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

 
 
2018
Aug
19
 
 
Last Friday, TCM’s “Summer Under the Stars” saluted Barbra Streisand, presenting a day and night of movies featuring the luminous and singular musical talent and movie star. One of those films was 1976’s A Star is Born, in which she played a rising musical star tumultuously paired with a falling star, played by Kris Kristofferson. Today’s featured star is another musical and film legend, Judy Garland – and tonight’s lineup features, at 11:45 p.m. ET, an
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
18
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This new children’s series, a co-production of Canada’s Nelvana Studios and our own Sesame Workshop, is about a little girl and her best friend, a monster named Roy. Their primary pastime is to babysit or otherwise care for other neighborhood monsters. Sounds like my life, when I worked from home and had young kids with lots of after-school visitors.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
18
 
 
Gary Oldman won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in this 2017 fact-based drama. Churchill, Great Britain’s newly installed Prime Minister, has to face the Germans, and Adolf Hitler, and decide whether to negotiate with them or resist with what could be a horrifying military defeat. Oldman is magnificent, the story is true, and Churchill’s staunch patriotism and defiance are inspirational even now. Especially now.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
17
 
 
Many years ago, the iconic Rocky & Bullwinkle series featured an occasional segment called Fractured Fairy Tales, which put a weird and often absurd twist on the traditional yarns with which most children grew up...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
17
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Matt Groening’s The Simpsons, after appearing as interstitial cartoon shorts on Fox’s The Tracey Ullman Show, premiered as a full-length TV show of its own in 1989, and changed the history of television animation. Season 30 of The Simpsons – think of that! – begins this fall.  Groening eventually rode his own wave by co-creating the loony and entertaining Futurama, and today, on Netflix, unveils only his third cartoon series in as many decades. It&rs
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
17
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Netflix continues to roll out new series with the indiscriminate onslaught of an avalanche – and today, in addition to unveiling Disenchantment (which I’ve previewed separately) and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (which I haven’t), the streaming service presents the U.S. premiere of this imported Polish crime series from 2017. It stars Marta Nieradkiewicz as Ola, a young woman who returns to Lodz from London, witnesses a violent accident that may be mu
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
17
 
 
Today’s “Summer Under the Stars” on TCM salutes Barbra Streisand, which leads to a day of films that are fun to revisit – including 1972’s What’s Up, Doc? At 8:15 a.m. ET, 1970’s The Owl and the Pussycat at 10:15 a.m. ET, 1968’s Funny Girl at 12:15 p.m. ET, and 1973’s The Way We Were at 5:45 p.m. ET. And at night? The lineup includes 1983’s Yentl at 8 p.m. ET, 1991’s The Prince of Tides at 10:30 p.m. ET, and, at 1 a.m. ET, 1976&rs
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
17
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Three bakers have made it all the way to tonight’s Season 5 finale, which finally gives me a chance to put, on the record, one of my favorite vocabulary words of all time. Those exterior seeds on raspberries, those red bumps of delightful deliciousness (pictured)? They’re called drupelets. You’re welcome. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
17
 
 
What a week – and what a show. Among tonight’s guests: attorney Preet Bharara (pictured), whose insights into the federal and New York court cases of all the President’s men should prove impressively informed…  
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
16
 
 
And, breathe. When I first learned that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has planned a new Oscar category for “Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film” I had two thoughts...