Monthly Archives: October 2025

Oct 31 2025
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Books, DVDs, Movies, Music, Photography, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to watch, and more! Oct. 31 – Nov. 6

A ‘Halloween’ marathon, the return of Robin Hood & how Harry Chapin’s ‘Cat’s in the Cradle‘ touched just about everyone

FRIDAY, Oct. 31
Halloween on Halloween
Happy Halloween! How better to celebrate than with this marathon of Halloween movies, starting with the original and continuing through its five sequels! (Begins 6:30, AMC).

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Marathon
Tune in for a full day (well, 17 hours) of spook-tacular stuff in this 11th annual event featuring the characters from TV’s longest running comedy series—and a parade of alien invasions, horror film parodies and frights bigger than Homer’s donut cravings (starts 7 a.m., FXX).

SATURDAY, Nov. 1
Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood
In 1900s Munich, an ambitious brewer uses brutal tactics to build a beer hall that will dominate the city’s lucrative Oktoberfest event (Netflix).

SUNDAY, Nov. 2
Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking
Actors James and Oliver Phelps (who played Fred and George Weasley) return for season two of the six-episode competition built around the enduring fantasy franchise, with appearances by other cast members sharing their memories about working on the films (8p.m., Food Network).

Robin Hood
Welcome to Sherwood! The new reimagined 10-episode series—based on the classic tale of the roguish outlaw hero who stole from the rich and gave to the poor—stars Jack Patten, Lauren McQueen, Sean Bean and Connie Nielsen (MGM+). 

MONDAY, Nov. 3
Malice
Jack Whitehall and David Duchovny star in this new twisty psychological revenge thriller about an extended family vacation in Greece that takes a very wrong turn (Prime Video).

Life After
Film investigates assisted dying when death seems like the only option (10 p.m., PBS)

Crutch
This new comedy series set in the world of CBS’ The Neighborhood stars Tracy Morgan as a Harlem shop owner whose life gets tossed a curve ball when his son and daughter move back home (Paramount+).

TUESDAY, Nov. 4
All’s Fair
Watch the first three episodes of this new series (above) about a team of female divorce attorneys who leave their male-dominated firm to open their own powerhouse practice. Starring Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts, Sarah Paulson and Glenn Close (Hulu).

Cat’s in the Cradle is a fine music doc about Harry Chapin’s heart-wrenching ode to parenthood and how it impacted an entire generation of music makers who heard it, including Pat Benatar, Billy Joel and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister (check streaming services).

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 5
Operation Space Station
Celebrate the 25th anniversary of the continuous human presence in space with this doc all about the International Space Station—an object the size of a football field orbiting the Earth at 17,000 mpg—and the technology and people power that made it possible (9 p.m., PBS).

Finding Joy
An unlucky-in-love New York fashion designer (Shannon Thornton) finds her romantic life is change with some Colorado holiday magic (Prime Video).

THURSDAY, Nov. 6
Wicked: One Wonderful Night
Ahead of the much-anticipated theatrical part two of the smash film musical on Nov. 21, you can gear up with this two-hour special featuring stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, joined by their costars and other guests as they perform songs from the first movie…and throw in some bewitching surprises (8 p.m., NBC).

All Her Fault
Sarah Snook stars in this new drama (above) about a mom who experiences every parent’s worst nightmare in a play-date mix-up with her son. The ensemble cast features Jake Lacy, Dakota Fanning and Michael Peña (Peacock).

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It’s beginning to look—and sound—a lot like Christmas! Especially with the Classic Holiday Singles Box Set (Universal Music), which corrals 28 holiday tunes from classic crooners (Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Brenda Lee, Elvis and The Beach Boys, to cite a handful) on 14 color vinyl 7” 45s. Settle in for some spins of this retro Yule treat!

Vroom! The Cars celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of their biggest, quadruple-platinum albums with Heartbeat City (Deluxe Edition), a 4-CD/1 LP set that contains hits like “Magic,” “Drive,” “YouMight Think” and “Hello Again,” plus rare cuts and a complete 1984 concert. As The Cars themselves once told us in song, “Let’s go!” (Rhino).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

How much do you know about the Japanese animation form known as anime? Well, you’ll know a lot more after reading Ultimate Anime: 100 Essential Films and Series (Thames & Hudson). Author Joe O’Connell breaks down the format with wide-ranging explorations on its creators, genres and cultural influence, in this visually rich spotlight.

Rock fans, you’ll dig The Royal We (Akashic Books), the memoir from Roddy Bottum—who co-founded the bands Faith No More and Imperial Teens—about his early career in the freewheeling punk scene of San Francisco to his mainstream breakthrough as an outwardly queer man in a homophobic hard rock scene. Plus, his intersections with Courtney Love and Robert Plant, and opening for Metallica. 

In The Far Edges of the Known World (W.W. Norton), author Owen Rees takes us down a time tunnel, centuries ago, to when dwellers all over the ancient world thought the edges of their cultures marked the harsh boundaries between civilization and a realm of monsters, heathens and myths. It’s a fascinating journey across the globe—and a chance to get to know the people who actually called the distant hinterlands home.

You’ll be humming “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and a lot of other tunes too, when you read The Music of Baseball (McFarland), author George Boziwick’s spritely look at how the soundtrack of “America’s Pastime” has evolved throughout a century of wars, social upheaval, racial integration and a move to the west Coast.

Dig into the history behind some of Hollywood’s most iconic horror and sci-fi classics in Creature Feature Creators (McFarland), author Tom Weaver’s wide-ranging spotlight on filmmakers, actors, special-effects artists and other who worked on all sorts of scary movies from the 1940s through the ‘70s. 

Read—or read again—the only full story of the Beatles, as told and written by the Beatles, in this splendid 25th anniversary edition of The Beatles Anthology, which traces the lives of the lads from Liverpool through childhood through their superstar career paths. And it’s loaded with rare pics, handwritten notes, set lists and more. It’s a Beatles bonanza! (Chronicle Books).

Paul McCartney himself (and a bunch of his friends!) tell how they became one of the world’s most successful bands in Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run (Liveright, W.W. Norton). It’s a first-person record of the record-setting group, their treks across America and their success across the decades, with insights from Linda McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, producer George Martin and many more—like supermodel Twiggy, actor Dustin Hoffman and Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde.

BRING IT HOME

The critically hailed East of Wall (Sony Pictures Classic) is now available on DVD. It’s about a young, rebellious horse trader (Tabitha Zimiga) in South Dakota struggling after the death of her husband with grief and financial insecurity, all while caring for a group of wayward teens on her broken-down Badlands ranch.

Oct 24 2025
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Books, DVDs, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Sports, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to watch, and more! Week of Oct. 24 – Oct. 30

A classic reimagined, a house of dynamite & Stephen King’s ‘It’ makes a comeback

Tessa Thompson stars in a new, modern version of ‘Hedda.’

