Cry, the beloved macho: On Clint Eastwood

He waited until his ninth decade to find the perfect career-defining film title: Cry Macho. He knows where to aim the camera, I’ll admit. The filmography shows signs of imagination betrayed by failures of nerve or a reach incommensurate with the grasp (Changeling, Bird, Hereafter, Jersey Boys). Women confused him for years. His directorial debut

Ranking #19 singles, U.S. edition: 2005-2009

The women of late ’90s pop mastered the flex. As cool as a pawnshop clerk committed to the most honest appraisal, Ciara reached a peak in 2006 upon the release of The Evolution. She had the secret to contemporary R&B. Amalgamating crunk, Timbaland-influenced synthesized skronk, and girl group harmonies proved a powerful elixir, banishing the

On Elia Kazan

Much of what must have passed for realism in the 1950s — the stink of the dockyards, the glimpses of flesh through stained tulle — looks overwrought now, but the best of Elia Kazan moves me because of the hysteria that in the 1950s and today passed for The Theatre. Making sense of the career

Ranking #15 singles, U.S. edition: 1984-1987

I dare my readers to find a miscellany as varied as the top category: from Paul Hardcastle’s sample-mad “19,” Luther Vandross’ MIDI-mad highest crossover hit to date, and a Joe Jackson top twenty that might’ve appeared on Joel’s contemporaneous An Innocent Man. A superior showing to what The Hague’s prisoners offered. Kenny G and David

Uganda vs LGBTQ citizens — a model for the American GOP?

Florida House members Randy Fine and Webster Barnaby would applaud Uganda’s moves to animalize its queer citizens: Uganda’s president signed into law a wide-ranging anti-LGBTQ bill on Monday that imposes life imprisonment for same-sex activity and the death penalty in some cases, signaling an intensification of the east African nation’s crackdown on LGBTQ+ people despite

Ranking #4 singles, U.S. edition: 1963-1965

For many of my readers, a Thursday night sitcom built around a sex deviant named Bill Cosby had a theme song that could’ve doubled as our intro to “Shotgun.” This greasy sax-led number by Junior Walker is one of the early rocker’s most essential, propulsive numbers. “Heat Wave” and “Rescue Me” almost match it in

Ranking Bubbling Under singles: Jan-March 1980

With a rhythm mimicking the shoveling of coke up the nose, “My Feet Keep Dancing” captures like few tracks the rush of great disco music at the moment of its final efflorescence. Others will go gaga over Chic’s “Good Times” or “Dance, Dance, Dance” — here’s my jam.

‘Nobody’s Hero’ gently satirizes clueless liberals

A wise guy who chuckles instead of guffaws, Alain Guiraudie plants the punchlines of his jokes with the care of a soldier laying down landmines: sooner or later they detonate.

All the crap I learned in high school: The best graduation songs

A ceremony cherished by parents, graduation and commencement ceremonies were taxing for the rest of us who had to wear shirts and ties beneath stifling gowns ill-prepared for Florida’s tropical heat. I had friends who wear flip-flops and shorts figuring, correctly, that parents and pros would photograph them from the waist up.

You’ve got to face it to live in this world: On Tina Turner

The sadness — the weariness — drifted off her like wood smoke, obvious even during a three-second glimpse of the smoke she generated pirouetting, sashaying, and jogging onstage.

Ranking Bob Dylan’s album closers

Ranging from thematic endpoints (“Sara,” “Wedding Song,” “Every Grain of Sand”) to albums with foundations he does his best not to destroy, Bob Dylan’s closers encompass some of his loveliest material.

Florida’s own Lil Trump keeps owning the libs with Cold War tactics

A couple days before Lil Trump announces his doomed presidential campaign, the author of Joe Biden’s inaugural poem learns what Florida (the state with the prettiest name!) thinks about literature that doesn’t praise reaction: A nationally known poet said Tuesday she is “gutted” after learning that a school in Miami-Dade barred elementary school children from