WILDLIFE (2018) 5:45 p.m. on Showtime. Set in a stylishly imagined Great Falls, Mont., in the 1960s, this directorial debut from Paul Dano revolves around a family: Jeanette (Carey Mulligan), Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal), and their teenage son, Joe (Ed Oxenbould). After Jerry loses his job, he decides for reasons left partly unknown to take a job as a firefighter in the nearby mountains. This requires him to be gone for a chunk of time. His absence becomes the story’s backdrop, as Joe and Jeanette deal the change in their own ways. “The entire cast does exceptional work (Oxenbould is an exciting find), but the movie is anchored by Mulligan, who gives the best performance of any I’ve seen in film this year,” Glenn Kenny wrote in his review in The Times last year. “Dano’s direction is meticulous in every respect,” he added, “which enables him to keep the characters at a remove that is both cleareyed and compassionate.”

THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE OUT OF WATER (2015) 7:30 p.m. on Nickelodeon. Save for the touring production of the “SpongeBob Musical,” this hybrid animated and live-action SpongeBob SquarePants tale is the closest you’ll get to seeing the famous sponge-person in the flesh .