FRIDAY, Oct. 24
A House of Dynamite
When a missile is fired at the United States, the gut-wrenching race begins for who to blame and how to respond. Timely drama is directed by Katheryn (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) Bigelow, and stars Iris Elba as the U.S. President (Netflix).

Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost
Documentary looks at the family of comedy icons Jerry Stiller and wife Anne Meara, whose son—actor and director Ben Stiller—also directed the doc (Apple TV+).

SATURDAY, Oct. 25
Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper!
It wouldn’t be Christmas season without a(nother) Hallmark movie, and this one has Robert Buckley and Kimberley Sustand in a tale of a Yuletide reunion with an old classmate (8 p.m., Hallmark).

Mayor of Kingstown
Jeremy Renner and Edie Falco return to their roles for season four’s kickoff tonight, as new players compete to fill the power vacuum left in the Russians’ wake (Paramount+).

SUNDAY, Oct. 26
Anne Rice’s Talamasca: The Secret Order
The latest series based on a novel by the literary author-queen of the undead stars Delainey Hayles, Jennifer Ehle and Ella Ballentine in another fangs-n-all tale of a secretive society trying to contain all the witches, vampires and other creatures lurking around the world (9 p.m., AMC)

Witches: Truth Behind the Trials
Learn what really happened at the infamous Salem witch trials and other incidents where people (mostly poor women, elderly, indigenous or disabled) were accused, and executed, for witchcraft  (6 p.m., National Geographic).

It: Welcome to Derry
Just in time for Halloween, this spinoff drama set in the world of Stephen King’s killer-clown universe expands the story set down in the two It theatrical films (9 p.m., HBO).

MONDAY, Oct. 27
Kissinger
Two-part, three-hour film explores the enigmatic power broker Henry Kissenger, who served in the topmost echelons of American foreign policy under six presidents, Democrats and Republicans, with equal dedication (9 p.m., PBS).

TUESDAY, Oct. 28
Don’t Date Brandon
True-crime docuseries follows a modern online romance that spirals into a dangerous game of deception, lies and secrets exposed on a podcast (Paramount+). 

Hunted by My Husband: The Untold Story of the DC Sniper
Aligned with Domestic Awareness Month, this drama reveals the story of the man known as the D.C. Sniper—and the horrific domestic drama that preceded his murderous rampage (9 p.m., ID).

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 29
Hedda
Reimagining of Henrick Ibsen’s classic play stars Tessa Thompson as a woman torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. But all that changes during one long, charged night as hidden desires erupt in spiral of manipulation, passion and betrayal (Prime Video).

Down Cemetery Road
New thriller series stars Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson (above) in a tale of a conspiracy that reveals people long believed dead back among the living, and the living fast joining the dead (Apple TV+).

Ballad of a Small Player
When his past and his debts start to catch up with him, a high-stakes gambler laying low encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation (below). Starring Colin Farrell (below), Fala Chen and Tilda Swinton (Netflix).

THURSDAY, Oct. 30
Sorry, Baby
Something bad happens to Agnes (Eva Victor, who also wrote and directed). But life goes on…for everyone around her, at least. How can she move forward? (8 p.m., HBO).

Jurassic World Rebirth
The latest in the Jurassic movie franchise stars Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey in a tale of a team on a mission to extract dino DNA from a long-abandoned island research facility…now overrun with dinos! (Peacock).

NOW HEAR THIS

Bon Jovi gathered a bunch of friends for the band’s new Forever (Legendary Edition) album, a “reimaging” of its 2024 studio album with a big load o’ guest stars for vocal collaborations on its 14 tracks—including Bruce Springsteen, Jason Isbell, Lainey Wilson, Avril Lavigne and Robbie Williams. But the kickoff tune, “Red, White and Jersey,” is all Bon Jovi, appropriately enough for the band now spanning three decades, still flying its New Jersey flag high and proud.

Let’s hear it for Vince Gill, who just signed a lifetime recording contact with MCA Records, his longtime label home, and his plans to release a new EP of music every month for a year. The first, 50 Years From Home: I Gave You Everything I Had, includes six all-new songs plus his classic ode to peaceful afterlife “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” recently certified double Platinum for sales of two million. Way to go, Vinny! (Digital only)

A rock ‘n’ roll classic turns the big 5-0 with the new re-release of Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, Elton John‘s smash-hit breakthrough 1975 album that he wrote while taking a leisurely cruise. Newly released on CD and LP, with bonus live-performance tracks, it’s a concept album about how Elton (Captain Fantastic) and musical collaborator Bernie Taupin (the Brown Dirt Cowboy) struggled in their early years, and features the hit ballad “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Remember the ‘90s? Author Henry Carroll sure does, in The 1990s: A Visual History of the Decade (Thames & Hudson), a collection of the culture, it’s people and its impact, from reality TV to the O.J. trial, crop circles, conspiracy theories, hip-hop, the Spice Girls and supermodels, the beginning of the Internet. As they used to say back then, it’s rad, phat, dope and righteous!

How did football get to be the sports juggernaut it is today? You’ll find out in Every Day is Sunday (Grand Central Publishing) by NFL reporter Ken Gelson, about how over the past three decades, Jerry Jones, as president of the Dallas Cowboys, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodall and Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, reshaped the game into much, much more than just a game.

If you loved his songs (and a lot of folks did), you’ll enjoy curling up with Living in the Present with John Prine (W.W. Norton), author Tom Piazza’s touching and insightful first-person account—which sprouted from an assignment Piazza was doing for Oxford American magazine and blossomed into several story-filled cross-country road trips. Enjoy this vivid snapshot of the last two years in the life of the pop-cultural icon whose musical musings gave us “Angel From Montgomery,” “Sam Stone,” “Paradise” and “Hello,” among many other gems.

We may think of “criminal profiling” as something modern and new-ish, but in The Monsters We Make (W.W. Norton), author Rachel Corbett traces the practice—of studying the people behind heinous crimes and what makes them tick—back to the Victorian Period. Then she takes us on a true-crime narrative across the centuries, from Jack the Ripper to Adolph Hitler, Ted Bundy and many more case where psychologists tried to unravel crimes…from inside the minds of the perpetrators.

Laugh again—and learn things you didn’t know—with The Pink Panther: A Complete History. Author Howard Maxford puts together the story of the iconic Peter Sellers franchise, which stretched across 11 films, with interviews from director Blake Edwards, co-stars and others. And learn about the darker side of the leading man, and what led Sellers and director Edwards to agree they’d never work together again.

BRING IT HOME

Fly back to the ‘70s with Airport: The Complete 4-Film Collection (Kino Larber), with all four of the star-packed “disaster” movies of the air, starting with the 1970 original and continuing through three big-screen sequels. How popular were these flicks back in the day? Well, almost all of Hollywood wanted a seat on these imperiled flights. You’ll see Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Helen Hayes, James Stewart, Christopher Lee, George Kennedy, Susan Blakley, Eddie Albert, Charo and many, many more.  

