Movie Reviews and Previews Scarlett Johansson is testing for psychopaths Scarlett Johansson’s career re-direct over the last several years is impressive. She’s become one of the very few actresses who can open an action movie, she’s retained her artistic indie cred, she’s doing the motherhood thing without turning it into a career move, and she has By Sarah • Feb 19, 2015 11:59 am
Media Manipulation Ewan McGregor realizes the dream, becomes own boss The film adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel American Pastoral has undergone some upheaval during its development. First Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly were going to star as the central couple, then Bettany dropped out and was replaced by Ewan McGregor—but Connelly stuck around (does that make for weird By Sarah • Feb 19, 2015 11:17 am
TV Updates Norm Macdonald’s SNL Story Time Lainey emailed me last night and said I needed to go look at Norm Macdonald’s Twitter. So I did and it turns out that Macdonald, who appeared on SNL40 over the weekend, was having an SNL-themed story time about the week running up to the anniversary special. The big By Sarah • Feb 19, 2015 10:39 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Kingsman: The Secret Service review There’s a scene in Kingsman: The Secret Service (why the subtitle? It’s dumb) in which Colin Firth, as dapper gentleman spy Harry and Samuel L. Jackson as megalomaniac Valentine, talk about their love of old spy movies, bemoaning that modern spy thrillers have “grown too serious”. It’s By Sarah • Feb 18, 2015 02:01 pm
Justified Justified 6.5: “What you and me started” Justified Season 6, Episode 5 recap. After last week’s most excellent episode, this week we take a slight step back. It’s not a bad episode at all, it just doesn’t have the same urgency as last week’s. The main things that happen, plot-wise, are that Ava By Sarah • Feb 18, 2015 10:13 am
TV Updates SNL40: The Bad And now for everything that reminds us that Saturday Night Live is never quite as good as we want it to be. Actors impersonating characters During the “Weekend Update” bit several actors appeared as famous SNL characters. Emma Stone impersonated Gilda Radner’s “Roseanne Roseannadanna”, Melissa McCarthy attempted to take By Sarah • Feb 17, 2015 10:40 am
TV Updates SNL40: The Good Like Saturday Night Live itself, the 40th anniversary celebration show was a mixed bag. Here’s everything that was good. Andy Samberg’s digital short Because they are ALWAYS good, but this one, sung with Adam Sandler featuring an assist from Chris Parnell, highlighted the history of character breaks on By Sarah • Feb 17, 2015 10:04 am
The Walking Dead The Walking Dead 5.10: “This is how we survive” The Walking Dead Season 5, Episode 10 recap. Oh for Christ’s sake, they invoked the name of the show. I groaned out loud when Rick declared, “We’re the walking dead.” What a ham-fisted handling of Rick & Co.’s shifting emotional state. Of course, this entire episode was By Sarah • Feb 17, 2015 08:11 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Beware of Crimson Peak There’s a steadily growing swell of hype surrounding Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak, which released its first trailer today (spurred on by a bootleg copy making the rounds after it debuted in front of Fifty Shades of Grey last night—when will studios learn that they cannot stop By Sarah • Feb 13, 2015 03:11 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Cinderella steeze Cinderella is screening at the Berlinale, and the cast appeared at a photocall and press conference today in Berlin to begin promoting the movie. (There’s also a new trailer featuring some serious horse porn, if you like big Baroque horses, like me.) It’s official—I have a Robb By Sarah • Feb 13, 2015 01:32 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews The Man from U.N.C.L.E. trailer is vintage porn It’s all kinds of porny—suit porny, handsome-guy-porny, spy porny—but mostly it’s straight vintage porn. The first trailer for Guy Ritchie’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is here and it looks amazing. I mean literally, it LOOKS amazing. Ritchie has always been a By Sarah • Feb 12, 2015 11:12 am
Amazingness Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck looks terrific Remember when Bridesmaids was a huge hit and we thought it would kick-start a trend of comedies made for grown-ups that happened to feature smart, funny women? Yeah, that…didn’t happen. Instead we got Melissa McCarthy Falls Down and Melissa McCarthy Falls Down 2: Mall Falls. Basically, instead of By Sarah • Feb 11, 2015 04:20 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Seventh Son review I felt bad going after Jupiter Ascending because while it’s a deeply flawed film, at least the Wachowskis showed some ambition and sincerity in making it. Click here for my review. I don’t feel bad at all about crapping on Seventh Son because it’s a cynical piece By Sarah • Feb 11, 2015 01:57 pm
Justified Justified 6.4: “That’s when you get lost” Justified Season 6, Episode 4 recap In its final season, Justified is firing on all cylinders. This episode has everything—Raylan in tense stand-offs, apple pie moonshine, dumb*ss criminals getting themselves killed, Wynn Duffy and Boyd Crowder bantering, Gutterson. It’s just about a perfect episode. And this is By Sarah • Feb 11, 2015 11:31 am
TV Updates Jon Stewart is signing off Jon Stewart has hosted The Daily Show for sixteen years. During that time he’s evolved that show from a celebrity-driven late night talk show to an actual news source, seen three presidents come and go, reported on two wars, the worst terrorist attack in US history, and countless national By Sarah • Feb 11, 2015 11:02 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Jupiter Ascending review Right off the top, the thing you care about most: No, this won’t “Norbit” Eddie Redmayne’s Oscar chances because it has far bigger problems than his relatively small performance, but make no mistake: Eddie Redmayne is profoundly terrible in Jupiter Ascending. He gives the most baffling, distracting, ABSURD By Sarah • Feb 10, 2015 01:19 pm
