The iconic, idiosyncratic pop-rock band, formed as an experimental TV sitcom, closed a major chapter of American pop culture this week. — “Here we come, walking down the street We get the funniest looks from everyone we meet” -(Theme from) The Monkees; Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart At the Greek Theater in Los Angeles this past Sunday, November 14th, America’s foremost music experiment came to an end. Rock group The Monkees performed their…

Its enough to make me burst into Yentl — Put on your Sunday clothes…2 years and 3 months since the last occasion the craftsmen of Broadway came together to honor their work, they’re finally going to do it again. Indeed, the show must go on, even if you could’ve birthed multiple children in the duration between curtain calls. I…

What will it take to return us to theaters?… — The recent summer releases hoped to thrust the vaccinated public back into movie houses nationwide. Those expectations did not entirely pan out. The two biggest openings, Jon Chu’s adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights and John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place: Part II, averaged only a moderate run, with the…

How A Medical Marijuana Ballot Initiative was doomed from its start, and the will of the people of Mississippi was thwarted. — Democracy in design is as simple as one, two, three. One, people vote; two, the votes are counted; three, majority rules. However, as we’ve seen over practically the entirety of Uncle Sam’s lifespan, Democracy in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave is as simple as…

Check your temps and mark your ballots, OSCAR-93 is here. — This is going to be the weirdest Academy Awards ever, whether the telecast succeeds or flops. Two months late (the latest delay in the Academy’s 93-year history), plagued with lingering droplets of a Pandemic (70% of the country still isn’t fully vaccinated), and set in over 20 locations. But, that…

With the 27th Screen Actors Guild Awards kicking off in a few days, a voter talks craft, politics, and (of course), the nominees. — Last year, I spoke to a non-ranking member of the Screen Actors Guild, a part of SAG-AFTRA, to dish on the then-upcoming annual awards ceremony honoring the best performances by fellow thespians of the screen. Now, almost fifteen months later, the world has completely changed.

The underrated screenwriter survived banishment from the industry he helped change — by resisting. — The death of screenwriter Walter Bernstein did not make many headlines yesterday, nor were any A-listers or make-shift, cracker jack film forums sharing tributes on social media. Indeed, Film Twitter remained quiet (for once). …

Netflix delivers the dishes as the holiday season begins — The past week has seen the release of two highly-anticipated politically-infused features — albeit in a continued period of a plague, Washington turmoil, and a creative drought. Sure, we can’t (and shouldn’t) pack the theaters, but Netflix has brought some light into the void that has been the film industry…