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

 
 
2017
Dec
30
 
 
This 2000 autobiographical magical mystery tour by writer-director Cameron Crowe recounts his coming of age as a young rock journalist, covering the industry in the 1970s for Rolling Stone magazine while still a teenager. His first cover profile, in 1973, was on the Allman Brothers Band – basically reshaped here as a fictional band named Stillwater, led by Billy Crudup’s charismatic Russell Hammond. Crudup gives a marvelous performance, but director Crowe gets them out of almost all
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Dec
30
 
 
May the Force of Graham Norton be with you: The long-running British host fills his guest couch tonight with Star stars – specifically, with stars of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, including Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, John Bodega and Gwendoline Christie.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Dec
30
 
 
This 1978 comedy classic proved the crossover power of Saturday Night Live, which had launched in 1975,to a new generation of moviegoers, by making a star of supporting player John Belushi – whose role and performance here, as Bluto, is 95 percent id. (The psychological term, not the stuff in your wallet.) And as with other films shown tonight, Animal House is loaded with familiar faces and fabulous performances – including, in this case, Stephen Furst, Tom Hulce, Mark Metcalf, Tim M
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Dec
30
 
 
Between streaming services, broadcast, and cable, the ability to find content personalized to your own tastes has never been greater – and the chance you’ll be able to share last night’s surprise twist has never been slimmer...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Dec
29
 
 
I only ran into Bob Hope once, but from that brief encounter, I fully believe a central premise of PBS’s American Masters special on this comedy virtuoso...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Dec
29
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: The new season of Charlie Brooker’s futuristic anthology series, a technology-focused cross between The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, arrives today, with six new episodes devoted to the dreamy, the nightmarish, and the absolutely unsettling. The flagship of the new season, so to speak, is “USS Callister,” a movie-length episode starring Jesse Plemons (of Friday Night Lights and Breaking Bad, just for starters) as a videogame designer who finds a way to cl
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Dec
29
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: To viewers the age of my college students, who watched Bill Nye the Science Guy on The Disney Channel as young kids, Bill Nye is a rock star – a science nerd whose enthusiasm for spreading knowledge, like theirs for his often playful lectures, has never waned. Season 2 utilizes the same fancy and fanciful set as last season, as well as the same approach: Each episode is devoted to a single topic, and presented not as a children’s series, but at one aimed at adults, e
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Dec
29
 
 
Oskar Werner and Henri Serre have the title roles in this 1962 film by Francois Truffaut, but the real star is Jeanne Moreau as Catherine, the woman who completes their long-running romantic triangle. The story begins before WWI, and follows the trio for decades, taking several unexpected and memorable turns.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Dec
29
 
 
Repeated from last month, this American Masters special is a solid overview of the career of Bob Hope, whose contributions to comedy – film as well as standup – are indeed well worth remembering and saluting. Check local listings. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Dec
29
 
 
After man reached and landed on the moon in the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, subsequent space missions, even manned ones, attracted a lot less attention – until the 1970 mission of Apollo 13, which developed serious problems shortly after launch. This 1995 movie, directed flawlessly by Ron Howard, captures it all, with just as much intensity during the mission control scenes on Earth as during the ones in space. And what a cast: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon are the astronauts lost