An opulently rendered tale with spectacular set pieces and some soul-baring that, for all its grand gestures, feels not quite fully formed.

Indie crime drama “Emily the Criminal” clicks because of Aubrey Plaza. Not enough can be said about her subtlety, or how much she does with a sneer or a shift of her large, luminous eyes.

“Nope” is a solid summer pleaser, a sci-fi thriller from Jordan Peele with some very deep characters, incredible performances and a thinking person’s pacing.

“The Gray Man,” ambitious to the tune of $200 million and eye-grabbing on paper, is sadly more proof that beyond its breakout “Squid Games” series, Netflix just can’t buy a hit.

Netflix’s smash hit “Stranger Things” combines horror, fantasy and 1980s nostalgia, and not just to the benefit of the streaming service – it also delivered a bump in popularity to the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, played live weekly in Central Square.

Drenched in sunlight, with a quick, breezy pace that keeps the plot engaging and moving, and tangible camaraderie between its main cast, “Fire Island” proves to be a breath of fresh air in a genre looking to reinvigorate itself.

Joyce Chen was Boston’s first real celebrity restaurateur and holds indisputable importance in U.S. culinary history. In the same era Julia Child was changing America’s palates through French cooking, Chen was doing just that with regional Chinese, introducing dishes such as Peking duck, hot and sour soup and moo shu pork.

Election commissioners have clarified the rules for next week’s count of votes for City Council, School Committee and charter reforms, deciding Friday that for the second year the number of in-person observers will limited to three.

If you’re wondering what a pandemic-era Election Night will be like in Cambridge, so is the Election Commission, even though voting is Tuesday, just a week away.

The 2021 Stream Festival – the city’s annual River Festival reimagined for the second pandemic year – is Saturday, with a focus on jazz.