Arts and Entertainment Archives

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Surviving Ohio State” features a predominantly white group of people (with one African American) who are connected in some way to the accusations and lawsuits against Ohio University that allege that the university covered up decades of student sexual abuse by a doctor employed by the university.

Culture Clash: Some of the estimated thousands of survivors of Dr. Richard Strauss (who committed suicide in 2005) have come forward with harrowing stories of university officials not doing anything when they heard complaints that Strauss was a sexual predator who targeted male students for sexual assaults.

Culture Audience: “Surviving Ohio State” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries about getting justice for sex crimes that were enabled and covered by well-known institutions.

Mike Schyck in “Surviving Ohio State” (Photo courtesy of HBO)

“Surviving Ohio State” (about Ohio State University’s responsibilities in an employee’s longtime sexual abuse of students) makes a clear and convincing case that enabling and covering up crimes are just as heinous as the crimes themselves. This powerful documentary doesn’t uncover a lot of new information but it has interviews with the people who matter the most: the survivors. Because there was ongoing litigation against Ohio State University (which is based the city of Columbus) at the time this documentary was released, officials who have been named as enablers declined to comment for the documentary. But even if there hadn’t been litigation, it’s easy to see why these accused enablers won’t publicly comment for a documentary because of all the damning evidence that has already been presented.

Directed by Eva Orner, “Surviving Ohio State” had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. The movie chronicles the sexual abuse accusations about Dr. Richard Strauss, who was employed by Ohio State University (OSU) from 1978 to 1998, the year that he retired from OSU. Strauss was a medical doctor at OSU’s Athletic Department and at the Student Health Center for most of his tenure at OSU, but he was also a professor at the university. It is believed that he sexually abused thousands of male students from the 1970s to the 1990s. An independent investigation commissioned by OSU revealed in 2018 that the first known reported abuse happened in 1979.

Strauss was never arrested or sued for any of these accusations against him. He committed suicide by hanging himself in 2005, at the age of 67. The abuse survivors interviewed in the documentary say that Strauss abused them when they were OSU students from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Most of the documentary’s interviewees used to be on OSU’s wrestling team. Many of those interviewed are plaintiffs in an ongoing lawsuit against OSU.

The survivors interviewed are:

Dan Ritchie, who was an OSU wrestler from 1988 to 1992
Mike Schyck, who was an OSU wrestler from 1988 to 1993
Mark Coleman, who was an OSU wrestler from 1987 to 1988
Rocky Ratliff, who was an OSU wrestler from 1995 to 1997
Will Knight, who was an OSU wrestler from 1991 to 1996
Mike DiSabato, who was an OSU wrestler from 1986 to 1991
Adam DiSabato (Mike DiSabato’s younger brother), who was an OSU wrestler from 1988 to 1993
Al Novakowski, who was an OSU hockey player from 1987 to 1988
Stephen Snyder-Hill, who was an OSU non-athlete student from 1991 to 2000

All share similar stories about how they were proud to be students at OSU (whose team name is the Buckeyes) because of OSU’s reputation of being a school what regularly won national championships. But their pride also came with the shame of knowing that Strauss (who was a trusted doctor because of his “nice guy” image, his work experience and his credentials) sexually abused them during medical examinations, which they all say was an “open secret” at OSU. Because the abuse was so accepted by the university, many students did not come forward to report the abuse at the time it was happening.

Another reason why many of Strauss’ victims didn’t come forward at the time the abuse was happening because Strauss had the power to decide if they were “fit” to be participate in OSU athletics. It’s mentioned in the documentary that Strauss seemed to particularly target students who had athletic scholarships that the students needed to attend the university. Strauss also usually targeted students who were sexually inexperienced and naïve. These students often came from small towns and had sheltered upbringings.

Most of the survivors describe Strauss’ sexual abuse as unwanted fondling of their genitals, which he would lie to them about by saying the fondling was necessary to check if they had hernias. Whenever Strauss was questioned about this inappropriate touching, his standard response was he was just being “thorough” in his examinations.

His accusers say that Strauss often asked them inappropriate and illegal questions about their sex lives. He also never used gloves and always made sure that he did the sexual abuse in the dark with no one else in the room. Some of his victims (such as Novakowski) say that Strauss’ abuse went beyond fondling and turned into rape.

And because it was Strauss’ word against any the word of victim who reported the abuse, Strauss was more likely to get away with it when there was no evidence. Knight comments in the documentary about Strauss’ abuse: “It was a dirty little secret that we just tiptoed around, and we just dealt with it because we were Buckeyes.”

Strauss was also allowed to regularly take locker room showers with OSU’s male athletes from several sports departments, and he would openly masturbate in front of the athletes during these showers. And not all of the accusers were students. Frederick Feeney, who was a wrestling referee from 1988 to 2024, breaks down in tears when he describes having one of these shower sexual abuse incidents perpetrated by Strauss, who Feeney says fondled Feeney on the rear end during this abuse.

The survivors all say that many officials knew about the abuse but did nothing when complaints about Strauss were reported. Russ Hellickson (OSU’s wrestling head coach from 1986 to 2006), Jim Jordan (OSU’s wrestling assistant coach from 1986 to 1994) ,Dr. John Lombardo (OSU director of sports medicine from 1990 to 2004), and Dr. Ted Grace (OSU head of student health from 1992 to 2007) are all mentioned as enablers who were responsible for helping keep Strauss employed by OSU, despite the now-uncovered hundreds of complaints against Strauss when Strauss was employed by OSU.

Hellickson, Jordan (who is now a U.S. Representative) and OSU declined to comment for this documentary. However, “Surviving Ohio State” has archival news footage of Jordan repeatedly denying that he knew about these complaints when Jordan worked for OSU. The documentary has some footage of Lombardo, Hellickson and Grace in videotaped depositions from 2019 regarding the lawsuit where Mike DiSabato was the lead plaintiff for a group of former OSU athletes. Grace is the only OSU official who gets some credit in the documentary for eventually being the first OSU official to take disciplinary action against Strauss, but whatever Grace did to hold Strauss accountable wasn’t enough to completely terminate OSU’s employment of Strauss.

Several of the survivors say that their shame and reluctance to come forward had a lot to do with the macho culture of being a male Buckeye athlete who was expected to be tough. Many of the survivors say when they went public about the abuse, many people did not believe that the abuse happened because they think the athletes would have and should have punched and or physically defended themselves against Strauss, who was not tall or muscular. However, what these critics often forget is that Strauss had power and influence over his victims’ enrollment at OSU. Anyone who physically attacked him could be expelled and/or arrested. Many of his abuse survivors didn’t want to take the risk of getting in that type of trouble.

“Surviving Ohio State” also addresses the issues of adult male sexual abuse victims usually getting less sympathy and support from society than sexual abuse victims who are children (of any gender) or women. As an example, the documentary compares and contrasts the settlement offers in similar sexual abuse lawsuits against universities. Ritchie says in the documentary that he believes he and other plaintiffs got lower settlement offers because they were adults when Strauss was said to have abused them.

Pennsylvania State University offered $1.5 million to each of the plaintiff victims who were children when the unversity’s former football coach Jerry Sandusky (who is prison for various sex crimes) used the university campus to sexually abuse children who were part of the Second Mile, which was Sandusky’s non-profit athletics group for children. Michigan State University offered $1.2 million to each of the women and girls who were victims of the university’s former athletic department doctor Larry Nassar, who is a convicted sex offender serving the rest of his life in prison. By contrast, OSU offered $250,000 to each victim of Strauss. This offer was rejected by the plaintiffs, who also rejected a settlement clause where OSU would not admit to any wrongdoing in how it handled the accusations against Strauss.

The documentary also has accusations and suggestions that Strauss illegally gave steroids to OSU athletes. Several of the interviewees say that Strauss gave them what Straus said were vitamin B-12 injections, but what these former OSU athletes how believe were steroid injections. Ironically, Strauss was a nationally recognized steroid expert who wrote medical reports and was interviewed on TV about the dangers of of steroid use. Strauss was never arrested or sued for these steroid accusations.

Some of the interviewees, such as Ritchie and Novakowski, say that Strauss’ sexual abuse of them were the reasons why they left OSU before they could graduate, but were afraid to tell their families the real reasons at the time. The emotional and psychological damage for survivors have gone far past any college careers. Coleman says that many of the survivors have had divorces, mental health issues (including suicide attempts) and addiction issues that they all attribute to being directly or indirectly caused by the trauma of Strauss’ sexual abuse.

In this documentary that has very bleak and harrowing information, perhaps one of the most encouraging and positive outcomes is that several of the survivors formed informal support groups for each other. Novakowski says that many of the survivors no longer trust medical doctors, which means that many survivors might not be getting the medical treatment that they might need. “Surviving Ohio State” could have included information about any professional therapy that the survivor interviewees might or might not be receiving to deal with their trauma.

Also interviewed in the documentary are NBC4 Columbus TV anchor Colleen Marshall, civil rights attorney Ilann Maazel, journalist Jon Wertheim, and Csilla Remenyik-Smith, who was an OSU fencer athlete from 1981 to 1984. Remenyik-Smith’s mother Charlotte Remenyik was an OSU fencing coach (for male and female students) from 1978 to 1999 and was the first faculty member to make formal complaints about Strauss to OSU, which did not action against Strauss until 10 years after Remenyik made her first annual complaint against him.

