What to watch for the weekend of Nov. 25

Plus, how Season 4 will be the scariest yet, and the special bond they have with each other.

The star has two Christmas flicks coming up, does he also have good news for Hearties?

Nearly a dozen and a half of Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass’ animated holiday specials are airing or streaming this yuletide.

Find out when the thriller series will be back with new episodes.

'Love Without Borders'

Love means never having to say you don't have a passport. In this new reality series, five singles agree to move overseas at a chance for true romance. Midwesterners will be rooting for Fargo, North Dakota, optometrist Aaron Motacek, who hopes to find a man whose interests stretch beyond ice fishing and vacationing at Devils Lake. Most other viewers will be talking about the adventures of fellow contestant Philip Michael Thomas Jr., the son of onetime "Miami Vice" star Philip Michael Thomas. 9 p.m. ET Wednesday, Bravo

'Love, Lizzo'

The red-hot singer has proved to be just as compelling on TV as she is onstage. She's already nailed hosting duties on "Saturday Night Live," cracked up David Letterman on his Netflix talk show and inspired young dancers in her Emmy-winning series, "Watch Out for the Big Grrrls." Now comes this new documentary that promises to share intimate details about her journey to the top. HBO Max

'Josh Groban's Great Big Radio City Show'

The 41-year-old entertainer is a PBS favorite; he's the grandson its audience members wish they had. In his new special, Groban delivers the kind of big ballads older viewers will swoon over. But he also sneaks in covers of songs by Don Henley, Robbie Williams and Jay-Z. All generations will appreciate his take on "Time After Time" with Cyndi Lauper. 9 p.m. Friday, PBS

'Spirited'

Just when you thought there were no fresh twists on "A Christmas Carol" comes this holly-jolly musical in which Will Ferrell's Ghost of Christmas Present struggles to convert a modern-day Scrooge (Ryan Reynolds). We've seen the two stars play these kinds of characters before. The real fun is watching them sing and dance. There are too many fast cuts to determine their real hoofing skills but it's clear that they're having a ball. You will, too. Apple TV+

'The Howard Stern Interview: Bruce Springsteen'

Anyone who thinks the King of All Media only peddles in sophomoric humor hasn't been listening to the past few seasons of his SiriusXM radio show. The host has become a master of the long interview, probing deep into the lives of celebrities without restrictions or commercial breaks. His Oct. 31 conversation with the Boss was so riveting that it's been edited into this TV special, which also features solo performances of "The Rising" and "Thunder Road." 10 p.m. Sunday, HBO

'Dead to Me'

Christina Applegate's character spends a lot of time in bed in the third and final season of this engaging dramedy. That's because the actor was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis during filming, which made it hard for her to show off her well-honed skills at physical comedy. But the setback does little to dampen the chemistry between her and co-star Linda Cardellini, who is as lively as ever. It's still as if Laverne and Shirley were cast in "Thelma & Louise." Netflix

'All Quiet on the Western Front'

The latest adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's novel is just as powerful as the 1930 Oscar winner. Viewers who think they may have a hard time sympathizing with German soldiers during World War I may want to opt to watch the English-dubbed version. It'll help you forget you're in the trenches with "the enemy." Netflix

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The Addams Family began in 1938 as a series of wry cartoon panels from Charles Addams for The New Yorker magazine. Then came the black-and-white 1960s sitcom with its iconic theme song (snap, snap). Then came the movie adaptations, because Hollywood loves nothing more than repurposing intellectual property over and over again. Well, the Addams Family is back again — all IP shall be mined into infinity! — this time as a TV spinoff for Netflix called “Wednesday,” featuring the original goth girl herself, Wednesday Addams.

Netflix is promoting the series as “from the mind of Tim Burton” and he’s an executive producer and director here (he directs the first half of the season) but perhaps it’s more informative to look at who’s credited as the show’s creators. That would be Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, who gave the world “Smallville,” aka Superman/Clark Kent, the teen years.

“Wednesday” is a teen drama as well — one with style, though not an especially inventive one — and it works best when it’s simply being funny. The heavy plotting around a mysterious supernatural something or other? Very, very mid, but you need something to propel the story forward enough to stretch it out for eight episodes.

Kicked out of her normie high school after dumping piranha in a pool filled with water polo jerks, Wednesday’s parents Morticia and Gomez (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán, playful but limited) send her off to Nevermore Academy, a Hogwarts-like boarding school for outcasts and monsters.

This is a curious choice — the root of any “Addams Family” story is how they don’t fit in with everyone else, and happily so. The good news: This doesn’t feel jarring at first, because the show has such a tangy sense of humor about itself. Starring the wonderfully deadpan Jenna Ortega, with jet black hair and two braids down either side, she’s the teen who cannot stand anything bright and happy. But unlike earlier incarnations, she’s morphed into a miserable teen, which also means she cannot stand her parents either.

Ah yes, Morticia and Gomez — in the movies, they were so obviously hot for one another. That’s true in their brief appearances here as well, much to Wednesday’s disgust. Her eye-rolling carries over to anything else associated with them, telling her mother as they drive to Nevermore: “I’ve no interest in following in your footsteps — becoming captain of the fencing team, queen of the dark prom, president of the seance society.” When they’re greeted by the school’s principal (“Game of Thrones” alum Gwendoline Christie as the perfectly coifed headmistress with a perfect smile plastered on her perfect face, who is maybe a malevolent force or not, who can say?) Gomez chimes in encouragingly: “Did you hear that, my little storm cloud, you’re in excellent hands!”

Wednesday’s having none of it. This place is teen purgatory, even if her beloved Edgar Allan Poe is an alumnus.

Moody and seeing visions she cannot explain, Wednesday is paired with a perky roommate (Emma Myers) who warns her that “full moons get pretty loud around here” as she shows her around campus, pointing out the various cliques: The fangs (vampires), the furs (werewolves), the scales (sirens) and the stoners (a throwaway joke but one that made me laugh!). Wednesday has no interest in making friends or fitting in: “Sartre said hell is other people. He was my first crush.”

