It sounds almost Monty Python’s “inquisition” sketch. Among the ways the right attempts to rewrite the history of the attempted Jan. 6 coup….
We’ve already seen history repeat itself with the reemergence of white nationalist authoritarianism. A revival of the 1939 German American Bund rally in Madison Square Garden even.
Charlie Warzel and Mike Caulfield consider how insurrection denialism works. They suggest that misinformation is a sanitized description of how the internet warps reality. Conspiracy theories about 9/11 or Vince Foster were just warmup acts, either crude efforts at brainwashing or relatively harmless (The Atlanticgift link):
But there is another, more disturbing possibility, one that we have come to understand through our respective professional work over the past decade. One of us, Mike, has been studying the effects of our broken information environment as a research scientist and information literacy expert, while the other, Charlie, is a journalist who has extensively written and reported on the social web. Lately, our independent work has coalesced around a particular shared idea: that misinformation is powerful, not because it changes minds, but because it allows people to maintain their beliefs in light of growing evidence to the contrary. The internet may function not so much as a brainwashing engine but as a justification machine. A rationale is always just a scroll or a click away, and the incentives of the modern attention economy—people are rewarded with engagement and greater influence the more their audience responds to what they’re saying—means that there will always be a rush to provide one. This dynamic plays into a natural tendency that humans have to be evidence foragers, to seek information that supports one’s beliefs or undermines the arguments against them. Finding such information (or large groups of people who eagerly propagate it) has not always been so easy. Evidence foraging might historically have meant digging into a subject, testing arguments, or relying on genuine expertise. That was the foundation on which most of our politics, culture, and arguing was built.
There’s more on that and nothing on AI and deep fakes. But it’s worth a read. The fight to preserve a common reality is just warming up. Once again, our tech is running ahead of our ethics and undermining our cultural underpinnings.
I don’t have an answer for that. Except to remember.
You didn’t imagine it, the images and videos, the injuries and deaths. They were not “deep state” fakes. Those people weren’t tourists. They weren’t patriots. The violent Trump mob consisted of MAGA rioters and insurrectionists. After four years of a Democratic administration left with cleaning up, Americans inexplicably elected Donald Trump, now a convicted felon, to another term. It’s almost as if they mean to prove the Constitution a suicide pact.
Trump is preparing to pardon a large chunk of the Jan. 6 convicted as victims of political persecution, just as woe-is-ME is as innocent as a babe.
Trump said he would issue pardons to rioters on “Day 1” of his presidency, which begins Jan. 20. “Most likely, I’ll do it very quickly,” he said recently on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He added that “those people have suffered long and hard. And there may be some exceptions to it. I have to look. But, you know, if somebody was radical, crazy.”
His promise, made throughout his campaign for the White House, is shadowing events Monday as lawmakers gather to certify a presidential election for the first time since 2021, when Trump’s supporters breached the Capitol and temporarily halted the certification of an election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
And Trump did lose the 2020 election to Joe Biden. He’s spent much of his non-golf time since then trying to rewrite that history and will spend the next four doing so from the Oval Office.
More than 1,250 have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials in connection with Jan. 6, with more than 650 receiving prison time ranging from a few days to 22 years .
President Joe Biden speaks out this morning in the Washington Post, noting that his vice president, Kamala Harris, will faithfully fulfill her duty as president of the Senate to oversee certification of the election she lost [to Trump; Biden will not name him]. Americans must never forget the coup [Trump] attempted on Jan. 6, 2021 lest we see a repeat. Yet Trump and his MAGA followers will try to eradicate the memory:
An unrelenting effort has been underway [by Trump] to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day. To tell us we didn’t see what we all saw with our own eyes. To dismiss concerns about it as some kind of partisan obsession. To explain it away as a protest that just got out of hand.
This is not what happened.
In time, there will be Americans who didn’t witness the Jan. 6 riot firsthand but will learn about it from footage and testimony of that day, from what is written in history books and from the truth we pass on to our children. We cannot allow the truth to be lost.
John Roberts’ year-end message was rightly taken to task for implying that criticism of the court’s corruption was inciting violence. If the Chief Justice can’t defend the right of the people to criticize the Supreme Court then they really have gone down the rabbit hole.
Every Administration suffers defeats in the court system—sometimes in cases with major ramifications for executive or legislative power or other consequential topics. Nevertheless, for the past several decades, the decisions of the court, popular or not, have been followed. Within the past few years, however, elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings. These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected.
I can’t think of any prominent Democrats making that argument but I suppose there might have been at one point. But as Bill Kristol notes in his Substack:
[T]his sounds an awful lot like a subtweet of incoming Vice President JD Vance, who has repeatedly argued that Trump should ignore court orders that he believes unconstitutionally constrain his executive authority. “If the elected president says, ‘I get to control the staff of my own government,’ and the Supreme Court steps in and says, ‘you’re not allowed to do that’—like, that is the constitutional crisis,” Vance told Politicolast March. “It’s not whatever Trump or whoever else does in response.”
Roberts better hope asking nicely will do the trick. After all, he was the one who reached into his bag of tricks last year to carve out a broad new definition of criminal immunity for a president’s “official acts.” Like much of the rest of the country, Roberts appears to be entering the new year with a bizarre optimism: Sure, the incoming administration has openly said it will do many alarming things. But wouldn’t it be nice if they just didn’t?
Vance has been backing Musk’s embrace of the neo-Nazis in Germany so I think he really means it. Whether Trump wants that fight is unknown but I doubt he’ll care if his people want to wage it. He can observe it from the golf course and he knows he’ll suffer no repercussions.
It brings to mind the apparently apocryphal comment by Andrew Jackson, who Steve Bannon convinced Trump he most resembles: “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.” It sounds like Vance is pretty much saying the same thing. But really, all he has to do is ask John Roberts and he’ll do whatever they want.
So Biden obviously did an excellent job as president but he is self-indulgent and lacking in accountability? Interesting.
It’s also interesting that Baker notes the last time a president inherited such a prosperous country. You may recall that the press also vilified the man who accomplished it as being self-indulgent and lacking in accountability.
Speaker Mike Johnson told Republicans on Saturday that President-elect Donald Trump wants one reconciliation package, instead of the planned two that Republican leadership has been pushing, three people in the room where discussions took place told POLITICO.
Johnson’s message came as Republicans are meeting behind closed doors at Fort McNair to map out their strategy for passing a sweeping border, tax and energy package that will be the heart of their legislative agenda. Trump told Johnson that he wants “one big beautiful bill,” the Louisiana Republican recounted at the retreat, per three lawmakers.
Trump’s decision is a break from Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s pitch for a two-bill strategy that would have seen Republicans pass a border and energy bill first followed by a tax bill. Johnson had also previously indicated there would be two bills — though that was viewed as more of a deference to Trump’s perceived preference and a way to notch quick wins for his agenda. Thune stopped by the House GOP retreat on Saturday, a person familiar confirmed to POLITICO.
[…]
Every step of the process will require near unity among congressional Republicans, who are currently working with only a one-vote margin in the House.
“We can’t lose anyone,” Smith said in a brief interview after the GOP retreat.
Easy Peasy. All they have to do is agree to take a wrecking ball to all government spending, including mandatory spending like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, to please the Chip Roy, Thomas Massie extremists and make sure that none of the others object and it will all work out just fine.
There are some naysayers who see the writing on the wall:
“[The tax bill] can’t be the first order of business. It took us months to do the first tax cuts bill nine years ago. The bottom line is that, if that’s what the president wants, he’s going to have to wait until the summer for it all to get ironed out,” Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) told Fox News’ Fox News Live on Saturday.
It also throws a curveball into the House-leadership-struck agreement to raise the debt ceiling under reconciliation. House GOP leadership told members as part of last year’s government funding negotiations that they would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion as part of the first reconciliation package and cut $2.5 trillion in spending as part of the reconciliation process.
They’re all girding themselves for the battle. For the moment they’re saying they’ll defer to Dear Leader: “No one is fighting it. If that’s the Trump call, that’s the play we will execute.”
Well maybe. President Musk will have something to say about all this. And executing Trump’s plans is always easier said than done.
