TV amp; Movies Reviews

Formed in 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union, a.k.a. the ACLU, had been defending the rights of the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free for nearly a century when Donald Trump was sworn in to the presidency in January of 2017. The organization knew they would …

From its generic title to an ending you can see coming from outer space, Blood and Money follows a path rutted with enough clichés to cover the three million acres of Maine forest land where the film is set. Writer-director John Barr lucked out in getting Tom Berenger, a consummate …

“Movies don’t just show us how the world is — they show us how it can be,” director Raymond Ansley (Darren Criss) argues in the new Netflix miniseries Hollywood. This isn’t just his mission statement, but that of Hollywood’s creators, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. The seven-episode tale is equal …

When Merritt Wever won a supporting-actress Emmy for Nurse Jackie in 2013 (she later got another for the Netflix Western Godless), she gave an eight-word acceptance speech before practically sprinting off the stage — “Thank you so much! I… gotta go. Bye!” Perhaps it was a moment of foreshadowing to …

Do you know that romantic-comedy cliché in which the mousy young woman whips off her glasses — and suddenly the brainiac “ugly duckling” blossoms into a beautiful swan that turns heads and gets the guy? That’s not what happens to the title character of Horse Girl, though for the first …

I’m such a big NASA nerd that when the 1202 alarm went off during an Apollo 11 simulation in For All Mankind, Apple TV+’s new alternate history of the space race, I immediately knew it was the same alert that in real life nearly scuttled the first lunar landing. I’m …

In what world would stunning Charlize Theron and schlubby Seth Rogen hook up? The loaded-with-laughs Long Shot offers a comically absurd and sweetly touching answer to that rude question. Theron plays Charlotte Field, the Secretary of State who has her eye on the White House. The “dumb fuck” President of …

A lot happens in each episode of Game of Thrones. So every week, we’re drilling down on one memorable scene in particular. Full spoilers for this week’s episode, “The Long Night,” coming up. Where can we begin with “The Long Night” other than at the very end? It’s not just …

The traditional multicamera sitcom, shot on a stage in front of an enthusiastic studio audience, looks much easier to make than it actually is. The format is close to 70 years old, dating back to I Love Lucy, but its roots go back much further than that, to the earliest …

Eighteen years ago, in a bar outside Kingston, New York, Mark Hogancamp — an illustrator who liked wearing women’s high-heels — was nearly beaten to death by five thugs. Waking up after nine days in a coma, the bruised, broken and brain-damaged ex-soldier had no recall of having served in …