Is it wrong to lump three heavy-hitter Oscar-courting films into the same review? Maybe so, and especially since “Big Short” and “Carol” could easily be nominated for Best Picture come Thursday, but the truth of the matter is that I just didn’t love them as much as I wanted to, and I couldn’t get excited…
Author: Alabama Liberal
Movie Reviews: “Selfless,” “Time Out of Mind,” and “The Hunting Ground”
Three films I just didn’t have time to formally review before my end of the year movie list. Selfless…The movie should be better than it is—it’s about an aging billionaire (Ben Kingsley) who undergoes a surgery to take the body of a young man (Ryan Reynolds) with a company that is shadier than they first appear—but, then…
Every Movie I’ve Seen in 2015 From Worst to Best
To be honest, 2015 wasn’t a great year for movies. Yes, the box office broke records but that doesn’t necessarily mean people were really leaving the theater satisfied. And I could see where a new “Jurassic,” “Avengers,” James Bond, “Star Wars,” “Terminator,” and two separate Pixar films may look like an embarassment of riches. But I kept…
The Best TV Shows of the Year
We’ve done the Best Characters, the Best Scenes, the Best Episodes, and it’s now time to say goodbye to 2015 for good with the overall “Best TV Shows of the Year.” This is the first year that I can honestly say TV was significantly better than the movies, and the movie lover in me is…
The Best TV Episodes of the Year
The 20 Best TV “Scenes” of the Year might be more a more comprehensive of the year’s best TV, but this smaller list of Ten will still give you a great sampling of shows to try. Runner-Up: Another Period is too easy to dismiss as a Comedy Central odd duck, but this series—-a mockumentary mix of…
The Best TV Scenes of the Year
Continuing on with the “Best” of the year, these are the best TV scenes of the year. Check back in the next few days for Best TV Episodes, Best Movie Scenes, and then—of course—Best TV Series. 20. Runner-Up Fight Scenes: Although we’ll get to much better fight scenes in the countdown, the first season of Daredevil had one…
The Best Non-Fiction Books of the Year…
…I don’t read as much non-fiction as I do novels, so this is far from a comprehensive list of the year’s best, but–hopefully–there are enough recommendations here to interest someone. Honorable Mention: “Raw Deal: How the Uber Economy and Runaway Capitalism are Screwing the American Workers” by Steven Hill…I just started this book, but I…
Entertainment Editorial: The Ten BEST TV Characters of the Year
A few days ago I listed the worst TV characters of the year, but it’s only fitting to celebrate the holidays with the best of the bunch… Best Trend: Badass Senior Citizens…Like The Strain’s Eldritch Palmer and especially Abraham Setrakian or Fargo’s Ted Danson or Justified’s cool criminal lovers Katherine Hale and Avery Markham. Sorry, Raylan and Ava, but Mary Steenburgen and…
The “Best” of the Year Coming Soon…
…Be sure to check back this week for the best in TV, books, and movies as we’ll be having some kind of countdown of the year’s “best” nearly every day between Christmas and New Year’s. So if you get bored after the presents or just want recommendations on what you might want to check out…
Entertainment Editorial: The Ten Worst TV Characters of the Year
Before we get to the end-of-the-year accolades (Best movies, TV, books, etc.) let’s get the bad news out of the way first in AL’s third annual “Worst TV Characters of the Year” list… As always, the unofficial subtitle of the list is “…in an otherwise good show,” as I’m sure there are worse characters out…
The Most Disappointing TV of the Year
Not all TV is created equal, and even though this year saw more terrific TV shows than ever before, they weren’t all gems. The following is a list of “disappointing” TV developments that could be TV moments, episodes, subplots, or entire seasons. And it’s not so much “the worst” TV as it is shows that…
Movie Review: The Good Dinosaur
Better than you’d think given the so-so reviews. I think critics wanted to make a point of saying it’s not as good as “Inside Out” and that’s technically true, but it’s closer than they think it is. What Works: Last year, there were no Pixar movies at all, and the three before that were “Monsters University,”…
Movie Reviews: “What We Do in the Shadows,” “5 to 7,” and “End of the Tour”
Three very different but critically acclaimed quasi-indies… The End of the Tour…A finely-observed film that received near-universal critical acclaim, but is a somewhat disappointing experience. It’s based on an interview-profile a Rolling Stone reporter (Jesse Eisenberg) did on writer David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) around the time “Infinite Jest” was coming out and catapulting him…