Mehdi Hasan is still processing his “debate” with 20 MAGA freaks on Jubilee Media’s ‘Surrounded’ show. He’s still taking criticism for doing it and questioning himself about the decision. He admits he really didn’t know just how extreme the 20 he’d face would be.
George Conway warns Trump’s allies what they should know already. Trump demands loyalty from them but will give none in return. Employees, aides, donors, fans, members of his personality cult, they’re all in a race to the gullet and think themselves immune. Don’t count on it. They’re all lining up to be a hot lunch.
Conway:
“Trump said something that the people who work for him now should remember. He said the people who worked for Obama—they’re not protected by the immunity decision. All you people working Trump, you better watch it because you don’t have immunity.” pic.twitter.com/sMpvWqIRiq
President Trump makes no secret of his displeasure over the cost of renovating the Federal Reserve headquarters — around $2.5 billion, or even higher by the president’s accounting. But getting the White House to discuss another of Washington’s expensive renovation projects, the cost of refurbishing a “free” Air Force One from Qatar, is quite another matter.
Officially, and conveniently, the price tag has been classified. But even by Washington standards, where “black budgets” are often used as an excuse to avoid revealing the cost of outdated spy satellites and lavish end-of-year parties, the techniques being used to hide the cost of Mr. Trump’s pet project are inventive.
Which may explain why no one wants to discuss a mysterious, $934 million transfer of funds from one of the Pentagon’s most over-budget, out-of-control projects — the modernization of America’s aging, ground-based nuclear missiles.
In recent weeks, congressional budget sleuths have come to think that amount, slipped into an obscure Pentagon document sent to Capitol Hill as a “transfer” to an unnamed classified project, almost certainly includes the renovation of the new, gold-adorned Air Force One that Mr. Trump desperately wants in the air before his term is over. (It is not clear if the entire transfer will be devoted to stripping the new Air Force One back to its airframe, but Air Force officials privately acknowledge dipping into nuclear modernization funds for the complex project.)
[…]
Mr. Trump’s plane probably won’t fly for long: It will take a year or two to get the work done, and then the Qatari gift — improved with the latest communications and in-flight protective technology — will be transferred to the yet-to-be-created Trump presidential library after he leaves office in 2029, the president has said.
Rupert Murdoch had the ability to kill Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in the crib. With one phone call, he could have directed Fox News to put a nice, soft pillow over the Trump campaign’s head until it stopped breathing. What was he thinking? Again, 1930s Germany says it all. He didn’t take seriously the chances of a man who wears more make-up than the drag queens of Mike Johnson’s dreams. Perhaps he even was foolish enough to believe that the Republican Party that had invested so much in proclaiming that Character Was King would never accept a man who had given a joint telephone interview to Howard Stern with his then girlfriend Melania Knaus while both were in bed talking about their great sex. I was that fool.
Expecting wisdom and prudence from an Australian tabloid baron whose breakthrough contribution to journalism was introducing semi-nude young women on page three of The Daily Sun is a quaint notion, like Donald Trump believing Vladimir Putin was sincere. Promoting the presidential hopes of that fat guy from Queens must have been amusing to Rupert Murdoch, a harmless and profitable pursuit, an exotic animal dealer smuggling in boa constrictors. Until you wake up one night and your profit center has wrapped itself around your throat.
Today, Rupert Murdoch faces the $10 billion Trump lawsuit on top of the $2.7 billion Smartmatic suit. There is much glee in the anti-Trump air that Murdoch has finally had enough and is moving to control “the fiend,” as Mary Shelly called Dr. Frankenstein’s creation. I’m eager to buy a ticket on that joyful ride.
But I must wonder if we are falling into the same pit of 2016 assumptions about this America we love. It’s insane to think that Donald Trump would send his masked men of ICE to arrest and deport an immigrant named Rupert Murdoch. Right? To live in that country would require believing that some day the United States government would fund a paramilitary force of masked men with a budget larger than the total military budget of all but two countries. That’s crazy, no?
In Russia, a Rupert Murdoch making a move against the leader would know to stay away from any open windows. How about in today’s America? Donald Trump has always benefited from the assumption that at some point he would be limited by the established rules of society and modulate his behavior.
