Few contemporary filmmakers have come out swinging as impressively as M. Night Shyamalan did when he was heralded as the “new Spielberg” after a series of successes near the start of this century, including most notably his Oscar-nominated The Sixth Sense, Signs and Unbreakable, the latter being the 2000 film with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson that kicked off Shyamalan’s accidental superhero trilogy now finishing with Glass.
It has been an interesting couple of… Read
As today's devastating Brexit defeat for Theresa May in the British Parliament proves, fact can be as much of a drama as fiction.
In fact, it is reality of sorts that makes up most of the cream of the small screen crop for the latest the show to watch this week. For instance, there is the January 19 debuting Benedict Cumberbatch starring Brexitmovie on HBO about the man behind the campaign that has brought political chaos to the UK.
The same day, BBC America hosts the… Read
I am a sucker for dog movies. From Old Yeller to my favorite My Dog Skip, and from Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey to Benji, I just can’t get enough of them. Emotionally I am a wreck after seeing a good one.
That was also the case with 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose, which was the first in a planned series of canine films based on W. Bruce Cameron’s books. Although not directly a sequel to that movie (Universal is actually opening that one from Cameron, A Dog’s Journey in… Read
Awards season has truly kicked off and Sundance is just around the snowy corner, but on the small screen midseason debuts are popping up almost every night. It’s plenty reason to weigh in on what show you just can't miss this week.
Like a grand messy table, it's a pretty rich selection, with Netflix's Asa Butterfield- and Gillian Anderson-led teen drama Sex Education launching tomorrow and the unconventional wisdom-seeking Trigger Warning with Killer Mike… Read
I first saw The Upside at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival. At the party afterwards, Harvey Weinstein, who was the distributor, was lapping up the strong reaction and talking an Oscar/Globe qualifying run for late fall of that year. However, one of the producers told me they thought it was just a commercial play and planned to get The Weinstein Company to stick to the plan of a spring 2018 opening. Well, one month later, things changed, and I probably don’t have to tell you… Read
When Choir Boy, the coming of age story from Tarell Alvin McCraney that predates his Oscar-winning, co-written screenplay for Moonlight, finds its sweet spots – and they are many – the drama, the humor and the music take off for parts unknown. This is a play that, like its unstoppable main character, never quits reaching for the high note, even when perfection is beyond its grasp.
Set in a prestigious prep school for African American boys, Choir Boy – a Manhattan Theatre… Read
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details from the premiere episode ofGood Trouble. Gone are the days of the enjoyably schmaltzy and sugar-coated melodramatic coming-of-age series about young adulthood (I love me some Dawson’s Creek) and welcome to a new era of millennial-driven shows that are inclusive and tackle issues that don’t play out like “lesson of the week” but rather give us a fresh — and much-needed — perspective of the modern world we live in today… Read
With the clock ticking and options looking thinner every passing day, the Oscars may have just found themselves a couple of hosts tonight at the Golden Globes to replace the still scrapped Kevin Hart.
That short but near perfect mock marriage proposal and Emmys homage from Maya Rudolph to Amy Poehler put the two Saturday Night Live alums at the top of the list if the solidly middle of the road Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg say no.
Sure, nothing remarkably Earth shattering… Read
It is New Year’s Eve and time for one final look back at the films that moved me most in 2018. On Thursday my video recap revealed Part 1 of the year’s Top 10 films, and in case you didn’t watch, that list included No. 10, Morgan Neville’s transcendent documentary on Fred Rogers called Won’t You Be My Neighbor? No. 9 was Private Life, my favorite 2018 Netflix offering (first at Sundance), the Tamara Jenkins dramedy of a couple addicted to fertility treatments in their… Read
SPOILER ALERT: This video contains details of some of the greatest series that television had to offer this year. If you don’t want to know what Deadline’s Chief TV Critic thinks are the Top 5 New Shows of 2018, don’t click on the video above.
If things continue as they are right now in the nation's capital, it looks like the United States of America will dramatically be ending a record shattering year of television with the federal government still shut down – all of… Read
It's the end of another year, and I must say a pretty good one for movies of all stripes. So it is time for my Top 10 Movies of 2018 to be unveiled, as usual over two different days and in two parts. Today it is Part 1 covering numbers 10 up to 6 on my list. I have to say I am not a big fan of separating these artists by numbers but that seems to be the way the game is played. Everyone loves a winner so that is what we’ll do as we count down to 2019 by counting down to… Read
SPOILER ALERT: This video contains details of some of the greatest series that television had to offer this year. You have been warned you might not find some of your picks here
There is no two ways about it, 2018 was one for the history books when it came to the small screen.
With just a sliver of the overall ceiling-shattering 495 original scripted series eligible, that still meant that there was a lot to choose from when it came to deciding what were our Top 10 best… Read
