Hi, I’m Peter Travers
I’ve been banging on about movies since I gained the power of speech. And writing about them soon after, the longest time for Rolling Stone and later ABC News and Good Morning America. You’ve probably seen my digital mug on ABC’s Popcorn with Peter Travers, doing pushy interviews with the scrappiest screen disruptors, from Spielberg to Tarantino, Streep to Lady Gaga, Denzel to DiCaprio, Viola Davis to Timothée Chalamet.
Amazingly, this is my first blog, a place where I can let it rip on the best and worst just hitting theaters, TV and streaming. The Travers Take is an insider’s view from the author of The 1000 Best Movies and articles collected in Produced and Abandoned: The Best Films You've Never Seen, They Went Thataway, Flesh and Blood, The “A” List, The “B” List, and The “X” Factor. A former chair of the New York Film Critics Circle, I’m also a member of the National Society of Film Critics and the Critics Choice Association for broadcast, all of whom never tire of talking shop.
No bull. No restraints.
But that’s just for starters. For subscribers, bonus extras draw on my lifetime as a screen nerd with insider details on how movies get made and the livewire egos who get the job done. I’ll track film festivals from Cannes and Sundance to a city near you. I’ll handicap award races —Oscar, Emmy, you name it— and highlight livewire entertainments from out of the past that have the juice to speak to right this minute. No bull. No restraints.
There’s one catch: I can’t do it without you.
Let me tell you a story. Once, in deep conversation with Martin Scorsese, I asked the maestro why he doesn’t see movies in theaters anymore and he went all raging bull about audiences who babble on phones during the movie, leave to order snacks and vats of soda, and keep up a noise level loud enough to drown out the actors. “Come on, Marty,” I said, “we couldn’t keep our mouths shut when we were kids.” His eyes darkened. “Yeah, maybe,” he conceded, “but when we talked it was always about the movie and the fun we had chewing over the details.”
Above all, it’s about the give and take between you and me and the fun we’ll have arguing the details
I couldn’t find a better goal for this blog. Above all, it’s about the give and take between you and me and the fun we’ll have arguing the details, setting up a dialogue that makes film a living thing for us to dissect, debate and maybe get loud about. No detail is too small to put on the hot seat.
So come on fellow film fanatics, hit subscribe and let’s get this party started.
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