A collection of 35 posts
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay interviews veteran entertainment journalist Ben Mulroney—whose career has taken him to the Oscars red carpet and Kelly Ripa’s studio—about how ideological fads have damaged his industry.
A personal tribute to the overlooked genius of writer W.C. Heinz.
Although the vaudeville circuits would last through the 1920s, the way was now paved for impressive purpose-built movie houses with proper lighting and sound that would exhibit first-rate popular entertainment to general audiences.
Colorblind casting is precisely what it sounds like—the practice of filling roles in a play or film regardless of skin color.
“Cancel culture” has become a trendy term in recent years. But public shaming has always existed. It’s a social tool, and like all tools can be used for good or ill.
This month brings us the release of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. No, not the film. That came out in 2019. But now HarperCollins is publishing a novelization, written by Tarantino himself, and based on the earlier film. This particular type of fiction—the bastard offspring
They are necessary because without them none of the things that are noble can flourish.
On March 4th, the Ringer, a website that covers pop culture, featured an article entitled “We’re in a Time Loop of Time-Loop Movies.” Similar articles have appeared in many other pop-culture venues of late. Suddenly, time-loop stories seem to be everywhere. This month Hulu began streaming director Joe Carnahan’
I once directed a classical musical—Anything Goes—at Canada’s Shaw Festival. But that’s the only play I’ve directed that was seen by a large audience.
NOTE: This essay contains spoilers. The surprise success of the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit has brought me a great deal of delight—I’m a longtime fan of both the novel and its author, Walter Tevis. Just this summer, I wrote an essay about all the great American
The New Order starts off in 1962, but not the 1962 we know. In this timeline, the Axis powers have conquered Eurasia, and are now seeking to bring Africa to heel, along with other far-flung corners of the world.
On Friday, November 6th, between 1 and 2pm Pacific Daylight Time, I participated in an audition for the TV game-show Jeopardy!. Normally auditions are conducted in person at various regional locations around the US. As a Northern Californian, I should have been attending a live audition in San Francisco. But
Depp has found that using the law to defend your reputation is a very expensive way of shattering it.
I’m grateful to every straight director, actor, and writer who has taken up the cause over the last 60 years, and to their closeted friends and colleagues who inspired them.
We are a generation of smart, strong, caring, conscientious men, full of kinetic energy that I now see dispersed through alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, anxiety, violence, and death.