A heartwarming flick about a group of miscreant kids who turn out be perfectly in tune with the true spirit of the season, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Lionsgate) stars Judy Greer, Pete Holmes and Lauren Graham.

You’ll laugh until you turn blue with Smurfs (Alliance Home Entertainment), a family-friendly romp as Papa Smurf is taken away by a couple of evil wizards and Smurfette (voiced by pop star Rihanna) heads out to save him. Other voices by James Corden, Nick Offerman, Daniel Levy, Nick Kroll and many others. 

Riz Ahmed, Sam Worthington and Lily James star in Relay (Alliance Home Entertainment), about the repercussions when a corporate whistle-blower changes her mind about exposing some big-business secrets. If you missed it last year in the theater, catch it on Blu-ray. It’s from director David McKenzie, who also gave us the excellent Hell or High Water.

Miley Cyrus, Sidney Sweeney and Paul Walter Hauser star in Americana ( Lionsgate), a modern-day Western drama about a group of characters in a small South Dakota town who clash over possession of a rare Native American artifact. And then things get really messy.

Oh, the horror! The special 3-disc collector’s edition of A24’s The X-Trilogy has all three of director Ty West‘s “tributes” to ’70s slasher films. X, Pearl and Maxxxine all starred Mia Goth as a female serial killer—who leaves the slasher life behind (or so she thinks) to become a Hollywood porn performer. The set also includes a 64-page booklet, more than 90 minutes of extras, and crew commentary on all three movies. It’s terrifyingly good.

Oct 22 2025
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Movie Reviews

Movie Review: “Frankenstein”

Guillermo del Toro puts a potent new spin on the iconic tale of the man who made a monster

Frankenstein
Starring Oscar Issac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Rated R

In theaters Oct. 24, on Netflix Nov. 7

With a walloping flourish of fresh Hollywood talent, some powerful filmmaking mojo and a potent message about life itself, a classic movie monster is spectacularly revived, once again, for the screen.  

You know the age-old story: A mad scientist, Victor Frankenstein, creates a living creature from a dead human body. And things do not go well.

Director Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein hinges on the ethical questions at the root of the tale, based on Mary Shelley’s seminal 1818 novel: Is the real monster the creature or the “devil” who created him? And just because you can do something, should you do it? You might recall that Shelley’s story was subtitled The Modern Prometheus, referring to the Greek titan who stole fire from the gods—and suffered the consequences for eternity.

Del Toro also goes back to Shelley’s original narrative for much of his new staging of the tale, deviating somewhat from the seminal 1931 film starring Boris Karloff as the creature. Inventively, he breaks the movie into two parts, telling the story in reverse, first from Victor’s perspective and then from that of the creature.  

Mia Goth as Elizabeth

The cast is top-notch. Oscar Issac (Ex Machina, A Most Violent Year, Inside Llewyn Davis) plays Victor, driven to control the powers of life and death.  Mia Goth (Pearl, X) is Elizabeth, whose shifting affections become a significant plot driver. Christoph Waltz (D’jango Unchained, Inglourious Basterds) plays Victor’s scheming German benefactor, pouring profits from the Crimean War into Baron Frankenstein’s perverse experiments.

But the real star of the show is Jacob Elordi (Nate Jacobs on HBO’s Euphoria, and Elvis in Priscilla) as the unnamed creature, a stitched-together cadaver from the battlefield brought back to life by a jolt of lightning in Victor’s lab. A magnificent, hulking patchwork of scarred flesh and long, matted hair, he’s one hella hunka-hunka sexy uber-beast. You could easily picture him as an ‘80s rock star.

We see not only how Victor and his creature came to be, but also how the creature learns to speak, to feel and to hurt—and know that he will always be loathed, outcast and hunted. He eventually begins to long for companionship (Bride of Frankenstein, there’s your cue!). A side effect of Victor’s experiment gave his “monster” the ability to regenerate, for his body to heal after injuries, and impossible to kill—and therefore unable to find relief from his loneliness and yearning through the release of death.

It’s Elordi’s creature who gives this monster movie its beauty, and its tender, beating, aching heart.

It all fits perfectly into del Toro’s directorial wheelhouse, which has often swirled with hyper-visual elements from fairytales, mysticism and Gothic horror (as in The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth and a live-action remake of Pinocchio). His Frankenstein is monstrously majestic, with immense sets and grandly detailed, baroque embellishments…and eternal existential questions.

It’s a “monster movie,” of course, but it’s also a cautionary tale, a parable about the responsibilities of bringing a new life into the world, through natural procreation or otherwise—and how Victor Frankenstein was, in effect, father to an unnaturally made, highly unconventional “son” that he came to fear and despise. And we understand what Victor’s brother (Felix Krammerer) means when he tells him, “You’re the real monster.”

Mary Shelley’s “beast” has been one of the most popular and widely known movie monsters ever, appearing in more than 400 films and spinoffs. Appropriately, del Toro’s Frankenstein ends with a quote from the English poet George Gordon Byron: “And the heart will break, but brokenly live on.” With this impressive retooling, the epic, time-honored tale of Mary Shelly—and its messages about men and monsters, and playing God—lives on, in gloriously grand fashion. And it may just break your heart.

—Neil Pond

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Oct 17 2025
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Books, DVDs, History, Movies, Music, Photography, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to watch, and more! Oct. 17 – Oct. 23

A new ‘Sheriff’ comes to town, country music hits ‘The Road’ and Charlie Brown re-discovers the Great Pumpkin!

Morena Baccarin stars in ‘Sheriff Country.’

FRIDAY, Oct. 17
Mr. Scorsese
Documentary explores the life, career and movie masterpieces of the acclaimed filmmaker, whose decade-spanning works include Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and The Last Temptation of Christ (Apple TV+).

Sheriff Country
Fire Country spinoff stars Morena Baccarin as a straight-shootin’ sheriff in California balancing crime fighting, competition for her job and motherhood (9 p.m., CBS).

SATURDAY, Oct. 18
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
It’s time again for the timeless adventure as Charlie Brown preps for a party, Snoopy sets his sights on the Red Baron and Linus awaits a pumpkin patch miracle (Apple TV+).

Anything But Gray|
New Southern-fried series follows designer Gray Benko as she transforms homes in Charleston, S.C., to bring out their character through color, whimsy and imaginative touches (1 p.m., Magnolia Network).

SUNDAY, Oct. 19
The Road
New singing competition is hosted by country stars Keith Urban, Blake Shelton and Gretchen Wilson (9 p.m., CBS).

