‘Hacks’ Is a Thrilling Turn for Jean Smart: TV Review

Rocker Marilyn Manson has more legal troubles on his plate. A lawsuit has been filed by an ex-girlfriend in Los Angeles County state Superior Court, claiming he raped her and forced her to watch a gruesome film depicting abuse of a groupie.

Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor, Variety.comSo much of what makes “Hacks” work is the chemistry between its two central characters, played by Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder. The HBO Max comedy hinges on the connection between these two seemingly disparate women So how did this pair find that connection? By lobbing insults at each other in the dark.The very first interaction between comedians Deborah Vance (Smart) and Ava (Einbinder) in the pilot swiftly unravels into a sparring match.

Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron continues to expand her impressive (and perhaps even under-appreciated) oeuvre as a producer. Following her most recent effort with “The Old Guard,” Theron returns to Netflix to produce a feature film centering on the plights and prejudice experienced by competitive female surfers.

Charlize Theron is teaming up with Mulan director Niki Caro on an exciting new project.

Netflix, Charlize Theron’s Denver and Delilah, and Niki Caro are developing a feature film that is inspired by some of the top female surfers who are fighting for the right to compete in big-wave contests.

Angelique Jackson Filmmaker Niki Caro and Charlize Theron are teaming up to develop a feature film about women’s fight for equality in big wave surfing for Netflix.The feature is based on Daniel Duane’s New York Times Magazine article, “The Fight For Gender Equality In One of the Most Dangerous Sports on Earth,” and the four women — Bianca Valenti, Andrea Moller, Paige Alms, Keala Kennelly — who are fighting for the right to compete in big-wave contests.The four women form a powerful bond as

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic“There has never been a writer who has so seamlessly blended the realistic and the fantastic,” Ron Cephas Jones intones near the start of “Lisey’s Story,” a new Apple TV Plus limited series adapted from a Stephen King novel.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe first scene of Showtime’s new series “Flatbush Misdemeanors” could go in any direction. It features a Black cop confronting another Black man on the grounds of a school, declaring to dispatch that he suspects him to be a “kidnapper or a child predator” and insisting upon searching him.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticIn his personal life, Prince Harry has emerged only recently from a period of great pain. In his professional life, as evidenced by his new Apple TV Plus series “The Me You Can’t See,” the tricky part is just beginning.Oprah Winfrey’s interview, earlier this year, with the former working royal and his wife Meghan put utterly modern confessionalism to work to explode the image Buckingham Palace had cultivated over centuries.

Clayton Davis Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Emmys ceremonies from film awards editor Clayton Davis. Following history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Emmy predictions are updated regularly with the current year's list of contenders in all categories.

The School for Good and Evil has treated fans to a couple of first-look snaps. Uploaded to Twitter yesterday (May 18), we're introduced to Charlize Theron's redhead Lady Lesso and Kerry Washington's sparkling Professor Dovey.

Actor/director John Krasinski’s 2018 thriller “A Quiet Place” is terrific for several reasons, but chief among them is how he takes a monster horror film and transforms it into a metaphor for the primal, paranoid, and elemental fears and “what if?” situations vulnerable and exposed parents can often dream up after having defenseless newborns.

John Krasinski catches you off guard in the first moment of “ A Quiet Place Part II,” inviting you into his film with the most terrifying thing of all in this universe: Noise. It’s a testament to the effectiveness of “A Quiet Place” that any sound is guaranteed to make you immediately uneasy: The crinkle of a bag, the crunch of an apple, a car door closing.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic“In Treatment” has always felt a bit like work.The HBO series about therapy drops multiple episodes per week.

Halston (★★★☆☆), from the House of uber-producer Ryan Murphy.The five-episode series, based on the 1991 biography Simply Halston by Steven Gaines, is more concerned with marking the designer’s fall, fueled by hubris, cocaine, and a genius artist’s singular distaste for mastering the details of business. But don’t be mistaken — Halston, portrayed by Ewan McGregor with a sense of humor as dry and crisp as a martini, definitely likes money.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticIt’s a truism that coming of age as a young queer person is a challenge in part because one’s own cultural heritage is not, in the mainstream, commonly taught. The AIDS epidemic wiped out so much life, so much culture, and so many potential guides; before that, the private lives of queer people looked unintelligible to those in the position to record history.Into this gap strides FX’s “Pride,” a series of six documentaries.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticHalston, the mononymous designer whose peak fame dovetailed with the celebrity whirl of Studio 54-era New York, rose thanks to his originality and coasted thanks to his willingness to be duplicated.

Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor, Variety.comWhat makes HBO Max’s “Hacks” stand out from a slew of new TV offerings (and other shows about the same topic of stand-up comedy), isn’t just its stellar cast, it’s also the premise that two women share a connection, despite being worlds apart, through the desire of making others laugh.

Jean Smart is back to her comedic roots with.