Parents' Guide to Vladimir

Rachel Weisz is as reliably magnetic as ever as the unnamed, fourth-wall-breaking protagonist who's the very picture of a quietly furious wronged woman in this cancel-culture satire. The surprise for many viewers will be how funny Weisz is In Vladimir as she addresses the camera to provide devastating insights into the predicament she's in, and what she really thinks of her husband, her colleagues, and the outrageously cute new professor who's brought the spice back into her fantasy life. The other characters in her orbit fade into the background when dreamy-eyed Vlad comes around: One of Vladmir's best gimmicks is how it shows us how our protagonist's consciousness drifts toward Vlad's body parts: the curve of his neck, the small slice of underarm that peeks out from beneath the sleeves of his T-shirt.

Viewers who have spent any time in academia will also relish the sharp satire of campus life, a self-enclosed little world with gossip and competition and petty revenge. Weisz's character is trapped in a web of disapproving colleagues, shocked students, and a family who expects her to support them without needing any support herself. With her class enrollment declining, her husband and daughter involved in their own high dramas, and her crush giving off very mixed signals, the pressure builds until…well, if you saw the first couple of minutes of Vladimir, you know where this story is going. Watching it get there is an idiosyncratic pleasure.