Movies/TV category, Page 80
Review: Mars rovers steal the show in fresh, imaginative ‘Good Night Oppy’Video
Great true stories about space exploration don’t come around too often anymore. Our pop cultural representations about NASA’s achievements (or failures) tend to be period pieces and retreads of the greatest hits. But the new documentary “Good Night Oppy,” directed by Ryan White, is an exciting and fresh story about...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh-filmed movie ‘Dear Zoe’ releases on demand, in theatersVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. It’s difficult to imagine a more Pittsburgh-y movie than the indie feature “Dear Zoe.” With scenes filmed at Kennywood, on the North Shore, in the Strip District, in Squirrel Hill and Braddock; with a glimpse...
What doors will open in the next season of ‘House of the Dragon’?
When Princess Rhaenys Targaryen and her dragon Meleys busted through the floor of the Dragonpit, casually murdering hundreds of civilians during an escape from captivity at the hands of Team Green, I was not...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking Halloween costumes, where to watch ‘Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ for free
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 the arrival of two new reporters at KDKA-TV and the Pittsburgh premiere of locally-filmed “Dear Zoe” this week. In this Halloween podcast, the pair...
Why are we fascinated by serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer?
When it comes to the most popular Netflix shows, only the latest season of “Stranger Things” can claim to be more widely watched than “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” which racked up more than 701 million hours watched since its initial release Sept. 21. Producer Ryan Murphy’s docu-drama about the...
Review: War is hell (again) in Netflix’s new adaptation of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’
“All Quiet on the Western Front,” directed by Edward Berger, is hardly the first movie to argue — quite persuasively — that war is hell. It is, however, the first filmed adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s seminal World War I novel in which the Germans actually speak German. The book’s...
Pittsburgh’s character comes out in local filmmakers’ festival shorts
When Lily Ragheb of Washington, D.C., and her husband, Ahmed, a native of Cairo, Egypt, moved to Pittsburgh in 2019, they barely had time to get acquainted with the city before the covid-19 pandemic shut most of it down. As they began to talk walks and explore Lawrenceville and the...
How horror became Hollywood’s safe bet in a scary box office climate
LOS ANGELES — Zach Cregger’s movie “Barbarian” already had to be brought back from the dead once — by film company New Regency after its financing fell apart before the start of production. So the actor-turned-director was categorically not expecting a theatrical release for his twisted horror film when he...
Netflix releases teaser trailer for filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘Pale Blue Eye’Video
Netflix released a teaser trailer for “The Pale Blue Eye,” a film that marked a return to filming in Western Pennsylvania for star Christian Bale and director Scott Cooper, who previously filmed the 2013 “Out of the Furnace” locally. Bale also starred in the 2012 hit “Dark Knight Rises,” which...
TV Talk: ‘White Lotus’ goes to Sicily, new reporters join KDKA-TVVideo
The Hawaii-set first season of HBO’s “The White Lotus” got off to a slowish start, but became more involving and addictive as it went. Season two, again written/directed entirely by Mike White, relocates to a White Lotus property in Sicily and begins stronger and then becomes more rote through five...
Here are 10 awesome new horror movies to watch for Halloween 2022
We’ve never understood why some people wait until October to binge horror movies. For us, it’s a yearlong pursuit and we’re just as likely to be found watching an all-time classic like “Final Destination 2” or “Bride of Chucky” on Valentine’s Day as we are on Halloween. And, yes, we...
TV Q&A: What happened to WPXI’s Mike Holden?
Q: Is Mike Holden still at WPXI? I don’t recall seeing him in a while. — Beth, McCandless Rob: Although he recently won a regional Emmy award for his past work at WPXI-TV, Holden left the station in June for a job at WEWS-TV in Cleveland where his family lives....
Nielsen, Amazon Prime spar over who really watches football
NEW YORK — By the Nielsen company’s count, 7.8 million people watched Amazon Prime’s coverage of last Thursday’s NFL game between New Orleans and Arizona. But Amazon says no, there were actually 8.9 million people watching. So which is it? You’ll have to judge for yourself. After each of its...
