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
Aug
20
 
 
Empire fans, this one's for you: The stars of that Fox series, Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, battling one another with a joint lip-synch version of “Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” 
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
20
 
 

Do the names Big Edie and Little Edie, or Nanook of the North, ring a bell? If they do, then have I got a TV miniseries for you. It’s a spoof of classic documentaries, and it’s delightful…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
19
 
 
Listen, Pilgrim: Today is John Wayne day on TCM, with 24 hours of his films – and not all of them Westerns. Out-of-genre entries include 1974’s McQ, a modern cop drama, at 4 p.m. ET, and, at 8 p.m. ET, 1952’s classic The Quiet Man (pictured, with Wayne and Maureen O’Hara), directed by John Ford, about a boxer who retires to his homeland of Ireland.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
19
 
 
There are only a handful of episodes left of new episodes, but they’re still introducing new characters at Key & Peele. Tonight, it’s “MC Mom,” who sends a musical message on DVD to her son, who’s now away at college – a message about what he left behind that she found in his room, among other surprising revelations. Very funny – and not very “family-oriented.”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
19
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: If you don’t have a firm grasp on what “steampunk” is, this new reality competition show may not help much – because the definitions, like the artistic aesthetics of the contestants, are all over the place. Basically, it’s a melding of past and future, and Steampunk’d challenges its invited artists to create not just fashion, but to design and furnish entire rooms in a slowly evolving “Manor.” They pull inspiration and material out
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
19
 
 
This is not the season finale of Mr. Robot after all – so when I said last week that it was the penultimate episode, I was wrong. This is the penultimate episode, I think. But with Mr. Robot, I'm not sure about much of anything, except that I'm entertained.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
19
 
 
This 1956 John Ford film is one of the best offerings of today’s all-day TCM John Wayne salute – and certainly the darkest. Wayne stars as a Civil War veteran, and a bigot who hates Native Americans, leading the search for the tribe that killed his family brutally and captured his niece, played by Natalie Wood. Jeffrey Hunter co-stars.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
19
 
 
In the documentary Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, one can still smell the toxic fumes coming off the old TV brow-beater and his ever-present cigarettes, which he used to autograph for admirers.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
18
 
 
Today’s star of the day, being saluted for 24 hours straight, is Vivien Leigh. And though not every one of her classic films is included in today’s marathon, the two best are, one in prime time, the other in late night: 1939’s Gone with the Wind at 10:15 p.m. ET, and 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire at 3:45 a.m. ET. That leaves room for plenty of others, including many films that predate them both. Watch, especially, for 1937’s Dark Journey (pictured) at 4:45 p.m. ET
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Aug
18
 
 
This documentary on the making of a movie is longer than most movies – it clocks in at more than two hours. But it’s worth it, both for the film it salutes and its own quality. And, as a bonus, this documentary was made so long ago, in 1988, that many more of the movie’s veterans are interviewed than would be the case if it were made today.