"We Are Gathered" to witness a real, legal marriage at Arena Stage

Kyle Beltran and Nic Ashe in We Are Gathered, a play that accompanies their characters’ fictional marriage with real ones. (T Charles Erickson)

I spent a beautifuly day with Jean Yoder and Rhys Price, who got married on stage in the finale of a performance of Arena Stage’s We Are Gathered. My Washington Post feature about their wedding day is here.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "The Phoenician Scheme"

A new Wes Anderson joint is a cause for celebration if you’re me. I join pal-for-life Glen Weldon and Code Switch host B.A. Parker to scheme, Phoenician-style. My jokes about how Anderson never phoens it in have all been cut.

Dance Macabre: "Ballerina," reviewed

The right to bear de Armas: A girl gets a flamethrower in a flick From the World of John Wick. (Murray Close)

My Washington City Paper review of Ballerina, from the non-wizarding World of John Wick, is here.

Prattle & Hum: "Bono: Stories of Surrender," reviewed.

Unos, dos, tres, catorce! My review of Andrew Dominik’s film of the stage play of this book is one of the three pieces I have in yer Washington Post today.

"Mission: Impossible" and the Deep State

Washington Post Opinions asked me for a piece about my favorite blockbuster franchise’s relationship to Washington. So I wrote about that, but also about my dad.

Balcony Scene: "John Wilkes Booth: One Night Only!"

Ben Ahlers as John Wilkes Booth in Baltimore. (J. Fannon Photography)

My Washington Post review of Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’s world-premiere play John Wilkes Booth: One Night Only! is here. Read it if you dare, you sockdologizing old man-trap!

"Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning," reviewed.

Tom Cruise has yet another plane to catch in The Final Reckoning. (Paramount)

Any new Mission flick is the start of a long relationship for me, and as with 2023’s Dead Reckoning, my estimation of the new one went up on a second viewing. It’s still a goddamn mess, though.

My Washington City Paper review of Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, the eighth and perhaps-but-also-perhaps-not climactic MIssion is here.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "MIssion: Impossible — The Final Reckoning"

When you stare into The Abyss, etc., etc. (Paramount)

When you watch 2018’s Mission: Impossible — Fallout, you can see the shot wherein Tom Cruise breaks his ankle leaping across London rooftops.

When you listen to our new Pop Culture Happy Hour on Mission: Impossible — The Final Recknoning, you can hear the moment when I suffer an aneurysm. It’s when my friends Aisha Harris and Linda Holmes once again compare these films to the Fast & Furious movies. And they are like those, in the sense that the 1969 Rolling Stones and circa 2012 Aerosmith are both rock bands.