Jim Nantz to call last Final Four in ’23, Ian Eagle to take over
NEW YORK — Jim Nantz will step away from calling the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament after next year and will be succeeded by Ian Eagle. CBS Sports confirmed the move on Monday night. It was first reported by the New York Post. Nantz has been a part of the CBS...
New ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ trailer brings Kang into focusVideo
First, the great news: Bill Murray is a character in the new “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” film. This is reason to rejoice, regardless of who he’s playing or the size of his role. The other great news is that Kang the Conqueror — or one of his many multi-verse...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking a Pittsburgher’s return to ‘Jeopardy!,’ local bartender on ‘Drink Masters,’ ‘Tree of Life’ doc on HBOVideo
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 Pittsburgher Margaret Shelton, who won almost $80,000 over four “Jeopardy!” episodes in March, and will return to the game show next week for a...
It all comes down to obedience training on the ‘House of the Dragon’ finaleVideo
In the world of “Game of Thrones,” dragons are referred to multiple times as “fire made flesh.” They’re magical creatures, and the Targaryen family has a mystical connection with them....
TV Talk: Shaler grad directs ‘A Tree of Life’ documentary for HBOVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Pittsburgh native and New York-based director Trish Adlesic has made films in Western Pennsylvania before — she was a producer on HBO’s 2010 fracking documentary “Gasland” and 2013’s “Gasland Part II” — but she didn’t...
‘Black Adam,’ with Dwayne Johnson, debuts with $67M
NEW YORK — Warner Bros.’ “Black Adam” opened with an estimated $67 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, handing Dwayne Johnson his biggest box-office weekend as a leading man and launching the D.C. Comics character he spent a decade to bring to the big screen. “Black Adam” was a $200-million...
Saga of last U.S. slave ship finds life in ‘Descendant’ docVideo
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — In the murky waters of an Alabama river, diver Kamau Sadiki said he had to pause before entering the last known slave ship to the United States, where 110 people were confined in hellish conditions. “You feel the reverberation, the pain and suffering, and the screams and...
In ‘Good Nurse,’ a serial killer exposes health care systemVideo
NEW YORK — Charles Cullen is by some estimates the most prolific serial killer in American history. But when Krysty Wilson-Cairns began writing the script about his capture, she started not with Cullen, who was sentenced to consecutive life sentences in 2006, but outside the home of Amy Loughren, the...
Jury: Kevin Spacey didn’t molest actor Anthony Rapp in 1986
NEW YORK — A jury sided with Kevin Spacey on Thursday in one of the lawsuits that derailed the film star’s career, finding he did not sexually abuse Anthony Rapp, then 14, while both were relatively unknown actors in Broadway plays in 1986. The verdict in the civil trial came...
Trailer released for Pittsburgh-area filmed Tom Hanks movie ‘A Man Called Otto’Video
A trailer for the filmed-in-Pittsburgh Tom Hanks movie “A Man Called Otto” was released Thursday. The movie, filmed at numerous locations across the Pittsburgh region, will be released in New York and Los Angeles on Christmas and will go into wide release, including Pittsburgh, on Jan. 13, said Joe Fucci...
TV Talk: Tamburitzans show debuts on WQED; Pittsburgher competes on Netflix’s ‘Drink Masters’Video
A year after he spearheaded the WQED-TV special “Tamburitzans: Prism,” producer/editor Frank Caloiero delivers another special featuring the music and dance group with “Tamburitzans: Symbols” (7:30 p.m. Oct. 27, WQED-TV). Caloiero, a former “Tammie” dancer/singer and Tambura player (1988-92), said this new special taped at the Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point...
In ‘Aftersun,’ Charlotte Wells makes a shattering debutVideo
NEW YORK — A normal morning scene. Breakfast on the kitchen table. A newspaper rustles. A backpack is packed. The mother asks her teenage daughter if she’ll be home later. “It’s Tuesday, so, um, I’m going to go to Dad’s.” The look of concern on the mother’s face, and the...
