Sundance 2023 Reviews: “Past Lives,” “Fairyland” & “Infinity Pool”
PAST LIVES (A24): The playwright Celine Song makes an impressive feature writing/directing debut with the lovely, eloquent Past Lives. The film is sort of the opposite of Sliding Doors and all of the multiversal ente...
THE SKED’S PILOT + 1 REVIEW: “Beauty and the Beast”
A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and the production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may have ha...
THE SKED’S PILOT + 1 REVIEW: “Bent”
> A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may hav...
LIMITED RELEASE: “The Double Hour,” “Incendies” & “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”
> Plot spoilers are even more problematic when it comes to limited releases, because by definition they’re only being seen by a few people in certain selected locations, and–if they’re good–will ideally ...
THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “True Blood”
“Are you kidding me? It’s always the weird stuff that’s the best,” Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) said at one point during tonight’s season finale of TRUE BLOOD–he was watching the birth o...
THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Homeland”
What kind of show, in the end, is HOMELAND? Focus groups are often asked simply to describe whatever it is they’ve just seen, and Homeland has tried to be a romance, a thriller, an action adventure, a story about...
THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Gossip Girl”
It’s appropriate for GOSSIP GIRL, of all shows, that news about it be conveyed via online buzz. That buzz says that the series’ upcoming 6th season will be shortened and final–and really, it’s t...
THE SKED PILOT REPORT: PREMIERING TONIGHT – ABC’s “Revenge”
> Disclaimer: Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall. Pilots are often reedited and rescored, and in some cases even recast or reshot. So these critiques sh...
ShowbuzzDaily Sundance 2022 Reviews: “Emily the Criminal” & “blood”
EMILY THE CRIMINAL (no distrib): John Patton Ford’s feature debut is a lean, gritty, accomplished thriller with a smashing star performance from Aubrey Plaza. Plaza (who also produced) plays the titular Emily, ...
THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Fringe”
It is, make no mistake, a wonderful thing that FOX (with the financial cooperation of studio Warner Bros) is bringing FRINGE, one of television’s most distinctive and imaginative shows, back for a 5th and final 13-...
THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Girls”
GIRLS: Sunday 9PM on HBO The newly Golden Globe-winning GIRLS has returned, despite all its intervening success and attention, with its messiness intact. “Messy” is a relative term in the world of Girls,...
THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Upstream Color”
UPSTREAM COLOR: Worth A Ticket – But Not If You Require Coherent Plotting I’d be lying if I said I really knew what the hell was going on in UPSTREAM COLOR, and yet the experience of watching it was surpris...
THE SKED’S SERIES PREMIERE REVIEW: ABC’s “Mistresses”
MISTRESSES: Monday 10PM on ABC – If Nothing Else Is On… These days, primetime soap operas usually try to be something else as well: comedies (Desperate Housewives), musicals (Glee), thrillers (Revenge), medical ...
SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “The Spectacular Now”
The screenplay for THE SPECTACULAR NOW, a Dramatic Competition entry at Sundance, was written by the team of Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who also wrote (500) Days of Summer, but the new film has none of the b...