Zoom in on Trump's tariff printout. Semis and Pharma were proposed by Japan at 15%. You can see them crossed out and a faint "20%" written in Trump-sans on top. Combined with Ishiba saying "Japan won't be disadvantaged for any tariffs on chips" Which means 20% is the confirmed… pic.twitter.com/dqR7Pu5Vlq
Earlier this week the Trump administration triumphantly announced that it had scored a big trade deal with Japan. Now the reviews are in, and the deal basically received a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes. And I’m not talking about the reactions of economists; I’m talking about the reaction from the manufacturing sector, both management and labor, which Trump’s tariffs were supposed to help. [….]
In a matter of months, we’ve gone from a regime of very low trade barriers — achieved through generations of hard bargaining in international trade negotiations — to Smoot-Hawley-level tariffs. Many businesses, however, have taken comfort in the belief that extremely high tariffs were temporary, that they’d come back down as Trump began making deals with other nations.
But Japan has struck a deal — and is left facing a tariff of 15 percent, compared with an average of 1.6 percent BT (Before Trump.) Reports suggest that a similar deal may be coming with the European Union. At this point it looks as if we’re heading for a new normal in which most imports are taxed at 15 percent, while some face even higher tariffs.
Trump claims that foreigners will pay these tariffs, and Trump apologists are pointing to consumer prices, which haven’t yet shown a clear spike, as evidence that he’s right. But they’re looking at the wrong price measure. What you want to look at are import prices — the prices foreign producers are charging America, prices tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
If Trump were right, we’d be seeing a large fall in import prices, offsetting the tariff hikes. It would look like this:
That is, if you look at the right price measures, foreigners don’t seem to be paying any significant share of the Trump tariffs.
Who is paying? So far, the burden seems to be falling mainly on U.S. businesses, which are definitely seeing a sharp rise in costs…And we’re currently experiencing cost inflation at levels not seen since the summer of 2022.
So far, these costs haven’t been fully passed on to consumers, probably in part because businesses have been expecting tariffs to come down. But once businesses see how high tariffs on Japan and Europe are after they’ve made deals, their willingness to absorb the tariffs rather than passing them on to consumers will evaporate.
According to Krugman, this Japan “deal” has everyone spooked because it’s so stupid that it essentially “tilts the playing field between U.S. and Japanese producers of cars, and perhaps other products, in Japan’s favor.”
You might imagine that making a deal with one of our most important trading partners must have involved a team of experienced, skilled negotiators backed by economic experts. But in reality it was clearly pure amateur hour. Look at the photo at the top of this post, from CNBC. It shows Trump with a card in front of him laying out one much-hyped though probably meaningless part of the deal, a promise by Japan to invest in America. How much? The card says $400 billion, but that number was crossed out by hand and replaced with $500 billion, which somehow became $550 billion in the final announcement.
That’s what we’re dealing with. Trump basically believes that nothing matters except what he says and to some extent, at least, that’s been true about everything. He makes his own reality. So far, businesses and other institutions have gone along with that, apparently assuming that everything will always work out for him — and them. We’ll find out soon if that’s true.
Hamilton Nolan’s excellent substack newsletter (subscribe here) addresses one of the major questions of Trump 2.0 — do these institutions really believe that licking Trump’s boots will save them?
When faced with a deranged, unrestrained, dictatorial right wing leader, institutions that want to survive have two basic options. The first is to resist with all of their power, trying to fight to defeat the threat to the principles that have allowed them, and their societies, to flourish. The second is to say: “Hey, if we flatter this guy, and get on his good side, maybe he’ll leave us alone—or even allow us to prosper, as he attacks our peers who are on his bad side.”
Which of these two paths are wiser, in the era of Donald Trump?
This year has already given us many examples of all sorts of institutions—businesses, law firms, universities, courts—trying to navigate Trump’s wrath by choosing one option or the other. Today, I want to focus on the world of organized labor. Modern history shows us that aspiring authoritarians on both the left and the right have always taken care to neuter the independent power of organized labor as they try to consolidate power for themselves. This is common sense. Any powerful, well-developed labor movement is a grassroots army that can be mobilized in opposition to the will of a dictatorship. Eroding democracy, the rule of law, the separation of powers, free elections—all of these tasks require, first, weakening any form of organized popular opposition. Labor movements are always an obvious potential source of pushback. The same thing is true in America (as I have argued at length). Even though American unions have not really covered themselves in glory thus far in terms of strong, united, effective opposition to the Trump administration, they still have the potential to do so. And unions will be increasingly forced to pick a side as the administration’s actions grow more hostile.