In 1996, OSU terminated Strauss from his positions with OSU’s Athletics Department and OSU’s Student Health Department. However, OSU allowed him to keep his job as a tenured faculty member in OSU’s School of Public Health until Strauss voluntarily retired in 1998. OSU’s excuse for stalling in investigating the complaints was that Remenyik was reporting hearsay and gossip with no evidence. Maazel comments, “If there’s one thing OSU is good at—other than football—it’s deceit.”

Although “Surviving Ohio State” is very thorough in how it presents these survivor stories, the movie doesn’t delve far enough into the backgrounds of Strauss and the enablers to give more context for their horrific actions and cover-ups. The documentary does not answer many unanswered questions about who Strauss was outside of his job. Still, there’s enough information in the documentary to show that full justice has yet to be served to the survivors, many of whom might never find peace.

HBO premiered “Surviving Ohio State” on June 17, 2025.

Review: ‘Lemonade Blessing,’ starring Jake Ryan, Jeanine Serralles, Skye Alyssa Friedman and Miles J. Harvey

July 6, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Lemonade Blessing”

Directed by Chris Marola

Culture Representation: Taking place on New York state’s Long Island in 2012, the comedy/drama film “Lemonade Blessing” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and one Asan) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A freshman student at a Catholic high school is torn between the demands of his religious mother and his atheist girlfriend.

Culture Audience: “Lemonade Blessing” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of well-acted and fairly unconventional movies about teenagers trying to have their own identities while under the control of strict authority figures.

Skye Alyssa Friedman in “Lemonade Blessing”

“Lemonade Blessing” is a quirky comedy/drama about a nerdy teenager at a Catholic school, as he navigates the conflicts of having a strict religious mother and a rebellious atheist girlfriend. The movie is a tart blend of realism and absurdity. Although “Lemonade Blessing” has some teen movie clichés—such as an introverted and dorky adolescent who falls for someone who is more confident and less uptight; awkward first-time sexual experiences; and oppressive authority figures who constantly threaten punishment—the movie has some unique character and situations that are entertaining to watch if you can tolerate a little bit of weirdness.

Written and directed by Chris Marola, “Lemonade Blessing” is his feature-film directorial debut. “Lemonade Blessing” had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. The movie takes place on New York’s Long Island in 2012. (“Lemonade Blessing” was actually filmed in New Jersey.) The movie has some clever observations about how teenagers who are students at religious high schools can be affected by their non-secular education.

“Lemonade Blessing” begins by showing protagonist John Santucci at 10 years old (played by Nicholas David Crocco), as he watches his parents have a terrible argument. The movie then fast-forwards to 2012, when John (played by Jake Ryan) is now 14 years old. His parents Mary (played by Jeanine Serralles) and Pete (played by Todd Gearhart) are now divorced. John lives with Mary, but Pete is co-parenting John through visitation rights.

It’s later revealed that one of the reasons why Mary and Pete got divorced is they fundamentally disagree about religion. Mary is a devout Catholic. Pete, who is either atheist or agnostic, believes in yoga and meditation for spiritual healing. Mary thinks that her divorce is a big stigma for her, even though it’s mentioned later that she went back to using her maiden surname Romano after the divorce.

Mary has very conservative views about John’s sexuality and what he should be when he becomes an adult. Mary expects John to become some type of Catholic Church clergyman, such as a priest or a brother. John doesn’t really know yet what he wants to do with his life.

An early scene in “Lemonade Blessing” shows John masturbating while he’s in a bathtub. (There’s no nudity in the movie, but the sexual activity in the movie is either talked about or implied through body movements.) Mary is aware of what he’s doing and says with disgust to John through the closed door: “If you’re going to sin, do it at your father’s house.”

“Lemonade Blessing” follow John during the first few month of his freshman year at Eucharist High School, a co-ed institution where the students are required to wear uniforms. One of his first classes is a music class, where a teacher named Mr. Myers (played by Nick Coleman) bellows to the students: “Eucharist is where you go to meet God. Eucharist is where you go to find yourself. Eucharist is my alma mater.”

Right away, John catches the attention of a 15-year-old student named Lilith (played by Skye Alyssa Friedman) when he offers her his seat. Lilith repays this kindness by lying to the teacher and saying that John pulled her pigtails. Mr. Myers automatically believes Lilith, and John is sent to the principal’s office as punishment.

John doesn’t make friends easily, but he does establish a rapport with a fellow student named Angelo (played by Miles J. Harvey), who talks a lot about sex. Angelo also brags that he watches a lot of porn. In one of the first conversations that Angelo has with John, Angelo offers to give John a porn video of a naked woman farting on a cake? Why? Just because Angelo wants John to know that Angelo has access to this type of video. Later, Angelo admits he has no experience in real life with dating or sex.

Even though Lilith purposely did something negative to John during the first time that they met each other, he is attracted to her and wants her to be his first girlfriend. Angelo encourages John to make the first move. And so, when John has a chance, he nervously asks Lilith out on a date.

Lilith’s responds by saying, “I don’t want to date anyone who believes in God, the Tooth Fairy or Santa.” John says he only believes in the Tooth Fairy because he finds money underneath his pillow.” John mentions that his parents are divorced, and Lilith says her parents are divorced too. Later, Lilith pressures John to say “Fuck Jesus” in a derogatory way, to prove that he’s not religious.

She agrees to date John after he passes her “tests,” but John finds out that she is problematic in other ways, such having a habit of lying. When John goes over to Lilith’s house for the first time to meet her father Mitch (played by John Churchill), John finds out that Lilith’s real name is Rachel and her parents are still happily married. Mitch’s wife Clara (played by Dina Drew) is at the dinner too.

Mitch is also a very strict and religious parent, so that’s something that John and Lilith/Rachel have in common. For example, Mitch demands that John and Lilith/Rachel go to a church service for one of the young couple’s dates. John overlooks Lilith/Rachel’s lies because he’s infatuated with her and eager to experience whatever excitement that Lilith/Rachel has to offer to him.

Meanwhile, after John tells his mother that he has a girlfriend, Mary is happy for John but tells him that when she meets the girlfriend, she has to “pass the mom test”: If John looks happy with his girlfriend, then Mary says she will approve. However, Mary still has a control-freak attitude about John’s dating activities: Mary orders him wait at least a month to hug his girlfriend and to not have sex under any circumstances.

“Lemonade Blessing” doesn’t have big, sweeping dramatic events or a madcap series of comedic antics. It’s a series of scenes where John faces dilemmas about his desire to impress Lilith/Rachel and his desire to have his mother’s respect/approval. These often-conflicting desires are intertwined with his sexual curiosity, which results in John often feeling confused or frustrated.

For various reasons, John isn’t close enough to his self-absorbed father Pete to ask Pete for a lot of advice. The only adult figure who comes the closest to being able to offer John any non-judgmental guidance is a Eucharist clergyman named Brother Phil (played by Michael Oloyede), who correctly senses that John doesn’t really want to be a clergyman. The scenes between John and Brother Phil are short but effective.

“Lemonade Blessing” benefits from great casting because the principal cast members are not only believable in their roles and but they also skillfully balance the movie’s tonal shifts between comedy and drama. Ryan’s portrayal of John is witty and charming and will make viewers cringe along with him as he gets himself into some embarrassing situations. It’s also an astutely layered portrait of Catholic guilt.

Friedman’s depiction of manipulative Lilith/Rachel would be completely unlikable, but the “meet the parents” dinner scene offers a glimpse into why Lilith/Rachel is the way that she is. During the dinner, her father tells Lilith/Rachel to go to her room and change the tank top that she’s wearing to a top that shows that she has self-respect. It hints at some possible psychological abuse that Lilith/Rachel gets from her father and would explain why Lilith/Rachel does what she can to rebel.

John’s relationship with his mother Mary brings the movie’s biggest emotional gravitas. John is at an age when he’s starting to experience the type of freedom and sexual exploration that Mary does not want him to have. Serrales’ gives a nuanced portrayal of a parent who has difficulty accepting that the sexual repression that she imposes on herself isn’t necessarily going to be the right thing for John.

“Lemonade Blessing” is a well-written and capably directed observation of the challenges and contradictions of religious high schools that preach sexual abstinence to teenage students with the realities of teenagers wanting to have sexual experiences with each other. So many teen-oriented movies are about the teenagers being fixated on losing their virginities or having as much sex as possible. “Lemonade Blessing” avoids that stereotype because it’s more about the teen protagonist wanting to find himself on his own terms, even if he has some uncomfortable stumbles along the way.

Review: ‘Metro … in Dino,’ starring Anupam Kher, Neena Gupta, Konkona Sen Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan, Ali Fazal, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Saswata Chatterjee

July 5, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Metro … in Dino”

Directed by Anurag Basu

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in various cities in India, the musical film “Metro … in Dino” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Eight adults have various struggles in their love lives.

Culture Audience: “Metro … in Dino” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and stereotypical romance movies.

Sara Ali Khan and Kush Jotwani in “Metro … in Dino” (Photo courtesy of AA Films)

“Metro … in Dino” is entirely too long (145 minutes) for this uneven romantic musical that is so unimaginative, corny and predictable. The story’s four main couples are tedious when acting out cliché insecurities about infidelity, finances and aging. “Metro … in Dino” is also strangely disjointed because it starts of being a musical (where people sing their conversations in forgettable songs), but the musical concept is abandoned by the last third of the film, which turns into a stale soap opera.

