There are times, while watching Morgan Neville’s Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, that you almost forget its subject is dead. As on his groundbreaking TV series A Cook’s Tour, No Reservations and Parts Unknown, Bourdain’s voice dominates the documentary, whether through excerpts from audiobooks, old interviews, TV appearances or behind-the-scenes musings. He still … [Read more...]
‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’: The lasting goodness of a gentle progressive
The television I enjoyed as a kid lurches from the requisite Sesame Street to the mindless distractions of G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Animaniacs, Ren & Stimpy and the green slime of many a Nickelodeon game show, with its slapstick schadenfreude. If there was any room for Fred Rogers’ earnest blend of puppet show and talk therapy, I have no memory of it. His iconic … [Read more...]