February 20th One of the first pieces that Woodward and Bernstein try to get through in All the President’s Men is, on the whole, kind of thin. When Bradlee actually reads it, he tells them, “You haven’t got it,” says, “Not good enough.” The sell, delivered by Jack Warden’s Rosenfeld, initially described the piece to… Read More Movie Diary 2023 (2/20-3/1): A Rush of 2020s to the Head
To see my running list of the hundred greatest movie stars in American film history, click here All stars are listed with a single film which is particularly important, though not exclusively so, to understanding what makes them vital to American movies. 55) Viola Davis / Key film – Widows Davis has been in movies… Read More Better than AFI’s 100 Years…100 Stars: 51-55
To see the entire list of my 100 top movies of last decade, or to find the landing page for the other years in this series, click here. I don’t know that a great crowd of people is going out of their way to say this, but at least from where I’m sitting, 2018… Read More Top 100 Movies of the Decade (2010-2019) — 2018, Part 1
This was a weird one, a real flumpo of a conversation. Matt and I got into some of the controversy of Roma, talked about Jack White and A Star Is Born, and then went headlong into the role of cultural criticism and probably what it’s for and also get right on the edge of like,… Read More Baumann and Burch Conversations #11: Year-End Review and Yelling at Each Other Because of Vox
Dir. Steve McQueen. Starring Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez Widows begins with a long take of Liam Neeson and Viola Davis kissing. There’s a lot of tongue. It’s 2018, and it’s the first time I’ve seen an interracial kiss onscreen with that much tongue involved. I have said it many times, and I have… Read More Widows (2018)
Seeing Things Secondhand 