I feel more meh about Oscars season than I usually do because it all seems especially meaningless compared to literally anything else happening in the world right now, and yet about once a day I'll catch myself thinking something like, "WE ARE NOT TALKING ENOUGH ABOUT HEDDA, WTF!!!!!"

Ron Funches on TRAITORS is a balm

Imagine if Marty Supreme flew all that way to Japan and instead of demanding a rematch with Endo he was just like, "Gimme that award you won fair and square, bro," and Endo was just like, "Sure bro, no prob, here ya go, you truly are supreme"

If “black people have to work twice as hard …” were a(four) movie character(s):

I meant every word of it! 🙂

At the start of every year, I write a column for NPR trying to predict big media trends. Must say, I have never written a more pessimistic column w/one shining hope: Today's media consumers have more power than they realize, and they are using it. READ: https://loom.ly/0NqWH54

The PCHH newsletter drops in a few minutes, and everything I review and recommend this week has been engineered to offer an infusion of joy, of humor, of, essentially, Not This. Sometimes this job feels like a calling. This week, especially.

Will forever be side-eyeing every single person who was involved with adapting HILLBILLY ELEGY, I don’t care how much great art they’ve produced otherwise

Seven days into 2026 and I'm already ready to take it out back and put it too out of its misery

Most of the credit belongs to our very diligent producers, who take the time to track down pronouncers for all of our episodes! And then I try my damndest to make it sound as close as possible within the confines of my own accent. It means a lot when listeners notice! 🙂

Thinking about how I grew up thinking Toni Braxton and others were all whispering “dog chow” at the beginning of their songs, and me, being a kid, didn’t think that was a weird thing to say at all

There's a DJ (Hollywood Tramp) who's replacing all of Nicki's guest verses with other female rappers so he can still play the songs without feeling icky, and this is great 2026 energy. (The Doechi swap on "Bang Bang" is 🔥🔥🔥)

Anywho: sharing my final year-end lists, since my day job deadlines for such things are early and I’m always cramming in new viewings up until Dec. 31. Happy new year, ya filthy animals.

Look, it's NYE and I'm a couple drinks in and haven't fully thought this through, but I think the rise of AI slop is a direct byproduct of the slow and steady decline in support for the arts and arts education in the last several decades (all the funding cut to programs at schools, specifically)

No matter how many times I watch this, I always lol when Sally says she’s leaving the NYE party because of “the thought of not kissing someone” at midnight, and Jess cuts her off and is like, “I’ll kiss you,” right in front of his wife, Marie. Oh really, my dude??? 😂

This is such an extraordinary reaction shot, no notes, perfection

BABY FISH MOUTH!

Took some time to think about what I needed from the movies aiming to engage with the current political landscape this year. Shout out to both my fantastic editor Clare Lombardo and the truly dreadful ELLA MCCAY, for helping me crystalize my perspective. www.npr.org/2025/12/29/n...

This year's edition of TCM Remembers makes the heaviness of all we lost really sink in www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF8_...

December 24, 9pm, eastern standard time From here on in I shoot without a script

Tried something a little different this year and looked back on some of my favorite pop culture moments, from Serena's surprise (and petty) Super Bowl cameo to the sweet bromance of TWINLESS: www.npr.org/2025/12/22/n...

I love the Bay, and I love that snow and freezing cold aren't a thing here, but I'm starting to realize that the near non-stop rain during the winter months isn't much better for my mood/seasonal depression.

On my old show Represent we had a guest who talked about their issues with RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER — how its message is screwy because Rudolph isn’t accepted until he’s proven “useful,” and how this is the same narrative we fall into with migrants and I’ve never looked at RUDOLPH the same tbh

Very sad. I *hated* Ziggy during my first go-round of S2, because like a lot of people I hated the shift in focus to the docks. Each rewatch made me grow to actually like and fully appreciate that season more, and Ransone’s character arc and performance was a huge reason why.

