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

 
 
2020
Jan
6
 
 
How time flies: This movie was released in 1997 – now 23 years ago – and starred Al Pacino as a New York lawyer so powerful and influential, he may be in league with the devil. Or may be the devil, period. Keanu Reeves stars as a young lawyer taken in by the evil firm’s satanic majesty, in what amounts to a supernatural take on Tom Cruise’s character and situation in The Firm, a film which had come out four years before. But watch, closely, for the increasi
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
6
 
 
The Brokenwood Mysteries, a New Zealand crime detective series, opens its sixth season with a surprisingly educational exploration of Steampunk...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
6
 
 
It was six decades ago, but in some ways, it seems like now. There was name-calling, finger-pointing, fact-checking, a televised congressional hearing. There was talk of State Department evil. This was the Sen. Joseph McCarthy era...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
6
 
 
A new documentary on the late Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy references no events after May 1957. That's left up to the viewer.


 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
5
 
 
What sort of a postseason is 2020 going to be for pro football? Well, the first two games were held yesterday – wild-card games for the American Football Conference, where the competition and results were wild indeed. In the first game, the Houston Texans beat the Buffalo Bills in a game that extended to most of an additional quarter of overtime. In the second game, the Tennessee Titans ended the decade-plus postseason dominance of the New England Patriots in a game that was intense, and s
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
5
 
 
In “Spyfall, Part 1,” the Doctor Who season opener presented last week, The Doctor’s dilemma was dire: the scheming antagonist was revealed to be a new incarnation of the arch-nemesis The Master, the climax had The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) sucked into another universe – and beings from that universe were conspiring with The Master to destroy this one. Presumably, the good Doctor will prevail in tonight’s “Spyfall, Part 2” – but how, Who?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
5
 
 
This 1971 Norman Jewison movie version of the endearing Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick musical, starring Topol as Jewish patriarch Tevye, is televised by TCM on the very day the current Broadway production, performed and sung in Yiddish, presents its final matinee and evening performances. Sunrise, sunset…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
5
 
 
Ricky Gervais hosts. Movie and TV artists mingle. Alcohol flows. The awards themselves are all but meaningless – yet by the end of the evening, thanks to the imbibing and to Gervais’ cheekiness, something very quotable is bound to be said by someone on this live awards show telecast.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
5
 
 
This CNN documentary special looks back at the last time the United States held an impeachment trial in the U,S. Senate against a sitting President. It was 1998, when the House voted to impeach Bill Clinton, and the Senate held a trial in which the majority party, then the Democrats, voted in unity not to impeach. The obvious and potential parallels are familiar, and so are some of the players. Hey, look – over in the House, voting for impeachment, there’s Lindsay Graham! And also in
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
4
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: There are three movie-length installments in this new series and initial season of Dracula. It’s co-produced by the BBC, which premiered its Dracula episodes in recent days, and Netflix, which presents them today – but opted, for some season, not to preview it for critics. That’s baffling, because this version of the Bram Stoker classic comes from Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, who previously reteamed for the hugely successful and well-r