Attractive July slate from Criterion incl Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
w/Ellen Burstyn (who shaped production), Kristofferson, +
Extras incl commentary from the gang, @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social interview w/Burstyn, + @szacharek.bsky.social essay: www.criterion.com/films/29004-...

You could, but I didn't!

Also: Someone please program a Michelle Pfeiffer retrospective? With the pictures (I Could Never Be Your Woman, Chéri, Stardust, White Oleander, etc.) that people have either never seen or forgotten?

The Quiet Risk Taking of Michelle Pfeiffer Pfeiffer brings her gifts to two wildly different small-screen roles, in 'The Madison' and 'Margo's Got Money Troubles'

1. Everyone should watch Margo's Got Money Troubles, which is terrific. Smart and open-hearted in the best way. 2. Michelle Pfeiffer is a delight. time.com/article/2026...

HBD Julie Christie!!!
Key 60s/70s incl Darling (Schlesinger) FH 451 (Truffaut) Petulia (Lester) McCabe (Altman) Don't Look Now (Roeg) Shampoo (Ashby)
More:
@szacharek.bsky.social: www.salon.com/2001/06/12/j...
@annebillson.bsky.social: www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Yeah, "tough on crime" is always the first thing we're looking for in a pope.

100 Best Movies of the Past 10 Decades: Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) Find out why Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) is on the list

4/11/62: Agnes Varda's Cleo from 5 to 7
Our Varda-bration, via Cineaste: midcenturycinema.org/wp-content/u...
More:
@dodgyboffin.com: www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2020/06/05/c...
@lukebuckmaster.bsky.social: www.theguardian.com/film/2023/ju...
@szacharek.bsky.social: time.com/collections/...

Man, you ever think how lucky we are to have BOOKS? And how no matter how fast we read or how long we live, we will never run out of fantastic books to read? What a life

Love this pic of you and Texas Toast!

(It’s from @theonion.com, and yes, it’s perfect.)

Oh, I think I do.

'The Drama' Is a Bleak Comedy With No Payoff Co-stars Zendaya and Robert Pattinson do what the story asks of them, but Kristoffer Borgli's film asks a lot of questions it never bothers to answer.

THE DRAMA: Why does this movie even exist? time.com/article/2026...

And we LOVE complaining about the torture of it, to ourselves if not publicly. One of the great pleasures of writing. Dammit.

OMG, so good! And it looks gorgeous. I think there's a future for that Peter Andrews cinematographer guy.

Actor Ian McKellan in a fantastic ochre-and-orange Shetland sweater, purply corduroy jacket, and long scarf with what appear to be little medieval animals or something.

Style inspo for the rest of 2026, and probably my life, is Ian McKellen in THE CHRISTOPHERS (which I adored.)

In the past 2 weeks, I've had one friend suggest I run my (writing) students' papers through ChatGPT, just as a first pass, and another suggest I use it to organize material for a big project. F THAT! Structuring a project is thinking, which is part of writing. And for grading? Just no.

❌👑 except...

"Clean" - Salon.com Maggie Cheung gives an astonishingly complex performance as a junkie rock star trying to clean up her act.

3/27/04: Clean - Olivier Assayas' underseen gem, w/Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte
Seek this out
@glennkenny.bsky.social: "A superb effort by a first-rank director"
More:
Nick Pinkerton: reverseshot.org/reviews/entr...
@szacharek.bsky.social: www.salon.com/2006/04/28/c...

Wonderful for Peter! But, @indiewire.com, I don’t think you mean Claudette Colbert….

NANCY BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER P1-NANCY IS GETTING READY TO ATTEND A PARTY, AND HER DOG POOCHIE WANTS TO GO SLUGGO: I'D LIKE TO TAKE YOU TO THE PARTY BUT IT'S A VERY RITZY AFFAIR POOCHIE IS LOOKING VERY SAD P2 -NANCY: OH, WELL- - COME ON P3-NANCY AND POOCHIE STOP AT A MEN’S SHOP ON THE WAY TO THE PARTY P4-NANCY AND POOCHIE ARRIVE AT THE PARTY, AND THE BUTLER INTRODUCES THEM BUTLER: MISS NANCY AND FRIEND POOCHIE IS WEARING A COLLAR THAT NANCY BOUGHT AT THE MENS SHOP

Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller
March 26,1951

It was very wrong for your father to do that, yet also kind of...adorable?

Calvin Tomkins, age 100, is gone. Read this wonderful book, if you haven’t already.

El Capitan, you are a miracle.

Taco truck seating setup at Myrna’s place.

One-stop shopping.

Who once uttered the immortal words, “Dunk your whiskers in that.” To a snake.

No words, Los Angeles.

How Should We Look at Bertolucci’s Films Now That He’s Gone? Sometimes even on first viewing, a movie demands we juggle multiple ideas at once. We have to be ready for new ones to enter the mix later.

BOTD Bernardo Bertolucci!!
MCCT5: 5)Spiders Stratagem 4)Commare Secca 3)Dreamers 2)Last Tango 1)Conformist
More
@manohladargis.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/m...
@scotttobias.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/m...
@szacharek.bsky.social: time.com/5464020/bern...

Kate Hudson wuz robbed.

The best surveillance movie since The Conversation. German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has said that Western audiences (those from West Berlin, he means, but it's all the more true for...

3/15/96: The Lives of Others
Outstanding, but harder to appreciate such films at a reassuring distance today
More:
@szacharek.bsky.social: www.salon.com/2007/02/09/l...
@gointothestory.bsky.social: gointothestory.blcklst.com/classic-inte...
@thehighsign.bsky.social: slate.com/culture/2007...