MOVIE PREMIERE: The documentary American Factory already had appeared at Sundance, in finished form, but without a distributor or production financial deal. That changed when Barack and Michelle Obama selected it as the first project to be presented under their new TV production deal with Netflix. Their backing gives American Factory a much higher profile, but it’s the story that counts. The documentary tells of a General Motors factory in Dayton, OH, shuttered for year

2019

Aug

SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS By David Bianculli

Preston Sturges’ 1941 movie about a filmmaker suffering an existential crisis – do his films really matter, especially the lighter ones? – has directly inspired several other brilliant films, including Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories and the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? (whose title comes from the working title of the movie being written by Joel McCrae’s filmmaker in Sullivan’s Travels). But on its own, it&rsquo

2019

Aug

SHERMAN'S SHOWCASE By David Bianculli

Tonight’s episode is devoted to “The Ladies of Showcase” – which should be a bit like devoting an episode of a documentary series on Hullaballoo to the cage dancers. Or an episode of a documentary series on In Living Color to The Fly Girls. Or a bit of both…

2019

Aug

‘MINDHUNTER’ ALL THAT AND MORE IN INTENSE, TIGHTLY WOUND SECOND SEASON By Alex Strachan

This is a review that asks — and hopefully answers — the big-picture questions, such as whether Mindhunter’s second act lives up to the promise of the first, for those who appreciated it, and whether it will change the minds of those who sampled the first season and found it wanting...

2019

Aug

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE By David Bianculli

There’s not much on TV tonight – but if your program lineup includes MGM, you’ve got an uncut look at one of the most disturbing films of the 1960s: The Manchurian Candidate, the 1962 psychological thriller that is much more psychological than most. Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh and James Gregory star – and Angela Lansbury, in a role that sneaks up on you, is unforgettable.

2019

Aug

THE TERROR: INFAMY By David Bianculli

The supernatural elements of this new season of The Terror were the least effective part of last week’s premiere. The setting and characters, though, is captivating – and captive, in this case, has more than one meaning. Infamy follows a Japanese-American family, at the very start of the U.S. entry into WWII, as they’re rounded up in an internment camp for Japanese Americans.

2019

Aug

OUR BOYS By David Bianculli

Last week, HBO presented the first two episodes of Our Boys, serving up one revelation after another. One was the presentation of a fact-based murder mystery, based on a West Bank kidnapping of three teen Israelis in 2014, from two very different perspectives: Israeli and Palestinian. Another was probing that crime, and others to follow, only from the perspective of investigators, neighbors, friends and family, never showing the perpetrators themselves. And finall

2019

Aug

CARPOOL KARAOKE: WHEN CORDEN MET MCCARTNEY By David Bianculli

My favorite TV moment of last year – James Corden taking Paul McCartney on an expanded tour of McCartney’s home town of Liverpool – was expanded even more in this retrospective prime-time special, repeated tonight by CBS. Watch it. Record it. Keep it. Every time you visit it, it’ll make you smile, and maybe even shed a tear.

2019

Aug

HBO'S 'THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES': PREACH YOUR VIEWERS WELL By Ed Bark

Creator/executive producer Danny McBride takes his usual approach with his latest HBO series. Following the paths of Eastbound & Down and Vice Principals, McBride’s The Righteous Gemstones is coarse, irreverent, sometimes excessive and completely unconcerned about whether you’re offended or not...

2019

Aug

LET'S HOPE 'THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES' IS MORE PARODY THAN REALITY By David Hinckley

Televangelists might look like easy marks for satirists. They are not. Like soap operas, televangelists go so far over the top they almost preempt satire...

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