TV & Film
‘UNSUB’ Is Mostly Forgotten, But It Launched a New Era of Crime Procedurals
.
Back when I was a newspaper reporter, I was hanging around our local prosecutor’s office when an investigator for the prosecutor was fondly recalling his days as a police officer and how cops would interrogate someone by holding their head underwater in the toilet in a police holding cell. I thought of that moment when…
Crime Novels About Cursed Films
.
In 2023, two new novels, and one older title, were published in a niche of the detective/thriller genre concerning, to coin a term of art, “sinister films:” films—often lost, frequently silent, and usually scary—that have proven deleterious to their cast and crew during and after production and/or have a deleterious effect upon audiences unlucky enough…
Getting Ready to Say Goodbye to Fargo
.
This November, FX released the fifth and possibly final season of the popular anthology series Fargo. Based on the 1996 film by Joel and Ethan Coen, and set in that film’s extended universe (every property needs one these days), Fargo the series has been some ride thus far. Since its debut in 2014, the show…
What Really Went On Between Coppola and Sheen in that Hotel Room During the Filming of Apocalypse Now?
.
Late in July 1976, the Coppolas returned to the Philippines. Sofia was enrolled in first grade at a Chinese school where no one spoke English (“Francis said it would be a terrific experience for her,” Eleanor recalled), and, the day before production was to resume, Eleanor dreamt heavily. At breakfast the next morning, she told…
Jail to the Chief: The 5 Worst Fictional Acts Committed by Real Presidents
.
No one (well, maybe one person) runs for president without accepting the inevitability that they’ll be accused of ugly things. It’s almost impossible for a president to sue for libel or slander, not just because of their status as the ultimate public figure but also because of the sheer range of sordid activities we now…
Queen of the Supermarket
.
There’s a wonderful world where all you desire And everything you’ve longed for is at your fingertips Where the bittersweet taste of life is at your lips Where aisles and aisles of dreams await you –Queen of the Supermarket, Bruce Springsteen, 2009 Last year crime writer Duane Swierczynski, author of the forthcoming California Bear, mentioned…
1987: The Thrilling-est Year in Hollywood History
.
Recently, I saw an article that claimed that 1999 was the best year in Hollywood history. Then another claimed it was…1971? I beg to disagree. It is my belief that the greatest single year in Hollywood was 1987. Here’s my thinking. To me, a classic film is basically one that you can see time and…
Kenneth Branagh and De-Poiroting Hercule Poirot
.
A man with his back to the world waits for two impossible and perfect eggs. He follows an officer to the transport as a dream-generated locomotive leaves the story. He dreams of a holiday in Egypt and wakes up in the gnarls of memory’s black and white world; his famous face is shaped by loss…