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What to Watch on TV and at the Movies This Week

See Sly Stallone in ‘Tulsa King,’ Jeff Bridges in ‘The Old Man’ and the debut of ‘The Golden Bachelorette’


spinner image Joan Vassos standing on the set of The Golden Bachelorette
Joan Vassos stars in "The Golden Bachelorette."
Courtesy Disney

What’s on this week? Whether it’s what’s on cable, streaming on Prime Video or Netflix, or opening at your local movie theater, we’ve got your must-watch list. Start with TV and scroll down for movies. It’s all right here.

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On TV this week …

The Old Man, Season 2 (FX)

An ex-CIA man (Oscar-winning Jeff Bridges, 74) and his long-ago colleague (double Oscar nominee John Lithgow, 78) race to rescue an FBI agent (Alia Shawkat) from an Afghan warlord who kidnapped her — and all three men claim she’s their daughter. “Think of it as Mamma Mia! but with a lot more murder,” wrote TheWrap’s Kayla Cobb. This season, at last Bridges and Lithgow get to play scenes together, instead of in parallel storylines. Lithgow told AARP that growing older has been great for his career: “I’ve had these just wonderful job opportunities — things have been better since I turned 70 than they ever were before.”

Watch it: The Old Man, Sept. 12, 10 p.m. ET on FX

76th Primetime Emmy Awards (ABC)

Who’s going to take the gold statuette in TV’s top entertainment competition? Will anyone beat Slow Horses’ Gary Oldman, 66, for best drama actor? Can anyone possibly beat HacksJean Smart, 72, for best comedy actress? Don’t bet on it. But don’t miss the TV event of the year.

Watch it: 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, Sept. 15, 8 p.m. ET on ABC

​Tulsa King, Season 2 (Paramount+)​

Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone, 78) is out of the hoosegow and back in the gambling and pot business, but now he’s got rivals muscling in on his turf: A-list tough guys Neal McDonough, 58 (who played an unforgettable psycho criminal in Justified), and Frank Grillo, 59 (Gangster Squad). In the new season by showrunner Terence Winter, 63 (The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire), Dwight faces an even tougher challenge: repairing his relationships with his daughter, sister and grandkids. Plus, rich horse ranch owner Margaret Devereaux (Dana Delany, 68, China Beach) just might want to lasso his heart.​

Watch it: Tulsa King, Sept. 15 on Paramount+

Note: Paramount+ provides a discount to AARP members and pays AARP a royalty for the use of its intellectual property

Dancing With the Stars (ABC, Disney+, Hulu)

We know who we’ll be watching most intently among the many hoofers on the celebrity dance competition’s new season: Tori Spelling, 51; Julia Roberts’ brother, Eric Roberts, 68; and Anna Sorokin, who posed as Anna Delvey, got convicted of grand larceny, was immortalized in the marvelous 2022 Netflix series Inventing Anna, and will dance while wearing her court-ordered ankle bracelet.

Watch it: Dancing With the Stars, Sept. 17, 8 p.m. ET on ABC, Disney+; Sept. 18 on Hulu

The Golden Bachelorette (ABC)

Joan Vassos, 61, quit The Golden Bachelor to tend to her ailing daughter. Now she’s the first-ever Golden Bachelorette. The mother of four and grandmother of two who loves dancing, museums, Elton John and big, juicy burgers will choose one of 24 guys vying for her hand — and presumably smooch a lot more. 

Watch it: The Golden Bachelorette, Sept. 18, 8 p.m. ET on ABC

Don’t miss this: Meet the 24 Men Who Will Court the Golden Bachelorette

Your Netflix Watch of the Week is here!

Kaos

Jeff Goldblum, 71, seldom loses his cool on camera, but as Zeus, the Greek god of thunder, he lets loose quite a temper. In a darkly wry romp through mythology, his bitter, scheming wife, Hera (Janet McTeer, 63), copes with his insecurity, rages and infidelity; David Thewlis, 61, plays Hades; and Debi Mazar, 60, is Medusa. Killian Scott is Orpheus, a singer-songwriter whose wife, Eurydice (Aurora Perrineau), wants to dump him, and Stephen Dillane, Game of Thrones’ Stannis Baratheon, is Zeus’ ex-best friend Prometheus, chained to a rock while an eagle gnaws his liver — and plotting to get even.

