Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Excavating through the vastness of television history to feature programs from broadcast past that were critically maligned and/or lost on the way to home video.

Oscar-winning Danish director Susanne Bier’s latest film is an emotionally-charged thriller, centered on a successful police officer who has recently started a family. Andreas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his wife Anna (Maria Bonnevie) are coming to terms with their new lives as parents, struggling to adapt to their baby’s challenging sleeping patterns and find time to spend alone together. However, they are devoted parents who are raising their baby in idyllic circumstances, with absolute financial security and a stunning lakeside home.

Oblivion is what one might classify as an amalgamation sci-fi. Though many a contemporary feature in the genre is in clear debt to a prior work, Oblivion is one such example where the narrative similarities and likely intentional visual references cover a particularly wide array of films and literature, including La Jetée, WALL-E, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mad Max, Jin-Roh, I Am Legend, and one particular sci-fi of the past decade that simply mentioning would probably provoke likely guesses of a major plot development in one’s mind before seeing the film.

Mama Directed by Andy Muschietti Written by Neil Cross, Andy Muschietti, and Barbara Muschietti Spain and Canada, 2013 How far do big names get a small movie? That is the question at the core of Mama, a new horror film that wouldn’t exist were it not for executive producer Guillermo del Toro and leading lady/current …

Headhunters  Directed by Morten Tyldum Written by Lars Gudmestad, Jo Nesbø, and Ulf Ryberg Norway, 2011 While American politicians abjectly deride the Scandinavians for being ‘pinko commies’, Hollywood has been taking notice of their considerable cinematic talent, finding every opportunity to import some of their best films for American remakes. David Fincher’s The Girl with …