Hal & Carter
Lili Reinhart, Betty Gilpin and Mark Ruffalo star in this drama about siblings whose closeness is both a blessing and a curse of co-dependence (Mubi).

MONDAY, Oct. 20
Ratified
Explore the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) through Virginia’s pivotal ratification battle led by Black women and a multi-racial, multi-generational coalition, which enshrined gender equality in America nearly a century after it was proposed (10 p.m., PBS).

Summertide
Drama about a marine biologist (Frank Rautenbach) who loses his wife to tragedy and moves with his rebellious teens back to his childhood home to begin again. But can the calm coastal waters hide the painful secrets roiling just beneath their surface? (Acorn TV).

TUESDAY, Oct. 21
Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Documentary about the first American journalist to die while reporting on the war in Ukraine, and how the Arkansas native covered some of the world’s most dangerous conflicts (9 p.m., HBO).

The Rise of RFK Jr.
Learn about the dramatic and controversial rise of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and how this son of a storied dynasty broke with the Democratic party and his family, stoked conspiracy theories and is now reshaping government and public health as the U.S. secretary of health (10 p.m., PBS).

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 22
Riot Women
Joana Scanlan, Rosalie Craig and Tamsin Greig star in this episodic drama about menopausal British women who form a punk band to enter a talent contest, but then find out they have a lot more to shout about than they imagined (BritBox).

Lazarus
Sam Clafin and Bill Nighy star in this new series about a man who becomes entangled in the mysteries surrounding the deaths of two family members (Prime).

THURSDAY, Oct. 23
Nobody Wants This
Season two begins of the romcom about a gentile podcaster (Kristen Bell) who falls in love with a Jewish rabbi (Adam Brody) (Netflix).

The Red King
New series about a police sergeant (Anjli Mohindra) reassigned to an isolated island with an eerie past, strange rituals and unexplained deaths (AMC+).

NOW HEAR THIS

You know her as lead singer of The Pretenders. Now Chrissy Hyde is singing a new tune, and she’s got a bunch of musical friends with her. On Duets Special (Rhino), her fourth album under her own name, she’s harmonizing with k.d. lang, Blondie’s Deborah Harry, Julian Lennon, Lucinda Williams, Rufus Wainwright and more in 13 stripped-down arrangements with minimal instrumentation on tunes like “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration,” “It’s Only Love,” “Always on my Mind” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

How kool is this? Re-live all the smooth funky groovery of Kool & The Gang on the new reissue of the band’s Greatest Hits (Umusic), available on limited-edition vinyl as well as CD. You’ll get “Jungle Boogie,” “Hollywood Swinging,” “Ladies Night,” “Too Hot,” “Celebration,” “Get Down On It” and more!

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Find out all sorts of inventive do-ers in Lives of the Great Makers (Thames & Hudson), with 40 biographies of people like furniture magnate Thomas Chippendale, painters and glass artists, goldsmiths, sculptors, designers and many more men and women who’ve made our world a better place through the craftiness of their hands. It’s a testament to the creativity and artistry all around us.

How do Bob Dylan’s song lyrics reveal his story? If the answer, my friend, isn’t “Blowin’ in the Wind,” you may find it in Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed (Melville House). Read as former Village Voice reporter Ron Rosenbaum takes an intriguing dive into the life of the enigmatic, shape-shifting Nobel-Prize-winning music-maker via the words of his songs, tracing his trajectory from hippie folkster to Greenwich Village cultural revolutionary, countrified crooner and proselytizing Christian.

In Wild Ocean, acclaimed wildlife photogs Peter and Beverly Pickford highlight the eye-popping, pristine beauties of our planet’s seas, inhabitants and coastal areas, at a time when overfishing, pollution and global warming have plunged their futures into question. (Thames & Hudson)

Named Vogue Living‘s Designer of the Year in 2024 and recognized by Architectural Digest (Germany) as one of the world’s true design influencers, author Fiona Lynch is renowned for her mastery of mood. Her bold style and intuitive ideas are on full display in Material Wonder (Thames & Hudson), a stunningly illustrated book in which she explores new materials and techniques for her brand of “spirited minimalism” to make spaces look like…well, like they should be in a book!

Curb Your Enthusiasm fans will love No Lessons Learned (Black Dog & Leventhal), with first-person interviews from cast members (Larry David, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Garlin, Richard Lewis and many more), directors, producers and others (guests like Jerry Seinfeld, Richard Kind and Ben Stiller) who helped make it a huge hit on its HBO run, all the way back to 2000.  Plus it’s packed with plot outlines, scripts, sketches, quotes and gads of never-before-seen behind-the-scenes pics.

Can you name the Black family who founded one of the country’s most durable construction dynasties?  You’ll find the answer in The Black Family Who Built America (Black Privilege Publishing), about Moses McKissak, a former slave who became an exceptional craftsman and launched a family business now its fifth generation.  It’s written by Cheryl MicKissack, a fifth-generation descendant of Moses who now leads the company.

Perfect bedtime reading the Halloween season, The Screen Chills Companion (McFarland) by Chris Fellner is a treasure trove for fans of scary movies during Hollywood’s “second wave” of horror in the 1940s, when monsters (Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, Dracula, the Wolf Man and more) were spawning all sorts of movie sequels.

BRING IT HOME

Re-bask in the opulence and intrigue of a bygone New York in The Guilded Age: The Complete Third Season (Warner Bros. Discovery), with all eight episodes of the HBO period drama starring Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin.

If you’re of an, ahem, certain age, you might remember Shari Lewis, the Peabody Award-winning ventriloquist, puppeteer and TV show host. Shari and Lamb Chop (kinolarber.com) tells her wide-ranging story—and how she created a puppet, Lamb Chop, for TV’s Captain Kangaroo in the mid-1950s, then parlayed that into success as a well-known children’s-TV icon through the decades to come.

Tom Cruise is back, baby, in Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (Paramount), starring again as special agent Ethan Hunt in all kinds of perilous spy stuff, including escaping from a sunken submarine and hanging outside a biplane. Oh yeah, and trying to save the world! All in a day’s work!

Oct 15 2025
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Movie Reviews

Movie Review: ‘Black Phone 2’

Scattershot sequel to the 2021 horror hit feels like a movie misfire

Black Phone 2
Starring Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeline McGraw & Jeremy Davies
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Rated R

In theaters Friday, Oct. 17

Ever since Lazurus, we’ve been fascinated with people who come back from the dead. Ethan Hawke pulls off his own resurrection trick in this gritty sequel to the 2021 horror hit in which his character was killed off in a climactic confrontation by the young teen he’d kidnapped and tormented.

In Black Phone 2, set four years later, Hawke’s creepy “Grabber”—so named because he snatched victims off the street and sweeps them away in his black van—haunts the dreams of the younger sister of the boy who ended his reign of neighborhood terror. Then those dreams become living nightmares.