Watch it: Kaos on Netflix

Don’t miss this: The Best Things Coming to Netflix in September

Don’t miss this: The Best Movies on Netflix Right Now

And don’t miss this: AARP’s Favorite Streaming Shows of 2024 (So Far), in AARP Members Edition

Your Prime Video Watch of the Week is here!

Colette

Keira Knightley stars in this underrated biopic of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, the French novelist who rose to fame in the early 20th century for her semi-autobiographical novels about a country girl who became a Paris socialite. This is one writer’s life that isn’t dull, as she battled a profligate husband who took credit for her work and embarked on an affair with a woman (that morphed into a ménage à trois with her jealous hubby). How very French!

Watch it: Colette, Sept. 12 on Prime Video

Don’t miss this: The 11 Best Things Coming to Prime Video in September

And don’t miss this: AARP’s Favorite Network Shows of 2024 (So Far), in AARP Members Edition

New at the movies …

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ My Old Ass, R

While tripping on mushrooms, a teenager (Nashville alum Maisy Stella) encounters her future thirtysomething self, played by master of deadpan Aubrey Plaza. But will she heed the hindsight-fueled advice of her middle-aged mentor — especially when she meets the hunky older guy she’s been told will ruin her life? And does she have a big lesson to teach her older self, too? The film won raves at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and its finale is more romantic than any rom-com of the year.

Watch it: My Old Ass, Sept. 13 in theaters, Sept. 27 on Prime Video

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⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, PG-13

The sequel doesn’t quite pack the exhilarating punch of the 1988 original, and the plot is scattershot even by director Tim Burton’s standards. But he hasn’t lost his gloriously ghastly/silly visual imagination, his love of film homages (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Trainspotting, 1960s Italian horror flicks) and his bubbly sense of humor. Michael Keaton, 73, is still aces as the cartoonish titular demon pursuing the same goth girl (Winona Ryder, 52) for a marriage that’s his ticket out of the afterlife. Lydia’s now a grownup with a daughter (Jenna Ortega) in a similar predicament. And Catherine O’Hara, 70, remains inimitably narcissistic as Lydia’s appalling artist mom. Monica Bellucci, 59, is lively as a dismembered cadaver who staples together her hacked-up parts, sucks out people’s souls and wants to marry Beetlejuice. There’s a climactic wedding-day scene in which everybody lip-syncs to “MacArthur Park,” the grandiose 1968 tune, which makes more sense than people realize (its composer really saw a cake melting in the rain in that park by his ex’s office, and to him, it symbolized his lost wedding plans). But the song is way more fun as a senseless send-up in a Beetlejuice movie. —Tim Appelo (T.A.)

Watch it: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, in theaters

Don’t miss this: Test Your Knowledge in AARP’s ‘Beetlejuice’ Trivia Quiz

Rebel Ridge (Netflix)

The only thing that may be better than a dirty-cop movie is a dirty-cop movie starring a sinister Don Johnson, 74. The Underground Railroad’s Aaron Pierre plays a Black former Marine who travels to a small, largely white town to bail his cousin out of jail and stumbles on to a conspiracy involving the police. Directed by Jeremy Saulnier (2015’s tense and taut Green Room), Rebel Ridge is an extremely interesting late-night thriller.

Watch it: Rebel Ridge on Netflix

Don't miss this: Don Johnson Tells AARP He Will Never Retire: ‘I’m Getting Better!’ in AARP Members Edition

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ His Three Daughters, R

Natasha Lyonne is on fire (and frequently lit) as stay-at-home Rachel, the ballsiest of three grown daughters taking care of their dying father, Vincent (Jay O. Sanders, 71, most famous as the family man/hit man hiding a body in the freezer beside the ice cream on Law & Order). As the sisters gather and gripe in their father’s small NYC apartment, the alienated trio — including uptight Katie (a sharp-edged Carrie Coon free of her Gilded Age froufrou and feathered hats) and desperate-to-be-mellow youngest, Christina (Elizabeth Olsen) — confront and avoid their many family conflicts. A never-better Lyonne and a brittle Coon are the standouts in a contemporary “you can’t go home again” family drama that is at times hilarious, cringe-worthy and as brutally honest as a slap in the face. —Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)

