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Book Review: The Art of the Mitchells vs. the Machines
A quick look at a new companion book to Netflix's increasingly beloved family film, The Mitchells vs. the Machines.
A quick look at a new companion book to Netflix's increasingly beloved family film, The Mitchells vs. the Machines.
A review of two comedies that premiered Friday night at the virtual Sundance Film Festival.
A feature on the best television of 2020, as chosen by five RogerEbert.com TV critics.
A review of the new Showtime comedy series with John C. Reilly.
You may have forgotten how hysterically funny this spoof of film documentaries from Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and Seth Meyers can be. It won’t be long before you remember.
A preview of what to watch this Fall season.
Writer/director/star/lyricist Zoe Lister-Jones talks about her new film, "Band Aid."
A review of the new IFC documentary satire "Documentary Now!" from Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen, and Bill Hader.
Lindsay Lohan's reality show; Portlandia stars on This Is Spinal Tap; Aaron Sorkin apologizes for The Newsroom; CriticWire survey; Hollywood has a major problem.
A.O. Scott says movies aren't dead; John Waters says kids shouldn't write to Santa; David Simon says there are two Americas; Keith Phipps says 2013 movies go "boom"; Vulture says movies with "America" in the title go "boom," too.
It's with pleasure and excitement that I welcome Tom Shales, a good friend, as a blogger on this site. Tom, the nation's best-known television critic, won the Pulitzer Prize while writing for The Washington Post from 1972 to 2010. His blog will focus on TV and whatever else he feels moved to write about. -- RE
Apparently a new bylaw at "Saturday Night Live," which began its 38th season this weekend, is "The worse the host, the more sketches in which he'll appear." So it was with big let-down Seth MacFarlane, multimillionaire comedy tycoon who hosted the season premiere. Once he arrived on the show's tiny (and, yes, "iconic") stage, he was punishingly omnipresent for the whole 90 minutes.
We can be grateful he didn't grab a cow bell and crash the musical act.
With the exception of MacFarlane - a man who has gone farther with less than perhaps even Tyler Perry -- the series seemed to be in tip-top ship-shape shape, especially considering that it begins a new year minus two of its greatest cast assets: Andy Samberg, off to make more movies, and the incomparably versatile Kristen Wiig, the funniest woman in television since Tina Fey. Or maybe since Gilda Radner. Or maybe since Carol Burnett. Or maybe since, dare we say it, Lucille Ball?
I can't get enough of Tina Fey's Sarah Palin. I feel about her the way I felt about Dr. Evil in the first "Austin Powers" movie. My eyes light up whenever she's on camera. And then, of course, there are those little starbursts she sends through the screen that go ricocheting around the living rooms of America, as first reported by Rich Lowry of the National Review.
Something strange is happening, though: Fey's Palin is not only sharper and funnier than Palin's Palin, she's also more vivid, more... real (maybe because she's on TV more). It's as if she's the main Palin and the other one is the paler surrogate Palin. In other words, for you baby boomers, Tina Fey's Palin is the Dick York and Sarah Palin's Palin is the Dick Sargent. Sure, they're both bewitching in their own ways, but Fey's is the real Darrin. If you know what I mean.
I was looking forward to the VP Debate opening sketch on "SNL" as much as the debate itself, and I was not disappointed by either. I'm guessing that former "SNL" head-writer Fey contributes to these because they're "30 Rock" precise -- more pointed than what usually passes for "SNL" political humor. (I didn't make it through the obviously obligatory finanical bailout sketch in the first half hour of the show, even though Fred Armisen's Barney Frank was a hoot).
