Odie Henderson
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odienator.bsky.social
Odie Henderson
@odienator.bsky.social
1.1K followers 200 following 2.7K posts
Author of BLACK CAESARS AND FOXY CLEOPATRAS: A HISTORY OF BLAXPLOITATION CINEMA. Still the Boston Globe's chief film critic for now :) Former RogerEbert.com critic. Also former IT Diva (reformed). Black, bi, badass. View are my own! NSFC and GALECA member.
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odienator.bsky.social
They just cast the leads in the movie adaptation of AMERICAN CANTO!
Karen Black and the Zuni Fetish Doll from TRILOGY OF TERROR.
November 19, 2025 at 3:59 AM
odienator.bsky.social
Thanks to the folks who came out to @thecoolidge.bsky.social for my seminar on ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW and for the movie. We had a great crowd for the screening!
Coolidge marquee showing ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW on it. Coolidge theater door showing ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW above it. Your lecturer, me! Dressed in navy blue suit, white shirt, light blue paisley tie and my trademark fedora. The hat is black.
November 16, 2025 at 10:48 PM
odienator.bsky.social
STOP THE PRESSES!!
A photo of me standing next to The Boston Globe sign on the outside of our building. Across the street, some tour guide dressed up like Paul Revere was talking to his group.
November 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
odienator.bsky.social
For good?!
Wicked For Good screen
November 13, 2025 at 9:46 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Happy Odd Couple Day!
The opening narration of the unforgettable sitcom THE ODD COUPLE. On November 13th, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence. That request came from his wife. Deep down, he knew she was right. But he also knew that someday he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his childhood friend, Oscar Madison. Several years earlier, Madison's wife had thrown him out, requesting that he never return. Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?
November 13, 2025 at 1:46 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Look, Ma! I've got the number one most read article on the Boston Globe website right now. I even beat articles on the Patriots!
A list of the most read on BostonGlobe.com shows my article, "11 of the best movie musical numbers of all time" at the top of the list.
November 11, 2025 at 9:07 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Please don't be bad.
Screen for THE RUNNING MAN.
November 10, 2025 at 10:43 PM
odienator.bsky.social
My 500th Boston Globe article ran in today's paper! Granted, it ran in print AFTER my 499th, 501st, 502nd and 503rd pieces did on Friday, but it was still the 500th article posted online.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/05/a...
The headline says "The pictures are still getting smaller: 'Sunset Boulevard' turns 75. Our film critic remembers his introduction to Norma Desmond, and no, it wasn't in Billy Wilder's masterpiece" There's a picture of Max driving Norma and Joe Gillis in her car.
November 9, 2025 at 7:43 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Her heel? You mean her razor!!
A shot from Lady Sings the Blues, with Diana Ross holding a straight razor. She should have brought it out on Oscar night when she got robbed of the Best Actress Oscar.
November 8, 2025 at 7:31 PM
odienator.bsky.social
I wrote about MAHOGANY in my book, BLACK CAESARS AND FOXY CLEOPATRAS! This movie is sooooo bad! But that theme song is aces.
The top of the page from my book, BLACK CAESARS AND FOXY CLEOPATRAS: A HISTORY OF BLAXPLOITATION CINEMA. It reads: Chapter 31: I'm Mahogany and You're Nothing! Rex Reed's review of Mahogany in the October 10, 1975 New York Daily News was a bit much even for him. No stranger to bitchy quips that often veered sharply into personal attacks, Reed was, to quote Charlie Murphy, "a habitual line stepper." More than once ni his career, "Sexy Rexy" was called on the carpet for saying something, to put it mildly, racially suspect." "This is what he said about the film's director, Motown founder Berry Gordy, and its star, a diva named Diana Ross: 'Berry Gordy, the Motown mogul who discovered Diana Ross, makes his directorial debut guiding her through her paces like a trained chimpanzee. It's as though he sat down one day, said "Blacks have been ripped off long enough by honky visions of glamour on film and now with Diana we can do anything they can do better' and set out to prove it."
November 8, 2025 at 4:40 PM
odienator.bsky.social
If you see this, post and album cover with a motor vehicle on it.