A garlic bread incident sends a kid to the infirmary (another throwaway joke but honestly they’re the best kind here), there are some sly nods to “Carrie” and that bloody prom, and the disembodied hand known as Thing (Victor Dorobantu) tags along to help Wednesday acclimate and also, hilariously, bond with her new roomie. It’s amazing how expressive Thing can be! Thing is terrific! Also, Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in the films, is here as one of the school’s normie teachers.

It’s all just so aggressively fine and judging by the timing of its release, intended to entertain a multigenerational houseful of guests looking for something to watch together. Hovering over everything is the hunt for the Big Bad, a narrative trope I’d love to see a show like this reject altogether. Instead, “Wednesday” leans too heavily into “Stranger Things” territory for my taste. But that’s probably the point — “Stranger Things” has been very good for Netflix.

No offense to Nevermore, but if the series continues with another season, it would be far more interesting to see Wednesday return to a normie high school. That culture clash is the heart and soul of any Addams Family story. Keep it simple. Keep it funny. Keep it dark.

———

'WEDNESDAY'

2.5 stars (out of 4)

Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14 with advisories for violence, fear and coarse language)

How to watch: Netflix

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It was one of the most bizarre crimes of 1980s Los Angeles. An ambitious Indian immigrant and founder of "Chippendales," a club that featured shirtless male dancers, plotted the murder of his business partner and several others.

The sordid tale was covered in the 2014 book "Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders," and helped inspire a Hulu series, "Welcome to Chippendales," which launched this week and stars Marvel actor Kumail Nanjiani.

It's one of nearly half a dozen Hulu limited series launched this year that are based on real-life true-crime stories ripped from the headlines.

True-crime programs and documentaries have always been a fixture of streaming platforms like Hulu and Netflix. Increasingly streamers are doubling down on the genre, tapping into the huge appetite for true crime by developing scripted limited series based on actual stories and with A-list stars like Nanjiani, many of whom are drawn to the format.

"It typically deals with really heavyweight stories that fascinate people watching characters that they can usually somewhat identify with completely lose their minds and ultimately, in most cases, pay a significant price — whether it's jail time, death, suicide, their business collapsing or all of the above," said Tom Nunan, a former studio executive. "It's the most colorful kind of drama out there."

Streamers are looking to cash in.

Netflix's "Dahmer: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" was the third most-watched series in its first 28 days on the platform. Viewers spent more than 856 million hours watching the show that delves into the real-life serial killer's origin story.

Despite some blowback from the families of Dahmer's victims, Netflix has ordered two additional installments that will focus on other monstrous figures.

Other scripted series released this year based on real-life murders include HBO's "The Staircase" and Hulu's "Candy."

"There is a rabid audience on the platform for these stranger-than-fiction, ripped-from-the-headline stories," said Jordan Helman, head of scripted content at Hulu Originals. "There's a pre-awareness and a curiosity factor that drives any narrative nonfiction adaptation. They often also serve as catnip for A-list onscreen talent to transform themselves, both physically and otherwise."

Hulu Originals saw the popularity of true-crime series with its breakout success from "The Act" in 2019, Helman said. The limited series delved into the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard, based on a BuzzFeed article by writer Michelle Dean. That was followed by "Dopesick" last year, which stars critically acclaimed actor Michael Keaton and has been nominated for 14 Emmys.

This year, Hulu Originals launched five shows based on real-life true crimes, including "The Dropout" about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, "Pam & Tommy," about their stolen sex video, and most recently, "Welcome to Chippendales." The streamer will go into production soon on a project starring "Grey's Anatomy" actor Ellen Pompeo that touches on the story of Natalia Grace Barnett, a woman with dwarfism who was accused of tricking her adoptive parents into thinking she was a child and she accused them of neglect.

Three of the top 10 Hulu Originals shows this year were related to real-life true-crime stories, based on U.S. consumer demand online, according to Parrot Analytics. Scripted shows including "The Dropout," "Pam & Tommy" and "Dopesick," received "outstanding demand," meaning they were in the top 2.9% of TV series across all platforms, said Wade Payson-Denney, an analyst for Parrot Analytics.

Hulu executives say true-crime series have helped expand the reach of the platform — which had 47.2 million subscribers for on-demand and live TV in its fourth quarter — but that they aren't over-relying on the genre. Hulu is best known for dramas including "The Handmaid's Tale," the comedy series "Only Murders in the Building" and sci-fi show "The Orville."

"These narrative nonfiction limiteds — they do big business for us, but we're also being really thoughtful about ensuring that we're not simply repeating ourselves or becoming too defined by any one genre or lane, which is why we kind of view these as one piece of a much larger puzzle," Helman said.

Hulu parent Walt Disney Co.'s streaming business — which includes Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ — took a $1.5 billion loss in in the most recent quarter, reflecting higher production and marketing costs related to Disney + and Hulu (which costs $7.99 a month and $14.99 a month with ads). The loss alarmed investors and Disney board members, who on Sunday ousted CEO Bob Chapek.

True-crime stories that have already generated books or podcasts also are appealing to studios because they have an established audience for the material.

"There's safety and comfort in things that exist," said Robert Siegel, creator, co-showrunner and executive producer of "Welcome to Chippendales."

"Welcome to Chippendales" would have been tough to make if it wasn't based on a true story, said Jenni Konner, co-showrunner and executive producer.

"If you turned in a script like that, I can imagine people saying, 'Well, no, that's impossible, that would never happen,'" Konner said. "So you do have that creatively to lean back on."

Actors also are drawn to playing characters in stories where truth is often stranger than fiction.

Nanjiani, a Pakistani American actor is known for portraying a programmer in HBO series "Silicon Valley," a superhero in Marvel movie "Eternals" and for romantic comedy "The Big Sick," a movie he co-wrote with his wife.

"If this wasn't based on a true story, there's no way I would have been cast as this character," Nanjiani said of his role in "Welcome to Chippendales." "These parts don't come my way."

He portrays Banerjee, an Indian immigrant who founded Chippendales, after Banerjee had saved up money working at a gas station. But even after becoming a successful business owner, Banerjee discovered more obstacles in his path.

"Obviously, Steve and I are very different people, but we had the same experience of coming to America with a version of America in our head and sort of hitting the wall of, you know, the real America," said Nanjiani, who is also an executive producer on the series.

