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

 
 
2015
Aug
3
 
 
This sequel to the wonderful Gold Diggers of 1933 brings back Dick Powell as the star, but none of the titular ladies from that previous film. Instead, Glenda Farrell plays the closest thing to a gold digger in this musical comedy – but choreographer Busby Berkeley is back, this time working his bizarre cinematic magic on such giant production numbers as “Lullaby of Broadway” and one involving dozens of grand women and grand pianos.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
3
 
 
Ed Helms, who plays the grown-up Rusty Griswold in Vacation, the movie sequel to the original Vacation starring Chevy Chase, goes on a Colorado mountain expedition with Bear Grylls. But for Helms, it’s no vacation: He’s afraid of heights.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
3
 
 
It’s come to this: The final week for Jon Stewart’s reign on The Daily Show. And the week begins with a visit from perhaps the hottest comedian of the moment: Amy Schumer.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
3
 
 
New U.S. presidents almost always are immediate heirs, inheriting big problems, and -- if lucky -- some of the glow. There was a lot of the former and only bits of the latter when Lyndon Johnson took over the presidency after the Kennedy assassination...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
2
 
 
It would be nigh unto impossible for Downton Abbey to overstay its welcome on PBS. Over the years it's become the network's most popular series ever, as executives are quick to note. But now the days of reckoning are beckoning...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
2
 
 
My list of favorite jazz pianists include some who are universally admired, but the pianist I constantly circle back to is Oscar Peterson...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
2
 
 
Before concocting the futuristic universe of Star Wars, George Lucas directed and co-wrote this 1973 salute to the past: specifically, to the innocent 1950s, and the drive-in, drive-around, rock-music-soaked teen culture. If it sounds a bit like ABC’s Happy Days, which premiered the following year, it should: The stars of American Graffiti include Cindy Williams, who co-starred in the Happy Days spinoff Laverne & Shirley, and Ron Howard, who starred as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
2
 
 
The group of “synths” with human emotions, on the run since this series began, has never been more divided, or more in danger. But all is not lost, now that they’ve found a human sympathizer in scientist George Millican, played with such touching weariness, and wariness, by William Hurt. Humans treads on very familiar sci-fi soil, but with much more humanity, and detail to character, than most.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
2
 
 
Correspondents have come and gone for years on this show, as have, more rarely, the hosts – remember, Jon Stewart, who departs this week, replaced Craig Kilborn in 1999. Tonight, the Stewart era is saluted in a one-hour special, hosted by some of the Daily Show “newbies”: Hasan Minhaj, Jessica Williams, and my favorite among the fresher faces, Jordan Klepper (pictured, at far right).
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
2
 
 
I’ve been waiting, quite patiently, for this second season of True Detective to evolve and show its true colors, and true quality. But last week’s episode, which ended with Rachel McAdams’ Ani going undercover as a prostitute, and escaping an exclusive and kinky party while under the influence of a mind-altering drug, didn’t advance either the story or the character enough to impress. And since this is the penultimate episode of this rebooted Season 2, with the finale arr