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

 
 
2014
Feb
16
 
 
Last week’s episode, with its already famous tracking-shot climax, was a great hour of television. Get set, tonight, for another, as the shifting motivations of Martin and Rust (Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey) become a little more clear.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
16
 
 

Jimmy Fallon was born Sept. 19, 1974 – 20 years after the premiere of NBC’s Tonight Show, and one year before the premiere of NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Fifteen years ago, he joined the cast of SNL. Monday night, he takes over The Tonight Show…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
15
 
 
There are medal events in alpine skiing tonight in prime time on NBC, early-morning coverage of U.S. vs. Russia in men’s hockey (live on NBCSN), and a lot in between – including the U.S. women’s curling team vs. Sweden on CNBC. One thing to look for on NBC’s pre-prime time Olympics coverage, which begins at 3 p.m. ET: a Tom Brokaw special on the U.S.-Soviet space race, a valid and vivid way to explore the tensions between two countries which, at the moment, are trying to
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
15
 
 
This 2013 full-color film noir drama is set in Los Angeles 1949 – a few years later than usual for this genre – and is about a successful bootlegging operation whose crime boss is targeted by a particularly persistent pair of cops. Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling star, but the scene-stealer here is Emma Stone, who plays a noticeably different type than she displayed in the likes of Zombieland, Easy A and The Amazing Spider-Man. In Gangster Squad, she plays the requisite, but very attentio
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
15
 
 
This is the restored version of director Lewis Milestone’s 1930 anti-war classic – one of the first anti-war movies ever made (only a few years after the advent of sound in motion pictures), and still one of the best. Lew Ayres stars in this emotional indictment of the horrors of WWI – which had concluded only a dozen years before.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
15
 
 
Wynton Marsalis presents this two-hour 48 Hours special, which looks at how youth marching bands in New Orleans, competing for spots in Mardi Gras, provide young people, post-Katrina, with a rare dose of hope. To hear and read my full review, see NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross website.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
15
 
 
Gary Oldman and Toni Collette are some of the guests on this week’s show – along with some U.K. celebrities less familiar to most U.S. viewers, such as Nick Frost. But on this show, they’re all treated equally – and seated at the same time, which makes The Graham Norton Show a special treat to watch.  
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
15
 
 
When I started honoring TV’s best DVD releases in 2012 by giving them a TV Worth Watching Seal of Approval, the very first program so chosen was Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective, a masterpiece of a miniseries, combining drama, comedy and period music in dizzyingly creative and involving ways. Well, here’s another program that fits that same description...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
14
 
 
Binge Alert: Shortly after midnight this morning, Netflix made Season 2 of House of Cards available, in its 13-episode entirety. The opener begins right where last season’s finale left off – and I mean exactly where last season left off, with Francis and Claire (Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright) off on their evening jogging run in the park. And there’s reason to be excited about the start of this new cycle, which begins with Francis’ intended ascendancy to the Vice Presidency.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
14
 
 
I’m stubbornly going with curling first. The U.S. team faces Russia today, in a tape-delayed competition presented in its entirety on CNBC, beginning at 5 p.m. ET. With Russia as the home country, the crowd – well, the few rows of people in the bleachers – for Russia has been especially boisterous. And even though it’s an early-round game, it’s an important one if the U.S. men’s team is to advance to the medals round. Do you believe in miracles? Or, maybe, do