Sep 19, 2026
Bosley Crowther called Dear Heart "a stale, dull and
humorless
pretension." Melanie cried at the end. Ed laughed out loud at a
joke the screenplay had set up half an hour earlier.
Melanie Benjamin and Edward Kelsey Moore watch DEAR HEART (1964), directed by Delbert Mann from Tad Mosel's screenplay. Geraldine Page...
Sep 3, 2026
In 2023, Tembe Denton-Hurst published a debut about a young Black media writer who quits her job with a letter — and then has to live with what happens next.
Melanie Benjamin and Edward Kelsey Moore read Homebodies, the debut novel by Tembe Denton-Hurst (HarperVia, 2023). Mickey Hayward works a media job that's...
Aug 6, 2026
In 1949 Warner Bros. built a movie out of its own stars for one reason: to make Doris Day famous. It worked.
Melanie Benjamin and Edward Kelsey Moore watch It's a Great Feeling, directed by David Butler and starring Doris Day, Dennis Morgan, and Jack Carson. It was Day's third Warner Bros. picture, made when the studio...
May 22, 2026
Muriel Spark wrote it in months while Nixon was still in office. Fifty-two years later, Melanie and Ed test whether the joke still lands.
Spark's 90-page novella, subtitled "A Modern Morality Tale," relocates Watergate to a Benedictine convent in Cheshire. The newly elected Abbess Alexandra has bugged the grounds,...
Mar 28, 2026
Lilies of the Field is a 1963 American comedy-drama film
directed and produced by Ralph Nelson.
Praised by critics, Lilies of the Field earned five Academy Award
nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress for
Skala. Poitier won the Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the
first Black actor to win...