After Chesebro & Brown delivered the documents on Jan. 5, the aides to Rep. Mike Kelly R-PA were unable to get the materials to Pence, as the Senate Parliamentarian refused to accept the fake elector envelopes. More at https://t.co/MhpdHkYLw6 2/ pic.twitter.com/hibMreJgdD
The aides to Rep. Mike Kelly R-PA walked the fake elector documents to the Capitol. But that's where things went haywire, as they were unable to get the documents to Vice President Pence 5/ pic.twitter.com/vT31n8SI7A
Chesebro has admitted what he did and has been sanctioned numerous times, even pleading guilty in the Georgia case. But in the end it was a tiny price to pay and he was one of the few has paid anything.
What a slap in the face to honest people everywhere that these people have been put back in power. It’s a shocking indictment of our country one from which I wonder if we’ll ever be able to recover.
You know that Elon Musk is sitting next to Donald Trump every night at Mar-a-Lago, talking to foreign leaders, kibitzing with fellow billionaires and whispering in the ear of the soon-to-be most powerful man on earth. You may have also heard that he’s exercising his own power on the internet to influence congressional leaders and fight for dominance over MAGA.
He’s branching out. He wrote an op-ed in a conservative German newspaper endorsing the neo-Nazi right party, saying they are Germany’s only hope (and causing the editorial editor to resign from the paper.) And now there’s this:
In the first three days of 2025, Elon Musk commandeered global politics through dozens of rapid-fire,often inflammatory posts to his 210 million followers on X.
The world’s richest person called for the release of a jailed British far-right extremist. He shared a post pressing King Charles III to dissolve Parliament and order a new general election, as he posted memes and a flurry of attacks directed at Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Musk accused Starmer of failing to prosecute “rape gangs” more than a decade ago, achild exploitation scandal that has prompted Britain’s Conservative Party to call for a full national inquiry.
Musk reposted a message from Rupert Lowe, a politician in the Reform UK party who serves in Parliament and who said he spent Friday talking to rape gang victims.
“Victims, past and present, don’t need ‘thoughts and prayers’ from politicians, they need justice,” Lowe said. “We will fight for that in Parliament.”
Musk also briefly turned his attention to the United States’ northern neighbor and praised an interview with Pierre Poilievre, a populist firebrand who leads Canada’s Conservative Party. Musk said that next week he would live-stream a conversation with Alice Weidel, the chancellor candidate for the Alternative for Germany, a far-right political party he has endorsed ahead of that country’s snap elections in February.
That rape gang story is from 2014 and has been fully adjudicated. I don’t know if Musk just heard about it or has decided that it’s a good way to rile up the wingnuts against immigrants again to obtain political power but he’s clearly making a move on UK politics.
Interestingly, he’s already stirred up a hornets nest inside the anti-immigrant far-right Reform party there, turning on its leader Nigel Farage. He posted today, “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
Farage has been a huge Trump supporter and recently has been cultivating Musk who was reportedly planning to help finance the party. But even Farage can’t stomach supporting Tommy Robinson, a grifter extremist who was jailed for contempt of court:
But things took a turn after Musk called for the release of Tommy Robinson, a jailed far-right anti-immigration activist. Speaking at a Reform UK event earlier this week, Farage said Robinson was “not what we need,” The Telegraph reported.
“There are people in Britain who think that Robinson is a political prisoner. That’s the narrative that he’s pushed out. That’s how he earns his living but it isn’t quite true,” he said.
On Sunday, Farage responded to Musk, calling the billionaire a “remarkable individual” but saying that he disagreed with his view on Robinson.
“Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree,” he wrote. “My view remains that Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles.”
Robinson is a disgusting figure who openly calls for violence against immigrants. Naturally Musk is a fan.
Why is he doing this? I suspect it’s largely because he can. He’s a megalomaniac, obviously, who believes that as the richest man in the world he has a right to run it. But it’s also because he knows that this level of influence makes his businesses downright impermeable from regulation and government interference and will make him even richer.
Does this look like a target? To Trump 2.0 it looks like a target.
Michael Podhorzer finds, as Digby posted on Saturday:
the defining feature of American politics this century is that neither party can “win” elections anymore; they can only be the “not-loser.”
Donald Trump was the not-loser in November. (It’s just what he wanted for Christmas.) Trump “won the same share of the eligible population” in 2024 as he did in 2020 while the Democrats’ share dropped 3.5% from 2020.
