Film / TV / Video
83 posts found
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Shining a Light on Showtime's 'Roadies' Series
Shining a Light on Showtime's 'Roadies' Series View Original Article -
Why You Should See 'The BFG' this Weekend
Why You Should See 'The BFG' this Weekend View Original Article -
A Piece of Your Heart: 'Rock in the Red Zone,' a Documentary by ...
A Piece of Your Heart: 'Rock in the Red Zone,' a Do... View Original Article -
Fifty Shades of Mel Brooks
Anastasia writes: I was a college student at the time working part-time at Fromin’s deli, the first time he came in. There was something powerful and domineering about him. “I need things,” he said to me, his voice a rough mix of Brooklyn and post-nasal drip that sent an electric current though my whole body. “What sort of things?” I said in all innocence. “Things. Bagels, cream cheese, lox. I need them. I want them.” No one had ever talked… -
Les Blank is Always a Pleasure
One night a few months ago, I found myself surfing through the Criterion collection on Hulu and stumbled upon an early Les Blank documentary, "The Blues According to Lightnin" Hopkins." I pushed play and I was suddenly in a field in Mississippi, with great immediacy and no explanation â no... View Original Article -
Sandy Frank: An Appreciation
Sanford Jay Frank, the Emmy Award-winning writer and producer, screenwriting guru and conservative ideologue whom everyone called Sandy, died at his home in Calabasas on April 18 of complications arising out of a glioblastoma, a cancerous brain tumor. He was 59. Frank grew up in Springfield, Mass., where his father worked at the post office. He attended Harvard, where he found an outlet for his humor when he joined the Harvard Lampoon, also creating lifelong friendships with Jim Downey ("Saturday… -
Marx Brothers Make Merry in Tv Collection
The Shout! Factory release of “The Marx Brothers TV Collection,” an omnibus of the Brothers Marx’s post-film career TV appearances, is occasion enough to celebrate once more the irrepressible talents of Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx. I suppose there may be some readers who have never heard of the Marx Brothers, but I doubt it. In short, at the beginning of the 20th century, hailing from a German-Jewish family, Minnie Marx set her sons on a show-business career hoping to… -
The Strength of Ma'aleh Film School
A scene from the documentary film, “The Strength to Tell.” A black-and-white film shows a trial being called to session. In less than a second, it’s obvious this is the trial of Adolf Eichmann, in Jerusalem in April 1961, with Eichmann in the bulletproof glass booth. We watch as a witness takes the stand. We pull back now, in color, to a present-day room where a group of teenagers are watching the footage. A man asks them, “What does the… -
We are all ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’
“Inside Llewyn Davis,” Joel and Ethan Coen’s new film, is the fictional story of one week in the life of a folksinger in Greenwich Village in 1961. The title character, played with total conviction by Oscar Isaac and supplied with credible material by the maven of American music, T-Bone Burnett, is acknowledged to have been inspired, in part – at least as a jumping off point -- by the late folkie Dave Van Ronk. Ethan Coen describes Llwyn as “not… -
What's so Great about Stanley Kubrick
On Nov. 1, the Los Angeles County of Museum of Art, (LACMA) in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (those wonderful folks who bring us the Oscars), will present the first U.S. retrospective of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, a project developed in partnership with the Kubrick estate, a show that originated at the Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt, Germany, but will be seen here in a more expanded form. Kubrick, who died in 1999 at 70, was —… -
Culture with a Side of Popcorn
James Corden and Suzie Toase in “One Man, Two Guvnors,” at the National Theatre in London, and onscreen at a theater near you. Photo by Johan Persson When the hit comedy “One Man, Two Guvnors” comes to Broadway this spring, I’ll be able to say I saw the London production. I also saw the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of “Don Giovanni” with the Polish tenor Mariusz Kwiecien. As for bragging rights, it’s hard to match having seen David Hallberg’s debut… -
Columbo co-creator solves his own mystery
William Link "Now, Tom, do I look Jewish?" William Link, 77, was asking the question. Link is one of, if not the most successful producer and writer in television history, having put, with his late partner Richard Levinson, 16 series on the air, including creating "Columbo," "Murder, She Wrote," "The Cosby Mysteries" and "Mannix." They also created any number of important TV movies, including "The Execution of Private Slovik," which launched Martin Sheen's career, "That Certain Summer," which was the…