-
Recent Posts
- August 2023 Viewing Diary
- R.I.P. Jimmy Buffett
- Classic Hollywood + Elvis
- “Reach out, take a chance, get hurt even, play as well as you can.” — Hal Ashby
- “The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.” — Keanu Reeves
- An Ode to E.B. White and a Very Special Teacher
- “I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.” — Lily Tomlin
- Review: Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (2023)
- In the Welter of packing-Chaos, there is one comforting constant:
- Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra: an interview with author Dan Callahan
Recent Comments
- sheila on Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra: an interview with author Dan Callahan
- Tom on Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra: an interview with author Dan Callahan
- sheila on Supernatural: Season 1, Episode 7: “Hook Man”
- sheila on Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra: an interview with author Dan Callahan
- sheila on Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra: an interview with author Dan Callahan
- Arne Fogel on Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra: an interview with author Dan Callahan
- sheila on Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra: an interview with author Dan Callahan
- sheila on Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra: an interview with author Dan Callahan
- Lyrie on Supernatural: Season 1, Episode 7: “Hook Man”
- Tom on Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra: an interview with author Dan Callahan
- sheila on “In the 20s, you were a face. And that was enough. In the 30s, you also had to be a voice. And your voice had to match your face, if you can imagine that.” — Joan Blondell
- sheila on I’ve gone National
- sheila on I’ve gone National
- sheila on I’ve gone National
- sheila on I’ve gone National
- sheila on I’ve gone National
- sheila on I’ve gone National
- sheila on I’ve gone National
- sheila on I’ve gone National
- Jimmy Ray Flynn on I’ve gone National
Categories
Archives
-
FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM
Tag Archives: Iran
“Fear adjective; they bleed nouns. Hate the passive.” — poet Basil Bunting
It’s his birthday today. By all accounts, including his own, Basil Bunting was some kind of genius prodigy. Along with everything else, he was also Iran correspondent for the London Times for a bit, and was very interested in Persia … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Basil Bunting, England, Ezra Pound, Iran, Michael Schmidt, poetry, W.B. Yeats
Leave a comment
January 2020 Viewing Diary
Hell Is for Heroes (1962; d. Don Siegel) A spare lean and mean war movie – pretty standard, actually – except Steve McQueen is actually presenting a character study here, a character he probably knows something about. He is eerie … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Al Pacino, Brad Pitt, children's movies, Colin Farrell, comedy, coming of age, crime movies, Dean Stockwell, documentary, Dorothy Arzner, drama, Dustin Hoffman, England, France, Ginger Rogers, heist, Iran, Iranian film, Jean Arthur, Joaquin Phoenix, Joel McCrea, John Sturges, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lucille Ball, Martin Scorsese, Maureen O'Hara, musical, Nick Nolte, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, romantic comedy, screwball, Steve McQueen, Supernatural, true crime, war movies, women directors
3 Comments
Present Tense: on Daughters of the Sun (2000)
I wrote about Maryam Shahriar’s 2000 film Daughters of the Sun for my next Present Tense column on Film Comment.
Posted in Movies
Tagged drama, Iran, Iranian film, Present Tense, reviews, women directors
1 Comment
More 2018 Movies to See
So all this Top 10 stuff gets a little bit too competitive for me sometimes. There can’t be a “winner” anyway, in art. It doesn’t work like that. This has been a really good year and I’ve seen a lot … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Al Pacino, Burt Reynolds, documentary, Elvis Presley, Iran, Iranian film, James Baldwin, Keanu Reeves, Orson Welles, Oscar Wilde, Sanaa Lathan, women directors
10 Comments
November 2018 Viewing Diary
Mr. Soul! (2018; d. Melissa Haizlip) The opening night film of Indie Memphis, which already feels like it was 20 years ago. I wrote about it briefly in my recap of the festival for Ebert. It’s a gorgeous film. Supernatural, … Continue reading
February 2018 Viewing Diary
Supernatural, Season 13, episode 12 “Various & Sundry Villains” (2018; d. Amanda Tapping) I was happy to see that the series showed at least passing interest in the inner life of one of its lead characters. Six Feet Under, season … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Abbas Kiarostami, Belgium, Bob Fosse, documentary, England, France, Ginger Rogers, Greta Gerwig, Iran, Iranian film, Joan Blondell, Korea, Kristen Stewart, Mervyn LeRoy, Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, Stanley Kramer, Steven Spielberg, Supernatural, women directors, X-Files, Zac Efron
28 Comments
Bookshelf Tour #8
Welcome to the Tyranny section of my bookshelves. First up: Collapse of Communism by the correspondents of The New York Times. A really interesting in-real-time book about the various gigantic events which signaled the crackup of the Soviet Union, as … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Afghanistan, bookshelves, Hannah Arendt, Iran, Iris Chang, Mark Bowden, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński
4 Comments
May 2017 Viewing Diary
Chuck (2017; d. Philippe Falardeau) A movie about the “real life Rocky,” the “bleeder from Bayonne” Chuck Wepner, starring Liev Schreiber. My review for Ebert. Take Me (2017; d. Pat Healy) God, I loved this movie. Please seek it out. … Continue reading

