Netflix has renamed this “Death by Lightning” and drops its 4-part adaptation tomorrow. It’s b/o Candice Millard’s 2011 “Destiny of the Republic,” the best history book I covered in nearly 20 years as a daily NYT book critic. Her title was better. Can’t wait. www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/b...

Pleasantville isn’t a ritzy suburb. But it’s got a really good movie theater. @burnsfilmcenter.bsky.social

The Times’ having fired Peter Keepnews over a joke he made after his decades’ worth of service is outrageous. Didn’t know him, don’t know what the joke was. But I know this is excessive. He’s a second-generation jazz aficionado and the writer of some of the best NYT arts obits. He’s irreplaceable.

Happy 50th to all who celebrate.

Goddess. Cutup. Role model. Fashion original. And a fine filmmaker too. She directed “Unstrung Heroes” 30 years ago. R.I.P. 💔 www.nytimes.com/1995/09/15/m...

Also How to Stuff a Wild Bikini and Beach Blanket Bingo. Respect.

The TV/advertising model doesn’t work if no one’s watching. You’re welcome.

The most-read story in today’s Washington Post is a 3-day-old ranked list of 5700 holidays. Today is, among many other things, National Little Black Dress Day. Fine. Celebrate if you must. But don’t click on this junk if you want newspapers to cover real news.

NYT today has a gerrymandering game that you can play for fun while real legislators play for keeps. It’s adorable. Like Wordle! Like Connections! I’m not making this up.

It ranks just behind One Love and way behind Bohemian Rhapsody. But two of the top 7 were directed by James Mangold. Not bad.

This isn’t about movies. It’s about the Dome, a trippy spectacle joint in Las Vegas. What did you expect?

If Ron Howard’s “Eden” opens on schedule later this month, you’re about to start having very different conversations about Sydney Sweeney. She hasn’t done anything like this before. Neither has he.

He’s still alive as of 7/30/25. Just wish him well.

About Whit Stillman and “Barcelona” in 1994: “He makes odd, tender, uncategorizable films that must utterly confound the market researchers whose opinions shape Hollywood. Good.”

Goodbye to one of my first heroes. I hope he passed peacefully. He lived a good long life. Tom Lehrer was I-went-to-summer-camp-with-Stephen Sondheim years old. They must have stayed in touch. Sondheim had a little book of Lehrer rhymes or riddles or whatever in a guest bathroom at his NY home.

No! Not today! Please not today! 💔💔💔

It did.

I doubt it too. But I’m not a bot trying to tamp down the news by turning it into soulless AI. Go block yourself, okay?

Colbert’s regulars won’t go to Gutfeld, Daily Mail. They’ll just stop watching.

Well it isn’t about the truth, if that’s what you mean. CBS Says It’s Canceling Colbert Over Money, Not Politics. Is That Truthiness? www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/a...

I was getting CBS and Comedy Central via a Paramount+ subscription. Adios to that.

“And the weatherman lied.”🎶

The Shrouds is now watchable at home. It plays better than it did in theaters. Definitely not for everyone—but it works for me and it’s gotten better with every viewing. He’s onto something, just as he was with Crimes of the Future. Prophetic, mournful, bizarre, exquisitely macabre. Funny too.

Say it again.

Now making a ranked list of The 341 Greatest Lists Of All Time. Because that’s how we roll.

NYT lists the top 100 films of this century and entirely ignores David Cronenberg? Really?

Everybody had a new face Everybody had a smartphone Everybody had a tik-tok Everybody had a substack Oh yeah

This was the Rivoli in NYC. 50 years ago this AM I was in a car with the nervous director of “Jaws” and Albert Brooks heading over there. The director wondered whether there’d be a line. There was. It went around the corner and far beyond. He really hadn’t known this could happen. What a day!

A song for this sad day. youtube.com/watch?v=46IQ...

Here’s how he worked. He’s trying to get the Wrecking Crew musicians to play what he hears in his head. The film “Love and Mercy” dramatizes this especially well. Also well worth watching: Don Was’ “Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times.” Both on Prime. youtu.be/uVlSVkzbJDA

Brian Wilson? Noooooo!!!

Goodbye to Sly. Rest in Power. 💔 youtube.com/watch?v=3Jvk...

Walter Murch has a new book. That’s big news. x.com/badmanbegins...

My son got to his thirties without either of our knowing he shares Bob Dylan’s birthday. Which is a lucky thing, because his early parties were Godzilla-themed the way he wanted them. Bob’s my Godzilla, not his. Happy Birthday, honey. What a fine man you turned out to be.

“Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead.”

R.I.P. to my darling friend. We first met in the 1970s and last saw each other a few weeks ago. Love and deepest condolences to John Benton, his devoted son; his wife Sallie, who died in 2023, and Marisa Forzano, the mainstay of his professional life for decades. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/m...

Darin says that this 1969 clip is Nyro’s first tv appearance. She’d been writing huge hits but hadn’t been seen performing them herself. She’s another 60s dynamo who got an early break from Peter, Paul and Mary—who covered her first song, And When I Die, well before Blood, Sweat and Tears did it.

Join me with Kenny Turan on Saturday at 2 PM, to talk about his Thalberg-Mayer book and anything else. Jacob Burns Film Center, Saturday 5/10.

Ah-hoo!!!

You know what works really well? The “off” button on whatever device you’re using.

Illustrious critic Kenneth Turan at the Jacob Burns Film Center on May 10 with his book on Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer. Please join us! burnsfilmcenter.org/booking/an-a...

NYT, why would you use automated voices to read articles? You had real people working there last time I checked.

@slink69.bsky.social I’m trying to DM you, Slink. But I can’t do it.

Official portrait. Probably taken at the Jacob Burns Film Center, probably for the NYT. This was work mode. It’s from another world.

Props here in every sense. Foreground: paraphernalia used in “A Complete Unknown.” Rear: guy now pushing 84 and playing his best shows in years. @BobDylanCenter, Tulsa. 3/25/25

Tulsa time, anyone?

“25 Ultra Feminine Nail Ideas That Are Helping Us Usher In Warmer Weather.”