Salon.com > HBO http://www.salon.com Sat, 25 May 2013 01:08:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 The camp-free “Behind the Candelabra” http://www.salon.com/2013/05/22/the_camp_free_behind_the_candelabra/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/22/the_camp_free_behind_the_candelabra/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 17:06:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13305649 The most impressive thing about “Behind the Candelabra,” Steven Soderbergh’s much-anticipated HBO film co-starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon as the flamboyant pianist Liberace and his young lover, Scott Thorson, respectively, is what it is not: campy. If you have seen Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in costume for this film — think sparkles and Speedos — you know this is no small accomplishment.

“I personally support the Austrian rhinestone business,” Douglas says early in the movie, pitching his voice nasal and fey, as he gives Thorson a tour around his lavish, self-decorated home, full of pianos, chandeliers, authentic Roman columns, and a house boy who offers hors d’oeuvres next to the bulge in his tight pants. An impressed Thorson — Damon with a near Farrah Fawcett hairdo — soon moves in and begins to sport a high-definition thong tan-line. Over their near-decade long relationship, there will be outfits that would make Elvis jealous, plastic surgery, fur coats, hot tubs, limousines, drugs and sex, and yet “Behind the Candelabra,” which premieres on Sunday night, never even edges into “Magic Mike”-level cheekiness. (Except, perhaps, when Rob Lowe’s plastic surgeon, who has been under the knife too many times himself, and his cat lady brow appear.) It’s like all the ingredients for a sugar rush of a dessert have been assembled and instead mixed together to make something surprisingly sensible, but not exactly delicious.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/22/the_camp_free_behind_the_candelabra/feed/ 16 “Game of Thrones” recap: “We must do our duty” http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/%e2%80%9cgame_of_thrones%e2%80%9d_recap_%e2%80%9cwe_must_do_our_duty%e2%80%9d/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/%e2%80%9cgame_of_thrones%e2%80%9d_recap_%e2%80%9cwe_must_do_our_duty%e2%80%9d/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 02:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13302980 “Game of Thrones” really has it in for penises lately. Last week, poor, sad, tortured Theon had his member lopped off and this week Gendry’s gets leeched. A religious zealot attaching a leech to one’s penis is, of course, preferable to having a religious zealot slit one’s jugular, which seemed to be Melisandre’s plan for Gendry before she got into feeding him to blood slugs and having Stannis toss the nobly named results into a fire, in a kind of leech voodoo. (Those leeches reminded me of the poor unfortunate souls in the lair of “The Little Mermaid’s” Ursula.) Before she seduced him and tied him up, Melisandre had said she wanted to treat Gendry like a lamb being brought to slaughter: best to hide the knife up until the moment it slips in. Guess she decided it wasn't too soon to toss bloodsuckers on his private parts.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/%e2%80%9cgame_of_thrones%e2%80%9d_recap_%e2%80%9cwe_must_do_our_duty%e2%80%9d/feed/ 33 “Game of Thrones,” season 3, episode 7: A salon http://www.salon.com/2013/05/13/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_7_a_salon/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/13/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_7_a_salon/#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13296640 On last night's "Game of Thrones," Theon got tortured, Margaery tried to impart some wisdom to Sansa, and Brienne faced down a bear.

We're discussing it now!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/13/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_7_a_salon/feed/ 7 This is genealogy: Christopher Guest’s “Family Tree” comes to HBO http://www.salon.com/2013/05/10/this_is_genealogy_christopher_guests_family_tree_comes_to_hbo/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/10/this_is_genealogy_christopher_guests_family_tree_comes_to_hbo/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 15:58:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13294812 Christopher Guest, the deadpan master improviser and creator of such classics as “Waiting for Guffman” and “Best in Show,” has described his own sense of humor as “silliness framed in intelligence,” fart jokes delivered by people of a certain erudition, who know how to make higher-brow cracks but choose not to. “Family Tree,” Guest’s very first television show, premieres on Sunday night on HBO. It’s an eight-episode series that hews to the mockumentary format Guest has been developing since he played Nigel Tufnel in “This Is Spinal Tap”: The cast has been given detailed character histories and episode outlines, but the dialogue is entirely improvised. The results contain both fart jokes and erudition, but not so much heart. “Family Tree" is colder and flatter than Guest’s best work, missing its inspired kookery and high-energy strangeness.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/10/this_is_genealogy_christopher_guests_family_tree_comes_to_hbo/feed/ 1 “Game of Thrones,” season 3, episode 6: A salon http://www.salon.com/2013/05/06/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_6_a_salon/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/06/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_6_a_salon/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13289258 Last night on "Game of Thrones," Jon Snow made his way up the forbidding wall. Salon's writers are discussing that and more now!


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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/06/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_6_a_salon/feed/ 6 “Game of Thrones,” season 3, episode 5: A salon http://www.salon.com/2013/04/29/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_5_a_salon/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/29/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_5_a_salon/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13283231 Last night on "Game of Thrones," we hit the season's halfway point -- and we're moving towards a big wedding as Tyrion and Jon Snow plot and Daenerys assembles her dragons. We're discussing it all now!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/29/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_5_a_salon/feed/ 6 “Game of Thrones” Recap: Flaming swords! http://www.salon.com/2013/04/29/game_of_thrones_recap_now_were_cooking_with_hot_swords/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/29/game_of_thrones_recap_now_were_cooking_with_hot_swords/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 02:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13283407 Let’s start with the most substantial aspect of this episode: man butt. “Kissed by Fire” is the episode of “Game of Thrones” where the writers finally said, “OK, OK, we will do something about our show's gross nudity imbalance across genders.” So after Ygritte takes off her clothes, it’s John and Jaime’s turn to flash some tush, and then Loras’s conquest/Littlefinger’s spy puts a new twist on the “random character we have never met going full frontal” role just by being a man, instead of woman.

Even more remarkably, the camera opts not to ogle Brienne of Tarth, treating her with the sort of restraint it usually reserves for its male characters. Jaime climbs in the bathtub with her and goads her into anger; she lurches up at him in the altogether. But while Jaime gets a good look at the whole Brienne, the camera stays squarely on her face and shoulders, never straying down. We see a flash of her backside, but that's exactly the amount of nudity usually asked of the fellas. This is both respectful and complicated: Brienne, who is more ‘masculine’ than the other female characters, more attuned to the idea of male honor, gets treated with visual restraint. I’m sure, if she knew, she would appreciate the courtesy. But maybe all the other women on the show would prefer not being objectified too?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/29/game_of_thrones_recap_now_were_cooking_with_hot_swords/feed/ 27 “Game of Thrones”: “Or is the little girl the bravest one here?” http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/game_of_thrones_or_is_the_little_girl_the_bravest_one_here/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/game_of_thrones_or_is_the_little_girl_the_bravest_one_here/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 02:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13276807 At the beginning of this season, one of “Game of Thrones'” TV overlords, David Benioff, told Grantland’s Andy Greenwald that "Themes are for eighth-grade book reports.” There is a reason the people who make stuff don’t get the final say on the meaning of that stuff. “And Now His Watch Is Ended” was particularly theme-y — the theme being revenge — but it also demostrated how little “Game of Thrones” cares about creating “normal” episodes of television. The huge cast of characters have been flitting in and out all season. Now they are starting to show up for what amount to special appearances, both short — Bran appeared in one scene — and long — Daenerys gets the most fist-pumping segment of the season thus far, but only in the episode’s last 10 minutes. Four episodes in, it still feels like the season’s pieces are being put into place, and it seems that the best way to watch would be to wait and binge on it all at once.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/game_of_thrones_or_is_the_little_girl_the_bravest_one_here/feed/ 9 “Game of Thrones” episode 4: a salon http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/game_of_thrones_episode_4_a_salon/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/game_of_thrones_episode_4_a_salon/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 02:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13278057 Last night on "Game of Thrones," Cersei Lannister got some tough news, Dany assembled her army, and winter kept on coming. Salon writers are discussing it all now!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/game_of_thrones_episode_4_a_salon/feed/ 2 Sebastian Junger on Tim Hetherington: “He broadened the sense of what’s possible” http://www.salon.com/2013/04/17/sebastian_junger_on_tim_hetherington_he_broadened_the_sense_of_what%e2%80%99s_possible/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/17/sebastian_junger_on_tim_hetherington_he_broadened_the_sense_of_what%e2%80%99s_possible/#comments Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:50:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13273906 The photographer Tim Hetherington broke into the public consciousness with "Restrepo," a 2010 documentary that he co-directed with journalist Sebastian Junger depicting a platoon of American troops in Afghanistan. It was nearly universally hailed for an apolitical take on the struggle faced by soldiers in performing their arduous duties. Hetherington and Junger were nominated for the best documentary Oscar.

Now Junger has made a film without the co-directing aid of Hetherington; Junger's film, "Which Way Is the Front Line From Here," is a tribute to Hetherington, who died covering the Libyan civil war in 2011. The film, compiled of interviews and Hetherington's own footage, airs on HBO April 18.

