Arnold Schwarzenegger has gone all-in on Netflix. First came FUBAR, a rollicking action-comedy series where the former Terminator stars as an aging CIA operative who embarks on one last mission with his daughter. And now there’s Arnold, a three-part docuseries directed by Lesley Chilcott that explores the 75-year-old icon’s journey …
Read More »The Weird Connection Between David Lynch and 'The Wizard of Oz'
David Lynch does not like talking about his movies. He’d prefer the work speak for itself, thank you very much. But in bending over backwards to avoid discussing what something might “mean,” or deflecting questions with humor and/or cryptic pronunciations, the Blue Velvet filmmaker occasionally drops a breadcrumb hint about …
Read More »The Dark Side of 'American Gladiators': Addiction and Exploitation
Johnny Ferraro comes across like a Mafia soldier in witness relocation as a used car salesman, or maybe that one casino employee you really don’t want to mess with. He has a way of looking at the camera like he wants to strangle it, or at least spit on it. …
Read More »Was the Pedophilia 'Sex Kindergarten' in Texas All a Lie?
The title might give the game away a little, but that doesn’t lessen the impact of How to Create a Sex Scandal. The new Max docuseries, brisk, brief, and damning, makes a convincing case that an East Texas pedophilia case that sent seven people to prison was in fact a …
Read More »The Secret Life of Paris Hilton and Tinsley Mortimer's Gossip Blogger
The first half of the Hulu documentary Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl is a passable overview of the turn-of-the-21st-century heiress-celebrity scene, plus some of the bloggers who made their names as barnacles on the gilded ship. You probably know most of the boldfaced names: Paris and Nicky Hilton, …
Read More »Netflix's Anna Nicole Smith Doc Casts Her As a Cunning Fame Seeker
Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me telegraphs its intentions loud and early. The documentary’s subject, the buxom blonde Guess and Playboy model who became a cultural caricature before dying from an accidental drug overdose in 2007 at age 39, was misunderstood. The forces that created her also destroyed her. …
Read More »Justin Bieber's Disgraced Pastor Carl Lentz Breaks His Silence
With his short fade, skinny jeans, toned bod, and tattoos, Carl Lentz wasn’t like other men of the cloth. As the lead pastor of Hillsong NYC, a megachurch specializing in youth-courting “come as you are” sermons and “Coldplay for Christ” music, Lentz became a bona-fide celebrity, palling around with A-list …
Read More »A Menudo Boy Bander's Disturbing Link to the Menendez Brothers
Two sensational stories collide in Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, a new three-part documentary series airing on Peacock. One helped bring the culture into the era of nonstop TV crime and jurisprudence coverage: the grisly 1989 murder of Jose and Kitty Menendez by their sons, Erik and Lyle. The other …
Read More »'32 Sounds' Is the Greatest Documentary You've Ever Heard
Sam Green wants you to stop and listen for a second. Like, really listen. The Bay Area documentarian wants you take in the world around you, one curated noise at a time. It might be church bells, cicadas, wind chimes, or rushing currents. He may throw a few sonic curveballs …
Read More »Syd Barrett Documentary 'Have You Got It Yet?' Shares First Trailer
The previously announced Syd Barrett documentary Have You Got It Yet?, about the Pink Floyd founder-turned-recluse-turned-mythic cult icon, has shared its first trailer ahead of its U.S. release this summer. Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd features new interviews with the band’s surviving …
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