Apted’s last entry in his documentary film series, which interviews follows a group of British ciitizens from childhood into old age, was 2019’s “63 Up.” He was also known for directing films including “The World Is Not Enough,” “Nell,” “Gorillas in the Mist,” “Thunderheart,” “Enigma,” “Enough,” and his feature directorial debut “The Triple Echo,” starring Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed. His “Seven Up” series began in 1964, with a total of nine entries over the decades....

But with the Academy tilting toward transforming real-life people in recent years, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” is the favorite, especially after its sweep of the coveted MUAHS Guild Awards. Plus, Davis is the favorite in the Best Actress race. She landed her fourth Oscar nomination — the most of any Black actress — as the sexy, subversive Rainey. And the actress was boldly uncompromising in demanding verisimilitude with the help of gold teeth, charcoal-like makeup, and a wig made of horsehair....

“We are looking at it. Yeah, we have been looking at ideas,” May said. “It’s going to be hard to follow that one as none of us could have predicted how massive that was going to be. We put a lot of heart and soul into making it and no one could have predicted [its success] as it was bigger than ‘Gone with the Wind.’ But yes, we are thinking maybe it could happen, but it would have to be a great script....

The untitled show is described as a coming-of-age drama that follows students who serve in the ROTC as a way of paying tuition at an elite university. Both Conway, a writer on “9-1-1 Lone Star,” and Murga, a writer and director on “Swagger,” used the ROTC to fund their higher education before serving in the U.S. Army. Conway and Murga will also executive produce the untitled ROTC show alongside Lee, Steven Jackson and Trevor Engelson (“Snowfall”) for his production banner Underground....

As we resume our Sunday specialized analyses after a 30-month absence, it’s time for a PSA: Nuance matters and opening weekends can be misleading, but initial results matter both for what they indicate as well as for their influence on future coverage. The excellent news is that both films, going slightly different directions to start (“TÁR” a traditional four-theater New York/Los Angeles start, “Triangle” 10 theaters in six cities) need no excuses....

On the one hand, “The Adam Project” recognizes that its star’s wounded sarcasm is the perfect fit for an Amblin-esque adventure about a swole fighter pilot who travels back in time in order to team up with his scrawny 12-year-old self (“It’s not a multiverse!” Reynolds shouts at the tween. “My god, we’ve seen too many movies”). On the other hand, this exhaustingly overstuffed Netflix spectacle is so busy trying to fuse the temporal antics of “Back to the Future” into the space-age heroism of “Star Wars” — and to do so in a way that will keep people from clicking over to “Love Is Blind” — that its favorite quote starts to sound less like an earnest plea to appreciate the present than it does a veiled threat to settle for it… or else....

Smith plays “Whipped Peter,” a slave with a scarred back who escapes the swamps of Louisiana and eventually joins the Union Army to fight in the Civil War. The film is based on a true story and was inspired by a photograph of the scars that the real-life slave acquired after being brutally assaulted on a plantation. “Emancipation” will be released theatrically December 2 before streaming on Apple TV+ December 9....