You might expect a biopic of an important artist to include the breakthrough, various evolutions... their legacy. Some of those ingredients are there, but not all, in the upcoming American Masters film Artists Flight: Eva Hesse...

2018

Aug

LAUREN BACALL TRIBUTE By David Bianculli

Lauren Bacall is the recipient of today’s “Summer Under the Stars” TCM salute – and it’s very easy to see why she deserves the honor. In fact, you can pinpoint, and revisit, the moment, by tuning in at 9:30 a.m. ET, when she stars opposite Humphrey Bogart in 1944’s To Have and Have Not (pictured). When director Howard Hawks began filming the two of them on the set in 1943, Bogart was 44 years old. Betty Bacall was 19. And by the time filming was over, the two

2018

Aug

MR. MERCEDES By David Bianculli

Last week, when this David E. Kelley adaptation of the Stephen King story presented the first new episode of Season 2, I wrote this: “What happens by the end of the second episode of this new season of Mr. Mercedes turns this series into an entirely new level, and category, of drama. In a word: Wow.” That episode is televised tonight. Need I say more? I didn’t think so…

2018

Aug

LEW AYRES TRIBUTE By David Bianculli

We’re down to the last few days of August, which means the final days of TCM’s “Summer Under the Stars” salutes, where a single performer is showcased for an entire day and night. Today’s recipient is Lew Ayres, and the high point is his starring role in one of the first, and still best, antiwar war movies ever made. It’s called All Quiet on the Western Front, it’s about the brutal battles and conditions of what became known as World War I, and it was re

2018

Aug

MARK TWAIN By David Bianculli

Part 1 of 2. Ken Burns and company crafted this superb artistic and personal biography of author Samuel L. Clemens in 2002, presenting it as a two-part PBS special. The network is repeating it tonight and next Tuesday, and I highly recommend you record it, because it’s exactly the type of TV documentary that rewards repeated viewing. Oh, and I might as well mention, for the first time, that I’m traveling to Twain’s summer home in Elmira, NY, to deliver a clip-filled lecture for

2018

Aug

FRONTLINE: "MCCAIN" By David Bianculli

SCHEDULE CHANGE: This last minute replacement substitutes tonight’s scheduled new edition of Frontline with a repeat, from April, that examines the life and achievements of John McCain, who died Saturday at age 81. It serves as a proper legacy, though the best legacy of all may well end up being the letter to America McCain wrote in his final days, and directed to be read posthumously. It has been, and it’s inspirational. Check local listings.

2018

Aug

THE SHOP By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: What a great idea for a TV talk show. No audience, no desk, no couch – just a barber shop, where LeBron James, in this new show from HBO Sports, hosts a small group of invited guests, who hang around “the shop” and engage in some freewheeling, topical conversation. The guests for this opening edition hint at how wide-ranging James expects the guest list to be as well: The shop patrons for tonight’s opener include New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckha

2018

Aug

AGNES MOOREHEAD TRIBUTE By David Bianculli

The first TV generation knew her primarily as Endora, Samantha’s witchly mother on the ABC Sixties sitcom Bewitched. But Agnes Moorehead had quite a career before that, in TV (a silent role in one of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone) and in the movies. Tonight at midnight ET, for example, you can see her in a low-budget horror classic, 1964’s Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte. And earlier, you can see her in not one, but two, of Orson Welles’ cinematic masterpieces. A

2018

Aug

BETTER CALL SAUL By David Bianculli

Tonight’s episode is called “Talk” – and it’s the first episode of the new, fourth season that. AMC didn’t provide to critics in advance. Consequently, I have no more idea of what’s about to happen than you do. I just know that, probably like you, I’ll be watching as it’s televised live, and watching eagerly. For his take on a unique scene from last week's episode (warning: spoilers are involved), please see David Hinckley's All Along the Wat

2018

Aug

P.O.V.: "NOWHERE TO HIDE" By David Bianculli

In 2011, as American troops withdrew from Iraq, an Iraqi nurse named Nori Sharif (pictured) was given a video camera (by director Zaradasht Ahmed) and encouraged to film his country’s gradual rebirth. Instead, he ended up capturing a new civil war and the emergence of the Islamic State. Last year, this documentary was the ultimate result, and now premieres on P.O.V. Check local listings.

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