Movies
June 1, 2026 — Scott Johnson
At the Wall Street Journal Free Expression site, Kyle Smith observes that “Martin Scorsese is here to amuse you.” An accessible version of the column is also posted here at the Free Expression Substack site. Smith is the drama critic for the New Criterion and the film critic for the Journal in addition to his work for Free Expression. He is an observant and perceptive critic. In this column about
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June 1, 2026 — Scott Johnson
“Make them listen to me before it’s too late!” It could be the theme of Spencer Pratt’s campaign for mayor of Los Angeles, but it was the cry of Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) in the low-budget 1956 sci-fi thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The extraterrestrial takeover from outer space begins — where else? — in California. A psychiatrist is called to a Los Angeles hospital where Dr. Bennell
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April 22, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Mark Judge is a journalist and filmmaker whose writings have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Daily Caller. He is the author, most recently, of The Devil’s Triangle: Mark Judge vs the New American Stasi, cited by Mark below. Mark writes to apprise us of his inspired idea for a film festival. With a little help from you, dear readers, he
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April 17, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Tim Walz is completing his second and final term as governor. When Kamala Harris chose him as her running mate in August 2024, I laid out a conventional case against him in the Wall Street Journal column “A Minnesotan sizes up Tim Walz.” Even by the conventional measures I employed, to say he is the worst governor in Minnesota history is a drastic understatement. Walz has routinely decried President Trump’s
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March 31, 2026 — John Hinderaker
The City of Los Angeles is a microcosm of the flight of population away from high-tax blue states: Tens of thousands of residents are fleeing Los Angeles County, raising fresh questions about the region’s future as economic pressures mount. The region recorded the largest population drop of any in the nation between July 2024 and July 2025, according to newly released estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. The data, published
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March 31, 2026 — Scott Johnson
With its Fall 2025/Winter 2026 double issue, the Claremont Review of Books celebrated its 25th anniversary. It is full of excellent essays and learned reviews. I’ve been working my way through its 154 oversize pages. Some of the reviews are written by friends and acquaintances I esteem, such as Wilfred McClay, Jean Yarbrough, and Paul Rahe. Their contributions make the 25th anniversary issue itself something to be celebrated. Among my
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March 16, 2026 — Scott Johnson
We hate Hollywood. We hate the Oscars. We hate being lectured by moral cretins. However, reading previews of last night’s event, I learned of the film Blue Moon. The film is a portrait of Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers’s first lyricist. I found the movie on cable and watched it while we were snowbound at home yesterday afternoon. The movie was directed by Richard Linklater, written by Robert Koplow, and starred
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March 15, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Through web surfing I see that the Oscar award show is tonight. Who knew? I haven’t seen any movies in the past year, but I checked the Best Picture nominees to see whether any looked familiar. Here they are; and by the way, isn’t 10 nominees a lot? * Bugonia * F1 * Frankenstein * Hamnet * Marty Supreme * One Battle After Another * The Secret Agent * Sentimental
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November 12, 2025 — John Hinderaker
I don’t go to movies anymore. The last two I have seen in a theater were What Is a Woman? and Am I Racist?, both produced and directed by my friend Justin Folk. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I didn’t leave the movies, the movies left me. But there is entertainment value in following the ongoing demise of the film industry. This review of a British film called Christmas Karma, by
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October 12, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Amazon bought the James Bond franchise from MGM, and they are now bowdlerizing the Bond films by eliminating firearms from some images: Amazon — which took creative control of the series earlier this year in a blockbuster deal with MGM — quietly removed all of the firearms from the thumbnails for all of the James Bond movies on its Prime Video streaming service. The backlash was swift — and justified.
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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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August 16, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Earlier this week I noted that the Toronto International Film Festival killed the scheduled showing of a documentary — The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue — on Hamas’s 10/7 atrocities. Now comes news via Jewish Insider that the film has itself been rescued. In a statement “to the TIFF community,” TIFF and the filmmakers indicate they have felt our pain — TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey more than the filmmakers,
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August 15, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Taking a break from the news, last night I attended the so-called Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the IMAX theater of the AMC multiplex in Edina. In honor of the 60th anniversary of the band, this year’s Meet-Up featured a showing of the Dead’s previously released Grateful Dead Movie. As in years past, the audience for the Meet-Up must have been the oldest and the happiest in the 16 AMC Edina
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July 11, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The official White House account tweeted this, and it was retweeted by President Trump: THE SYMBOL OF HOPE. TRUTH. JUSTICE. THE AMERICAN WAY. SUPERMAN TRUMP. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/fwFWeYonAq — The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 11, 2025 As you no doubt are aware, a new “Superman” movie is being released. Director James Gunn appears to be pitching the movie’s perspective as anti-Trump. He says Superman is an “immigrant.” This is bizarre: Superman
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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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June 2, 2025 — Scott Johnson
The Free Press has just posted Rod Dreher’s long column “The woke right is coming for your sons.” Having toured the United States in support of the documentary Live Not By Lies! based on his book of the same name, Dreher writes that what he found “shocked me to my core.” He saw “the deep inroads, in such a short period, that right-wing totalitarianism, expressed most often as antisemitism, has
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May 29, 2025 — Bill Glahn
I saw a Hollywood movie in a theater last night, Sinners (2025). I recommend. The movie has been a huge hit, second in 2025 box office only behind the Minecraft movie. Here is my controversial take on the film: the vampire subplot is the least interesting aspect of the movie. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a more-than-serviceable vampire movie, but vampire movies are a dime-a-dozen. To me, the rest of
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