The 10 best female buddy films Big-screen portrayals of female friendship are far less common than those of their male counterparts—unless, that is, the female buddy movie revolves around romance. When not focused on menfolk and…

A while back, I offered my nobody-asked-for list of the best male buddy films (IMO, of course). So, here’s my list for the best female buddy flicks, a far less pervasive genre.

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The 10 best R-rated comedies Let’s not beat around the bush. Dirty jokes are pretty damn funny. The best R-rated comedies aren’t just crude, however. They’re giddily transgressive, pushing past politeness and dragging the audi…

Need a laugh in these very unfunny times? Let’s talk comedy for grownups—or, more accurately; for those of us who pass for grownups…

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The 10 best political films Political junkies love movies about politics, but the dirty little secret is that so do a lot of folks who claim to hate politics. The reason is simple. The best political films are about power, no…

It’s campaign season, which is as appropriate a time as any, I suppose, to look at the best political films. Read on: it’s your duty as a moviegoer and a voter

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The 20 best Pre-Code movies Handwringing over Hollywood is as old as Hollywood itself. In 1930, the movie studios acquiesced to religious and civic organizations and promised to clean up their act. The Motion Picture Producer…

Between 1930 and 1934, Hollywood movies made it clear that the Great Depression didn’t make Americans any less debauched than the generations to follow. These are the 20 best of the Pre-Code era, IMO:

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The 10 best bathroom scenes in film Bathrooms: We all use ‘em, but it took a curiously long time for Hollywood to challenge the Production Code’s ban on showing them on screen. Once that changed, however (we have Sir Alfred Hitchcock…

Bathrooms. We’ve all used them—and probably many, many times, if you’re living correctly. You know who else uses bathrooms? People in movies. So … let’s talk the most memorable bathroom scenes in cinema …
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

🤔 Strike that first part

my Oscar takeaways:
-awesome that Sinners and One Battle After Another dominated
-awesome that cinematography finally had its first woman to win
-Conan should do all the awards shows; just about all his bits killed

bad look, Academy

no way. PTA

depends on what u expect it to win

The 15 best coming-of-age movies From Pip to Holden Caulfield and everything in between (as well as before and after, for that matter), the coming-of-age story has been indispensable. There are a multitude of variations, of course…

Let’s talk about one of the most venerable story genres of all: coming of age. As in the 15 best coming-of-age films, at least imo)
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The 10 best movies about infidelity As a general rule, any violation of one of the 10 Commandments tends to be great story material. There’s a reason cheating has long been a mainstay of literature, film and television, not to mentio…

All the news involving a certain former DHS secretary and her “close advisor” is as good a hook as any to look at the most notable films about extramarital activity. My selections for the best 10 movies about infidelity:
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Audition polaroids taken by Casting Director Mali Finn in the 1980's.

The 10 best movies about time travel Time travel movies aren’t really about time. Yes, the idea of moving through time is fantastical, but such stories are conduits to explore themes as diverse as nostalgia, regret, fate and free will…

Anyone daydreaming about time travel these days? Let’s talk movie time-travel.

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The 25 best love stories on film This just in: Moviegoers love romance. From the very start––beginning with The Kiss in 1896––cinema has excavated emotional gold from affairs of the heart. Big-screen love stories are so pervasive,…

Before the month of Valentine’s Day comes to end, I’m sliding in with my thoroughly unimpeachable, albeit fully subjective, selections of the 25 best love stories in the movies…

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The 10 best journalism movies Long before the profession of journalism fell prey to culture wars, movies about reporters tended to depict them as the-people-have-a-right-to-know crusaders or, more often, as doughy guys in ill-f…

Recent layoffs at The Washington Post are just the latest casualty in what have been some very bad years for the 4th Estate. Makes me all the more nostalgic for the great journalism flicks. My picks for the 10 best… cutting-2-the-chase.com/2026/01/26/t...

The 10 best movie dystopias It can always be worse. At least, that’s what moviegoers have long told themselves, and so there is a weird comfort that comes from losing yourself in big-screen dystopias. Fritz Lang likely jumpst…

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Been thinking about dystopian futures lately? If so, you’re not alone. So let’s look at post-apocalyptic cinema (link in comments below)

The 15 best school-centric films For good or ill––or, more accurately, for good and ill––school is where we learn our socialization skills (or lack thereof). Oh, it’s also where we just plain learn, of course: reading, writing, ar…

School. We’ve all gone through it. Movies. We’ve all gone to them. So without further ado, here is a list that involves both
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More words and phrases I hope can be retired in 2026:
“at the end of the day”
“I see what you did there”
“AF”
“sit with that”
“a nothing burger”
“hold my beer”
“I was today years old when…”
“am I right?”
“FAFO”

Streaming Romance - Oklahoma Gazette Valentine’s Day is around the corner, but how elaborate do you really want to get in this economy? If you’re not in the 1% club, the costs of an expensive restaurant, roses, or even a heart-shaped box...

Valentine’s Day is only weeks away, which is as good an excuse as any to talk movie love stories. Here’s my latest in @okgazette.bsky.social:

The 10 best black comedies You have to laugh to keep from crying, the saying goes, but black comedies give us the luxury of doing both. Gallows humor isn’t solely a coping mechanism. Laughter can be empowering. Moreover, by …

Looking for some laughs in these troubled times but still wanna feel slightly disturbed? I’ve got recommendations cutting-2-the-chase.com/2026/01/23/t...

If this is actually from a news conference. why isn’t there audio or video ?

My refrigerator is covered in magnets of the far off places my neighbors visit while I watch their dogs.

The 10 most memorable movie marriages Cinema has been terrifically successful showing dysfunctional marriages, but much less so depicting the other kind. Make of that what you will. Of course, the warts-and-all approach might be prefer…

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In case you wondered, I have another movie-related list: 10 most memorable marriages in film. Link in comments…

The 10 best male buddy movies Friendship is, as Cole Porter succinctly put it, the perfect blendship. Maybe so, although margaritas and Reese’s peanut butter cups are definitely in the race. At minimum, the buddy film has long …

Not that you asked, but here is my take on the 10 all-time best male buddy pictures…

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words and phrases I’m hoping can be retired in 2026:
“take a listen”
“let that sink in”
“I didn’t have (fill in the blank) on my bingo card”
“old-timer’s disease”
“(fill in the blank) adjacent”
“anyways” (unless you’re a Chicago gangster circa 1925)
using “drug” as the past tense of drag

“The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.”—Virginia Woolf

surely, gorgeous cinematography isn’t antithetical to an elegiac rumination on life.