Odie Henderson
LightNews LightNews
banner
odienator.bsky.social
Odie Henderson
@odienator.bsky.social
1.2K followers 200 following 2.9K 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.
Posts Replies Media Videos
odienator.bsky.social
Dammit. It's in 3-D. To me, that's as useless as tits on a bull.
Avatar 3 screen
December 1, 2025 at 10:59 PM
odienator.bsky.social
People are still mad about what I wrote about Spielberg's remake back at Slate in 2021.
"Who was this remake of West Side Story for? Perhaps it’s for Steven Spielberg. More power to a man who’s done enough classics where he can command this type of vanity project. But he should have known that the Latinos of today don’t want to see themselves portrayed this way any more than I want to keep seeing slavery movies. I think Kushner’s changes made the material worse, because no matter what he did, the plot remained the same. Same bullshit, now with more brown people. But I nonetheless gave it two and a half stars, the exact rating I gave the original that, in my youth, I was forcibly subjected to 50 million times on WPIX. Ariana DeBose was just too good to ignore, and Rachel Zegler mopped the floor with the black hole of charisma that is Ansel Elgort."
December 1, 2025 at 6:55 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Last year, I added a star ratings graph to my end of year movie wrap-up in the Globe. Since I keep all this info in a DB I've maintained for 33 years now, I could easily query out the year and provide the data. As a mathematician, I like seeing numerical measurements. I'm curious how 2025 pans out.
It's a bar graph with a count of movies by star rating. So: 0 stars: 2 1/2 * : 4 * : 6 *1/2 : 13 ** : 20 **1/2 : 9 *** : 29 ***1/2 : 21 **** : 9
December 1, 2025 at 2:19 PM
odienator.bsky.social
In honor of his appearances in WAKE UP DEAD MAN and BLUE MOON, here's a photo of some film critic and Andrew Scott.
Like I said, it's a photo of some film critic and Andrew Scott. Scott's red shirt complements my grey shirt and green sweater. This was after a screening of ALL OF US STRANGERS.
November 30, 2025 at 8:08 PM
odienator.bsky.social
The gods of journalism are punishing me today. An article I was on the hook for writing (and had secretly hoped would be ignored) has been the number one article on the entire website for the past two hours. It ran online on Friday, but is in print today. Drat!

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/a...
November 30, 2025 at 5:22 PM
odienator.bsky.social
This lady's hair makes her look like a Peanuts character come to life.
Card Sharks contestant whose hair is hairsprayed to hell and looks like somebody threw an angry swath of chocolate frosting on her head.
November 29, 2025 at 3:03 AM
odienator.bsky.social
Thanksgiving and the day after were a big deal when I was a kid because of Channel 9's TV lineup of King Kong on Thursday and Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster on Friday. I never liked that Smog Monster movie BUT my cousins and I would sing its theme song at the top of our lungs.

youtu.be/kC1CGrVuGV8
A TV Guide listing of Channel 9's lineup. Thursday: Mighty Joe Young, King Kong (1933) and Son of Kong. Friday: Three Godzilla movies where he fought The Bionic Monster, Megalon and The Smog Monster
November 28, 2025 at 9:05 PM
odienator.bsky.social
My cousins and I would laugh at Franklin being the sole member on that side of the table at Thanksgiving. He gets the broken chair, too. Don't think I didn't notice that shit, Charlie Brown! Franklin existed solely so the Peanuts gang could say "I'm not racist! Some of my best friends are Black!"
A scene from A CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGIVING where Franklin, the token Negro on Peanuts, is seen sitting by himself on one side of a large table. Franklin also daps Charlie Brown when he arrives.
November 27, 2025 at 9:12 PM
odienator.bsky.social
I wrote a book on the history of Blaxploitation films, and my history with them. Contains a list of the top 10 Blaxploitation movie songs and a look at familiar and lesser known movies from the era of bad mother SHUT YO MOUTHs!
The cover of my book BLACK CAESARS AND FOXY CLEOPATRAS: A HISTORY OF BLAXPLOITATION CINEMA.
November 27, 2025 at 3:33 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Once again, I am NUMBER ONE!
My review of WAKE UP DEAD MAN is the most read piece on the ENTIRE Boston Globe website.
November 25, 2025 at 2:31 AM
odienator.bsky.social
In honor of Udo Kier, here's the time we shared a logo with a bunch of other famous people.
The fun photo collage spelling out the Off Plus Camera Film Festival's logo. Someone is holding up one letter each in the festival's logo. That festival in Krakow was where I first met Udo Kier. He's holding the O in "Off Plus Camera." I am holding the E, which I put my famous fedora on top of when they took the photo. Costa-Gavras and John Rhys-Davies are here too, among others.
November 24, 2025 at 2:24 PM
odienator.bsky.social
I hope one of them was Ulla!
Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel and Lee Meredith in a scene from THE PRODUCERS.
November 23, 2025 at 5:37 PM
odienator.bsky.social
You can be the President
I'd rather be the Pope!
You can be the side effect
I'd rather be the dope.
Pope Leo on the mic
November 23, 2025 at 6:24 AM
odienator.bsky.social
Um, no way dude. Blocked.
I had just been followed by "Keanu Reeves." I don't believe it's him, so the account got El BLOCKO! (And if it is you, Keanu, love ya but I'd still block you.)
November 21, 2025 at 1:55 PM
odienator.bsky.social
Happy 3rd anniversary of me getting the f*ck off Twitter.
My last tweet on November 20, 2022 at 11:56 AM. It said "Odienators never die. We simply fade away. Y'all be cool. Peace out." I haven't looked at that site since. And I still don't get why people are on it.
November 20, 2025 at 10:30 PM
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