Welcome to Culture Hound, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important cultural happenings, pop and otherwise (note: you can find our monthly book guide a little later this week).
WATCH: Monkey Man
Dev Patel’s directing debut (he also stars and wrote the original storyline) seems like the next John Wick with a hint of Fight Club. It’s one man’s revenge spree against corrupt leaders who murdered his mother. (4/5, theaters)
- More new films coming to the big and small screens: The Greatest Hits (4/5 theaters, 4/12 Hulu); Civil War (4/12, theaters); Arcadian (4/12, theaters); The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (4/19); Boy Kills World (4/26, theaters)
WELCOME BACK: Them: The Scare
This horror anthology’s excellent and disturbing first season fell under the radar. Hopefully, the second season — which takes place in 1991 and follows an LAPD detective investigating a gruesome murder with supernatural overtones — will catch a larger audience. (4/25, Prime Video)
- More returning TV shows: Loot (4/3, Apple TV+); Star Trek: Discovery (4/4, Paramount+); The Big Door Prize (4/24, Apple TV+)
Our Favorite Movies of 2023
From small indies to big-budget fare and, yes, Barbenheimer, these were the movies that stuck with usBINGE: Fallout
The next The Last of Us? The creators of Westworld (Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy) tackle the adaptation of this iconic video game, which takes place 200 years after the apocalypse and features a lot of cool, retro-futuristic design. (4/11, Prime Video)
- More new TV series and miniseries: Ripley (4/4, Netflix); Sugar (4/5, Apple TV+); Franklin (4/12, Apple TV+); Dead Boy Detectives (4/25, Netflix); The Veil (4/30, Hulu)
LISTEN: Vampire Weekend
On their fifth record (Only God Was Above Us) and first new music in five years, the New York indie rock band is channeling late ‘80s New York in its music videos and a spacey guitar vibe in the album’s first two singles, a ballad (“Capricorn”) and a more upbeat but noisy rocker (“Gen-X Cops”). (4/5)
- More new music: The Black Keys (4/5); Maggie Rogers (4/12); Pearl Jam (4/19); Taylor Swift (4/19); Justice (4/26)
STUDY: Secrets of the Octopus
The team behind the Emmy-winning docs Secrets of the Whales and Secrets of the Elephants (including executive producer James Cameron) returns with a three-part series focusing on the three-hearted, eight-legged sea creatures, narrated by Paul Rudd. (4/21, NatGeo/Disney+/Hulu)
- More new documentaries and specials: A Brief History of the Future (4/3, PBS); The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem (4/5, Netflix); Girls State (4/5, Apple TV+): Kim’s Video (4/5, theaters); Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story (4/27, Hulu)
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