Pending the arrival of this week’s finale, Mike Newell’s 2005 HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE may be, on balance, the most satisfying of the series.  It combines first-rate moviemaking with one of J.K. Rowling’s most ingeniously constructed, emotionally rich stories–capped, of course, by the unveiling of Ralph Fiennes as the finally fully […]

> Derick Martini’s HICK is like a Sundance movie that took the wrong indie-film exit and wound up in Toronto.  For whatever reason, Toronto’s film festival tends to find itself with fewer stories of young people from small towns who come of age on the road, so Hick has a little air of distinction here. […]

> Disclaimer:  Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall.  Pilots are often reedited and rescored, and in some cases even recast or reshot.  So these critiques shouldn’t be taken as full reviews, but rather as a guide to the general style and content of the […]

> A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and production of episodes for the regular season:  a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may have had their own turnover in the off-season) give plenty of notes, both helpful and otherwise, and […]

> There are few opportunities left to tune in to NBC and bask in the glory of the network that used to be.  One that remains, though, is 30 ROCK, postponed this season to winter due to Tina Fey’s pregnancy but now back on Thursday nights. WHERE WE LEFT OFF:  Wacky, smart, mildly surreal, wickedly […]

> Previously On… THE WALKING DEAD:  Our erstwhile humans spent many, many episodes on a farm owned by cranky vet Hershel (Scott Wilson), while they searched for the missing Sophia (Madison Lintz).  There were lots of lengthy conversations about the meaning of life in a zombie-infected universe, and whether it was worth going on–let alone […]

> The sex jokes may have diminished over at Whitney, but they’re in full force on ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA?.  In the first few minutes of tonight’s season finale, Chelsea (Laura Prepon) told her friends about a trip to Atlantic City:  “I got penetrated by a guy who made salt-water taffy.”  This was followed by […]

  Airing on Cinemax:  At Home In Your Home With the failure of THE INFORMANT! at the box-office in 2009 (it grossed around $41M worldwide), Steven Soderbergh seemed to reach a crossroads in his career. Informantfollowed the even bigger financial flop of his ambitious 2-part Che, and soon afterward he announced his intention to retire […]