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
Aug
7
 
 
Billy Wilder directed this 1944 film noir classic, and they don’t get much noir-er than this. Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson star as men who get caught in the web, or put in the deadly path, of a femme fatale played by Barbara Stanwyck. What a performance – and what a movie.  
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Aug
6
 
 
Tonight’s guest star is Wilson Bethel, who plays Wade on the CW’s Hart of Dixie. That’s the down side of having this revival of Whose Line televised by CW – shameless and pointless self-promotion. But the core improv players, including Wayne Brady and Ryan Stiles, make this giddy little show worth watching anyway.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Aug
6
 
 
It’s a good night for movies on TV, starting with this Oscar-winning 2008 drama about an orphan in India who gets a chance at fame and fortune on a local TV quiz show. The orphan is played by Dev Patel, now one of the stars of HBO’s The Newsroom.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Aug
6
 
 
This 1975 movie is a perfect example of the type of great film that was made in the 1970s, just before Hollywood started becoming obsessed by blockbusters (Jaws was released that same year, and changed the rules). Jack Nicholson is brilliant as the nonconformist who winds up in a mental ward, and keeps trying to stir up trouble, as well as his fellow inmates.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Aug
6
 
 
Alfred Hitchcock directed this 1940 film, a fairly early example of his artistry at milking psychological drama out of every situation (although a glass of milk, brilliantly lit from within, wouldn’t show up until Suspicion the following year). It’s his first movie made in Hollywood, and stars Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson, in a tale that proves it’s not paranoia if they are out to get you.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Aug
6
 
 
Tonight’s show recounts history that took place in San Francisco, including Kristen Wiig as kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst – where the inebriated narrator explains that the media baron’s daughter was grabbed by a radical group, blindfolded, and held for almost two months in a closet “the size of a closet.”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Aug
5
 
 
This 2000 Coen Brothers film is one of my favorite “Spider-Web” movies – one that ensnares me each time it’s on television. This time, I think, I’ll pay particular attention to Tim Blake Nelson as Delmar, one of the two other prisoners who escape jail with George Clooney’s Everett. (Seen here, center, with Clooney and John Turturro.) Why Nelson? Why not? Every actor’s commitment in this comedy is total – and hilarious.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Aug
5
 
 
What a fine, fun documentary! Based on Marion Doughtery’s story as one of the Hollywood casting directors who established her craft as a credit-worthy profession, Casting By also includes the stories and reflections of other casting directors, including Lynn Stalmaster and Juliet Taylor, to paint of picture of this backstage art. It’s nice to hear from so many stars, from Al Pacino to Jon Voight, still grateful for the casting directors who championed them from the beginning –
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Aug
5
 
 
Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop anyone wants to drink. Last week’s episode established that the dome has its own mini ecosystem, as a sudden rainstorm ended the building panic about a water shortage. But why weren’t people running around placing buckets to catch the rain? Oh, well, tonight they focus on the problem a bit more intently, as Big Jim (Dean Norris) confronts Ollie on his stranglehold of the town’s remaining water supply.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Aug
5
 
 
Tonight’s installment of this new show, hosted by actor-writer Jim Rash with a third-act appearance by Jess Cagle of Entertainment Weekly, is devoted to Parks and Recreation. Amy Poehler is one of the people in the writers’ room this time – which means, this summer, she’s having lots of fun on TV just being herself, since she’s already appeared as a Hollywood “player” on NBC’s Hollywood Game Night.