Hollywood
June 15, 2023 — Steven Hayward
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
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May 12, 2023 — Scott Johnson
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
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March 16, 2023 — Scott Johnson
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:
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March 2, 2023 — Scott Johnson
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
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February 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
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
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December 20, 2022 — Steven Hayward
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
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November 15, 2022 — Scott Johnson
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
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November 13, 2022 — Scott Johnson
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
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September 4, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Back in the late 1960s when Lord of the Rings was rocketing into popularity, National Lampoon stepped up with a predictable parody, Bored of the Rings, in which Bilbo and Frodo became Dildo (naturally) and Frito, Gandalf became Goodgulf, etc. Hold this memory. Now Amazon has spent a billion dollars to produce a prequel to the Lord of the Rings (Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power) based on the material
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August 15, 2022 — Scott Johnson
TCM is in the middle of its annual Summer Under the Stars festival featuring blocs of films with favorite actors and actresses. At the moment they are running films starring Randolph Scott that continue through tomorrow morning. You may want to set your DVR tonight for Ride the High Country (1962, directed by Sam Peckinpah). Regardless of the star, every film played this month demonstrates the superiority of the old
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August 13, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Emina Melonic offers us a bonus piece with a look back at the glory days of Hollywood when Hepburn and Grant ruled the scene: Nothing says style and charm more than Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. Hepburn is known for her beauty and kindness, and Grant for his humor and suave looks, which is why their pairing in Stanley Donen’s 1963 “Charade” is absolute perfection. It’s a film that exudes
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August 7, 2022 — Steven Hayward
The news that “Batgirl” has been canceled by senior executives may be a significant sign that the rebellion against suffocating wokery is gaining steam, or maybe it is just a case of entertainment management finally figuring out sunk-cost fallacy. In any case, I asked Emina Melonic to bring her astute powers of cinematic perception to bear on the news: Variety reports that Warner Bros./Discovery CEO David Zaslav has decided to
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July 19, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Emina Melonic returns to our page this week with a detour for a look at Detour, a film I must confess I didn’t know about at all. Always a great comeuppance when someone from a younger cohort than me fills in my cultural deficiencies (and adds to my to-watch list): You wouldn’t think that one man can be plagued with a long and consecutive series of unfortunate events but it
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June 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Buzz Lightyear (voiced by the great Tim Allen, one of the few right-leaning stars in Hollywood) became an iconic character in the Toy Story series of films, but the new standalone Buzz Lightyear movie, with Buzz voiced by Chris Evans instead of Allen, has bombed at the box office, perhaps because it decided to go fully woke by prominently featuring a lesbian relationship. As Kyle Smith puts it, “today Hollywood’s
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June 9, 2022 — Scott Johnson
A would-be assassin sought to take out Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the early morning hours yesterday. That evening President Biden appeared on Jimmy Kimmel live to yuk it and ramble in the style to which we have grown accustomed. One might have thought this was a poor time to yuk it up on late-night television, but the show must go on. The Kimmel audience cheered wildly for Biden,
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June 6, 2022 — Steven Hayward
As someone who grew up in LA when the Lakers reached their first pinnacle with the great Jerry West/Wilt Chamberlain team that won a record 33 games in a row in the 1971-72 season (by an average margin of 17 points a game), and then to be around for the rise of the “Showtime” Lakers with the arrival of Magic Johnson in 1980, I have been looking forward to the
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May 24, 2022 — Steven Hayward
First it was Bill Maher, as noted here, thumbing his nose at the wokerati on the issue of transgenderism in his most recent HBO show. Now it is Ricky Gervais’s turn. He has a new comedy special coming out soon on Netflix, and move over Dave Chappelle! Take in this one-minute excerpt (STRONG language warning, but this has news value): Notice that the audience loves it. Interesting that the show
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