ella taylor

Kleber Mendonça Filho with Udo Kier at a screening of Filho's terrifically funny, ineffably saddening new film about Brazil's brutal 1970s, "The Secret Agent." From which we have much to learn about the ineptitude and chaotically destructive power of dictatorship.

Harvard Dean Was Paid $150,000 as an Expert Witness in Tylenol Lawsuits

This man is the Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/h...

RIP Robert Redford, who made rich and handsome matter.

Yorgos Lanthimos, Olivia Colman, Ayo Edebiri and Josh O’Connor Among 1,200 Industry Names Pledging Not to Work With Israeli Film Institutions ‘Complicit in War Crimes’ Yorgos Lanthimos, Olivia Colman, Ayo Edebiri, Josh O'Connor, Ava DuVernay and Hannah Einbinder are among those to sign the pledge

"Oh sure, I'll sign that, looks right on to me."
The sheer folly of this pledge, when the overwhelming majority of Israeli filmmakers and film institutions are leftwing or liberal and do not support the heinous Israeli government’s war on Gaza.
variety.com/2025/film/gl...

This Summer, a Hostile Reception for Many Israelis Abroad

I wonder if those people attacking and harassing Israeli tourists abroad would like to be attacked and held personally responsible for Trump while they're on vacation:
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/w...

Imagine the night terrors of the admissions officer who decided that J.D. Vance — who cribbed from Mein Kampf to announce "the professors are the enemy" — would make a fine DEI Yalie. Recalls the Roald Dahl story about the birth of a baby to a young Austrian. "You have a fine baby boy, Mrs. Hitler."

This little fellow has been standing there all afternoon. I wonder if his E-Mom has tried sticking her head out of the window and hollering him home for dinner. It’s worked for centuries.

On the plus side, Colbert is a vocal, practising Catholic. So the pseudo-President just lost a chunk of constituency.

Art says it all:

In Major Cringe today, Bibi handed DT a certificate confirming he'd nominated him for a Nobel peace prize. I've heard tell that AI can rustle up a nice certificate in moments.

At least 27 dead and 20 girl campers missing in Texas floods.
He who defenestrated the National Weather Service warning system is off golfing.

Competition for the meanest-looking mouths?

Massive, boisterous, peaceful crowd in Santa Monica today. Hardly noticed the dope who hired a plane with a banner saying HBD to the King. He must have meant Lear.

Los Angeles, city of protest: why it’s no surprise LA rose up against Trump For decades, LA has been at the center of the civil rights and immigrants’ rights movements – and Trump’s raids appear to be mobilizing a new generation

The long view of LA Protest:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Worried friends and consumers of national media, this tiny red circle is where the L.A. protests are. For this he sent in the National Guard.

Criterion Closet came to my neighb and I got to hang out. I swagged Army of Shadows, In the Mood for Love, and the one I wrote the essay for , the Russian 8-hour War and Peace, which I saw when it came out in Glasgow in 1970.
#Criterion
#CriterionCloset

This is how it’s done!

FRIDAY: South Park, San Diego, neighbors weren’t having it. When ICE rolled up on an Italian restaurant in unmarked cars and started grabbing workers, the community hit the streets.
(Sound up)

On the Campaign Trail, Elon Musk Juggled Drugs and Family Drama

Musk " was spending time with... prominent figures in the emerging pronatalist movement, and urging his wealthy friends to have as many children as possible. He believed the world needed more intelligent people, according to people aware of the conversations."
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/u...

YouTube video by NowThis Impact Sen. Murphy Calls Out Kristi Noem’s Record in Committee Showdown

This is how resistance is done. Please share widely.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClT8...

Retiring from USC Cinema School today, with a lovely champagne reception to make sure I leave. And now I must be off to stumble around in my jammies mumbling, “What is a weekend?” and watch videos of baby donkeys being cuddled by muscled farmers. Cheerio.

All Holocaust survival stories sound like fiction, but Unbroken, a documentary now playing on Netflix, is particularly astonishing. Seven siblings escaped the camps by sticking together resourcefully. Then came America, and the tale grows more amazing. Absolutely worth your time.

Is Pete Hegseth’s wife his support animal, his surrogate thinker, or his in-house AA meeting?
“Pete Hegseth’s wife reportedly attended meetings with foreign defense officials”

Hats off to Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic for modeling integrity, courage and canny business sense. Should you wish to show your appreciation, a digital subscription to the mag would help. Loved by neither the far left or far right, it's more independent-minded than centrist and very lively.

'Tis the Ides Of March. Beware of men in togas. And Teslas.

The threat of Trump is vast. But don’t underestimate incremental change | Michael Brownstein The work of making change is difficult. Most of it is boring, unsexy and, at best, modestly incremental from day to day

Excellent read on the importance of incremental resistance, which anyone can do:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Support & protect this woman

The Mae West of corgis.

For this French senator, Trump is a traitor—and Europe is now alone In one month, Trump has done more harm to the Atlantic alliance than in four years of his last presidency. Europeans now see him as a traitor.

French minister Claude Malhury has it right. (And he has adorable Spock ears to boot.)
thebulletin.org/2025/03/for-...

M. 'Bellamy,' Inspecting Humanity's Darkest Hearts French director Claude Chabrol blurs the lines between crime fighter and perpetrator, hero and anti-hero, as the titular detective's choices grow even more dubious than those of the film's criminals. ...

2/25/09: Claude Chabrol's last, Bellamy
More:
@cinebeth.bsky.social: www.kpbs.org/news/arts-cu...
Ebert: www.rogerebert.com/reviews/insp...
@ellat.bsky.social: www.npr.org/2010/10/28/1...
[Bonus footage: Our user's guide to every CC feature: midcenturycinema.org/2018/03/18/n...

Opinion | Elon Musk Is the World’s Richest Man. Why Is He Sleeping on an Office Floor? For today’s entrepreneurs, work isn’t merely a way to get things done; it’s also a “superpower” that confers the right to impose their vision on the world.

On the sloppy "work ethic" of the technocracy, and how it condemns the rest of us to constant scrambling for gigs. Yep, it's about Musk:
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/o...