Every union was thinking about this as Trump came into office. Consider the North American Building Trades Unions (NABTU), a coalition of more than a dozen unions representing three million unionized construction workers in the US and Canada. In February, NABTU Government Affairs Director Jim Brewer sent a memo to NABTU President Sean McGarvey outlining the group’s government relations strategy in the first 30 days of the Trump administration. The memo listed dozens of major government-funded infrastructure projects that the group expected Trump to slash funding for. It noted that Trump had already decided not to use project labor agreements, which protect union workers and wages, on many government construction projects. In other words, it was already abundantly clear that the Trump administration would be rolling back huge parts of the Biden administration’s actions that benefited construction workers and their unions.
Then, in a section titled “ESTABLISHING A WORKING RELATIONSHIP,” the memo laid out the approach that NABTU planned to take to get on Trump’s good side. It noted that NABTU had released congratulatory statements on Trump’s inauguration, supported various Trump cabinet nominees, and also strategically “Remained silent” in the face of a number of assaults on union rights generally and NABTU’s priorities specifically.
So NABTU deliberately chose to lick Trump’s feet and kiss his ass as much as possible, as a way to establish a good relationship, reasoning that that would be the best way to protect NABTU’s own interests.
So, how did that work out for them?
Since that memo, the Trump administration has continued to carry out the most drastic assaults on union rights of any president since WW2.
Did they realize the error of their ways? Well…
In a statement released Wednesday, McGarvey decided to lean in even further. “Mr. President, we need your help. You’re a builder. You’ve forgotten more about what it takes to develop and build a project than practically anybody in the world ever knew,” the statement began. “You are working hard, attempting to make deals and bring jobs back. But right now, some people around you are canceling job-creating projects — and with them, thousands and thousands of good-paying, blue-collar construction jobs.”
Please oh please love me back Daddy!
McGarvey lays out all the carnage being rained down upon the construction industry hoping against hope to appeal to Trump’s good side. Except he doesn’t have one.
This is a fundamental error on the part of virtually all of our institutions. They seem to think that because Trump is a clownish imbecile that they can outsmart him by flattering him. They fail to understand that Trump is also a malevolent monster determined to wreak vengeance on the country he believes has failed to properly universally worship him. He is punishing everyone, not just his enemies. Surely that should be obvious by now?
It’s just amazing how all those random people have exactly the same observation about Donald Trump’s mighty golf swing…
So that’s nice.
lol. Love the caddie casually dropping the ball on to the rough (presumably he had it in the fescue) and Trump just playing it. So good https://t.co/dQr3YPHeFl
“What is important to keep in mind is when President Trump ran for election, he ran right at these legacy broadcast media outfits and the New York and Hollywood elites that are behind it, and he smashed the facade that they are gatekeepers that control what Americans can think and what Americans can say,” Carr responded.
“Once you do that, you have exposed a business model of a lot of these outfits as being nothing more than a partisan circus. So I think there are a lot of consequences that are flowing from President Trump deciding, I won’t play by the rules of politicians in the past and let these legacy outfits dictate the narrative and terms of the debate,” he continued. “He is succeeding.”
Carr then went on to suggest that even if Trump hadn’t played a direct role in the cancellation of Colbert’s show, the president’s ongoing war with the legacy media was the key factor in the decision.
“Look at what is happening. NPR has been defunded, PBS has been defunded, Colbert is getting canceled,” the chairman boasted. “You’ve got anchors and news media personalities losing jobs downstream of President Trump’s decision to stand up. He stood up for the American people. The American people don’t trust the legacy gatekeepers anymore.”
Hemmer, meanwhile, pointed out that he had asked Carr “a very direct question,” but “did not hear a yes or a no in your answer.” Instead, as the Fox anchor noted, he “heard a maybe.”
Carr’s non-committal response comes two days after Skydance’s general counsel sent him a pair of letters confirming that New Paramount will eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusivity policies and hire an ombudsman to review “complaints of bias” at CBS News once the merger is complete.
That whole freedom of the press thing is so very old-fashioned. It’s just going to be propaganda all the way down from now on.
