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

 
 
2016
Jul
5
 
 
More than 15 years after making Stagecoach, John Ford and John Wayne reteamed for 1956’s The Searchers, one of my very favorite Westerns. Wayne plays a complicated, stubborn Civil War veteran with a hatred for native Americans, who leads a search for a young girl kidnapped by Comanches. Wayne’s character, Ethan, is unusually complex and dark, as is this movie. Jeffrey Hunter, Natalie Wood co-star.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jul
4
 
 
One of the most patriotic of all movies, this 1939 Frank Capra classic, starring James Stewart as an idealistic freshman congressman, is the perfect film to watch on Independence Day – especially in this particular political year.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jul
4
 
 
There are several options for fireworks watching and music listening tonight in prime time. Here’s one of them, from Washington, D.C., featuring Smokey Robinson, Kenny Loggins and others. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jul
4
 
 
Here’s another, from New York, with Meghan Trainor, Kenny Chesney and others.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jul
4
 
 
And here’s yet another, this one from Boston, with Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas and others.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jul
4
 
 
To end Independence Day, curl up with this 1972 film version of the Broadway musical about the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Think of it as the original Hamilton musical – so original, Alexander Hamilton isn’t even a character in it. But political strife and revolution are all over the thing, from its opening lines, in which John Adams, played by William Daniels, proclaims: “I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace. Two are called a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jul
3
 
 
There are some wonderful things on TV tonight, if you know where to find them – which, I guess, is where Best Bets comes in. Start on TCM, for example, with a triple feature of three of the best movies made by one of the cinema’s all-time best directors, Stanley Kubrick. The festival of quality begins at 8 p.m. ET with 1975’s Barry Lyndon, a masterpiece of 18th-century melodrama photographed in the style of some of the era’s most renowned canvases. Ryan O’Neal stars
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jul
3
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Sir David Attenborough is one of my true TV heroes: A man who’s been making superb nature documentaries for more than half a century – closing in on three-quarters – and has never wavered, in energy or quality. This newest documentary series of his is called The Hunt, and expect, as always, the most amazing photography of the most astounding creatures in action. And this time, virtually every scene is life or death.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jul
3
 
 
In last week’s season premiere, it looked as though Ray (Liev Schreiber) had found a way to escape the clutches of the newest ruthless powerful figure out to hire and control him. And then the painting arrived. Expect, this week, for him to get in more trouble, with Marisol, the manipulative beauty played by former Cosby Show kid Lisa Bonet (pictured). As for dis dad, Mickey (Jon Voight), the way he was rudely awakened by the female detective in last week’s climax, we can presume he,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jul
3
 
 
Made in 1968, this is nothing short of a movie masterpiece – a great, thoughtful, expansive science fiction film that’s no less breathtaking as it approaches its golden anniversary. The prologue, with the humanoid apes and the monolith, is enough to secure this film’s place in history – but Kubrick, and 2001, are just getting started.