(This is my favorite album cover of all time. I stared at this album cover for hours as a kid, drinking it all in.)
The album cover for the WAR album THE WORLD IS A GHETTO, which features their titular masterpiece. The fancy car on here is parked next to a fire hydrant, and is about to be towed. I stared at this album cover for hours as a kid, drinking it all in.
November 8, 2025 at 4:05 PM
odienator.bsky.social
She was only $31k off, and rightfully lost.
Woman bidding $8500 on a trip to London and Tokyo. She was only $31,412 off and her underbidding ass lost.
November 7, 2025 at 5:02 PM
odienator.bsky.social
New York looked especially good this morning.
A view of lower Manhattan at sunrise this morning.
November 6, 2025 at 3:14 AM
odienator.bsky.social
Oh, me of little faith! I'm extremely happy to eat crow here! (But not those racist ass crows from Dumbo.) Congrats, Mayor Mamdani!
Those racist ass crows from Dumbo.
November 5, 2025 at 2:45 AM
odienator.bsky.social
Only one person can prevent that Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery merger!
Me at the Bronson Gate in front of Paramount Studios.
November 3, 2025 at 7:44 PM
odienator.bsky.social
I'm doing an article on SUNSET BLVD.'s anniversary. So I went back to the slideshow I presented at the Coolidge seminar I did back in 2023. I told a story I read about BrackettandWilder's inspiration for the movie. I forgot I had this slide taking a swipe at my least favorite filmmaker.
A slide that has a photo of D.W. Griffith, who yelled at Sam Goldwyn at Romanoff's while Goldwyn was having dinner with BrackettandWilder. Title is THE DEATH OF A CAREER. The slide's text is: The director of THE BIRTH OF A NATION hadn’t made a movie since his huge 1931 flop, THE STRUGGLE. He was sent to Hell on July 24, 1948, mere weeks after he attacked Sam Goldwyn. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett went “hmmmm….”
November 3, 2025 at 7:25 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Wicked has been used as an adjective more than once in my Globe reviews. Even for Wicked: Part One.
Review headline "John Wick: Chapter 4 is wicked fun - and extremely violent." Also has one of my best MPAA rating descriptions in the info box, a take on a Three Stooges parody title: Rated R (violent is the word for Keanu) MPA rating description for my Wicked review: PG (kids may find it wicked scary)
November 2, 2025 at 5:06 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Three years ago, on this day, I turned in the first draft manuscript of my book, BLACK CAESARS AND FOXY CLEOPATRAS: A HISTORY OF BLAXPLOITATION CINEMA. That feeling was almost as great as seeing the finished product in the wild for the first time.
At my first book signing, February 2, 2024 in Montclair, NJ at the Clairidge Theater. The first book I signed was for a former Buffalo film critic who reviewed several of the films I wrote about in this book.
November 1, 2025 at 3:41 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Halloween is the perfect day for shameless self-promotion!

In my book, BLACK CAESARS AND FOXY CLEOPATRAS: A HISTORY OF BLAXPLOITATION CINEMA, I wrote about several Black horror movies from the 1970s, including such great stuff as SUGAR HILL and BLACULA. I even wrote about THE BEAST MUST DIE.
The cover of my book, BLACK CAESARS AND FOXY CLEOPATRAS: A HISTORY OF BLAXPLOITATION CINEMA
October 31, 2025 at 9:19 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Ghosts of Halloween Costumes past.
I dressed as Spengler the Ghostbuster for a pub crawl in Los Angeles on October 30, 2021. This picture also accompanied my Boston Globe piece on Ghostbusters' 40th anniversary. Here, I'm dressed for an office party as my 13-year old self on the day he bought his Run-DMC outfit with his paper route money. I'm playing DMC here. Got my goatee, glasses (so I can see!), Kangol, Lee jacket and jeans, and Adidas with no laces. My colleagues in San Francisco couldn't figure out how I could walk in those sneakers. You can kind of see the fake chain I'm wearing, but my Adidas t-shirt is hidden by the jacket.
October 31, 2025 at 2:51 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Happy 100th birthday, Lee Grant!

Back in 2017, @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social led a great Q&A where he asked her about her SHAMPOO character's motivation in one scene. "She was reclaiming [Warren Beatty]?" Matt asked. "No!" said Grant. "You don't get it. She just wants (great pause) TO FUCK!!"
Matt Zoller Seitz with Lee Grant at IFC Center in NYC back in 2017.
October 31, 2025 at 1:33 PM
odienator.bsky.social
I read the novels and enjoyed this movie, too. Since it's the last review I wrote as a freelancer for the Globe, here it is.

www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/14/a...
October 27, 2025 at 8:28 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Two years ago on this day, my tribute to Richard Roundtree ran in the Globe. A freebie for you, but here's the link, too.

www.bostonglobe.com/2023/10/25/a...
October 27, 2025 at 7:33 PM
odienator.bsky.social
It usually appears as the second slide in my Coolidge Corner seminar presentations!
The old 1970s-era MPAA banner for the R-rating that appeared before (and after) movies back in the day.
October 27, 2025 at 4:19 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Not sorry.
Daily News cancelled subscription screen. Reads (in part) "We're sorry to see you go. Your subscription will be cancelled."
October 26, 2025 at 10:24 PM