Watch it: His Three Daughters, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Look Into My Eyes, R

Lana Wilson’s film about a handful of NYC seers will probably not change your preexisting opinions about psychics’ ability to converse with the dead. Proof isn’t the filmmaker’s intention in this absorbing, straightforward and occasionally spine-tingling documentary. The camera largely is a silent witness to interactions between professionals and their varied clientele. The audience accesses the private sessions between seekers of answers to their lives’ problems, contact with their late loved ones or clues to future prosperity and romance. In some sessions, it appears the clairvoyant is asking 20 questions, then extrapolating from knowledge divulged by the subject. Sometimes it’s a method close to therapy by which the intuitive opens a portal to knowledge the seekers wouldn’t otherwise have, revealing secrets and voices from beyond the veil that crack open the client. The emotional connections are frequently profound, intimate and, like the film itself, compelling. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Look Into My Eyes, in theaters

The Idea of You (Prime Video)

The best (and best reviewed) 2024 movie on Prime Video this week is this rom-com about a midlife single mom (Anne Hathaway) who has a whirlwind romance with the 24-year-old superstar lead singer of the hottest boy band on the planet. The film’s popularity inspired AARP’s number 1 hit watch list: 12 Classic Older Woman-Younger Man Movies to Watch After Anne Hathaway’s ‘The Idea of You.’

Watch it: The Idea of You on Prime Video

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Reagan, PG-13

Dennis Quaid, 70, is pretty good as the charming Ronald Reagan, and Penelope Ann Miller, 60 (Carlito’s Way) is solid as First Lady Nancy Reagan. Howard Klausner, who wrote Clint Eastwood’s excellent Space Cowboys about aging test pilots who repair a Russian satellite, was ideologically just the guy to write this story of the aging Hollywood actor turned political superstar, taking down the Soviet Union and quipping to younger Democratic rival Walter Mondale (John Gibson Miller), “I will not exploit my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” But the film stomps historical nuance, flattens character and caricatures Reagan’s political opponents and first wife Jane Wyman (Mena Suvari). The framing device, a Russian agent (Jon Voight, 85) who spied on Reagan and tells his life story, is clumsy. But the movie as a whole isn’t awful, and it’s interesting to see Reagan’s life and anti-communist crusade through the lens of his religious faith. —T.A.

Watch it: Reagan, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Between the Temples, R

Like a ’70s flashback, this funky, funny-sad, character-driven drama about two iconoclasts in awkward love recalls — but doesn’t imitate — 1971’s Harold and Maude. Ben (an appealing Jason Schwartzman with a full-on emotional arc) is a cantor in spiritual crisis who loses his singing voice. Carla (Carol Kane, 72) is Ben’s grade-school music teacher who approaches her former student to guide her as an adult Bat Mitzvah student. Kane — warm, witty and vulnerable — deserves to be a long-shot Best Actress nominee after a lifetime of unique and original performances, from her Oscar-nominated breakout in Crossing Delancey to her recent stint as a long-lived alien on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Both stars — romantic leads with character actor cred — have the power to be funny and heartbreaking simultaneously, and their unique chemistry drives the film’s craziness and humanity. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Between the Temples, in theaters

Don't miss this: Carol Kane on her movie comeback at 72: ‘I'm having a ball!’

