Apple TV+ drama ‘La Maison,’ Criterion horror movies and more to watch this weekend

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who’s ready to refill their streaming queue.

In this week’s Screen Gab, we offer recommendations for a crop of films and TV series, including a French-language fashion drama from Apple TV+, classic horror movies from Criterion Channel and a tribute to the late Maggie Smith. Plus, we catch up with performer Big Freedia about Season 2 of her reality show, “Big Freedia Means Business.”

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Marisa Abela in “Industry.”

(Simon Ridgway/HBO)

Marisa Abela, Harry Lawtey break down the ‘Industry’ finale’s big romantic twist: The actors who play the HBO series’ most-shipped couple discuss Robert and Yasmin’s fate in the Season 3 finale: “It’s a sort of business decision at the end of the day.”

The disturbing new after-school special that parents of teenagers need to see: For years, anecdotal evidence and scholarly research have shown the dangers social media can hold for kids and teens. The groundbreaking “Social Studies” shows us what that looks like in real time.

In ‘Agatha All Along,’ ‘Ballad of the Witches’ Road’ goes from sacred chant to ‘70s rock hit: Lorna Wu’s rendition of “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road” is the latest version of the song. Marvel showrunner Jac Schaeffer promises that more are still to come.

How Erin Foster’s real-life romance inspired ‘Nobody Wants This’: When the creator of Netflix’s rom-com told her husband she had sold a show based on their love story, he wasn’t thrilled, but he eventually came around: “This is what Erin’s supposed to be doing.”

Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Lambert Wilson in “La Maison.”

(Apple TV+)

‘La Maison’ (Apple TV+)

Two households, both alike in dignity — which is to say, not all that much — in fair Paris, where we lay our scene: This lively glam-soap of family and fortune in the French fashion industry might be just the thing to fill the “Succession”-shaped hole in your life with champagne and petits-fours, satin and lace, and a touch of “Call My Agent,” minus the whimsicality. Lambert Wilson plays designer Vincent Ledu, the leonine head of a venerable independent fashion house, canceled after a racist rant, triggered by a difficult Korean client, goes viral; Carole Bouquet (once the real-life face of Chanel No. 5) is Diane Rovel, the empress of an international brand, the wealthiest woman in Europe — and the mother-in-law of Vincent’s brother Victor (Pierre Deladonchamps) — scheming to take over Ledu and in doing so, end it. Into this high-toned fracas comes Paloma Castel (Zita Hanrot), a young designer of punky patchwork eco-friendly clothing — Vivienne Westwood would have rolled her eyes — with her own less conventional family connection to Ledu, and who second-in-command Perle (Amira Casar) believes is just the person to save them. And that’s not the half of it. Amusez-vous bien! —Robert Lloyd

Maggie Smith, from left, Joan Plowright, Eileen Atkins and Judi Dench in the 2018 British documentary “Tea With the Dames.”

(Mark Johnson / Picturehouse Entertainment)

‘Tea With the Dames’ (Kanopy)

When news broke last week that legendary actor Maggie Smith had died at age 89, I reached immediately for Roger Michell’s delightful 2018 documentary, which finds Smith and three of her contemporaries — Joan Plowright, Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins — reminiscing over a rainy afternoon at the charming country cottage Plowright built with her husband Laurence Olivier. If you are seeking an exhaustive treatment of the quartet’s stage and screen careers, you’re better off looking elsewhere; for both breadth and depth, the conversation leaves much to be desired. But as an introduction to their work, to say nothing of their sparkling wit, “Tea With the Dames,” released in the U.K. as “Nothing Like a Dame,” contains plenty to chew on, especially in its focus on their work in the British theater, glimpsed in a remarkable array of archival clips as well as through the gauze of memory. If you, like many on social media, were frustrated to see obituaries identify Smith primarily as the star of “Harry Potter” and “Downton Abbey” — or if you simply enjoy a bit of banter among old friends — this film is more than worth its 84-minute running time, and a reminder always to celebrate the artists you admire while they’re still here. —Matt Brennan

READ MORE: Maggie Smith helped redefine what it means to grow old, particularly for women

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Big Freedia.