Written and directed by Anurag Basu, “Metro … in Dino” (which means “Metro … Nowadays” in Hindi) takes place in various Indian cities. The movie is a “spiritual sequel” to Basu’s 2007 film “Life in a … Metro,” but there are also obvious inspirations from writer/director Richard Curtis’ 2003 comedy/drama “Love Actually.” “Metro … in Dino” follows eight adults and the various issues they have in their love lives, but the movie has extraneous subplots that just drag out an already boring film.

These are the movie’s eight main characters:

Parth (played by Aditya Roy Kapur), who is in his 20s, is a fun-loving, commitment-phobic bachelor who works as a travel vlogger.
Chumki (played by Sara Ali Khan), who is in her 20s, is a bachelorette with a master’s degree in business and works as a human resources manager in a corporate office, but she’s still unsure of what she wants to do as a career.
Akash (played by Ali Fazal), who is in his 30s, gave up his dream to become a professional musician and took a corporate office job after he got married so that his wife could feel more financially secure.
Shruti (played by Fatima Sana Shaikh), who is in her 30s, is Akash’s wife whose goal is to start a family with him when they are financially stable.
Monty (played by Konkona Sen Sharma), who is in his 40s, is cheating on his wife (whom he’s known for 19 years) by having emotional affairs with younger women whom he meets online.
Kajol (played by Pankaj Tripathi), who is in her 40s, is Monty’s angry wife who finds out about this infidelity and decides to get revenge on him.
Prival (played by Anupam Kher), a widower who is in his 60s, is looking forward to his college reunion, where he reconnects with a former love interest named Shivani.
Shivani (played by Neena Gupta), who is in her 60s and is the unhappily married mother of Kajol and Chumki, feels regret that Shivani gave up too much of her independence and dreams to be a homemaker spouse.

“Metro … in Dino” begins by showing Akash and his band (in real life: Pritam, Papon, Shashwat Singh, Raghav Chaitanya) performing bland pop music on the rooftop of a high-rise building. The movie has interludes that show the band performing in different locations, usually on the top of a building, as if that’s supposed to make the band’s trite music sound better. It doesn’t. These band scenes just look like awkwardly placed music video clips.

Throughout the movie is scene after scene of romantic movie stereotypes that have no flair and thrown into the jumbled storylines. There are “meet cute” moments that look unrealistic. There are schemes to make a lover jealous. There are people lying about their identities. And there are “aha” moments where certain people finally decide who are they want to be with in a committed romance.

Chumki and Parth, who live in Delhi, have their “meet cute” moment when she accidentally goes into his apartment while she’s very drunk because she thinks it’s her apartment. Parth happens to be taking a shower when she enters his apartment. And when he steps out of the shower, Chumki physically attacks him because she thinks he’s an intruder.

Parth and Chumki have an immediate attraction to each other, but she already has a “perfect” boyfriend when she meets Parth. Chumki’s boyfriend is handsome but shallow Anand (played by Kush Jotwani), who works in the same office as Chumki. Anand and Chumki also have the same boss. As already shown in the “Metro … in Dino” trailer, the relationship between Chumki and Anand gets more serious when they become engaged to be married.

Shruti is Parth’s platonic friend. They confide in each other about problems in their love lives. Parth doesn’t want to blatantly pursue Chumki when he knows that she already has a boyfriend, so he enlists Shruti to pretend to be his wife so he can “accidentally” see Shruti again and invite her to dinner on a double date.

Akash grows tired of his corporate job and decides to quit to revive his pursuit of being a professional musician. He decides to move from Bengaluru to Mumbai to find work as a musician and possibly get a record deal. Akash’s relocation happens around the same time that Shruti finds out that she’s pregnant and has stayed behind in Bengaluru. The long-distance separation takes a toll on the marriage. Shruti becomes attracted to a single father named Amay (played by Varun Tewari) while Akash is away.

Kajol likes to pretend to her friends that she has an idyllic life with Monty and their daughter Pihu (played by Ahana Basu), who is 15 years old. Monty openly brags to his friends that he’s cheating on Kajol with younger women whom he meets online. Kajol finds out about this infidelity and pretends to be a younger woman online and uses the alias Maya so that she can catch Monty (who uses the online alias is Wing Commander Raina) in the act of cheating.

Later in the movie, Kajol and Pihu and go to Pune to visit Kajol’s mother Shivani. Shivani lives with her husband Sanjeev (played by Saswata Chatterjee), who takes Shivani for granted and who has cheated on Shivani in the past. When Shivani was young, she wanted to be an actress and shared this passion for movies and acting with her college friend Parimal. You can bet that this passion will be re-ignited when Shivani and Parimal see each other again.

Parimal lives platonically in Kolkata with Jhunuk (played by Darshana Banik), who was the fiancée of his now-deceased son. Jhunuk has a new boyfriend named Rohan (played by Pranay Pachauri) who thinks this living arrangement is unusual, to say the least. The movie goes off on an very dull and clumsy tangent about relationship issues between Rohan and Jhunuk.

Another unnecessary subplot that makes “Metro … in Dino” overstuffed is when teenage Pihu explores her sexuality because she’s not sure if she’s heterosexual or a lesbian. She asks Apple’s Siri app for advice. And then, she asks her aunt Chumki for advice. Chumki tells Pihu that she’ll know what her sexuality is when Pihu kisses a guy and a girl.

The characters of Parth, Chumki, Kajol and Monty get the most eventful relationships. Akash, Shruti, Pirval and Shivanti are sidelined for long stretches of the movie and are mostly underdeveloped characters. Halfway through the movie, it would be understandable if “Metro … in Dino” viewers forget that Pirval and Shivanti exist because Pirval and Shivanti aren’t seen or mentioned at all for such a long period of time in the film. The acting performances are mostly mediocre and occasionally good but not strong enough to make the movie consistently interesting.

“Metro … in Dino” lumbers along with storylines that connect all the main characters, but the result of all this intertwining is like a watching a cinematic version of a tangled and flimsy ball of yarn. After a while, the arguments, misunderstandings, and deceptions that happen in these characters’ relationships become annoying, not endearing, because the movie’s scenarios have been seen and done before in much better films. “Metro … in Dino” is supposed to be a depiction of modern romance among adults, but too many of these adults act like they’re teenagers in an outdated and tacky melodrama.

AA Films released “Metro … in Dino” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on July 4, 2025.

Review: ‘Malice’ (2025), starring Zhang Xiaofei, Huang Xuan, Teresa Li, Mei Ting, Chen Yusi, Zhang Zixian and Yang Enyou

July 5, 2025

by Carla Hay

Zhang Xiaofei in “Malice” (Photo courtesy of Niu Vision Media)

“Malice” (2025)

Directed by Yao Wenyi

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2025 (with flashbacks to 2019), in Hangzhou, China, the dramatic film “Malice” features an-all Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: When a young hospital nurse and her 10-year-old cancer patient fall from a hospital rooftop, an ambitious TV news anchor rushes to be first with exclusive reports about the investigation, which leads to dire consequences for several people involved.

Culture Audience: “Malice” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in suspenseful dramas about crime cases and how these cases are covered in the media.

Chen Yusi in “Malice” (Photo courtesy of Niu Vision Media)

“Malice” can get a little preachy in its messaging about social media gossip and news media exploitation. However, it’s still an engrossing, twist-filled drama about the mysterious case of a nurse and her 10-year-old cancer patient, who both fell from a hospital rooftop. It’s an impactful story and cautionary tale about how it’s important not to jump to conclusions without getting as many facts as possible.

Directed by Yao Wenyi and written by Zhang Zhen, “Malice” takes place in Hangzhou, China. The movie is set in 2025, but most of the story is a flashback to 2019. “Malice” has thought-provoking commentary about the fickleness of how people are portrayed as “heroes” and “villains” in the media, as well as the extreme and reckless things that some people in the media will do in order to increase their audiences.

“Malice” begins by showing part of what happened Binjiang Third Hospital in Hangzhou, on the night on September 7, 2019. It’s a rainy night, and a 10-year-old female cancer patient named Jing (played by Yang Enyou) has escaped from her room. A 22-year-old nurse named Li Yue (played by Chen Yusi) chases after Jing, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma.

Jing and Yue both end up on the building’s high-rise rooftop and fall down onto the ground at the same time after tussling with each other. As a result of this tragic fall, Jing dies instantly, while Yue is a coma. Was Jing’s death an accident or not?

Someone who insists that it’s murder is Jing’s distraught mother You Qian (played by Mei Ting), who says she saw Yue force Jing off of the roof during the tussle between Yue and Jing. Qian was several feet away when she saw the fall and couldn’t save Jing in time. Because Qian saw this incident while it was dark and raining, and she was several feet away, Qian’s eyewitness account could be doubted, but most people in the general public immediately believe her.

Before “Malice” reveals the layers of the story about how this tragedy changed certain people’s lives, the movie cuts to a scene in 2025, where a well-known TV journalist named Ye Pan (played by Zhang Xiaofei) is making a speaking appearance to college-age students in an auditorium. The subject is media manipulation. During the lecture, she shows a video of a college professor named Professor Parker who tied himself to a chair and immersed himself in a tank of water.

As the water tank filled up, Professor Parker did a livestream on social media to say he would let himself drown in the tank if he got 1 million “likes” on the livestream within 31 hours. As the deadline approached, Pan asks the students what they think the outcome would be if they knew the professor had been accused of sexual harassment. Most of the students predicted that the public would want the professor to drown in the tank.

