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
Jun
3
 
 
Luc Bresson directed this high-action character study of a hit man (Jean Reno) who ends up saving, befriending and protecting a 12-year-old girl after the rest of her family is murdered ruthlessly. Reno is great, but the engine driving this fascinating film is the naturalistic acting of Reno’s young, then unknown co-star: Natalie Portman.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jun
3
 
 
Even on TVWW, I was told I was a little hard on Ringo Starr when writing about his solo induction into the Hall of Fame. Now, I adore the Beatles, and even like Ringo, as much as the next guy, even if the next guy is Harold Gronenthal or Eric Gould. But watch the finale of this year’s ceremony repeat telecast, and sit through Ringo as he half-heartedly sings his way through “Boys” and other songs, and see if you don’t feel a bit… restless.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jun
3
 
 
This new edition of 60 Minutes Sports includes one segment on competitive sheep-herding, which will come as no surprise to longtime fans of one of England’s most durable TV shows, One Man and His Dog, which ran from 1976 to 1999. Tonight’s program also features a segment on ultra-expensive designer athletic shoes, and visits a place called “Sneaker Con” – which, given the five-figure prices, sounds like a convention title with a deliciously apt double meaning.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jun
3
 
 
Every decade or so, there’s a sex symbol, and a performance, that become indelibly etched in the history of cinema as one of the most alluring parts put to film. In 1946, Gilda was one of them, with Rita Hayworth in the title role, and a dress, that proved absolutely iconic. If you need to explain it, “Put the Blame on Mame” – though, when Hayworth sang that song on screen, she actually was lip-synching a recorded performance by Anita Ellis.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jun
3
 
 
SERIES FINALE: After five years, this TV Land sitcom, featuring Betty White for the entirety of its run, ends tonight with a one-hour finale – and a trip to Las Vegas. But it also ends with a trip back to the hanging swing on the front porch, which is where these characters first hung out all those years ago. Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick and Valerie Bertinelli co-star.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jun
2
 
 
In this episode, a dead teenager takes Liv (Rose McIver) back to high school – and after she munches on a high schooler’s brains for inspiration and information, the effects on her are predictably moody…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jun
2
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This new series stars Emma Ishta as Kirsten, a doctoral student with a rare condition called temporal aphasia, which means she doesn’t have feelings. (Hmm. May have come across a few of those myself over my lifetime.) Anyway, this makes her the perfect receptacle for a new medical experiment in which she can tap into the emotions and memories of the recently dead – a gimmick accessed, via other means, in Pushing Daisies and, currently and in the same hour on televisi
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jun
2
 
 
Cameron Crowe’s new movie, Aloha, hasn’t exactly charmed critics beyond belief, though the writer-director maintains a vast reservoir of good will. Much of that good will is because of this 2000 autobiographical romantic comedy, about a precocious young teen who gets an assignment from Rolling Stone to follow a rock band on the road. Patrick Fugit plays Crowe’s alter ego, Will, with Kate Hudson as the object of his intended affection. Frances McDormand, as Russell’s prote
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jun
2
 
 
Sunday night, Amy Schumer accepted her Peabody Award from surprise presenter Tina Fey, who staged, and I’m paraphrasing, a soul-sucking lesbian kiss in order to absorb her comic talents. Tonight, those talents are on display in this new episode as Amy moonlights as a stripper at a bachelor party. For dogs. And as so often happens with her sketches, what starts in one place ends up in quite another, and making unexpected points along the way.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jun
2
 
 
David Steinberg’s guests this week: Ted Danson and Wanda Sykes. Steinberg asks her about her first standup bit that connected with audiences, and she goes all the way back to the Monica Lewinsky scandal – when Sykes claimed to be a White House employee accusing Bill Clinton of racism… because he never once paid attention to her.