Hollywood
November 18, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I’ve been trying to catch up on reading I skipped in my favorite college courses and revisiting favorite films from years past. I thought just for the fun of it I would serve up my list of 10 favorite films as they occur to me today. When I ran it by a close friend this past Saturday, his only comment was: “How old are you?” Good question! I serve it
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October 31, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I wrote about the film The Plot Against the President here on Power Line this past weekend. Every time I attempt to post my review — most recently, this morning — I receive this notice: I have written twice to Amazon seeking an explanation. Despite the invitation extended to me in the notice, Amazon has rested on its right to remain silent. I am mystified. I can freely post reviews
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October 5, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Turner Classic Movies observed the 125th anniversary of the birth of Buster Keaton yesterday by replaying the terrific 2018 Peter Bogdanovich documentary The Great Buster: A Celebration (trailer below), followed by Sherlock, Jr. (1924), The General (1927), Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), and the lesser known Seven Chances (1928). Coincidentally, I think, one of the automobile companies broadcast an advertisement yesterday afternoon incorporating classic silent film stunts, including one or two
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August 24, 2020 — Steven Hayward
When the Citizens United decision that said the federal government can’t censor political speech came down back in 2010, many Democrats said it was literally the worst decision since Dred Scott, because it would allow for “big money” to sway an election. Remember that the issue presented in the case was a documentary film, “Hillary: The Movie,” produced by the non-profit Citizens United group. Well, Democrats must feel differently now,
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May 21, 2020 — Scott Johnson
In the adjacent post, I observe that Governor Walz has delivered us to the Central American people’s republic of San Marcos, as depicted in Woody Allen’s Bananas. Partly taking off from, and paying homage to, Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, Bananas is a brilliant comedy. The San Marcos thing is funny in the film. Everything is funny in the film. It’s not so funny in Minnesota. Could a movie like this
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May 6, 2020 — Scott Johnson
In the Wall Street Journal’s weekend Mansion section, Marc Myers interviewed the actor Dylan McDermott to construct the first-person narrative published under the headline “Sitcoms Taught Dylan McDermott Everything He Knew About Family.” McDermott had a stunted childhood. His father was an alcoholic; his mother was murdered when he was five. McDermott’s narrative account opens: My parents married young. My mom was 15 and my dad was 18 when I
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April 21, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Let’s try a thought experiment. Although the claim that Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 election campaign has no basis, it seems likely that Russia tried to interfere in the election via posts on social media. Suppose Congress undertook to investigate this matter. Suppose that, in conducting its investigation, a committee called as witnesses people who participated in social media and who had past ties with Russia. Finally, suppose
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April 21, 2020 — Scott Johnson
And now for something completely different, we turn to TCM host Ben Mankiewicz’s citation of his favorite books about movies, published in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal Review section and available online here. The Journal subhead touts Mankiewicz and two other “showbiz pros on the nonfiction works that taught them volumes about Hollywood, past and present.” These are Mankiewicz’s selections: “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” captures a time in moviemaking I
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April 2, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Save up for this! The Hulu streaming channel is debuting a nine-part series called “Mrs. America” on the 1970s-era clash between Gloria Steinem and Phyllis Schlafly chiefly over the Equal Rights Amendment, and given that it’s Hollywood’s take you can be sure it is fully “nuanced.” You know you are in trouble when the very first sentence of the review of the show in the Hollywood Reporter today runs as follows:
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March 6, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll has a contribution to make to OSCARS SO STUPID. She writes: Yes. I know that it’s March now and the Oscars were last month. But the has-been celebrities continue to attack, so I thought a never-was columnist should fight back. A few years ago, the Wokest of the Wokesters had serious complaints about the Oscars’ lack of black nominees. Several people boycotted and dubbed them #OscarsSoWhite. At no
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February 11, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Watching the video highlights of the Oscar winners serving up their deep political thoughts this past Sunday evening, I wondered how anyone could top the lady who recited the revolutionary slogan from the Communist Manifesto.: “Workers of the world, unite.” She omitted: “You have nothing to lose but your chains!” I wonder why. I can’t answer that question, but I can suggest that Joaquin Phoenix topped her. He brought to
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February 10, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Needless to say, I didn’t watch the Academy Awards show last night. In fact, I didn’t know it was on: Hollywood and I parted company a long time ago. But I was surprised to learn from a friend that the New York Times ran an ad, during the Oscars show, for its 1619 Project. This seems unusual. How often does a paper advertise one of its “news” projects on national
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February 8, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Today comes the sad news that Orson Bean has died as the result of being hit by a car in Venice, California. The AP has posted an adequate obituary mostly written by the late Bob Thomas here. With a little help from Orson himself, I would like to add to Thomas’s obituary from a perspective you are unlikely to find in the mainstream media. Orson Bean’s career spanned five decades.
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January 6, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I avoided watching the Golden Globe Awards show last night because I hate political diatribes by Hollywood morons, but I am sorry I missed the opening monologue by Ricky Gervais. Speaking ironically, he belittled his monologue as “just jokes.” Gervais, however, inflicted some serious pain — the faces of the audience looked like those in the audience at the beginning of Springtime for Hitler in Mel Brooks’s The Producers. The
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December 30, 2019 — Scott Johnson
My movie of 2017 was Thank You For Your Service. The film introduced me to the astounding book by Washington Post editor David Finkel, the second of two he has written based on the soldiers he met while embedded with 2-16 Infantry Battalion during the surge. What I found most haunting in the film came straight out of the book. I recommended the movie and the book here on Power
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December 27, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Roger Ailes might have gotten a kick out of this report from the Washington Post. Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly are locked in a proxy war over, in effect, which of the two women merits top billing in “Bombshell,” the movie about Ailes’s downfall at Fox News. (I say “proxy war” because the battle is being waged by their friends). The Post’s Paul Fahri reports: There’s an argument brewing over
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December 26, 2019 — Scott Johnson
NR’s Kyle Smith includes The Cold Blue somewhere near the top of his list of 2019’s ten best documentaries. Smith writes: Back when leading Hollywood personalities felt it was their patriotic duty to put themselves in harm’s way for their country, the director William Wyler (who would go on to make The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben-Hur) was among those who went off to make movies as part
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