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⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Alien: Romulus, R

If you’re fretful about our Boeing Starliner’s NASA astronauts and their difficult commute, Alien: Romulus won’t help. Another episode in the “Alien-thology” launched by Ridley Scott, 86, puts audiences at an abandoned space station in the fictional time line between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). Enter a team of raggedy young colonizers seeking cryogenic sleep pods to escape their dreary mining planet. The gang includes Priscilla breakout Cailee Spaeny, her dedicated android (David Jonsson) and a precariously pregnant space colonist (Isabela Merced). The team begins to disappear spectacularly by ones and twos as they encounter our old goopy, acidic, spiky-toothed alien on the not-quite-as-abandoned-as-we’d-hoped outpost. Expect jump shocks and armrest clutching, and the gnarliest alien expensive CGI can offer, in this visually stunning match made for IMAX, regular theaters and communal screams. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Alien: Romulus, in theaters

Bad Monkey (Apple TV+)

Journalist Carl Hiaasen wrote a very funny 2013 Florida novel about rogue detective Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn, 54), his gay partner, his fugitive friend with benefits (on the run from her affair with a student) and his absolutely irritating neighbor trying to sell the neon yellow McMansion eyesore that ruins Yancy’s view. When a honeymooning fisherman hooks a human arm, it sets Yancy on a circuitous journey to discover the appendage’s owner, dead or alive. As the corpses start piling up, the hairy find leads to a far-fetched murder mystery created by Ted Lasso’s Bill Lawrence, 55, that starts with a “who was he?” and ends 10 episodes later with a hilariously convoluted plot involving none other than a diaper-wearing monkey.

Watch it: Bad Monkey on Apple TV+

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ It Ends with Us, PG-13

Even if you’re not among the 20 million readers of Colleen Hoover’s fiction, you may fall for the movie adaptation of her novel about flower-shop owner Lily Blossom Bloom (Blake Lively) and her quest for love in a world lit up and shadowed by highly attractive, sometimes frighteningly morally ambiguous men. It sounds unpromising, but mostly it’s a gas, a rom-com with way more heart than most, and an important topic (domestic violence) handled a bit clunkily, but it makes you care about the heroine’s plight and delights. Gossip Girl's Lively is utterly adorable and convincing as Lily and Jenny Slate (Marcel the Shell With Shoes On) is aces as her shop employee/best friend. Lily’s opening meet cute scene with a hunky neurosurgeon (Justin Baldoni, who also directs) is wittily flirty. Her love interests (Baldoni and Alex Neustaedter) are two-dimensional but serviceable. The frothy romance comedy lands better than the dark parts about men’s scary tempers, but on the whole, it’s one of the year’s more satisfying films. —T.A.

Watch it: It Ends with Us, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good One, R

The terrific, deceptively simple, warm-hearted indie that played well at Sundance and Cannes follows two middle-aged best friends, the controlling Chris (James LeGros, 62) and doofus Matt (Danny McCarthy). They’re taking their recent high-school grads on a Catskill camping trip. Before the journey begins, Matt’s son bails during a father-son snit, casting a shadow from the drop. Now, carrying the burden of both kids, the watchful 17-year-old Sam (a knockout Lily Collias) is getting one last mountain trek with the old dudes, unbuffered, before she heads to college. The trio encounter bears, drink beers and pitch tents, as Sam’s levelheaded Gen Z camper observes nature and the follies of Gen X. The dads, egos flaring, are floating through life untethered, relationships adrift. They’re lost in the adult woods. By the time the campers return to the family car, it’s refreshingly clear to Sam, and the audience, that the teen has the sense of direction and self-awareness the men lack — and the restraint to keep her insights to herself. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Good One, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Deadpool & Wolverine, R

Rowdy, raunchy and gooey gory, Deadpool & Wolverine delivers the action-comedy thrills that will attract Marvel acolytes and civilians seeking belly laughs. The titular superhumans are down on their luck and deep in midlife crises. A remorseful Wolverine (the mighty Hugh Jackman, 55) might as well be on an alcohol drip. The wisecracking Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) sells used cars. But, when a deep state develops a time-deleting machine, the opposites fight-then-unite to save the multiverse. There’s a crush of wonderful cameos and supporting cast — Wesley Snipes, 61, Leslie Uggams, 81, Jennifer Garner, 52, and Channing Tatum. Joining the fun are The Crown’s Emma Corrin as an evil psychic with sticky fingers, and Matthew Macfadyen’s baddie in a suit. Come for the action, stay for the rat-a-tat zingers flying like automatic rifle fire. Reynolds’ timing is impeccable. Spoiler alert: They do save the universe and, with a new sense of purpose, escape midlife malaise. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Deadpool & Wolverine, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐☆☆ The Fabulous Four, R 

