Jeff Daniels

No amount of added action or plot twists can elevate ‘The Divergent Series: Allegiant’ beyond a glorified soap opera

Bolstered by the best script of 2015 and masterful performances from Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet, director Danny Boyle’s propulsive character study is a fascinating glimpse at the evolution of a cult icon.

Director Ridley Scott shows amazing restraint as he scales back the pyrotechnics and emphasizes human ingenuity in ‘The Martian.’

The Martian is a fantastic movie — it cannot be stated quickly enough. Ridley Scott’s film about a man stranded on Mars after his crew evacuates without him is the director’s best work in years. The Martian features a stellar supporting cast, a well written script that’s clever and funny, and an Oscar caliber performance from a Hollywood A-lister at the top of his game.

Once upon a time, the Farrelly Brothers constructed sight gags capable of reaching new heights (or depths, as the case may be). Right about the time Brett Favre was murdering comedy in There’s Something About Mary, however, they abandoned their bread and butter in favor of a “comic spaghetti” approach. Meaning, they throw as many gags at the wall as possible and see what sticks. Thanks to the comic chemistry of Carrey and Daniels, Dumb and Dumber To is just sticky enough to justify its existence.

The Newsroom, Season 2, Episode 9: “Election Night Part 2″ Written by Aaron Sorkin Directed by Alan Poul Airs Sundays at 10:00 PM ET on HBO While the first season of The Newsroom focused on the idea of a news organisation that eschewed ratings for journalism, a lot of the show’s forward momentum seemed to …

The possible story of illegal chemical weapons being used by the US against enemy combatants has been a looming issue over the ACN team over the second season of The Newsroom, particularly as the discussions with Rebecca Halliday and her team indicate a massive failure. The first signs of the breakdown became visible in the closing moments of last week’s episode, and this week explores the full scope of the fallout from the discovery of the story’s falsehood, delivering an episode that, while not necessarily divulging any new information, nonetheless is a fascinating one that leaves several characters in interesting places by the end.

One of the more intriguing aspects of The Newsroom’s second season premiere was the physical transformation of Maggie Jordan. The change, along with hints of a traumatic event, promised to pull the character out of the romantic triangle subplot she was mired in for most of the first season, and add some more dimensions in the process. This week’s episode dives into what led to the change, in a promising episode that also saw the team face their own inability to communicate well, correcting many of the downsides of last week’s episode.

One of the big weaknesses of the first season of The Newsroom, alongside the poor characterisation of many of the show’s women, was the often preachy tone that would accompany storylines, as the writers often struggled to balance the show’s depiction of a fearless news team with an ability to humanise the opponents to the debate, or a portrayal of the core cast as three-dimensional characters rather than simply mouthpieces. The exploration of real-world consequences and conscience attacks suffered by the team at ACN did a lot to mitigate this issue, and while the second season premiere showed promise in further exploring this storyline, this week’s episode manages to fall down the rabbit hole once again, taking a few steps backward from a lot of character progression the show has made, and delivering an unpleasant episode this week, where the bad qualities outweighed the good.

The second season premiere of The Newsroom last week hinted at a major catastrophe that engulfs the station, but buried amidst the discussions of the events that led to lawyerly intervention was the question of why Will McAvoy and the news crew would take on such a volatile story in the first place. This week’s episode dives deeper into the psyche of the individuals who comprise the news team, and their emotional and psychological state leading up to the Genoa revelation, in an episode that unfortunately brings back large chunks of previously problematic storylines, but nonetheless gives a better idea of what makes certain characters tick.

With shows such as Sports Night and The West Wing under his belt, many people were excited to see Aaron Sorkin return to television, particularly after finding big screen success with The Social Network and Moneyball. Tackling journalism, Sorkin’s The Newsroom premiered in 2012 on HBO, with a cast that included Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Alison Pill, and Dev Patel, and ended up receiving uneven reviews throughout the season, with most of the audience qualms coming down on his portrayal of Mackenzie and Maggie, the two key female characters on the show, who often acted out of character when engaged in romantic entanglements, which dominated much of their storylines in the first ten episodes.

While Aaron Sorkin has recently found success in the film world with movies such as The Social Network and Moneyball, he has left his mark on television with highly acclaimed shows Sports Night and The West Wing. His return to television came in 2012, this time with HBO, as he tackled the world of journalism in …

Looper Written and directed by Rian Johnson USA/China, 2012 Of its numerous strengths, one of Looper’s greatest is that, despite featuring narration by its lead character, it heavily relies on visual storytelling to successfully convey both information and emotion. The narration delivers as little exposition as necessary to begin understanding both of its dystopian worlds, …

Looper Directed by Rian Johnson Written by Rian Johnson USA, 2012 If there’s any justice in this world, we’ll look back on Looper in 10 or 20 years, and pinpoint it as the moment when Rian Johnson entered into the realm of stardom. Though he proved his directing savvy with Brick and The Brothers Bloom, …

The Newsroom, Season 1, Episode 10: “The Greater Fool″ Written by Aaron Sorkin Directed by Greg Mottola Airs Sundays at 10:00 PM ET on HBO Season finales are difficult to pull off for any show. The final episode is meant to resolve season-long arcs while still progressing along, or starting, enough story threads to intrigue …

The Newsroom, Season 1, Episode 9: “The Blackout Part 2: Mock Debate″ Written by Aaron Sorkin Directed by Alan Poul Airs Sundays at 10:00 PM ET on HBO Two-part episodes are never easy to pull off; on one hand, they can be freeing, as writers now find themselves with twice the amount of time to …

The Newsroom, Season 1, Episode 8: “The Blackout Part 1: Tragedy Porn″ Written by Aaron Sorkin Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter Airs Sundays at 10:00 PM ET on HBO The question of ratings versus quality is something that has hung over News Night 2.0, and The Newsroom in general, since the beginning of the show. …

The Newsroom, Season 1, Episode 5: “Amen″ Written by Aaron Sorkin Directed by Daniel Minahan Airs Sundays at 10:00 PM ET on HBO Journalism can be a dangerous profession. Trying to cover the news in, or tell the story of, volatile or war-torn regions, especially, can be downright fatal, the most obvious example in recent …

The Newsroom, Season 1, Episode 6: “Bullies″ Written by Aaron Sorkin Directed by Jeremy Podeswa Airs Sundays at 10:00 PM ET on HBO One often overlooked peril with a no-holds-barred approach to journalism is that it takes no prisoners, and often leaves those with the unfortunate task of answering the questions between the unyielding forces …