DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2013
Jun
21
 
 
This 1978 movie comedy signaled that a new generation was coming, in a big way – not only to the movies, but on the screen and behind the camera. Watch John Belushi, already a Not Ready for Prime Time Player on Saturday Night Live, steal the movie in his big-screen debut, like all four Marx Brothers rolled into one.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
21
 
 
Tonight’s guests include political columnist Joshua Green and author Michael Pollan, who specializes now in books and essays about food. There has been lots of news in both arenas this week, so Maher ought to be able to lead quite a discussion. Last week’s show, by the way, was the best of the season – very heated, yet very illuminating, and very smart.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
20
 
 
Untamed Youth isn’t the sort of B movie TCM presents very often – but tonight, it’s the first of a mini-marathon of films featuring actress Mamie Van Doren, who competed with Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield in the late Fifties for the title of American film goddess (and lost to both). This is a rare chance to see a lot of her films in one place, beginning with this 1957 drama, in which she plays a wannabe actress detained in a rural prison. Six additional Mamie Van Doren mov
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
20
 
 
Game 6 went into overtime, saw the San Antonio Spurs collapse at the very end, and gave the Miami Heat another day to play, in an end-of-it-all Game 7 in front of a home crowd. Given both the home crowd and the momentum, the Heat have the advantage – but no team in this year’s finals has found a way to win two games in a row. Expect the game to be gripping – and the ratings to be huge, at least for pro basketball.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
20
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: The first two episodes of the new season are shown back-to-back – starting with a memorable visual reference, then getting down to business, and a second episode that ranks among this show’s best. For a full review, see Eric Gould’s Cold Light Reader.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
20
 
 
SEASON FINALE: If you’ve stayed with this show, tonight’s the night the plot thickens substantially. The hero is suspected of murder, and the person to whom he turns for help is, as only we know, the real killer. And when the killer’s name is the title of the show, it doesn’t bode well for the good guys.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
20
 
 
Tonight on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert plays host to Joss Whedon, whose new film, after The Avengers, is a modern-dress, black-and-white Shakespearean adaptation filmed in his own house. The film is Much Ado about Nothing, and the stars include lots of veterans from previous Whedon works: Amy Acker (seen here with Whedon) from Angel and Dollhouse, Nathan Fillion from Firefly, Alexis Denisof from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Fran Kranz and Reed Diamond from Dollhouse, and Clark Gre
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
20
 
 
James Gandolfini may be best remembered for The Sopranos, but David Bianculli recalls a project that's not to be missed by those seeking insight into Gandolfini, the man...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
20
 
 
Indelible TV roles will never say die. But the actors who played them are all too perishable. Adding James Gandolfini to a list of late actors is particularly painful...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
19
 
 
The death of James Gandolfini, of a reported heart attack at age 51, is as shocking a piece of news as the sudden cut-to-black that ended his superb HBO series, The Sopranos…