Filmed just a week or so ago in Paris, this Beyoncé and Jay Z concert film is a high-profile HBO event – and the sort of thing that is sure to ignite a social media firestorm. But there’s some powerful music here as well – from both artists, songs that, at times, have burrowed deep into the pop-culture mainstream.

2014

Sep

NETWORK By David Bianculli

In two years, it will be 40 years since Paddy Chayefsky wrote this brilliant satire about the social power, executive ruthlessness and corporate takeover of network television – all of which, in the intervening decades, has proven astoundingly prescient. Peter Finch stars as Howard Beale, the fired news anchor and self-professed prophet of the airwaves, with William Holden as a fellow network news veteran and Faye Dunaway as the young TV executive who has no problem using them both. Brilli

2014

Sep

THE ROOSEVELTS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY By David Bianculli

Part 6. Tonight’s installment of The Roosevelts treads on some familiar ground – World War II, which Ken Burns and company already have chronicled so effectively and evocatively. But here, the date that will live in infamy is given an even more personal perspective, as we learn how President Franklin Roosevelt, as well as First lady Eleanor, dealt privately with the very public pressures of a global war. For my full review, see Bianculli’s Blog. And to hear my review on NPR&rsq

2014

Sep

BLONDE VENUS By David Bianculli

In 1932, just a few years after the advent of cinematic sound, Marlene Dietrich starred in this amazingly bizarre drama, playing a nightclub singer with a unique sense of entertainment. In one number, “Hot Voodoo,” she performs a striptease – but the tease is that she’s stripping out of a very believable ape costume, revealing the shapely songstress underneath. The first time I saw this number in Blonde Venus, at a cinema revival house when I was in college, Dietrich inst

2014

Sep

I'M NO ANGEL By David Bianculli

In 1933, Mae West starred in this screen vehicle, which she co-wrote, playing a dancing beauty and occasional lion tamer. Lions weren’t the only things she was good at taming, either, as she was one of the era’s leading, most vocally outspoken sex symbols – female or male.

2014

Sep

THE KNICK By David Bianculli

In tonight’s episode, a risky new operation is tried. I know, that description could work for almost any episode – but still… I’m there. Clive Owen stars.

2014

Sep

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli

Last week, Bill Maher pulled of his bold two-parter, doing a live version of this show from Washington, D.C., then being escorted across the city to do a full standup comedy act, also live. He not only juggled those feats nicely, but in the second venue, he proved he’s still one of the best at shutting down unwanted hecklers. Tonight’s guests, with the show back in its home base of Los Angeles, include Gen. Colin Powell and actor Wendell Pierce.

2014

Sep

WHOSE 'VOICE' IS IT ANYWAY? By Linda Donovan

We’ve seen lip-sync contests on TV before, and not just on The Tonight Show. But there’s something in the way Jimmy Fallon presents them and, more importantly, the people he gets to play along, that make his all the more fun...

2014

Sep

THE ROOSEVELTS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY By David Bianculli

Part 5. Tonight’s installment of The Roosevelts is depressing. That’s because it’s the installment that focuses on the Great Depression – and how Franklin Roosevelt dealt with it, in a series of moves so aggressive and transformative they were referred to as the New Deal. And in this stellar history lesson from Ken Burns, Geoffrey C. Ward and company, that determination and innovation is explained, and fed, by Roosevelt’s complicated personal life. . For my full rev

2014

Sep

PROJECT RUNWAY By David Bianculli

This week’s challenge creeps me out: Contestants are asked to design fashions, for young models, based on a line of American Girl dolls. What’s next: “Bride of Chucky – The Wedding Dress Mini-Challenge?” But I’ll watch anyway, because last week’s inventive “Project Rainway” challenge resulted in one of the best shows, and sets of fashion designs, in years.

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