Monday: Boy Interrupted
As part of their summer-long documentary film series—which airs every Monday at 9—HBO is premiering Dana Perry’s Boy Interrupted, a harrowing look at the life and death of her 15-year-old son, Ryan, who committed suicide after a battle with bipolar disorder. We haven’t seen the 2009 Sundance Grand Jury prize nominee just yet, but considering we got choked up watching the 50-second trailer, it’s safe to say we’re going to need an extra box of Kleenex before tonight. [HBO, 9 p.m.]
Tuesday: Step Brothers
Under no metric should Step Brothers actually work; on paper it’s more of the same arrested development from director Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights) and his partner-in-tighty-whiteys, star Will Ferrell, who spends the movie warring with his newly acquired stepbrother, played by John C. Reilly. (Remember when Mr. Reilly was an Oscar nominee?) But Step Brothers is deranged madness packed in the trappings of a rote studio comedy. Messrs. Ferrell and Reilly one up each other like rabid animals, and the supporting cast—a rogue’s gallery of misfit toys from Richard Jenkins to Mary Steenburgen to Adam Scott—have a blast with the increasingly ridiculous material. This is pathological comedy at its finest. [Starz, 9 p.m.]
Wednesday: Dark Blue
And the winner for the most generically titled show of the summer is … TNT’s Dark Blue! Dylan McDermott trades his Practice-approved three-button suit for a badge and gun as the screenwritery named Carter Shaw, head of an undercover team of Los Angeles cops. It’s like The Shield, but with more good guys! This all sounds incredibly generic, but there is hope: Action producer extraordinaire Jerry Bruckheimer is involved, meaning, at the very least, expect a great many things to go boom. [TNT, 9 p.m.]
Thursday: 10 Things I Hate About You
Now that 10 years has passed, can we all officially declare 10 Things I Hate About You as the best of the ’90s boon on teen movies? The high school take on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (shockingly written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, the two women responsible for the much less savvy The Ugly Truth) is smart, touching, funny and incredibly rewatchable. Of course the late Heath Ledger receives most of the memories from this one (we still love his rendition of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”), but we actually prefer Joseph Gordon-Levitt and David Krumholtz as the two nerds. All those people shocked at Mr. Levitt’s grace and likability as a romantic lead in (500) Days of Summer must not have seen this. [Starz Comedy, 8:30 a.m.]
Friday: The Way of the Gun
You can do a lot worse for a Friday night movie than The Way of the Gun, which plays like the demon child of Pulp Fiction and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie—after the former screenwriter-of-the-moment won his Oscar for The Usual Suspects—the gritty and bloody film finds Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro playing a couple of criminals who get in way over their heads after a kidnapping goes awry. There is plenty of post-’90s nihilistic fun to be had here, but be forewarned: This thing is so hella violent that it might make even Quentin Tarantino wince. [TMCx, 8 p.m.]