A review of this week’s Better Call Saul, “Wiedersehen,” coming up just as soon as I credit my views to the University of American Samoa (go Land Crabs!)… “Jimmy, you are always down.” -Kim Jimmy makes two mistakes at his bar reinstatement hearing. The more obvious one, which Kim calls …
Read More »'Big Mouth' Season 2 Review: A Stinkin' Funny Whiff of Preteen Spirit
“I’m horny all the time, and I’m makin’ bad choices,” says Andrew (John Mulaney), but that lament could come from any of the confused and perpetually aroused animated middle schoolers on Netflix‘s Big Mouth, which returns Friday for a delightful second season. (I’ve seen all 10 episodes.) The show is …
Read More »Best Movies and TV to Stream in Oct: 'Making a Murderer 2,' 'Romanoffs,' 'Sabrina'
This month, Hulu looses an unnatural force on a gaggle of teenage girls and partners with Blumhouse for a yearlong calendar of holidays from hell. Meanwhile, over at Netflix, they’re pulling out all the stops: sadistic island cults, witches, demons, IRL terrorists and murderers. And Amazon, to their credit, goes …
Read More »'The Old Man & the Gun' Review: Redford Robs Banks — and Steals Your Heart
Sometimes a movie arrives that charms its way into your heart — and The Old Man & the Gun is just such an unassuming, exuberant gift. Only afterwards do you see that its roots go deeper, that its evocation of the past points to an uncertain future. In this self-proclaimed …
Read More »'Fantastic Beasts 2': Watch Wizarding, Human Worlds Collide in Final Trailer
A young Albus Dumbledore guides the “magizoologist” Newt Scamander through his quest to defeat the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the new trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The film opens November 16th. The latest clip for the second installment in the Harry Potter spin-off opens with Dumbledore …
Read More »Watch Michael Che Hand Out 'Reparations Emmys' to Overlooked Black Actors
Michael Che tried to right several decades-worth of Hollywood wrongs by handing out “Reparations Emmys” to overlooked black actors and actresses during the 2018 Emmy Awards. The pre-taped bit opened with Che presenting an actual Emmy trophy toThe Jeffersons‘ Marla Gibbs. “Your role as Florence the maid is the reason …
Read More »12 Best Things We Saw at Toronto Film Festival 2018
The Toronto International Film Festival is a grab-bag — all fests are, of course — but the 43rd annual edition of what’s arguably the major North American film event of any given year felt like an especially whiplash-inducing, something-for-every-film-nerd get-together this year. You could walk out of a prestige-seeking, Oscar-courting …
Read More »The Last Word: David Simon on Twitter Trolls, Trump and Making 'The Deuce' in the #MeToo Era
David Simon, creator of The Wire and Treme, had just finished filming the second season of The Deuce, his opus about the birth of the porn industry, when he got on the phone with Rolling Stone for a wide-ranging conversation. The former Baltimore Sun reporter is 58 and speaks in …
Read More »Neil Armstrong's Sons Defend 'First Man' Biopic Against 'Anti-American' Claims
Neil Armstrong’s sons have defended First Man, the upcoming biopic about the astronaut, against claims that the film is “anti-American” for not capturing the moment Armstrong planted the American flag on the Moon. Following the premiere of First Man – directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling as Armstrong …
Read More »'Minding the Gap' Review: Teen-Skater Doc Is Peerless Portrait of Young Manhood
In a year of stellar documentaries (Won’t You Be My Neighbor, RBG, McQueen), Minding the Gap takes its place with the cream of the crop. In his debut feature, filmmaker Bing Liu started with 12 years of footage that he shot in his hometown of Rockford, Illinois, to trace the …
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