Free Republic

Disney is facing intense criticism for introducing a new cartoon superhero named “Captain Durag” on its Disney Jr. show “Hey AJ! The character, who debuted in the middle of Black History Month, has been slammed by leftists as tone-deaf, stereotypical, and disrespectful to black culture. Captain Durag is depicted as a black superhero fighting “grime” in Slime City, with his durag serving as both his cape and a mask that covers the upper part of his face. The concept of Captain Durag is wildly tone deaf. A black superhero with a durag as both his cape and mask, with a...

Director Amy Berg tells NME about the obsession that fuelled her 15-year quest to honour the singer-songwriter’s incredible legacy and complex personal lifeOn May 29, 1997, Jeff Buckley was en route to a rehearsal space in Memphis, Tennessee to work on his second album, tentatively titled ‘My Sweetheart The Drunk’. The follow-up to his acclaimed debut ‘Grace’, an alt-rock classic that eventually shifted two million copies, was not coming easily. Read More: ‘It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley’ review: hallelujah, this moving rock doc is celebratory not sad Frozen by fame and the weight of expectation, he’d retreated into his...

The real horror of most western movie stories is that the frontier exists in a lawless state that's particularly obscene as it's the leading edge of America moving west – a country founded on an almost divinely inspired Constitution and the expectation that law will create the conditions for democracy as the country fulfills its manifest destiny. I couldn't help but think of this during one particular scene in Budd Boetticher's 1958 b-western Buchanan Rides Alone – the fifth of six (or seven, depending on what you read) films in the director's Ranown Cycle (including 7 Men From Now, The...

Los Angeles County has slapped Roblox with a lawsuit accusing the wildly popular kids’ gaming platform of giving predators a gateway to groom and exploit children. The suit alleges Roblox falsely marketed itself as a safe haven for kids while operating what officials called a “breeding ground for predators.” The platform boasts more than 151 million daily active users, with over 40% under age 13. Roblox “has created a massive, largely unsupervised online world where adults and children mingle with little functional oversight,” the complaint states, accusing the company of designing a platform that creates “foreseeable pathways for adults to...

Art reflects the human condition in all its messiness—violence, identity, madness The classic horror film, The Silence of the Lambs has recently been labeled as transphobic. Progressivism is seeking to sacrifice another Hollywood masterpiece to their “problematic” gods because the mentally ill villain of the film is a man so desperate to be a woman that he murders for it. While the character is never labeled as trans, the fictional portrayal has been deemed offensive. In the annals of cinematic history, few films have left as indelible a mark as The Silence of the Lambs. Released in 1991, Jonathan Demme’s...

Three Men and a Baby” is an unlikely comedy that ended up being the top-grossing film of 1987 because of its poignant themes. Despite its stereotypical caricature of bringing up babies, this light-hearted snipe at intentionally single-parent families argues that babies need not just mothers but fathers, too. In the 100-minute gag that this film is, it might take as many as three bungling men to care for a baby. In real life, a caring father and mother will do just fine. Sure, any couple won’t mind occasional help from friends or family, even the bungling kind. In its prankish,...

For the first time in three decades, ESPN will no longer have the rights to Sunday Night Baseball this season. That's right. No more Jon Miller and Joe Morgan! Well, to be fair, they've been gone for a decade now, but still, you get the point. It was a staple in households across America for 30 years. It's now gone forever. Last year, NBC acquired the rights to SNB in a landmark deal that will shake up how – and where – we watch Major League Baseball this season. Good luck trying to figure that out, by the way. Regular...

I once predicted that the improvements in the realness of video games would never stop. That video games will look and act so real that we wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a game and real life. We will ask is that a real footbal game we're watching or is that a sports game being played? AI has delivered on that prediction to an astonishing way. Here is an example of how far AI has come. https://youtu.be/jciMPgEI9dY Now my question is will Hollywood ever produce new films from dead actors? Will there be new Humphry Bogart movies? Will...

Just last night, I received some sad news about Nick Pope. He published a brief message that said: A while ago, following some digestive issues, I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Unfortunately, it's Stage 4 and has metastasized to my liver. While I know that it's kindness and hope that leads people to suggest healers and supposed miracle cures, and to say things like "fight it", and "you can beat it", I'm afraid my diagnosis and my situation leaves no doubt whatsoever: I can't beat it.

Jamie Kennedy has slammed anti-ICE celebrities who preach from glitzy Hollywood red carpets about authoritarianism while being protected by security guards. The 55-year-old comedian appeared on Jack Osbourne’s “Trying Not to Die” podcast on Tuesday, calling out liberal stars who cry about living under a so-called “fascist regime” while they are “literally guarded.” He said “when you have actors from the red carpet of an award show” saying stuff like “we’re under a fascist regime” and cries of “authoritarianism,” they couldn’t be more clueless. He added: “You can’t say you’re under authoritarian rule when you’re literally being authoritarian.” Kennedy claimed...