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Written and directed by Elegance Bratton and based on his own life story, “The Inspection” comes out of the blue to knock you off your feet. It’s a gay “An Officer and a Gentleman” for a new generation and a new world.

Ellis French (a remarkable Jeremy Pope) is a young, homeless gay man with, we assume, a drug history. When he knocks on the door of his prison guard mother (an unrecognizable Gabrielle Union, also a producer), she acts like she’s about to be assaulted. “Are you in trouble?,” she asks, lighting up a cigarette. She lays out newspaper for him to sit on, no doubt fearing he has bugs. You know the history between these two is terrible. Ellis, 25, declares that he is enlisting in the Marines, a sign at least that he knows he needs to turn his life around. She has never been able to accept that her son is gay and is scornful of the prospect of his becoming a Marine.

Known as “French” to the drill instructors and his fellow recruits, French fits in relatively well at Parris Island, South Carolina, at first, although he feels compelled to pretend his mother is his “girl,” when he leaves a voicemail in the presence of others. But an incident in the showers that he could not control marks him as gay, and he is ostracized and forced to stay in his own space. His group’s leader Harvey (McCaul Lombardi, “American Honey”) despises French and uses homophobic slurs in reference to him. In a shocking scene, French is severely beaten by his fellow recruits.

French chooses to endure whatever punishment is served up to avoid expulsion. Oddly enough, the toughest and top-ranked drill instructor Laws (Bokeem Woodbine, channeling his inner Louis Gossett Jr.) is not terribly perturbed to know that French is gay. Laws treats all recruits like his job is to keep them out of the Marines.

Among the things you notice about “The Inspection,” beyond the uniform excellence of the cast and dignity Pope brings to French, however low he has fallen, is the film’s impressionistic sound design and score by the experimental pop band Animal Collective. We hear drums and horns; voices fade in and out.

“The Inspection” also gives us such “Full Metal Jacket” moments as the buzz cuts that turn recruits into naked-skulled twins. One of the recruits is a Muslim named Ismail (Eman Esfandi), He bonds with fellow misfit French until it becomes known that French is gay. Another drill instructor, Rosales (Raul Castillo, another standout), reaches out to French, which French welcomes, but misinterprets. On movie night, Laws makes the recruits watch his favorite film, the 2005 Gulf War drama “Jarhead.” Laws has a great line when he spies French’s war-painted face. Woodbine seizes the opportunity to try to top the aforementioned Gossett, Clint Eastwood and R. Lee Ermey, and he is wonderful to behold.

“The Inspection” offer no easy answers about its characters. French invites his mother to his graduation. But it doesn’t go as you expect. It’s certain that this is not all going to end in hugs. Bratton is currently at work on “Hellfighter,” a drama about the World War I military unit known as the Harlem Hellfighters with Jon Batiste as soldier and jazz pioneer James Reese Europe. After seeing “The Inspection,” I’m eager too see this next effort. But I am content for now to recommend “The Inspection” and hope to see Pope, Union, Woodbine and Castillo in the awards mix this year.

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'THE INSPECTION'

Grade: A-

MPAA rating: R (for language throughout, sexual content, some nudity and violence)

Running time: 1:35

How to watch: Now in theaters

———

It's no surprise — perhaps it was even inevitable — that one of the more widely criticized scenes in "Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths," Alejandro G. Iñárritu's magnificent and maddening new movie, would feature an artist confronting his most outspoken critic.

The artist — and the movie's protagonist — is Silverio Gama (Daniel Giménez Cacho), an acclaimed journalist and documentary filmmaker making a return trip to Mexico several years after moving to Los Angeles. The critic, whom he runs into at a party, is Luis (Francisco Rubio), a TV personality who has made Silverio a regular punching bag on his talk show. Predictably, Luis is no fan of Silverio's latest work, dismissing it as "pretentious," "a mishmash of pointless scenes" that "lacks poetic inspiration." But for him, Silverio's gravest artistic crime is not his self-indulgence or his betrayal of his Mexican roots but rather his coyness, the way he hides his true self behind teasing metafictional layers: "If you want to talk about your life," Luis says, "tell it straight."

That could well be a dig at the predictably divisive, relentlessly zigzagging "Bardo" itself, a semi-autobiographical fantasia that blurs the line where Silverio's life ends and Iñárritu's begins. The movie (which the director co-wrote with Nicolás Giacobone) is a carnivalesque romp through time and memory, one that owes something to the labyrinthine magic realism of Jorge Luis Borges and something to the jaunty surrealism of Federico Fellini. Iñárritu and his cinematographer, Darius Khondji, send their camera floating across sun-drenched sands and barreling down corridors of consciousness, collapsing barriers between history and hallucination, comedy and drama, life and death, Silverio and Alejandro. For both men, the movie — Iñárritu's first to shoot primarily in Mexico since his 2000 debut feature, "Amores perros" — marks a rare homecoming, a return marked by joy and nostalgia, but also ambivalence and frustration.

One of the questions that "Bardo" leaves you with is whether Iñárritu, after years of enviable Hollywood success, now feels estranged from the country he left behind. You may also wonder if, the Luises of the world aside, Silverio's career has generated anything like the public scorn that Iñárritu's often has. That may seem like an odd thing to say about a filmmaker who's long had his partisans, but in truth, the violent critical rejection of Iñárritu in some circles is the kind that can only befall an already much-acclaimed, industry-lionized artist. And as someone who's gone up and down with Iñárritu over the years and felt alternately defensive and disdainful of his work, it feels fitting — in the face of his most nakedly personal work and his most openly combative salvo to his critics — to lay some of that baggage on the table.

In an artistic medium often driven by the talent and personality of the auteur, more than a few critics keep a running inventory of their favorite and least favorite filmmakers and, within those individual catalogs, their favorite and least favorite of their efforts. And for more than a few Iñárritu dissenters, his best film remains his first. An electrifying triptych of stories brought together by crashing cars, fiery passions, bestial men and yapping, snapping dogs, "Amores perros" turned heads and stomachs with its ferocious violence but generated enough acclaim to become the first Mexican production in 25 years to earn an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language films. It also introduced the world to a magnetic newcomer named Gael García Bernal and established Iñárritu and his screenwriter, Guillermo Arriaga, as deft storytellers with a feel for gritty lower-depths realism and a Tarantinoid touch for splintered narratives.

