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In Which I Help Inflict Another Ten-Best List on You

The American Film Institute announced its 2011 awards for the ten best films and TV shows on Sunday. This year, as I have been a few times before, I was on the jury (along with other critics, including Tim Goodman, Matt Roush and Ken Tucker, and numerous TV-biz professionals). If you’ve read my own ten-best [...]

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The Morning After: Luck Jumps Out of the Gate, Another Peek from Thrones

Last night, HBO aired the pilot of Luck, the new David Milch drama which debuts for realsies late in January. I may post some first impressions later, but not for now because: (1) I first need to handle the season finale of Boardwalk Empire, which HBO did not screen in advance and (2) HBO is [...]

What If They Gave a New Year's Eve Party and Nobody Came?

Andrew Schwartz / Warner Bros.

Revelers stay home as the box office slumps to its worst weekend in three years

Galley Girl: The Tragic and Inspiring Tale of Gabby Giffords

Gabby A Story of Courage and Hope

A trio of books takes a look at the case of the wounded Arizona congresswoman.

Tinker Tailor is Worth Spying

Jack English / Focus Features

Gary Oldman is quietly riveting in this new adaptation of the John le Carre espionage novel.

Filthy Secrets of the 10-Best Movies List

From Left: Indomina Releasing; Everett; Paramount

A critic comes clean about his Declaration of Principles… he means Prejudices… he means Pleasures. Which must explain why Fast Five is on the list.

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TV Weekend: A Little Louie, a Little Luck, a Little More Debating

FX

Earlier this week, I posted my Top 10 TV series of 2011 list, with Louis CK‘s remarkable first-person show Louie at #1. You’ll have to wait until next year for the next season, but in the meantime, there’s a Louis CK special this weekend—and in the DIY spirit of his one-man show, the comedian is [...]

Listen: The Best Music of 2011 Is Now On Spotify

Getty Images (3)

Earlier this week, TIME released its Best of 2011 lists, which included round-ups of our favorite songs and albums of the past year.  Because we’re so nice — and because we never grew out of our adolescent mixtape phase — we’ve put together a Spotify list of our choices.

Counting Down New Year’s Eve: Who’s in it the Most?

New Year's Eve Poster Horizontal

We watched the new Garry Marshall joint and clocked how long each of its 18 “stars” were on screen for.

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Parks and Recreation Watch: Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!

Mike Ansell/NBC

Spoilers for last night’s Parks and Recreation below: Last night after rewatching “Citizen Knope” (having gotten a screener earlier in the week), I tweeted half-jokingly that Parks and Recreation had become “the Friday Night Lights of comedy.” Jokingly, because the moving, optimistic ending to the episode made me mist up—not the first time this show [...]

The 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees: Then and Now

Ebet Roberts / Getty Images

This year, The Beastie Boys, Guns N’ Roses, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donovan, The Small Faces and Laura Nyro join a long list of rock legends

Madonna's W.E.: The Woman She Loves

Anthony Souza / The Weinstein Co.

The singer-director opens her heart to that material girl of the ’30s, Wallis Simpson, in a mix-tape of history and fantasy that not many fans will cherish

Browse at a Bookstore, Buy at Amazon: The Evil of Showrooming

Franco Vogt / CORBIS

Some people like to go into bookstores, browse, read a bit, take a picture of the cover, and then buy those books online. This is a bad thing.

Young Adult: Charlize Theron Finds Life After High School

Paramount Pictures

Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman, the writer and director of Juno, respectively, reteam for the wayward tale of a prom queen who never grew up

John and Yoko, as Never Before Seen: New Photos from the Famous ‘Bed In’

Stephen Sammons

In 1969, Stephen Sammons was a 20-year-old aspiring photographer living in Montreal. A friend of his worked at an avant-garde film magazine and had scheduled an interview with the artist Yoko Ono, who was in town with her husband John Lennon to host a “bed-in” for peace. Sammons was invited to come along and take photos.

The Best Albums of 2011

TIME’s music writer walks us through the best albums of the year.

Anything Can Happen on New Year's Eve—Except That Not Much Does

Andrew Schwartz / Warner Bros.

After an illustrious career celebrating princesses and prostitutes in film, 77 year-old director Garry Marshall has settled into a sort of Happy Days redux phase focused on holiday pictures. First Valentine’s Day in 2010 and now this year-end stuffed turkey.

We Need to Talk about Tilda Swinton

Peter Hapak for TIME

If extraterrestrials sent Tilda Swinton to Scotland as an undercover emissary they didn’t get her disguise quite right. Swinton has a spectral, almost alien beauty. I visited her in her home town Nairn and stumbled in her wake on a hike through the gorgeous wilderness of heather-strewn ridges and mysterious valleys nearby, to discuss her storied career and the latest role predicted to garner an Oscar nod.