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  • Even with Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan front and center,...

    LARRY HORRICKS/NETFLIX © 2021/AP

    Even with Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan front and center, little in the trailer of "The Dig" seemed particularly promising, but I gave it a go and it's good. Some of it's true, too: Along the east coast of Britain in 1939, with war clouds looming, self-taught Suffolk archeologist Basil Brown was hired by ailing widow Edith Pretty to discover if anything of value lay beneath the earth mounds on her property. There was indeed, and the remains and artifacts of a sixth-century Anglo-Saxon burial ship stunned the world. Fiennes is Basil; Mulligan is Edith; around the halfway point of director Simon Stone's film, the focus (for better or worse) shifts to others in the orbit of the excavation effort, particularly characters played by Lily James and Johnny Flynn. Based on the 2007 novel by John Preston, "The Dig" freely mixes fact and invention, overloading the crises a bit but generally succeeding. A fair amount of screenwriter Moira Buffini's dialogue plays out as Terrence Malick-styled voiceover, while the camera focuses on the stark beauty of the surroundings, and men and women actually doing the work. The results are trim, well-made and quite moving. So much for my prejudgments. (Netflix) — Michael Phillips

  • "Search Party," which follows four friends trying to find a...

    TBS/TNS

    "Search Party," which follows four friends trying to find a missing woman who went to college with them, is at its best when it's poking fun at Millennial narcissism. The recently released fourth season has a darker tone than past seasons as it explores the consequences of the friends' actions. (HBO Max) — Tracy Swartz

  • When Alex Trebek died in November, it was tough to...

    Carol Kaelson/AP Photo

    When Alex Trebek died in November, it was tough to imagine "Jeopardy!" without him. But Ken Jennings has been masterful as a guest host, and there's optimism that future guest hosts, including Mayim Bialik and Katie Couric, will add their own special touches. Chicagoans may want to tune out Aaron Rodgers's run as guest host, though. Watching him control another game may be too much to bear. (WLS-Ch. 7) — Tracy Swartz

  • Michaela Coel's "I May Destroy You" was one of the...

    HBO/HBO/TNS

    Michaela Coel's "I May Destroy You" was one of the best new television series in 2020. And yet the critically acclaimed show — created, written, co-directed, executive produced and starring Coel — was snubbed by the Golden Globes. The HBO drama series follows British 20-something writer Arabella Essiedu (Coel), an overnight success following her debut novel. She decides to take a break and meet up with friends in London as she struggles to meet the deadline for her second book. When she wakes up the next morning, she can't remember any events from the night before because her drink was spiked, but it's clear she was date-raped. The sexual assault pushes Arabella to question her friends, career and her life. (HBO Max) — Hannah Herrera Greenspan

  • It's a singular experience, watching Chloé Zhao's film "Nomadland" —...

    AP

    It's a singular experience, watching Chloé Zhao's film "Nomadland" — a drama about a woman rerouting her life in far-flung directions, in the wake of the 2008 economic meltdown — from the vantage point of our own crises today. It's a fine and bittersweet beauty in any case. Frances McDormand plays a woman living off the grid, as one of the American West's nomadic travelers, following the jobs, making friends where she can, getting a little closer to herself. Zhao's previous film, "The Rider," is amazing; by contrast, "Nomadland" has its moments of dramatic convenience and contrivance, but very few, and its sense of landscape and character is rare indeed. (Theaters, Hulu) — Michael Phillips

  • As an admitted food illiterate, I was always drawn to...

    CNN Original Series

    As an admitted food illiterate, I was always drawn to Anthony Bourdain's punk take on cultures of the world as told through cuisine. The food was rarely something I would eat, but the lives built around it were always fascinating. Stanley Tucci brings a more sophisticated take to his new CNN series (broadcast Sundays and on demand), which was recently renewed for a second season. Granted, Italy is a more familiar place in both its food and its culture, and Tucci's clothes and basic Italian speech gives him more of an insider's look than was often the case with Bourdain. It all works — and makes me want to travel and eat there when this pandemic is finally behind us. (CNN) — Scott L. Powers

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  • "The Equalizer" is one of those shows that if you've...

    Barbara Nitke/AP

    "The Equalizer" is one of those shows that if you've lived long enough, you've seen all the iterations. I am one such person who has seen the 1985 drama with the late Edward Woodward, the movies with Denzel Washington (directed by Antoine Fuqua), and now the CBS version with Queen Latifah in the lead. Granted, I didn't want to be skeptical, because it's the Queen, amiright? But I was. After two episodes, I'm skeptical no more. With Adam Goldberg as the tech guy helping Queen's Robyn McCall — a mom who is juggling saving the world with family life — I'm all in. McCall is a savior without the complex who is battling her own demons. What's not to like? She is every Black woman I've ever known. Needless to say, I can't stop watching. (CBS) — Darcel Rockett

  • What am I watching? Well, how about I tell you...

