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- “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
- “Literature is the written expression of revolt against expected things.” Happy Birthday to the least happy man ever, Thomas Hardy
- “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “[My ambition is to] give something to our literature which will be our own.” — Walt Whitman
- “I don’t want to show things, but to give people the desire to see.” — Agnès Varda
- “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- “If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.” — poet Countee Cullen
- Reviews: Currents (2026)
- Reviews: Forge (2026)
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- Lyrie on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- sheila on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- Lyrie on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- Maddy on “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- Bryan Summers on “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- 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
- Kendra Williams on Josh White, singer of “the fighting blues”
- 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
- sheila on The Books: “Awake and Sing” (Clifford Odets)
- Jincy Willett on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- Bill Wolfe 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
- Donn Harris on The Books: “Awake and Sing” (Clifford Odets)
- sheila on “Listen, I never meant to make money. I never wanted it. I’m a singer, man.” — Gene Vincent
- Pat on “Listen, I never meant to make money. I never wanted it. I’m a singer, man.” — Gene Vincent
- 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
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Tag Archives: Meryl Streep
Present Tense: Female Comedians
For my next column at Film Comment, I wrote about actresses who come from a comedy/improv background, and the special gifts they bring to bear in dramatic material. Featuring a couple of interviews I did with circus people, and also … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies
Tagged Catherine O'Hara, Kristen Wiig, Lily Tomlin, Lon Chaney, Meryl Streep, Present Tense, Robert Altman
2 Comments
March 2019 Viewing Diary
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World (2017; d. Catherine Bainbridge) Mum came and visited me and we watched this amazing documentary about the contributions Native Americans have made to music. It starts with Link Wray. I loved this documentary … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Al Pacino, Brian De Palma, Chile, Dean Stockwell, Diane Keaton, Dustin Hoffman, Ellen Burstyn, England, Faye Dunaway, Francis Ford Coppola, Frank O'Hara, Italy, Jack Nicholson, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Jill Clayburgh, Joanna Hogg, John Cazale, Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern, Link Wray, Marlon Brando, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Mike Nichols, Quantum Leap, Robert De Niro, Robert Redford, Roy Scheider, Supernatural, women directors, Woody Allen
26 Comments
“Masters of the Acting Art”: An Interview with Author Dan Callahan
Dan Callahan is one of our best writers on the craft of acting. Not only does he describe why a performance is good, he digs into the much thornier issue of how it is good. This is where most critics … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies
Tagged Al Pacino, Cate Blanchett, Charles Laughton, Diane Keaton, Dustin Hoffman, Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, Gena Rowlands, interviews, John Cassavetes, Judy Davis, Laurence Olivier, Lee Strasberg, Maggie Smith, Marlon Brando, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Patricia Clarkson, River Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Stella Adler
11 Comments
February 2019 Viewing Diary
St. Agatha (2019; d. Darren Lynn Bousman) I reviewed this nunsploitation horror film which I resisted at first for some reason, but then I got into the spirit of it. It’s fun. It’s what it needs to be. It also … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Badlands, Cuba, documentary, Elia Kazan, Gaspar Noe, Hungary, Ireland, Jared Padalecki, Joaquin Phoenix, Meryl Streep, Patricia Neal, Paul Thomas Anderson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Poland, Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Steven Spielberg, Supernatural, Terrence Malick, Tom Hanks, women directors
8 Comments
The Line
In the summer of 2001, a production of The Seagull, directed by Mike Nichols, played in Central Park at the outdoors Delacorte Theatre. It starred Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher Walken. It … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Theatre
Tagged Meryl Streep, Mike Nichols, Natalie Portman, New York, Philip Seymour Hoffman
42 Comments
Films I Loved in 2017
… and if I’ve written about them, I’ll include links. My “Top 10′ is included over at Ebert but I’m honestly not into rankings. Silly to do with art. Here are some of the films I’ve loved. And I missed … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Agnes Varda, Angelina Jolie, animation, Aubrey Plaza, Ben Stiller, comedy, coming of age, Cristian Mungiu, documentary, drama, Dustin Hoffman, Emily Dickinson, England, France, Garrett Hedlund, Georgia, Greta Gerwig, Harry Dean Stanton, historical drama, Ireland, Kristen Stewart, Martin Scorsese, Matthias Schoenaerts, Meryl Streep, musicals, Paul Thomas Anderson, religious movies, Romania, sci-fi, Sofia Coppola, Star Wars, Steven Spielberg, Terrence Malick, Tiffany Haddish, Tom Hanks, Turkey, women directors
11 Comments
Great Performances of 2017: Rogerebert.com
The group of regular critics at Rogerebert.com weighed in on what we consider to be some of the Great Performances of 2017. It was my great pleasure to write about Garrett Hedlund’s performance in Mudbound (streaming on Netflix: you need … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies
Tagged Garrett Hedlund, Harry Dean Stanton, Meryl Streep, Tilda Swinton
19 Comments
Review: Suffragette (2015)
I did not care for it at all. My review of Suffragette is now up at Rogerebert.com.
Review: Ricki and the Flash (2015); dir. Jonathan Demme
Preamble: The trailers have been everywhere. For months. With minor tweaks here and there, the trailers give the impression that 1. they are telling the entire story of the movie and 2. the movie is probably not any good. Whoever … Continue reading
The Homesman (2014); directed by Tommy Lee Jones
The Homesman really got to me. A feminist Western. Disturbing, emotional, messy, strange. My review of The Homesman is now up at Rogerebert.com.