Pan continues to play the video recording until it shows that 1 million views were reached. Professor Parker burst out of the tank and revealed that it was all a social experiment to guage how far the public was willing to go to “punish” him because of this scandal. Pan goes on to explain that eventually there was video evidence to prove the professor really did commit sexual harassment, but his stunt was an extreme example of “cancel culture” on the Internet. “In this Internet age,” Pan says, “malice is at the fingertips.”

During this speaking appearance in the auditorium, one of the students asks Pan about her involvement in covering the case of Jing and Li Yue falling from the Binjiang Third Hospital. And that’s when “Malice” flashes back to 2019 for most of the movie. It should come as no surprise that different versions of what happened on that rooftop caused controversy and condemnations, fueled largely by social media influencers and traditional news reporters.

In 2019, Pan was the chief anchor/executive producer of a public TV news outlet called Evening Channel. And her husband Liang Guan (played by Huang Xuan) was the police captain in charge of investigating this case. At most legitimate news outlets, Pan would not be allowed to investigate the case, due to her spousal conflict of interest. But viewers soon see that Evening Channel isn’t exactly an ethical news outlet.

Pan’s boss Xiao Baoqian (played by Zhang Zixian) is obsessed with making the Evening Channel the media outlet with the largest audience (especially on social media) for this news story and for all news stories. Baoqian gives explicit orders to Evening Channel employees—including a producer named Haozi (played by Lei Songran) and Pan’s intern Chen Chen (played by Teresa Li)—to let them know that Baoqian’s top priority is increasing Evening Channel’s viewership, not ethical journalism. Therefore, Baoqian has no qualms about Pan pursuing this news story, which she is eager to do because she also cares about getting as large an audience as possible.

Pan also has an interest in the case because not long before Jing died, Pan had done an Evening Channel feature story on Jing, Qian and Jing’s stepfather Wei Qiang (played by Li Xiaochuan), because the family was soliciting donations for surgery that Jing needed. Pan doesn’t ask her husband to compromise his police investigation by telling her what he knows. She wants to do her own independent investigation. She decides to go undercover by pretending to be sick so that she can check into Binjiang Third Hospital as a patient.

While in the hospital, Pan interviews several hospital employees about Yue, who has been already portrayed in the media as a murderous villain. It doesn’t help that Yue’s social media videos and photos revealed that she was struggling with depression and self-esteem issues. Pan finds out from hospital employees that Yue wasn’t very well-liked by her co-workers because people thought she was bossy and rude.

Yue was also the subject of gossip because she was having an affair with Dr. Meng Hao (played by Pei Kuishan), an older married man who was also Jing’s doctor at the hospital. And then, Qian tells Pan an exclusive bombshell: Not long before Jing died, Jing took a photo of Dr. Hao and Yue in a secretive lovers’ embrace at the hospital and had showed the photo to Qian and other people at the hospital.

Yue found out about that Jing took this photo, which caused a scandal where Dr. Hao and Yue were disciplined and their professional reputations were tarnished. Dr. Hao’s wife also caused a scene when she showed up at the hospital and physically attacked Yue. After the scandal, Qian says that Yue told Qian that Yue was suicidal and that Yue made a comment that Yue was going to hell and taking Jing with her. Qian believes this is why she thinks Yue murdered Jing.

Pan puts all this information in a story as exclusive breaking news on Evening Channel. A responsible journalist would’ve done more investigating. However, Pan is feeling pressure to be first with a major story about the case, so she doesn’t do enough fact checking or more investigation. This carelenessness will come back to haunt her.

Pan’s story increases the audience for Evening Channel, which has hired social media influencers to boost the channel’s online coverage of the story. However, some things happen that put Qian’s version of events into doubt. And even more secrets are uncovered that aren’t immediately apparent and won’t be revealed in this review.

First, a young man named Dao Ye (played by Li Jiuxiao), using the alias Lord Dao, comes forward to defend Yue. In an exclusive interview with Pan on live TV, Dao saying that Yue was actually a wonderful person who helped him through a difficult time when he was suicidal and dealing with his biploar disorder.

Dao also says that when Yue got romantically involved with Dr. Hao, it was because Dr. Hao lied to her by saying he was divorced. Dao is outraged that Yue is being called a murderer by many people in the general public. The camera does a close-up of his face durng his interview as he says: “So I ask the 9 million people watching this: ‘Are you really that righteous?'”

Yue’s single mother (played by Ai Liya), who has been keeping a loyal vigil by Yue’s bedside, also says that Yue is not guilty of this murder accusation. Yue’s mother claims that Jing’s mother Qian is lying because Qian has a personal grudge against Yue. And then, a hospital surveillance video is found that puts Qian under suspicion. A medical examiner report also places doubt on Qian’s story.

At first, Pan gets some public criticism for being quick to make Yue look guilty. But in the media feeding frenzy for this case, her journalistic blunders are temporarily forgotten, as Pan admits she could’ve been wrong because of the limited information that she had at the time. Pan and other people following the case move on to other theories and possible “villains,” with the court of public opinion ready to convict someone before it’s determined whether or not a crime took place.

“Malice” has some realistic satire with montages portraying social media influencers trying to jump on the bandwagon with videos of conspiracy theories, condemnations of possible suspects, and performances of original songs about the suspects. This type of media circus is very true of what happens in real life with high-profile crime investigations. “Malice” also has scathing depictions of how people jump to conclusions based on their own personal biases, such as some people on social media saying that Yue is probably guilty, just because Yue came from a broken home where her father abandoned the family.

The movie stumbles when it tries to incorporate Pan and her husband’s relationship in the story. Although it’s easy to see why “Malice” wanted to add this layer of complication to Pan’s investigation, her husband isn’t in the movie enough to make a huge impact on the story. In real life, it would be a much bigger deal for a well-known TV reporter to be married to the chief police investigator of a case that the reporter is covering.

“Malice” has a flashback to another controversial news story that Pan covered in her past. In this news story, Pan did an exposé of people who were paid to give their “clean” urine that could be used by people who wanted to cheat in drug testing that uses urine samples. A tragedy happened as a result of that news story. This tragedy leads to the most soap-opera-like parts of the movie.

“Malice” is by no means perfect. The editing can be choppy, and the pacing of the story is often rushed. The movie also crams in a plot twist near the end related to Pan’s past drug-testing story that comes across as gimmicky. However, the acting performances are well-done, even for some of the two-dimensional characters such corrupt boss Baoqian. “Malice” is a fictional film, but it’s also a cautionary tale about real life: People who consume exploitative news stories about scandals are just as complicit in the exploitation as the people who report these types of news stories.

Niu Vision Media released “Malice” in U.S. cinemas on July 4, 2025. The movie was released in China on July 5, 2025.

Review: ‘Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print,’ starring Gloria Steinem, Pat Carbine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Suzanne Braun Levine, Marcia Ann Gillespie, Alan Alda and Annie Sprinkle

July 3, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print”

Directed by Salima Koroma, Alice Gu and Cecilia Aldarondo

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print” (which covers the 1970s and 1980s decades) features a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans) in the media and entertainment industry discussing the impact of Ms. magazine, the first nationally distributed American devoted to feminism.

Culture Clash: Ms. magazine covered controversial topics such as domestic violence, sexual harassment and pornography while also dealing with its internal problems of racial inequality and disagreements about the magazine’s editorial direction.

Culture Audience: “Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries about feminism and visionary magazines.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Gloria Steinem and Suzanne Braun Levine in “Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print” (Photo courtesy of HBO)

“Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print” is an illuminating chronicle of the first decade of feminist-oriented Ms. magazine. The documentary (which has interviews with the founding leaders and many of the original staffers) doesn’t sugarcoat the magazine’s problems and failings. Because the documentary only covers the history of Ms. in the 1970s and 1980s, it’s not a comprehensive story of the magazine, but it does give some fascinating history lessons on how Ms. magazine affected culture and vice versa.

“Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print” had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. The documentary includes excerpts from many letters sent by Ms. magazine readers in the 1970s and 1980s. “Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print” is told in three parts, each helmed by a different director. Having each director for each of these three parts is both an asset by havng different director perspective and a flaw because the documentary’s production inconsistency. For example, in the last part of the documentary, the interviewees are not shown on camera.

Part One, titled “A Magazine for all Women” and directed by Salima Koroma, covers the origins and earliest years of Ms., beginning with the magazine’s launch in 1971 and the criticisms from people on both ends of the political spectrum. Part Two, titled “Ms.: A Portable Friend” and directed by Alice Gu, chronicles how Ms. became the first American women’s magazine to delve into problems such as domestic violence and sexual harassment. Part Three, titled “No Comment” directed by Cecilia Aldarondo, tells how Ms. was affect by feminists’ varied opinions on pornography and definitions of sexual exploitation.

Part One dutifully describes how Ms. magazine came to be, as told through interviews with Ms. co-founder Gloria Steinem, Ms. founding editor Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Ms. founding publisher Pat Carbine, Ms. founding editor Suzanne Braun Levine, Ms. contributing writer Jane O’Reilly and Marcia Ann Gillespie, who became the first black woman to be the editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine. Steinem says she was inspired to start Ms. after covering a women’s rights movement meeting for New York magazine. “I suddenly realized that the women’s liberation” movement was being born.

