Author Archive
 

 

THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Dallas”

  DALLAS:  Monday 9PM on TNT The most important fact about this second season of the revamped DALLAS is, of course, the sad event that occurred off-screen:  the death of Larry Hagman, the legendary J.R. Ewing.  Hagman a...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”

  There’s a tendency to compare any slow-moving, beautifully-photographed drama with an abundance of natural imagery to the films of Terence Malick, but that’s unfair to the very particular surreal spirituality...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Ass Backwards”

  The Sundance programmers, one has to assume, are big fans of TV’s Happy Endings.  Casey Wilson is part of that show’s wonderful ensemble, and one of its most reliably hilarious members.  The news that she w...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Computer Chess”

  Andrew Bujalski’s COMPUTER CHESS has a great setting for a comedy.  The time is circa 1980, and the place is an anonymous hotel where a group of nerds–back before nerds were cool–have gathered for thei...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED’S SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 1/27/13

Even the one football game no one cares about can score well enough to win the night. NBC:  The PRO BOWL, a game so uninteresting that there’s been recurring discussion about ending it altogether, had a 3.3 in preliminar...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Don Jon’s Addiction”

  When Joseph Gordon-Levitt decided to make his feature writing and directing debut with DON JON’S ADDICTION (starring in it as well), his attitude was clearly Go Big Or Go Home.  To a large extent, he’s pulle...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED REVIEW: “Saturday Night Live” with Adam Levine

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE didn’t exactly hide its fears about Adam Levine’s comic chops as host when the show loaded up his opening monologue not only with the inevitable The Voice parody, but with guest “mentors...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Before Midnight”

  The “spoiler” situation with respect to Richard Linklater’s BEFORE MIDNIGHT is a particularly tricky one, because for those passionately invested in the saga that began with 1995’s Before Sunr...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Fruitvale”

  There can’t be very much quibbling about the selection of Ryan Coogler’s very impressive debut film FRUITVALE as tonight’s winner of both the Sundance Dramatic Competition Jury Prize and the Audience ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Toy’s House”

  TOY’S HOUSE is a delightful Sundance surprise, a fresh take on adolescent boys coming of age.  The conceit of Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ film, written by Chris Galletta, is that Joe Toy (Nick Robinson), his best ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “In A World…”

  The actress Lake Bell’s feature-film writing/directing debut IN A WORLD… has a fresh slant on showbiz comedy, and it’s both consistently likable and sometimes very funny.  It’s also sloppy, ove...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Sweetwater”

  But for one unfortunately critical element, Logan and Noah Miller’s SWEETWATER (the brothers rewrote a script originally by Andrew McKenzie) is a highly enjoyable darkly comic western, as subsumed in stylized mov...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “A.C.O.D.”

  Stu Zicherman’s A.C.O.D. (written by Zicherman and Ben Karlin) suffers a bit from a familiar indie comedy malady:  the conflicting desires to tell meaningful and even dark stories, while at the same time getting ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Parker”

  PARKER:  Watch It At Home – Jason Statham Being Tough (Again), Elevated By Strong Supporting Cast PARKER is what Jack Reacher might have been if it hadn’t been gripped by the excess that accompanies Tom Crui...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “Lovelace”

  There are any number of ways the story of Linda Lovelace and Deep Throat could be told to make a potentially fascinating movie, from the sociological to the political, the personal to the satiric.  The laziest–o...
by Mitch Salem