    Glen Wilson/AP

    What am I watching? Well, how about I tell you what I'm re-watching when I get the chance: "Judas and the Black Messiah." It's a Chicago story few know well, and very few know about the FBI informant William O'Neal who, in 1968 and 1969, infiltrated the Illinois Black Panther Party, ingratiated himself with chairman Fred Hampton — and ended up aiding law enforcement officials prepare a so-called "raid" that was, underneath, by definition and conspiracy, a mission to assassinate Hampton. Director and co-writer Shaka King's bracing, vividly acted drama splits the narrative difference between Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) and O'Neal (LaKeith Stanfield). A bit wobbly in its final third, but well worth seeing. And re-seeing. (In theaters, HBO Max) — Michael Phillips

  • The docuseries explores the death of Cecil Hotel guest Elisa...

    Netflix/TNS

    The docuseries explores the death of Cecil Hotel guest Elisa Lam, who was discovered in a rooftop water tank at the notorious Los Angeles hotel in 2013. The four-hour project provides new insight into Lam's death, but only after devoting too much time to wild conspiracy theories. (Netflix) — Tracy Swartz

  • This image released by STXfilms shows Tahar Rahim in "The...

    Graham Bartholomew/AP

    This image released by STXfilms shows Tahar Rahim in "The Mauritanian." Rahim was nominated for a Golden Globe for for best actor in a motion picture drama. (Graham Bartholomew/STXfilms via AP)

  • Attention fans: "The Muppet Show" has finally made it to...

    Disney/TNS

    Attention fans: "The Muppet Show" has finally made it to Disney+! All five seasons of the original show of our favorite felt friends — Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear and so many more — are now streaming. I was not lucky enough to grow up during a time when I could watch these puppets every Friday night along with a new guest star, like Julie Andrews or Vincent Price. Instead I grew up with ritual viewings of "The Muppets Christmas Carol" and singing along with Tim Curry and the motley crew of "Muppets Treasure Island." After having to endure the atrocious "Muppets Most Wanted" and bland "Muppets Now" shorts, I am happy to devote my time to the original Muppets — entertaining, funny and nostalgic. — Lauren Hill

  • Pandemic documentaries aside, "The Social Dilemma" is one of the...

    Exposure Labs/Netflix/TNS

    Pandemic documentaries aside, "The Social Dilemma" is one of the most frightening films you can watch. We can debate the use of dramatic license clouding the disturbing message in this 94-minute film. But this remains the story of how Facebook, Twitter and other social media, including news media sites, take our participation and use it to over-amplify our beliefs, accelerate the "us vs. them" stratification of the culture, and at worst, destroy the line between truth and lies. The strengths of this 2020 documentary are the interviews with the Facebook, Twitter and Google executives who brought us here, and wish they hadn't. All of this begs the question "The Social Dilemma" doesn't deal with in any satisfying way: "So, now what?" There's not enough of that, and turning off your phones and computers just isn't enough in 2021. (Netflix) — Scott L. Powers

  • The premise: An alien crashes on Earth and hides in...

    SYFY/AP

    The premise: An alien crashes on Earth and hides in the Colorado mountain town of Patience by assuming the identity of the town doctor. The otherworldly being is up to no good (think extinction event), but even as he pulls wool over the eyes of everyone in the town, one kid can see him for who he is. Blame it on my penchant for the quirky, (yes, I was a fan of "Eureka," "Warehouse 13" and "Lost Girl"), but watching Alan Tudyk, doing what he does best embodying the unusual and making it memorable, is always worth the time and energy. Add to that Corey Reynolds from "The Closer" doing comedy (he plays the sheriff), I can't look away. (Syfy) — Darcel Rockett

  • Don Johnson returns to television Feb. 16 co-starring on the...

    Associated Press

    Don Johnson returns to television Feb. 16 co-starring on the NBC sitcom "Kenan" (with "SNL's" Kenan Thompson in the title role). While I have so many concerns about cop shows in general, I was inspired to go back and watch "Miami Vice," the show that made Johnson famous, starting with the 1984 pilot. The show lives in my memory as a very intense primetime crime drama, but the pilot is funnier than I expected — especially the underrated Phillip Michael Thomas. A lot was made at the time about the show's clothing and music, and really, the look and sound of the show is half the fun. The series became increasingly darker as the seasons progressed, but the two-hour pilot (titled "Brother's Keeper") is such a well-made episode of television that works as a stand-alone movie all its own. (p.s. Sonny has a pet alligator named Elvis that he keeps chained up on his boat and it's meant to be comic relief? I have no memory of this and I hate it.) (NBC/Hulu/Starz/Amazon) — Nina Metz

  • Last week it was announced the current season of the...