The purpose of Ms. was to cover issues that other women’s magazines weren’t covering. At the time, women’s magazines were mostly about domestic responsibilities, fashion and/or beauty. Ms. wanted to challenge the status quo and celebrate that women should have options besides being wives and mothers.

Ms. magazine’s first issue, which was quickly put together in five months, was an insert in New York magazine’s December 1971 issue. The cover of Ms.’s first issue was an illustration by Miriam Wosk of a pregnant woman with several arms, inspired by Hindu goddess Kali, juggling various household and work items. Ms. became a stand-alone magazine with its January 1972 issue, which featured Wonder Woman on the cover. Ms. was an immediate success, selling out its first stand-alone issue. (Ms. began as a monthly magazine and switched to being as quarterly magazine since 1987.)

Some of the article titles in the Ms. magazine’s first few issues were “How to Make Your Own Marriage Contract” and “The Black Family and Feminism.” Steinem wrote an essay titled “Sisterhood.” The emphasis of Ms. wasn’t on how women could be better wives and mothers but how women could be better human beings whose worth was not dependent on whether or not a woman is a wife or mother.

O’Reilly’s “Click” essays is still cited as one of Ms.’s most memorable breakthrough articles. In the article, O’Reilly remembers seeing her family members walk over a pile of folded laundry that she had placed at the bottom of the stairs in the house. When her husband asked her why she didn’t put the laundry away, she had a “click” moment when it suddenly “clicked” with her to say what she felt: “Why don’t you carry it [the pile of laundry] up yourself?”

However, the magazine had its share of controversy and critics from the beginning. Harry Reasoner, who was a TV anchor for ABC News at the time, predicted on television that Ms. would be an embarrassing flop. He later made an on-air apology for being very wrong with this prediction. (Reasoner apparently had a pattern of being sexist toward women, since he reportedly treated Barbara Walters very badly when they worked together as co-anchors of “ABC Evening News.” The 2025 documentary “Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything” has more details.)

“A Magazine for All Women” is steeped in irony because Ms. magazine certainly doesn’t speak to all women. Many women are not believers in the feminist ideology that is the core of Ms. magazine. Similarly, the documentary acknowledges that in its earliest years, Ms. had many of the same problems with racial inequality and socioeconomic inequality that the feminist movement had overall: The self-appointed leaders were middle-class and affluent white women.

Cottin Pogrebin admits in the documentary that it was mistake that all of Ms.’s founding editors were white instead of having diverse leadership. Ms. made an attempt to remedy its racial equality problem by hiring former Essence editor-in-chief Gillespie as a contributing writer, but that didn’t happen until 1980. Gillespie rose through the ranks at Ms. by becoming a contributing editor, executive editor and editor-in-chief. Gillespie was editor-in-chief of Ms. from 1992 to 2001.

Essence magazine (a publication geared to black women) was launched in 1970, a year before the launch Ms., and the documentary acknowledges that in many ways, Essence helped paved the way for Ms. magazine because Essence covered civil rights and political issues at a time when most other women’s magazine were not. In the documentary, Gillespie admits that she was upset that Alice Walker’s 1974 “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” essay was published in Ms. instead of Essence, where Gillespie was editor-in-chief at the time. Gillespie says that Ms. got preference over Essence because Ms. was considered more “mainstream” (in other words, led by white people), so Ms. automatically got more media coverage.

Walker (who later found massive fame for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel “The Color Purple”) was a contributing editor at Ms. from the late 1970s to 1986, and resigned from that position because she publicly stated that Ms. was not putting enough people of color on the cover of Ms. magazine. Walker is not interviewed in the documentary. However, feminist writer Michelle Wallace (who is also African American) gives credit to Walker for giving Wallace important coverage in Ms. magazine. Wallace notes that when she did a separate photo shoots with Ms. and Essence, the people at Ms. made Wallace remove her braids, while the people at Essence let her keep her braids exactly the way that Wallace wanted.

Even with these racial inequalities within the Ms. magazine staff, the magazine championed black women in some ways that other “mainstream” magazines would not. Ms. was the first “mainstream” magazine to put Democratic politician Shirley Chisholm on the cover (for the March 1972 issue of Ms.), knowing that several magazine stands in the U.S. South would refuse to carry this issue because of Chisholm was on the cover. Ms. also lost out on advertising revenue from companies that refused to do business with Ms. because of the magazine’s editorial coverage of civil rights and politics.

Part Two of the documentary is well-researched but is the most laudatory section of the documentary because it essentially gives constant praise to Ms. for being the first nationally distributed American women’s magazine to do cover stories on domestic violence (“Battered Wives,” August 1976 issue) and sexual harassment (“Sexual Harassment on the Job and How to Stop It,” November 1977 issue). Many of magazine’s sales staff nearly quit over the decision to show a battered woman’s face (he right eye was bruise) on the cover of the domestic violence issue. For the sexual harassment cover photo, a man’s hand is shown touching the inside of a female puppet’s blouse because many of the Ms. staffers thought it would be inappopriate to have a real woman pose for that type of photo. The magazine weathered these controversies and supported legislation to hold people accountable for these abuses and to give more protection to victims/survivors.

In the documentary, Steinem says feedback from readers was crucial in influencing many of the editorial decisions and to encourage the magazine to keep going during difficult times. “The letters [from readers] were a lifeline,” Steinem comments. “They let us know that we were needed.” Not all of the reader feedback was positive, of course. A recurring theme in Ms. magazine’s history is that people feel threatened or dislike what feminism is all about.

True feminism isn’t about bashing men. True feminism is about believing in gender equality in a society where men usually have most of the power. That’s why when Ms. did a Men’s Issue in 1975, it was a controversial decision. Cottin Pogrebin explains why Ms. had a Men’s Issue: “We were liberating men from a straightjacket as well.” She adds that this straightjacket was choosing work over family and suppressing emotions.

Alan Alda (the actor best known for starring in the TV series “M*A*S*H*”) is the only man interviewed for this documentary. Steinem describes Alda as a “pioneering male feminist.” In his documentary interview, Alda says he is still proud to call himself a feminist but he also remembers the sting of criticism that he got for being a male feminist: He was called “king of the wimps” for his progressive views on feminism.

In addition to political issues that could alienate some people, Ms. wasn’t afraid to tackle health and business issues that could alienate potential advertisers. In the documentary, Steinem comments: “Advertisers censured women’s magazines in ways that they didn’t with Time or Newsweek. We needed advertising, but we weren’t selling our souls to advertisers” As an example, Steinem names Clairol (a leading company for hair products) as a company that refused to advertise in Ms. because Ms. did an article on the dangerous chemicals found in hair dye.

Part Three of the documentary skillfully handles the messy controversies within feminism and at Ms. magazine over how to cover the topics of pornography and other sex work. Within the ranks of Ms. magazine, the decision was made to make the distinction between erotica and pornography. It ended up being a cover story titled “Erotica and Pornography: Do You Know the Difference?” for Ms.’s November 1978 issue. Essentially, the article said that erotica was about sexuality, while pornography was about power and using sex as a weapon.

But with these arguable and subjective parameters, people still disagreed on what was “offensive” when it comes to pornography and other sex work. Andrea Dworkin (who died in 2005, at the age of 58) was a feminist who firmly believed that all pornography was bad for women. Steinem describes Dworkin as being “like an Old Testament prophet, raging from the hills.” Cottin Pogrebin adds, “Andrea was like a hero for all of us.”

The documentary mentions the work that the activist group Women Against Pornography did to shut down adult entertainment businesses back in the 1980s. And it’s also mentioned that left-wing feminists who railed against pornography also had this anti-porn stance in common with the right-wing conservatives who also wanted to eradicate pornography. Carole S. Vance, an anthropologist interviewed in the documentary, says it’s a slippery slope to have legal punishment for porn made by consenting adults. Dworkin was a contributing writer for Ms. until 1985, when she cut ties with the magazine because she felt that Ms.’s editorial acceptance of some pornography was a betrayal of her feminist values.

Another group of people who felt betrayed by Ms. were porn actresses and other sex workers, who were excluded from being interviewed in Ms.’s November 1978 erotica/porn cover story and other public discussions of how porn was affecting women. Interviewed in the documentary are best friends Annie Sprinkle and Veronica Vera, who were porn actresses and sex workers in the 1970s and 1980s and later documented adult entertainment as journalists. Sprinkle, Vera, and Robin Leonardi (daughter of 1970s porn star Gloria Leonard) says that Ms. magazine should not have excluded the input and perspectives of sex workers from that article and other editorial coverage of similar subject matter.

Ellen Sweet, who was a senior editor and writer at Ms. Magazine from 1980 to 1988, comments in the documentary about Ms. magazine’s coverage of porn: “This was probably the hardest thing we had to do. There were feminists on both sides of the issue.” When Sweet hears about an unpublished letter to Ms. from former porn actress/director Candida Royalle lamenting about Ms. ignoring the perspectives of women who work in porn, Sweet says: “I’m very sorry she was excluded.”

Toward the end of the documentary, it’s briefly mentioned that Sprinkle finally got to be a contributing commentator in the pages of Ms. when she wrote an article for Ms. in 2000. Sprinkle’s Ms. article wasn’t about sex. It was about cookies. Other people interviewed in the documentary are Dr. Lisa Coleman, president of Adler University; Lindsy Van Gelder, former Ms. magazine staff writer; and feminist activist Robin Morgan, co-founded Women’s Media Center with Jane Fonda and Steinem in 2005.

“Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print” is an undoubtedly an inspiring historical documentary for people who believe in feminism. The movie doesn’t fully acknowledge that the trailblazing that Ms. magazine did was in the context of the 20th century, when magazines had much more influence in the media than magazines do now. Therefore, the documentary exists in somewhat of a time capsule bubble, with no mention of what Ms. is doing for feminism since the Internet has become a dominant force in the media. As it stands, “Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print” is still worth watching for nostalgia and as an example of struggles in feminism that are still relevant today.

HBO premiered “Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print” on July 2, 2025.

Review: ‘The Old Guard 2,’ starring Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Veronica Ngô, Henry Golding, Uma Thurman and Chiwetel Ejiofor

July 2, 2025

by Carla Hay

“The Old Guard 2”

Directed by Victoria Mahoney

Culture Representation: Taking place in Italy, France, South Korea, and Indonesia, the sci-fi/action film “The Old Guard 2” (a sequel to 2020’s “The Old Guard,” based on the graphic novel series of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A team of immortal superheroes do battle against another immortal, who has nefarious plans and a team of thugs to help her.

Culture Audience: “The Old Guard 2” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, “The Old Guard” movie and graphic novel series, and action movies that are made to look like big-budget versions of poorly constructed video games.

Uma Thurman in “The Old Guard 2” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

Fans of Netflix’s 2020 blockbuster hit “The Old Guard” will be disappointed by how “The Old Guard 2” badly fumbles the continuation of the story. The entertaining banter from “The Old Guard” superhero movie has devolved into simplistic and stilted dialogue in “The Old Guard 2.” It’s a soulless sequel whose action scenes, visual effects and story are downgrades from “The Old Guard.”

Directed by Victoria Mahoney and written by Greg Rucka and Sarah L. Walker, “The Old Guard 2” is based on graphic novels of the same name written by Rucka. “The Old Guard” movie was written by Rucka and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. It’s obvious more care was put into making “The Old Guard,” compared to the generic dullness of “The Old Guard 2.”

“The Old Guard 2” does a terrible job of re-introducing the main characters because it does what no good movie sequel would do: It assumes that everyone watching this sequel has seen the first movie in the series. Without seeing “The Old Guard” or at least knowing what happened in “The Old Guard,” viewers of “The Old Guard 2” will be constantly lost and confused by what’s going on and who these main characters really are.

Here’s a summary of what people need to know before watching “The Old Guard 2”: A group of immortal warriors—led by Andromache of Scythia, nicknamed Andy (played by Charlize Theron, one of producers of the movie)—travel around the world as underground hired mercenaries. All of these immortals can lose their immortality for any reason at any time. They will not know in advance when they can lose their immortality.

Andy (who has a tough and occasionally tender personality) and the other longtime colleagues on her team have been alive for centuries: Gay couple Joe (played Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (played by Luca Marinelli) are a Middle Eastern man and an Italian man who became immortal while they were fighting on opposite sides of the Crusades. Joe is more of an impulsive rulebreaker than steadfast rule follower Nicky. Nile (played by KiKi Layne), a former lieutenant in the U.S. Marines, joined Andy’s team in “The Old Guard.” Nile, who is sensitive about being the team’s rookie, has psychic visions in her dreams.

Here are spoiler alerts from “The Old Guard” that people should know if watching “The Old Guard 2”: Someone who used to be Andy’s right-hand man is Booker (played by Matthias Schoenaerts), an adventurous French soldier who became an immortal during the War of 1812. In “The Old Guard,” Booker betrayed Andy’s team and was exiled to Paris by the end of the movie. By the end of “The Old Guard,” former CIA agent James Copley (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) went from being an enemy to an ally of Andy’s group of immortals. Andy also lost her immortality.

Andy’s biggest heartache and regret is how she couldn’t save her best friend Quynh (played by Veronica Ngô, also known as Van Veronica Ngô) from being put in an iron maiden cage and buried in the ocean about 500 years ago, when Andy and Quynh were captured and persecuted for being witches. In the beginning of “The Old Guard 2” (which takes place six months after the events of “The Old Guard”), Quynh is able to escape from the iron maiden when two men on a ship are seen opening up the iron maiden with Quynh inside. :ater in the movie, it’s shown that Quynh blames Andy for Quynh’s long and torturous imprisonment, so an enraged Quynh goes looking for Andy.

The first big action scene in “The Old Guard 2” cuts to Andy, Copley, Nile, Joe and Nicky doing a stakeout of a heavily guarded villa in Lake Como, Italy. It turns into the most impressive action sequence in the movie. Joe and Nicky distract the security guards by stealing two luxury cars that are parked outside the mansion. The chase scene is thrilling because it takes place on winding cliffside road.

Nile does combat on a nearby lake, while Andy and Copley get involved in a shootout inside the mansion. However, inside the mansion (which has a lot of tacky décor), there are some designs in bright blue that look like unnatural, as if computer-generated-imagery (CGI) was jused for everything. After all the fighting ends, the movie still doesn’t make it clear what this immortals’ mission was in this battle.

It should come as no surprise that the immortals win this battle. They go back to their headquarters to party. Andy says to the group: “The worst part of being mortal? The hangovers.” Nile looks at Andy with concern and asks, “I know you talk a lot, but how are you doing?” Andy replies, “Really happy. Peaceful.” This conversation takes on a different context of meaning if people know that Andy is now coping with losing her immortality less than a year earlier.

“The Old Guard 2” doesn’t explain a lot of things from “The Old Guard” that are necessary to fully understand “The Old Guard 2.” It’s a failure that comes down to lazy screenwriting. There are a few fleeting flashbacks to show why Quynh has a grudge against Andy, but these explanations arrive much later in the movie than they should. In the meantime, Quynh spends about half of her screen time scowling and talking out loud about how she wants to get revenge on Andy and her team.

Somehow, Quynh finds Booker in Paris, where he’s been living aimlessly with guilt and spending many days and nights getting drunk. The movie shows the outcome of this encounter and what Booker decides to do when he’s given the choice to get revenge on his former friends or reunite with them.

Nile has been dreaming about seeing mystery woman in a secret library but doesn’t know at first who this woman is and what’s the significance of this library. And that’s where another immortal named Tuah (played by Henry Golding) comes into the story. Tuah has a lot of answers, but his personality is so generic, the most memorable things about Tuah are his name, his physical attractiveness, and the fact he’s the immortal who discovers the book that gives a possible way that an immortal-turned-mortal can regain immortality.

The mystery woman in Nile’s dreams is another person targeting Andy’s team of immortals. Her name is Discord (played by Uma Thurman), who’s supposed to be the very first immortal—and that’s just about all the information that “The Old Guard 2” says about Discord’s backstory. She wants to kill all the other immortals and has a group of thugs (usually masked and wearing all black) as her team of assassins. Discord is a stereotypical snarling villain who might as well be a robot because this villain’s personality is very empty and flat.

All this means is that “The Old Guard 2” will have an inevitable showdown between Discord and Andy. And although it sounds very cool in theory to have action movie veterans Thurman and Theron battling it out in a combat scene, the fight between Discord and Andy is not as impressive as it could be and is marred by very corny dialogue. There are missed opportunities for Andy and her team to build on their camaraderie as a group because the movie has various individual members of the team going off in different directions, as they globetrot in cities such as Paris, Rome, Seoul and Jakarta.

“The Old Guard 2” is so caught up in going from fight scene to fight scene, it doesn’t take enough time to give viewers a clear sense of the characters’ backstories and personal histories with each other, which were told very well in “The Old Guard.” The acting performances in “The Old Guard 2” are serviceable, but they can’t disguise the lackluster conversations that drag down the movie. The ending of “The Old Guard 2” (where a character has a drastic, not-very-believable change in attitude) just feels like it was rushed in to set up a sequel that less people will want to see now that “The Old Guard 2” has made a boring mess of this movie series that could’ve been great.

Netflix premiered “The Old Guard 2” on July 2, 2025.

Review: ’40 Acres,’ starring Danielle Deadwyler, Kataem O’Connor, Michael Greyeyes, Leenah Robinson and Milcania Diaz-Rojas

July 1, 2025

by Carla Hay

“40 Acres”

Directed by R.T. Thorne

Culture Representation: Taking place in Canada, the dramatic film “40 Acres” features a racially diverse cast of characters (black, white, Latin and Native American) who are survivors of an apocalypse.

Culture Clash: In a famine -plagued world where some humans are cannibals, a former military soldier orders her family not to trust any strangers, but her son defies those orders when he secretly helps a woman who hides in the family’s barn.

Culture Audience: “40 Acres” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of well-acted movies about how people live with a “survival of the fittest” mentality in an apocalyptic world.

Kataem O’Connor and Milcania Diaz-Rojas in “40 Acres” (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

The apocalyptic drama “40 Acres” does not have as much thrilling action as some viewers might expect. Instead, the movie impressively shows how isolationism affects a farm-dwelling family and how mistrust can be either a shield or psychological poison. There are some horror elements in “40 Acres” but it’s not completely a horror movie.

Written and directed by R.T. Thorne, “40 Acres” is Thorne’s feature-film directorial debut. “40 Acres” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie takes place in an unnamed area of Canada and was filmed in the Canadian province of Ontario.