The gang’s all here from the first film. Mason Thames (from the recent How to Train Your Dragon remake) is Finny, the only known survivor of the Grabber’s basement of horrors. Madeline McGraw (from Disney’s Secrets of Sulphur Springs) returns as his sis, Gwen, now haunted by nighttime visions of the Grabber, his deeds and his victims. Jeremy Davies is back as their father, battling alcoholism and his own traumatic past.

But this time around, it’s all about the ghostly Grabber being set on revenge by sinking his sinister hooks—or his hatchet—into Gwen.

There’s blood and visceral goop and terrible stuff going down, but not a whole lot of bone-chilling scares or shocks. And right off the bat, we know the Grabber is dead, right? The sequel is set in 1978, back when there were still wall-mounted telephones and payphone booths. Gwen’s dreams are shot in a way that looks, appropriately enough, like grainy, 8mm home movies. And a ringing phone likely means someone from the “other side,” or the Grabber himself, wants to talk. There’s a remote Colorado winter youth camp, a blinding snowstorm, and a group of mutilated kids killed by the Grabber, entombed under the ice of a frozen lake, their lost young souls crying out for eternal rest.

And Hawke gets star billing, but he spends almost the entirety of the movie hidden behind the grinning devil mask that became the Grabber’s must-have accoutrement. Oh, the masked Grabber also ice skates, in a finale that suggests ax hockey might be hell’s most popular pastime.

The original Black Phone was a big box-office success. But maybe it was best just to let it rest in peace, rather than bring it back with a story that feels like a strained hodgepodge of horror-show cliches and stereotypes—the snowstorm, zombie-ghost children, a lakeside camp, a young woman accused of being “possessed,” bad dreams that bleed into reality. It’s like The Shining, Friday the 13th, The Walking Dead and Carrie all showed up in A Nightmare on Elm Street and took a Wrong Turn into The Exorcist before heading to an Ice Capades show.

And it also gets sidetracked by what seems to be an unfocused obsession with religion, with lots of scenes showing crosses and Bibles, recited lines of Scripture, and a foul-mouthed spew of venom at overly pious Christians. Most of the story is set in a Christian youth camp. But it never connects faith to the rest of the narrative.

“O death, where is thy sting?” Gwen asks the Grabber at one point, quoting the New Testament’s book of 1 Corinthians.

Fans of the first Black Phone might be asking the same question about this scattershot sequel with little of its predecessor’s sting. Where is the monstrous mojo of a phone call from beyond the grave? As creepshows about phone booths go, this one feels like a misdial.

—Neil Pond

Oct 14 2025
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Movie Reviews

Movie Review: “After the Hunt”

Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield star in this heady sexual-accusation psychodrama set in the world of academia

After the Hunt
Starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebirl, Michael Stuhlbarg & Chloë Sevigny
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Rated R

In theaters Friday, Oct. 17

When a Yale doctoral student accuses one of her professors of sexual assault, it sets off a chain reaction of consequences in this provocative psychodrama set in the heady world of academia.  

Julia Roberts leads the stacked, all-star cast as Alma Imhoff, an adjunct psychology prof suffering from some internal mystery malady (she heaves over the toilet a lot). Maybe it’s stress related, since she’s certainly anxious about getting tenure—and mired in conflict when one of her students, Maggie (The Bear’s Ayo Edebirl), claims she was raped by one of Alma’s professorial colleagues, Hank (Andrew Garfield).

The situation is further complicated by the fact that Alma really likes both Maggie and Hank. Maggie insists she was raped. Hank proclaims his innocence. Who does Alma believe? Who do you believe?

Another professor (Chloë Sevigny) sniffs about Yale’s “entitled” student body, and how they’re quick to claim victimization of any kind. Michael Stuhlbarg plays Frederick, Alma’s doting psychiatrist husband.

After the Hunt is a-swirl with recriminations, he-said/she-said ambiguity, long-buried secrets, career-altering revelations and smoldering sexual tension. It’s about a “hunt” for truth, and assigning blame. It’s interwoven with talk about white male patriarchy, female solidarity, #MeToo, sexual misconduct, morality, restorative justice and racial inequality. There are conversations dense with banter about Aristotle, Freud, Arendt, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. Sometimes it feels like a philosophy crash course.

It’s a knotty, complex story, largely told through Alma’s perspective as she reacts to what’s going on all around her—and realizes the need to reconcile her own past with her present. Roberts and the rest of the cast are terrific. The soundtrack (by the three-time Oscar-winning duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) scores what we’re seeing onscreen with a sometimes-unconventional sonic undercurrent effectively conveying the sense of creeping uncertainty and growing dread. Director Luca Guadagnino continues his interest in exploring the many ways passion, sexuality and amour can be twisted into dysfunction and dysphoria; After the Hunt certainly slices into a thematic vein shared with the Italian director’s previous films Challengers, Queer, Call Me by Your Name, Bones and All and Suspira.

It’s all very handsome, tony, provocative and well-crafted, but it asks a lot from the audience—including, with a running time of over two hours, more than a bit of patience. And it presents some truly thorny ideas and issues without really resolving or wrapping them up in the end—even though a hospital scene in the final stretch offers some insight, if not a tidy little bow. A “five years later” coda adds to the sense that time may not, in fact, heal all wounds. It’s not a feel-good movie, by any means. It challenges you to watch, listen, think and stew along with its characters.

As Alma snaps to Maggie in a heated up-close encounter, “Not everything is supposed to make you feel comfortable.” That obviously includes After the Hunt.

—Neil Pond

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Oct 10 2025
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Books, DVDs, History, Movies, Music, Photography, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to watch and more, Oct. 10- 16

Why we love John Candy, the horrors of John Wayne Gacy & a whole night of ‘NCIS’

FRIDAY, Oct. 10
John Candy: I Like Me
Heartfelt documentary tribute to the legendary and much-loved Canadian comedy icon, with stories and memories from Candy’s family, friends, collaborators and admirers—including Tom Hanks, whose son, Colin, directed (Prime Video).

Vicious
Dakota Fanning stars as a young woman who receives a mysterious gift from a late-night visitor, drawing her into a waking nightmare (Paramount+).

The Woman in Cabin 10
While on a luxury yacht for a travel assignment, a journalist (Kiera Knightly) witnesses a passenger thrown overboard, only to be told it didn’t happen. With Guy Pearce and Hannah Waddington (Netflix).

SATURDAY, Oct. 11
Monster in the Family: The Stacy Kananen Story
Based on a true story, this drama follows a young woman (Elisha Cuthbert) who finds herself entangled in a web of buried bodies and manipulation (8 p.m., Lifetime).

SUNDAY, Oct. 12
Matlock
In tonight’s “sneak peek” of season two, Kathy Bates returns to the TV role of lawyer Madeline Matlock (above) for the revived series that gender-flipped the 1980s original, which starred Andy Griffith (8:30 p.m., CBS).

