January 2, 2026: Year in Review: Dad

[The end of 2025 means another Year in Review blog series, AmericanStudying a handful of the year’s biggest stories. I’d love your 2025 reflections in comments!]

Ten months ago today, I said goodbye to my Dad. I had the chance to say a lot of what I’d most want to say about him in this obituary, this Saturday Evening Post column, and this blog anniversary tribute post, and would ask you all to check out all three of those if you would. But I couldn’t write a Year in Review blog series and not include him, and I want to do so through three relatively quick but very heartfelt points that are quite distinct in both subject and tone:

1)      I’ll start with the saddest. As I wrote in that hyperlinked Post column as well as this prior one on my folks, my Dad both embodied and worked for the best of America throughout his life and his career. It will never not be incredibly frustrating and painful to me that he passed with Donald Motherfucking Trump as president, and indeed that the November 2024 election was one of the last major events he was able to really focus on. I thought I already appreciated all the layers to the Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times,” but losing a loved one in such times—and, again, a loved one who was so potently connected to all things AmericanStudies, including of course every element of this AmericanStudier—comprises another layer still. I don’t generally swear on this blog, but when it’s warranted I will, so I’ll say it once more, with feeling: Fuck Donald Motherfucking Trump.

2)      Now for the happiest (mostly). My Dad passed a month and a bit before his grandson Kyle made his college decision, so he didn’t get to find out that Kyle was headed to the University of Michigan. But he was well aware of and had a significant role in Kyle’s college search, just as he did for his older grandson Aidan’s journey to ending up at Vanderbilt University. My wife Vaughn, who through schedule flexibility but also and especially her incredible generosity and care was able to spend the last couple weeks of my Dad’s life with him and my Mom, has noted many times that he talked about nothing more frequently nor more happily in those difficult times than his grandsons and their incredibly bright futures. I believe it, and the thought has given me great pleasure over these last 10 months.

3)      Finally, the most relevant to this space. Writing this blog day in and day out (well, I now write and schedule in batches as I’ve discussed elsewhere in this space, but you know what I mean) is not always easy, and I’ll admit that there have been moments where I’ve wondered if I should wind it down. But as I noted in that hyperlinked anniversary post, my Dad was this blog’s first and most loyal and responsive reader (yes, even more so than my awesome colleague Irene Martyniuk!). The thoughts he shared in response to so many of my posts consistently inspired me to keep going—and even though I will never quite get used to the idea that he’s not reading each one now, I’m also good with that because that idea makes me even more committed to continuing to do and share this kind of work. See you right here in the (continuing) New Year!

December Recap this weekend,

Ben

PS. What do you think? 2025 stories you’d highlight?

January 1, 2026: Year in Review: Rejuvenated Blockbusters

[The end of 2025 means another Year in Review blog series, AmericanStudying a handful of the year’s biggest stories. I’d love your 2025 reflections in comments!]

On four films that together suggest positive ways forward for the endangered Hollywood blockbuster.

I’ve already dedicated an entire blog series to my favorite film of the year, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. I won’t repeat all that I (and the other awesome folks highlighted in that weekend post) had to say about it, but I’ll just add that the film is as innovative in its financing and production as it is in every other aspect of its filmmaking, and thus (as one of the most profitable movies of the year) certainly can be a model for other films and filmmakers.

I’d be the first to admit that most blockbusters are not like Sinners, though, and I don’t expect that to change significantly going forward (although I hope we do get more like it!). So I think it’s worth noting that three more conventional 2025 blockbusters, all three in the top ten highest grossing films of the year, also represent fresh and thoughtful takes on those conventions. I’ve been on board with the Mission: Impossible films for a long time, but even as a card-carrying fan of the series (other than the John Woo-directed second installment, which is just not very good) I was blown away by Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning. Partly that was how perfectly it wrapped up the entire series, engaging with the past without being beholden to or limited by it (which is a great model for both franchise and action films, I’d say). But partly it was the film’s final messages (delivered by the series’ best character, Ving Rhames’s Luther) of (SPOILERS aplenty here) what we owe to each other in our global world, of why and how not only Ethan Hunt and his compatriots, but also all the rest of us, have to fight for the best of our future—even, indeed especially, when we’re not sure there’s any hope.

I know not everyone is as big a fan of the MI films, but I don’t think any filmgoer would disagree with the argument that the most tired genre of blockbusters in recent years has been the superhero film (or texts in general, as there’s been a plethora of TV shows too of course). So no one was more surprised than me when my second favorite cinematic experience of the year was Superman, and pretty high on the list as well was The Fantastic Four: First Steps. I could go into lots of specifics why the first was so great (a balance of heart and humor, a serious dose of political and social commentary delivered with a deft touch, a damned adorable dog) and the second much better than I expected (the creation and exploration of a fully-realized retrofuturistic world in particular), but at the end of the day, I’d boil it down to this: both films felt that they were made because the creators had a vision for what they hoped to do, not because these were existing Ips that would make a quick buck from audiences. If films are gonna keep leaning into such IPs (and it seems clear that they are), these two represent great models for how that can still result in enjoyable and successful movies.

Last reflections tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? 2025 stories you’d highlight?