My wife is teaching a very cool class on the romance novel, and UA student media interviewed her about it: barefield.ua.edu/2026/02/02/e...

we've ended up at a pretty weird equilibrium of privacy breaches + unequally distributed legal power where our info is constantly stolen and sometimes you get an e-mail that says you're part of a class action lawsuit and sometimes you get another e-mail that says here's $20 then it all happens again

One last trip from my couch to Park City

The moment in Home Alone where John Candy is listing his polka hits and Catherine O’Hara dryly says “These are songs.” is an all-timer of a line reading for me

A Minnesotan here in Tuscaloosa gave a speech last night at a vigil detailing what her family, friends, and neighbors are experiencing right now. It’s worth watching in full. m.youtube.com/watch?v=lUWt...

A good read to follow up yesterday's nominations. 'Sinners' feels like a movie made from a Hollywood that could-be but almost certainly won't prospect.org/2025/12/11/s...

That ambient baritone droning you're hearing is the sound of middle-aged dads celebrating Bryce Dessner's Oscar nomination

Diane Warren getting an Oscar nomination for a song she wrote for a documentary about Diane Warren is really funny

The director of Frownland is an Oscar nominee

Philip K. Dick: I wrote Minority Report to warn of the freedom we exchange for a false sense of safety in a police and surveillance state. It’s about how the idea of free will is incompatible with authoritarianism. Chris Pratt: I bet I could win at it.

Just saw the new Avatar and, man, you really didn’t have do make Jemaine Clement fake an American accent for this

New pub from me! For this cool new collection that reconsiders Elvis's iconography, I wrote about the fan culture that developed around the movies Elvis could have been cast in but wasn't TL;DR: This culture reveals a gap between the 60s-70s we canonize vs. the 60s-70s in which Elvis participated

This photo from Tim Curry’s memoir brings me joy

Thinking today about how she was both an activist and a parent, how being a parent who wants to realize a world in which children and the adults they become are safe and free requires unyielding action, how people in power mock what it would take to build such a world, and how far we have drifted

1977

okay, academics, time to up our conference game

I have to go back to work tomorrow but before 2026 starts proper here’s my top movies for 2025. I wanted to write some words but ran out of time! boxd.it/R2dQw

Well I wasn’t expecting this

Welcome to the public domain: KING OF JAZZ (1930) 🎷 🎙️ Bing Crosby’s first on-screen appearance, as a member of the Rhythm Boys, performing in this early sound-era jazz moment filmed in two-strip Technicolor! Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai... #PublicDomainDay #CopyrightFree

Kiddo's growing interest in all things Star Wars led us to the '80s Ewoks cartoon, which TIL has this incredible theme song by *Taj Mahal* www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WFj...

I’m the 1st Chairman of the New York State Council of Parks from 1924 to 1963

Proof that Nicole Kidman exists outside of the concept of linear time, like the Observers.

Made a list of personal cinematic discoveries in 2025, including some Czechoslovak new wave, Argentine cinema new and old, nursesploitation, and at least one Vourdalak boxd.it/QNtbu

brb opening a box that can never be closed

Police: have you been watching movies? Me: a few Police: a few what?

each winner will now have to slowly unbox their Oscar while whispering their acceptance speech

it's that merry time of year again! by that mean the time of year where I get two drinks in and become real annoying about why Eyes Wide Shut is better in the open matte ratio

I've been doing archival research on Hollywood for over a decade but I was today years old when I learned UCLA has a really helpful central reference source for finding studio archives guides.library.ucla.edu/film/special...

I had an interesting exchange with the chatbot issued to students by my university about the advisability of using it—at a university. It thought this was a terrible idea.

I assign Stand By Me nearly every semester to teach film narrative. I don't primarily assign films for the purpose of students liking them, but let me tell you, that movie works on people. What a sensitive, honest depiction of kids coming to realize an indifferent world around them. RIP Rob Reiner

getting people back into theatres requires two things: a greater diversity of well-produced and marketed films, along with exhibitors working to build community around the idea of moviegoing

It’s official. Megalopolis is now an annual winter holiday tradition. First day of the year, it’s time for black eyed peas and some megalopoling

Sundance you have my attention

Our students are raising money to keep their magazines going after the University of Alabama suspended them for foregrounding the voices of women and African Americans. If you've got the means, please support them. givebutter.com/F0LNOA

It's never made sense to me why the first weekend after Thanksgiving has been for so many years a self-made dead zone at the box office, especially given the crowded release calendar this time of year. Hopefully this overturns some conventional wisdom. deadline.com/2025/12/box-...

The use of "unites" and "together" has me especially concerned, like we're in for a reboot of Squid Game that takes place in Rick's Café Américain

Warner Bros. caps off a year in which it has enjoyed the most promising and fascinating theatrical winning streak of any studio since COVID by selling to a company that wants to dismantle the theatrical experience

The Supremes wishing you a lovely holiday season!

me pushing out of the way the rest of my 2025 watchlist to see this first

i’m not normcore i’m midmaxxing

Gonna be a fun roundtable

Tony’s the fun one. Anthony is the serious one.

If you're around the American Studies Association conference and are looking for a Friday afternoon presentation on Motown's film and television production company, I've got you covered

the labor market isn't sleeping it's just resting its eyes a bit

"Reichardt uses the [heist] genre...to allegorize a distinct moment in postwar American history, in which individuals could less reliably organize against economic interests, and the biggest cons were being run not by private citizens but by state entities." lareviewofbooks.org/article/rebe...

When I think about how exquisitely careful NEH staff were to be fair, impartial, and rigorous, and how much work people put into grants so small they’re pocket change…I just want to scream.