This week had a range of alternative offerings, led by the Disney+ debut of “Mulan.” At an estimated $200 million cost, it is by far the most expensive feature film to skip domestic theaters for Premium VOD. This is also the second week of “Bill & Ted Face the Music” (United Artists), as well as first for “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” the start of Netflix’s fall awards-intended original releases. All that comes as “Tenet” (Warner Bros....

Where to Watch “Nadiya Bakes”: Netflix There’s a camera angle in “Nadiya Bakes” that lets you watch pies and cakes and pastries as they cook. It’s time-lapsed and without the filter of the glass of an oven door, but it’s a tiny touch that shows you that making these kind of delicacies don’t happen by accident. Host (and all-around ray of enthusiasm) Nadiya Hussain first broke through the TV ranks as a contestant on “The Great British Baking Show....

Ghosts are everywhere in Nikyatu Jusu’s atmospheric feature directorial debut, “Nanny,” though few of them look like we’ve come to expect from decades of horror films. Sometimes, it’s just a feeling, a particular twist of the wind. Sometimes, it’s a photograph. Sometimes, it’s a story. And, sometimes, just sometimes, it’s a whole person, gazing out from beyond, well, somewhere. From the start, there is a queasy energy to Jusu’s get-under-your-skin film, one made all the more unsettling to her dedication to showing a full-spectrum leading lady (your usual final girl, she is not) caught in a surprising milieu....

This week’s upfronts came as Netflix on Tuesday laid off about 150 employees from its 11,000-strong workforce in the face of slowing revenue growth and after a Q1 earnings call in which it missed analyst projections by $60 million and saw a net loss of 200,000 subscribers. Wacka-wacka! Not exactly the stuff of high comedy, but the relief of seeing the invincible Netflix looking very vincible indeed became a pressure valve for comedians and executives alike to use the upfronts as an opportunity to vent their spleens....

“I think there are aspects of global distribution in the cinema that are still appealing,” Stuber said when asked about filmmakers who are resistant to making a Netflix original movie. “Chris Nolan and I have spoken quite a bit…and that’s still something he wants deeply. If we can’t provide that, it will still be an issue for him.” While Netflix has been open to giving select originals exclusive theatrical runs ahead of streaming in the U....

May has arrived! And this month’s offering of Criterion releases contain the collection’s signature mix of high and lowbrow content, with an ‘80s high school sex comedy sharing space with a nearly 10-hour Japanese drama. Each release has been remastered, so you know you’ll be getting the best video quality available. In honor of Asian American Heritage month, Asian cinema is particularly well represented in May’s Criterion drops with the Taiwanese classic “Flowers of Shanghai,” and the Japanese epic “The Human Condition,” among the most notable releases....

The Hollywood Reporter was first to break that the creator and writer behind HBO’s acclaimed crime drama anthology series is negotiating an early exit from his FX deal, after his first show at the network fell through. Pizzolatto’s FX deal was tied to “Redeemer,” a drama series that would have reunited Pizzolatto with his “True Detective” Season 1 lead, McConaughey, who was set to star and executive produce. But sources told The Hollywood Reporter that McConaughey dropped out of the upcoming series, leading to its termination at FX and possibly scuttling Pizzolatto’s deal in the process....