That’s largely because Democrats are frustrated with the party because they are flailing haplessly as Trump uses executive power to destroy everything while the GOP congressional and Supreme Court majorities aid and abet him. Deny the Democrats any power at all and then blame them for failing to stop Republican atrocities.. That’s the Democratic Party for you.
Yes, the G-word is a loaded term. But what are we to make of apparent Israeli efforts to bomb Gaza to rubble and starve out its populace in an attempt, to put it as crassly as Donald Trump, to ethnically cleanse the territory to make way for beachfront resort development?
But Ocober 7? But Hamas? But hostages?
But proportionality? How much carnage is justified here, how many deaths of innocents? How many war crimes? How many “But Hamas” excuses?
The Bush II administration used September 11 to justify prisoner abuse and torture. The Netanyahu administration is using October 7 to justify even more.
I once heard a teacher describe a lesson to his class in American history. He described colonists coming to these shores from Europe to escape religious persecution. That is, for religious freedom. And as soon as they set up settlements, the first rule some made was that anyone living with them had to worship like them.
Why, he asked students, does it often seem acceptable to do to others what had been done to you?
I’d include photos of children starved to bones, but I won’t give some who’d justify that the satisfaction.
Update:
This is the best ever true news BBC ever made about Israel, 4 minutes but every minute is extremely important pic.twitter.com/ZnSEpPvusb
We were in Raleigh for a fundraiser dinner Saturday night, the hottest day of the year. It’s 80 F at 7 a.m. this Sunday morning here with 82 precent humidity. (Feels like 87 F, says the Weather Channel.) Tha temperature is on its way up to 97 F.
With that as backdrop, Politico reports on failed efforts last year to dim the sun and create clouds:
A team of researchers in California drew notoriety last year with an aborted experiment on a retired aircraft carrier that sought to test a machine for creating clouds.
But behind the scenes, they were planning a much larger and potentially riskier study of salt water-spraying equipment that could eventually be used to dim the sun’s rays — a multimillion-dollar project aimed at producing clouds over a stretch of ocean larger than Puerto Rico.
Last year’s experiment, led by the University of Washington and intended to run for months, lasted about 20 minutes before being shut down by Alameda city officials who objected that nobody had told them about it beforehand.
Oops.
The university and its partners — a solar geoengineering research advocacy group called SilverLining and the scientific nonprofit SRI International — didn’t respond to detailed questions about the status of the larger cloud experiment. But SilverLining’s executive director, Kelly Wanser, said in an email that the Marine Cloud Brightening Program aimed to “fill gaps in the information” needed to determine if the technologies are safe and effective.
What technologies?
Solar geoengineering encompasses a suite of hypothetical technologies and processes for reducing global warming by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth that are largely unregulated at the federal level. The two most researched approaches include releasing sulfate particles in the stratosphere or spraying saltwater aerosols over the ocean.
But critics of the technologies warn that they could also disrupt weather patterns — potentially affecting farm yields, wildlife and people. Even if they succeed in cooling the climate, temperatures could spike upward if the processes are abruptly shut down before countries have transitioned away from burning planet-warming fossil fuels, an outcome described by experts as “termination shock.”
One of those critics would be Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) who blamed the July 4 Texas flooding on geoengineering. She’s introduced a bill in Congress to criminalize such efforts. Naturally, former retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, a former national security adviser to President Donald Trump is all up in that.
Meanwhile, more than 575 scientists have called for a ban on geoengineering development because it “cannot be governed globally in a fair, inclusive, and effective manner.” And in Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law last month that bans the injection or release of chemicals into the atmosphere “for the express purpose of affecting the temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight.”
Frankly, we might have welcomed some manmade cooling last night in Raleigh where Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), rumored to be a 2028 candidate for president, spoke to Tar Heel Democrats:
“Folks, 2026 can be our year, but we’re going to have to fight for it,” the second-term Democratic governor from the Midwest told a packed room Saturday night at the Talley House on the campus of N.C. State University. “And the values at our rallies need to be front and center.”
Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper introduced Pritzker. Axios reported last week that Cooper will enter the 2026 U.S. Senate race to fill the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. As part of his greeting to the crowd, Cooper asked anyone in the room planning on running for office to stand. As applause began to die, Cooper winked, “I’m not sitting down, am I?”
