James Wolcott
jwolcott.bsky.social
James Wolcott
@jwolcott.bsky.social
Writer still in quest of the perfect keyboard
Reposted by James Wolcott
The worst annual event in American journalism. I refuse to click on this
November 27, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Jesse Pinkman voice: "She wasn't covering the RFK jr campaign, she was covering *for* the RFK jr campaign."
November 27, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Reposted by James Wolcott
Candy Darling was born 81 years ago today.
November 24, 2025 at 2:55 PM
As a columnist at Vanity Fair who served under four presidents (I mean, editors), I ought to have some residual insight as to what’s going on at that wacky spacecraft but, nope, not a clue.
November 24, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Maureen Dowd flitted through my mind because Thanksgiving is coming up, so I'm told, & that's when she annually turns the Times column over to her MAGA brother, whose turkey stuffing is between his ears. Will MoDo be slumming it again this Thanksgiving or will an editor finally say Enough already?
November 23, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Maureen Dowd has been around so long that her influence appears to have been diluted but she's had an absolutely dire effect on political journalism, helping produce a corn field of Mini-Mo's.
November 23, 2025 at 11:05 PM
I never trusted Ryan Lizza's smirk. I always assumed that as a political journalist he was another Mark Halperin in the making, and two of them is two too many. Halperin, after his #MeToo fall, oozed back into standard pundit hackery while Lizza is oozing in every direction.
November 23, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by James Wolcott
The soul-stirring high of putting on a new pair of pajamas.
November 18, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by James Wolcott
Turner Classic Movies is airing an 11-film exploration of trans identities in movies hosted by the authors of Corpses, Fools, & Monsters (great recent history of the topic) starting tomorrow at 8
Trans Images on Film
November 17 & 24 | 11 FilmsWith the recent publication of “Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema,” Turner Classic Movies sheds light on the various perspe...
www.tcm.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Yes, agree, and needless to say Molly Haskell is never wrong.
One of the best film studies books about a topic that has been overlooked for too long. Highly recommend.
It's transgender awareness week, and if you ever wanted to learn more about the history of transness in cinema, you could pick up our book CORPSES, FOOLS AND MONSTERS at your local library or purchase a copy. We wrote this book for trans people like us. Thank you.

bookshop.org/p/books/corp...
November 15, 2025 at 7:58 PM
More Miriam Shor, less Rhea Seehorn. #PLURIBUS
November 15, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Not digging PLURIBUS, if I'm savagely honest. Whole project seems off--overscaled, overconceptualized, overchoreographed (those delivery trucks), the set pieces show-offy self-contained & strangely weightless. It's all blatantly schematic, which Gilligan's always avoided, & the dialogue is crud.
November 15, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by James Wolcott
Please say hello to my son

Preorder here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646320...
November 13, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Reposted by James Wolcott
Today at the White House -- a visit from Erika Kirk, future Vice President or First Lady (Peter Thiel hasn't decided yet.)
November 12, 2025 at 7:54 PM
In February 2026 the Manhattan Institute will be bestowing its prestigious, extremely hinky City Journal Award on America's compact-sized sentimental of freedom, BEN SHAPIRO. This should go over swell!

manhattan.institute/event/2026-c...
2026 City Journal Award
Host Committee Levels Presenter: $250,000 Special Recognition in the Dinner Program; Recognition in the formal invitation; Special Recognition in Master of Ceremonies’ Remarks; Table of 12, Premier Se...
manhattan.institute
November 12, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Or as Sherman McDaniels put it more poetically, "Every man dies. Not every man truly gets *down,* right on, right on."
not beating the "he's staring into the grave" allegations here
Trump: "If we die, we must die and we as men we die without complaining."
November 11, 2025 at 9:37 PM
It's perturbing yet somehow delightful that Elise Stefanik is a dead ringer for Bari Weiss, a.k.a. Schmoopie. The only diff is that Bari wears studious glasses & is flanked by an elite unit of buff catalogue models, but otherwise they could be twins or maybe the same "op" hoaxing and hexing us.
November 10, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Gawd listening pundits and people in real life (I do know a few) intone, "Now comes the hard part--governing."

Yeah, we KNOW. Governing comes after being elected and PRESENTS DIFFERENT CHALLENGES, that's not a lightning strike revelation. We heard the same gumminess after Obama won the first time.
November 8, 2025 at 5:17 PM
"Ben Shapiro is being swung around by his ankles and let fly in the most vicious hammer throw I've ever seen among these pasty combatants.
Yeah! I mean, if we're gonna have UFC at the White House, let's have some real entertainment!
November 7, 2025 at 2:14 AM
I want all of these rightwing podcasters to go at each other in armed combat like news crews in ANCHORMAN. Work out their differences on the backlot battlefield like MEN.
November 7, 2025 at 1:32 AM
"Attention all units, attention all units, Schmoopie is making an unscheduled stop at Carvel to pick up a Fudgie the Whale cake for Gayle King's going-away party, which could get ugly."
November 7, 2025 at 1:27 AM
I mean, judge Kiefer's masticatin' for yourself.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFyW...
Stone Cold Fox | Official Trailer (HD) | Vertical
YouTube video by Vertical
www.youtube.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:45 AM
STONE COLD FOX looks like yet another Hollywood attempt to recapture the raucous road energy of '70s exploitation flicks but that neo-retro genre seems Tarantino'd out by now, though maybe it'll better than DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS/HONEY DON'T. As a cold stone psycho Kiefer Sutherland masticates a lot y'all
November 7, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Michelle Pfeiffer is a goddess and should not be subject to the indignities depicted in the trailer* for OH. WHAT. FUN. (Amazon Prime), the first of which is casting the charmless Denis Leary as her husband. The slapstick looks painful. I just can't with this.

Remember, the trailer IS the movie.
November 7, 2025 at 12:20 AM
I wonder if her security has a code name for her. "Eagle 1 to Eagle 2: Schmoopie is on the move..."
November 7, 2025 at 12:14 AM