Indiewire Browse the indiewire network
carynjames

Video Interviews

Video Clips

Monthly Archives

Categories

Caryn James

Michael Douglas, Kitsch and Depth: Soderbergh's 'Behind the Candelabra'

  • By Caryn James
  • |
  • May 21, 2013 12:45 PM
  • |
  • 1 Comment
Reviews
Despite the earnest pr spin surrounding it, Behind the Candelabra invites us to laugh at - not always with  - the grinning, gaudy Vegas spectacle that is Liberace. But Michael Douglas' performance is also deep, sympathetic and brilliant, an act of impeccable mimicry that reveals the essence of a man defined by his fame as surely as he is encased in his spangled tux. The wonder of Steven Soderbergh's hugely entertaining film is that it beautifully walks the line between hilarious kitsch and character study.
Read More »
More: Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Liberace, Behind the Candelabra, Reviews, Television, Steven Soderbergh, Scott Bakula, Debbie Reynolds, Richard LaGravanese

Seth and Stefon's Big SNL Wedding, and Iran's Reply to Argo (Video)

  • By Caryn James
  • |
  • May 19, 2013 11:35 AM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
Television
Stefon -- the guide to New York's hottest, most twisted clubs - was never my favorite Bill Hader character, but he grew on me. And since last night's SNL was Hader's last, it was inevitable that Stefon would pop up on Weekend Update. But who could have  guessed that, tired of his unrequited love for Seth Meyers, Stefon would leave to marry another man, only to have Meyers run after him like Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate? Take a look at Stefon's big wedding, with Amy Poehler and Anderson Cooper.
Read More »
More: Bill Hader, SNL, Ben Affleck, Seth Meyers, Stefon, Fred Armisen, Argo, Television, Television

Al Pacino, 'Phil Spector,' and Media Justice

  • By Caryn James
  • |
  • March 21, 2013 9:12 PM
  • |
  • 1 Comment
Television
The gigantic frizzed-out wig on Al Pacino's head might be enough to make you curious about Phil Spector, the new HBO drama written and directed by David Mamet. In a multitude of wigs as conspicuously creepy as the actual Spector's, Pacino plays the fantastically successful music producer and reputed loony-tunes guy convicted of the 2007 murder in his home of Hollywood wannabe and  club hostess Lana Clarkson. The first question the film raise isn't about the murder though. It's an issue that comes up with both Pacino and with Mamet today: are you getting the good or the evil twin? Pacino the actor who can still dazzle, or the over-the-top sputtering blowhard? Mamet the disciplined writer of The Untouchables and Glengarry Glen Ross or the self-indulgent filmmaker (The Winslow Boy) who dictates that everyone to speak in artificial, terse Mamet-talk?
Read More »
More: Television, Al Pacino, David Mamet, Phil Spector, Helen Mirren, Phil Spector - HBO film, HBO, Barry Levinson, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector, Jack Kevorkian, Vikram Jayanti, You Don't Know Jack, Linda Kenney Baden, Jeffrey Tambor, Television

Justin Timberlake's All-Star, All-Good SNL (Video)

  • By Caryn James
  • |
  • March 10, 2013 12:13 PM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
Television
Justin Timberlake was totally aware of the high expectations for his hosting gig on SNL  - "Thank you, Internet," he said during the monologue - but there was no need to worry. He was so on, he even gave just the right sly, I-know-it's-hokey reading to the line "Five Timers Club" when announcing his membership as a five-time host.
Read More »
More: Television, Justin Timberlake, SNL, Saturday Night Live, Andy Samberg, Alec Baldwin, Jimmy Fallon, Elton John, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Paul Simon, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

Stephen Colbert Asks James Franco, 'Are You a Fraud?'