Hetherington, who had been in Afghanistan on assignment for Vanity Fair, was not a war photographer in the traditional sense; as Junger's documentary conveys, he was far more interested in the fringes or consequences of war than in pictures of soldiers firing on their enemies, devoting his attention to children in Sri Lanka or to American soldiers sleeping after toilsome days.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/17/sebastian_junger_on_tim_hetherington_he_broadened_the_sense_of_what%e2%80%99s_possible/feed/ 0 “Game of Thrones,” season 3, episode 3: A Branch conversation http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_3_a_branch_conversation/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_3_a_branch_conversation/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13269641 Season 3 of “Game of Thrones” rolls on, and while Daenerys and Tyrion plotted in their own way, Jamie Lannister has never been more disempowered -- even before he was short one hand.. Salon’s writers are discussing episode 3 now!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/game_of_thrones_season_3_episode_3_a_branch_conversation/feed/ 0 “Game of Thrones” recap: All men must die, but we are not men http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/game_of_thrones_recap_all_men_must_die_but_we_are_not_men/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/game_of_thrones_recap_all_men_must_die_but_we_are_not_men/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 03:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13269237 This episode of “Game of Thrones” opens with a series of near misses. Catelyn Stark’s idiotic, self-satisfied and incompetent brother is trying to light his father’s funeral pyre as it floats down the river. He aims his bow three times, and three times he fails to connect, the flaming arrow ineffectually plunking into the water. His gruff uncle, the brother of the corpse in the boat, finally takes the matter into his own more competent hands and with one arrow, sets the pyre ablaze. It’s a funny moment, in an unusually funny episode of “Game of Thrones,” where the jokes function kind of like those errant arrows: an amusing preamble to the final sure shot. It’s an episode of near misses — or really, near rapes — until the very last moment, a brutal make: Jaime Lannister’s sword hand getting lopped off.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/game_of_thrones_recap_all_men_must_die_but_we_are_not_men/feed/ 9 “Veep’s” creator: “I think politics just makes people go insane” http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/veeps_creator_i_think_politics_just_makes_people_go_insane/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/veeps_creator_i_think_politics_just_makes_people_go_insane/#comments Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13268960 Armando Iannucci, the creator of HBO's "Veep," which returns for a much improved second season on Sunday night, is a master of the bureaucratic satire. Set in the world of politics, his shows, which also include the BBC's "The Thick of It," explore the hilarious ways that everyday banalities, crises and widespread incompetence grind everyone down, turning governance into a daily dysfunction. The glorious string of insults and curse words his civil servants are known for unleashing are the most creative and effective things they're likely to do on any given day.

I spoke with Iannucci, who is putting the finishing touches on "Veep's" second season in England, about giving Vice President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) a little more power, and the time someone took him around the real West Wing and said, "This is where CJ would sit."

What’s different about the new season?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/veeps_creator_i_think_politics_just_makes_people_go_insane/feed/ 0 Edie Falco: I took “The Sopranos” home with me http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/edie_falco_i_took_the_sopranos_home_with_me/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/edie_falco_i_took_the_sopranos_home_with_me/#comments Sun, 14 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13267796 I am rarely starstruck, but on Monday, I was admittedly nervous at the prospect of meeting four-time Emmy winner Edie Falco, star of Showtime's "Nurse Jackie," in an ABC dressing room, following her appearance on "The View." But my nervousness melted away the moment Falco entered the room, her now-brunette hair swept in a ponytail, strolling over to a chair in bare feet, a pair of heels in her hands — for as you might expect, she is as approachable as the women she portrays. Minus the Carmela Soprano nails. And the Jackie Peyton tough reserve.

At 49, Falco is busier than ever: In addition to promoting the season 5 premiere of "Nurse Jackie," which airs on Sunday, she's currently starring onstage off-Broadway in a new play titled "The Madrid," written by Liz Flahive (incidentally, one of the writers of "Nurse Jackie"). Like Jackie, the mother she portrays in the play, Martha, wants to flee from her life. But unlike Jackie, who relies on drugs and an affair as an escape, Martha literally runs away from her family, and no one, except her daughter, knows where she is or has any sense of why she left.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/edie_falco_i_took_the_sopranos_home_with_me/feed/ 2 Pic of the day: Joe Biden meets the “Veep” http://www.salon.com/2013/04/12/picture_of_the_day_joe_biden_meets_the_veep/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/12/picture_of_the_day_joe_biden_meets_the_veep/#comments Fri, 12 Apr 2013 21:14:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13269583 Vice President Joe Biden met with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the star of HBO's "Veep," in his office at the White House. In an audio recording posted on the Vice President's "Being Biden" blog, Louis-Dreyfus describes the visit:

"This is a picture of two Vice Presidents hard at work in the Vice President's office in the West Wing. I came to have lunch with Vice President Joe Biden and I surprised him by sitting at his desk, so he thought he'd just ask my advice on various briefs he had to deal with. And I was happy to give him my advice, which he paid no attention to whatsoever. Which is why he's such a wise Vice President."

