#Middlebury #Movies
“Worst Roommate Ever” (S1) – They say the scariest thing is a brilliant psycho. When that psycho is renting a room in your apartment, that fear is multiplied. Far worse than the lying, emotional hypochondriac dormmate of my own freshman year, the subjects in this original miniseries found themselves living with evil personified. All seemed normal at first: the sweet grandmother type who turned out to be a killer, the fun-guy-turned-scammer, the quiet man who used his vast knowledge of the law to ensure he couldn’t be evicted while becoming ever more menacing. It’ll make you think twice about placing that Craigslist ad. (Netflix)
John Cameron Mitchell in “Joe vs. Carole” (Mark Taylor/Peacock photo)
“Joe vs. Carole” (NR) – Joe the Tiger King is the gift that keeps on giving. For those who watched the original series, the year-later follow-up, and Joe’s sad phone interviews from jail, we now have a satirical dramatic scripted series featuring the craziest characters of the big cat bunch. Based on the podcast “Over My Dead Body,” the series centers on the feud between rival wild-cat breeders/rescuers Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic. “Saturday Night Live’s” Kate McKinnon is brilliantly cast as Carole, and “Girls” actor John Cameron Mitchell takes on the role of the Tiger King. (Peacock)
“Brad’s Status” (R) – Ever since Greenberg I have had an affinity for Ben Stiller’s dramatic endeavors playing the annoying-yet-familiar middle-ager. This Amazon Original stars Stiller as Brad, a GenX dad taking his high school-aged son on prospective college tours. Along the way Brad has a crisis of not just identity but also of life success rank, comparing his career and finances to those of his own college pals. Projecting his regrets on his son, he creates more stress for the boy, who of course has a few astute observances for his dad, leading him to a full-circle conclusion. Somewhat predictable, but Stiller again gives a skilled, nuanced performance. (Prime Video)
“Race Across the World” (NR) – Remember back when we had to read paper maps and ask strangers for directions, pay cash for everything, and if you couldn’t afford a plane ticket you might just hitch a ride? Apparently those practices are so far removed from our collective psyche that someone made a reality competition show out of them. In this series, teams of two are challenged to get from point A to point B faster than the other teams, and the starting and end points are in different countries. They are given cash, maps and a GPS, but no cellphones are allowed and they are forbidden from flying. The fastest journeyers win a handsome monetary prize. (Discovery+)
“Three Identical Strangers” (PG-13) – In a twisted psychosocial experiment, a New York adoption agency conspired to separate and adopt out three male triplet babies to three different families, without ever telling any of the families involved. As young adults the triplets found each other by chance, and their truth slowly unraveled. As it did, the joy of discovery gave way to disbelief and anger at having been so manipulated. (Hulu)
© 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.
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