‘Bill Nye: Science Guy’ (April 24)
As the (comparatively) science-friendly Obama administration gave way to the climate denialism of Donald Trump, the 1990s-era children’s television personality Bill Nye reconsidered his mission and his audience, repositioning himself as an advocate and educator for older generations. The directors David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg document that tricky career shift as Nye changes from an innocuous fellow with a perpetual smile and bow tie into a surprisingly polarizing political lightning rod. The results are as enlightening, thought-provoking and frequently amusing as the man himself.
‘The IT Crowd’: Series 1-5 (April 25)
Several international comedy stars-to-be — including Chris O’Dowd (“Bridesmaids”), Matt Berry (“What We Do in the Shadows”) and Richard Ayoade (“Travel Man”) — made their first big splash in this unfailingly clever British office sitcom. O’Dowd and Ayoade star as Roy and Moss, socially inept, know-it-all IT technicians. Katherine Parkinson is Jen Barber, their manager, who is tech illiterate (much to their chagrin) but personally adept (much to their amazement). It sports a tone and style not unlike the original British version of “The Office,” and it accomplishes a similar duality: though unmistakably local in its details, it taps into universal truths about work, class and life.
‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’: Seasons 1-3 (April 28)
The new “Evil Dead” sequel, “Evil Dead Rise,” hits theaters on April 21, though it continues in the grim, humorless vein of the series’s 2013 installment. Those who prefer the zany, slapstick-heavy, gore-and-grins iteration of the franchise, tweaked to perfection by the director Sam Raimi and the star Bruce Campbell in “Evil Dead II” (1987) and “Army of Darkness” (1993), can direct their attention to this Starz Original series, codeveloped by Raimi, with Campbell reprising his role as the wisecracking, chain saw toting, Book-of-the-Dead-battling hero Ash Williams. The results are somewhat uneven (the early episodes, with which Raimi was most directly involved, are the highlights), but fans of the films will love it anyway.
‘Leap Year’ (April 30)
This light-as-a-soufflé romantic comedy was not exactly received with enthusiasm upon its release in 2010, but time has been kind to it for several reasons, among them the general dearth of theatrical rom-coms and the slow-burn charms of the screenwriters Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (whose “Josie and the Pussycats” has undergone a spectacular popular and critical reappraisal). Perhaps most important, it’s an opportunity to see Amy Adams at her light and breezy best, in sharp contrast to her more recent spate of Serious Actor Oscar bids.
‘Road to Perdition’ (April 30)
This 2002 adaptation of the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins (itself inspired by the “Lone Wolf and Cub” manga and film series) was only the second feature film from the director Sam Mendes. Yet it plays like an elegy, a film about endings, mortality and what we leave behind. It was the final film of the award-winning cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, whose visions of Depression-era America here are staggeringly evocative, and one of the final onscreen appearances for Paul Newman. The actor nabbed one last Academy Award nomination for his work as the patriarch of a crime family, caught between his irresponsible biological son (a pre-Bond Daniel Craig) and his beloved surrogate son (Tom Hanks, in a rare and affecting non-hero turn).
Jason Bailey
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