Fourth Time's the Charm: "The Fantastic Four: First Steps," reviewed.

When it comes to putting First Family of Marvel Comics in the movies, the fourth time’s the charm. My Washington Post review of Fantastic Four: First Steps is here.

Hail to the Chiefs: Ranking the Ten Most Two-Fisted Action Movie Presidents

“A reunion of the blue-chip screenwriting-and-directing duo of Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg, and a showcare for the generational acting skills of Daniel Day-Lewis — sorry, that was 2012’s other Lincoln movie, which in focusing on the final three months of our most-revered president’s life omitted every one the Illinois statesman’s totally sick vampire kills.’”

So many jokes had to come out of my Washington Post ranking of the ten most two-fisted action-movie presidents.

Stations of the Boss: "Tracks II: The Lost Albums," reviewed.

The only Boss I listen to. (Danny Clinch)

Bruce Springsteen’s curation of his own catalog has always been as beguiling as it is obsessive. Why, during the protracted sessions for his 1980 double album The River, did he pass over the many worthy songs that remained locked away until being compiled on the original Tracks almost 20 years later? While giving the nod to the turgid 8.5-minute ballad “Drive All Night”? And “Crush on You,” a D-list rocker I saw him introduce at a concert in Richmond in 2008 as “the worst song we ever wrote.” How did he decide to bury most of the 83 songs included on the new Tracks II: The Lost Albums for decades while determining that, say, clunkers from 2009’s Workin on a Dream like “Outlaw Pete" and “Queen of the Supermarket” needed to be delivered to his public immediately?

These questions are perhaps unanswerable, but Tracks II provides some clues. My Washington Post review is here.

Snatching Defeat from the "Jaws" of Victory: A Chronicle of Sequels Unremembered

Can’t believe I forgot to mention that Jaws 3D heel Simon MacCorkindale starred in a short-lived NBC series about a shapeshifting crimefighter called Manimal that premiered two months after the shark three-quel hit cinemas.

Can’t believe I forgot to mention that the boat The Widow Brody uses to impale Jaws the Fourth in Jaws: The Revenge was named Neptune’s Folly.

I did remember to mention that J:TR cast member Mario Van Peebles directed a film 40 years after Jaws called U.S.S. Indianapolis: Men of Courage that dramatized the events Robert Shaw related in his immortal monologue from Jaws, but that was cut for space. Anyway, my contribution to the Paper of Record’s Jaws anniversary package — The Sequels, and a unified theory of sequelology — is here.

"We Are Gathered" to witness a real, legal marriage at Arena Stage

Kyle Beltran and Nic Ashe in We Are Gathered, a play that accompanies their characters’ fictional marriage with real ones. (T Charles Erickson)

I spent a beautifuly day with Jean Yoder and Rhys Price, who got married on stage in the finale of a performance of Arena Stage’s We Are Gathered. My Washington Post feature about their wedding day is here.

Prattle & Hum: "Bono: Stories of Surrender," reviewed.

Unos, dos, tres, catorce! My review of Andrew Dominik’s film of the stage play of this book is one of the three pieces I have in yer Washington Post today.

"Mission: Impossible" and the Deep State

Washington Post Opinions asked me for a piece about my favorite blockbuster franchise’s relationship to Washington. So I wrote about that, but also about my dad.

Reactive Cultures: "Akira Kurosawa Explains," reviewed.

The assembled Kurosawas of Akira Kurosawa Explains. Creator Julia Izumi is on the right. (Cameron Whitman)

Did playwright/performer Julia Izumi really create a show about or at least named after Akira Kurosawa having seen only one of the legendary filmmaker's 30 movies?

I saw it, and I'm still not sure. For the Washington Post.