J Hoberman
@jhoberman.bsky.social
Occasional film critic, Columbia adjunct, old VV staff writer
📚 Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds, The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism, 3 books on Hollywood & the Cold War
🔜Everything is Now: NYC 60s Avantgarde
📚 Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds, The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism, 3 books on Hollywood & the Cold War
🔜Everything is Now: NYC 60s Avantgarde
Did you read the whole piece? I'll try and send it on if not.
November 24, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Did you read the whole piece? I'll try and send it on if not.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/u...
Maybe I'm being too 20th Century here but isn't the real point that Venezuela produces... oil? Like the largest proven reserves in the world?
Maybe I'm being too 20th Century here but isn't the real point that Venezuela produces... oil? Like the largest proven reserves in the world?
Venezuela Doesn’t Produce Fentanyl. Trump Is Targeting It Anyway.
www.nytimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:38 PM
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/u...
Maybe I'm being too 20th Century here but isn't the real point that Venezuela produces... oil? Like the largest proven reserves in the world?
Maybe I'm being too 20th Century here but isn't the real point that Venezuela produces... oil? Like the largest proven reserves in the world?
Republicans Prove Irony Is Dead With Vote on Condemning Fascism newrepublic.com/post/203347/... via @newrepublic.com
Republicans Prove Irony Is Dead With Vote on Condemning Fascism
Republicans hate being called fascist, and yet ...
newrepublic.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Republicans Prove Irony Is Dead With Vote on Condemning Fascism newrepublic.com/post/203347/... via @newrepublic.com
Off the Pile #4
James Whale makes this pre-Code job--an upstairs-downstairs bedroom farce predicated on class privilege & mistaken identity--most watchable. Not Lubitsch (altho Hanns Kräly had a hand) but not bad. Casting e.g. Bela Lugosi & Lupe Velez would've made for wackier Ruritarian screwball.
James Whale makes this pre-Code job--an upstairs-downstairs bedroom farce predicated on class privilege & mistaken identity--most watchable. Not Lubitsch (altho Hanns Kräly had a hand) but not bad. Casting e.g. Bela Lugosi & Lupe Velez would've made for wackier Ruritarian screwball.
November 13, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Off the Pile #4
James Whale makes this pre-Code job--an upstairs-downstairs bedroom farce predicated on class privilege & mistaken identity--most watchable. Not Lubitsch (altho Hanns Kräly had a hand) but not bad. Casting e.g. Bela Lugosi & Lupe Velez would've made for wackier Ruritarian screwball.
James Whale makes this pre-Code job--an upstairs-downstairs bedroom farce predicated on class privilege & mistaken identity--most watchable. Not Lubitsch (altho Hanns Kräly had a hand) but not bad. Casting e.g. Bela Lugosi & Lupe Velez would've made for wackier Ruritarian screwball.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/m...
New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther found the film “an ugly, depressing view of life.” Perhaps one had to be 16 to see “Viridiana” as a grown-up version of Mad magazine. Call mine a case of arrested development, but I still do.
New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther found the film “an ugly, depressing view of life.” Perhaps one had to be 16 to see “Viridiana” as a grown-up version of Mad magazine. Call mine a case of arrested development, but I still do.
‘Viridiana’ Was Luis Buñuel’s Revenge
www.nytimes.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:21 PM
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/m...
New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther found the film “an ugly, depressing view of life.” Perhaps one had to be 16 to see “Viridiana” as a grown-up version of Mad magazine. Call mine a case of arrested development, but I still do.
New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther found the film “an ugly, depressing view of life.” Perhaps one had to be 16 to see “Viridiana” as a grown-up version of Mad magazine. Call mine a case of arrested development, but I still do.
Given Noem's porny self-presentation I was thinking of the movie but of course the name "Koch" didn't come out of thin air.
November 12, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Given Noem's porny self-presentation I was thinking of the movie but of course the name "Koch" didn't come out of thin air.
Reposted by J Hoberman
Fuck yeah
A chorus of Jewish New York communities, including Bend the Arc, are repudiating the ADL's blatant Islamophobia in a joint statement.