Those qualities persisted — and more Oscar nominations followed — with their grimmer-than-grim "21 Grams" (2003), another jaggedly melodramatic pileup starring a mesmerizing Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro, and with "Babel" (2006), an uneven tapestry of sob stories stretching from the dusty mountains of Morocco to the strobe-lit nightclubs of Tokyo. To revisit these first three features, with their incremental shift in focus from Mexico to the U.S. to the entire world, is to grasp the full scale of Iñárritu's outsized ambitions. But what looked like ambition to some began to reek of arrogance to many others, who were increasingly turned off by what they saw as the showy miserablism and gimmicky grandiosity of his filmmaking.

As a lover of "21 Grams" and a qualified admirer of "Babel," I've always felt a little protective of this early phase of Iñárritu's career; for all their obvious manipulations and missteps, these two movies achieve, for me, a bruising emotional power that little of his work has approximated since. I've also suspected that Arriaga was more than a little crucial to their success, something that seemed all the more apparent after writer and director parted ways (under less-than-amicable circumstances) and Iñárritu struck out with "Biutiful" (2010), a dour slog that not even Javier Bardem's excellent performance could save.

"Biutiful" earned Iñárritu the worst reviews of his career and may well have provoked him into spewing some of the anti-critic sentiments in his 2014 comeback, "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)," a bravura Broadway satire starring Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson, a washed-up actor mounting a comeback of his own. It also marked a radical stylistic break; after working for years with director of photography Rodrigo Prieto, Iñárritu found, in Emmanuel Lubezki, a cinematographer whose flowing, beautifully choreographed long takes could achieve a breathtaking new unity of form. Rather than chopping his scenes into jangly bits (though he retained the same editor, the versatile Stephen Mirrione), Iñárritu pursued a new visual coherence; rather than dividing his attention among a swath of far-flung characters, he unfolded an entire drama — in a foreshadowing of "Bardo" — within one man's restless, self-flagellating consciousness.

"A thing is a thing, not what is said of that thing," reads a postcard on Riggan's dressing-room mirror. I flashed back on that line — and the memorable scene in which Riggan butts heads with a New York Times theater critic (Lindsay Duncan) — when I first watched "Bardo" months ago and came across that party confrontation scene. This time, though, Iñárritu wasn't just casually thumbing his nose; he seemed to be trying to preempt criticism and to show that he can enjoy a laugh at his expense, provided that he controls the source and duration of the laughter. He also seemed keen to give his media detractors a taste of their own spiteful medicine. And so Silverio dismisses Luis as little more than "an entertainer, an opinion peddler" who scrounges for likes on social media. Ouch! "It's people like you who have left us without truth," Silverio declares, right before hitting a mute button that magically silences Luis' rebuttal.

Iñárritu, it's easy to imagine, must fantasize about muting his own persecutors in the press. At the same time — and this is where "Bardo's" animus takes on a productively playful edge — you have to wonder why, if so, he keeps giving them such a prominent voice and point of view in his work. Is he constructing some kind of infernal artist-critic ouroboros, laying a clever trap for us and watching as we take the bait (to paraphrase some metaphors he floated in a tetchy recent interview with my Los Angeles Times colleague Josh Rottenberg)? Or is he, by lowering himself to the presumably rock-bottom level of his detractors, essentially tumbling into his own trap?

I don't know. It's possible the man just can't help himself. Maybe he felt that swiping at critics actually paid off with "Birdman," ironically the movie restored Iñárritu to a lot of reviewers' good graces. Not all of us, though: I found it funny, inventive and dazzling, if also thin, overdetermined and more than a little taken with its own virtuosity. Still, it couldn't help but feel refreshing after Iñárritu's earlier marathon of misery; it handily won the Academy Award for best picture and earned Iñárritu his first Oscar for directing. He would win another the following year for his dark neo-western "The Revenant" (2015), a return with a vengeance to bleak, violent terrain that struck me as a staggeringly emotionless experience, Iñárritu's emptiest display of directorial chest-beating yet.

As of this writing, the academy seems unlikely to shower "Bardo" with similar accolades, for which we can probably blame those that Iñárritu loves to blame most: critics! (You see what a vicious cycle this is.) When the movie premiered at the Venice and Telluride film festivals this fall, it drew the full gamut of reactions, some of which sniped at its longueurs, its indulgences and its three-hour-plus running time. My own preliminary response was a mix of admiration and exasperation in the face of what nonetheless seemed like "an imposing, finally insufferable monument to [Iñárritu's] own awesomeness." Others weren't so kind.

Whether he was chastened by the response — or, with a potential awards campaign on life support, persuaded by some of the powers that be at Netflix — Iñárritu announced soon afterward that he would trim some 20-plus minutes from the movie's running time before its release. And indeed, the new version of "Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths" — the one now playing in theaters and set to begin streaming Dec. 16 on Netflix — runs, by my count, exactly 160 minutes, compared with the earlier 184-minute version. I wouldn't have guessed, as I strapped myself in for a second viewing, that 24 minutes could make enough of a difference, as more than one filmmaker has discovered upon returning to the cutting room after a tough festival reception.

And yet. And yet, and yet, and yet. At 160 minutes and on a second encounter, "Bardo" is — how to put this? — sufferable. It feels less oppressive, less elephantine, lighter and more graceful on its feet. It sometimes plods, but it also whirls, dances and — like the Silverio whose shadow we see catapulting across the desert in the languorous opening shot — even manages to soar. Did those 24 minutes really make such a difference? (Apart from one conspicuously and mercifully removed scene — a formative sexual encounter between a young Silverio and an older woman with fried eggs covering her breasts — I found the changes hard to track.) Is it possible that once you've been given a preliminary tour, the shimmering nether-world of "Bardo" suddenly feels newly inviting, newly immersive? Had the movie really changed, or had I?

Maybe a little of both. When I first saw "Bardo," it struck me as — almost objectively speaking — Iñárritu's most solipsistic effort. The second time, curiously, the solipsism either retreated or recontextualized itself. After all, most of Iñárritu's movies are works of brute ego, which is one reason I've never been able to surrender to "Birdman" and "The Revenant," which purported to be about other things — celebrity and creation, history and revenge — but in the end were about little more than Iñárritu and his own pummeling virtuosity. Paradoxically, by beginning with himself in "Bardo," Iñárritu works his way toward someplace rewardingly different, opening himself up to new tributaries of meaning. It's his most formally playful and intellectually expansive movie.

