David Barbour
@davidbarbour.bsky.social
Editor and theatre critic, Lighting&Sound America. Film fanatic in my spare time. Also fond of cocktails and wisecracks.
Yep. A real headline from today's edition of the Glasgow newspaper. It can't be disseminated too much:
July 25, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Yep. A real headline from today's edition of the Glasgow newspaper. It can't be disseminated too much:
Foley Square yesterday. Plenty of good energy:
May 2, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Foley Square yesterday. Plenty of good energy:
New York today. Keeping up the pressure.
April 19, 2025 at 8:41 PM
New York today. Keeping up the pressure.
Time to bring them back:
April 8, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Time to bring them back:
It was a mob scene from 42nd Street to Madison Square.
April 5, 2025 at 7:59 PM
It was a mob scene from 42nd Street to Madison Square.
Maybe they can appoint her to Lichtenberg:
March 28, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Maybe they can appoint her to Lichtenberg:
Well, there's this. Not a photo, but still:
February 25, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Well, there's this. Not a photo, but still:
Age yourself with a movie you saw in the theater:
February 23, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Age yourself with a movie you saw in the theater:
Drop something ORANGE
February 15, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Drop something ORANGE
The new board of the Kennedy Center takes the baton. Drawn by Ann Telnaes:
February 15, 2025 at 4:38 PM
The new board of the Kennedy Center takes the baton. Drawn by Ann Telnaes:
Here's Rod Taylor to the rescue:
January 16, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Here's Rod Taylor to the rescue:
Destined not to be Iran's submission to the Oscars as the director Mohammed Rasoulof fled the country ahead of an eight-year prison sentence, this tense psychological thriller says plenty about the nation's crumbling patriarchy. Here's hoping The Seed of the Sacred Fig is remembered anyway:
January 1, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Destined not to be Iran's submission to the Oscars as the director Mohammed Rasoulof fled the country ahead of an eight-year prison sentence, this tense psychological thriller says plenty about the nation's crumbling patriarchy. Here's hoping The Seed of the Sacred Fig is remembered anyway:
Drop an alien that's not from Star Wars or Star Trek:
December 19, 2024 at 4:24 PM
Drop an alien that's not from Star Wars or Star Trek:
Maria: This preserved-in-amber portrait of Callas' last days is, alas, afflicted with cinematic arthritis. Entirely missing, even in flashbacks, is her famous/notorious temperament. She's a posed pillar of suffering, less vivid than the icons on her apartment wall. The 2017 doc is much better.
December 16, 2024 at 8:26 PM
Maria: This preserved-in-amber portrait of Callas' last days is, alas, afflicted with cinematic arthritis. Entirely missing, even in flashbacks, is her famous/notorious temperament. She's a posed pillar of suffering, less vivid than the icons on her apartment wall. The 2017 doc is much better.
Janet Planet: Alas, Annie Baker's pregnant pauses, so powerful onstage, turn into dead air on film. But who is Zoe Ziegler, who plays the fantastically watching young heroine? You can't your eyes off her:
December 15, 2024 at 6:24 PM
Janet Planet: Alas, Annie Baker's pregnant pauses, so powerful onstage, turn into dead air on film. But who is Zoe Ziegler, who plays the fantastically watching young heroine? You can't your eyes off her:
My annual get-together with Godard, this time in Alphaville. We're never going to be good friends. But what was the deal with Eddie Constantine? Were there too many Richard Contes running around Hollywood for him to succeed? Or did he prefer being Europe's King of the Bs?
December 14, 2024 at 5:37 PM
My annual get-together with Godard, this time in Alphaville. We're never going to be good friends. But what was the deal with Eddie Constantine? Were there too many Richard Contes running around Hollywood for him to succeed? Or did he prefer being Europe's King of the Bs?
The first cabinet meeting:
December 4, 2024 at 11:59 PM
The first cabinet meeting:
It's a day later and I still can't get this film out of my head. All We Imagine as Light examines three women working at a Mumbai hospital, their lives shaped by marital tradition, religious strictures, and class. Payal Kapadia's second feature is a total immersion in another world.
November 30, 2024 at 5:39 PM
It's a day later and I still can't get this film out of my head. All We Imagine as Light examines three women working at a Mumbai hospital, their lives shaped by marital tradition, religious strictures, and class. Payal Kapadia's second feature is a total immersion in another world.
I had to be talked into seeing R.J. Cutler's documentary. But I quickly found myself riveted the steely. ambitious, chilly, victimized, and sometimes weirdly admirable figure at its center. It's amazing someone so controlling agreed to sit for this warts-and-all portrait:
November 29, 2024 at 3:09 PM
I had to be talked into seeing R.J. Cutler's documentary. But I quickly found myself riveted the steely. ambitious, chilly, victimized, and sometimes weirdly admirable figure at its center. It's amazing someone so controlling agreed to sit for this warts-and-all portrait:
I know people have many opinions about Emilia Pérez. But there's something totally badass about a film with a morally compromised trans heroine trying to undo her awful legacy, aided by a feisty lawyer and checkmated by her mystified, angle-playing wife. It's a real original.
November 27, 2024 at 7:05 PM
I know people have many opinions about Emilia Pérez. But there's something totally badass about a film with a morally compromised trans heroine trying to undo her awful legacy, aided by a feisty lawyer and checkmated by her mystified, angle-playing wife. It's a real original.
Reskeet a favorite book from your childhood:
November 14, 2024 at 3:31 AM
Reskeet a favorite book from your childhood: