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As the 2010s draw to a close, it's time to look back on the best films of the decade.  10. The Dark Knight Rises (2012) The 2010s at the movies were defined by the massive success of the superhero genre. For me, the best superhero flick of the decade was Christopher Nolan's trilogy capping  The Dark Knight Rises . The scale was epic and comic book-y, but the human drama was real and powerful. Watching this movie is really fun, but not because they shoehorn in a joke every five minutes to keep the tone light like the factory-made Marvel movies. Also, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle is a really underrated performance. Every minute she's on screen is terrific.  9. Muppets Most Wanted (2014) It's been a decade of real ups-and-downs for the puppet-filled comedy group. It started out strong with a comeback in The Muppets (2011), but the lukewarm box office receipts for the sequel basically killed their viability as a big screen franchise. They tried television again with ...

Best of TV 2019 10. BH90210 (Fox) What an unexpected delight this show was. While the original Beverly Hills, 90210 was before my time, I found plenty to enjoy in this funny and shiny reboot. The premise sees the cast playing fictionalized versions of themselves preparing to reboot the '90s teen drama that made them famous. Their willingness to poke fun at their images made for a great satire of celebrity culture. 9. The Great British Bake Off (Channel 4 in the UK, Netflix in the US) In its tenth year, this show is old news. Nothing new or surprising can be evinced from this format. So why on Earth did this season nearly bring me to tears multiple times? I don't have an explanation, I just know how it made me feel. Perhaps it had something to do with this crop of contestants, but the nicest reality competition there is made for some for most pleasant viewing experiences of the year.  8. Mrs. Fletcher (HBO) Based on the Tom Perrotta novel, Mrs. Fletcher charts...

If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of Hollywood execs hard at work at rebooting your favorite franchise. In an age where IP is more valuable than any movie star or original idea, everything from the past will eventually get slapped with a new coat of paint and trotted out once more for the consumption of modern audiences. This week's edition: Charlie's Angels . I'm not opposed to reboots and remakes in general, but when this reboot was announced, I couldn't help but give a vaguely melancholic shrug. It really cannot be overstated how much I loved the 2000 version and its 2003 sequel as a child. My obsession with those films led to countless viewings, a love for the original 1970s TV show, and a lifelong standom of Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz, and my all-time fav Drew Barrymore . If Hollywood so desperately wanted to squeeze new life out of this franchise, why not do a sequel to those movies and bring back Lucy, Cameron and Drew? I would have been first in line t...

When Hollywood stopped making big screen romantic comedies after the '00s, there was an entire group of actresses who were forced to pivot their careers to something else. Kate Hudson, Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston, Reese, and Drew Barrymore were all members of this group. Today's news that Drew Barrymore's daytime talk show has been picked up and will premiere in fall 2020 has got me thinking about the career choices these actresses have made since the death of their genre. Reese moved into prestige vehicles on the big screen and mainly on the small screen these days. Sandra Bullock appears in far fewer movies than she did fifteen years ago, but when she does pop up it's mostly in prestige fare. Cameron Diaz retired from acting entirely. Kate Hudson, well I already wrote a thing about what Kate Hudson did. Nearly all of these women have started lifestyle brands or companies, following in the footsteps of the Empress of Celebrity Lifestyle Brands, Gw...

THE 9TH ANNUAL TIMMYS TELEVISION AWARDS The Timmys annually honor the best in television from the past season. Here are the nominees from the 2018-19 television season (winners are in bold): Best Comedy Series: Dead to Me (Netflix) Schitt's Creek (POP) Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix) The Kids Are Alright (ABC) Fleabag (Amazon Prime) Best Drama Series: Killing Eve (BBC America) Succession (HBO) This Is Us (NBC) Homecoming (Amazon Prime) Good Girls (NBC) Best Actress in a Comedy Series: Phoebe Waller-Bridge - Fleabag Christina Applegate - Dead to Me Linda Cardellini - Dead to Me Drew Barrymore - Santa Clarita Diet Catherine O'Hara - Schitt's Creek Catherine Zeta Jones - Queen America Best Actor in a Comedy Series: Timothy Olyphant - Santa Clarita Diet Michael Douglas - The Kominsky Method Eugene Levy - Schitt's Creek Ted Danson - The Good Place William H. Macy - Shameless Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: A...

Film Review: Us There's a lot to be said about the new movie Us . Don't worry, I won't spoil anything about the plot, all you need to know is that it's a horror movie about a family who encounters it's doppelgängers . Us , Jordan Peele's follow-up to Get Out , is wacky and wild and sure to be polarizing. It has been five full years since Lupita Nyong'o won an Oscar and this is basically her first leading role in a movie. I find few things more frustrating than when Hollywood fails to capitalize on exciting talent. But thank god for Jordan Peele, who has given Nyong'o a doozy of a role, or double role rather, as the actors also play their doppelgängers. She inhabits the two characters, one a protective mother and the other a crazed killer, by changing her movements in ways that are strangely complimentary. It's thrilling to watch.  Nyong'o's screen presence has a commanding elegance that recalls the best of Old Hollywood stars. I'...

2019 Oscars Recap and Review  As I said in my Oscars preview , the biggest question of the night would be how the show would fare without a host for the first time in thirty years. Twitter seemed to think it fared very well, with many commenting on how smoothly the show went and some even hailing it as the best Oscar ceremony in years. However, I found it to be a little boring. Without a host, it lacked a certain energy. It just went from award to performance to award without much room to breathe. There weren't any big laughs or any cathartic moments. There were no montages or appearances that paid tribute to Hollywood history. Sure, it moved along at an efficient pace, but it felt business-like in a way. It's the Oscars, give us some pageantry! The show kicked off with a performance by Queen and Adam Lambert, because Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was up for several awards. That was a terrible idea. I understand that some people think Queen's music is good, but ...

2019 Oscar Preview and Predictions The conversation around this year's Oscars has been more focused on the show itself rather than who the winners will be. After the outcry from the film community over changes that the Academy planned to make the ceremony last only three hours, the Academy has capitulated on most of those issues. All 24 categories will be shown live on TV, last year's acting winners will return as presenters, and all nominated songs will be performed. But somehow the show will still be only three hours. [Side note: Why are the producers obsessed with getting the show to be three hours? Do they think it being long is contributing to declining ratings? Well, the ceremony hasn't clocked in at under three hours since 1972. The show's been long for a lot longer than ratings have been going down. So let the Oscars be long. They should be long - there's a lot to do!] Another aspect of this show that has been generating more buzz than the actual...

Top Ten Television Shows of 2018 10. Escape at Dannemora (Showtime) I wasn't planning on watching Escape at Dannemora, but I'm glad I did. We already knew that Ben Stiller was talented at directing more than just comedy (yes, I'm standing up for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)  and he certainly delivers with this 7+ hour miniseries about a 2015 prison break. The pace is deliberate, slow, and it's exactly what this kind of material needs. It features great performances by Benicio del Toro and Paul Dano as the inmates who escape and an unrecognizable Patricia Arquette as the woman who helps them.  9. Love Island (ITV2 in the UK, Hulu in the US) Reality shows rarely make my top ten list, but when one becomes as much of an international sensation as Love Island , my interest is piqued. The fourth series of the British dating competition show managed to do just that by being an utterly insane exaggeration of every dating trope there is. Trash TV at its finest! ...