Bette Midler! Sheryl Lee Ralph! Susan Sarandon! Megan Mullally! What a quartet of fabulous entertainers over 50. In a fluffy plot, they play friends and frenemies at a Key West destination wedding that reunites bride-to-be Marilyn (Midler, 78), estranged doctor Lou (Sarandon, 77), weed-growing granny Kitty (Ralph, 67) and rocker Alice (Mullally, 65). Drugs will be consumed, festering secrets will surface, and men will strip. Meanwhile, the women encounter yummy silver foxes (Bruce Greenwood, 67, Timothy V. Murphy, 64) looking for love. With a wacky climax at Ernest Hemingway’s house, and an off-the-rails wedding ceremony, the movie doesn’t give the fabulous stars quite the vehicle their talents deserve. But we’re happy to see them gathered together, knowing the fab four could run circles around the premise if given half a chance. —T.M.A.

Watch it: The Fabulous Four on demand

Don’t miss this: Star Talk: Susan Sarandon and Sheryl Lee Ralph talk about The Fabulous Four (with video) on AARP Members Edition

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Sing Sing, R

The spark in this drama based on a true story set in Ossining, New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility — home of the electric chair dubbed “Old Sparky” — is the power of theater to liberate inmates, even a lifer. Charismatic Oscar nominee Colman Domingo, 54 (Rustin), is achingly good as Divine G, a model prisoner, insistent on his innocence, who drives a volunteer theater group. It’s a chit of good behavior on his epic legal journey to win parole. With a layered performance, graceful, compassionate and angry, he finds a form of release within the reality of his confinement. The movie fuses the inherent conflicts of felons coexisting in a ratty prison with a priceless view of the Hudson River, and the dramatic conflicts they plumb while digging into theatrical roles, including Shakespeare’s ever-relevant Hamlet. Bravo! —T.M.A.

Watch it: Sing Sing, in theaters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Bikeriders, R

Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer and Austin Butler could be cast in anything and sizzle. But, dressed in black leather, the trio delivers the most explosive, immersive motorcycle movie in years. Even while the engines roar, the complex characters evolve and explode, never easing off the gas. This fictional drama about the birth of the Vandals, inspired by a 1968 photo essay book about a Midwestern gang, foregrounds family man Johnny (Hardy) as the leader of the pack, and Benny (Butler) as the wild one. Comer’s Kathy narrates as a housewife who falls hard for Benny and surrenders the straight and narrow. All three confront challenges when what began in the ’60s as a beer-drinking local club faces a cultural sea change. As the bikers expand nationally, hard drugs and dealing become part of the action, and knives are exchanged for guns. Authentic, exciting and swift, The Bikeriders digs deep into a freedom-seeking American subculture, a cool companion piece to Easy Rider (which celebrates its 55th anniversary this year). —T.M.A.

Watch it: The Bikeriders on demand

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thelma, PG-13

Seeking a 94-year-old superhero? Look no further than Los Angeleno Thelma Post (Oscar nominee June Squibb, 94). The widow may be one fall away from assisted living and boggled by all things computer, but when phone scammers weasel her out of $10,000, Thelma is not going to take it sitting down quietly doing needlepoint. Aided by her devoted but anxious grandson (a relatable Fred Hechinger), a determined Thelma pinches an electric scooter from an old friend (the dashing Richard Roundtree in his final role) and follows the clues to reclaim her bucks — and her dignity. The Sundance hit and audience award winner at the Provincetown Film Festival delivers delightful character-driven action and laughs, led by an irresistible Squibb. With Thelma, the lively actor on the verge of another Oscar nomination, has been liberated to be a leading lady for once in a 40-year career. The thieves may have grabbed this grandma’s stash, but Thelma steals the audience’s hearts. —T.M.A.

Watch it: Thelma, in theaters now and streaming

Don’t miss this: June Squibb lands her first lead movie role in Thelma, in AARP Members Edition​​​​

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