Updated 7/19/2021

Today at Critics at Large, my review of Nicholas Jennings's Lightfoot, concerning the balladeer who maintained just the right emotional distance.

My review of David Thomson’s Television: A Biography, concerning the medium described by Norman Mailer as “a small and modest malignancy, wicked and bristling with dots.”

My review of Mary V. Dearborn's Ernest Hemingway: A Biography, concerning perhaps the greatest American writer of the 20th century.

The Austrian Film Museum in Vienna just commenced a Henry Fonda retrospective, which will run through mid-October. Among the 25 Fonda films in the series are all of his best ones, plus a few TV shows – including the 1976 episode of Maude in which Bea Arthur nominates Hank for President. The program notes catch our man’s charisma and contradictions pretty keenly, with a few references to yours truly along the way. The notes also subtly suggest why a Fonda retrospective might b

Up today at Critics at Large: my take on Nicolas Roeg's often maligned Bad Timing.