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A stretch of small businesses along the Route 1 corridor in downtown Hyattsville was highlighted by DCist this week for its strategies to survive the coronavirus pandemic.

The three-block stretch from Farragut to Jefferson streets is home to a dozen locally owned retailers, including Franklins, Arrow Bicycle, Chez Dior, Sangfroid Distilling, Vigilante Coffee, Love Yoga, Tanglewood Works, Three Little Birds, Suffragette City and Wills Decorating.

All of the businesses faced different challenges when the pandemic hit, but loans from the city of Hyattsville and the federal Paycheck Protection Program helped. The businesses also worked together as they tried new strategies.

“Maybe the secret sauce is that there is a social network,” Hyattsville Community Development Corp director Stuart Eisenberg told DCist. “And the intelligence that we are sharing together. We’re all strategizing together.”

At Vigilante, that meant online sales and coffee-to-go and installing a thick plastic sheeting around its counter separating customers from its staff for extra safety precautions. Franklins switched to curbside pickup and delivery, set up picnic tables in its parking lots and opened an outdoor tiki bar. Tanglewood Works owner Sue Mondeel began making online videos while Lova Yoga studio held classes online.

The nonprofit SoHy Co-Op also helped strategize putting together events like socially distant sidewalk sales to help support local businesses while following CDC safety protocols and guidelines.

Their next event, the SoHy Spring Scavenger, takes place on Saturday, March 20, where residents can come out and support a number of small businesses. The event will include a scavenger hunt, a socially distanced outdoor gathering space and live music.

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Morgane Polanski shot her first scene at six - now she’s making her mark on film

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“I’m 28, what have I achieved?” Morgane Polanski shouts these words into the wind as we take a socially distanced walk around blustery Kensington Gardens, her daily lockdown stomping ground. “I’ve got to get a move on. By 25 Orson Welles had already made Citizen Kane!”

Wrapped in a vintage military coat, and solidly grounded in DM boots, she has a light French accent, and her fingernails painted a harlequinade of different colours, like her heroine Margot Robbie in Birds of Prey. Like Robbie, she aims not only to act, but to produce her own projects; Polanski wants to co-write, produce, direct, act - the lot.

This is a woman who is deeply knowledgeable and passionate about film (I am put in mind of a young Sofia Coppola, although it’s David Lynch with whom she shares a birthday). By any normal standards, she has achieved rather a lot for 28.

First, she has created her own life here in Britain, away from her thunderously talented parents, the legendary director Roman Polanski and his muse the actor, singer and immortal beauty Emmanuelle Seigner. “I worked hard for everything I have,” she shrugs. “Four years of training at drama school. I know my own journey and I did it myself.”

TV movie reviews: Monday February 22 to Friday February 26

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Monday

Pretty Cheaters, Deadly Lies

Three, 1pm

Starring Sydney Meyer.

Drama in which a high school cheating scam turns deadly.

Not reviewed.

Dior And I

Māori TV, 8.30pm

Documentary about Christian Dior designer Raf Simons. Fascinating glimpse into the world of high fashion. ★★★

Supplied Kristen Stewart, Ella Balinska and Naomi Scott in Charlie’s Angels.

Charlie’s Angels

Sky Premiere, 8.30pm

Starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott.

It started as a hit 70s TV series, starring Farah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, resurfaced as an OK movie in 2000, rebooted as a mediocre TV series in 2011 and now as this somewhat lame affair. Possibly the issue is that the underlying premise – beautiful women working for a somewhat omnipotent male presence – becomes more dated the further away we move from the 70s. Here, Kristen Stewart heads a team of Angels who are charged with recovering a device that has the potential to cause fatal seizures on a massive scale. It is a bit of a mish-mash, although the Angels are a lively, colourful bunch. ★★

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The Specialist

Prime, 8.30pm

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone.

Cold-blooded action movie in which leads Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone don’t so much act as pout their way self-absorbedly through their scenes. Only James Woods, as the duo’s nemesis, has the sense to execute his lines with some sarcasm. ★★

Tuesday

Instakiller

Three, 1pm

Starring Kelly Sullivan, Lizzie Broadway.

A mother must save her daughter from a psychopath after she becomes an overnight internet sensation.

