'Close Enough': TV Review

Maggie Lee Chief Asia Film CriticImagine a Japanese version of “Pygmalion” in which the sculptor continues to caress slabs of marble even after Galatea has come to life. That is the unusual premise of “Romance Doll,” a marital drama in which a sex doll maker’s rapt obssession with his new prototype, leads to rejection of his human muse.

I must have listened to at least 20 episodes of The Blindboy Podcast while I played through Ghost Of Tsushima. As the Irish satirist thoughtfully talked me through topics orbiting mindfulness, art history and philosophy, I’d sink further into my sofa, DualShock in my palms, writing haikus in front of waterfalls, reflecting in hot springs and brushing silently through Pampas fields to dispatch of renegade Ronin.I vividly remember trading Sashimono Banners for saddles in Komatsu Forge while listening to my first Joe Frank radio show, its surreal notes grounded into memory in my brain by Tsushima’s gorgeous feudal vistas.

Jessica Kiang Less interesting subjects than Olympia Dukakis have been profiled in more compelling documentaries than Harry Mavromichalis’ “Olympia,” a fervently admiring but scattered and sometimes scatty portrait of a woman who is anything but.

An under-the-radar indie science fiction film whose mix of accessible themes and strong execution make it worthy of broader exposure, Gavin Rothery's Archive watches as a robot designer tries to exploit his job with a megacorporation for a very personal goal: He wants to build a robot shell for the computer-archived memories and personality of his dead wife. The feature writing/directing debut for a man whose history is in art departments, it should be no surprise that the pic looks wonderful, with distinctive design and lush settings; but Rothery also fares well with the human element, helped by a mature lead performance by Theo James, best known for the YA Divergent franchise.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticA cigar is never just a cigar where Sigmund Freud is concerned. The father of psychoanalysis serves as a supporting character in “The Tobacconist” — and none other than the great Bruno Ganz embodies the iconic smoker, making this one of the German actor’s last (and least bombastic) performances.Ganz, whom many will recognize from his role as Adolf Hitler in “Downfall,” now plays one of the Führer’s many victims, a Jewish-born atheist forced to flee his comfortable Viennese home during the Anschluss of 1938, when Germany annexed Austria and occupied its capital, meeting with enthusiastic support from National Socialists and anti-Semites who agreed with his policies.

"I didn't have any goals; I just went where the winds of curiosity blew me." So says Diana Kennedy, a groundbreaking authority on Mexican cooking, in Elizabeth Carroll's intimate portrait. On the superficial face of it, those words might sound disingenuous, but they go to the heart of Kennedy's unconventionality and lifelong pursuit of authenticity.

Who knew that sidewalk chalk art could be so magical?

Many of us will have gone into lockdown with grand notions of taking up a new hobby.

A documentary built around previously unheard audiotaped interviews with Stanley Kubrick captures a director who didn't like to talk about his films...talking about his films.

Kieran Tierney is already the star defender in Mikel Arteta's Arsenal side. The Scotland international arrived in the summer for a cool £25m but injury has curtailed his impact until now.

When Roseanne returned to the airwaves in 2018, the ABC sitcom was as attuned as ever to the financial struggles of working-class Americans. During its original run, from 1988 to 1997, the series was widely lauded for grappling with the strapped resources of a family like the Conners.

Live With Kelly And Ryan has a new producer.Kelly Ripa revealed her son Michael Consuelos, 22, had been helping her behind-the-scenes as she films her talk show from home.'He's been producing my end of this show,' Kelly, 49, told co-host Ryan Seacrest on Wednesday. 'So he really is sort of working while he's finishing because he's set to "graduate" from college…but I said to him, "Well, look at you.

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Call it Zoom Theater, and call it terrific.

Seen from a godlike perch, the stop-and-start romance that drives the new Hulu drama Normal People can seem like a cosmic joke. Against all odds, two soulmates find each other in high school, have toe-curling sex every day for several months, get into and attend the same selective college, end up in roughly the same social circles … and constantly break up, sometimes purely by accident.

[Note: In the wake ofthe Tribeca festival's postponement this year,The Hollywood Reporteris reviewing select fest entries that elected to premiere digitally for critics.] Whether the Storage Wars crew would have recognized the value of a box of letters discovered in a Los Angeles storage unit in 2014 is open to debate. But it's a good thing that directors Michael Seligman and Jennifer Tiexiera did.

Angus MacFadyen returns to the embattled King of Scotland role he played in 'Braveheart,' only this time the movie is all heart and no spine: a medieval historical drama that mostly just sits there.

Almost a century before the recent, wildly popular Hilma af Klint retrospective at New York's Guggenheim, the Swedish artist imagined a spiraling white temple, not unlike that Manhattan landmark, as the home for her paintings. Most of what she envisioned for her art was denied her during her lifetime, but af Klint, ever prescient and prolific, understood her work's power and importance and, planning for posterity, she managed, in a way, to have the last laugh.

[Note: In the wake ofthe Tribeca festival's postponement this year,The Hollywood Reporteris reviewing select entries that elected to premiere digitally.] It's fitting that Wake Up on Mars opens in winter. The frozen Swedish landscape is an apt backdrop for this real-life tale of suspended animation: Two teenage sisters, in side-by-side beds, lie in a coma-like condition that's variously known as uppgivenhetssyndrom, apatisk (apathy) syndrome and resignation syndrome.

A somber drama built on the idea that a small town is no place to try keeping secrets, Scott Teems' The Quarry pits a Texas police chief (Michael Shannon) against a newly arrived preacher (Shea Whigham) who isn't who he claims to be. Catalina Sandino Moreno and Bobby Soto round out a very fine cast; but sensitive performances only go so far toward generating sparks in the slow-moving film, which never becomes the crime-and-punishment nail-biter it might've been.

Postmates & Shake Shack will deliver free burgers to music fans celebrating #Couchella this weekend, which would've been the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert, the new YouTube Originals documentary released today (April 10) that takes festivalgoers back to when and where it all began, will sustain their love for music. But the nearly two-hour documentary can't nourish them like the food vendors on the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif.