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This is our last filmmaking books column in 2023, and it’s a good one. Plus, you can watch for even more gems from recent months in our companion column running next month. As always, thanks for reading and supporting so many great authors and artists.

Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

As an adolescent in the early 1990s, one of my Sunday night rituals was recording that week’s episode of “Siskel & Ebert”––it aired late-night in Buffalo, NY––and watching it the following day. The internet was in its infancy, so the reviews of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were both a lifeline to what was happening in film and a cinematic education. It is no exaggeration to say that I learned how to discuss movies thanks to Gene and Roger. For my generation, then, the release of...

Aisling Bea And Matthew Lewis Join Romesh Ranganathan Comedy ‘Avoidance’

Aisling Bea and Matthew Lewis are among the cast who have joined the upcoming season of Romesh Ranganathan’s BBC comedy Avoidance. Filming started this week, and the returning cast includes Jessica Knappett (Drifters), Kieran Logendra, Mandeep Dhillon (Afterlife), Lisa McGrillis (Mum), and Bruce Mackinnon (The Catherine Tate Show). Also joining the show are Louise Ford (The Windsors), Olive Tennant (Belfast), Alex Ranganathan, Jessica Ransom (Horrible Histories), Paula Wilcox (Upstart Crow), Philip Jackson (Brassed Off), Ed Kear (Here We Go), Colin Hoult (Murder in Successville), Michael Spicer (The Room Next Door) and Brona C Titley (The Outlaws). “I’m delighted to be back on set with this amazing cast, so much so it almost makes up for the crushing agony of my recent spandex-filled wardrobe fitting,” said Ranganathan.

Afua Hirsch And Peter Frankopan To Lead History Podcast

Afua Hirsch and...

Miranda Lambert sets her new single “Dark Bars” to stark images of Nashville’s shuttered nightlife, an industry that has been struggling since both a deadly tornado tore through portions of the city in March and the onset of the coronavirus.

Filmed on location at bars that had closed for the night — or were still shut down because of storm damage or the ongoing pandemic — the lyric video underscores how much the nightlife culture relies on human connection. Without people jostling for space at the bar or holding court on a stool,...