Here's the audio:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/12/picture_of_the_day_joe_biden_meets_the_veep/feed/ 0 The much improved “Veep” http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/the_much_improved_veep/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/the_much_improved_veep/#comments Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:33:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13268307 “Veep,” HBO’s satire of American governance, returns on Sunday night for a much-improved second season, as sharp and scabrous as the bureaucracy it mocks is incompetent and beleaguered. Set in the office of Vice President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the big joke of “Veep’s” first season was the terrible tease of being second in command, a gig that, until Dick Cheney used it to ruin the world, was widely known to be a front row seat to your own powerlessness. All last season, Selena would ask her staff,  “Did the president call?” He never had.  In the new season, on the strength of a whole .9 percent statistically relevant influence over voters, the “thick rubber condom” between Meyer and the president has been removed, granting her “unprotected access” to power, and “Veep” a whole new range of jokes.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/the_much_improved_veep/feed/ 4 “Game of Thrones” season 3, episode 2: A Branch conversation http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/%e2%80%9cgame_of_thrones%e2%80%9d_season_3_episode_2_a_branch_conversation/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/%e2%80%9cgame_of_thrones%e2%80%9d_season_3_episode_2_a_branch_conversation/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13263244 Season 3 of “Game of Thrones” is underway — and Margaery is getting closer to Joffrey despite Sansa's warning that he's "a monster," while Bran had strange visions. Salon’s writers are discussing episode 2 now!


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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/%e2%80%9cgame_of_thrones%e2%80%9d_season_3_episode_2_a_branch_conversation/feed/ 5 “Game of Thrones” recap: Helping the helpless http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/game_of_thrones_recap_helping_the_helpless/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/game_of_thrones_recap_helping_the_helpless/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 02:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13263068 “Some people will always need help. That doesn’t mean they’re not worth helping.” So says Meera Reed, a brand-new character adept at throat slitting and, apparently, calling out “Game of Thrones” themes. This episode, the second of the new season, concerns itself with exactly this quote, focused both on the helpless and the helpers, those who need protection and those doing, or failing to do, the protecting.

Needing help: Bran. Since we last saw him, Bran’s eyebrows have advanced into adolescence, and the make up team is probably shaving his upper lip’s peach fuzz. He’s walking through his dreams, hunting the three-eyed raven, being coached by his former protectors — his brothers and father — to not much effect. He misses the bird, which is good, since, as the teenager formerly known as Liam Neeson’s son in “Love Actually” and now known as Jojen Reed informs him, Bran is the three-eyed raven. (The three-eyed raven is remarkable to me for looking so unremarkable: All ravens could have three eyes, I would never notice.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/game_of_thrones_recap_helping_the_helpless/feed/ 8 HBO’s “Vice” is “60 Minutes” via Williamsburg http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/hbos_vice_is_60_minutes_via_williamsburg/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/hbos_vice_is_60_minutes_via_williamsburg/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:20:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13262635 The Internet has laid waste to old media by giving content consumers hundreds of thousands of different places to get content that was previously provided only by old media. Once upon a time, if you were looking for a serious TV newsmagazine, you watched “60 Minutes.” Today, if you are looking for the same material, maybe you watch “60 Minutes” or you read and watch dozens of disparate sources. Oddly, this means that the fragmented “60 Minutes” audience is now available to be catered to by various boutique “60 Minutes.” “Vice,” Vice media’s new newsmagazine series for HBO, is just such a program, a juiced up “60 Minutes” via Williamsburg for people who dig tattoos, adventure and social justice and don’t mind the man so long as he digs the same.

Vice is a many tentacled media company — advertising agency, video channel, website, magazine — that has been heralded, most recently in this week’s New Yorker, for being able to make some cash in the Internet era by nailing its audience, hipster bros with a naughty vibe who like cool stories and alcohol. “Vice” is narrated by the company’s bearded CEO Shane Smith as it sends wan and tattooed reporters who look like the patrons of the new, local dive bar (graffiti in the bathrooms, specials on whiskey and Rolling Rock, but, you know, really first-rate bar food) to dangerous places.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/hbos_vice_is_60_minutes_via_williamsburg/feed/ 3 Nora Ephron’s son to make documentary about her life http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/hbo_plans_nora_ephron_documentary/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/hbo_plans_nora_ephron_documentary/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:27:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13262605 Nora Ephron, the director of films like "Julie & Julia" and "When Harry Met Sally," is now to be the subject of a film.

The Hollywood Reporter writes that the late Ephron's son, Jacob Bernstein, is developing and will co-direct "Everything is Copy," a documentary named after an Ephron family truism. (The phrase allowed for Ephron writing numerous widely-read personal essays and lightly fictionalized novels about everything from her neck to her divorce.)

Bernstein, a journalist had previously written a piece, for the New York Times Magazine, on his mother's illness and surprising death at 71. Ephron has been in the news lately for the current Broadway production of her final play, "Lucky Guy."

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