The Chair Company
New comedy series debut about a man who finds himself investigating a far-reaching conspiracy after witnessing an embarrassing incident at work. Starring Tim Robinson, Lake Bell and Sophia Lillis (10 p.m., HBO Max).

MONDAY, Oct. 13
DMV
New workplace comedy starring Harriet Dyer and Tim Meadows, about a crew of lovable misfits (above) tackling bureaucracy, bad attitudes and busted printers—with minimum wage and maximum sarcasm (8:30 p.m., CBS).

Solar Opposites
Sixth and final season of the animated series about space aliens trying to live on a budget. Dan Stevens and Thomas Middleditch provide voices (Hulu).

TUESDAY, Oct. 14
NCIS Night
It’s all NCIS, all night, with season premieres of the flagship drama’s 23rd season, plus spinoffs NCIS: Origins and NCIS: Sydney (begins 8 p.m., CBS).

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
An intimate look at the life of the actress, the first deaf performer to win an Academy Award, as she shares her story in her native America Sign Language (9. p.m., PBS).

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 15
From Rails to Trails
Documentary narrated by actor Edward Norton about the movement, which began 60 years ago, to convert abandoned railroad trackways to public trails for cycling and walking (check local listings, PBS).

Murdaugh: Death in the Family
Series based on the real-life family drama of Maggie and Alex Murdaugh and the murder of the fourth-generation scion of a local legal dynasty. Starring Jason Clarke and Patricia Arquette (Hulu).

THURSDAY, Oct. 16
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy
Limited series (above) dramatizes the evils of the notorious Gacy, who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering 33 young men in the 1970s. Starring Michael Chernus (from Severance), Gabriel Luna (The Last of Us) and James Dale Badge (1923) (Peacock).

NOW HEAR THIS

The political New York City activism of John Lennon and wife Yoko One is celebrated in Power to the People (Capitol/UME), a 12-disc boxed set with more than 100 tracks, a new remix of Lennon’s only full-length concert appearances after the Beatles, outtakes, home recordings, jam sessions and much more. Son Sean Lennon produced the project.

Get a big dose of downhome Texas Blues with The Last Real Texas Blues Album (Antone’s Records), part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the iconic Austin nightclub Antone’s. Fittingly, the album is filled with artists who’ve performed there, including The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmie Vaughn, Charlie Sexton, Lil’ Ed Wilson and McKinley James, performing classics like “You’ll Lose a Good Thing,” “The Sky is Crying,” “Flip, Flop and Fly” and “Going Down.” Put it on, turn it up, and dig it.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Fans of the British supergroup led by brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher will dig Oasis: Trying to Find a Way Out of Nowhere (Thames & Hudson), a photo-packed visual chronicle by acclaimed rock photog Jill Furmanovsky—who was given unparalleled access to countless worldwide performances, recording sessions and offstage moments, beginning in the band’s early ‘90s heyday.  With written commentary and insights by Noel about the wild ride of being in one of the top-selling groups of all time. 

Wanna look like a million bucks? Author Natalie Hammond tells (and shows) you how in Style Codes: Cher (Abrams), a guide to looking your best based on the singing star’s own “reinvention” to become an icon of class, glamor, success sand style. From gowns to jackets, boots, bell bottoms and hairstyles, you’ll find out what worked for Cher, and how to find inspiration for your own assets.

Look! Up in the sky! No, it’s not superman, but rather Aviary: The Bird in Contemporary Photography (Thames & Hudson), a stunning look at how more than 50 modern photographers artistically “captured” winged splendor, illustrating not only the eye-popping spectrum of color and “design” in the aerial world, but also the ways it’s always inspired us down here on the ground.

How do borders define our world? In Atlas of Borders (Thames & Hudson), geopolitical experts Delphine Papin and Bruno Tertrais reflect on the world through the lens of the seen and unseen things that split it up and separate it. Filled with maps and infographics, it’s a fascinating crash course in the ways, and the whys, the Earth has been subdivided and sliced up, leading to walls, migrations and wars.

As foodies know, there’s something special about good ol’ Southern cookin’. Author and food historian Michael J. Twitty’s Recipes From the American South (Phaidon) is a lip-smackin’ guide to more than 260 yummies of all sorts from our country’s Southland, from bread and biscuits, stews, sauces, sweets to main courses like chicken and dumplings, red-eye gravy and mint julips.

Do you believe in magic? Well, you might, after reading podcaster Pam Grossman’s Magic Maker (Penguin Random House), about how magic and spiritualism have been long associated with creativity—and how you can make the most of those same “supernatural” vibes. It’s trippy and cool and a combination of guidebook and history of spells, magic and witchery, and how they’ve been channeled for centuries to fuel creative arts of all kinds.

What’s in a word? In Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary (Grove Atlantic), author Stefan Fatsis dives into the exotic world of America’s most famous publisher of dictionaries, Merriam-Webster, at a time when words are changing in many ways, including how we create, define, use and consume language. It’s a vibrant, colorful history of dictionaries and the company that made them household items, how spoken language makes winds its way into our lexicon, and who decides what those words mean. Word up!

Michael Jackson insiders reveal the high-stakes battle to revive the superstar’s reputation and sales mojo in the mid-‘90s after tabloids had started calling him “Wacko Jacko” and his personal life was widely known for its eccentricities. You’ve Got Michael (Trouser Press) avoids the controversies but goes right for the nuts ‘n’ bolts of keeping an outsized supersized career alive, as told by author Dan Beck, the Epic Records exec who worked for five years with the troubled superstar.

It’s been a while for most of us, likely, since we unfolded a paper map and used it for navigation. But such orienteering tools used to be the language essential to exploring and getting around—and they often had to be redrawn and rejiggered, as civilization advanced the geography morphed. The Library of Lost Maps (Bloomsbury) by geographer James Cheshire offers a scholarly tour, across the 19th and 20th centuries, of how maps remind us of our past…and provide gateways to the future for an ever-changing world in progress.

Dig into The Maya Myths: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes and Ancestors (Thames & Hudson), in which author Mallory E. Matsumoto presents a richly detailed look at the legends, beliefs and culture that over previous centuries built a thriving, complex society in what is now Mexico and Central America—before mysteriously collapsing and vanishing.

A spinoff of the popular TikTok series, F*cked Up Fairy Tales (W.W. Norton) by Liz Gotauco offers “grown-up” tellings of classic folktales from around the world, with gritty details that the “Disney-fied versions” conveniently omitted—of homicidal royals, cursed commoners, carnal couplings and all manner of beasts…and beastly behavior. For anyone who likes their mythology refreshingly bawdy, dig in!

