No paper, no pen: On the loss of Robin Williams, a great American writer
“What will your verse be?” — Robin Williams as John Keating, “Dead Poets Society” (1989) Just hours after the news that Robin Williams had killed himself broke on August 11, Bostonians opted to continue their dialogue with the late comedian. They went out to a bench in the city’s Public Garden, where Williams had filmed…
Read MoreWhiteboard company proves it: Weird Al was drawn that way
The array of "Weird Al" Yankovic videos that recently took over the Internet was an eight-day Al-palooza for fans of the parodist — and their devotion was rewarded when his 14th album, "Mandatory Fun," hit the top of the charts. But fans don't yet have to go into withdrawal — there's one unique video left to watch. …
Read More‘Boyhood’ is full of storytelling magic, minus the story and any wizardry
Modern movie stories generally goes a little something like this: Hero. Hero travels to a different world (you can go metaphorical or literal on this one). Hero meets companion. (In Western society, this companion is almost always of a minority race, or disabled, or female. Look, this is what they taught me. I don’t make…
Read More‘True Detective’s’ Big Hug Mug a star in itself: ‘I should have bought up a few of those things’
There were many things to admire about "True Detective," HBO's limited series that brought together two tastes that worked great together: Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. But one of the biggest surprise breakouts of the show was … the prop Big Hug Mug that sat next to McConaughey's character Rustin "Rust" Cohle during his nearly…
Read MoreHBO’s “The Leftovers” is way off the reservation, and Tom Perrotta let it happen
“Eh, the book was better.” Said anyone who ever read a book before watching a movie or TV adaptation of said book. “The Leftovers,” the HBO series starring Justin Theroux and Liv Tyler, met “The Leftovers,” the literary novel with genre pretensions by Tom Perrotta at the end of June and … the streak remains…
Read MoreA twist in the tale: Why too many ‘Twilight Zone’ endings can ruin the surprise
One summer, I spent my days lounging around the pool, reading “The Twilight Zone.” Not watching. For one thing, “The Twilight Zone” reruns were on way late at night. I wasn’t quite a teenager, VCRs were in other peoples’ homes, and the Internet was still a good decade or so away. So I’d only seen…
Read MoreNot seeing the forest for the trees: ‘Into the Woods’ and other ways Hollywood gaffes in retelling classic fairy tales
“Into the Woods” fans, brace yourself: The Disney adaptation of the award-winning, long-running, grown-up thinking fairy tale musical by Stephen Sondheim – one of the stage’s pre-eminent writers – is getting neutered. As the New Yorker reported recently, during a master class in New York City Sondheim told the audience of high school drama teachers that…
Read MoreAnd then we came to the end: Why the series finale is the most important episode of all
In the last seconds of “The Sopranos” finale seven years ago (yes, it has been that long), my television set suddenly cut to black. Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” cut off right on the word “stop.” Crap! My cable died just at the exactly most important moment of the entire iconic series? Then I got it.…
Read MoreGoing ‘Through the Years’ with Casey Kasem and an imaginary ‘Weekly Top Million’
Dear Casey, You were the voice of music for me as a kid. Not literally: You didn’t sing, you didn’t play an instrument. But in my preadolescent days, there wasn’t a single Sunday that went by where I wasn’t glued to the radio for the four hours it took you to work through the Billboard…
Read More‘Revolution’ will no longer be televised, and it comes down to guns, and hair
Ugh, the guns. The guns and the hair. The guns, the hair and the complete lack of forward motion. Hello all, and welcome to the ongoing shiva service I’m holding for the death of NBC’s Revolution, a show for whom the end of the world came twice: Once when the series started – the premise…
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