Hurrah!The country did not turn more MAGA. That’s little consolation for the left and doesn’t change the facts on the ground. In an age where facts don’t seem to matter, those facts nevertheless could get suckier under Trump 2.0, writes Sam Levin for The Guardian:
Donald Trump could use a second term atop the justice department to gut enforcement of US federal voting laws and deploy an agency that is supposed to protect the right to vote to undermine it, experts have warned.
Trump has made no secret of his intention to punish his political enemies and subvert the American voting system. His control of the justice department could allow him to amplify misleading claims of voter fraud by non-citizens and others, as well as investigate local election officials.
It could also cause the department’s voting section to largely scale back its enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, returning it to the approach that it took under Trump’s first term.
Enter Pam Bondi of Florida fundraising infamy and Trump’s current nominee to lead the Department of Injustice. (Or has he now dropped that moniker?)
Trump harbors a gnawing need to prove somehow that he won the 2020 election and will task Bondi with delivering a verdict that contradicts all previous findings. He will endeavor to his dying day to bend objective reality to his will, no matter what he told “Meet the Press.”
Much of the discussion about Trump’s justice department has focused on the fate of its voting section, which is charged with enforcing the nation’s federal voting rights laws. Cleta Mitchell, a Trump ally who sought to overturn the 2020 election and has become a key figure in the election denial movement, has called for all of the lawyers in the voting section to be fired.
“They are all leftist activists and use taxpayer dollars and the power of the federal government to advance their leftwing legal theories,” she said in an email. “Their loyalty is not to the constitution and the rule of law. They should go back to the leftist advocacy groups they came from.”
Again, objective reality be damned. Levin continues, “Career attorneys in the justice department have apolitical jobs in which they are charged with representing the position of the United States, regardless of the administration.”
In the AfterBiden, you’re on your own
Trump has nominated “a sycophant loyalist to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division,” warns Democratic voting rights attorney, Marc Elias.
It is imperative that DOJ dismiss all of its pending voting rights cases and withdraw from those in which it has intervened. The Biden administration should not hand over cases in which Dhillon can have DOJ switch sides and undermine voting rights.We are on our own from here.
Buckle up. Losing the election sucked for Democrats. Things are about to get suckier still. Trump will likely see to it that Bondi et al. launch investigations “to help build the narrative that voter fraud is a problem in the US” despite failing in his first administration.
Among voter fraud theorists, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
On this Sunday morning, a question springs to mind: How much of an idiot is “Captain Underpants“?
Elon Musk is beside himself that President Biden awarded philanthropist George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his pursuit of “global initiatives that strengthen democracy, human rights, education, and social justice.” (Biden gave the award to 18 others, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.) Musk posted a meme mocked up to show Biden handing the medal to the evil Emperor Palpatine. “Must be the lighting,” he quipped.
Naturally, the right is as incensed that their liberal bogeyman received the award as it wasn’t when Donald Trump awarded one to Rush Limbaugh during a State of the Union Address in recognition of Limbaugh’s Three Decades Hate.
What draws attention to Musk besides his infantile sense of humor, his inability to string more than 10 words together in most of his tweets, and his turning Jack Dorsey’s world forum into a MAGA cesspool, is the contrast with a real genius. One of Musk’s users (a bibliophile, believe it or not) posted a delightful thread about physicist Richard Feynman:
I thought I was crazy until I found Richard Feynman.
Feynman was not only among the most brilliant people on earth, but he transmitted something I’ve never seen in others.
Thread with some lessons from his peculiar way of being:
Feynman never did anything for the prestige he might get out of it.
He didn’t even want to receive the Nobel Prize. Richard felt he had already gotten what matters.
The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out.
People think beauty is only about aesthetics.
But Feynman believed that there’s something beautiful in depth, in understanding processes.
Knowledge contributes to beauty. It doesn’t subtract from it.
Richard Feynman embodied deep curiosity.
You don’t understand what “first principles” really mean until you listen to a physicist reasoning.
It’s about going to the end of the world chasing a chain of ‘whys’. “Where does fire come from?”
You have enough time to pursue other interests. Don’t listen to people who say you need to do only one thing to excel at it.
