TV amp; Movies Reviews

HBO’s new comedy series The Franchise is about the making of Tecto: Eye of the Storm, a superhero movie for a barely-disguised version of Marvel Studios. In short order, it becomes clear that the only person in the cast and crew who actually cares at all about the movie’s subject …

A wise man once said it’s a fine line between stupid and clever, and should anyone doubt the inherent truth in that comment, we’d like to present them with Exhibit A: It’s What’s Inside, a Netflix acquisition out of this year’s Sundance that’s far more of the former and way, …

What were you like when you were 18 years old, high on the feeling that your life was a blank canvas spread out in front of you, and you could throw whatever paint splatters you wanted on it? Maybe, like Elliott (Maisy Stella), the hero of My Old Ass, you …

In television romantic comedy, it often feels as if series are more interested in the chase than in the actual relationship. “Happy couples ruin TV shows” is a sentiment I’ve heard many times from writers, though they’re often citing examples (like Moonlighting) where couples never got together for very long. …

The movies do not deserve Mary Louise Parker. Her work in the New York theater scene since the 1990s has been rightfully praised from Broadway to the Battery, and the serialized nature of television has allowed her to flex character-developing muscles and play the emotional scales several times over; say …

When we last left Agatha Harkness — centuries-old alpha witch, Salem trials OG, subject of the catchiest fake-TV theme song since “Too Many Cooks” — she’d been imprisoned by Wanda Maximoff (a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch) in an illusion of small-town Americana, and left to play the part of the nosy …

Everyone makes mistakes. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a tinker, a tailor, a rich man, a poor man, a beggar man, or a streaming service owned by a major tech company that dabbles in film production. Or, for that matter, a female district attorney in New York City whose entire …

Once upon a time in Hollywood, Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) was a star whose Walk of Fame plaque was a prime tourist attraction and nonstop selfie backdrop. Now, Sparkle hosts a fitness morning show that carbon-dates back to the 1990s. Her odious, sexist boss, Harvey (Dennis Quaid) — we’re sure …

You can look at HBO’s new The Penguin series as a case of addition at work. It’s an expansion of Matt Reeves’ well-received 2022 The Batman film. It gives star Colin Farrell a larger opportunity to play the show’s criminal title character. And the prosthetics used to turn the handsome …

In adapting her nonfiction bestseller Three Women for television, author Lisa Taddeo has made the title something of a misnomer. To the trio she profiled in the book — housewife Lina (Betty Gilpin), withering under her husband’s sexual neglect; wealthy Sloane (DeWanda Wise), struggling with the boundaries of a polyamorous …