And the crowd went wild. But there was no formal announcement, although Pritzker dropped a couple of undisguised comments about the next phase of Cooper’s career.
In my 2016 review of the documentary All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records, I wrote:
Those of a certain persuasion (borderline OCD music collectors) and/or of a certain age (ahem, twice) may tend to get more misty-eyed toward the end of the doc than the average viewer. Again, it is not the most dynamically produced film, but its heart is in the right place. And if you miss the ritual of pawing through those bins, ogling the cover art and skimming the liner notes and track listing on the back, all the while breathing in that singularly intoxicating bouquet of shrink wrap and petroleum product-feel free to browse.
Finding myself even more of a “certain age” in 2025, I’m doing a lot of “morbid math” these days. For example, I have a Blu-ray/DVD collection of 4,000 discs. I turned 69 in April. To re-watch one of them per day would take me 10.9 years. If I began today with Abba: The Movie and proceeded in alphabetical order, I’d be celebrating my 80th birthday with a screening of Costa-Gavras’ Z . That is…if I make it to 80, (insert favorite deity of your choice here) willing.
Morbid math. Or as the insurance industry calls it…Thursday.
I suppose I should get to the point (as I’ve probably already lost most readers by now). Collecting physical media is tons o’ fun, but it does take up physical space; and if you’re a lifelong apartment dweller like me, I don’t need to tell you “space” is finite (you need to leave room for sleeping and such). That’s why I adopted a policy several years ago: Buy a movie, trade a movie (or donate one to charity). The lion’s share of my purchases are Blu-ray upgrades of titles I already own on DVD anyway, which keeps potential hoarder angst at bay (therefore, I prefer to think of my self as an “organized hoarder”, since I am willing to let go).
You’re not buying any of this, are you? As Elliot Gould says in The Long Goodbye, “It’s OK with me.” What can I say…collectors gotta collect. You’ve suffered enough, so here’s some news you can actually use-a few of the best Blu-ray reissues of 2025 (so far). Happy hoarding!
Let’s Get Lost (Kino Classics) – The life of horn player/vocalist Chet Baker is a tragedian’s dream; a classic tale of a talented artist who peaked early, then promptly set about self-destructing. Sort of the Montgomery Clift of jazz, he was graced by the gods with an otherworldly physical beauty and a gift for expressing his art. By age 24 he had already gigged with Stan Getz, Charlie Parker and Gerry Mulligan. He began chasing the dragon in the 1950s, leading to jail time and a career slide.
There are conflicting versions of the circumstances that led to a brutal beating in 1968, but the resultant injuries to his mouth impaired his playing abilities. While he never kicked the substance abuse, he eventually got his mojo back, and enjoyed a resurgence of his career in his final decade (he was only 58 when he died).
The nodded-out Chet Baker we see in Bruce Weber’s extraordinary warts-and-all 1988 documentary (beautifully shot in B&W) is a man who appears several decades older than his chronological age (and sadly, as it turned out, has about a year left to live). Still, there are amazing (if fleeting) moments of clarity, where we get a glimpse of the genius that still burned within this tortured soul.
One scene in particular, where Weber holds a close up of Baker’s ravaged road map of a face as he croons a plaintive rendition of Elvis Costello’s “Almost Blue”, has to be one of the most naked, heartbreaking vocal performances ever captured on film. Haunting and one-of-a-kind, this is a must-see. The film snagged a well-deserved 1989 Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
Kino Classic’s 2025 Blu-ray edition sports a beautiful 4K picture restoration and newly remixed audio (noticeable improvements over Metrodome’s 2008 Region 2 DVD). The package also features a number of Weber’s short films. It would have been nice to include the two Weber-directed Chet Baker music videos that are on the 2008 DVD (which also contains two short films curiously not included on the Kino Blu-ray)…but that’s a minor quibble, as I was just happy to see this fabulous doc get an upgrade.
Night Moves(Criterion Collection) – Set in Los Angeles and the sultry Florida Keys, Arthur Penn’s 1975 sleeper stars the late Gene Hackman as a world-weary private investigator with a failing marriage, who becomes enmeshed in a case involving battling ex-spouses, which soon slides into incest, smuggling and murder.
