Praying for Israel
As I write this, there have been massive protests in Israel to prevent Bibi from reforming the Israeli judiciary. Subscribe now A number of Jewish...
I'm Not A Proud Kentuckian Today
While press screenings and junkets have kept me busy, it’s been a very depressing week otherwise. I was going to try and send something out going into the...
I'm Jewish, Trans, and Terrified
I’m Jewish, trans, and downright terrified at the current state of affairs. I’ve never been so scared in my life. Movies that should be entertaining for work...
Catching Up on the Classics
With what feels like fewer theatrical releases coming out, I’ve been using the time to fill in my classic film blind spots. Some of the films were previously...
Escaping Through Movies and TV
Time got away from me last week as I decided to escape the news by watching movies and TV. Subscribe now Transphobic attacks are increasing all across the...
Can It Just Be A Regular Sunday?
There will be no celebration of the Super Bowl over here. I might have snacks on hand but that’s only because I want to have food to munch on during the...
It's A Good Year For Documentaries
Bill Russell: Legend is the latest in a string of celebrity-focused documentaries to premiere this year. It’s also one of my favorite documentaries of the...
AMC Theatres Is Shooting Itself In The Foot
AMC Theatres is shooting itself in the foot with the fakakta idea of dynamic pricing for seats. I’ll have a formal newsletter update coming soon but I’m not...
Back from Sundance and I'm Exhausted
It’s been a few weeks of traveling to Los Angeles for the Critics Choice Awards and Park City for Sundance Film Festival. I’m finally back in Chicago after a...
Back in Los Angeles
I’m back in Los Angeles for the Critics Choice Awards and it just so happened that I found myself eating at The Milky Way, a restaurant once owned by Steven...
Happy New Year
January 6 is a somber anniversary but I started off the year with some solid productivity after ending last year with the slowest week of the year. I’m the...
It's The Slowest Time Of The Year
Whether it’s the recent brutal cold or holiday shutdown, the last two weeks of the year drag by very slowly. I’ve been keeping busy as much as one can, what...
Happy Chanukah!
It’s currently the first day of Chanukah as the Festival of Lights started at sundown on Sunday evening with the start of 25 Kislev. Aside from Shabbos, my...
Apologies For My Absence
I made a quick trip to New York last week for the NY premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and then it was back to Chicago to cram before voting. The...
How Is It Already December?
The year is going by so fast because it’s already December and awards season is just beginning to kick into full gear. With Shabbos starting so early on...
Goodbye Twitter
I’m gonna make this quick as I made the decision to delete Twitter from my life now that Elon Musk is bringing Donald Trump back. Solzy at the Movies has an...
A Fun Time in LA and More
My apologies for not getting a newsletter sent out last week but I was slammed with press and FYC screenings. This week, I was lucky enough to attend the...
Many Viewing Options for November 4
Good Night Oppy headlines the theatrical releases this weekend while a number of films are now available to watch on streaming. While Good Night Oppy hits...
Movie Catchup, Antisemitism, and Twitter
Ticket to Paradise was the distraction that I needed on Sunday afternoon but Armageddon Time hit rather close to home with it’s discussion on antisemitism....
Post and Run But This Needed To Be Said
What a week. I had local film fest obligations including the Devotion red carpet (interviews forthcoming with JD Dillard and Jonathan Majors) and a festival...
The Marathon Is Over
The Jewish holiday marathon finally came to an end on Tuesday evening so my life has returned to regularly scheduled programming. It’s weird to know that...
Comedies Are Struggling At The Theaters
Original comedy movies are struggling to make money at the box office in 2022—Bros is just the latest to flop upon its theatrical release with an estimated...
White Noise: Back to NYC
The North American premiere of White Noise saw me make my return to NYC for the first time since December 2021. Where the two trips in 2021 saw me staying...
Recovering from TIFF
Finding the time to write during a film festival is always tough but I somehow found time to churn out a few reviews. I still have a few reviews left to...
The Dog Days of Summer
I didn’t mean to leave Substack subscribers hanging but the back half of August has been incredibly chaotic. TIFF finally released the full schedule on...
