Like those of a previous generation remembering November 22, 1963 or December 7, 1941, most of us alive today will never forget “where we were” that dark day ten years ago, when the world changed.
But TLC’s controversial All-American Muslim series rings in the New Year with a provocative new telecast (10pm Eastern and Pacific on   more

As we say goodbye to 2011, here’s FrumForum’s look back at the year in politics and popular culture — and the way the two keep intersecting year in and year out. It was the year when John Boehner replaced Nancy Pelosi as the House’s number one power broker — or so he wished. (With Eric   more

Last week, I took a (semi) objective look back at the 1990s nostalgia craze in our politics, from Democrats who remember the time with all the glory and majesty as the most ardent Fox Newsie remembers the Reagan ’80s, to Newt Gingrich’s comeback on the Republican side of the ledger.
Before I sign off for the   more

The holidays are always a time for nostalgia, and this year has seen a growing outbreak of nostalgia for one decade in particular. Democrats are ranking Bill Clinton (who left office ranked by most historians in the 25-30 range of our forty-odd Presidents) now tied with JFK (and well ahead of that Cold War “perpetrator” Truman, as Democrats of the Gore   more

As we noted last week, TLC recently premiered a multi-part documentary miniseries on the lives of All-American Muslims (airing Sunday nights at 10pm Eastern/Pacific), looking at the day-to-day lives of what is perhaps the last minority or religious group that its socially acceptable to (openly) demonize.  more

One of the things America loves (or just loves to hate), about its political leaders, are the schizophrenically Shakespearean levels some of them are able to approach in simultaneously doing so much good, and yet also so much harm. Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush are all major contestants   more

A new and very different kind of reality show that will be premiering this Sunday night at 10pm (ET/PT) on TLC–one that is perhaps the flip-side of Sarah Palin’s recent reality show–called All-American Muslim. (We’ll be giving the show a full review the week after next, Nov 18th, after we look at the new Clint Eastwood-directed J. Edgar.)  more

As I’ve noted here before, 2011 has seen many a milestone anniversary for some of the most iconic big screen and small screen achievements. Last December and January, Hill Street Blues, Dynasty, and Magnum PI blew out the candles on their 30th birthday cakes, while All in the Family and Masterpiece Theatre turned the big   more

For the next month, starting this Sunday, PBS takes a most interesting four-week look back at America in Primetime, a production of the late Peter Jennings’ Documentary Group, in association with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
The series appropriately coincides not only with many PBS station fundraisers, but more portentously with the infamous November “sweeps” period,   more

This week, Kevin Spacey and Stanley Tucci lead an all-star cast (including Demi Moore, Simon Baker, Paul Bettany, and Jeremy Irons, plus rising Star Trek newcomer Zachary Quinto) in the latest cinema exploration of The Day The Money Died, Margin Call.
Set over the course of a single day (clearly sometime between June and September of 2008),   more

This month, ten years after her death, author Brian Kellow published a big-buzz biography of the late cultural critic Pauline Kael. Her influence on films and books (and her famously outspoken political and pseudo-feminist views) is worthy of a column in and of itself.
But what fascinated me and many other critics to start with was that   more

One of the things that most interested me about the previews and articles on George Clooney’s latest (and very politically-themed and high-quality) directorial effort, The Ides of March, was that Clooney acquired the rights to the source material in late 2008, but held off on it for well over a year, because he felt it was too   more

This month, Michael Moore has unleashed his latest on left and right alike, a memoir of the early years that shaped him in his beloved Flint Michigan, along with his remarkable and colorful family, aptly titled Here Comes Trouble. Ironically, it’s a book which explains more than Moore – it may explain the entire battle currently   more

The year 2011 has marked the milestone anniversaries of several of the most important movies and TV shows of all time. Citizen Kane turns 70 this year, and back in January, Hill Street Blues, Magnum PI, and Dynasty had their 30th birthdays. And we already celebrated All in the Family’s 40th at the time.
But while it never equaled (or tried to equal)   more

In 1970, Roger Ebert called his and Russ Meyer’s quintessential sexploitation comedy Beyond the Valley of the Dolls a “horror comedy satire”. Add the adjectives “political” and “religious”, and the same thing can be said of Kevin Smith’s latest black comedy, Red State, where the smoke of the culture wars turn lethal and real.  more

For the last 10 years, I’ve never missed a 9/11 documentary on National Geographic or The History Channel or TLC. I rewatch MSNBC’s replay of the September 11, 2001 Today Show each year. Because September 11th is my birthday.
The year that 9/11 concluded, my 2000-2001 year, is still a strong contender for the Year That Changed   more

In 1990’s Aaron Sorkin calling card A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson’s gung-ho general bellows a line guaranteed to live in celluloid infamy: “You can’t handle the truth!!!” And its the central question raised by that statement which animates director John Madden’s English-language adaptation of the 2007 Israeli film Ha-Hov, which translates roughly to The Debt.  more

Premiering at June’s LA Film Festival, top-notch character actress Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut hits the big screens (and arthouses) this week.
It’s the story of a shy, curious-about-the-world, and intellectual woman (Farmiga) in the 1970s and ’80s (the height of the Religious Right’s ascent), raised by disinterested parents and with a wildcat sister, who   more

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the FCC has announced that “the controversial Fairness Doctrine and 82 other rules governing media” will be officially obsoleted this month.  Paul Bond of HR notes that “FCC Chair Julius Genachowski called the rules ‘outdated’, and said they were being removed to lessen the burdens of regulation on media companies.”  more

Appropriately, during the week of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, on September 7th, FX burns down the house after seven years and eight seasons of Denis Leary’s incendiary firehouse drama, Rescue Me.   more