At the beginning of “40 Acres,” it’s explained that a pandemic that began 15 years ago has lead to widespread famine. Food has become more valuable than ever before. That’s why the members of the Freeman family, who are at the center of the story, know that they are always at risk because they live on a fertile farm and are not starving for foor. Making matters worse in this apocalypse, some people have become cannibals, who are called “flesh eaters” in the movie.

These are the members of this tight-knit farm clan:

Hailey Freeman (played by Danielle Deadwyler) is a former military soldier who is the family’s leader who expects everyone on the family to be ready and able to use the arsenal of weapons (including several guns) that they have on the farm. She treats the family like a military unit and orders them not to trust strangers. If any trespassers on their property, Hailey’s attitude is like to the be “Shoot first. Ask question later.”
Emmanuel, nicknamed Manny (played by Kataem O’Connor), is Hailey’s eldest child. Manny is in his early-to-mid-20s and is starting to question Hailey’s strict ways. Naturally, this leads to Manny and Hailey clashing over various issues.
Danis (played by Jaeda LeBlanc) is Hailey’s middle child. Danis is in her mid-teens is occasionally torn between following Hailey’s orders and being more of a free-thinking individual like her older brother Manny. Danis and Manny have the same biological father, who is deceased and not seen in the movie.
Cookie (played by Haile Amare) is Hailey’s youngest child. Cookie is about 10 years and is very obedient. She is curious about life outside the farm, but Cookie knows that she’s too young to do anything that could put her family’s safety at risk.
Galen (played by Michael Greyeyes) is Hailey’s romantic partner and the biological father of Cookie. If Hailey is he general of the family, Galen is Hailey’s loyal lieutenant general. Galen is more laid-back than Hailey, but he will not hesitate to scold any of the children if they get out of line.
Raine (played by Leenah Robinson), who is in her late teens, is Galen’s biological daughter from a previous relationship. Raine’s biological mother is deceased. As the second-oldest child in this blended family, Raine is eager to be given the same responsibilities that Manny has, but Hailey thinks Raine will be suitable only after Raine learns how to “follow directions.”

Flashbacks reveal that the tension between Hailey and Manny go back long before the apocalypse. For a period of time, up until Manny was about 6 or 7 years old (played by Jacob Gabriel), Manny was raised by Hailey’s father Felix Freeman (played by Tyrone Benskin), because Hailey was too busy with her military career. One of the flashbacks shows Hailey going to see Manny at Felix’s house, and Manny has to be told who Hailey is because he doesn’t know her.

Early on in the movie, the family members fend of an attack from flesh eaters, who invade the property and are killed off in a corn field by the family using sniper tactics. Hailey communicates by CB radio with a woman named Augusta Taylor (played by Elizabeth Saunders), who is a friend from Hailey’s past. August warns Hailey that roaming flesh eaters have been on the attack and are getting closer to where Hailey and her family live.

Later in the movie, Manny finds a stranger hiding in the family barn. Her name is Dawn (played by Milcania Diaz-Rojas), and she says she is looking for the Freeman family and that she means no harm. Manny doesn’t tell her right away that he’s in the Freeman family, but he doesn’t treat like an enemy either. Manny and Dawn seem to be immediately attracted to each other, which is why Manny does what he’s under orders not to do: He trusts this stranger and decides to keep her hidden in the barn. The movie shows what happens after Manny makes this decision.

Meanwhile, the family is on edge because of the flesh eaters who could show up at any moment. Dialogue in the movie reveals that many of the flesh eaters are white supremacists who specifically target people who aren’t white to be the cannibals’ murder victims. This racial tension (all of the people in the Freeman family are people of color) is an emotionally charged but not overstated aspect of the story, which presents this tension as getting worse because of the famine.

In a director’s statement, Thorne said: “The film’s title, ’40 Acres,’ refers to the historic promise of land ownership made by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16, 1865, to formerly enslaved Black farmers. The promise, backed by the Federal government, was to grant 40 acres of farmland and a mule to freed enslaved people of African descent. However, this promise was tragically reversed during the Reconstruction era, denying the Black community once again. Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of generational African American farmers who settled in Canada after the Civil War. In a world that has imploded, the land they live on represents their legacy, freedom, and heritage.”

Some suspension of disbelief is required in “40 Acres” because it’s hard to believe that the Freeman’s plentiful farm hasn’t been discovered and raided already. Although the movie has no signs of modern communication, such as the Internet or phone service, word of mouth would travel fast about the type of farm where the Freeman family lives. The farm is isolated but it’s still fairly accessible because it has no protective walls or borders.

“40 Acres” sometimes has slow pacing, which is offset by bursts of action scenes involving battles. And although Deadwyler capably handles the role of Hailey, at times scowling and uptight Hailey becomes a little to one-note. O’Connor, as Emmanuel/Manny has the most complex role in the movie, because he’s torn between his family’s custom of trusting no o one outside of the family and a new lifestyle that he wants to try: trusting strangers on a case-by-case, individual basis.

Although the a few of the scenarios in “40 Acres” are a tad unrealistic, the performances from the principal cast members are believable. The movie offers plenty of food for thought about the pros and cons of isolationism in apocalyptic circumstances. Many of the themes in “40 Acres” also apply to the real world and invite viewers to ponder if extreme separatism does more harm than good.

Magnolia Pictures will release “40 Acres” in U.S. cinemas on July 2, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on June 16 and June 19, 2025.

Review: ‘Jurassic World Rebirth,’ starring Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono and Audrina Miranda

June 30, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Jurassic World Rebirth”

Directed by Gareth Edwards

Culture Representation: Taking place near South America, the sci-fi/action film “Jurassic World Rebirth” (the seventh feature film in the “Jurassic” series) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latin people and a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A rogue group of explorers and an unsuspecting family get trapped on an island where dinosaurs live and attack.

Culture Audience: “Jurassic World Rebirth” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the “Jurassic” movie series and the movie’s headliners, but the movie rehashes many of the same themes and storylines.

A Spinosaurus in “Jurassic World Rebirth” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)

“Jurassic World Rebirth” should be called “Jurassic World Rehash.” It delivers plenty of action, but it borrows heavily from the plot of “Jurassic World III,” with no real innovation or surprises regarding who lives, who dies, and what the dinosaurs do. “Jurassic World Rebirth” has a lot of awkward acting and unconvincing scenes. And the product placement in the movie is just obnoxiously ridiculous. You can immediately spot many of the product placements by how certain brands of candy, breath mints and potato chips are pushed into the forefront of a scene so that they’re impossible to ignore.

Directed by Gareth Edwards and written by David Koepp, “Jurassic World Rebirth” is the seventh feature film in the “Jurassic” movie series that began with 1993’s “Jurassic Park,” which is still the best movie in the series. “Jurassic Park” and 1997’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” were based on, respectively, Michael Crichton’s novels “Jurassic Park” (first published in 1990) and “The Lost World” (first published in 1995). The “Jurassic World” movies are sequels to the first three “Jurassic Park” movies.

“Jurassic World Rebirth” takes place in five years after the events of 2022’s “Jurassic World Dominion.” Do you have to see any of the other “Jurassic Park” movies to understand “Jurassic World Rebirth”? No, because “Jurassic World Rebirth” has an entire cast of characters who were not in the previous “Jurassic” movies and “Jurassic World Rebirth” is essentially about people trying not to be killed by dinosaurs.

According to the “Jurassic World Rebirth” production notes, here is what Earth is like in the story: “The planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures across land, sea and air within that tropical biosphere hold, in their DNA, the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind. And so, in ‘Rebirth,’ dinosaurs are in danger of extinction once more. The only places they continue to thrive are the tropical climes along the equator.”

“Jurassic World” begins by showing a catastrophe that happened 17 years ago on Ile Saint-Hubert, located 227 miles off the northeastern coast of South America. (“Jurassic World Rebirth” was actually filmed in the United Kingdom and in Malta.) The island had a secret research and development facility operated by InGen, the company known for cloning dinosaurs in the previous “Jurassic” movies. The movie’s opening scene shows that a worker in the facility unknowingly left a discarded candy bar wrapper on the floor.

This candy bar wrapper got stuck in an air vent and caused a giant glass-enclosed research lab to reboot the system and then explode, killing most of the people inside. The research lab housed dinosaurs that were being used for illegal experiments. After the explosion, the facility was shut down permanently, but the dinosaurs and their offspring remained on this secret island.

In the present day (2025), certain people have discovered that each of the largest types of dinosaurs left behind on Ile Saint-Hubert have genetic DNA that can cure heart disease in humans. The three types of dinosaurs are Quetzalcoatlus (avian), Mosasaurus (aquatic), and Titanosaurus (terrestrial). With this confidential knowledge, it’s only a matter of time before a greedy corporate type wants to get this dinosaur DNA and profit from it.

Martin Krebs (played by Rupert Friend) is the corrupt leader of a major American pharmaceutical company that wants to obtain this DNA, which would be illegal. Martin doesn’t care, and he’s got the wealth to buy their services of a team that will go to Ile Saint-Hubert and get the DNA. Martin wants to personally go on this mission too because he doesn’t trust anyone else to handle the DNA once it’s extracted.

Leading this extraction mission is no-nonsense Zora Bennett (played Scarlett Johansson), a longtime mercernary/special operations agent, who agrees to for this job for Martin for $10 million. Martin and Zora then convince Dr. Henry Loomis (played by Jonathan Bailey)—a museum-based paleontologist whose specialty is colossal dinosaurs—to join the this covert team.