Don’t ever tell anybody they’re “irreplaceable,” especially after you read Mary Roach’s Replaceable You (W.W. Norton), a sprightly exploration of the human body. You’ll better understand the many ways science and technology have risen to the challenges of altering (or outright replacing) our skin, our hair, our organs, our breasts and bones and teeth and just about everything else. (W.W. Norton)

BRING IT HOME

Ready for a good scare? Weapons, one of the year’s best supernatural horror flicks, depicts an unsettling scenario about a town in a panic when all the children from a classroom mysteriously disappear—all, that is, except one. Starring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner. Bonus features take you inside the making of the flick (Warner Bros. Discovery).

Joaquin Phoenix, Austin Butler, Emma Stone and Pedro Pascal star in director Ari Aster’s Eddington (A24), a dark comedy set in a small town during the COVID-19 pandemic where disagreements cause political and social turmoil.

Oct 08 2025
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Movie Reviews

Movie Review: “A House of Dynamite”

Are you ready for doomsday? Directory Kathryn Bigelow’s latest makes us think about the unthinkable.

Rebecca Ferguson gets a troubling phone call.

A House of Dynamite
Starring Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Tracy Letts & Greta Lee
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Rated PG-13

In theaters Friday, Oct. 10 / On Netflix Friday, Oct. 24

As an intercontinental ballistic missile bears down on the United States, everyone scrambles to find out who fired it and what to do before it reaches its target in about 20 minutes. That’s the ultra-high-stakes situation in A House of Dynamite, which plops a bona fide doomsday scenario into our laps and forces us to think about the unthinkable.

Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) expertly tightens the screws and amps up the tension with every taught, fraught second, inventively overlapping timelines to show us how different politicians, advisors, generals, military personnel and Washington insiders grapple with the toughest decision they’ve ever made, from the U.S. President (Idris Elba) on down the chain of command.

Confusion, dread and disbelief abound. Who launched the missile, headed straight for Chicago? Was it Russia? North Korea? China? Why didn’t America’s intercept-and-destroy defense network work? “That’s what $50 million buys us!??” barks the incredulous Secretary of Defense (Jared Harris). Should the U.S. makes its own retaliatory strike, before it’s too late? What VIPs and essential personnel will be evacuated to safety deep inside a mountain bunker, and who’ll be left behind? Will a governmental communications expert (Rebecca Ferguson) ever see her husband and young son again?

And what about the 10 million citizens expected to die when the missile hits its target?  The horrific specter of all-out nuclear Armageddon looms large, with one bomb likely to start a chain reaction of mutually assured destruction. As one character notes, we’re living in a house full of dynamite.

Bombers scramble to take out a Russian submarine in the Pacific.

The impressive ensemble cast includes Greta Lee, Anthony Ramos, Gabriel Brasso, Jason Clarke, Kaitlyn Dever and Tracy Letts. How does WNBA basketball star Angel Reese fit into things? Or a date with an Appleby’s waitress, elephants in Kenya, Civil War re-enactors or young soldier-sentries standing guard at a remote Alaskan outpost? The movie unnervingly depicts the wide-ranging ripple effect, across a spectrum of geography and life, about to be affected in the worst possible way.

It’s like Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant Dr. Strangelove, but without any of that 1964 film’s scathing satire—this is deadly serious stuff. And it takes on even more gravity with current events being what they are, global politics fraught with growing tensions, and nuclear proliferation a very real thing and a very real threat. How would today’s leaders—generals, cabinet members, and yes, the president—respond if faced with that situation?

And consider this unnerving premise from the film: Despite America’s expansive, high-tech defense systems, such an attack is well within the realm of possibility.

In one early scene, Rebecca Ferguson’s character toys with a tiny plastic dinosaur, handed to her by her son before she left for work that fateful morning. As she wonders if life as she knows it may be ending, that little prehistoric creature comes to represent an even more discomforting mega scenario, one in which all humankind might very well become extinct, extinguished like the dinosaurs. And, in a grim irony, done in by our devices.

A House of Dynamite is a sobering countdown, a colossally jarring wake-up call about the fragility of our very existence…and about a time—and a day, in a span of minutes—that we can only hope never comes.

—Neil Pond

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Oct 03 2025
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Books, DVDs, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to watch, and more! Oct. 3 – Oct. 9

Cyndi gets an all-star salute, 9-1-1 comes to Nashville & Svengooli kicks off Halloween!

FRIDAY, Oct. 3
V/H/S Halloween
The eighth in the found-footage anthology franchise is about a collection of Halloween-themed videos that unleashes a new reign of terror to turn trick-or-treating into a struggle for survival (Shudder).

Steve
Movie based on a New York Times bestseller follows a day in the life of a teacher (Cillian Murphy) struggling with mental health issues while interacting with a student (Jay Lycurgo) prone to rage and violence. What could possibly go wrong? (Netflix).

SATURDAY, Oct. 4
Svengoolie’s Halloween Boo-Nanza
With The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, the vintage Don Knotts flick from the ‘60s, the TV horror host-with-the-most begins his annual month-long October weekly programming block of fun shocks (8 p.m., MeTV).

Saturday Night Live
Perhaps you heard the hubbub about the exodus of cast at SNL (Heidi Gardner, Micheal Longfellow, Devon Walker, Emil Wakim) and the plans of producer Lorne Michaels “to shake things up.” Tune in tonight to see how the shakeup shook out, with Bad Bunny returning for his second time as host, Doja Cat performing, and cast newbies Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska making their debuts (11:30 p.m., NBC).

SUNDAY, Oct. 5
A Grammy Salute to Cyndi Lauper: Live from the Hollywood Bowl
The “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” ‘80s superstar is feted in this concert (filmed over two nights) with appearances by special guests including Joni Mitchell, Cher, John Legend and Mickey Guyton (8 p.m., CBS).

House of David
Season two follows the aftermath of the battle between David and Goliath, and David’s rise to the throne (Wonder Project on Prime Video)

Tony Shalhoub Breaking Bread
New series follows the award-winning Monk actor on a journey around the world, with bread serving as a common thread in a variety of international cuisines and cultures (9 p.m., CNN).

MONDAY, Oct. 6
Family Guy Halloween Special
Brian and Stewie realize there is a shortage of quality Halloween songs, so they set out to write a hit, while Peter learns that lying about trick or treating can have serious consequences (Hulu).

Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp & the Biotech Revolution
Mark Ruffalo narrates this inspiring story of vision, perseverance and the power of science to change the world, tracing the journey of Sharp, a Kentucky farm boy who became a Nobel Prize winner for his work in molecular biology and gene splicing—which has become a cornerstone of global innovation and economic growth, and transformed the health of billions (PBS).

TUESDAY, Oct. 7
Ozzy: No Escape from Now
Documentary about rock icon Ozzy Osborne’s six-year health battle as he fights to get back on stage one last time for his farewell tour (Paramount+).

