SERIES PREMIERE: This new British import is another example of TV’s current fixation with single-crime limited series and extended stories, a mini-genre that, in essence, also includes Top of the Lake, The Killing and The Bridge. What distinguishes Broadchurch, initially, isn’t its plot or the way it’s unfurled. It’s the photography (one early shot is a very extended, complicated tracking shot, following a character as he walks through much of his small town and interacts

2013

Aug

THE BRIDGE By David Bianculli

The killer in this series keeps getting away with murder – and in increasingly ghoulish ways, designed to call attention to himself and his stated cause. And so far, it’s working. The media attention is building, as is the pressure for the temporarily teamed investigators – one from the U.S., the other from Mexico – to identify and find the murderer and solve the case.

2013

Aug

DOUBLE INDEMNITY By David Bianculli

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

WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? By David Bianculli

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

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE By David Bianculli

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

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST By David Bianculli

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

REBECCA By David Bianculli

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

DRUNK HISTORY By David Bianculli

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

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? By David Bianculli

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

CASTING BY By David Bianculli

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 –

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