Feynman got a Nobel Prize in physics, but he still pursued other interests to a state worth of admiration.
Let’s explore a very peculiar one.
Richard didn’t know how to express a profound feeling about the beauty of the world through a set of equations, so he began drawing.
“It’s a feeling of awe — of scientific awe .. which I felt could be communicated through a drawing to someone who had also had that emotion. I could remind him, for a moment, of this feeling about the glories of the universe”
Feynman drew for over 20 years and even sold some of his work.
Charles Darwin was a giant of a man who greatly advanced mankind. But he had one huge regret:
Not cultivating his appreciation for poetry and music. “The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness.”
It might be more about imitating Feynman in this aspect.
There is another real loss in life: The loss of one’s sense of humor.
It doesn’t matter how many labels, prestige, and wisdom you may have. You don’t want to go through life without laughing.
Feynman was especially known for this. This book compiles some of his funny anecdotes.
How did he get away with all of this?
Feynman’s ethos was rooted in independent-mindedness. He developed great respect towards his mind and heart.
Not caring about what others think is a superpower.
Feynman was the real deal.
Update: VP-elect marked safe from being mistaken for a genius.
Back in August, I wrote about some of last year’s best Blu-ray reissues. Here’s a few more 2024 releases worth your consideration:
City of Hope(Sony) – John Sayles’ sprawling 1991 drama about urban decay and political corruption (beautifully shot by Robert Richardson) is set in fictional Hudson City, New Jersey (Cincinnati stands in). Vincent Spano plays the central character, the ne’er-do-well son of a property developer (Tony Lo Bianco) who has dubious ties with local mobsters. Utilizing his patented network narrative structure, Sayles weaves in many of his pet themes, such as family ties, culture clash, tests of faith, class warfare and local politics.
There are similarities with the previous year’s Bonfire of the Vanities; but this is a far superior film. I see City of Hope as a precursor to The Wire. The populous cast (uniformly excellent) includes Chris Cooper, Joe Morton, Angela Bassett, David Straithairn, and Gina Gershon.
Save the commentary track by Sayles, Sony’s Blu-ray edition is bereft of extras, but features a nice high-def transfer. I’m just happy to see this nearly forgotten gem get a long-overdue home video release (to my knowledge, it was never even issued on DVD).
Happiness (Criterion) – It’s difficult to describe the sensibilities of writer-director Todd Solondz, which tend to hover somewhere near the intersection of Wes Anderson and David Lynch. To wit: There is something oddly endearing about the characters in this black comedy…yet be warned there are some very, very, very bad things going on beneath these blue suburban skies (this ain’t Penny Lane).
In a setup reminiscent of Woody Allen’s Hannah and her Sisters, Solondz centers his story on the travails of a trio of adult siblings (Jane Adams, Lara Flynn Boyle and Cynthia Stevenson), their squabbling parents (Ben Gazzarra and Louise Lasser), and a number of friends, neighbors and co-workers in their orbit (believe me-the similarities end there).
The three bravest performances in the film (and that’s saying a lot) belong to the late Seymour Hoffman (in one of his more underrated turns), Dylan Baker, and Camryn Manheim. Also in the cast: Jared Harris, Elizabeth Ashley, Molly Shannon, and Jon Lovitz (Lovitz nearly steals the movie in the memorably audacious opening scene).
Admittedly, this film may not be everyone’s cup of tea (be prepared for that “cringe” factor) but if you’re OK with network narratives involving nothing but completely fucked-up individuals, this is your ticket. It’s a veritable merry-go-round of modern dysfunction.
Criterion’s 4K digital restoration is gorgeous (although you may find yourself wishing there was less clarity and detail in some scenes). Extras include new interviews with Solondz and cast member Dylan Baker and an essay by screenwriter-novelist Bruce Wagner.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kino) – While there have been three remakes over the decades (Philip Kaufman’s 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Abel Ferrara’s 1993 Body Snatchers, and the one I have yet to see, Oliver Hirshbiegel’s 2007 The Invasion), I have a particular soft spot for the original 1956 sci-fi classic.
