Monthly Archives: October 2020

The gags aim lower and the pranks seem more labored. The effort shows, as does the scripted fakery. It’s harder for Sacha Baron Cohen to go anywhere looking like “stupid reporter” from Kazakhstan. Everyone, save for elderly Republicans and rural … Continue reading →

Husband and wife folk-pop duo Jim Hanft and Samanta Yonak were newlyweds, married after a years long partnership as “Jim & Sam,” when they decided that one epic stunt was the key to them breaking through in the music business. … Continue reading →

This is not your grandmother’s — OK your GREAT grandmother’s — “Rebecca,” not the “Rebecca” of Du Maurier and Hitchcock. And hang me for heresy, that’s not the worst thing in the world. The original plays as fusty and old-fashioned … Continue reading →

I was wondering why my post about the recognizable (to me, anyway) voice on TV ad from last summer was blowing up this am. It’s because people weren’t recognizing the instantly recognizable voice on last night’s World Series ad unveiled … Continue reading →

Here’s a film star memoir that took me by surprise. Not that Val Kilmer’s “I’m Your Huckleberry” is all that confessional, or filled with gossip and Big Revelations. It’s not. But it’s a breezy, sometimes self-effacing, sometimes egotistical peek under … Continue reading →

Oh to be young, male, misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic and alcoholic in modern day St. Petersburg. They are “Three Comrades” living in Putin’s Proud Boys Russia, a lawless land where men like them drift through young adulthood with no moral … Continue reading →

“The Mothman Legacy” is a soberly straightforward account of the 1960s Point Pleasant, West Virginia supernatural “creature” that spawned books and movies, most famously, “The Mothman Prophecies,” a 2002 feature which starred Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Debra Messing and Will … Continue reading →

Viola and Chadwick, an Oscar contender from Netflix.

Seth Rogen, a comedy mocking a dictator and an international incident.

It’s cinematic ancient history now, but “Medium Cool” was a docudrama that caused quite a stir in its day. Haskell Wexler, a cameraman, took us inside the protests, riots and media circus that was the 1968 Democratic National Convention to … Continue reading →