A woman awakens in a trailer, parked near the Colorado Rockies. She wades into a body of water, pulling out a small lobster cage, then goes back into her modest mobile home to heat up a pot. Coffee is made. A transistor radio is turned on. On a booskhelf sits …
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Maya Rudolph is a huge, versatile talent. That has been apparent from her Saturday Night Live days through most of her film and TV appearances in the 15 years since she left Studio 8H. She’s a fabulous singer. She can play larger-than-larger-than-life caricatures and understated human beings with equal verve. …
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Another day, another secret bunker full of uranium to wipe out. At the start of Top Gun: Maverick, our man Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is working as a test pilot. He’s still ranked as captain: Some 30-plus years into his career and he’s advanced very little. His reputation for …
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In All the Old Knives, currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Chris Pine plays CIA agent Henry Pelham, a man fated to dig through the past. This is a spy flick tied to the tale of an old flame. Eight years before it’s set, a plane is taken hostage in Vienna, …
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In HBO Max‘s new comedy series Minx, Ophelia Lovibond plays Joyce, an idealistic young writer who has spent most of her life dreaming of launching a magazine dedicated to trumpeting her feminist ideals. She pitches this idea to members of the magazine publishing elite but her invitation for them to …
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In Anchorman, Paul Rudd‘s Seventies TV newsman Brian Fantana says of his beloved Sex Panther cologne, “They’ve done studies, you know: 60 percent of the time, it works every time.” Will Ferrell‘s Ron Burgundy considers this equation for a moment, then replies, “That doesn’t make sense.” I have watched Anchorman …
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The company behind the so-called “escape rooms” of the Escape Room movies is called Minos. King Minos, the Cretan of myth, fed children to his minotaur as a matter of rite. So it’s no wonder that a company taking his name would be heavy on sacrifice, low on ethics, and …
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There are ghosts that haunt the houses of New York’s Hudson Valley, we’re told early on in Things Heard & Seen (now streaming on Netflix) — the spirits of former owners who may have unfinished business in this realm, or who may be protecting new occupants from possible danger, or …
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Here’s a horror story: You have an idea for a TV show. It’s a really clever idea, one that’s never quite been done on television before. Everyone you tell about it couldn’t sound more excited. But ideas don’t turn into finished series overnight, and the development process takes so long, …
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Once per episode, Gangs of London will grab you by the scruff of the neck, hurl you against a wall, and remind you with repeated blunt force that the show comes from Gareth Evans, one of the great action directors alive. (If you haven’t seen them yet, put The Raid: …
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