Weekend Openers - August 12
Emily the Criminal highlights the weekend openers as we reach the mid-point of August. How is it already August?!? Anyway, August is the new January in that...
Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time
I was recently asked to contribute to Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time poll. It’s not easy putting together my selections—the list of my favorite...
Back to TIFF in September
The end of July saw the Toronto International Film Festival beginning to announce their lineup for the 47th installment. They started with the Gala and...
No, Elvis isn't dead. He just went home.
I saw Elvis near the end of June and subsequently decided to check out the 1968 Comeback Special and Elvis: One Night With You from the library. It took me...
Star Wars: Filling in the Gaps
While I’ve been working on reading Hollywood and Israel in recent weeks, I’ve also been catching up on Star Wars comics. You have Obi-Wan Kenobi to thank for...
A Busy Weekend at Fan Expo Chicago
Fan Expo Chicago took place over the long weekend and it certainly kept me busy. This was the first edition of Fan Expo Chicago after they acquired the...
Independence Day 2022 - I'm Currently Safe
Today marks America’s birthday. Unfortunately, it’s also been marked by tragedy this year with the Fourth of July Parade in Highland Park, Ill. I’m making...
Surely, you can't be serious
The rulings from the Supreme Court during the last week have made it tough to watch any movie with a clear mindset. It’s this mindset that led me to pull out...
A Whole Lot Of Star Wars Going On
Obi-Wan Kenobi came to an end on Wednesday and with that, so did my staying up for episodes to launch at 2 AM. There are very few shows launching on...
It's a Raiders kind of night
Tribeca 2022 may be coming to an end on the ground in New York but I spent my Sunday evening watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Steven Spielberg film...
Back to the Future
I took a break over Memorial Day weekend to go Back to the Future and the trilogy is still as fun as ever. Going into the holiday weekend, I had debated...
Top Gun: Maverick - The Hype is Real
The hype started for Top Gun: Maverick immediately after the world premiere screening during CinemaCon. My full review will not run until May 25 but let me...
The Summer Movie Season is Here
It isn’t just that the summer movie season is here but I am entering another week of May where the large majority of my reviews are already scheduled for the...
To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before
I ended the month of April by binge-watching four seasons of Star Trek: Discovery with the first half of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds mixed into the bunch....
The Jojo Rabbit Discourse is Back
While many of us were furious with a list of the best romantic comedies of all-time making the rounds on Monday, the Jojo Rabbit discourse came back. As I...
Passover Is Coming
Passover is starting on Friday night and for some, that means revisiting films such as The Ten Commandments or The Prince of Egypt. Or if you’re up to it,...
Sony Tour, Critics Choice Awards and More
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind with a trip to Los Angeles for the Critics Choice Awards and the Sony Pictures Studio Tour. In a perfect world, I’d...
Disney Needs To Do Better
Bob Chapek has damaged the Walt Disney brand in more ways than anybody could have thought possible. One has to be really bad at their job to do a worse job...
Apologies for the lack of updates
I’ll send out a formal update later today but first, I’m sorry for not updating this Substack as frequently as I’d liked. Being transgender means I am...
Bambi: The Movie and The Book
Walt Disney’s Bambi is NOTHING at all like Felix Salten’s book. Now that Bambi is back in the public domain, Princeton University Press is releasing The...
Ivan Reitman, The Super Bowl, and More
The year continues to take away from us with the passing of Ivan Reitman over the weekend. It wasn’t until after his passing in which I learned that his...
Spotify Still Falls Short With Regards to Joe Rogan
When Spotify CEO Daniel Ek sent out an email to staff to apologize for what’s going on with Joe Rogan, he fell short of doing what was right. The right thing...
That Was A Month
I realize it’s been a few weeks since my last update. However, Sundance kept me busy with a number of films and I’ve been rather busy on the Whoopi Goldberg...
Disaster Thrillers and Sundance
I apologize for the delay in getting this sent out. When I returned online following Shabbas on January 15, I could not stay away from the news. Another...
Ben Affleck Isn't Wrong
Ben Affleck had something to say about the future of moviegoing and the truth is: he isn’t wrong. I wrote about Affleck’s comments this evening. The way I...