A thing is a thing, not what is said of that thing. But sometimes things change. My own reversal on "Bardo" was certainly drastic enough to induce some hand-wringing and second-guessing, which feels like a fair and honest response to a movie whose hero, Silverio, is an avatar of self-doubt. He is also a husband, a father, a dreamer, an adventurer and a dryly sardonic observer of history, with a mordantly funny perspective on Mexico's past, present and future. His barbed remarks about how little the U.S. paid for the Mexican Cession in 1848 dovetail with some satirical background chatter concerning Amazon's looming acquisition of Baja California. As Iñárritu scarcely needs to remind us, the space where the U.S. and Mexico meet has long been brutally contested terrain. And where he and his tense, anguished alter ego fit into that terrain is the question that continually haunts this story, giving it drive and density even when it slows to a crawl.

Does Silverio have anything meaningful in common with Mexico's disappeared and missing, the countless men and women whose bodies we see abandoned on the streets of an eerily hushed Mexico City? Can he honestly empathize with the migrants whose long, arduous journeys he has photographed and chronicled in the name of art? Is the image of him wandering across the desert, a spirit passing through a purgatorial state (the Tibetan Buddhist principle of "bardo" that inspires the title), a gesture of solidarity or an image of isolation — of permanent separation from his cultural identity? Does this purveyor of nonfiction cinema have any real truth to express, or is he just a poseur, a sham, a sellout?

Iñárritu leaves that to us to decide. But it speaks to Giménez Cacho's witty and moving performance that not even the harshest answer could make Silverio less engaging company. The actor's gift for self-lacerating comedy was already apparent in Lucrecia Martel's brilliant South American epic "Zama," in which he played the wretched face of 18th century Spanish colonialism. In "Bardo" the political dynamic has shifted: His Silverio eventually finds himself face-to-face with the conquistador Hernán Cortés in a striking, time-bending sequence that acknowledges Mexico's long history of wars and atrocities and raises the intriguing meta-question of what an artist or an art form gains by restaging them. Silverio ponders that riddle, but also the riddle of his own identity. He loses himself on a jampacked dance floor, rides the L.A. Metro and argues with an airport customs agent who claims he has no right to call America his home. Wherever he goes and whomever he confronts, Silverio takes you with him.

His family, regarding him with affection and exasperation, must find him similarly impossible to quit. Silverio remains devoted to his wife, Lucía (Griselda Siciliani), though their moments of domestic bliss and erotic passion are continually overshadowed — in the movie's most whimsical and poignant passages — by reminders of the death of their first child, Mateo. Their surviving children, Camila (Ximena Lamadrid) and Lorenzo (Íker Sánchez Solano), are beautiful and smart, combative in spirit but unfailingly loyal when it counts. The most lyrical and moving scenes in "Bardo" find Silverio with his wife and kids at a seaside resort where past woes, future anxieties and present everyday inequities converge — and then, in a rare instance of calm, slip away. For a moment, you sense, Silverio is home at last — not because of the particular ground beneath his feet, but because he shares that ground with those he loves.

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‘BARDO, FALSE CHRONICLE OF A HANDFUL OF TRUTHS’

(In Spanish and English with English subtitles)

MPAA rating: R (for language throughout, strong sexual content and graphic nudity)

Running time: 2:40

How to watch: Now in theaters; on Netflix Dec. 16

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Sunday

“Mickey Saves Christmas” (ABC, Disney, 7 p.m. ET): The cartoon rodent has a holiday adventure in this new special.

“This Is Life with Lisa Ling” (CNN, 7 and 10 p.m.): The TV journalist examines the intersection of sex and technology in the season premiere.

“The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration” (ABC, 8 p.m.): With Becky G, Run-DMC, Katharine McPhee and Black Eyed Peas.

“Tis the Season: The Holidays on Screen” (CNN, 8 p.m.): “A Christmas Story” is among the classic flicks spotlighted in this new special.

“A Christmas Spark” (Lifetime, 8 p.m.): Former “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” co-stars Jane Seymour and Joe Lando reunite in this new TV movie.

“The Howard Stern Interview: Bruce Springsteen” (HBO, 10 p.m.): The King of All Media and the Boss have a tete-a-tete in this new special.

Monday

“Whitstable Pearl” (Acorn TV): The restaurateur/sleuth (Kerry Godliman) is back on the case for a second season.

“The Great Christmas Light Fight” (ABC, 8 p.m.): The lights are on but someone’s home as the competition returns.

“Southern Hospitality” (Bravo, 9 p.m.): We do declare, “Southern Charm’s” Leva Bonaparte has spun off into her very own show.

Tuesday

“Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies” (Peacock): The woman acquitted in 2011 for the 2008 death of her infant daughter tells her side of the story in this new docuseries.

“Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields” (Netflix): Investigators probe a series of unsolved murders in the Lone Star State in this new true-crime series.

“Planet Sex With Cara Delevingne” (Hulu): The actress-model gets her freak on in this globetrotting exploration of human sexuality.

“Love Actually: 20 Years Later — A Diane Sawyer/ABC News Special” (ABC, 8 p.m.): The TV journalist chats up the cast of the 2003 holiday rom-com.

“Queen Sugar” (OWN, 8 p.m.): This Louisiana-set family drama from Ava Duvernay ends its run after seven seasons.

“Reindeer in Here” (CBS, 9 p.m.): Adam Devine and Candace Cameron Bure lend their voices to this animated holiday tale.

“My So-Called High School Rank” (HBO, 9 p.m.): Students sing of their frustrations with the college admissions process in this new documentary.

Wednesday

“The Low Tone Club” (Disney+): Colombian singer-songwriter Carlos Vives plays an unconventional music teacher in this new Spanish-language drama.

“Snack vs. Chef” (Netflix): Contestants try to reverse engineer classic snacks in this new competition.

“Take Your Pills: Xanax” (Netflix): Patients and medical professionals weigh in on the controversial anti-anxiety medication in this new documentary.