(Fuse)

Having followed Big Freedia since I first arrived in New Orleans in 2009 — when she was on the cusp of making the city’s bounce music scene a nationwide phenomenon — I can’t say I’m surprised that the charismatic, gender-nonconforming performer has created an empire large enough to sustain a reality show. After two studio albums, countless collaborations and guest spots on everything from “Treme” to “P-Valley,” “Big Freedia Means Business” (Fuse TV), whose second season premiered this week, pulls back the curtain on her many, many ventures. (Weed, hospitality, fashion and a gospel album are just the tip of the iceberg.) Freedia stopped by Screen Gab recently to deliver her best business advice, tell us what she’s watching and much more. —Matt Brennan

What have you watched recently that you’re recommending to everyone you know?

Baby, Tyler Perry’s “A Fall From Grace” [Netflix] is serving drama realness! I love a good Tyler Perry comedy, but this one is straight-up riveting. Crystal Fox plays a woman scorned, and she did not come to play that role!”

Next, “Worst Ex Ever” [Netflix]. You might start to see a pattern here. I love crime and I love drama!

And “Will & Harper” [Netflix]. Yasss Will Ferrell! This is a very cool film about coming out trans later in life. Very entertaining and worthwhile.

What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the film or TV show you return to again and again?

Did I mention crime? I can watch “Law & Order” [Peacock] and NCIS [Pluto TV, Paramount+] over and over — the same episodes —and never get bored. If they ever revive “NCIS: New Orleans,” holla at your queen for a guest appearance please! I have some new story ideas too!

As for movies, “Training Day” [Fubo, Paramount+], “The Nutty Professor” [Tubi, Starz], any of the “Friday” movies [VOD, multiple platforms]! “Big Trouble in Little China” [VOD], “Beverly Hills Cop” [Paramount+] — all of them and “Big Momma’s House” [Hulu]. These movies are on rotation on my streaming accounts. I can watch them anytime, any day, on a plane or when I’m trying to relax.

“Big Freedia Means Business” delves into your many ventures beyond music. At this stage of the enterprise, what’s the No. 1 piece of advice that you would give to up-and-coming talent trying to expand their brand?

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Building a lasting brand takes hard work, including many successes and many failures. You have to have thick skin to survive!

Your hometown of New Orleans, where I lived for 10 years, is among the most misunderstood cities in America. What do you think pop culture/the media gets wrong about New Orleans most often, and how do you hope to change that in your own work?

I think the media tends to show New Orleans as a city that is overshadowed by crime and poverty. But we are more than that: We are artists, tech executives, entrepreneurs, culinary whizzes and more.

Break down

Times staffers chew on the pop culture of the moment — love it, hate it or somewhere in between

In a nightmare sequence, David Naughton runs naked through the woods in “An American Werewolf in London” in 1981.

(Universal Pictures)

We’re heading out of an especially gooey summer, marked by two sickening yet wondrous achievements in prosthetic makeup design. The blood-drenched climax of “The Substance” was something you needed to see to believe, while Mike Marino’s skin-shedding work on “A Different Man” was a transformation for the ages. A gross-but-fun new series on the Criterion Channel, “Horror F/X,” salutes these artists; you can go back to the Universal monster classics of the 1930s if you choose, but the field really exploded — sometimes literally — in the ‘80s, when technological advances in materiel and increased recognition turned makeup into a draw of its own. Here are our three must-sees. —Joshua Rothkopf

“An American Werewolf in London” (1981): Rick Baker’s name was made after he mounted this film’s signature sequence: bones cracking, hairs bristling, paws distending, a snout popping out, painfully. (Forget about digital — that wouldn’t arrive for several more years.) It led directly to director John Landis getting the gig for the “Thriller” video. Baker won the first Oscar ever issued to a makeup artist. It’s a credit to his craft that he’s won six times since.

“Scanners” (1981): If you care a fig about body horror, you start with the big dog, David Cronenberg. This is the film that launched a million Fangoria subscriptions, its troubled telepaths diving into vein-popping psionic warfare. A head goes kablooey, courtesy of makeup artist Dick Smith, also of “The Exorcist.” Lovably, Cronenberg’s early drafts had the exploding head as his first scene. Nauseated test audiences convinced him otherwise.

“The Fly” (1986): Name-checked by those knocked out by “The Substance,” Cronenberg’s ill-fated romance was not merely a showcase for Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis (then a real-life couple) but for makeup designer Chris Walas, who charted a human body’s descent — phase by phase — into an insect. Gore effects were never before put to such tragic ends; Walas took home an Academy Award but the movie should have won several more.