Samuel Porteous, Author at Book and Film Globe

Comedy DOCUMENTARY

But ‘Who is Martin Mull?’

October 21, 2026October 21, 2026 Samuel Porteous 0 Comments 1970s comedy, absurdist comedy, addiction, alcoholism, America 2-Night, American comedy, artistic identity, Best in Show, Billy Joel, Bob Saget, Bruce Springsteen, celebrity documentaries, Christopher Guest, comedy documentary, comedy history, contemporary art, documentary film, documentary review, Eric Idle, fame, Fernwood 2 Night, Fred Willard, Johnny Carson, Martin Mull, Monty Python, mortality, music history, musical comedy, Neil Berkeley, Netflix, Norman Lear, painting, Rhode Island School of Design, RISD, satire, Seth MacFarlane, Steve Martin, television history, The Fabulous Furniture, The History of White People in America, The Larry Sanders Show, The Tonight Show, Tom Waits, Waiting for Guffman, Wendy Haas, Who Is Martin Mull?

A star-studded meditation on mortality is also very funny

CLASSICS Featured Stories FILM

‘Colossus’ the Film that Foretold the AI War

October 4, 2026October 7, 2026 Samuel Porteous 0 Comments 1970 films, AI, AI safety, Apollo 13, artificial intelligence, classic cinema, Cold War, Colossus: The Forbin Project, Control Data Corporation, D.F. Jones, dystopian films, Eric Braeden, Gordon Pinsent, James Bridges, Lawrence Hall of Science, movie review, sci-fi films, science fiction, supercomputers, Susan Clark, The China Syndrome, Will Schallert

A prophetic all-star team from 1970 has been overlooked

Streaming TELEVISION

‘Lanterns’ Lights Up HBO

August 29, 2026August 29, 2026 Samuel Porteous 0 Comments Aaron Pierre, Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, DC Comics, DC Studios, Garret Dillahunt, Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, HBO, John Stewart, Kelly Macdonald, Kyle Chandler, Lanterns, mystery, Ozark, science fiction, superhero, Tom King, True Detective, Watchmen

Kyle Chandler is the greenest of Green Lanterns

Kory Stamper shows us her ‘True Color’

March 31, 2026March 31, 2026 Samuel Porteous 0 Comments art and color, Book Review, books, chemistry, color perception, color science, color standards, color terminology, color theory, COMIC computer, cultural history, DuPont, dye industry, history of science, Irwin Priest, Kory Stamper, language, lexicography, Margaret Godlove, Munsell color system, Nonfiction, Penguin Random House, Publishing, science writing, True Color, Webster’s Dictionary, Women’s History Month

A secret history of the spectrum includes accounts of its words, its heroes, and its battles

Featured Stories FILM

Jeffrey Epstein, Meet Pierce Morehouse Patchett

March 5, 2026March 10, 2026 Samuel Porteous 2 Comments 1990s Cinema, Abuse Of Power, academy awards 1998, blackmail, brian helgeland, bud white, crime films, cultural criticism, Curtis Hanson, Danny DeVito, david strathairn, ed exley, elite corruption, ellis loew, epstein files, epstein scandal, film analysis, film noir, Guy Pearce, hollywood corruption, hollywood history, hollywood mythology, hollywood noir revival, hollywood scandals, james ellroy, Jeffrey Epstein, justice and corruption, kompromat, kompromat politics, la confidential, los angeles history, neo noir, noir cinema, noir literature, organized vice, pierce morehouse patchett, political corruption, power and impunity, ron rifkin, Russell Crowe, sex trafficking, sid hudgens

‘L.A. Confidential’ forecast some of the network of abuse and how we feel about it

How Great Minds Retreat From the World

December 31, 2025January 2, 2026 Samuel Porteous 2 Comments Book Review, Christian Mysticism, Creative Process, David Jones, Guy Stagg, Intellectual History, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Monasticism, Nonfiction, philosophy, Retreat, Simone Weil, Solitude, Spirituality, The World Within

Guy Stagg retraces the paths of Ludwig Wittgenstein, David Jones, and Simone Weil to explore solitude as a crucible for creative renewal

The Best Christmas Movie You’ve Never Heard Of: ‘The Silent Partner’

December 23, 2025December 23, 2025 Samuel Porteous 0 Comments 1970s thrillers, Anders Bodelsen, Bad Santa, Canadian cinema, Christmas movies, Christopher Plummer, crime films, Curtis Hanson, Daryl Duke, Die Hard, Elliott Gould, holiday counter programming, John Candy, Oscar Peterson, Susannah York, The Silent Partner, Toronto films

Elliot Gould, Christopher Plummer, and Susannah York in a canuxploitation classic

