Hollywood
October 25, 2025 — Scott Johnson
The showing of Midas Man at the Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival in Minneapolis this past Thursday evening was preceded by a local Beatles cover band — The Shabby Road Quintet, featuring Adam Levy, John “Strawberry” Fields, Ken Chastain, Joe Carey, and John Eller. The Shabby Road guys are preparing for their November 1 performance of the Beatles’ Revolver at the Dakota. Among the songs they played Thursday were “Taxman,”
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September 9, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Three years ago TCM included the gold-tinted version of Reflections In a Golden Eye (1967) in its annual Summer Under the Stars lineup. I love concision and therefore admired the one-sentence précis of the film. It went something like this: “Married to lusty Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando is feeling homosexual on an Army base in the South.” While the movie was filmed in Technicolor, the color elements of Reflections were
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June 26, 2025 — Scott Johnson
I love the screwball comedies of the 1930s as well as the Peter Bogdanovich homage to them in What’s Up, Doc?, but I hadn’t even heard of Ball of Fire before I caught up with it on TCM in 2022. I watched it again last night in TCM’s lineup of films starring Gary Cooper. This is what I had to say about it the first time around. Billy Wilder and
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June 11, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Clint Eastwood turned 95 on May 31. Anticipating his birthday, Variety caught up with him and reported that he is preparing to direct a new film. His comments to Variety indicate that his mental acuity has not waned. Eastwood has starred in, directed, and/or produced an almost unbelievable number of films long on entertainment of one kind or another. In 1984, the great critic Richard Grenier declared Eastwood “The World’s
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May 27, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Washington Post reporter and editor David Finkel spent eight months embedded with soldiers of the Army’s 2-16 infantry battalion in Iraq during the surge. Finkel’s devastating and widely praised The Good Soldiers (2009) is based on the time he spent with the unit in Iraq. “The good soldiers” are chewed up in the war waged on them by the terror masters in Iran. It is a book that made me
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May 26, 2025 — Scott Johnson
TCM has been showing movies in honor of Memorial Day since this past Friday evening. Its Memorial Day Marathon continues through this evening until early tomorrow morning. It kicked off its observance on Friday with the showing of The Best Years of Our Lives. Jack Fowler writes about the marathon in “Making Memorial Day with movies.” Peggy Noonan singled out The Best Years of Our Lives in her Wall Street
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May 4, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Rudy Vallee died in 1986 at the age of 84. He had a spectacular career in show business. The unattributed New York Times obituary recalled: From 1928 through the late 30’s, the insouciant salutation “Heigh-ho, everybody!” introduced Mr. Vallee to radio, theater and nightclub audiences. A vocalist and saxophone player adored by millions of Americans, most of them women, he was a tall, blue-eyed, fresh-faced, curly-haired Yale graduate whose eager
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February 18, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Today is the official publication date of Seven Things You Can’t Say About China, by Senator Tom Cotton. Senator Cotton is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He became its chairman in the new Congress. As I like to say of authorities when the assertion applies: he knows what he is talking about. John Hinderaker previewed the book here last week. I want to add these seven things you
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February 17, 2025 — Scott Johnson
TCM first broadcast the 1950 film noir Woman On the Run in April 2019 with this introduction by Noir Alley host Eddie Muller. I only caught up with the film on January 24 this year when it was rebroadcast with a terrific introduction by Muller and guest Ernest Dickerson. The two of them hit all the points I would want to make about the merits of the movie with a
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February 11, 2025 — Scott Johnson
I wrote the post below when the film Lincoln was released in 2012. I thought some readers might find it of interest today. My purpose here was to take up the movie in the context of Richard Hofstadter’s famous essay on Lincoln — an essay which is all that bright high-school students may ever learn about him. I have inserted links to the publisher’s pages of the books cited. This
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February 3, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Once upon a time Naked Came the Stranger was a sort of literary put-on written as a joint project by 24 journalists under the pseudonym Penelope Ashe. At last night’s Grammys the stranger was one Bianca Censori, the wife of the artist formerly known as Kanye. She is a stranger to me, anyway, and she effectively naked disrobed for the photographers in attendance before leaving the show. Kanye himself remained
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January 19, 2025 — Steven Hayward
I can’t get my head around all the permutations of the AI world coming to us at a rapid pace, though it looks as revolutionary at Gutenberg’s movable type in the 15th century. Who knew that the mass production of books would have such far reaching effects. One use of AI that I am enjoying, however, is its retro possibilities. Two from “Abandoned Films” on YouTube update contemporary Sci-Fi icons
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November 16, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
In the wake of November 5, some voters may be unsure how to deal with hostile types who voted against Trump. They might take a cue from A Streetcar Named Desire, casting themselves as Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando) with Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) as Kamala Harris. The dialogue could go something like this: I been on to you from the start and NOT ONCE did you pull the wool over
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November 1, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I have no idea who will win the presidential election when all the votes are counted some time after November 5 and the new Congress tabulates the results in the Electoral College on January 6. To avoid disappointment, I hope for the best and expect the worst. I can only say that if my hope of a Trump victory is vindicated, I hope no one shows Kamala Harris the Eastman
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October 25, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
An elderly janitor called Ralph arrives for his shift, pushing a cleaning cart from room to room. After trading pleasantries with a couple of office mates, Ralph starts killing everyone who crosses his path. Once Ralph has carved a path of violence through the building, he ascends to the roof, tosses a few smoke pellets onto the ground below, and vanishes into the chaos. That’s from “Everything to know about
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September 13, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The film Truth (2015) is playing right now on Showtime/Paramount+. If you know anything about the “truth,” so to speak, it is an utterly infuriating film. I want to take the liberty of repeating points about the film that I have made here previously. Despite the film’s commercial failure, I think the lies of Truth matter. They are intended to rewrite the historical record and to vindicate an audacious journalistic
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August 2, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll finds that DEHUMANIZING MAKES A COMEBACK. She writes: I hope that most Power Line readers enjoyed the Republican National Convention as much as I did. Though I am a tough grader on public speakers, I thought there was not a single speech that was not at least a strong B+. And one of the most enjoyable speeches was from the poised and lovely young Kai Trump, oldest grandchild
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