Directed by the versatile (and prolific) Don Siegel and adapted from Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers by Daniel Mainwaring, the story is set in a sleepy California burg, which gets seeded by extraterrestrial spores that quickly germinate into people-sized pods. Each pod is able to replicate a human being, provided it is in close proximity to someone who remains fast asleep during the process. Once the host body is sapped, it is discarded, leaving behind a perfect physical copy devoid of personality; essentially they become malleable automatons, serving the whims of the aliens.
Kevin McCarthy gives an iconic performance as a doctor who is the first person to realize what is happening (of course, nobody believes him, until it’s too late). The film is huge on atmosphere (nice night-by-night work from DP Ellsworth Fredricks helps sustain a mood of dread and paranoia). Genuine chills and thrills abound throughout.
What I like about the 1956 original is that is very much of its time, vis a vis the sociopolitical subtexts. The Cold War era was in full play; one gets a sense of allusions and commentary regarding the Red Scare and the bland “Leave it to Beaver” conformity of the era.
I’ve owned the film on DVD and a previous Blu-ray edition; but Kino’s “4K Scan of the Best Available 35mm Elements” lives up to it’s billing, as it’s the best print I’ve seen to date on home video. Features include a choice of the 2.00:1 or 1.85:1 version, both in newly remastered 1080P HD, and 4 commentary tracks (2 of them new).
Looking for Mr. Goodbar(Vinegar Syndrome) – Considering that she was still basking in the critical accolades for her audience-pleasing Oscar-winning performance as the kooky and lovable Annie Hall, it was a bold career move for Diane Keaton to immediately follow it up with a leap into the relative darkness of Looking for Mr. Goodbar.
Writer-director Richard Brooks adapted his 1977 drama/neo-noir from a novel by Judith Rossner (which was based on the sensationalized real-life 1973 murder of a 28-year old NYC schoolteacher). Keaton gives an outstanding performance as a young woman with a repressive Catholic upbringing who moves to a seedy downtown apartment to escape the verbal abuse and restrictive rules laid down by her tyrannical father (Richard Kiley).
Her newfound sense of freedom and self-confidence sparks a sexual awakening; she soon slips into a double-life, teaching deaf children at an inner-city school by day, and cruising the singles bars at night looking for casual sex (and discovering recreational drugs along the way). When she begins juggling relationships with two men (Richard Gere and William Atherton), her life begins to take a darker turn. Tuesday Weld gives one of her best performances as Keaton’s sister.
The film divided critics at the time; some were upset at Brooks’ deviation from Rossner’s novel (I can’t speak for that, as I’ve never read it). Others appeared chagrined that the film (for them at least) lacked a moral center. Speaking as someone who turned 21 the year the film came out, I’d say it captures the zeitgeist of the “Me Decade” to a tee; I see it as a companion piece to John Badham’s Saturday Night Fever.
Vinegar Syndrome has assembled a nice package, which includes a 4K UHD and a Blu-ray disc (both restored from the original 35mm camera negative). Lots of extras, including new and archival interviews, a commentary track, and a number of essays (visual and written).
Real Life (Criterion – This underrated 1979 gem from writer-director Albert Brooks presaged Christopher Guest & company’s mockumentary franchise by at least a decade. There is a direct tie-in; the screenplay was co-written by future Guest collaborator Harry Shearer (along with Brooks’ long-time collaborator, Monica McGowan Johnson).
Real Life is a brilliant take-off on the 1973 PBS series, An American Family (which can now be tagged as the original “reality TV” show). Brooks basically plays himself: a neurotic, narcissistic comedian who decides to do a documentary depicting the daily life of a “perfect” American family. After vetting several candidates (represented via a montage of hilarious “tests” conducted at a behavioral studies institute), he decides on the Yeager family of Phoenix, Arizona (headed by ever-wry Charles Grodin, who was born for this role).
The film gets exponentially funnier as it becomes more about the self-absorbed filmmaker himself (and his ego) rather than his subjects. Brooks takes jabs at Hollywood, and at studio execs in particular. If you’ve never seen this one, you’re in for a real treat.
Criterion does a bang-up job with the 4K digital restoration. Extras include new interviews with Brooks and with Frances Lee McCain (who plays Grodin’s wife) and an essay by film critic A. S. Hamrah.
Stuck for something to watch on movie night? Check out the Den of Cinema archive.