DOCUMENTARY FILM Netflix NON-FICTION Streaming

‘The New Yorker at 100’ Is a Love Letter — and a Gentle Evasion

December 18, 2025January 2, 2026 Samuel Porteous 2 Comments Condé Nast, David Remnick, E B White, Eustace Tilley, fact checking, Harold Ross, Judd Apatow, longform journalism, Marshall Curry, media history, Netflix documentaries, Pauline Kael, Ronan Farrow, Roz Chast, The New Yorker, The New Yorker at 100, Tina Brown, William Shawn

Marshall Curry and Judd Apatow enjoy the periodical without too much rigor

FILM Netflix Streaming

George Clooney Looks in the Mirror

December 7, 2025December 7, 2025 Samuel Porteous 2 Comments 8 1 2, Adam Sandler, Billy Crudup, celebrity culture, Fellini homage, film review, George Clooney, Grace Edwards, Hollywood satire, Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach, Oscar season, Riley Keough, Ron Sukenick reference, Sadie Sandler, Stacy Keach, Stardust Memories, The Player

Jay Kelly is Noah Baumbach’s meditation on fame, ego, and the fading glow of Hollywood’s ‘last movie star.’

BOOKS Featured Stories

Louis C.K. Writes the Great American Trash Epic

November 16, 2025November 28, 2025 Samuel Porteous 4 Comments American literature, Charles Portis, Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O’Connor, Great American Novel, Harold Bloom, Herman Melville, Huckleberry Finn, Ingram, literary fiction, Louie FX, Louis C.K., Mark Twain, Moby Dick, Southern Gothic, T.S. Eliot, Texas, Walt Whitman

‘Ingram’ is a Southern-Gothic fever dream — part Twain, part crawl-back

Altman at 100: Six Films That Made the Maverick an American Original

October 12, 2025 Samuel Porteous 0 Comments Altman 100 years, American cinema, Book and Film Globe, California Split, Coen Brothers influence, Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, ensemble filmmaking, film history, George Segal, Gosford Park, Julie Andrews, Julie Christie, Madeleine Stowe, MASH 1970, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Paul Thomas Anderson influence, revisionist Western, Richard Linklater influence, Robert Altman centenary, Ryan Phillippe, Sally Kellerman, Shortcuts, Sterling Hayden, The Long Goodbye, Warren Beatty, Wes Anderson influence

Masterpieces from ‘the pirate king of American film making’

CLASSICS Featured Stories FILM

An Iconic Movie for Our Paranoid Age

September 28, 2025October 1, 2025 Samuel Porteous 0 Comments 1970s paranoia thrillers, Anthony and Joe Russo, CIA in film, Cliff Robertson, Faye Dunaway, John Houseman, Joubert assassin, KGB NIIP program, Max von Sydow, Open Source Enterprise, Robert Redford, Seinfeld Junk Mail episode, Sydney Pollack, The Manchurian Candidate, The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor

‘Three Days of the Condor’ gets more frightening as it gets older

So Farewell, Then, Robert Redford

September 16, 2025September 19, 2025 Samuel Porteous 4 Comments Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Elizabeth Ashley, Natalie Wood, Perry Mason, Robert Redford, Sundance Film Festival

An appreciation of a ‘pretty boy’ done good

Auteur Candy to Get You Through the Dog Days of Summer

July 25, 2025July 25, 2025 Samuel Porteous 0 Comments Albert Lewin, Ann Hui, Anne, Ava Gardner, Catherine Breillat, Catherine Holly, Cliff Robertson, Criterion Channel, David Lean, Dr. Cukrowicz, Edwin Middleton, Elizabeth Taylor, Endless Summer, Frank Perry, Georgio de Chirico, Gidget, House, James Darren, Jaques Deray, John Waters, July Rhapsody, Katherine Hepburn, La Piscine, Last Summer, Lea Drucker, Lime Kiln Field Day, Man Ray, Martin Scorsese, Montgomery Clift, Nobuhiko Obayashi, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Salvador Dali, Sandra Dee, Sean McCoy, Suddenly Last Summer, Summertime, T. Hayes Hunter, Tennessee Williams, The Beaning, The Swimmer, Violet Venable

For movie buffs, Criterion has got what it takes

Kaos

‘Kaos’ is Chaotic, But Not Very Coherent

September 3, 2024September 13, 2024 Samuel Porteous 1 Comment Aurora Perrineau, Charlie Covell, Jeff Goldblum, Kaos, Misea Butler, Nabhaan Rizwan

Netflix show starring Jeff Goldblum as Zeus, the king of the gods, will test the tolerance of Greek-mythology lovers

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