New Year, New Shows: Billions & Mercy Street

January 5, 2016January 5, 2016 EmmaLeave a comment

Billions (Showtime)

Series Premiere: SUN, 1/17/16, 10PM EST

Cast: Damian Lewis (Homeland), Paul Giamatti, Maggie Siff (Mad Men), & Malin Ackerman

Synopsis: U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Giamatti) goes after hedge fund king, Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Lewis) in a battle between two powerful New York figures.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_raEUMLL-ZI

Mercy Street (PBS)

Premiere: SUN, 1/17/16, 10PM EST

Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Hannah James (newcomer), AnnaSophia Robb (The Carrie Diaries; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother), Gray Cole (recently on HBO’s Veep), Norbert Leo Butz (Bloodline; theater actor), Donna Murphy (theater vet), & Jack Falahee (How to Get Away with Murder).

Synopsis: This 6-part miniseries follows the lives of two volunteer nurses at a Union hospital during the Civil War- New England abolitionist Mary Phinney (Winstead) and Confederate supporter Emma Green (James), along w/ the Greens (whose mansion houses the hospital), doctors (including Dr. Jedediah Foster, played by Radnor), and two young black characters (one free, one slave).

Location: This series was shot primarily on location in Richmond, VA.

Related TV Spots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWQk4NYEIJo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5XOW0PTmKY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkj_LsEqhcs

Arabian Sights Film Festival (OCT 16-25)

September 22, 2015September 22, 2015 EmmaLeave a comment

Hey all,

It’s Fall, which means cooler weather and better movies than the past Summer (which is generally geared toward 12 y.o. boys). It’s also time for film festivals (here in the DC area)! Last December, I reviewed Rock the Casbah, which was one of the films in the Arabian Sights Film Festival. Omar Sharif has a cameo in the film.

Official web site of the festival: http://www.filmfestdc.org/arabiansights/index.cfm

*NOTE: All films will be shown at AMC Mazza Gallerie (5300 Wisconsin Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20015); metro riders need to get off at the Friendship Heights station and walk out using the Western Ave exit.

Below are trailers/some info re: the films that I’m MOST interested in:

The Intruder (SUN, 10/18, 5PM)

A Dutch cop of Moroccan descent goes deep undercover to infiltrate a drug-trafficking Moroccan family. The deeper he embeds himself in the family’s inner circles, the more he realizes a sense of belonging and a feeling of brotherhood that has until now eluded him. It is then he begins to question his allegiance to the police force he pledged to serve.

Eyes of a Thief (FRI, 10/23, 6:30PM)

After ten years in prison, Tarek is desperate to find his daughter who was an infant when he was imprisoned. A lawless lifestyle seems to have seeped into ten-year old Malak, whom Tarek suspects is his estranged daughter. But her adoptive mother is being forced into an arranged marriage with the town’s main businessman with whom Tarek seems to have unfinished business.