  • By Caryn James
  • |
  • March 6, 2013 11:06 AM
  • |
  • 2 Comments
Television
James Franco has taken on one of his most mainstream roles in the new Disney film, 'Oz the Great and Powerful'; nothing is more mainstream than Disney. (You can read my review here.) But his entire career still has the shape of wide-ranging performance art  -- and with a lot more focus, Stephen Colbert's on-screen right-wing persona has so overshadowed the "real" Colbert that the character can be considered one of the most successful, long-running pieces of performance art of all time.  So consider the many layers of reality and artifice when Colbert asks Franco, the professor-filmmaker-writer-actor-whatever: "Are you a fraud?"
Read More »
More: Television, James Franco, Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, Oz the Great and Powerful, J.R.R. Tolkien, Television

Watch Justin Timberlake's 'SNL' Promo

  • By Caryn James
  • |
  • March 6, 2013 11:05 AM
  • |
  • 1 Comment
Television
I don't believe in jinxes, so I'll flat-out say that nothing is a safer bet for fantastic television than Justin Timberlake hosting 'Saturday Night Live'. He's back this week, and even his promos are better than SNL's usually are (better than some of the sketches lately.)
Read More »
More: Justin Timberlake, SNL, Saturday Night Live, Television, Kenan Thompson, Timberlake Suit and Tie

Review: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Stoppard and HBO's Dreamy 'Parade's End'

  • By Caryn James
  • |
  • February 26, 2013 9:07 AM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
Television
In Part 3 of HBO’s lyrical, nuanced, romantic and tough-minded World War I era series, Parade’s End, the aloof Sylvia Tietjens says of her aristocratic husband, “Christopher is the last decent man in England. How dare they put their knives into him – he’s mine.” By then we know that she is not simply complaining that Christopher’s colleagues in the British government have turned on him; she is saying the he is hers to manipulate and torture in an endless dance of love and hate. This is the most fun we’ve had with Edwardians since Downton Abbey.
Read More »
More: Television, Parade's End, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall, Tom Stoppard, Stephen Graham, Anne-Marie Duff, Janet McTeer, Susanna White, HBO

Oscar Review: Seth MacFarlane's Badness Explained

  • By Caryn James
  • |
  • February 25, 2013 2:39 AM
  • |
  • 22 Comments
Television
Was Seth MacFarlane the victim of some terrible time-travel accident that caused him – and all his Oscar-show material – to be trapped in the 1950’s (and not in a successfully ironic way)? That’s the most generous explanation I have for his pathetically unfunny job as Oscar host.  
Read More »
More: Television, Oscars, Seth MacFarlane, Adele, Skyfall, Kathryn Bigelow, Helen Hunt, Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Ted (film), Mark Wahlberg, Zero Dark Thirty, Jessica Chastain

Your Burning Oscar-Show Questions Answered, MacFarlane to Best Dead People

  • By Caryn James
  • |
  • February 25, 2013 1:00 AM
  • |
  • 1 Comment
Awards
The Oscar show was bloated with movie music that had no reason being there. (A tribute to Chicago? Other than the fact that the Oscar show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron also produced that movie .. oh yeah, that’s why). It had Seth MacFarlane, whose jokes might have been offensive if they weren’t so stale and dull. It had Adlele singing the theme from Skyfall, only to have her voice struggle to be heard over the orchestra. No sound editing at this all-musical Oscars? Ugh.
Read More »
More: Television, Oscars, Seth MacFarlane, Argo, Ben Affleck, Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar show review, Michelle Obama, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Nate Silver, Anne Hathaway, Daniel Day-Lewis, Barbra Streisand, Les Miserables

'Downton Abbey' Ends Season 3: What Will We Do Without You-Know-Who?

  • By Caryn James
  • |
  • February 17, 2013 10:45 PM
  • |
  • 4 Comments
Television
Oh dear, just when things were looking better. . . . If you haven’t watched the game-changing final episode of Downton Abbey, Season 3, you might want to turn back now, because all will be revealed.
Read More »
More: Downton Abbey Season 3 Finale, Television, Dan Stevens, Michelle Dockery, Maggie Smith, Allen Leech, Julian Fellowes, Jessica Brown Findlay, Shirley MacLaine, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern

Follow Caryn James

Email Updates

Most "Liked"

  • Two Other Gatsbys, Two Better Nicks
  • Good and Bad Surprises in Baz Luhrmann's ...
  • Watch Comedy From Obama, O'Brien, Spielberg ...

Around The Network

the network

indiewire

categories