The best thing anyone can get me for my birthday is to read some of my work. My favorite thing I wrote in 2025 was a big piece for The Ringer back in March, about the history of Best Picture follow-ups. And I counted down the 17 greatest (in honor of Mickey 17). www.theringer.com/2025/03/06/m...

Considering City Slickers has been one of my favorite movies since I was 10 years old, I really shouldn’t be that surprised that my middle-age birthdays depress the fuck out of me. But here we are, number 44, surprised by the existential dread yet again.

The best thing anyone can get me for my birthday is to read some of my work. My favorite thing I wrote in 2025 was a big piece for The Ringer back in March, about the history of Best Picture follow-ups. And I counted down the 17 greatest (in honor of Mickey 17). www.theringer.com/2025/03/06/m...

Santa brought me a City Slickers postcard. He gets me.

Has any movie, ever, had a single character’s name spoken aloud in the film’s dialogue more frequently than Sydney Ellen Wade in The American President?

Has any movie, ever, had a single character’s name spoken aloud in the film’s dialogue more frequently than Sydney Ellen Wade in The American President?

We’re not running out of good ideas. It’s just that most of the people who have them are habitually immobilized by depression.

There’s a team in the NBA that’s 26-5, and there’s another team in the NBA that is 3-0 against that team. Okay. Sure.

Wow this is good

It’s crazy that the number of people who are a lot like Annie Wilkes has exponentially increased since Misery came out, rather than, you know, going down. Only in America do cautionary tales inspire people to become the thing being cautioned against.

It’s crazy that the number of people who are a lot like Annie Wilkes has exponentially increased since Misery came out, rather than, you know, going down. Only in America do cautionary tales inspire people to become the thing being cautioned against.

In this celebration of the year’s best cinema craft by the Roger Ebert contributors, I wrote about why James Gunn’s Superman script was not just the year’s best piece of IP/franchise management, but also the one with the highest degree of difficulty.

In this celebration of the year’s best cinema craft by the Roger Ebert contributors, I wrote about why James Gunn’s Superman script was not just the year’s best piece of IP/franchise management, but also the one with the highest degree of difficulty.

This is another one of those days where being a person who seems to habitually succeed downward, stuck in a world where the worst people routinely fail upward, feels especially immobilizing.

There’s a very good chance that Hamnet and Frankenstein will be the only two films in the Best Picture lineup that premiered at the fall festivals, which feels like a pretty significant stat.

The weinorah wishes everyone a very happy penultimate night of Hanukkah

I wonder about the Avatar release strategy. Between holiday parties, travel, shopping, and school finals, most people are really stressed about both time and disposable income right now. That might not matter for some movies, but it sure as hell matters for a movie that’s over three hours long.

It’s like Michael Caine talking down to Steve Martin in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The high-class con-man doesn’t want his territory sullied by a philistine con-man.

Does anyone have a post-1995 Rob Reiner film that they like and recommend? The only one I’ve seen is LBJ, which was decent. Or are there any North defenders out there?

I loathe YouTube, but this is undoubtedly a resounding win for The Oscars and Oscar lovers. The shape and length of the show will no longer be beholden to the outdated limitations of American network TV. And the Governor’s Awards will air! Fuck yeah! www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general...

Has anyone ever read any books about the Nuremberg trials, and if so, which ones do you recommend? I just saw the movie and I’d like to learn more. Wondering where to start. @kevinmkruse.bsky.social @hcrichardson.bsky.social @andrewrsorkin.bsky.social

This is about as perfect of a “How it started/ How it’s going” example as we’re ever likely to see

Has any director ever worked with a better collection of writers than Rob Reiner? Reiner’s seven classic films originated from the minds of Stephen King, Aaron Sorkin, William Goldman, Nora Ephron, and Christopher Guest.

A personal Rob Reiner memory— I saw LBJ at TIFF in 2016, about six weeks before the election. And during the Q&A, Reiner spent a long time talking to the audience about the threat of Donald Trump, and the evils of supporting racism even if you personally don’t subscribe to racist ideology.

The only thing the new Nuremberg movie was missing was a final title card that says “Today we call them Republicans”

@kevinmkruse.bsky.social I just saw the new Nuremberg movie and I’d love to read more about the Nuremberg trials. Are there any books you particularly recommend?

The only thing the new Nuremberg movie was missing was a final title card that says “Today we call them Republicans”

@seanfennessey.bsky.social I just caught up to the Chicago Draft episode, and Risky Business is absolutely a drama! I wrote about the Criterion release for Roger Ebert, and the original ending makes the ennui of Brickman’s story crystal clear. www.rogerebert.com/features/ris...

Is anyone over 40 enjoying I Love LA? I really wanted to like it—I love Rachel Sennott—but unfortunately I find every single character dreadfully annoying and I haven’t laughed a single time in four episodes.

I guess killing 600,000 kids in this calendar year isn’t disqualifying for being one of Time’s Persons of the Year

Top 4 Christmas Movies: 1. Die Hard 2. Die Hard 2 3. Steven Spielberg’s Filmography 4. Shane Black’s Filmography

The best movie of the decade

A Three Men and a Baby remake, except it’s Sam Altman and two AI models named SimSam and Sam3PO

This is so so so so so perfectly (painfully) accurate and perfectly stated

A Three Men and a Baby remake, except it’s Sam Altman and two AI models named SimSam and Sam3PO

The Golden Globes nominated six films for Best Musical or Comedy, and none of them are musicals or comedies. Impressive shit.

The moment in Sentimental Value where we see what DVDs Stellan Skarsgard gifted his young grandson might be the hardest I’ve laughed in a movie theater this decade. (Important contextual note—it’s basically been a decade completely devoid of theatrical studio comedies)

The perfect winter beer

Seeing a lot of people that don’t know what corruption is. When an awful person does an awful thing—an awful thing which they’ve spent their entire life telling everyone they unequivocally support—that’s not corruption. It’s just an awful person being awful because that’s who they are.

There’s almost nothing liberal political pundits say that drives me more insane than any variation of “Voters can smell bullshit.” Because here’s the thing—the last decade is nothing if not *insurmountable* evidence that voters very much cannot smell bullshit.

Ah shit, I just heard Steve Cropper died today. One of the true greats, a person who had incalculable contributions in shaping the sounds of pop music without ever stepping into the spotlight. RIP.

Easy to see what spurs my deep dives. Two artists I saw movies about, two artists I read books about, one artist who died, and one artist I saw live.

We don’t live in a country that does this because of economic anxiety, or because of democratic messaging failures, or any other talking head reason. We live in a country that does this because American voters are, in the aggregate, abominably stupid people. That’s it. That’s the whole story.

Has any major celebrity ever been a better role model for masculinity than Robert Redford?

Glenn Close plays every scene in Wake Up Dead Man like it’s an Oscar clip. It’s the first Knives Out movie where several of the stars felt miscast.

My wife’s hot take on It Was Just an Accident is that she would’ve liked it a lot better if she hadn’t just seen Bugonia the week before (I loved it, and strangely I never thought about Bugonia at all while watching it. The film it actually sort of reminded me of is Anora.)

Just tried to apply for an editor job that was posted on TUESDAY and it’s already gone. For context, yesterday was fucking Thanksgiving. FML.

Just met a blue collar, in-law of an in-law of an in-law at Thanksgiving and he’s raving to everyone about Train Dreams. Hell yeah, brother.

The Smashing Machine (2025)