Movies/TV category, Page 83
Tough to find someone to root for on ‘House of the Dragon’
My father and I sat down once when I was younger and watched Quentin Tarantino’s classic 1994 film “Pulp Fiction.” When it was over, he said that he wanted to enjoy it,...
‘Don’t Worry Darling’ shrugs off drama, opening with $19.2M
After off-screen drama threatened to consume Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling,” the Warner Bros. release opened No. 1 at the box office, debuting with $19.2 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, “Don’t Worry Darling” was engulfed by a storm of controversies...
Oscar-winning ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ actor Louise Fletcher dies
LOS ANGELES — Louise Fletcher, a late-blooming star whose riveting performance as the cruel and calculating Nurse Ratched in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” set a new standard for screen villains and won her an Academy Award, has died at age 88. Fletcher died in her sleep surrounded by...
Review: ‘Athena,’ a fiery drama of civil unrest, is mostly blowing smoke
Romain Gavras’ “Athena” opens with a single-take sequence so intricately choreographed, and so breathtaking in its visual sweep and emotional force, it’s almost a shame that there’s another 90 minutes or so of movie to go along with it. It begins at a news conference where a French soldier, Abdel...
Q&A: Lena Dunham on medieval romp ‘Catherine Called Birdy’Video
TORONTO — Lena Dunham estimates her career is now a “tween.” It’s been 12 years since Dunham’s feature film debut, 2010’s “Tiny Furniture.” (She was just 23 when it premiered.) In the time since, she’s packed in just about every aspect of show-business experience. She’s been hailed as “the voice...
‘il Messarggero’ tells the story of how a local Italian immigrant connected others to their homeland
A Sharpsburg native is paying tribute to his hometown with a documentary highlighting an Italian American immigrant who brought over more than just luggage with him from Italy. Pete Ferraro, an Emmy-award winning filmmaker, producer and writer, will premiere his documentary, “il Messarggero” — “The Messenger” — Oct. 1 on...
TV Talk: WTAE-TV reporter Sheldon Ingram guest stars on ‘Law & Order: SVU’
It’s not unusual to see a Pittsburgh news anchor play a reporter or anchor in a fictional movie or TV show shot in Pittsburgh — Sally Wiggin and Ken Rice were in “Striking Distance;” Mike Clark was in “Abduction,” “Unstoppable,” “Southpaw” and “Concussion” — but veteran WTAE-TV reporter Sheldon Ingram...
Review: Sidney Poitier documentary shows a constant strivingVideo
Sidney Poitier was not expected to live. He was born two months premature to uneducated tomato farmers in the Caribbean. His father planned to use a shoe box as a makeshift coffin. Poitier’s rise from that humble origin to become an Oscar-winning box office draw and civil rights figure who...
TV Talk: Dianne Wiest talks filming ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ season two in Pittsburgh
Oscar-winner Dianne Wiest has become a Pittsburgh fan after spending recent months filming season two of Paramount+ series “Mayor of Kingstown” locally. “It’s just wonderful,” she said Tuesday of her first time in the city. “It’s a great town, really. And I get some time off while I’m there in...
TV Q&A: Can local TV stations refuse politicians’ ads?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Can you tell me if local stations can refuse to put political ads on? I would think whichever stations refuse would get a huge bump...
TV Talk: ‘Star Wars’ series ‘Andor’ begins slow, improves as it goesVideo
“Star Wars” finds itself in a precarious position: It can either continue to replay its greatest hits by going back to the well of past, major characters as leads in series for a short-term boost (e.g. “The Book of Boba Fett,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi”) or tread new ground to sustain the...
TV Talk: ‘Abbott Elementary,’ ‘Ghosts’ return for sophomore seasonsVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers viewing tips for the coming week. Broadcast television may be down, but don’t count it out just yet. After all, there were two broadcast hits to come out of the 2021-22 TV season: ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” and CBS’s “Ghosts,” both returning this...
Q&A: James Cameron on the return of ‘Avatar’Video
NEW YORK — Thirteen years after James Cameron plunged moviegoers into the cosmic world of “Avatar,” the lush, distant moon of Pandora is finally orbiting back into view. Cameron’s “Avatar” industrial complex has been whirling in high gear for some time; production on the upcoming sequel, “Avatar: The Way of...
The kettle boils over and all the tea gets spilled on ‘House of the Dragon’
It sure is tough to get through a wedding in Westeros. Veterans of this universe are well aware of the body count that nuptials can produce. I’m not sure if anyone other than Tommen “Baratheon”...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking KDKA-TV’s new weekend anchor, DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket fumble
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 KDKA-TV’s newly-appointed weekend evening and late news anchor, Erika Stanish. Paul Martino had anchored those newscasts for years before he was pulled from the...
TV Talk: CMU grad plays an exec on a TV comedy in Hulu’s ‘Reboot’
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. With all the sequel series and reboots on TV and streaming services in recent years (see NBC’s “Quantum Leap,” premiering at 10 p.m. Monday), it’s unsurprising that some TV writer/producer would want to critique...
‘NFL Sunday Ticket’ outages anger fans for 2nd straight week
DirecTV’s “NFL Sunday Ticket” package malfunctioned for the second straight week, causing fans trying to watch through the app or online to miss entire games. DirecTV said via social media that customers trying to stream the 1 p.m. EDT games were unable to through the app. Shortly after 4 p.m.,...
Review: Viola Davis adds another jewel to her crown in a rousing ‘Woman King’Video
With her rousing new action-drama, “The Woman King,” director Gina Prince-Bythewood suggests that, in at least one crucial respect, the West African kingdom of Dahomey was more ahead of its time than that starry imperialist empire called Hollywood. An early 19th-century epic awash in militaristic might and colonial oppression, the...
Ken Burns’ new documentary reveals painful truths about ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’Video
DALLAS — Eva Schloss is no stranger to Dallas. As a Holocaust survivor willing to share her harrowing life story, she appeared in Richardson as recently as three years ago. In 2002, she flew in from London to see a play about her life, “And Then They Came for Me,”...
Jimmy Kimmel apologizes to Quinta Brunson for viral Emmys moment and its backlash
LOS ANGELES — Days after winning her first Emmy Award — and having her big moment seemingly spoiled by Jimmy Kimmel — Quinta Brunson showed restraint when she sat down on his show Tuesday night. She did not, in fact, punch him in the face, as she told reporters she...
‘Confess, Fletch’ review: Jon Hamm does not rise to the occasion as the jokily intrepid reporter unraveling a mysteryVideo
The crime novels of Gregory Mcdonald emerged in the ’70s as a self-amused antithesis to more typically hard-boiled detective stories. The series began with “Fletch” in 1974 and continued a 20-year run, ending with “Fletch Reflected” in 1994. Irwin Maurice Fletcher (Fletch to everyone who knows him) is a shaggy...
TV Talk: Aaron Donald on ‘Secret Celebrity Renovation;’ ‘Quantum Leap’ is back on NBCVideo
Although he’s made his NFL career as a Super Bowl winner with the Los Angeles Rams, Pittsburgh native Aaron Donald says he still feels “a lot of love, a lot of support in Pittsburgh” in this week’s episode of CBS’s “Secret Celebrity Renovation” (8 p.m. Friday, KDKA-TV). It’s the show’s...
How to watch ‘Thursday Night Football’ on Amazon Prime Video
A new era in TV sports begins this week when Amazon Prime Video becomes the exclusive home of the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football.” Based on the ratings potency of NFL contests, they will likely be the most streamed live events ever. But even as streaming video has become ingrained in...
Can Al Michaels make streaming the NFL on Amazon Prime Video a Thursday night ritual?
LOS ANGELES — Veteran sports broadcaster Al Michaels has a 20-year-old answering machine in his Brentwood home, and it will likely never be thrown out. The device contains several messages from the late Dodgers announcer Vin Scully who died Aug. 2. Michaels, 77, spent his early years in Brooklyn, where...
TV Q&A: Why do local TV news anchors sometimes read the sports report?
Q: Why do Channels 4 and 11 have their news anchors deliver the full sports reports from time to time? I was a sportscaster for WBRZ-TV, the ABC affiliate in Baton Rouge, from 1981-93. Back in our day, sportscasters never did news, and news anchors and reporters never did sports....
