Kevin Drum (1958–2025)

Blogger and journalist Kevin Drum died earlier this month at the age of 66 after a long battle with cancer. His most recent website, where his wife Marian announced the sad news, was self-named, but with a fun URL that included "jabberwocking." You can read tributes and obituaries from Digby, Josh Marshall, Paul Glastris at Washington Monthly where Kevin blogged, Mother Jones where he blogged, Matthew Yglesias, The New Republic staff (who include a catblogging tribute), David Dayen and The American Prospect staff (who also do a catblogging tribute), Mark Evanier, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.

Kevin was one of the early bloggers and a welcome resource during the Bush years. He did some fine, in-depth pieces, as covered in the tributes above. He also started "Friday cat blogging," a nice tradition of more relaxed posting that inspired similar efforts from other political bloggers. Notably, at Mother Jones, he also asked that instead of him getting raises each year that those funds be used to support younger writers.

I didn't know Kevin that well, but I met him once when he hosted a book party for Rick Perlstein, who was promoting Nixonland at the time (a event also mentioned by Digby). Kevin and his wife Marian were gracious hosts, and that night they welcomed many Southern California liberal bloggers into their home, many of whom I met in person for the first time. It was nice talking to everyone, and I enjoyed seeing all the film posters and books on classic films, with several prominent ones related to the great Danish director Carl Dreyer. (Kevin's father had been a professor of speech and film history, and as some of the pieces above cover, Kevin's father started writing a book on Dreyer but died before he could finish it; Kevin's mother completed it.)

I'm sorry Kevin didn't have more time, and condolences to his family and close friends. His best work was very good indeed, and he'll be remembered for his thoroughness and kindness.

The Oscars for the Films of 2024

The Oscars for the films of 2024 were a fun affair. Host Conan O'Brien was in fine form, with sharp writing and some clever ad-libbing, and plenty of the goofy silliness of his most enjoyable work. I rarely see movies in the theaters anymore since the closing of the much missed Arclight Cinemas in Los Angeles and elsewhere. The Arclight theaters didn't run ads, prized good projection and sound systems, and encouraged respectful audiences. The remaining venues run tons of ads and it's sadly common for people to be on their phones at full brightness throughout a movie. So this year, rather than rooting for specific films, I mainly used the Oscars to add films to my viewing list, which includes Flow, Anora, The Brutalist, Conclave, Sing Sing, I'm Still Here, A Complete Unknown, Nickel Boys, No Other Land, and of course Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.

Conan O'Brien started with a funny riff on The Substance, seeming to crawl out Demi Moore's collapsed body and then dive back in to get his lost shoe. It was an amusing bit, but O'Brien wanted to do a more extensive parody of the nominees similar to some of Billy Crystal's segments at past ceremonies. Alas, the Academy vetoed that and other good ideas ('Oscar cannot be horizontal and cannot be clothed'), so credit to O'Brien and his writers for coming up with good material despite the silly restrictions against fun.

Out here in Los Angeles, the two most welcome moments were O'Brien thanking the below-the-line crew, and the salute to Los Angeles area firefighters for their heroic work earlier this year in battling multiple huge, devastating fires.

On the international front, it was neat to see Latvia win its first Oscar for its animated feature Flow, Iranian filmmakers Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani manage to just barely get to the Oscars in time to accept Best Animated Short for In the Shadow of the Cypress, and veteran Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles win Best International Feature Film for I'm Still Here. They all gave heartfelt speeches, as did the Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers accepting the Best Documentary Feature award for No Other Land, speaking against bigotry and for peace.

The Latvian win allowed Conan to ad-lib, "Your move, Estonia," which he repeated nonsensically later in the broadcast in the best silly Conan O'Brien tradition. My favorite lead-in was him introducing Amy Poehler presenting the screenwriting awards, by saying something like, 'She plays Joy in Inside Out, and she's here to present Joy's opposite – screenwriting.' (As usual Poehler was sharp, dryly quipping, "I believe it was William Shakespeare who said, writing is a bitch.") My favorite visual gag, though, was the Dune sandworm playing the piano and later the harp, a costume designed by O'Brien's longtime collaborator Scott Cronick. It was vintage Conan, reminiscent of his NBC show recycling a bizarre beige costume at least half a dozen times, as everything from Jabba the Hut to a croissant.

The ceremony featured individual tributes to costume design and cinematography nominees, an approach that in the past has been limited to the acting categories. I'm not a big fan of the approach in general, because it slows down the ceremony, dreadfully so the first time it was done, but more smoothly since. On the positive side, it does give all the nominees and not just the eventual winner more recognition. And if the Academy is going to stick with that approach, it's nice if some non-actors get some love. (I presume different non-acting categories will get the special treatment next year, if the Academy sticks with the format.)

Ben Stiller continued his tradition of funny presentations. In the past, he's appeared in a green screen suit for visual effects and as a Na'vi from Avatar (although he can milk the gags too long). This time, he struggled with a stage lift that kept going up and down, and the bit worked well.

The montage of death was much better than in some recent years, with the producers wisely opting for classical music (Mozart's haunting Requiem) instead of dancers or a solo singer. Although it's never possible to include everyone, Alain Delon was a notable omission, and it would have been nice to include Tony Todd as well. (The annual TCM Remembers segment is always worth watching.)

Sean Baker cleaned up as a writer, editor, director, and producer (Best Picture) for Anora, a remarkable feat, all the more so because he said the film cost only about 6 million dollars. That does come with a significant caveat, however; some industry groups reported that Sean Baker fought against the crew unionizing, which affected their eligibility for important health care benefits. (The story was later picked up by The Hollywood Reporter.) It also would be nice to see more films give "points" or deferred wages to the crew, so that if a lower-budget project does become a big success, the crew and not just the above-the-line players could get a small piece of the profits.

I like Adrien Brody as an actor, and his speech started out well, with him remarking that "acting is a very fragile profession" and urging that we "not let hate go unchallenged." But Brody's speech became long, halting, and very self-indulgent. Oscar winners are given 45 seconds, although especially for the bigger awards, they're almost always given leeway. At four minutes into Brody's speech, the conductor started playing the exit music, and Brody asked him to stop, claiming he would be brief. He was not. Instead of wrapping up, he rambled on for another minute and thirty-seven seconds. (Just prepare a speech, dude, time it, and try to stick roughly to it.) I did not see Emilia Pérez, which originally received a fair amount of acclaim and then much backlash, mostly when past bigoted comments surfaced from star Karla Sofía Gascón. But Zoe Saldaña was electric in the clips I saw, so I was happy to see her emotional win. The Academy should crack down on abuse of the supporting role nominations, though. Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor and gave a funny speech, but he's one of the two leads in A Real Pain, not a supporting actor. Likewise, Daniel Kaluuya won Best Supporting Actor for the 2021 film Judas and the Black Messiah despite being one of the two leads and the title character. The same criticism may apply to Saldaña, who's second on the billing for Emilia Pérez, but I haven't seen it yet.

Anyway, here's to cinema, catching up on some good 2024 releases, and may 2025 be a good year for film.