“Willow” (Disney+): Warwick Davis reprises his role as the titular sorcerer in this new series based on Ron Howard’s 1988 fantasy drama.

“Christmas in Rockefeller Center” (NBC, 8 p.m.): Alicia Keys and Andrea Bocelli are among the performers for the annual tree lighting ceremony in NYC.

“The Masked Singer” (Fox, 8 p.m.): The winning celebrity is unmasked in the season finale.

“Hip Hop Family Christmas Wedding” (VH1, 8 p.m.): It all goes off without a hitch in this new TV movie sequel. Keri Hilson and Ne-Yo star.

“The Doobie Brothers With Michael McDonald: 50th Anniversary at Radio City Music Hall” (PBS, 9 p.m.): The rockers reunite in this new special.

“Love Without Borders” (Bravo, 9 p.m.): Sexy singles rack up frequent flier miles in this new dating show.

“Money Court” (CNBC, 10 p.m.): “Shark Tank’s” Kevin O’Leary welcomes "Real Housewives'" Bethenny Frankel as co-host for Season 2.

Thursday

“Gossip Girl” (HBO Max): The reboot of the teen-themed drama serves up its sophomore season.

“Sesame Street the Nutcracker” (HBO Max): Elmo and his puppy pal Tango have a musical adventure in this new animated special.

“A Wounded Fawn” (Shudder): A museum curator hooks up with a hunky serial killer in Travis Steal’s surreal 2022 terror tale.

“Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas” (NBC, 8 p.m.): The country music legend hosts a new holiday special. With Willie Nelson, Miley Cyrus, et al.

“Luxe for Less” (HGTV, 9 p.m.): If you have to ask, you can afford it in this new home renovation show.

“Branson” (HBO, 10 p.m.): The high-flying British billionaire is profiled in this new documentary.

“The Territory” (National Geographic, 10 p.m.): An Indigenous tribe in the Amazon stands its ground against deforestation in this new documentary.

Friday

“Christmas With the Campbells” (AMC+): A woman hooks up with her ex-BF’s hunky cousin in this 2022 rom-com. With Justin Long and Brittany Snow.

“Darby and the Dead” (Hulu): “Mean Girls” meets “The Sixth Sense” in this 2022 supernatural comedy.

“Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules” (Disney+): The sibling rivalry will continue until morale improves in this animated 2022 sequel.

“Firefly Lane” (Netflix): Small-town BFFs Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke return in Season 2 of this decades-spanning drama.

“The Great American Baking Show Celebrity Holiday Special” (Roku): Celebrities, start your ovens for a special edition of this competition series.

“Lady Chatterley’s Lover” (Netflix): “The Crown’s” Emma Corrin plays D.H. Lawrence’s thirsty heroine in this 2022 adaptation of that scandalous 1929 novel.

“My Unorthodox Life” (Netflix): Fashion mogul Julia Haart is back for a second season of her reality series.

“Pentatonix: Around the World for the Holidays” (Disney+): The a cappella group trolls the ancient Yuletide carol in this new special.

“Scrooge: A Christmas Carol” (Netflix): Dickens’ timeless tale lives again in this 2022 animated musical. With Luke Evans and Jessie Buckley.

“Slow Horses” (Apple TV+): Gary Oldman saddles up for a second season of this oh-so-droll espionage drama. Kristin Scott Thomas also stars.

“Sr.” (Netflix): Indie filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., father of “Iron Man’s” Robert Downey Jr., is remembered in this 2022 documentary.

“Three Pines” (Prime Video): Chief Inspector Gamache (Alfred Molina) is on the case in Quebec in this new mystery drama.

“A Big Fat Family Christmas” (Hallmark, 8 p.m.): A Chinese American photographer hooks up with a hunky reporter in this new TV movie.

“Cloudy With a Chance of Christmas” (Lifetime, 8 p.m.): A meteorologist hooks up with a hunky morning-show host in this new TV movie.

“Matt Rogers: Have You Heard of Christmas?” (Showtime, 10 p.m.): The comic is joined by “Fire Island” co-star Bowen Yang and others in this new special.

Saturday

“A Fabled Holiday” (Hallmark, 8 p.m.): A woman hooks up with her now-hunky childhood bestie in this new TV movie. With Brooke D’Orsay.

“A New Orleans Noel” (Lifetime, 8 p.m.): An architect hooks up with a hunky former classmate in this new TV movie. With Keshia Knight Pulliam.

“The Great Holiday Bake War” (OWN, 9 p.m.): A pastry chef hooks up with a hunky former rival in this new TV movie. With LeToya Luckett.

“Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 11:29 p.m.): “Nope’s” Keke Palmer hosts and R&B singer SZA performs.

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(Los Angeles Times listings editor Matt Cooper compiled this column.)

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The original “Pitch Perfect” movie came out 10 years ago, full of winking bombast about competing collegiate a cappella groups with their love of pop music and an eye on The Big Show — aka their quest for glory, to borrow from the title of the nonfiction book upon which the movie was based. There were other influences, of course. A show like “Glee” walked so a movie like “Pitch Perfect” could run. And run it did, with two sequels to follow. That brings us to the Peacock TV series continuation created by Megan Amram and Elizabeth Banks: “Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin.”

Bumper, if you will recall, is the man-child played by Adam Devine. Now in early middle age but boyish as ever, he’s a doofus working security at his old college campus and still dreaming of singing stardom when he finds out from an old a cappella rival — Flula Borg’s Pieter, from the first sequel — that one of his TikTok videos has gone viral in Germany.

Move to Berlin and work with me, Pieter tells him. I can make you a star. Are you serious, Bumper asks? Pieter: “I’m German, of course I’m serious.” So off to Berlin he goes. It’s a premise that seems specifically designed around the question: How do we bring back Borg in a way that makes sense?

Bumper thinks it’s his video singing “99 Luftballons” that has everyone so excited — with 7.6 million views “that’s like … a million views!” Bumper says, awed — but he’s apparently just as recognizable for his other video: “Local man slips on ice and his penis falls out.” Pointless details, Pieter tells him, the time to strike is now. And The Big Show? It’s a slot performing at Unity Day, a celebration that commemorates the reunification of Germany.