Pretty much everyone who’s on the “Monster” track has proven to be a POS for one reason or another in the last 15 years, which is a shame

Disrespectfully, ma'am. YOU are AI. 😂

The Spotify Wrappification of everything has gotten out of hand. No [X retailer], I *do not* wish to look back fondly on how many times I bought shoes from you this year and how much money I supposedly saved doing it

I brought Sixpence None the Richer to the Tiny Desk for some holiday cheer (and melancholy) @npr.org youtu.be/sSY_w9odHPk?...

Almost as bad as writing hundreds of nonsense words blaming DEI and George Floyd on your inability to get a TV writing job as a white dude is being a ticket scalper. Not only are you contributing nothing to society, but you’re actively making it worse.

I always watch WHEN HARRY MET SALLY around this time of year because it is a holiday movie at its core and is near-perfect and … it’s going to be a very difficult watch this time around.

Think it's about time we take 2025 out back and put it out of its misery

It is my belief that saxophone breaks in pop songs make every song infinitely better. Exhibit A: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcb-...

Dick Van Dyke has lived to be 100 and he seems like he's had a pretty happy life. I'm glad for him, for he is a national treasure! www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_CE...

Rewatching Diddy perform "I'll Be Missing You" at the VMAs, and apart from how gross the whole affair looks in retrospect -- I was 9 when it aired, I knew nothing then -- dude couldn't even be bothered to mumble those whack-ass lyrics live??? ZERO breath control. No talent!

Excuse me, just over here chuckling at this subhead on Gwyneth Paltrow's Wikipedia page

Lisa Taddeo holds up a sign: "A young white blonde woman who was 'exiled' to Malibu for being bad at her job was lynched yesterday"

This streamer-curated holiday playlist I'm currently listening to has a lot of Robert Goulet on it, and it's made me realize that Will Ferrell did to Goulet what WALK HARD did to the music biopic

Have watched two of the episodes so far and I still very much wish this doc wasn’t fueled by the petty vengeance of a washedup rapper. I’m also not sure I’ve gained any new insight since so much of this has been well-documented by journalists and in online discourse already. 🤷🏾‍♀️

NPR fights Trump's executive order against public media The case isn't getting much attention. But it pits the press's right not to face government retaliation over coverage against the president's assertion of vast executive powers My story: www.npr.org/2025/12/05/g...

Wait — PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM *isn’t* part of the CASABLANCA cinematic universe????

Really sad to hear this news. I worked with Tammie almost exclusively through email correspondence over the years, but we had a nice rapport and she was always so helpful and kind to me. She did great, necessary work and will be missed. deadline.com/2025/12/tamm...

Year-end critics’ lists exist for people to fight over, so I’m happy when people complain about them. But the complaint I will never get is, “I’ve never heard of most of these movies/albums/shows.” Yes, and? Why be mad about learning about stuff you didn’t know before from the news?

Every retailer that's like, "Surprise! Cyber Monday sale EXTENDED!" is like every musical act that pretends to end a show with "Good night, we love you!", exits the stage, and then waits one minute for the obligatory call for an "Encore" before sauntering back on stage to play their biggest hit

“Strong floor, no ceiling” only reminds me I need to work harder at strengthening my pelvic floor, I can’t be the only one, right?

I don’t know if MARTY SUPREME is hard proof Josh is the superior Safdie filmmaker bro overall, but it *does* prove he made the superior Safdie bro movie in the year of our lord 2025

Did you know Armie Hammer is in a new movie alongside William H. Macy and Thomas Jane? Probably not; the only reason I know is because some poor publicist in my inbox has been pushing this movie no one is going to see *hard* for the last couple of weeks

Really weird to watch an Eddie Murphy doc and not hear one mention of the Black Pack, or Keenan Ivory Wayans, or Robert Townsend 👀

The dogs’ noses have been going into overdrive all day as the food’s been cooking. They really think they’re gonna get a taste of some of this delicious human food. (Narrator: They will, because you are not a monster.)

"Once in a while, you see a movie that doesn’t feel made, but extracted from a dreaming mind. It won’t go to you and hand over its meanings. You have to go to it." I reviewed The Secret Agent, my favorite film of 2025. Haunting, beautiful, profound. www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-...

This fucking timeline, I tell ya. The gutter. The dumpster. The dirtiest asscrack of humanity.