Zora then visits a longtime friend and former colleague named Duncan Kincaid (played by Mahershala Ali), the captain of a camouflaged military patrol craft named The Essex. Duncan is very skeptical but Zora persuades Duncan to join this mission with select members of Duncan’s crew. The three members of Duncan’s crew who are part of this mission are adventurous co-pilot/deckhand Nina (played by Philippine Velge), reliable co-pilot/deckhand LeClerc (played by Bechir Sylvain) and daredevil security chief Bobby Atwater (played by Ed Skrein). All of them are enticed by the money they will be paid.

Why such a small crew for a big mission? Martin explains the less people who know about this mission, the better. The team has giant hypodermic needles to collect the samples when the needles are shot from arsenal into the dinosaurs. Once a needle filled, the needle self-ejects and triggers an attached parachute that will presumably float into hands of the person who wants the needle. This needle parachuting has some of the most ridiculous “too good to be true” moments in the movie.

Not long after The Essex sets sail for Ile Saint-Hubert, a group on a very different boat excursion will cross paths with the people on The Essex. Divorced father Reuben Delgado (played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) is contuinuing their annual tradition of taking his two daughters on a sailing trip. Teresa Delgado (played by Luna Blaise), who is 18, is going to be a first-year student at New York University and feels she has outgrown these father-daughter excursions. Isabella Delgado (played by Audrina Miranda), who is 11, very much wants to be on this trip with her family.

Someone else has joined the Delgado family for this boat trip: Teresa’s eccentric boyfriend Xavier Dobbs (played by David Iacono), who comes across as a weirdo stoner. Reuben doesn’t know what to think about Xavier, who doesn’t talk much and seems to be the opposite of intelligent and goal-oriented Teresa. But in a movie where people of different backgrounds find themselves fighting for their lives against dinosaurs, you already know that certain characters who were at first uncomfortable with each other will be forced to work together and see each other in a different way.

Terror comes quickly to the Delgado group when a Spinosaurus in the ocean attacks and capsizes the group’s boat. After a harrowing sequence (one of the better parts of an otherwise formulaic movie), the Delgado group is rescued by the people on The Essex. None of this is spoiler information because the trailers for “Jurassic World Dominion” lready show the Delgado group and The Essex group in peril together.

The Delgado group just wants to go home. However, some people from The Essex group want to continue to push forward to Ile Saint-Hubert and drop off the Delgado group to safety after the dinosaur DNA samples are obtained. After much debate, it’s decided that the Delgado group will have to wait until people in The Essex group get what they set out to get. The people in the Essex group are secretive about why they want this dinosaur DNA, but they can’t hide the fact that they’re acting suspiciously.

With the Delgado group forced to tag along on this mission, you know what that means: More people for the dinosaurs to attack. “Jurassic World Rebirth” just has a series of attack scenarious that look very familiar to the “Jurassic” movie franchise, but with different-looking dinosaurs. It should come as no surprise that the dinosaurs that were used in experiements look very different. (Can you say “mutant”?)

The personal stories of the human characters are basic, scant and unremarkable. Zora is a loner who’s still dealing with the trauma of a combat colleague dying in a car bombing. It’s also mentioned that Zora did not attend her mother’s recent funeral. Duncan, who is a divorced father of an underage son, is experiencing heartbreak because of his failed marriage.

Self-professed “dinosaur nerd” Henry doesn’t seem to have a personal life at all because he’s so consumed with his work. Martin is the movie’s obvious heartless villian, so the movie doesn’t even mention who his loved ones are. And the people in Duncan’s crew are generic characters whose fate in the movie can be easily be predicted.

And so that leaves the Delgado group to give “Jurassic World Rebirth” viewers an immediate and visible sense that they are the people with the most at stake in staying alive for their loved ones. The movie sometimes struggles between giving attention to The Essex group versus the Delgado group, who are each separated from each other at different points in the movie. In between all the dinosaur action, there’s some tedious drama about whether or not Xavier will be fully accepted by Reuben.

“Jurassic Park III” also has a plot about dinosaurs needed for research to improve human lives, with people hiring a rogue group to take them on a secret private visit to the “forbidden” island populated by dinosaurs. “Jurassic Park III” also has a family with siblings who are trapped on the island, but the siblings are brothers in “Jurassic Park III.” And just like in “Jurassic Park III,” there’s a Spinosaurus and there are Velociraptors in major attack scenes.

“Jurassic World Rebirth” does introduce new dinosaurs that weren’t in previous “Jurassic” films. Not all of them will be described here, but one is a baby Aquilops, who follows the Delgado group like a stray puppy and has a mischievous-but-cute personality. Isabella grows attached to this female Aquilops, names her Dolores, and wants to keep Dolores as a pet. It’s all very “Lilo & Stitch.”

The visual effects in “Jurassic World Rebirth” do not disappoint, but the action scenarios and chase scenes are just retreads of other movies. Similarly, there’s nothing terrible about the acting performances in “Jurassic World Rebirth,” but the dialogue is often just witless drivel. No one is expecting a “Jurassic” movie to be intellectual, but at least these movies should make the dialogue sound like realistic conversations, not something that could have been generated by cheap artificial intelligence. “Jurassic World Rebirth” is a movie that is ultimately stuck in the birth canal of creativity and shows no interest in evolving past its predecessors.

Universal Pictures will release “Jurassic World Rebirth” in U.S. cinemas on July 2, 2025.

True Crime Entertainment: What’s New This Week

The following content is generally available worldwide, except where otherwise noted. All TV shows listed are for networks and streaming services based in the United States. All movies listed are those released in U.S. cinemas. This schedule is for content and events premiering this week and does not include content that has already been made available.

June 30 – July 6, 2025

TV/Streaming Services

All times listed are Eastern Time/Pacific Time, unless otherwise noted.

Netflix’s four-episode docuseries “Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers” premieres on Tuesday, July 1 at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT.

Monday, June 30

“Burden of Proof: The Case Against Diddy“
(Episode 133)
Monday, June 30, 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT, ABC News Live

“Fatal Attraction”
“Keep Your Friends Close” (Episode 1557)
Monday, June 30, 9 p.m., TV One

“Mean Girl Murders”
“Bad News Bobbies” (Episode 302)
Monday, June 30, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery

“Live PD: Police Patrol”
(Episode 286)
Monday, June 30, 9 p.m., A&E

“Live PD: Police Patrol”
(Episode 287)
Monday, June 30, 9:30 p.m., A&E

“Killing Spree Couple” (One-hour special)
Monday, June 30, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery

Tuesday, July 1

“Attack on London: Hunting The 7/7 Bombers” (Four-episode docuseries)
Tuesday, July 1, 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT, Netflix

“Trainwreck“
“The Cult of American Apparel” (Episode 104)
Tuesday, July 1, 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT, Netflix

“Burden of Proof: The Case Against Diddy“
(Episode 134)
Tuesday, July 1, 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT, ABC News Live

“United Gangs of America”
“Vagos” (Episode 205)
Tuesday, July 1, 9 p.m., Vice

“See No Evil”
“The Golden Sedan” (Episode 1405)
Tuesday, July 1, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery

“Fatal Destination”
“The Ghost Ship” (Episode 105)
Tuesday, July 1, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery

Wednesday, July 2

“The Ohio Student Murders” (Documentary film)
Wednesday, July 2, 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT, Peacock

“Burden of Proof: The Case Against Diddy“
(Episode 135)
Wednesday, July 2, 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT, ABC News Live

“Dateline: Secrets Uncovered”
“The End of the Affair”
Wednesday, July 2, 8 p.m., Oxygen

“Payback”
“Shattered” (Episode 411)
Wednesday, July 2, 9 p.m., TV One

“Court Cam: Top Five”
“Florida Moments 2”
Wednesday, July 2, 9 p.m., A&E

“Court Cam: Top Five”
“Daring Escape Attempts”
Wednesday, July 2, 9:30 p.m., A&E

“Taking the Stand”
“Saha Skare” (Episode 406)
Wednesday, July 2, 10 p.m., A&E

“The Diddy Trial” (TV Special)
Wednesday, July 2, 10 p.m. ET/ PT, ABC

Thursday, July 3

“Burden of Proof: The Case Against Diddy“
(Episode 136)
Thursday, July 3, 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT, ABC News Live

“Butchers of L.A.”
“On the Freeway” (Episode 101)
Thursday, July 3, 10 p.m., Sundance TV

Friday, July 4

“TMZ Presents: United States vs. Sean Combs: Inside the Diddy Trial”
(Episode 109)
Friday, July 4, 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT, Tubi

“Cops”
TBA
Friday, July 4, 6 p.m., Fox Nation

“20/20”
TBA
Friday, July 4, 9 p.m., ABC

Saturday, July 5

No new crime TV show episodes premiering on this date.

Sunday, July 6

“Snapped”
“Angelita Wright” (Episode 3513)
Sunday, July 6, 6 p.m., Oxygen

“Evil Lives Here: The Killer Speaks”
“A Killer’s Words” (Episode 210) **Season Finale**
Sunday, July 6, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery

Movies in Theaters or on Home Video

No new true crime movies released in theaters or on home video this week.

Radio/Podcasts

No new true crime radio or podcast series premiering this week.

Events

Events listed here are not considered endorsements by this website. All ticket buyers with questions or concerns about the event should contact the event promoter or ticket seller directly.

All start times listed are local time, unless otherwise noted.

No new true crime events this week.