Author Archive
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “American Horror Story: Cult”

  AMERICAN HORROR STORY:  CULT – Tuesday 10PM on FX We find ourselves in boom times for killer clowns.  They’re the main vehicles for terror in the new installment of FX’s Ryan Murphy anthology AMERICAN...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “On Chesil Beach” & “Loveless”

  ON CHESIL BEACH (no distrib):  Ian McEwan’s longish novella/shortish novel has been adapted by McEwan himself into a fluid and extremely English film, the first feature directed by stage director Dominic Cooke.  ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Death of Stalin,” “I, Tonya” & “Kodachrome”

  KODACHROME (no distrib):  AKA that page of the indie movie playbook marked “Dysfunctional Family Road Trip To Redemption.”  Jonathan Tropper (This Is Where I Leave You) wrote the script, and it has his nove...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Molly’s Game” & “I Love You, Daddy”

  MOLLY’S GAME (STX):  Aaron Sorkin is a celebrated (or notorious, depending on your point of view) control freak, so it’s surprising that it’s taken him this long to decide to direct his own work.  His...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Children Act,” “Suburbicon” & “Chappaquiddick”

  THE CHILDREN ACT (no distrib):  It’s not intended as disparagement to Ian McEwan’s novel and screenplay adaptation, or to Richard Eyre’s film, that THE CHILDREN ACT feels much of the time like it could...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Disobedience” & “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

  DISOBEDIENCE (no distrib):  Sebastian Lelio’s adaptation (with Rebecca Landiewicz) of Naomi Alderman’s novel is one of the surprises of the festival.  It would be perfectly reasonable for the idea of Rachel...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “mother!” & “Unicorn Store”

  mother! (Paramount – Sept 15):  It may come as a shock to people who have been following the marketing for Darren Aronofsky’s mother! to find out that it isn’t a horror movie at all.  It uses thriller...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Downsizing” & “The Shape of Water”

  DOWNSIZING (Paramount – Dec 22):  Alexander Payne’s latest film (written with his usual partner Jim Taylor) is a delight–and a bit of a mess.  On its face, Downsizing is a leap out of Payne and Taylor...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Breathe” & “3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

  BREATHE (Bleecker Street – Oct 13):  BREATHE wasn’t the favored Triumph of the Human Spirit drama at Toronto this year; that title went to Stronger, with Jake Gyllanhaal as a survivor of the Boston Marathon ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Professor Marston & The Wonder Women” & “In the Fade”

  PROFESSOR MARSTON AND THE WONDER WOMEN (Annapurna – Oct. 13):  In the hothouse of a film festival, movies that are unrelated inevitably begin to collide with each other in the viewer’s mind.  So it’s...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Darkest Hour” & “Mudbound”

  DARKEST HOUR (Focus/Universal – Nov. 22):  A shameless piece of rabble-rousing Hollywood biography, directed by Joe Wright and written by Anthony McCarten, and served hot on a platter to Oscar voters.  The subjec...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY MONDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 9.18.2017

  NOTE: ABC ratings below inflated by local MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL pre-emption in Detroit. CW inflated by MNF pre-emption in New York. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “The Sinner”

  USA’s THE SINNER was a genuine if moderate sleeper of this summer’s TV season, not a breakout hit but consistently rating ahead of its lead-in, the veteran Suits, and it’s not entirely clear why.  The ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “The Good Place”

  THE GOOD PLACE:  Thursday 8:30PM on NBC starting 9/28 The Season 1 finale of NBC’s THE GOOD PLACE was a tough act to follow.  Michael Schur’s series pulled off the plot twist of the season, which turned out...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Gotham”

  GOTHAM:  Thursday 8PM on FOX Coming off its most satisfying season to date, the first where it seemed to have some control over its sprawl, GOTHAM has been given a new timeslot on Thursdays for its 4th season, and the s...
by Mitch Salem