Janet Maslin

Love this poster, Belcourt.

FILM REVIEW; Nuttiness As Solace In a Son's Moment Of Grief (Published 1995)

Goddess. Cutup. Role model. Fashion original. And a fine filmmaker too. She directed “Unstrung Heroes” 30 years ago. R.I.P. 💔

www.nytimes.com/1995/09/15/m...

Also How to Stuff a Wild Bikini and Beach Blanket Bingo. Respect.

The TV/advertising model doesn’t work if no one’s watching. You’re welcome.

“Normal people.”

That was true once. But now? I’d keep my subscription if it were the other way around.

The most-read story in today’s Washington Post is a 3-day-old ranked list of 5700 holidays. Today is, among many other things, National Little Black Dress Day. Fine. Celebrate if you must.

But don’t click on this junk if you want newspapers to cover real news.

A fave of mine too.

Thanks, Ted!

It’s on YouTube. That’s how I saw it.

NYT today has a gerrymandering game that you can play for fun while real legislators play for keeps. It’s adorable. Like Wordle! Like Connections! I’m not making this up.

And Mark Knopfler. Same day, same year.

This is a particularly great one. “In Restless Dreams,” directed by Alex Gibney.

Yes. We did radio summaries of reviews and even that was awkward.

If this had been a job requirement when I started, I wouldn’t have worked there.

It ranks just behind One Love and way behind Bohemian Rhapsody. But two of the top 7 were directed by James Mangold. Not bad.

I know. But I read the whole list.

About Cronenberg and about Godzilla’s silly little face, definitely.

This isn’t about movies. It’s about the Dome, a trippy spectacle joint in Las Vegas. What did you expect?

If Ron Howard’s “Eden” opens on schedule later this month, you’re about to start having very different conversations about Sydney Sweeney. She hasn’t done anything like this before. Neither has he.

It sounds terrible, no question. But the R.I.P.s are premature.

He’s still alive as of 7/30/25. Just wish him well.

I meant fast-paced. That was a poor word choice. It was also 45 years ago.

And it was my pleasure to review it in 1980, when almost no one covered it. I liked it, by and large. Don’t misrepresent what I said to make its revival more dramatic. I’m as glad to see it return as you are.

About Whit Stillman and “Barcelona” in 1994:

“He makes odd, tender, uncategorizable films that must utterly confound the market researchers whose opinions shape Hollywood.
Good.”

Yes, because it’s a serious story. Worth your time.

Ha!!!!

That happens often. Major obits are filed well in advance. It’s not surprising that 97-year-old Lehrer outlasted the person assigned to write his.

This must be a photo commemorating Vincent’s appointment to the job of chief film critic. He took over from Renata Adler in 1969. He was 45, and I wish I’d known him at that age or seen him beam like that. I got there 8 years later.

That may be Dick Shepard working in the background.

Goodbye to one of my first heroes. I hope he passed peacefully. He lived a good long life.

Tom Lehrer was I-went-to-summer-camp-with-Stephen Sondheim years old. They must have stayed in touch. Sondheim had a little book of Lehrer rhymes or riddles or whatever in a guest bathroom at his NY home.