With “Red Hook Summer,” it is clear that Spike Lee is back. Back in Brooklyn, back in the sweltering summer heat, back with stories about black America that no one else is telling. “Red Hook Summer” is not a perfect film, not by any means. But it does what we used to expect a Spike…
For the last 10 weeks, I have sat down to prepare to watch “The Newsroom” at 9:55 pm. Each time, I have caught the last few minutes of “True Blood.” I have never seen a full episode of “True Blood,” and I don’t know a soul who watches it on a regular basis. But for…
“It is the blight man was born for. It is Margaret that you mourn for.” – from “Margaret, Are You Grieving,” a poem by Gerald Manley Hopkins “Margaret,” the sophomore effort from writer-director Kenneth Lonergan, is a film about New York, a city with 8 million stories. So it is only fitting that “Margaret” arrived…
I was really beginning to worry. Tonight’s episode – the conclusion of the two-part “Blackout” episode – started out exhibiting the same problems evident last week. It was far more about the characters – none of whom I have really grown to like that much – than the issues. The Brian Brenner reporter character was…
There is a good movie somewhere inside of “Why Stop Now,” which opens today in select theaters, but it suffers from tonal inconsistencies and a series of implausible plot points that make it impossible to suspend one’s disbelief. To put it succinctly, it suffers from common failures of first-time filmmakers. Let’s start with the opening…
“The Campaign,” the new election-season comedy starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, does exactly what you expect it to. It delivers big, raunchy laughs, while offering soft satire of the American political system. It is the rare political comedy that will play in both DC and Peoria. The film succeeds the most when it lampoons…
The two-part episode is a television staple. Growing up, I remember watching two-parters for all of my favorite shows, and I always got that feeling that was a mixture of disappointment and excitement when I realized that a show was not going to be able to wrap up it’s plot in time. There is a…
If someone in the future wanted to know what political and cultural issues Americans were grappling with in 2012, they would only need to go to the movies. Films as diverse as “The Hunger Games,” “Cabin in the Woods,” and “The Dark Knight Rises” have all been set in one specific social, cultural, and political…
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