Movies/TV category, Page 78
‘Nanny’ review: Anna Diop shines in an eerie, assured feature film debutVideo
Some movies, mostly to do with how they’re marketed, keep the audience guessing as to what the hell it is, exactly, right up until the moment the lights go down or they click the play button. Horror movies do better business, so the ads tend to play up the horror...
TV Talk: Gift ideas for TV fans of Mister Rogers, ‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘V’
For the TV fan on your gift-giving list, consider one of these options: “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” — For those who crochet, this Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood crochet set ($25, Thunder Bay Press) includes 12 colors of yarn and step-by-step instructions to crochet Mister Rogers and finger puppet characters from the Neighborhood...
TV Talk: WPXI-TV off DISH Network just in time for Steelers game
It was odd enough that the ESPN “Monday Night Football” game featuring the Steelers is being simulcast locally on WPXI-TV — for years WTAE-TV has carried the local simulcast — but now it’s even stranger because Channel 11 is no longer being carried by DISH Network. Again, a retransmission fee...
Movie review: ‘White Noise’ puts a loud, brash and enjoyable spin on a Don DeLillo classicVideo
“White Noise,” Noah Baumbach’s jittery and inventive adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel, begins with what you might call a love letter to cinema. We’ve had a lot of those recently, but this one — a college lecture on car crashes in American movies — is appreciably sharper, funnier and...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking Steelers Monday night move from WTAE to WPXI, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ holiday specialVideo
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including why the local simulcast of tonight’s ESPN Steelers game, usually on WTAE-TV, is on WPXI-TV. It seems likely that WTAE parent company Hearst lost...
Love holiday movies? Here’s this year’s schedule
DEC. 1 8 p.m. Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas: NBC National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation: (1989, Comedy) Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo. A traditional Griswold yuletide backfires in comic fashion. AMC A Tale of Two Christmases: (2022, Romance) Katherine Barrell, Chandler Massey. A woman gets to experience two different Christmases. HALL Serving...
‘Wakanda Forever’ rules Thanksgiving box office as ‘Strange World’ fizzles
Thanksgiving often serves up a feast of new family movies at the box office, but the Walt Disney Co.’s animated offering “Strange World” fizzled with audiences out of the gates. The production, with a reported $180 million budget, grossed just $18.6 million in ticket sales in its first five days...
Review: A portrait of an artist in Venice-winning doc, ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed’Video
Nan Goldin, the subject of Laura Poitras’ Venice Film Festival-winning documentary ” All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” is a name you probably either know well or not at all. In the art world, she is unequivocally famous. Her photographs depicting downtown life in the late 1970s and ’80s and...
‘Bad Axe’ film puts thumb on America’s tension pointsVideo
DETROIT — When the world shut down in 2020, New York City-based filmmaker David Siev came home to Bad Axe, the small town in Michigan’s Thumb where he was born and raised, and started filming his family. At first, he wasn’t sure exactly what he was documenting. But over a...
Netflix nights still come wrapped in red-and-white envelopes
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Netflix’s trailblazing DVD-by-mail rental service has been relegated as a relic in the age of video streaming, but there is still a steady — albeit shrinking — audience of diehards like Amanda Konkle who are happily paying to receive those discs in the iconic red-and-white envelopes....
Commentary: ‘Star Wars’ has always been political. ‘Andor’ made it must-see TVVideo
Despite what some people — and at least one giant media company — might have you believe, “Star Wars” has always been political. “It is a period of civil war,” explains the opening scrawl of George Lucas’ 1977 space opera, now formally known as “Star Wars: Episode IV — A...
TV Talk: Local TV stations set holiday programs
This year, broadcast networks have gone all-in on holiday programs, including CBS’s new animated special “Reindeer in Here” (9 p.m. Nov. 29) and three CBS holiday movies (8:30 p.m. Dec. 4 and 18, 9 p.m. Dec. 11), PBS’s 2022 “Call the Midwife” holiday special (9 p.m. Dec. 25, WQED-TV) and...
Movie top 10 for the holidays: From a new ‘Scrooge’ to an old Christmas romance you’ve never seen
Our stockings runneth over with streaming holiday options whose titles, on Netflix and Hallmark and elsewhere, tend to blur into a single, extended holiday viewing option we’ll call “Countdown to Falling for Christmas with You on a Holidate on Mistletoe Farm All the Way.” Someone should make that one, and...
