10 in theaters

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⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ The Blue Trail , NR

Brazilian movies are on an uptick with The Secret Agent and I’m Still Here gaining Oscar recognition. Unlike those films, The Blue Trail (which received the coveted Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2025) doesn’t look back to the Latin American country’s turbulent history. Instead, it anticipates its dystopian future where a repressive government rounds up seniors and dispatches them, diapered, to camps for the nation’s alleged economic good. Chilling. At the movie’s center is the stubborn septuagenarian Tereza (a compelling Denise Weinberg, 69), who, after a lifetime of toil and mothering, wants finally to retire and achieve her dream of flying in a plane. The sci-fi drama’s title comes from the slime of a mystical slug that secretes blue goo that when dropped into the tripper’s eyes (including Tereza’s) allows them to envision their true path. That vision convinces Tereza to liberate herself and navigate a watery path on the Amazon River toward, she hopes, the chance at airborne bliss. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: The Blue Trail, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ A Great Awakening , PG-13

Spotlighting the unlikely relationship between Benjamin Franklin (John Paul Sneed, 64) and Anglican priest and preacher George Whitefield (Jonathan Blair) against the backdrop of the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, this costume drama arrives just in time for Easter weekend. Flashbacks chart Whitefield’s rise in England and voyage to the colonies, then linger on his friendship with the Founding Father and possible influence on his spirituality. For fans of faith-based films, A Great Awakening provides an ideal way to celebrate a treasured holiday and the pending 250th anniversary of the United States with one theater ticket. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: A Great Awakening, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Marc by Sofia , NR

A good friend listens. And, so, in this intimate portrait of the fashion designer Marc Jacobs by his longtime friend and collaborator Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation), the director gets close to the designer and his creative process — but doesn’t want to harsh the mellow by asking tough questions. The result is a pleasing, colorful, fashion-loving movie that chronicles the decades of the designer’s rise to the heights of his career. But like with the beautiful fabrics painstakingly curated and draped by Jacobs, the audience's gaze stops at the beguiling surface. —Thelma M. Adams

Watch it: Marc by Sofia, in theaters