Posts Tagged ‘dysfunctional family’
 

 

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW: “August: Osage County”

  The writer/producer/director John Wells made his reputation as the showrunner of ER, and he’s known as one of the most consistent, professional producers in the network business, with impeccable shows like The Wes...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “The Real O’Neals”

  THE REAL O’NEALS:  Tuesday 8:30PM on ABC – Change the Channel Whatever its other ailments, over the past few years ABC has had an extraordinary run of diverse, smart family sitcoms,–an area where other...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto 2014 Review: “This Is Where I Leave You”

  THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU (Warners) – Opens September 19 – Worth A Ticket Jonathan Tropper’s very successful day job is writing seriocomic novels about families and romance that are distinguished by the...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Good Behavior”

  GOOD BEHAVIOR:  Sunday 10PM on TNT As TNT continues with its scorched-earth policy of shedding its old-guard mainstream successes (Rizzoli & Isles, Major Crimes) for the more adult, serialized dramas favored by netw...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “A Kid Like Jake” & “You Were Never Really Here”

  A KID LIKE JAKE (no distrib):  Silas Howard’s dramedy is a small-scale triumph, successfully navigating its way from a wry account of upper-middle-class Brooklynites Alex and Greg (Claire Danes and Jim Parsons) tr...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Shameless”

  SHAMELESS:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime John Wells comes from the broadcast network school of showrunning, where he kept ER going for 22 (or more) episodes per year for more than a decade, and barely missed a beat when Aaron...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Ray Donovan”

  RAY DONOVAN:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime It’s a bit surprising that RAY DONOVAN has been a steady performer for Showtime, considering that its tone tends toward the glum and monotonous, but next to Homeland, it’...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Summer Finale Review: “Chasing Life”

  CHASING LIFE, which aired its not-quite-half season finale tonight, could better have been titled What Not To Do If You Get Cancer.  That, in itself, isn’t a criticism:  a story about a narcissistic idiot who get...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Review: “A Tale of Love and Darkness”

  Natalie Portman certainly hasn’t made it easy for herself with her debut as a writer/director, A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS.  The film, which premiered at Cannes (but tellingly, doesn’t yet have a US distribu...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “9JKL”

  9JKL:  Monday 8:30PM on CBS – Change the Channel We usually do actors the favor of evaluating their work on a project separately from the quality of the project itself, willing to take their performances on their ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Virtual Toronto Film Festival Reviews

  This was a Toronto Film Festival unlike any other, and not just because I “attended” it from the laptop in my house.  Toronto has become an important stop on the road to the Academy Awards, with 9 of the pas...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Wildlife” & “The Tale”

  WILDLIFE (no distrib):  If you’ve ever felt sorry for youngsters who are cordoned off from their parents’ difficult relationships, and then blindsided by the consequences, Paul Dano’s directing debut a...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Finding Carter”

  FINDING CARTER:  Tuesday 10PM on MTV Previously… on FINDING CARTER:  At 16, Carter Stevens (Kathryn Prescott) believed herself to be having a better-than-average adolescence, mostly due to a close bond with her e...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Rebel In the Rye,” “Newness,” “Landline,” “I Don’t Feel At Home,” “Ingrid Goes West” & “Walking Out”

  REBEL IN THE RYE (no distrib):  Danny Strong’s first film as a director is a biography of J. D. Salinger (Nicholas Hoult), and it hits all the Salinger bullet points:  his early struggles to get published, his sp...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Ray Donovan”

  Replacing a show’s creator with a new showrunner isn’t the preferred way for a series to proceed, but the change did some good for Season 3 of RAY DONOVAN, although tonight’s season finale didn’t ...
by Mitch Salem