Justin Hartley embarks on new chapters after ‘This is Us’
On NBC’s “This is Us,” Justin Hartley played Kevin Pearson: A man whose dreams of playing college football were derailed injury — so he decided to try acting, and ended up a big star. Hartley’s own story has some strong parallels. He loved to play sports growing up but realized,...
Disney finally gets break in China with theater release for ‘Avatar 2’
Walt Disney Co.’s “Avatar” sequel has been given a release date in China, according to people familiar with the matter, a boon in a key market for the entertainment giant as it looks to move beyond this week’s management upheaval. “Avatar: The Way of Water,” a follow-up to the 2009...
Buffy Sainte-Marie shines despite sabotage in new documentary ‘Carry It On’Video
The coffeehouse musicians that were the dominant force in the U.S. during the folk-heavy 1950s and early ’60s have been experiencing a mini-renaissance lately. It started with excitement over Joni Mitchell’s return to the stage, then Bob Dylan’s new museum and book and now a documentary spotlighting one of the...
TV Q&A: Are there sponsored segments on ‘Pittsburgh Today Live’?
Q: How does KDKA-TV’s “Pittsburgh Today Live” decide where they do stories at? They seem to frequent a lot of the same places every few weeks/months, like Nemacolin or Uniontown’s Neubauer’s Market. “PTL’s” Celina Pompeani typically does these stories. Does she get to decide on the location, or are these...
‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ leads Spirit Award noms
The multiverse-hopping adventure film ” Everything Everywhere All At Once ” had a leading eight nominations for the Film Independent Spirit Awards with nods for best feature, best director, best lead actor for Michelle Yeoh, supporting actors Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis and breakthrough for Stephanie Hsu. The...
Famed ‘Goonies’ house for sale in OregonVideo
PORTLAND, Ore. — Good news for fans of “The Goonies:” the old Victorian home featured in the film is on sale in Astoria, Oregon, and potential buyers are considering making it more accessible to the public. “We have a few interested parties right now,” said realtor Jordan Miller, the listing...
TV Talk: ‘Criminal Minds’ returns, sadistic as ever; Wednesday Addams is back on NetflixVideo
The dirty little secret of all the streaming services: Even though they pour all their energy into promoting their original series, it’s often the reruns of existing shows that keep subscribers watching. It’s why HBO Max reclaimed “Friends” and Peacock clawed back rights to “The Office.” (The week of Oct....
Review: ‘Devotion’ is a quiet tale of allyship amid heroicsVideo
There must be something about actor Glen Powell that casting directors associate with the heavens. He’s played astronaut John Glenn in “Hidden Figures,” voiced a NASA official in the animated film “Apollo 10 1⁄2” and has two roles this year as a hotshot Navy aviator. Here he is in “Devotion,”...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: ‘Christmas Story’ sequel, ‘Spirited,’ ‘Best in Snow,’ ‘Andor’
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including a quartet of Pittsburghers on Disney+’s “Best in Snow.” Owen reviews HBO Max sequel “A Christmas Story Christmas” and Apple TV+’s “Spirited.” Benz previews...
Disney taps ex-CEO Bob Iger to return
BURBANK, Calif. — The Walt Disney Company has tapped its former CEO Bob Iger to return to head the company for two years, firing his successor Bob Chapek in a move that stunned the entertainment industry. Chapek is leaving after the company posted lower than expected earnings in the last...
Review: The tender hunger of young love in ‘Bones and All’Video
Part horror film, part coming-of-age tale, part romance, the adaptation of Camille DeAngelis’ young adult novel “Bones and All” is a small marvel, unsettling and heartbreaking in equal measure. Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s first project filmed in the United States, the film avoids many of the traps that befall international...
How ‘The Menu’ got the horrors of high-end fine dining right
One of the world’s most anticipated restaurants will debut this week, but it’s even more ephemeral than a pop-up. In fact, the waterfront dining room and the meticulously prepared tasting menu have already dematerialized. To experience Hawthorne, you’ll have to visit a movie theater. The fictional restaurant at the center...