Not reviewed.

The Sum Of All Fears

TVNZ Duke, 8.30pm

Starring Ben Affleck.

Affleck comfortably takes over the role of CIA analyst Jack Ryan from predecessors Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford in this intelligent thriller based on Tom Clancy’s 1991 novel about terrorism on American soil. Fans of the book may be disappointed, however, as the adaptation is not entirely faithful. ★★★

Supplied Pak Hon Chu and Anna-Maija Tuokko in Master Cheng.

Master Cheng

Sky Premiere, 8.30pm

Starring Chu Pak Hong, Lucas Hsuan.

Charming Finnish comedy drama about a Chinese widower and renowned chef (in his homeland) who mysteriously turns up in a remote town and wins over insular locals with his cooking. It is as inoffensive as chicken soup, and as nourishing for the soul. ★★★

Wednesday

Eve Of Abduction

Three, 1pm

Starring Rob Derringer.

A woman discovers a kidnapper is trying to save her daughter from an even greater danger. Not reviewed.

Supplied Haley Bennett and Miles Teller in Thank You For Your Service.

Thank You For Your Service

Sky Premiere, 8.30pm

Starring Miles Teller, Haley Bennett.

Harrowing story about an Iraq War veteran who returns to his wife and two children after a 15-month combat deployment, only to suffer from crippling post-traumatic stress. That condition is the core of the film, and one which has only begun to be recognised in the past two decades. Sufferers in World War I were labelled cowards and shot. Thank You For Your Service is a story that needed to be told. ★★★★

Thursday

Killer In Law

Three, 1pm

Starring Kelly Sullivan.

A grandmother has plans to kidnap her daughter-in-law’s child. Not reviewed.

Supplied Benedict Cumberbatch in The Current War.

The Current War

Sky Premiere, 8.30pm

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon.

No, it’s not about some proxy conflict in far-off countries, or rival dried fruit merchants. The title is a pun about powerhouse pioneers (sorry) George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison, who invented different electricity systems, direct current and alternating current – A/C and D/C. Some weird stuff went on during their rivalry, including inventing the electric chair and electrocuting an elephant, but the film is somewhat underpowered. ★★

Friday

Deadly Patient

Three, 1pm

Starring George Wyner, Bree Williamson.

A patient becomes obsessed with the doctor who saved his life. Not reviewed.

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Bravo, 7.30pm

Starring Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz.

At first glance it may seem like just another cliched romantic comedy, but the plot this movie follows is fresher than most, and nobody does this sort of thing better than Julia Roberts. Special mention must also go to Rupert Everett, who is hilariously funny as the prototypical gay best friend. ★★★

Supplied Vin Diesel in XXX.

XXX

Three, 7.30pm

Starring Vin Diesel.

A blatantly over-the-top stuntfest from start to finish that goes at such a pace that it seems like a collection of movie ads. Vin Diesel is in his element as a bad-boy extreme sportster who is recruited by the government to go undercover to take on a Russian renegade (played by watchable New Zealand actor Marton Csokas). ★★

Supplied Eddie Murphy in Norbit.

Norbit

TVNZ Duke, 8.30pm

Starring Eddie Murphy.

Eddie Murphy plays on flatulence and fat jokes in this dismal comedy about a man trapped in a marriage with a thoroughly repulsive woman. ★★

Last Chance Harvey

Māori TV, 8.30pm

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson.

Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson make a compelling couple in this romantic drama that is a cut above most of its kind, largely thanks to the charm and finesse of these two gifted performers. ★★★

Burden

Sky Premiere, 8.30pm

Starring Garrett Hedlund, Forest Whitaker.

A military veteran raised within the confines of the white supremacist organisation the Ku Klux Klan tries to break away from its clutches after he meets a woman who makes him question his views. Notionally based on a true story, Burden – the surname of the main character – helps out at a shop selling appalling, racist memorabilia but is somehow too linear a character. His journey from monster to redemption is predictable, and really the story doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t know already. ★★★

The Matrix Revolutions

TVNZ 2, 8.35pm

Starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne.

This is a let-down final instalment of the Matrix trilogy in which surviving rebel humans defend the city of Zion from a robot attack. ★★★