Wiseman’s influence on non-fiction cinema is impossible to overstate. Over the course of six decades, his work was primarily about exploring American institutions. The world of cinema has lost another giant. Frederick Wiseman, the prolific documentary filmmaker and one of the greatest non-fiction directors, has died aged 96. His death was announced in a joint statement from the Wiseman family and Zipporah Films. “For nearly six decades, Frederick Wiseman created an unparalleled body of work, a sweeping cinematic record of contemporary social institutions and ordinary human experience primarily in the United States and France,” the statement read. “His films –...

Ronda Rousey (12-2, 9 KOs) and Gina Carano (7-1, 3 KOs), two of the biggest names in women's mixed martial arts history, will un-retire and meet on May 16 in Los Angeles for a fight at the Intuit Dome, Most Valuable Promotions announced on Tuesday. The fight between the 39-year-old Rousey and the 43-year-old Carano will take place in a hexagon cage over the course of five five-minute rounds and will stream live on Netflix. Rousey's last MMA fight came in December 2016 when she was knocked out by Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 -- her second consecutive knockout loss...

On February 11, Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek died at the age of 48 after a nearly three-year battle with colorectal cancer. In the wake of his death, a GoFundMe has been established to raise money for his wife, Kimberly, and their six children after the cost of his medical care drained their bank account. At first, fans were happy to rally around the family in the midst of their grief, but now that James’ multi-million dollar real estate purchase has been exposed, the tide is turning fast. The Van Der Beeks’ GoFundMe has already raised more than...

Hollywood icon Robert Duvall has died at the age of 95. He was best known for playing Tom Hagen opposite Al Pacino and Marlon Brando in The Godfather. The actor's wife, Luciana, announced the news Monday on Facebook, writing, 'Yesterday we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time. Bob passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort.' She added ... 'To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything. His passion for his craft was matched only by...

Legendary actor and director Robert Duvall has passed away. He was 95 years old. His wife of over 20 years, Luciana, announced his passing in a post on Facebook and said he died on Sunday “peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort.”

Classic movies resonate because they reflect what we understand in our guts to be true. Silence of the Lambs featured Buffalo Bill, a transgender serial killer who skinned women so he could wear their skin. Driven by the liberal establishment’s promotion of LGBTism, the rapidly expanding Transsexual Violence Hall of Horrors has confirmed the movie’s underlying insight. Yet now Hollyweird apologizes for it. Via Hollywood Reporter: Silence of the Lambs surprised the industry as an Oscar-winning, generation-defining smash. But over the years, the characterization of Buffalo Bill (whose sexual orientation is not explicitly stated) has been viewed as gender nonconforming...

When I was growing up in the 1980s, I often saw old war movies on TV, and in many appeared a certain German actor usually playing a Nazi villain, from 'Where Eagles Dare' to 'Escape to Victory'. I recently discovered that this star, Anton Diffring, is buried only 9 miles from my childhood home, so I decided to make a pilgrimage and find his largely forgotten last resting place and thank him for so many great performances.

Lee Marvin had a reputation for being a great interview, obliging the press who expected the ultimate movie tough guy with more than they expected. His agent, Meyer Mishkin, said that Marvin gave his best performances for the press, going so far as to play with a knife during interviews. "Most people only wise up when they are down on the floor with the blood everywhere," was one such gem. In another he said that despite their brutality, he didn't think his films had a bad influence on the audience. "The Shirley Temple movies are more likely to do that;...

U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman scheduled a two-week jury trial starting February 15, 2027, in Miami for Trump's suit filed December 15, 2025. The case accuses the BBC of defamation and unfair trade practices over its 2024 documentary 'Trump: A Second Chance?', which edited Trump's Ellipse speech to splice 'fight like hell' with a march to the Capitol, omitting his calls for peaceful protest. The BBC apologized for the error, leading to internal resignations, but rejected compensation demands; it plans a motion to dismiss over jurisdiction while vowing a strong defense.

Director Steven Spielberg, whom I introduced last week [in 2012] at Gettysburg at ceremonies marking the 149th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s greatest speech, said he was deeply humbled to be delivering an address on that history-making spot. *** … Daniel Day-Lewis gives the definitive portrayal of our time, perhaps ever, of Honest Abe. For people like me, who have spent their lives studying Abraham Lincoln, the film is chilling — as if he’s really come to life. Day-Lewis does it by avoiding the traps most Lincoln actors fall into, the stoic, “Hall of Presidents”-esque stereotype that probably most Americans imagine....