This is the Friday recap of Ty Burr’s Watch List postings for the week. If you’d like to receive this weekly email ONLY, please go to your account page and under “Email notifications” uncheck every box except “Weekly Digest.” If you’d prefer to not receive it at all, uncheck just “Weekly Digest.”
What, if anything, does a movie owe to the book on which it’s based? Should a critic make a point of reading the source novel? Should a moviegoer? Or is the film the thing? In the Tuesday thread I mulled over all these matters and so did readers.
Wednesday’s spotlight was on “The Power of the Dog,” a fierce new western drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst (pictured) and directed by Jane Campion (in theaters and on Netflix). Also: Reviews of “House of Gucci” and “Licorice Pizza,” both in theaters.
It was a Netflix kind of week, I guess. The Friday newsletter rounded up 12 films currently playing on the service that you might not have heard of but that you may well enjoy. Dramas, comedies, B-flicks, art films — something for everyone.
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Hello again Ty, Without specially citing spoilers, I do think a movie should not change the climax, or ending of a film. A nihilist classic story such as Maugham's "The Birds" should not end as portrayed in the Hitchcock film. The whole point and force of Christie's 1939 classic "And Then There Were None" (to use an acceptable title) was ruined by its filmed ending. Thankfully these same screenwriters didn't get their hands on "On the Beach" or "Dr. Strangelove" to name just a few.