    Adam Taylor / CBS

    Last week it was announced the current season of the CBS sitcom "Mom" would be its last. I'm not sure "Mom" has ever received the acclaim it deserved. It wasn't until the show's second season that it really found its footing and became centered primarily on the push-pull dynamic between a mother (Allison Janney's brazenly unfiltered Bonnie) and her adult daughter (Anna Faris's put-on Christy), both of whom are picking up the pieces of their lives after years of substance abuse. Faris left the show this year for unspecified reasons and though the supporting cast (a group of women who attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings together) has always been strong, without that central tension between Bonnie and Christy, the show feels a bit lost without their odd couple energy. So if you've never had the pleasure, may I recommend going back and starting with Season 2 and watching through Season 6 or so (Christy's children vanished without a trace in Season 7; it was weird). Money is often tight — a theme often left untouched on other sitcoms — and relapses are treated with far more realism than the Very Special Episodes of old. These are legitimately messy people, but they feel real and fully developed. (CBS All Access/Paramount+) — Nina Metz

  • You probably never heard of Ramy Youssef or his hit...

    Hasan Amin/AP

    You probably never heard of Ramy Youssef or his hit show "Ramy" before he won the 2020 Golden Globe for best actor in a television series. This comedy-drama series chronicles first-generation Egyptian American Muslim Ramy Hassan (portrayed by Youssef) as he navigates the awkwardness of being an American millennial and his cultural expectations. Unlike his Muslim friends, Hassan breaks all the rules with porn and premarital sex. The series has been renewed for a third season, so now is a great time to get caught up. (Hulu) — Hannah Herrera Greenspan

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It’s often the case that movies based on true stories offer a glimpse of the real-life characters at the end. In “The Mauritanian,” the story of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s 14 years behind bars, that real-life footage is the most engaging part of the film.

That’s not entirely the fault of the filmmakers, who do an earnest and thoughtful if less than totally absorbing job of telling Slahi’s story based on the best-selling memoir he wrote in prison, “Guantanamo Diary.”

It’s just that nothing can beat this intimate view of the real man, smiling and singing joyfully to Bob Dylan, no less. One wonders how he even managed to stay sane, let alone joyful, after 14 years at Guantanamo without being formally charged or tried. And in conditions that included a brutal stretch of torture: severe cold, sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation, a mock drowning, waterboarding, and threats to imprison his own mother at Guantanamo.

Luckily, “The Mauritanian,” directed by Kevin Macdonald, gets one thing very right: Tahar Rahim’s masterful central performance. The French actor achieves something his big-name costars — Jodie Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch and Shailene Woodley — do not, presenting a multi-layered, subtly shaded and deeply moving portrayal that proves hard to forget. Rahim deserves the awards buzz he’s getting; he also deserves more big roles, and soon.

Macdonald is known for documentaries (the Oscar-winning “One Day in September”) as well as features (“The Last King of Scotland”), and “The Mauritanian” has a quasi-documentary feel at times. Partly that’s because there’s a lot of dry information to get across here, namely the ins and outs of Slahi’s legal case. The film tries to achieve this by juxtaposing the stories of defense lawyer Nancy Hollander (Foster), who works to gain Slahi’s release based on lack of evidence, and U.S. military prosecutor Stuart Couch (Cumberbatch.)

Both Foster, in her brittle, crusty portrayal of Hollander, and Cumberbatch, sporting a southern drawl as a devoted military man with a conscience, are welcome presences in any movie. But the script here really doesn’t give them a lot to work with — we learn almost nothing about them as people outside the case. With actors of this caliber, that’s a shame.

Rahim, though, has plenty of room to shine. The actor finds a way to infuse almost every scene with humor and humanity. We first meet Slahi at a wedding celebration in Mauritania, two months after 9/11. The police show up to question him about ties to al-Qaida. “The Americans are going crazy,” they say. He assures his mother he’ll be back soon — and asks her to save him some food. It’s clear she fears she may never see him again (in fact, she didn’t.)

Four years later in Albuquerque, lawyer Hollander is approached to use her security clearance to help find Slahi, on behalf of his desperate family. She enlists a junior colleague, Teri Duncan, to help (Woodley, underused.) Meanwhile we meet Couch (Cumberbatch, also a producer here), who’s tapped by superiors to lead the prosecution. The film tracks these two as they pursue their cases, each stymied by government restrictions on information.

But the most accessible scenes feature Slahi himself, whether they involve the dreaded interrogations or the prisoner’s basic efforts at making a friend at Guantanamo, a French detainee he speaks to through a green mesh fence, and who dubs him “The Mauritanian.”

The film has the rhythm of a legal thriller heading toward a dramatic courtroom trial. The true climax is hardly that climactic: Slahi testifies by video at his habeas corpus hearing. He learns by mail that he’s won.

He whoops with joy. He’s going home.

And then, the closing credits tell us, he remains imprisoned at Guantanamo for seven more years.

“The Mauritanian” — 2.5 stars

MPAA rating: R (violence, including sexual assault, and language)

Running time: 2:09

Where to watch: In theaters.

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