This had no place in the review, but the fifth episode of this show was written by Brad Kane, who was once the singing voice of Disney's Aladdin. I thought you might like to know.

Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox reunite to discuss Back To The Future  at 40 – and why it still resonates today. “We live in a bully culture right now,” says Fox. “[The film] is all about how you stand up to them.” Read more: www.empireonline.com/movies/news/...

Every time I listen to a podcast episode about AI, it seems to begin with the premise, ‘Is AI absolutely brilliant or terrible? We speak to the CEO of AI Is Absolutely Brilliant to find out.’

I can’t believe how good One Battle After Another is. It’s about really serious stuff, yet so playful and funny. And it keeps getting better and better. 3 hours whizzed by. Best film of the year so far by a massive margin.

What Robert Redford contributed to American films via Sundance is genuinely immeasurable. He was also an extraordinarily talented director--Ordinary People and Quiz Show are two of the best American studio movies of their eras--and an actor who somehow wore his incredible charisma almost shyly. RIP.

The only thing cheering me up at the moment is that AI appears to be imploding

Freakier Friday makes very little sense and has plot holes you could drive a bus through, but how much does that actually matter when it's such purely good fun? www.timeout.com/movies/freak...

A director pal has been working for decades with big name clients. Doing huge stuff, including international shoots. If you live in the UK, you will have seen their stuff. They are currently retraining as a Pilates instructor. To have a more regular income in winter. That's how bad it is.

Please, everyone posting social media stuff from Wimbledon, you have to learn that a comma is *essential* in 'Come on, [whoever]'. Otherwise you're saying something very, very different

I think a silly action movie that's actually fun, as opposed to just stupid, is a rare thing. I found Heads Of State extremely fun. www.empireonline.com/movies/revie...

The plot of Carrie’s book in And Just Like That seems to be ‘an old-timey woman might go outside’.

Have been listening to Natasha Lyonne on Amy Poehler's podcast (recommended) and I finally figured out what her voice makes me think of: Marge Simpson doing James Cagney

I don’t know a single thing about cars or Formula 1, but found F1 extremely entertaining. Joseph Kosinski is a very good blockbuster technician. Gets all the rhythms right.

🤞🏻

These A.I. stories are always breathlessly reported as if these companies are close to achieving their goal to synthesise the human brain or whatever, when it's always just something they'd *like* to achieve. What useful thing is A.I. actually brilliant at so far?

There's a lot I liked in Murderbot – it has an appealing loose, goofy vibe – but I rarely found it actually funny. Skarsgård is great. www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/m...

Final Destination: Bloodlines is loads of fun (also gross) www.timeout.com/movies/final...

This is just delightful. I love interviews with actors who aren’t A-list but have worked with everyone.

I think so often of the time an ex-boyfriend picked a pair of my jeans off the floor, read the label and said, devastatingly, "'Slim and straight'. Both lies."

How exactly do you put a tariff on a movie? Do you double the cinema ticket prices? And exactly which studios have been 'drawn away' from America? He's always finding new ways to be infuriatingly stupid

Today I went to the garden centre and arrived so early that it wasn't open yet, just in case anyone's wondering how a cool guy spends his Sunday

No spoilers, but every time a White Lotus season ends a lot of the reviews always make me wonder what show people think Mike White is making. You want neatly packaged little moral lessons from Mr Monkey's Paw?

Watched The White Lotus finale at 6am to avoid potential spoilers. The downside is there's nobody to discuss it with because everyone else has 'lives' and hasn't seen it yet.

Well well well, my lack of investing money for the future suddenly looking pretty, pretty financially savvy

Hugely recommend the new Amy Poehler podcast, Good Hang, for distraction from...everything. It's just very funny people having a natter. open.spotify.com/show/1z20Eiw...

Haven't seen Black Bag yet, but everything I hear about it makes it sound precision engineered for me. It's about married spies who suspect each other? One of them is Cate Blanchett? Their houses look unrealistically expensive? IT'S 94 MINUTES LONG?? These are all things I'd specifically request.

This is such good interviewing. Direct, succinct and reactive to what's being said – and not being said. No cheap gotcha attempts. No allowing the interviewee to set the framing. Calm insistence on an answer.

So it’s over then, works for me

Going through a box of old magazines and found the Empire 2006 Greatest Movies Ever feature for which @chrishewitt.bsky.social and I had to find (approx) a million directors and actors and ask them their thoughts on the list. Just trying to imagine what it would be like attempting to do this now…

Could I get a ticket for just this bit of Glastonbury and then go home?

Absolutely love that Sean Baker has the most Oscar wins for a single film. That is perfect.

I would watch the Oscars, but if I stay up until 3am it will be take me until the end of the year to recover

@davidallengreen.bsky.social Apologies if anyone’s already said this - I didn’t see it in replies - but Thompson was nominated for Remains Of The Day the same year MAAN was eligible. So if she’d campaigned for both she could have cancelled herself out!

‘So what’s happening in American politics right now?’ ‘Well, Big Balls is trying to destroy everything, but Drizz turned out to be kind of a badass’

Wired is doing excellent reporting around the current US fuckery – way better than 90% of newspapers – and an annual subscription costs less than £5. www.wired.com/v2/offers/wi...

Can we express this guy or....?

Broadly speaking, that's a really good list of Oscar nominations. Some I'd have liked to have seen (Daniel Craig in Queer/Nicole Kidman in Babygirl), but didn't notice any glaringly terrible choices. Would love to see Demi Moore and Zoe Saldana win.

Traitors is RUINED

I'm just really not into this whole 'Everything being ruined by big dweebs' thing, you know?

There are some filmmakers who seem like they’d always been there and somehow always would be. How bloody sad.

Writing this 28 Years Later feature in the week before Christmas left me feeling like that guy on the cover, but it was a great one to work on. Lots of surprising things from these interviews.

Putting low expectations on myself in January. Congratulating myself for finishing the last of the Christmas cheese.

Ended 2024 with Babygirl. Started 2025 with Nosferatu. Only ‘horny weirdos’ movies for me this festive season.

Enjoyed Conclave yesterday, a film that ponders ‘what if The Big Brother house but it’s clergy?’

My interesting opinion is that 23rd is the best day of December. It feels festive without being hectic. You can start getting ready at your own pace. There’s still an extra day in case you forget something. It’s acceptable to have a cooking wine.

I HAVE NOW FINISHED WORK UNTIL JANUARY

Not a whole lot of work required from me on this one. Pretty much just pressed record and got out of the way. They're very fun

I am not accepting any more emails until 2025. Thank you for your understanding.

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