MOVIE PREMIERE: This 2018 movie is a sedate, quiet sci-fi film with a powerful wave of emotion behind it. On its surface, it covers the same ground as AMC’s HUMANS or HBO’s Westworld: the evolution of artificial intelligence and human synthetics so convincing they can pass for the real thing. In Zoe, Ewan McGregor plays Cole, the head of a scientific division developing such creations, with the goal being to offer life partners – computer-designed and programmed soul mates of s

2018

Jul

BEING JOHN MALKOVICH By David Bianculli

Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of this bold, fascinating 1999 fantasy, directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman – both of whom established their own artistic independence with this wildly original fantasy film. John Cusack plays Craig, a puppeteer and marionette operator who stages bleak, unpopular puppet shows based on classic mythic tragedies. Until, that is, he discovers a portal that allows him to enter the brain of actor John Malkovich, and control him like&hel

2018

Jul

WEST SIDE STORY By David Bianculli

When I interviewed Stephen Sondheim on stage at Rutgers University last month, one of the pieces of news he delivered that night was that a movie remake of West Wide Story, with lyrics by Sondheim and music by Leonard Bernstein, was deep into initial development, with a revised screenplay by Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner that Sondheim said updated the rival gangs story line in a way that impressed and excited him. Kushner also wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln

2018

Jul

THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW By David Bianculli

Pudding on the Ritz: Tonight’s challenges include, well, puddings. Yorkshire? Christmas? Other? All part of the suspense… and the challenge. Check local listings.

2018

Jul

SO THIS IS 'WHO IS AMERICA?’ BUT IS IT FUNNY? By Alex Strachan

Golly! I’ve asked the odd stupid question in my time. Many times, in fact...

2018

Jul

DOCTOR WHO: THE LOST EPISODE By David Bianculli

SPECIAL PREMIERE: Last fall, BBC America went back into its archives, and its bag of tricks, and emerged with something old and new: a restored version of the long-lost first adventure starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor. That serialized story was called “The Power of the Daleks,” and was brought back to life using surviving audio recordings and newly generated animation, based on still photos taken during production. Now BBC America is pulling the restoration trick again

2018

Jul

GONE WITH THE WIND & UNCLE TOM'S CABIN By David Bianculli

I’m old enough, even as a working TV critic, to remember when NBC presented the first telecast of the 1939 epic Civil War saga Gone with the Wind (a two-part prime-time presentation that ranked, for a long while, as two slots on TV’s all-time highest-rated Top 10). TCM has shown Gone with the Wind enough times in recent years that its telecast no longer is news – although, with intermission and widescreen intact and with no commercial interruptions, it’s still one of the

2018

Jul

TRIAL & ERROR: "LADY, KILLER" By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: In last year’s premiere season, Trial & Error starred John Lithgow as a defendant in a murder case, who, like the subjects of such probing and popular documentary miniseries as The Staircase and The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, didn’t always present his best image when cameras were rolling. But Lithgow’s Larry Henderson, on trial for murder in the small town of East Peck, SC, was exonerated, thanks in part to the work of defense attorney Josh