Jennifer Lawrence, who’s up for a Best Actress Oscar Sunday for Silver Linings Playbook, showed off her feistiness, talent and star appeal even before that movie and The Hunger Games, in this 2010 drama about a stubborn Ozarks teen who has a week to find her missing father before the family home is foreclosed in his absence. She goes on the hunt for him, even though it’s a backwoods trail (sometimes literally) that soon involves drug dealers and other unsavory characters.

2013

Feb

HERE COMES MR. JORDAN By David Bianculli

This 1941 movie stars Robert Montgomery as a boxer who dies as the result of a heavenly clerical error, and is given the chance to return to Earth in a different body. Warren Beatty remade this charming comedy in 1978, substituting football quarterback for boxer, and changing the lead female character to an environmental activist. In this original version, Claude Rains plays the angelic guide.

2013

Feb

AMERICAN MASTERS: “SISTER ROSETTA THARPE: THE GODMOTHER OF ROCK & ROLL” By David Bianculli

The opening minutes of this new biographical profile state that both Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley were influenced greatly by Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s wild and energetic guitar playing, stage style and vocal chops – and those same minutes are accompanied by a vintage film clip, of her in performance, that backs up the claim persuasively. Bob Dylan is quoted in the hour, raving about her. Tune in and see why – and wait for footage, near the end of the profile, of Tharpe’s l

2013

Feb

OUT THERE By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: Ryan Quincy, whose credits as animation director include South Park, gets his own show with this quiet new cartoon series, about freakish and geekish teens in a small, rural Midwestern town. Clearly, it’s a series built from some level of personal experience: Not only is the lead character ordered by his father to accept a job mowing the school football fields in the early morning hours, but the drama inherent in that duty is underscored when he mows, and chops in half, a

2013

Feb

THE BIG BANG THEORY By David Bianculli

Sheldon (Jim Parsons) isn’t usually impressed by anything, but in tonight’s new episode, he admits to being impressed by one of his cohorts’ achievements. Specifically, by the on-stage acting of Penny (Kaley Cuoco).

2013

Feb

DOUBLE INDEMNITY By David Bianculli

Barbara Stanwyck already had been a Hollywood star for a long stretch when Billy Wilder tapped her as the femme fatale in his 1944 film noir masterpiece. She plays a woman who hatches a plan to kill her husband, using Fred McMurray as her very eager, but very unknowing, accomplice and patsy. Edward G. Robinson co-stars, as TCM continues its celebration of Oscars month.

2013

Feb

LOVERBOY By David Bianculli

TV Guide is not showing this movie as part of any Oscars salute – and I’m not recommending it as a good movie, either. But this 1989 comedy ought to be of at least casual interest to fans of Grey’s Anatomy, Charlie’s Angels, Star Wars, Cheers and other pop-culture fixtures, because this film – almost a quarter-century old now – has a wildly exclectic cast. Patrick Dempsey stars as the very young man whose pizza delivery route turns into feeding time for man-hu

2013

Feb

PARKS AND RECREATION By David Bianculli

We’re knee-deep into the February sweeps, but you’d hardly notice it, because the networks are presenting very few “event” program episodes as they did in the old days. (The old days being, oh, the mid-2000s). But here’s one: On tonight’s sweeps-month episode, Leslie (Amy Poehler) and Ben (Adam Scott) are scheduled to marry.

2013

Feb

PERSON OF INTEREST By David Bianculli

Since doing such impressive early work as a co-star of The L Word and Life (the latter opposite Homeland star Damian Lewis), Sarah Shahi has been stuck starring in TV shows that don’t exactly show off her range and potential. (Yes, Fairly Legal and Chicago Fire, I’m talking to you.) But tonight, she gets a guest role on a show that may serve her well. She plays the female equivalent of the Person of Interest team, working for a secret organization. Root for a promotion to a recurring

2013

Feb

CARTOON CREATOR BUCK BIGGERS WAS NO UNDERDOG By Noel Holston

Let’s have a moment of silence for Buck Biggers, and follow it up with a rousing sing-along of the theme from his best-known contribution to television: Underdog...

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