For the night crowd

Everything in here is worth your time, but I particularly encourage reading the final one in this roundup. It's great writing about two films I wasn't previously aware of, and it's worth thinking about.

It's been a packed year of writing from me. Here are 12 pieces I'm happy to have written in 2025.

Got my contributor’s copy of the new issue of Documentary Magazine, my first ever cover story.

I’ve been working on this one for a minute. With Criterion releasing DAVID BYRNE’S AMERICAN UTOPIA, for @letterboxd.social I surveyed Spike Lee’s rich history as a musical director. Read: letterboxd.com/journal/spik...

Final share as you head into your weekend.

Watching BARTON FINK on Criterion Channel with @812filmreviews.com, so here’s this piece I wrote about the film’s inspirations for @nerdist.bsky.social a few years ago

In this week's guide: a new docu-drama from an Oscar-nominated Tunisian director, the new doc by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, a collection of short films, an experimental doc, a biopic of artist Niki de Saint-Phalle, a Canadian winter-set animated short, and a screwball comedy by Rebecca Miller

"Hawke allows this desperation to seep in slowly, like a balloon letting out air over the course of a party." At @ebertvoices.bsky.social I wrote about Ethan Hawke's masterful work in BLUE MOON as one the year's great performances Read: www.rogerebert.com/features/the...

Since DAVID BYRNE'S AMERICAN UTOPIA is now in Criterion Collection, I wrote about Spike as a musical director!

More Ossie Davis stuff for his birthday. Another @ebertvoices.bsky.social piece I wrote about Davis' play PURLIE VICTORIOUS, and the joy I felt after FINALLY seeing it on Broadway. My favorite of all the things I wrote in 2024. www.rogerebert.com/black-writer...

In honor of Ossie Davis' birthday today, here's the @ebertvoices.bsky.social piece I wrote about how he and Ruby Dee were partners like John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. One of the best pieces I wrote this year. www.rogerebert.com/features/oss...

Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann, Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson, Luc Moullet, Esfir Shub, Abel Ferrara, Sam Shepard … it’s the December Books roundup — www.criterion.com/current/post...

This is a fantastic read and reminds me how much I love the unexpected little dance that opens DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS

👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

Wonderful article here. Somehow Spike Lee is still underrated if you ask me.

One thing I do like about this move is that the Oscars won't necessarily need to conform to a runtime that fits television anymore.

Daniels' essay is exceptional -- and he helps me to zero in on another aspect of the omnivorous brilliance of Lee. (Is there anything Spike Lee can't do?)

icymi

Robert Daniels & Odie Henderson Talk Sinners - by Robert Daniels & Odie Henderson www.rogerebert.com/features/rob...

I enjoyed this reading conversation between critics. #Sinners www.rogerebert.com/features/rob...

Here's a great conversation by Odie Henderson and Robert Daniels on the fabulous film Sinners by Ryan Coogler! @herberthistory.bsky.social this is pertinent to your interests! www.rogerebert.com/features/rob...

I loved discussing this film with fellow vampire fan (and IWTV fan!) @msclairebiddles.bsky.social, although we came out with pretty different reactions. See also this conversation between critics Odie Henderson and Robert Daniels, who had similarly mixed opinions: www.rogerebert.com/features/rob...

I fear that THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE is this year’s CYRANO and I’m pretty sick about it.

“The viewer, like these Red Crescent workers, must sit with Hind and bear witness to her distress, to her singular pleas for help, for her life.” Fantastic stuff by Marya

THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB "exists not just as a clarion call to say never again, it also asks you to sit with this violence. Not with the bloodshed, not with the abstraction of a number in a news article. But with this violence." Read my four-star review for @ebertvoices.bsky.social

I just realized that barring me assigning something to myself, this is my last major piece of writing of the year (I still have my action column coming next week).

for the night crowd!

Well worth the read everybody. Robert did amazing work with this piece.

The uniqueness of a Black director like Spike getting to make musicals.

Great read. Lee is such a musically gifted filmmaker that he can do everything wonderfully captured in this article and there’s still so many more transcendent moments of music beyond what’s mentioned, like the club scenes in BLACKKKLANSMAN and DA 5 BLOODS. Subject warrants a book!

As David Byrne’s American Utopia dances into the Criterion Collection, Robert Daniels tracks the musical career of the concert film’s director, Spike Lee, and his gift for translating political, social and racial themes through balletic movement. boxd.it/2SC

You need to read this Roger Ebert review of Looney Tunes: Back in Action. It is never mentioned when people do lists of the best of Roger, but I think it should be, if only for the incredible tangent he goes on. I think the movie is underrated as well. www.rogerebert.com/reviews/loon...

*bookmarking to read* as i think Spike is underrated in this area.

I wrote about Rob Reiner: www.vulture.com/article/rob-...

Say you know what I like, without saying you know what I like… Bookmarking!

Really nice piece and I was happy to see a couple paragraphs on Lee's film of the Broadway musical Passing Strange, which captures this great work perfectly.

!!!

I’ve been working on this one for a minute. With Criterion releasing DAVID BYRNE’S AMERICAN UTOPIA, for @letterboxd.social I surveyed Spike Lee’s rich history as a musical director. Read: letterboxd.com/journal/spik...

Side note: A FEW GOOD MEN was Rob Reiner's ONLY Academy Award nomination. It was for Best Picture.

For @ebertvoices.bsky.social's 8 Essential Rob Reiner films, I wrote about the capraesque components of A FEW GOOD MEN.

RIP to Rob Reiner and his wife. Reiner was one of the masters of the crowd pleaser, crafting the kind of films that are somehow both rare to see in contemporary cinemas and yet endlessly copied. This is such a brutal and tragic loss.

Re-sharing this piece I wrote last year about Christmas and my teenage near-death experience Read: oldfilmsflicker.substack.com/p/christmas-...

Don't normally do under the hood stuff, but this convo between myself and Odie actually did exceptionally well on the site this year. It's one of the pieces I'm most proud of.

And here's my review of SINNERS as well. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/15/a...

Don't miss Robert Daniels' stellar interview with director Jafar Panahi on IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT

Since SINNERS is back in the news, here's a repost of the great conversation @812filmreviews.com and I had about the movie at @ebertvoices.bsky.social. www.rogerebert.com/features/rob...

Another excellent one from @812filmreviews.com

everyone should go watch HOLIDAY HEART one of the best black queer characters put to screen

Damn. Thank you to everyone who has shared, liked or read this listicle. 🙌🏾