The series distinguishes itself from the movies with a softer, less snarky touch overall, while maintaining its broadly ridiculous sensibilities. Bumper is a guileless square in the Capital of Cool; that’s a decent setup in itself. And Pieter is fumbling around for a Cinderella story of his own, having been publicly disgraced when his a cappella group secretly used a beatbox machine — the shame! So he’s remaking himself as a music manager.

His upbeat and optimistic assistant is named Heidi, played by “Modern Family’s” Sarah Hyland, who is a songwriter in her own right. She’s beautiful and treats a ding-dong like Bumper with extraordinary kindness — and if you’re wondering if she becomes his love interest, wonder no more!

This small but mighty group is rounded out by Pieter’s intimidating and impossibly stylish sister DJ Das Boot, played by Lera Abova in a buzz-cut and black wardrobe that looks borrowed from “The Matrix.” Also in the mix: Pieter’s ex, who is a rival budding music star, played by Jameela Jamil with a platinum blonde wig and a shaky German accent.

The musical performances aren’t especially memorable (a rendition of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” is decidedly not fun) and there’s not enough story for what is essentially a three-hour movie chopped up into six half-hour episodes. Somehow it feels smaller than its cinematic predecessors, but fizzier too. The show works best when it’s fast and funny. Pieter offhandedly mentions a Dutch a cappella group: Holland Oates. Or Bumper’s nonsensical response to Pieter’s first phone call: “Look, I am lovin’ this blast from the past. I mean, who doesn’t love a good B from the P?” Or when the matron at Bumper’s hostel recalls a painful memory of the Berlin Wall being constructed: “It happened so quickly that many of my friends were suddenly just on the other side. I never saw them again.” Bumper, blank and spacey as ever: “What? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear what you just said.” Or the song that plays over the closing credits for Episode 5, the lyrics of which consist of a German profanity for excrement shouted over and over again.

But the series can’t quite sustain the kind of pacing it needs. A madcap energy might have served the material better and it wouldn’t have sacrificed the show’s good-hearted vibe. Things slow down considerably as it hits the halfway mark when the narrative is saddled with an earnestness it doesn’t actually need. It’s a truism good songwriters know, as well: You’ve gotta keep the people hooked.

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'PITCH PERFECT: BUMPER IN BERLIN'

2 stars (out of 4)

Rating: TV-14

How to watch: Peacock

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Our stockings runneth over with streaming holiday options whose titles, on Netflix and Hallmark and elsewhere, tend to blur into a single, extended holiday viewing option we’ll call “Countdown to Falling for Christmas with You on a Holidate on Mistletoe Farm All the Way.” Someone should make that one, and then we’ll be done for a while.

Meantime: Here’s a list of 10 holiday movies, nine streaming, one in theaters. Some are old. Some aren’t. Some you know. Some you won’t. Some are grisly. Most are not. Happy viewing and stay warm.

“Holiday” (1938): The grandest romantic New Year’s Eve scene in Hollywood history, and yes, I’ve seen “When Harry Met Sally.” With partygoers downstairs, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, in the attic playroom of a Park Avenue mansion, find themselves edging toward a realization of what they mean to each other in director George Cukor’s exquisite film version of the 1928 Philip Barry play. On Amazon Prime, YouTube, Apple TV+ and other streaming services.

“Remember the Night” (1940): A pip, hard to find but worth the effort. In Manhattan, over the holidays, assistant district attorney Fred MacMurray feels sorry for convicted shoplifter Barbara Stanwyck (he’s the one who convicted her) so he pays her bail and brings her home to Indiana for Christmas. It’s a truly unpredictable mixture of comedy, drama, astringent family dynamics and sneaky romance. Preston Sturges’ script, Mitchell Leisen’s pearly direction, the stars! Sturges’ own assessment: “Quite a lot of schmaltz, a good dose of schmerz and just enough schmutz to make it box office.” On the fawesome.tv service, if you want to find a younger relative to help you figure that one out.

“Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944): The wintertime sequences in director Vincente Minnelli’s achingly nostalgic vision of turn-of-the-century mid-American life are just a fourth of the storyline. But every season’s wonderfully realized in this one, which comes festooned with “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Judy Garland stars, and how. On Amazon Prime and other streaming services.

“Christmas Holiday” (1944): Some titles are more deceiving than others; this sinister wartime film noir from director Robert Siodmak takes the cake. It comes from the W. Somerset Maugham novel. The movie version stars a cast-against-type Gene Kelly as a murderous gambler, and Deanna Durbin, haunted by Yuletide memories she can’t forget. A “gotcha” studio marvel of vexed but finally fulfilled expectations. Streaming on Roku and YouTube.

“The Family Man” (2000): My wife’s favorite seasonal rewatch, and I love her madly, so that’s that. Selfish, acquisitive businessman Nicolas Cage learns a lesson in true commitment and what’s important from his college sweetheart (Tea Leoni) with help from an angel (Don Cheadle). On Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services.

“Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey” (2020): Netflix’s recent original movie musical features a wealth of Black talent in a Victorian-era fantasy starring Justin Cornwell, Forest Whitaker, Anika Noni Rose and Madalen Mills. Some, including my colleague Nina Metz) have written that “Jingle Jangle” has “the makings of a classic that endures year after year.” Streaming on Netflix.

“The Noel Diary” (2022): Another Netflix holiday present, this one from the Richard Paul Evans book, about a bestselling author (Justin Hartley of “Smallville” and “The Young and the Restless”) inheriting his parents’ house after his mother’s death. Luminous Barrett Doss (luminosity: always a fine quality to have in a holiday-themed heartwarmer) co-stars as a woman seeking answers to her own family secrets. Premieres Thursday on Netflix.

“Violent Night” (2022): “Bad Santa” just got owned: David Harbour portrays a mean, bloodthirsty hombre of a St. Nick who’s apparently been watching a heavy rotation of “Straw Dogs” and “Home Alone 2″ (they’re equally sadistic) in prep for this hostage thriller in which brutal mercenaries led by John Leguizamo pay for their place on the naughty list. Premieres in theaters Dec. 2. Rated R for “really?”

