He cowrote and starred in my favorite stupid movie of all time, “Stripes.” No “Private Benjamin,” the stars of “Stripes” were never co-opted, always maintained their humor and outsider perspective, and won in the end. In other words, the nerds inherited the earth. That’s what comedians once were. Before they all got sitcoms and made […]

Mama never told me it would be like this. As a matter of fact, my mother still doesn’t know how the world works. Like most people, she wants to believe you work hard, marry right, put your nose to the grindstone and it all works out. But it doesn’t really happen that way at all. […]

It’s in black and white and it’s depressing and Bruce Dern doesn’t deserve an Oscar, anything else you’d like to know? I’ve been reading about this movie for months. Because that’s how you do it these days, you ramp up the publicity so that just maybe, people will go. I had to endure the history […]

SPOONER OLDHAM About fifteen minutes into the movie, Spooner Oldham walks across the floor of FAME studios, sits down at a ratty old piano, puts his fingers to the keys and starts to play music so soulful, I tingle as I write this, remembering it. RICK HALL He was motivated by rejection, he needed to […]