Watch List Weekly Recap 1/20/23

A guide to making your TV settings safe for movies and a paean to an under-sung actress.

Watch List Weekly Recap 1/20/23

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.”


There’s a thing your television set does to make movies look like they’re beamed from the set of a soap opera. It’s called “motion smoothing,” every new TV comes with it turned on, and in this post for paying subscribers, I teach you how to turn it off.

Motion Sickness
I have periodically used my bully pulpit over the years, at the Globe or online, to inveigh against the ongoing scourge of your TV set, the “motion smoothing” setting that turns movies into ghoulish highlight reels from your local action-news desk. This is familiarly known as “

It’s a quiet week for new movies and I’m headed off to Sundance for next week, but here’s a fan’s notes on the gifted, under-used Anna Kendrick (above center) and her (non-singing) new movie “Alice, Darling” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐). Plus: “When You Finish Saving the World” (⭐ ⭐ 1/2) and “Purple Noon” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐).

What To Watch: The Passions of Anna (Kendrick)
Happy 200th Ty Burr’s Watch List posting to all who celebrate! Which is just me, really, but many thanks and immense gratitude to those who’ve been with this newsletter from the beginning and those who’ve signed up since. I truly hope you’re having as much fun with it as I am.

Thank you for continuing to read and support the Watch List! Feel free to comment —

— or pass this newsletter along to your friends.

If you’re not a paying subscriber and want to sign up for additional postings and to join the discussions, here’s how: