Just a few words for the fellas — I once smoked a cocaine-laced joint with an ex-con whose arms were decorated with white supremacist tattoos because, like a beggar, addicts can’t be choosers, so I puffed away as he gave me the only concrete advice I’ve ever been given about masculinity: “You’re not a real man unless you’ve…

Always ask yourself: what would Coach Taylor do? — A recent study from the UK suggests that boys should be urged to share their emotions and resist strict gender stereotypes. The research pushes back on the popular myth that men and boys are under attack from feminists and the culture at large and quite clearly states that boys benefit…

Rest in peace, your majesty — Director Ryan Coogler’s Wakanda Forever is about a family grieving — on-screen and off. His long-awaited sequel to the megahit Black Panther is at its best when it focuses on those King T’Challa left behind after dying from an unnamed disease. The late actor Chadwick Boseman, who exuded warmth and…

Viewer beware — This has been a good year for smart, surprising horror movies. A few of my favorites include the sophisticated monster in the basement shocker Barbarian, Jordan Peele’s slick sci-fi western Nope, and the 70s-inspired Texas porn star slaughter X. There was a successful reboot of my favorite 80s horror franchise…

Every no gets you closer to a yes — Everything I ever learned about capitalism, I learned selling comedy tickets to strangers on the streets of New York City. The first lesson is to never, under any circumstance, sell the product because the product is crap. Sell yourself. Humans trust other humans. People make promises, not things. And the…

It puts the Viola in violence — It is 1823, and the African kingdom of Dahomey is protected by an army of highly-trained female warriors called the Agojie. We first meet them as they silently emerge from the shadows to rescue kidnapped Dahomean women from African rivals. These elite soldiers easily slaughter these slavers. …

May the gritty realism be with you — Hi, my name is John, and I want to talk about Star Wars. Have you ever seen it? I never like to assume anything about my readers — maybe you know how long it took the Millennium Falcon to do the Kessel Run, or maybe you think The Mandalorian is…

It’s showtime! — 5. Sound of Music (1965) Composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein created the modern American musical with 1943's Oklahoma!, a Broadway production that combined catchy songs and dancing to tell a frontier love story. This legendary pair went on to write classic after classic: South Pacific, The King And I — to name a…

Florence and the machine — The surprise twist in Don’t Worry Darling is both predictable and confusing. The two-hour thriller is a slow, surreal walk to an action-packed and incoherent climax that fails to tie up or resolve the movie’s many themes or character arcs in any rewarding way. And I’m not suggesting endings have…