Read more below:
Read more below:
Progressive Jewish groups say ADL's 'Mamdani Monitor' is 'Islamophobic and racist' - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish organizations are split along ideological and strategic lines over how to interact with the mayor-elect.
www.jta.org
November 12, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Fuck yeah
Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS
November 12, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS
Desperate Character www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
J. Hoberman · Desperate Character: Rambunctious R. Crumb
Rambunctious and often offensive, R. Crumb draws freely on pre-existing racial and gender stereotypes, and always draws...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 12, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Desperate Character www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by J Hoberman
Read every word & share with everyone you know. This is real life here in Chicago. Americans need to know this grotesque reality & stand with us.
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
November 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Read every word & share with everyone you know. This is real life here in Chicago. Americans need to know this grotesque reality & stand with us.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/m...
My (or rather his) class notes in the penultimate graf.
My (or rather his) class notes in the penultimate graf.
Peter Watkins, Provocateur With a Movie Camera, Dies at 90
www.nytimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 8:26 PM
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/m...
My (or rather his) class notes in the penultimate graf.
My (or rather his) class notes in the penultimate graf.
Do you happen to remember the name of the film or director?
November 7, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Do you happen to remember the name of the film or director?
Xi has been repressing China's independent film scene for the last dozen years but, so far as I know, this is the first time he exercised dictatorial power in NYC. Between emperor Xi and idiot Trump, the often brilliant international students who come here to study are going to have a tough time.
November 7, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Xi has been repressing China's independent film scene for the last dozen years but, so far as I know, this is the first time he exercised dictatorial power in NYC. Between emperor Xi and idiot Trump, the often brilliant international students who come here to study are going to have a tough time.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Rupert always knew how to monetize--it's why he left the Voice alone, albeit depressing salaries.
Rupert always knew how to monetize--it's why he left the Voice alone, albeit depressing salaries.
New York Post’s anti-Mamdani front page is a hit – with his supporters
‘On your Marx, get set, Zo!’ edition of Murdoch-owned tabloid is a hot property – with one copy selling for $355
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:23 PM
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Rupert always knew how to monetize--it's why he left the Voice alone, albeit depressing salaries.
Rupert always knew how to monetize--it's why he left the Voice alone, albeit depressing salaries.
A critic needs to be able to withstand peer pressure.
November 6, 2025 at 10:56 PM
A critic needs to be able to withstand peer pressure.
Yeah. Nobody ever mentions that either probably b/c the two films by one director is a ploy that has been used before, viz Godard or Fassbinder.
November 6, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Yeah. Nobody ever mentions that either probably b/c the two films by one director is a ploy that has been used before, viz Godard or Fassbinder.
Amazing that people remember this Queens-kid's gesture after nearly 40 years--some w disapproval. Interesting that no one ever points out that I hedged my bets by making an 11-Best list with the addition of SOMETHING WILD. Including a film by Clement Klopfenstein was actually a lot weirder.
November 6, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Amazing that people remember this Queens-kid's gesture after nearly 40 years--some w disapproval. Interesting that no one ever points out that I hedged my bets by making an 11-Best list with the addition of SOMETHING WILD. Including a film by Clement Klopfenstein was actually a lot weirder.
Of course not. My point is that Vance was parroting a nativist line advanced by the KKK--antisemitic but also at that time anti-Catholic--that would deny all who sought asylum.
November 5, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Of course not. My point is that Vance was parroting a nativist line advanced by the KKK--antisemitic but also at that time anti-Catholic--that would deny all who sought asylum.
How about Send Schumer to Florida
November 4, 2025 at 10:44 PM
How about Send Schumer to Florida
He's actually following the KKK line. Btw, not only Jews but Italians and all East Europeans (not to mention Asians) were banned.
November 4, 2025 at 10:40 PM
He's actually following the KKK line. Btw, not only Jews but Italians and all East Europeans (not to mention Asians) were banned.
Yes, she lost because (for whatever reason) Democrats stayed home.
November 1, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Yes, she lost because (for whatever reason) Democrats stayed home.
Yes, I also took a course w Wollen at Columbia. Thx to Signs & Meaning, it was packed. Most memorably Kathryn Bigelow was in the class & Wollen who struck me as entertaining if supercilious did insist in pronouncing Godard with a short "o," an emphasis on the 2nd syllable and an audible final "d."
November 1, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Yes, I also took a course w Wollen at Columbia. Thx to Signs & Meaning, it was packed. Most memorably Kathryn Bigelow was in the class & Wollen who struck me as entertaining if supercilious did insist in pronouncing Godard with a short "o," an emphasis on the 2nd syllable and an audible final "d."