dvr this Turner Classic Movies, Friday, July 4, 11:15 p.m. The first-ever winner of the Best Picture award at the Academy Awards, Wings, directed by William Wellman, is ostensibly about two men rivalling each other for the affections of a woman, first in a small town and then as World War I flying aces. The…
dvr this AMC, Sunday, June 1, 10 p.m. In the early 1980s, the tech boom in Texas is seen through, as we’re told by AMC, a visionary (Lee Pace from Pushing Daisies and The Hobbit), an engineer (Scott McNary from Argo) and a prodigy (a punkish McKenzie Davis). The clips that have been making the…
dvr this FX, Tuesday, April 15, 10 p.m. The Coen Brothers’ 1996 film Fargo is one of my favorites, featuring Frances McDormand’s epically funny, pregnant sheriff and an insanely, off-kilter snow noir screenplay, both Oscar winners. I’m not sure how Noah Hawley convinced the Coens, but they allowed him to make a series based on…
dvr this Turner Classic Movies, Saturday, March 29, 3:45 a.m. The original Godzilla movie was recut and dubbed for American audiences, and it is wonderfully creaky, silly fun, with weak, even for the era, special effects, poor lip-synch, and spliced-in scenes of Raymond Burr as an American reporter to make the movie more palatable to…
dvr this On Hulu Easily the creepiest thing on network TV, Hannibal is a TV series prequel to Silence of the Lambs with Mads Mikkelsen as the titular character. He’s almost as good as Anthony Hopkins, but Hugh Dancy, as his FBI psychiatrist foil, is also excellent. But the real star of the show is…
dvr this HBO Signature, 9 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2 It is the middle of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest period, during the making of Psycho, that is the focus of Sacha Gervasi’s delightful movie about Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren), a screenwriter with whom Hitchcock collaborated on every film he made, whether…
dvr this Lifetime, Saturday, Jan. 24, 8 p.m. By casting Christina Ricci as the ax-wielding 19th century murderess, I can only assume Lifetime is attempting to churn out more camp to accompany their Gina Gershon Donatella Versace biopic. Ricci, who is a very good actress, but who is still best known for playing Wednesday Addams,…
Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown dvr this Turner Classic Movies, Friday, Dec. 13, 10 p.m. Roman Polanski’s 1974 neo-noir film starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway is one of the greatest films ever made. Robert Towne’s Oscar-winning screenplay has Nicholson as a detective investigating murder among the early 20th century’s California water disputes….
Andre Braugher in Brooklyn Nine-Nine dvr this Fox, Tuesdays, 8 p.m. Michael Schur and Dan Goor, two of the people behind Parks & Recreation, have created a police station workplace comedy that exists somewhere between Barney Miller and The Office. It’s a vehicle for Saturday Night Live’s Andy Samburg, and he’s doing his schtick: wacky…
dvr this Turner Classic Movies, Friday, Sept. 13, 9:15 p.m. Two hundred years from now, the survivors of humanity all live in a domed city and their lives are totally controlled by a computer that, among other unsavory things, kills every person when he or she becomes 30, though they think being vaporized means they…
