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- “[My ambition is to] give something to our literature which will be our own.” — Walt Whitman
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- Reviews: Currents (2026)
- Reviews: Forge (2026)
- “Only the bad directors tell you how to read a line, how to define your character. The good ones let you do your job.” — Carroll Baker
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- “I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape.” — György Ligeti
- An Acting Lesson: John Wayne and the “Reality of the Doing”
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- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
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- Lyrie on “I just love telling stories. That’s what we do and it’s a good business to be in, especially if you know you have talent.” –Jensen Ackles
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- sheila on “I dont want to just do just country type stuff the rest of my life. I want to do some different things.” — Charlie Rich
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- sheila on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- Jincy Willett on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- Biff Dorsey on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- Dave on Review: The Chronology of Water (2025)
- Biff Dorsey on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- sheila on “I just love telling stories. That’s what we do and it’s a good business to be in, especially if you know you have talent.” –Jensen Ackles
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Tag Archives: drama
October 2021 Viewing Diary
I really didn’t watch all that much, numerically, during October, for various reasons. 1. I was on the move. I think I spent, all told, about 7 days at home over the course of the month. Including one unexpected stay … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged comedy, documentary, drama, England, Joanna Hogg, Memphis, Peter Bogdanovich, Poland, screwball comedy, short films, thrillers, Wes Anderson
5 Comments
Review: The Souvenir Part II (2021)
The long-awaited (I mean it was only two years but it felt like FOREVER for those of us who were waiting) sequel to The Souvenir has arrived. Joanna Hogg hasn’t made that many films (she directed her first feature-length film … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies
Tagged drama, Joanna Hogg, Martin Scorsese, reviews, Tilda Swinton, women directors
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Review: Luzzu (2021)
Loved this film from first-time director Alex Camilleri. I reviewed for Ebert.
Review: Killing Eleanor (2021)
Available today on iTunes, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services. The elderly woman bursts through the door of the beauty salon. Wearing a hospital gown, identification bracelet around her wrist, she is clearly not where she is supposed … Continue reading
Set decoration as character: The Best of Everything
Book editor Joan Crawford in her magnificent blue penthouse-apartment kitchen in The Best of Everything (one of the primary inspirations for Mad Men). There are so many mid-century-design details here (and in every scene), but I love the two book … Continue reading
Review: Blue Bayou (2021)
I reviewed Justin Chon’s latest, Blue Bayou for Ebert. It has some major issues, but the story he’s telling here is urgent and devastating – and that still comes across. (I reviewed Chon’s 2019 film Ms. Purple, which had similar … Continue reading
August 2021 Viewing Diary
Pig (2021; d. Michael Sarnoski) I wish I could write at length about some of these. I just don’t have the time these days. I absolutely loved Pig, about an isolated woodsman-truffle-hunter (Nicolas Cage) whose beloved truffle pig is stolen. … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Aline MacMahon, Ann Dvorak, backting, Belgium, Bette Davis, comedy, documentary, drama, film noir, France, Golshifteh Farahani, Howard Hawks, James Cagney, Jean Arthur, Jim Jarmusch, Joan Blondell, Marion Cotillard, Mervyn LeRoy, musicals, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Pre-Code, Richard Linklater, Robert Mitchum, Supernatural, surfing, William Carlos Williams
44 Comments
Twins in Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson
I wrote about Paterson for Ebert’s Top Ten of 16. I have my own theory about the twins theme. The recurrence of twins all over the place is obvious … and yet simultaneously mysterious. Those kinds of random “clusters” that … Continue reading
Gee thanks a lot
Franchot Tone confessing emotional infidelity to his fiancee Margaret Lindsay, Dangerous (1935)