Updated 12/13/2025

I was asked by my old Beatles buddy, Tim Riley, to contribute something about Motown to his guest-edited special issue of American Music Perspectives , a scholarly journal. What I produced, which is accessible here , isn't overly scholarly; in fact, it might even strike you as readable. Focusing on the 1971 box set The Motown Story: The First Decade , which I've always been drawn to as an artifact, I realized that the story the box tells is also and inseparably the story of D

My review of Errol Morris's new Netflix documentary about Manson, mayhem, and major paranoia.

Like a lot of people, I spent some time after David Lynch's death reviewing his work, but really trying to make contact with him. He made contact with me. Here's my report .

The new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown , is a (surprisingly) compelling and convincing portrait of the artist as a young carnivore.

Fair Play , now on Netflix, had me hooked from the first scene. The hook was astonishment that it was this bad. But it only got worse .

Back in January, I was interviewed by a French director for a documentary on the Fonda family. Word came recently that Les Fonda – Une...