Mary and Martha is a film with star power and staying power. It won’t surprise you with its outcome — but it may well have more of an impact than anticipated...

2013

Apr

HEMLOCK GROVE By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: This is more advisory than recommendation. When House of Cards premiered all at once on Netflix two months ago, it was with an instant burst of impressive creativity – a demand, because of the new show’s cast, writing, direction and overall quality, that “attention must be paid.” The opening hour of Hemlock Grove – which, like all other hours in the first season, became available today – is less impressive, less original, and certainly a lot l

2013

Apr

EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY By David Bianculli

This 1989 movie semi-musical, a tossaway cotton-candy comedy confection, may seem like a very odd “spider-web” film – but the performances keep me watching, whenever it pops up. (That, and the knowledge that it was one of my daughter Kristin’s favorite movies growing up.) Geena Davis plays a Valley Girl who is visited by three hairy, Play-Doh-colored space aliens – and when their fur is shaved, they’re all good-looking guys, played by Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey

2013

Apr

GLORY By David Bianculli

Made in 1989, this Civil War drama tells of the first all-black volunteer company of Union soldiers. Matthew Broderick plays the white colonel who leads them, and Broderick is, quote literally, in very good company. His follow actors in this strong character study include Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and Andre Braugher.

2013

Apr

HIS GIRL FRIDAY By David Bianculli

This 1940 version of The Front Page takes Ben Hecht’s 1929 play and revises it by making room for a leading lady. In this version, directed by Howard Hawks at breakneck verbal speed, Cary Grant plays newspaper editor Walter Burns, who adopts desperate measures when his ex-wife Hildy Johnson, played by Rosalind Russell, threatens to leave the paper. Ex-wife, he was fine with – but she’s so good a reporter, “ex-employee” is a deal-breaker. No wonder Cher, who co-hosts

2013

Apr

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli

The grim news from Boston this week, as well as the defeat of the gun control measure in Washington, ought to give Bill Maher and his panelists plenty to discuss this week, and with plenty of passion. Among the guests: One of Maher’s most outspoken regular guests, Salman Rushdie.

2013

Apr

WHICH WAY IS THE FRONT LINE FROM HERE?: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF TIM HETHERINGTON By David Bianculli

In 2010, co-directors Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington released Restrepo, an Oscar-nominated nonfiction film documenting their year embedded with a platoon in one of the most dangerous battle areas of Afghanistan. The following year, Hetherington was killed in battle in Libya – and tonight, his former war-correspondent colleague, Junger, presents this new HBO documentary, a profile and salute to his slain friend. For a full review, see Eric Gould’s Cold Light Reader.

2013

Apr

CAROUSEL By David Bianculli

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical about romance in turn-of-the-century New England goes to the big screen, loaded with vibrant show-off colors, in this 1956 movie, starring Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones – and, yes, a massive carousel, with a lot of horses of different colors.

2013

Apr

INSIDE COMEDY By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: Here’s a prime-time, same-week repeat of Monday’s late-night Inside Comedy season finale – David Steinberg’s tasteful, memorable, thoroughly impressive visit with Robert Schimmel, the stand-up comedian who endured several personal tragedies and travails, only to die after a car accident six months after this interview was filmed. This season finale proves at least three things: Schimmel was a veteran talent who deserved larger exposure than he got, Inside C

2013

Apr

GLEE By David Bianculli

If you remember the start of this series – when the gang of musical misfits stopped the show, and launched it at the same time, by singing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin” – there’s a knowing echo in tonight’s show, when Rachel (Lea Michele) sings the song as part of her Broadway audition for Funny Girl. Her old buddies are there in spirit, if not on stage, for a number that refers to the pilot-episode climax that started it all.

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