Even if that part’s wrong though, it’s hard to argue for its inclusion rather than what he did with it. If he’d added the higher ups, it’d have not only brought in far too many characters into the mix relatively late but also moved the focus from the crew chiefs up to the bosses. I can’t imagine a scenario in which…

the film is a meditation on gangsters in their twilight

Li is not alone among health care workers getting the short end of the stick.

I’ll refer you to the comments under their previous video blog for a pretty robust discussion about the characters and plot. One conclusion several of us reached is that the more you actually knew about the war the more you appreciated what Mendes did; the small details (and there are many) come across subtly, and I…

with a showboating white-elephant prestige picture like 1917 standing in its way

Yep. The hazy nostalgia around LBJ tends to ignore that many of the programs of the Great Society were the first significant attempt at Federal block grants and many of them went about as well as you’d expect - the intent of the programs were often ignored by the local boards and the money used for things entirely…

Douglas’ bewildered yet competent CO of The Final Countdown was one of my favorite roles for him.

He was discharged in 1944 for injuries.

As you begin your self-isolation, I do have some forsythia for sale - which is now available via any number of delivery services!

Spoilers lie ahead; you’ve had nine years to see this movie.

He’s also a wealthy white male who’ll eventually come back.

Considering the last interaction between the two was the groundhog squealing as he was being incinerated in a flaming wreck in the bottom of a pit, I’m glad they finally had a chance to fix things. I hadn’t thought about it until just now, but that was the one relationship that he never even tried to work out in all…

Given how influential they were to other artists, I didn’t realize until reading the obits that Gang of Four never had a Top 40 hit.

Not only does Abrams plan on running for president, she plans on winning

“This is a story about people making really bad decisions. Kathy Scruggs gets it wrong, and doubles down on getting it wrong until the end...I totally understand why she did what she did. I think it’s totally wrong, but I completely understand it.

Iowa has caucuses because it tried to switch away from them in 1916 and spent $122,000 on a presidential primary election. Even the sitting Governor who’d called for primaries as a reform measure felt it was a waste of money based on how few candidates participated and how even fewer people came out to vote, and…

Well, obviously Berg, and it’s a long enough book that it may very well take you between today and when the series comes out to finish.

Like pretty much everything else surrounding him, it’s complicated.

I’m looking forward to this.

Interesting interview. The pararescue guys are generally pretty hardcore, so it’s amusing that he was both a bit of a screwup while in and turned into a writer once he got out. He also has a touching story about running into one of his translators during a cab ride after his brother was murdered.