Entertainment

Kris Kristofferson, a truly legendary singer-songwriter as well as actor, has died at the age of 88. The news of his passing at his home in Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday, September 28, 2024, was announced by his family.

[...]

Kristoffer Kristofferson was born in the border town of Brownsville, Tex., on June 22, 1936. Among his many unique accomplishments, Kristofferson was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, a college football player, a bartender, a Golden Gloves boxer, a forest fighter and an Army Ranger who flew helicopters.

Kristofferson achieved remarkable success as a country songwriter at the start of the 1970s. His songs “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and “For the Good Times” were all chart-topping hits. By 1987, it was estimated that more than 450 artists had recorded Kristofferson’s compositions.

This series started last week, but it continues tonight Friday the 13th through November 1st.

The films are drawn from a list compiled by The New Republic last year of the 100 most impactful political movies.

The films encompass both documentaries and dramatized works; most are American, while a few are from other countries. Their release dates range from 1915 (The Birth of a Nation) to 2016 (I Am Not Your Negro). Many will have celebrity presenters introducing them, along with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.

From Hollywood Reporter:

The series runs Sept. 6 to Nov. 1 — four days before America votes for its next president — and features TCM host Ben Mankiewicz in conversation with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Lee Grant, Sally Field, Andy Garcia, Melissa Etheridge, John Turturro, Bill Maher, Alexander Payne, Diane Lane, Josh Mankiewicz, Barry Levinson, Maureen Dowd, Stacey Abrams and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

More from the Advocate:

LGBTQ+ issues won’t be neglected. I Am Not Your Negro, for instance, is a documentary based onan unfinished manuscript by Black gay writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin, reflecting on the lives of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Baldwin himself. The Times of Harvey Milk(1984) will be featured, presented by Sally Field, the proud mother of a gay son. Also scheduled are 1964’s The Best Man, scripted by gay writer Gore Vidal, in which a same-sex liaison threatens to derail a politician’s career, and Born in Flames, director Lizzie Borden’s 1983 vision of a dystopian future in which women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color are oppressed.

Borden will be among the celebrity presenters, introducing Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akerman’s 1975 feminist feature about a widow engaged in sex work. Melissa Etheridge will be a presenter as well, discussing the 1928 silent classic The Passion of Joan of Arc.

Times listed are for Eastern Time. I've skipped last week and bolded titles ranked in the top 20.

Friday, September 13 - Night Two

• 8:00 PM Reds (1981) (Bill Maher - #41)
• 11:30 PM The Parallax View (1974) (Kyle Smith - #47)
• 1:30 AM Germany, Year Zero (1948) (Alexander Payne - #97)
• 3:00 AM Gabriel Over the White House (1933) (#30)
• 4:30 AM The Battleship Potemkin (1925) (#7)
• 6:00 AM The Fog of War (2003) (#56)

Friday, September 20 - Night Three

• 8:00 PM Dr. Strangelove (1964) (Spike Lee - #3)
• 9:45 PM Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) (Stacey Abrams - #11)
• 12:15 AM Hearts and Minds (1974) (Phil Mattingly - #39)
• 2:15 AM The Lives of Others (2006) (#19)
• 4:45 AM Born in Flames (1983) (#43)
• 6:15 AM Bicycle Thieves (1948) (#52)

Friday, September 27 - Night Four

• 8:00 PM Three Days of the Condor (1975) (Maureen Dowd - #72)
• 10:15 PM I Am Not Your Negro (2016) (Sara Sidner - #58)
• 12:00 AM The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) (Melissa Etheridge - #88)
• 1:30 AM The Last Hurrah (1958) (#57)
• 3:45 AM Night of the Living Dead (1968) (#35)
• 5:15 AM The Tin Drum (1979) (#92)

Friday, October 4 - Night Five

• 8:00 PM The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) (Sally Field - #81)
• 10:00 PM The Best Man (1964) (Josh Mankiewicz - #69)
• 12:00 AM I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) (Sec. Lonnie Bunch III - #95)
• 1:45 AM City Hall (1996) (#80)
• 3:45 AM Strike (1924) (#25)
• 5:15 AM High and Low (1963) (#84)

Friday, October 11 - Night Six

• 8:00 PM A Face in the Crowd (1957) (Barry Levinson - #10)
• 10:15 PM Wag the Dog (1997) (Diane Lane - #54)
• 12:00 AM The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971) (Abby Phillip - #37)
• 1:45 AM JFK (1991) (#34)
• 5:00 AM Z (1969) (#15)
• 7:15 AM Night and Fog (1956) (#21)

Friday, October 18 - Night Seven

• 8:00 PM The Birth of a Nation (1915) (Jamelle Bouie - #5)
• 11:30 PM Lincoln (2012) (Hon. Robert M. Gates - #24)
• 2:15 AM Malcolm X (1992) (#22)
• 6:00 AM Primary (1960) (#38)

Friday, October 25 - Night Eight

• 8:00 PM All the President’s Men (1976) (Steven Spielberg - #4)
• 10:30 PM Citizen Kane (1941) (Frank Luntz - #33)
• 12:45 AM Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) (Lizzie Borden - #36)
• 4:15 AM Olympia Part One: Festival of Nations (1938) (#86)
• 6:15 AM Olympia Part Two: Beauty of the Festival (1938) (#86)

Friday, November 1 - Night Nine

• 8:00 PM Being There (1979) (Andy Garcia - #71)
• 10:30 PM The Candidate (1972) (Kaitlan Collins - #20)
• 12:30 AM Harlan County USA (1976) (Lee Grant - #12)
• 2:15 AM The Manchurian Candidate (1962) (#2)
• 4:00 AM Weekend (1967) (#94)

I haven't written a movie review in ages! I am currently watching a bunch of film noir, finally filling that gap. These are my impressions of Touch of Evil, a highly regarded film noir by the director of Citizen Kane. I am ambivalent about it, as will become clear in the article.

archive.is link

This is the Ent-like pace at which TV moves these days. The “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon” took nearly as long to come back for its second outing. “Severance,” likewise a member of the debut class of ’22, will return in January, almost three years since we last saw it. The teen drama “Euphoria,” whose second season began in January 2022, will start shooting a third season … sometime in 2025. By the time it airs, one assumes its characters will be eligible for Social Security.

More and more, rejoining a favorite series is like trying to remember the details of high school trigonometry. Which hobbit did what to whom? What did they do all day in that “Severance” office again? Was “Stranger Things” set in the 1980s, or was it actually made then?