This film wants to be “Traffic” for online crimes instead of drugs, but the impact is softened at every turn because of a faux-Crash vibe. The film keeps telling us that everyone is human, and that soft emotional center really undercuts the movie’s would-be grittiness. What Works: Three interconnected stories following a teenager who meets…
Category: Mindless Mondays
Mom Jokes: Hell of a Day
[Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!] There I was sitting at the bar staring at my drink when a large, trouble-making biker steps up next to me, grabs my drink and gulps it down in one swig. “Well, watcha gonna do about it?” he says, menacingly, as I burst into tears. “Come…
TNT, Please Renew “Southland” (and grading all the seasons)
I know I’m weeks too late for this article to be relevant (Southland’s 5th season finale was on April 16th) but, in a way, that’s all the better to keep this terrific, criminally underrated show on people’s minds. If you haven’t been watching “Southland” when it was on NBC, then got cancelled, then got a second life…
TV Reviews: “Red Widow”…Like The Sopranos Meets a Target Commercial
Cable and premium cable have produced a lot of anti-heroes over the years, but, so far, broadcast TV has preferred to keep their heroes/heroines unrealistically/squeaky clean and moral. ABC tried to push things a little more towards the dark side with their new drama, Red Widow, which concluded its first (and likely only) season last night….
Movie Review: Iron Man 3
This movie had the second highest weekend box office of all time (behind only The Avengers), far outpaced the first two films in the series, and is tearing up the international box office. And yet…does it matter that it’s just not very good? Or not only “not very good,” I would say arguably the weakest…
TV Review: “Parks and Recreation” Proves It’s the Best Comedy on TV
Some give NBC’s excellent “Parks and Recreation” the slightly back-handed praise of “best comedy on broadcast TV,” as if broadcast is a short-bus of lowered expectations and cable is vastly superior. Well…actually, for dramas that’s 100 percent true, but that’s beside the point… Sure, FX has the critically beloved “Louie” (which I’ll admit is a damn good…
TV Review: “The Americans” Season Finale
A fine conclusion to a solid season. Sure, there may not have been any Earth-shattering cliffhangers for a show about spies, but this has always been a much more grounded, realistic show than, say, Alias. [I often describe it as an ultra-realistic “Alias,” made by people who actually understand spy craft.] If you aren’t watching…
Most Anticipated Movies of Summer, And Least Anticipated
It’s time to think about summer movies, and I humbly submit some (most of them smaller films that could get lost in the shuffle) films for you to consider… Most Anticipated… 10. “The East” and “Shadow Dancer”…Two smart, sleek looking indie-thrillers. “The East” is about corporate espionage, and “Shadow Dancer” stars Clive Owen as a…
TV Review: The Following’s Season Finale #thefollowing
The Following’s already been renewed for a second season, so there wasn’t much pressure on tonight’s episode. Still, I feel like every episode has been slightly worse than the one that came before it (it’s now more of an action-thriller show than a suspenseful/horror one), and the show has grown increasingly preposterous in how well-organized…
Movie Review: The Place Beyond the Pines
After weeks of duds, a movie I would actually recommend. The trailers are a little misleading (slight, vague spoilers from here) in that it makes it look like an indie-Heat with Bradley Cooper’s hot-shot beat cop chasing Ryan Gosling’s daredevil bank robber, but it’s really three different movies: Gosling’s traveling-circus-performer-turned-motorcycle-riding-bank-robber finds out he has a…
Movie Review: “Trance” Bad Movie, Great Rosario
A textbook example of a bad movie with a great performance buried inside. This time delivered by none other than where-have-you-been?/always-welcome Rosario Dawson. What Works: Trance jumps off from an appealing premise: the never-compelling James McAvoy, who always sucks and sucks here, plays an art auctioneer who’s working with some hooligans to steal an expensive…
TV Reviews: Season Finales of “The Good Wife” and “Vikings”
Tonight brought the season finales of two shows that——-for once——-don’t have to worry about tying everything up. Both shows have been renewed for another season, as The History Channel is impressed with Vikings ratings performance and CBS is thrilled that somebody besides paranoid shut-ins is watching one of their shows, hence The Good Wife remaining…
TV Reviews: Community’s Recent Episodes and the Yanked “Hannibal” Episode
It’s official, Community just isn’t the same now that Dan Harmon (Community’s singular creator) has been fired from the helm. The show’s fans are passionate and probably always will be, but even they have to admit that if the show were ever going to be cancelled, the end of this season would be an okay…