The Young and the Restless
It’s officially middle-aged and not so “young” anymore, but one of daytime drama’s most durable dramas begins its 53rd season today (1 p.m., CBS).

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 8
Secrets of the Dead
Exploring the history and legacy of the Roman Coliseum, which embodied the power and grandeur of Rome…and also “foreshadowed” its downfall (10 p.m., PBS).

Maintenance Required
The fiercely independent owner of an all-female car-repair shop is forced to reevaluate her future when a flashy competitor moves in across the street and becomes her rival. Starring Madelaine Petsch and Jim Gaffigan (Prime Video).

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs
Ramp up for Halloween with tonight’s double feature of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy vs. Jason, guided by host Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mailgirl (8 p.m., AMC).

THURSDAY, Oct. 9
9-1-1 Nashville
New entry into the 9-1-1 franchise about first responders in Music City stars Chris O’Donnell, Jessica Capshaw, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, LeAnn Rimes, Michael Provost and others (9 p.m, ABC).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Here, kitty kitty! Calling all cat lovers, who’ll love photographer Tim Flatch’s Feline (Abrams). It’s a purr-fectly gorgeous coffee-table book with than 170 portraits of kitty cats of all kinds, from every angle (faces, feet, fur) with text about their species, their evolution from the wild into the domesticated, and why we’re so attracted to them.

Metalheads will totally dig Iron Maiden: Infinite Dreams—The Official Visual History  (Thames & Hudson), a photo-packed chronicle celebrating 50 years of the pivotal heavy metal masters. It’s brimming with pics of the band, stage props, backstage antics, promo items, guitars, handwritten lyrics and commentary from band members past and present, including band founder Steve Harris and vocalist Bruce Dickinson. 

BRING IT HOME

Celebrate two decades of the subversively funny TV series with Robot Chicken: The Complete Series (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment). It’s a collection of all 228 episodes of the stop-motion, sketch-comedy takes on nostalgia, pop culture and almost everything else, which began airing on Adult Swim, the Cartoon’s Network’s nighttime programming block, in 2005.

It’s the great Peanuts: 75th Anniversary Ultimate TV Specials Collection, Charlie Brown. The five-disc collection includes five decades of TV specials, 40 of them, from A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) to Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown (2011), plus a 28-page collectible booklet. (Warner Bros. Discovery)

Bob Odenkirk returns to the slam-bang action of Noboby 2 (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) as a suburban dad who’s also a highly skilled assassin. He needs a vacation and brings his fam to an amusement park, but in his line of work, it’s hard to get a break. With Connie Nielsen, Colin Hanks, Christopher Lloyd and Sharon Stone, and loads of bonus features, including a mini-doc about the film’s rock-‘em, sock-‘em stunt sequences.

Fulfill your need for speed with F1 The Movie, with Brad Pitt as a hunky Formula 1 driver on the comeback trail, alongside Javier Bardem as the racing team owner and Damson idris as his hotshot competitor for top dog on the track. Now on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD, it’s loaded with special features! Vroom!

Oct 01 2025
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Movie Reviews

Movie Review: “The Smashing Machine”

The Rock takes on a new kind of role—and a pounding—in this bruising sports drama about a real-life “extreme fighter”

The Smashing Machine
Starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt
Directed by Benny Safdie
Rated R

In theaters Friday, Oct. 3

The Rock’s latest role finds him taking a beating—and giving even more of them out—in this gritty drama about real-life mixed martial arts “extreme” fighter Mark Kerr, one of the pioneering superstars of the hybrid wrestling sport some 25 years ago.

As fans of extreme fighting know, MMA is a combo platter of combative styles from around the world, from judo and jiu-jitsu to boxing and street fighting. There’s a lot of grappling, eye gouging, neck choking, head kicking and fist pummeling. Sometimes the fights are staged in “cages.” The events of the film take place between 1997 and 2000, when Kerr was a rising star in the MMA global arena, especially in Japan. It’s kinda like Rocky, with saki!

Johnson—who was himself a pro wrestler known as the Rock before beginning his acting career—immerses himself in the role, making an almost phenomenal transformation into Kerr by using multiple facial prosthetics. The muscles and sculpted body look familiar, but you sometimes have to keep reminding yourself that it’s really the Rock in there, underneath the false nose, cheekbones, forehead and ears. It’s more than a few movie miles from the upbeat, popcorn-y roles Johnson became known for in pumped-up, action-adventure romps like Jumanji, Skyscraper, the Fast and Furious franchise and San Andreas, or animated family fare like Moana, Hercules or DC League of Super Pets.

Although we see plenty of Johnson’s character doing his thing in the ring—the brutal fight scenes are very convincing—we also watch Kerr in psychological battles with himself and with his girlfriend, Dawn (Emily Blunt). We see how the fighters may try to beat each other’s brains out, but they can be friends—even besties—when the show’s over. An actual former MMA fighter, Ryan Bader, has an integral supporting role as Kerr’s good buddy Mark Coleman, who’s also his direct competitor.

Eventually, Kerr becomes dependent on opioids and painkillers, and there’s little wonder why. He is indeed a human smashing machine; he even smashes a door to splinters in a burst of anger. All that smashing takes a toll on his body. But he loves it, loves the winning, loves soaking up the cheers of the crowd. “It’s orgasmic,” he says. “The highest of highs.”

For all its brawn and brawl, the movie’s a bit lite on the drama. There’s not a lot of conflict, or emotional highs and lows, or surprises, in Kerr’s fight-club sphere. We’re never told about his prior life, as a high school wrestler in Iowa, or how worked his way up into the pros. It’s not so much a biopic as a window on a compressed period, much like the 2002 documentary about Kerr (from which this movie takes its title). Director Benny Safdie, whose previous films include the edgy Good Times and Uncut Gems, keeps the edges messy, showing us the sweaty, unglamorous and often bloody world of “outlaw” wrestling, where combatants keep fighting because they need the money, they’re addicted to it…and they can’t really do anything else.

The movie overlays some highly appropriate music onto its scenes. It’s hard to miss the messaging when we watch Kerr training to the tune of Elvis singing Sinatra’s “My Way” (and its line about “But through it all / When there was doubt / I ate it up and spit it out”). Bruce Springsteen’s “Jungle Land” orchestrates a particularly stressful, combustive interlude between Kerr and Dawn. And it’s quite appropriate that it all ends with the Alan Parsons Project and “Limelight,” about how the limelight, the spotlight, was “all I ever wanted since it all began / Shining on me, telling the world who I am.”

The Smashing Machine shows the who-I-am about an ultimate fighter who ultimately finds himself on the other side of the spotlight. But more impressively, it also shows how Dwayne Johnson has found the other side of the showbiz coin, as a serious actor in a substantial role, a smashing success at playing a real person instead of exaggerated, often cartoonish caricatures.

—Neil Pond

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