As always, Hackman’s character work is top-notch. Also with Jennifer Warren (in a knockout, Oscar-worthy performance), Susan Clark, Edward Binns, Harris Yulin, James Woods and Melanie Griffith (her first credited role). Alan Sharp’s intelligent, multi-layered screenplay parallels the complexity of the P.I.’s case with ruminations on the equally byzantine mystery as to why human relationships almost seem engineered to fail. One of the best neo-noirs of the 1970s.
Criterion’s 2025 reissue marks the third edition of this film I’ve owned; the image quality of the new 4K digital restoration handily tops all previous home video versions. Extras include a new audio commentary by Matthew Asprey Gear, author of Moseby Confidential (a terrific read for fans of the film), a new audio interview with actor Jennifer Warren, a written essay by critic Mark Harris, and more.
Sorcerer (Criterion Collection) – The time is ripe for a re-appraisal of William Friedkin’s expertly directed, terrifically acted update of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s classic 1953 noir, The Wages of Fear. This existential action adventure (which I think is closer in spirit to Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God than Clouzot’s original film) was greeted with indifference by audiences and critics when it was released in 1977. Maybe it was the incongruous title, which likely led many to assume it would be in the vein of his previous film (and box-office hit), The Exorcist. Then again, it was tough for any other film to garner attention in the immediate wake of Star Wars.
Roy Scheider heads a superb international cast as a desperate American on the lam in South America, who signs up for a job transporting a truckload of nitroglycerin through rough terrain. Excellent screenplay by Walon Green. Tangerine Dream provides a memorable soundtrack. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore-a genuinely pulse-pounding adventure that slips in a fair amount of subversive political commentary.
Criterion’s 4K restoration displays a marked improvement in image quality over the relatively bare bones 2016 Warner Blu-ray edition. Extras include the excellent full-length 2018 documentary Friedkin Uncut, a new conversation between filmmaker James Gray and film critic Sean Fennessey, a written essay by film critic Justin Chang, and more.
The Three Musketeers / The Four Musketeers (Criterion Collection) – I try to avoid utilizing trite descriptive phrases like “rollicking adventure” – but prithee forgive me, good sir or madam if I doth declare Richard Lester’s diptych to be a right rollicking adventure, indeed (bet you’re glad I didn’t say “bawdy romp”). This umpteenth adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s classic swashbuckler (screenplay by George MacDonald Fraser) was filmed in one shoot but released in 1973 and 1974.
Aside from some light court intrigue, both films tend to forgo any deep narrative exposition in favor of acrobatic swordplay and door-slamming slapstick…but are you not entertained? How could you not be with such a fabulous cast: Musketeers Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay, and Richard Chamberlain are ably supported by the likes of Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Geraldine Chaplin, Charlton Heston, and Roy Kinnear. Colorful, exciting, frequently hilarious and rich in period detail, it’s perfect escapism.
Criterion’s 2025 double disc set features gorgeous new 4K restorations of both films. Extras include a new documentary by critic David Cairns, a 1973 featurette with behind-the-scenes footage of director Richard Lester, and a written essay by film critic Stephanie Zacharek.
Withnail & I(Criterion Collection) – Writer-director Bruce Robinson’s 1987 study of two impoverished actors slogging through 1969 London with high hopes and low squalor has earned a devoted cult following (guilty as charged). Richard E. Grant excels as the decadently wasted Withnail, ably supported by Paul McGann (he would be the “I”).
The two flat mates, desperate for a break from their cramped, freezing apartment and mutual descent into creeping fear and paranoia, take a trip to the country, where Withnail’s rich eccentric uncle (Richard Griffiths) keeps a cottage. There are so many quotable lines (“We want the finest wines available to humanity. And we want them here, and we want them now!” or “We’ve gone on holiday by mistake.”). Ralph Brown nearly steals the film as Danny the drug dealer.
Previous DVD and Blu-ray editions have been frustratingly problematic in terms of image and/or sound quality (I think I’ve owned them all), but the 2025 Criterion edition finally puts those issues to rest with a proper 4K restoration (granted, the film was purposely shot in low light and muted brown and grey tones to match the characters’ melancholic mood; still, this is the best print I’ve seen to date). Extras include two audio commentaries, a new short with Robinson and Grant, and Withnail and Us (1999), a documentary on the making of the film.
(Hot tip: Amazon is currently pricing all these titles at 50% off-likely ending July 31).
