Hollywood

Racism and “American Fiction”

Featured image Even before the horror of October 7 blew the lid off the anti-Semitic rot on our college campuses, it was starting to look like the “social justice revolution” was starting to come apart. Think of how Ibram X. Kendi’s famous center for anti-racist research at Boston University hit the wall, as was easy to predict when it launched, along with the obvious corruption and self-dealing of Black Lives Matter that »

Killer Construct on Screen

Featured image Another month has passed without full release of Audrey Hale’s manifesto, which could reveal her motive for the murder of nine-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs, daughter of Chad Scruggs, senior pastor at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Hale, a woman who thought she was a man, also shot dead schoolmaster Katherine Koonce, 59; substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61; and custodian Mike Hill, 61. On March 29, »

Goodbye Graffiti Girl

Featured image Fair to say, few if any episodes of “Three’s Company” and “Step by Step” are worth recalling. To remember Suzanne Somers, who has passed away at 76, dial it back to her first screen appearance in American Graffiti, released 50 years ago and directed by an upstart named George Lucas. Somers plays a “blonde in T-Bird” and through the window she mouths the words “I love you,” to Curt Henderson »

Conservatism, Animal-Style

Featured image Whenever I am down in the LA area, as I am today, my mind runs to ordering French fries “animal style” from In-n-Out burgers. (IYKYK.) But today, opening up the Washington Post, I discover the origins of a possible new sect of conservatism: Animal-House conservatives, who naturally do things “animal-style.” Yes, the Post really does suggest that the 1978 comedy blockbuster Animal House bears some responsibility for the Reagan era »

Sound of Fabrication

Featured image I geared my comments on Sound of Freedom to the story I saw on the screen. That’s what I reacted to. I thought the story was full of transparent fakery — the superhero story of former DHS agent Tim Ballard, not the phenomenon of human trafficking depicted in the movie. My comments on Sound of Freedom elicited a torrent of personal abuse akin to the torrents that John unleashes when »

Guest Film Review: “2023: A Barbie Odyssey”

Featured image Steve writes: I noted this morning that “Barbie” seems to be dividing everyone, and not all readers agreed with my suggestion that some conservative critics are overdoing it in the same way the left would never tolerate “Blazing Saddles” today. (Of course, I’m the guy who thinks “Cloud Atlas” is a *conservative* work of great genius—both the novel and the film, so as I say, your mileage may vary.) Emina »

Two movie notes

Featured image I ventured out to a movie theater for the first time post-Covid for the annual Grateful Dead meet-up in November 2022 (here) and again this year in June (here). I wrote up my assessments for the benefit of commenters who can’t enjoy displaying their superiority with their derision. It is my privilege to share my enthusiasms on Power Line. The Grateful Dead is certainly one. It took the Dead to »

Hollywood, RIP

Featured image Hollywood’s actors’ and screenwriters’ unions have both gone on strike. The divisions between these employees and management apparently are deep, and some think the strike could go on for a long time. This would prevent the movie studios, etc., from producing any content for a while, which would be fine with me. Barry Diller, head of the media conglomerate IAC and former CEO of Paramount and 20th Century Fox, worries »

Is Hollywood Waking Up?

Featured image Like most of corporate America, Hollywood has fallen prey to the “DEI” delusion in recent years. Far from being a good thing, corporate “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” measures generally represent a poisonous brew of racism, leftism and anti-Americanism. The sooner this fad fades from the scene, the better. In the Telegraph, U.S. Editor Nick Allen sees signs that the entertainment industry is moving back toward sanity: Hollywood is suffering “diversity »

Tar-Nation

Featured image I had heard vaguely last year a lot of buzz about Tar, the film featuring Cate Blanchett starring as a conductor who gets canceled for some form of impropriety or political incorrectness, but I didn’t see it. I gather a lot of people think Blanchett and the film were passed over at the Academy Awards because it talked back to cancel culture, though I hear more and more rumors out »

Mongo Santos Maria!

Featured image I can’t say I thought “Mongo Santa Maria” was the funniest line in Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles, but I thought it was funny and it has stuck in my mind for some 50 years. It comes to mind in connection with the indictment of Republican Rep. George Santos on federal charges this week. Mongo Santos Maria! Santos was just elected this past November and his offenses only came to light »

Assume Nothing: Edward Jay Epstein speaks

Featured image In my comments on his new book I expressed my regard for the incomparable Edward Jay Epstein and his autobiography Assume Nothing, just published by Encounter Books. I wanted to follow up with Ed to bring the book to your attention again and perhaps to spark your interest in reading it. Below is my written interview with Ed geared to the publication of the book on March 7: Power Line: »

March madness, TCM style

Featured image I love the screwball comedies of the 1930’s 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 last year. I watched it again this week as TCM warmed up for its version of March madness — its 31 Days of Oscar programming. TCM has quite a lineup of films »

The prime idiocy of Mr. Don Lemon

Featured image Muriel Spark’s classic novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was published in full by the New Yorker in October 1961 and subsequently in hardcover. The novel remains in print and was successfully adapted for the stage and screen by Jay Presson Allen. If you ever saw the film, you won’t have forgotten Maggie Smith’s incredible portrayal of the title character. Smith took home the Oscar for best leading actress »

The World According to “Yellowstone”

Featured image We’ve been meaning to devote an episode of the 3WHH podcast to a consideration of “Yellowstone,” which has been a monster hit on streaming TV the last few years. One problem is that I am two seasons behind, as is my typical TV viewing practice. At some point we’ll all get caught up and try it. The fact that the New York Times and other typical media morons have run »

Persecution and the art of Dave Chappelle (2)

Featured image We are awash in a wave of anti-Semitic hatred and violence that is coursing through the black community and elsewhere. I heard it in the troubled musings of Kanye West and wrote about in “Anti-Semitism for Ye — but not for me.” The December Commentary features Elliot Kaufman’s deep backgrounder “O Ye of Little Faith: The Anti-Semitism of Kanye West.” Over the weekend comedian Dave Chappelle hosted Saturday Night Live »

Persecution and the art of Dave Chappelle

Featured image Dave Chappelle hosted Saturday Night Live last night. In his opening monologue, Chappelle held at painful length that “the Jews” control the world but that this can only be said out loud ironically — because, you know, “the Jews.” It was an unsubtle performance that might be funny if you are on board with that particular “point of view.” Then it might be hilarious. I caught up with video of »