You know those smart,crowd-pleasing movies Hollywood doesn’t make any more? They made one.

The Acolyte ★★★½
Disney+

“You could try repolarising the power couplings,” a space mechanic,Osha (Amandla Stenberg),suggests in passing early on in thisStar Wars variant. The line sounds like Millennium Falcon boilerplate,but it’s knowingly literal. The dynamics in this standalone adventure,set 100 years before any of the franchise’s movies,have been deepened. There’s an uncomfortable hinterland between right and wrong,contrasting views of established institutions,and divided loyalties. Repolarising:it works.

Creator Leslye Headland has a history of blowing up genres such as the romantic-comedy but withinStar Wars,she’s more subtly reworking constants while trying to deliver a nostalgic sense of adventure. Her focus is the all-powerful Jedi,a source of traditional good also described here – with some merit – as “deranged monks”. When an assassin kills a Jedi master,their colleague Sol (Lee Jung-jae,Squid Game) is sent to investigate because Osha,his former apprentice,has a connection to the case.

As a mystery,The Acolyte is not especially involved,but having quickly revealed the different individuals and cliques,it spends time with them. The usual good and evil divide isn’t so obvious when other perspectives are invoked,and the hints of regret in Lee’s performance are balanced by the hunger for revenge in others. Based on the first four episodes,this is a win for those who want a wider take on whatStar Wars can be.

South Park:The End of Obesity
Paramount+

“Rich people get Ozempic,poor people get body positivity,” announces a distraught Eric Cartman at the start of the latestSouth Park special,which rampages through the rise of weight-loss drugs and the voracious fiscal practicalities of the American healthcare system (and Big Sugar) with the long-running animated comedy’s usual surplus of adolescent anarchy.

The absurdist social commentary is bluntly effective.

Once again,it’s a crucial adult character,Stan’s father,Randy Marsh,who steals the spotlight as a disbeliever who accidentally becomes an Ozempic addict and criminal.

Am I OK?
Binge

For not the first time in her career,Dakota Johnson makes amends for a particularly dismal blockbuster (50 Shades of Grey and nowMadame Web) with an emotionally complex performance in an independent feature.

In this keenly observed comedy she plays Lucy,a 30-something woman who belatedly realises that she’s a lesbian and in love with her best friend,Jane (Sonoya Mizuno). It’s a difficult transition for the pair.

It’s capably directed by married comics Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne,aside from the occasional and unnecessary detour into social satire.

We Are Lady Parts (season 2)
Stan

This punky British comedy about an all-female,all-Muslim rock band is in stride at the start of this second season and rarely deviates.

Having gone through the new group struggles and instilled some self-belief in ace guitarist Amina (Arjana Vasan),the quartet is now on tour and in the recording studio. Creator Nida Manzoor (Polite Society) has created a paean to London’s multi-generational Muslim communities and young women who will not be quiet.

Lady Parts’ songs go for two minutes;the episodes last 25 minutes. Both are the right length.

Dancing for the Devil
Netflix

It’s not entirely surprising that signing up to a TikTok management company that doubles as a private church with a controlling CEO/pastor proves to be problematic.

But this three-part documentary series tells the stories of the talented dancers who’ve stepped inside the 7M organisation with a measure of sensitivity – the majority of testimony comes from scared or saddened family of the hopeful artists,who fear that they’ve lost their loved ones to what appears to be a cult. It’s both alarming and understandable:crushing online economics made the dancers vulnerable.

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