‘Hello Ladies’: abrasive but very funny
A 2013 HBO season series that never clicked, “Hello Ladies” has just been released on DVD by HBO Video. The big comedy hits on HBO tend to feature characters you might want to spend time with in real...
View Article‘The Newsroom’ ends on a high
I’ve run into lots of people who loved the Aaron Sorkin HBO series “The Newsroom,” but it never got the media love necessary for it to turn into one of those “hot” cable shows like “Girls” or...
View Article1971 flashback: when kiddie flicks didn’t rule summer
When, thanks to Netflix, I re-watched the bitter relationship comedy “Carnal Knowledge,” I was struck by how relevant the Mike Nichols-Jules Feiffer film still is more than 40 years after its release....
View Article‘Brooklyn Street Style’: ‘outer borough’ no more
Abrams Image has followed up its snazzy street style guides to Berlin and Paris with a much closer-to-home title, “Brooklyn Street Style.” Co-authored by cultural reporter Anya Sacharow and travel...
View Article‘While We’re Young’: a 1970s style social comedy
If you miss the sharply satirical comedies that Paul Mazursky made during the 1970s you should check out “While We’re Young,” which was recently added to Amazon Video and Netflix. The Noah Baumback...
View ArticleLost movie: ‘Love and Human Remains’
In between his 1989 art house hit “Jesus of Montreal” and his Oscar-winning “The Barbarian Invasions” (2003) the French-Canadian filmmaker Denys Arcand made a very funny and very disturbing movie that...
View Article‘Fleabag’: aggressively unpleasant ‘comedy’
The rise of cable and streaming series has freed writers and producers from the content restrictions that have hampered commercial television since its birth. With no advertisers to worry about, TV...
View Article‘Sexplosion’: testing artistic limits in the ’60s
HarperCollins’ !t Books division published Robert Hofler’s “Sexplosion” to less press attention than it deserved. The book is an illuminating and entertaining look back at the late 1960s when...
View Article‘The Collection’: another sign of ‘peak TV’
Between cable, streaming and broadcast TV networks, more than 400 series are released each year, and some observers have speculated that we are nearing the end of the new Golden Age that started in the...
View ArticleGetting hooked on ‘High Maintenance’
HBO will be unveiling a third season of “High Maintenance” late this year or early next, and now that I’ve caught up with the first two seasons, I’m looking forward to seeing the continuing adventures...
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