PPS: Demme would have been proud.

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER: Its pleasures are too myriad and multifaceted to mention them all here, so I’ll just say: It’s nice to see Sean Penn remind the world that he’s the greatest fucking actor of his generation. PS: Best needle drop of the decade.

How many times did you see OBAA?

One Battle After Another (****) PTA+ Pynchon+Battle of Algiers+Something Wild = Prescient Epic!

Is the Rapture some garage band trying to release an album?

One beach read after another. Thanks, @shakeymike.bsky.social!

Al Pacino on Dog Day Afternoon at 50: ‘It plays more today than it even did then’

Richard Nixon tried suppressing the antiwar humor of CBS's "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and a 1973 TV production of David Rabe's "Sticks and Bones," but the overall consensus of Americans rolled their eyes over these forms of censorship. This too shall pass. (2/2)

With the chaos of Colbert and Kimmel being silenced, I'm reminded of Havel's thoughts on fighting authoritarianism through satire: "Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not." (1/2)

Been looking forward to this for a Loooooong time @filmnerddave.bsky.social

One week before I catch One Battle After Another, and realizing all these guys worked with Leo DiCaprio at some point in their careers.

One of the many joys from my book tour is meeting those who had the privilege of not only working with Jonathan Demme, but marching alongside him. Someone at @brattletheatre.bsky.social shared this photo taken on September 9, 1992, of Demme marching alongside the NAACP in Washington, D.C.

Such a heartwarming anecdote about Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter.

"We've got Hollywood right were we want 'em, Paul!"

Cool to see my book in the local library!

Hey look it’s @filmnerddave.bsky.social talking Demme before tonight’s Somerville Ciné-Club screening of MARRIED TO THE MOB.

Married to the Mob (****) Special Agent Franklin: "The mob is run by murdering, thieving, lying, cheating psychopaths. We (the FBI) work for the President of the United States of America." What a time to be alive!

New today on the site! Give Peace a Chance: Jonathan Demme’s FIGHTING MAD and the Peaceful Exploitation Film - @jlalibs.com

Happy Labor Day!

Robert Plant with The Who in 2002, one month after John Entwistle's death.

Nice to wake up and see this! Thanks, @dwhdaily.bsky.social!

"WGBH, the bellwether public TV station in Boston, has laid off the 13 people who worked on the history series “American Experience” and announced that no new documentaries will be produced for the show until further notice." 🗃️ www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/a...

Santa Monica, it's been a trip and a half! 18 tons of peace and love to DIESEL Bookstore in Brentwood for hosting me and my supercool mentor, Amy Scott, and all who came out to hear me talk about Jonathan Demme.

At Crooked Marquee this week I talked to @filmnerddave.bsky.social about his terrific new book THERE’S NO GOING BACK: THE LIFE AND WORK OF JONATHAN DEMME.

Bookending a great screening with @jlalibs.com and David Stewart who wrote the new Demme book THERE'S NO GOING BACK with @brattletheatre.bsky.social

Burn After Reading (Coen Brothers, 2008)

New on @cambridgeday.com! Hong Sangsoo! Wong Kar Wai! Věra Chytilová! Godzilla! Plus a @cine-matographe.bsky.social showcase at @brattletheatre.bsky.social (featuring @filmnerddave.bsky.social & @jlalibs.com) and the local premiere of Alex Ross Perry’s VIDEOHEAVEN!

Delightful mail day. My second copy of Elaine May’s A New Leaf (but its first time on 4K!), and first time on BluRay for Jonathan Demme’s Spalding Gray’s Swimming To Cambodia. If you asked “who are your favorite directors,” May and Demme would be out of my mouth within moments. @vinsyn.bsky.social

Had a nice chat with a fellow, film-loving Bostonian. Thanks, Eric!

"Stewart’s biography is compelling testimony for Demme’s role as an insider-outsider in an industry that, in the last years of his life, was increasingly inhospitable to creativity." Thanks, Shepherd Express!

It was nice chatting on @gbhnews.bsky.social's The Culture Show this afternoon about my book.

The new Demme biography is here! The new Demme biography is here! @filmnerddave.bsky.social

I'll take it!

28 years on, Trey Parker and Matt Stone remain the Jedi masters of animated satire.

Exclusive: The Justice Department told President Trump in May that his name is among many in the Epstein files.

Honored to be mentioned in the first paragraph of @dwhdaily.bsky.social's write up for @criterion.bsky.social!

Big congrats to my buddy @filmnerddave.bsky.social on the publication of THERE’S NO GOING BACK: THE LIFE AND WORK OF JONATHAN DEMME, exactly the kind of funky and collegial biography this great artist deserves.

I received a glowing message from Craig McKay, Jonathan Demme's longtime friend and editor, thanking me for writing the book and that Demme would've loved it. Validation from your sources feels so good!

WGA statement on Paramount’s decision to cancel the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Thanks to YES! Weekly for giving a shout-out to my book along with some groovy summer reading by my University Press of Kentucky colleagues!

EDDINGTON (***1/2). Aster's love letter to Peckinpah and pandemic chaos is his finest work.

Peter Fonda in Ulee's Gold 🎂🕯️

I had a lovely conversation with the entertaining and insightful Pamela Ross for her Substack page about Demme, music, feminism, and reasons why to watch THE AGRONOMIST & MELVIN AND HOWARD.

Hey folks! Here's some tour dates and events coming up! 7/29: Cambridge, MA. @harvardbookstore.bsky.social. 8/4: New York City, NYC. Bryant Park with Scott Aldeberg. 8/7: Concord, NH. @gibsonsbookstore.bsky.social with Steve Ambra. 8/20: Santa Monica, Diesel Bookstore in Brentwood.

Jon athan Dem me

New today on the site: Our new Jonathan Demme issue kicks off with post @eccantwell.bsky.social on Talking Heads, Demme, STOP MAKING SENSE, absurdity & anchors, existentialism, bodies in motion, and the transcendent joy of art in this moment (🎨 by @studioralston.bsky.social)