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Novelist Patricia Highsmith, whose psychological thrillers have been adapted into several unsettling films (“Strangers on a Train,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “Carol”) and filmmaker Adrian Lyne, known for such tales of lust and depravity as “9½ Weeks,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Indecent Proposal” and “Lolita,” make for a combustible combination. And “Deep Water,” which has been directed by Lyne, based on an adaptation of Highsmith’s 1957 novel by screenwriters Zach Helm and Sam Levinson, is practically smoldering — with the sour-smelling smoke of a burning trash fire. That’s not to say it’s bad, in the conventional understanding of the term: Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas are pretty impossible to look away from as the bickering Vic and Melinda, a married couple who should never have tied the knot in the first place. She’s a mean drunk and a serial philanderer, flaunting her affairs with other men under Vic’s nose just to get a rise out of him because she sees him as boring and dull. That’s because the stolid, long-suffering Vic seems to tolerate her infidelity, rather than lose her to divorce. Or maybe Vic’s still waters run deeper than it would appear. When a couple of Melinda’s “friends,” as she calls them, turn up missing or dead, Vic becomes a suspect — if not by the police, then by a nosy local writer of pulp fiction (Tracy Letts). “Deep Water” is not a great film, but it’s also never less than watchable. Affleck’s Vic is a simmering cauldron of repressed rage (and initially indeterminate homicidal tendencies), while de Armas’s Melinda borders on the sociopathic. This husband and wife, in a sick way, deserve each other, And “Deep Water,” shallow though it may be — and with a new ending that completely alters Highsmith’s — is a queasily bracing dip in the psychopath pool. R. Available on Hulu. Contains sexual elements, nudity, crude language, drugs and some violence. 120 minutes.
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The documentary “More Than Robots” follows four teams of teenagers from around the world as they prepare for a 2020 robotics competition sponsored by the organization FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). According to SlashFilm, the movie is “sweet and fascinating and fun and very easy to watch,” Unrated. Available on Disney Plus. 89 minutes.
Mel Gibson plays a CIA operative and Cole Hauser plays a former Marine in “Panama,” an action thriller set in 1989, with the United States on the brink of invading Panama. R. Available on demand. Contains violence, sexual material, nudity, drug use and strong language. 94 minutes.
Noomi Rapace stars in “Black Crab,” a Swedish action thriller about a soldier who agrees to transport a top-secret cargo across a frozen sea to prevent an apocalyptic war and save her daughter. TV-MA. Available on Netflix. In Swedish with subtitles. 104 minutes.(Visit Store: https://hipmodes.com/)
“The Torch” documents blues legend Buddy Guy’s long mentorship of guitar player Quinn Sullivan, who has been a protege of the now 85-year-old Guy since Sullivan was a child. The New York Times says: “Any opportunity to spend almost two hours in the company of Buddy Guy is an opportunity not to be missed.” Unrated. Available on demand. 107 minutes.
In “Windfall,” Jason Segel plays a thief who breaks into the empty vacation home of an arrogant tech billionaire, only to take the owner (Jesse Plemons) and his wife (Lily Collins) hostage when the two show up for an unplanned getaway. R. Available on Netflix. Contains strong language throughout and some violence. 92 minutes.
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