Good lord, there are 12 of these things?! — Ranking a trilogy of films is different than your garden variety movie ranking. Which is to say, it’s way freaking harder. Only a trained professional should try it! What I am attempting is the equivalent of juggling chainsaws while riding a unicycle over a tightrope suspended above a pit full…

An excerpt from my upcoming novel — Information about the novel and the series at the bottom. It wasn’t much, as towns go. Dirt roads that kicked up clouds when the wind gusted. Timber and shale buildings clustered around an empty intersection. A weed-choked perimeter dotted with old stumps and rusty scrap. Melanie Locke might’ve taken it…

“It’s a wonder you’re still alive.” — I was sorely tempted to subtitle this “You won’t believe #7”. That’s clearly a joke, but I’m also serious. The whole point of this enterprise is to elicit a WTF out of you, if not make you question how I manage to put pants on (over my head, obviously). But…

Including guidelines and pitch information — This page is home base for Fanfare’s official columns and repeat series. We currently have 5 active columns and 2 ongoing series. Columns Columns are recurring articles that align to a specific point of view or theme and are written by a single writer. Interested in your own column? …

Writing checks my body can’t cash — Two of my favorite things about the Top Gun films are the pilot’s colorful call signs and their equally vibrant helmets. I find it interesting that amid all the two-tone, by-the-books military types, these pilots are given leave to go by gonzo monikers and have customized gear that goes along…

The Broadcast for June 25, 2022 — So I finally saw Maverick: Top Gun. I generally don’t write traditional reviews — for those, you should be following Simon Dillon’s excellent Simon Dillon Cinema, seriously — and anyway, pretty much everything that could be said about the film has already been said. But since I brought it up…

My favorite films from every year I’ve been alive (2012–2022) — When we first started this ‘favorite films’ exercise, Paul Combs jokingly suggested we just say “Marvel” for these years and leave it at that. He wasn’t wrong. But superhero films actually didn't claim every spot in this final decade, as hinted at in the image above. If you are new…

Sometimes you need a little push — Like a lot of writers, I spent a really long time in the aspirational phase of writing. I think this is a rite of passage we all go through. We buy the how-to books and special pens and notebooks, and we spend money on classes and conferences. And we dream…

Apparently, favorite is one hard word to define — A couple of weeks ago, Paul Combs contrived an exquisite new form of torture, in which he suggested listing out your favorite film for each year you have been alive. He then tagged myself and Simon Dillon because misery loves company. It doesn’t sound that difficult, and then you come…