Alan Zilberman

2 weeks ago | spectrumculture.com | Alan Zilberman

In Quiz Show, Martin Scorsese plays a shrewd television executive who understands the appeal of game shows. He explains, “You see, the audience didn’t tune in to watch some amazing display of intellectual ability. They just wanted to watch the money.” That insight is central to The Luckiest Man in America, another docudrama about an ordinary man who was the wrong kind of game show contestant.

2 weeks ago | spectrumculture.com | Alan Zilberman

After the releases of Jaws and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, movie fans and industry analysts alike worried Steven Spielberg’s blockbusters would be the death knell of mid-budget entertainment. They feared there would be less room for mature dramas with reliable character actors, the kind of fare that created dependable box office draw, even if it did not set records.

4 weeks ago | spectrumculture.com | Alan Zilberman

Nothing is more fascinating than our desires, and if they are not reciprocated, few things are more annoying to outsiders. That is the central tension to Misericordia, the new shaggy dog thriller from French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie. He imagines several people living an ordinary provincial life, at least until the introduction of a manipulative outsider upends the relationships everyone silently accepts.

1 month ago | spectrumculture.com | Alan Zilberman

Everyone with a modest interest in movies has heard the music of Q Lazzarus. In The Silence of the Lambs, director Jonathan Demme uses her moody signature song “Goodbye Horses” in the memorable scene where the serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) menacingly dances around his living room while staring in the mirror.

1 month ago | washingtoncitypaper.com | Daryl Perry |Brandon Wetherbee |Alan Zilberman

Thanks for being a member of City Paper! Grace O’Malley has entered a new era. After cutting her teeth opening for comedian Whitney Cummings, she’s going on her first headlining tour across the country and will be making her Comedy Loft debut this month. Always the extrovert, O’Malley went viral on TikTok while at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.