“Scrooge: A Christmas Carol” (2022): We’re never far away from another Dickens “Christmas Carol” remake or two: Already on Apple TV + there’s “Spirited,” with Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, and next up is the new Netflix animated “Scrooge: A Christmas Carol.” From the trailer, it looks and sounds like a variation on the 1970 “Scrooge” film but with tons more fireballs and time-traveling portals. The voice cast includes Luke Evans, Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Jonathan Pryce. Premieres on Netflix Dec. 2.

“The Apology” (2022): A Christmastime housebound thriller starring Anna Gunn as a haunted mother whose child disappeared 20 years earlier. Her estranged ex-brother-in-law (Linus Roache) shows up, unannounced, with some secrets to spill along with the blood promised by debut feature writer-director Alison Star Locke. Janeane Garofalo co-stars. Premieres on Shudder Dec. 16.

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The top 10 DVD rentals at Redbox kiosks for the week of Nov. 14:

1. Top Gun: Maverick — Paramount

2. Three Thousand Years of Longing — Warner

3. Bullet Train — Sony

4. Nope — Universal

5. R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned — Universal

6. The Enforcer (2022) — Screen Media

7. The System — Vertical

8. Beast (2022) — Universal

9. Fall — Lionsgate

10. Black Friday! — Screen Media

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Watching Christmas movies is a whole tradition unto itself. Every family has their mainstays, whether it's an animated classic from yesteryear or a more modern take on holiday cheer.

Get to know some of the fascinating stories behind the stories, so you can watch your old favorites with fresh eyes. (And bother everyone with your newly acquired trivia.)

'A Charlie Brown Christmas' was supposed to be a flop

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" is a cozy holiday classic now, but some of the people involved in its production thought it was going to bomb with audiences. The 1965 film was created as a TV special with financial backing from Coca-Cola, but was put together in just a matter of weeks to meet broadcast demands.

Several iconic aspects of the film, like the simple animation and unique jazz score by pianist Vince Guaraldi, were a bit odd for the time. Director Bill Melendez even reportedly declared, "I think we've ruined Charlie Brown."

Lo, all those worries were for naught. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was an immediate hit, and all of the things producers worried made it too strange were the things that made it beloved.

Classic songs were reused, rewritten and dubbed for 'White Christmas'

The 1954 film "White Christmas" is brimming with behind-the-scenes lore, especially when it comes to the music. Most well-known is the fact that Vera-Ellen, who played Judy Haynes, didn't do any of her own singing. (Her dancing, though, was a different story.) Singer Trudy Stevens provided Judy's voice.

All of the songs in "White Christmas" were written by Irving Berlin, the legendary songwriter who wrote hundreds of hits, including "God Bless America." "White Christmas" is one of his most famous tunes, and it was originally performed in the 1942 film "Holiday Inn."

The song "Snow," sung by the starring "White Christmas" foursome as they head to Vermont, was originally called "Free," and was written for a musical called "Call Me Madam." It had a completely different set of lyrics, which Berlin changed to fit the film's holiday feel.

A whole new language is used in 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'

Do you know "Seussian Latin?" The term describes the robust collection of made-up words used by author Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. For the 1966 animated classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," producers wanted the musical feeling of a Christmas special, but didn't want to include elements that would seem out of sync with Seuss' fantastical world.

Thus, Whoville's Christmas songs were written in Seussian style. Viewers even wrote in after the special aired asking for translations. Alas, "Fahoo fores, dahoo dores" doesn't actually mean anything. Trimming the tree with "bingle balls and whofoo fluff?" Just use your imagination.

Hundreds of Jack Skellingtons appear in 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'

Stop-motion animation is an art form forged with exquisite craftsmanship and a lot of patience. The animators behind 1993's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" used about 400 different hand-sculpted heads to bring Jack Skellington to life. In a behind-the-scenes special about the film, animators explain that every sound and facial expression Jack made required a different head that could be popped on and off of the character's puppet body. With that kind of painstaking work, it's no wonder the film took three years to make!

A woman was the voice of 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,' but she didn't get credit at first

Rudolph may have been a cute little boy reindeer in the 1964 TV special, but he was brought to life by Canadian voice actor Billie Mae Richards. Most of the voice cast for this stop-motion classic was actually Canadian because it was cheaper to record audio for the special in Canada. However, in the original credits of the film, Richards is noted as Billy Richards.

That wasn't an accident -- she was intentionally credited that way to obscure her gender. She once said kids wouldn't believe it when her own grandchildren told them she did Rudolph's voice -- but she could prove it by doing the voice on the spot.

Michael Caine did a literal balancing act during 'The Muppet Christmas Carol'

By all accounts, Michael Caine had a great time acting as one of the sole humans in 1992's "The Muppet Christmas Carol." However, being a giant among puppets comes with a few challenges. The bottom of the sets were made up of a series of pits to allow room for Muppet puppeteers. That meant Caine and his fellow humans had to walk on boards above the puppeteers, kind of like an advanced version of "the floor is lava." (The floor is people, perhaps.)

Set designers also used forced perspective to keep everything in proportion -- a common set trick that's also used at numerous theme parks. They also included a nice nod to Caine: One of the signs on the street set reads "Micklewhite's," which is Caine's real last name.

Soap was used to make 'snow' in 'It's a Wonderful Life'

Not all movie magic is high-tech. In the 1940s, when "It's a Wonderful Life" was produced, movie crews typically used painted cornflakes as snow. Though melt-proof, they were also a little too ... crunchy. The film's director Frank Capra decided to try something quieter, and landed on a custom blend for his winter scenes: Ivory soap flakes, chipped ice, and Foamite, a compound used in fire extinguishers. According to the "It's a Wonderful Life" museum, if you pay close attention to the scene with Clarence and George in the river, you can see some tell-tale soap suds floating by.

'Trading Places' includes an operatic Easter egg

Perk up your ears while watching the 1983 comedy "Trading Places." The classical music heard in the opening scene, and throughout the movie, is from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro." Christmas movies and classical music go together like milk and cookies, ("Ode to Joy" and "Die Hard," anyone?) but Elmer Bernstein, who scored the film, was especially clever to add this particular piece.

"The Marriage of Figaro" is a tale of madcap misunderstanding, in which a servant tries to get the best of his pompous, wealthy employer -- similar to how "Trading Places'" Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy get revenge on two scheming executives.

The-CNN-Wire

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