Aarcflick

One of the most terrifying aspects of adolescence is constant change. Young people are expected to navigate school life, friendships, romance, and mental well-being before making major decisions about the future direction of their lives. Since its debut four years ago, the Netflix series *Heartstopper*—based on Alice Oseman’s novel and graphic novel of the same name—has captured the magic, energy, joy, and anxiety inherent to this stage of life.  Now, in the series finale *Heartstopper Forever*, Oseman guides her characters and the audience into a new chapter: the unknown, a realm as heart-wrenching as it is fascinating. Director: Wash Westmoreland Writer: Alice Oseman Stars: Kit Connor, Joe Locke, Anna Maxwell Martin *Heartstopper Forever* begins in the autumn. It is Nick’s (Kit Connor) final year of secondary school, and much has changed. Charlie (Joe Locke)—no longer the shy, withdrawn boy he once was—is running for student representative and trying to start a club for queer stu...

 The series follows a former con artist forced back into the criminal underworld after a multi-million-dollar heist goes disastrously wrong. Pursued by both law enforcement and dangerous figures from her past, Lucky must contend with betrayals, family secrets, and impossible choices. Crime thrillers usually begin with the big score. *Lucky* starts with the aftermath. It is a far more interesting starting point. When we meet Lucky, the plan has already fallen apart. The money is gone, trust has evaporated, and almost everyone she crosses paths with has a reason to stop or kill her. Instead of watching an elaborate heist unfold, we see someone desperately improvising after everything has gone wrong. It is an ingenious twist on a familiar formula. And more importantly, it gives Anya Taylor-Joy exactly the kind of role in which she shines. Creator: Jonathan Tropper Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Annette Bening, Clifton Collins Jr. Taylor-Joy has always possessed an uncanny ability to make com...

 The friendship between Debbie (Octavia Spencer) and Judith (Hannah Waddingham) is put to the test when it is revealed that the latter is an international assassin and the former’s family ends up in the crosshairs of a hitman. Broadly speaking—collectively, that is—here is what we have come to know about Hannah Waddingham (and by "we," I mean Americans who started paying attention to her after *Ted Lasso*): she has an incredible voice, she is quite tall, and she is an accomplished actress on both stage and screen. Creator: Tessa Coates Stars: Octavia Spencer, Hannah Waddingham, Ed Skrein So, naturally, it makes perfect sense for her to play an international assassin in an episodic buddy comedy alongside Oscar winner (and two-time Emmy nominee for Best Narrator) Octavia Spencer. Frankly, such a leap to break free from typecasting is a victory in itself, even if Amazon executives likely saw her in *Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning* and/or *The Fall Guy*, factored in the ...

Arriving just in time for Pride Month, this film is, in many respects, a conventional coming-of-age story, yet it feels refreshing in the way it treats its teenage protagonist’s queer identity as completely natural. The journey of *Girls Like Girls* from song to screen is unusual. In 2015, pop singer Hayley Kiyoko released her—extremely catchy—eponymous track, bringing an explicit declaration of lesbian desire ("girls like girls, like boys like girls") to a viral mainstream audience. It was accompanied by a music video that condensed the story of two suburban teens discovering their friendship was something more into just five minutes.  Director: Hayley Kiyoko Writers: Hayley Kiyoko, Stefanie Scott, Chloe Okuno Stars: Maya da Costa, Myra Molloy, Zach Braff Co-directed by the singer herself, the video was artfully shot and empathetically told, captivating fans to the point where Kiyoko published a young adult novel expanding on the adventures of its young protagonists, Coley a...

 It’s time for another little podcast on the prairie. Steve Barnes and I got together to chat about the new version of *Little House on the Prairie* coming to Netflix on July 9, 2026. Update: We’ve already watched all eight episodes of the first season, and I have recaps and a full review ready for the podcast. Find all my content regarding *Little House on the Prairie* here. In this preview podcast, we discuss how the series came about and who the creators are, the actors cast in the roles, what we see in the trailer, and some social media buzz we’ve heard. This preview is for anyone wanting to get ready for the new series. Creator: Rebecca Sonnenshine Stars: Luke Bracey, Crosby Fitzgerald, Alice Halsey Steve Barnes is a guitarist for the stoner metal band Introvoid and also plays guitar in the cover band Rebecca Crow. Lindsey Dunn is a film critic and a member of the NC Film Critics and Southeastern Film Critics associations. Her interests include independent horror films, comple...

 Art can speak to anyone, regardless of the distance between the work's content, its creator's experiences, and its purpose—whether intentional or seemingly obvious—vis-à-vis the audience. *Reading Lolita in Tehran* deals precisely with this, as well as the personal experiences of its protagonist: an English literature professor who returned to Iran in the midst of the 1979 revolution, harboring high hopes and the promise of a fulfilling career and life. Over the course of some two decades, the professor comes to realize that—at least regarding the former—achieving this might not be possible in that place. Director Eran Riklis’s film is an adaptation of Azar Nafisi’s memoir; the screenplay, written by Marjorie David, retains the book’s central premise: examining the author’s experiences and discoveries through the lens of various literary works. One of these is, of course, Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial *Lolita*, which leads the film’s Azar—played by Golshifteh Farahani, an I...