The man who directed such masterworks as The Rules of the Game and La Grande illusion, Jean Renoir, should have purveyed a better Hollywood drama than The Southerner (1945), derived from a novel by George Sessions Perry. Zachary Scott and Betty Field have no real appeal as a Southern couple trying to support a family on miserable farmland. Even in ’45 this post-Depression picture had nothing new to say, and to me it gets tiring.

On the other hand, Renoir was a mostly serious man, and an artist, and The Southerner is at least a serious movie with a touch of art. Its outdoor shots are terrific. But the French auteur resembles a Southerner named William Faulkner in that he stopped proving he was a great artist after a certain period of time.

In The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025), two pop/folk musicians reunite to make some money through playing a gig on Wallis Island, off the coast of England. One musician, Herb (Tom Basden), is male; the other, Nell (Carey Mulligan), is female. An odd fan named Charles (Tim Key) hired them. Nice Nell, the singer and sharer of Herb’s music, much appeals again to Herb. He desires that they go back to performing together, because his love for Nell is reigniting. Nell, however, is now married.

Ballad was directed knowingly by James Griffiths. The screenplay, written by Basden and Key, is rather schematic but still sapid and humane. The performances are delightfully strong. Charles, it must be said, is a naif who talks too much; and, for my part, I wish there had been less Charles and more Nell. Oh, well . . .

“The Lady of the Lake” is from Bernard Malamud‘s classic short story collection, The Magic Barrel (1958). In a number of the author’s fictions, men are smitten with women they should not pursue or they should pursue them but make poor choices along the way. “Lady” is an example of the latter.

The comely Isabella asks Henry, vacationing in Italy, if he is Jewish. Growing to love the girl, Henry lies and says no since he fears Isabella might reject a Jewish lover. But this is not the case. A piercing, carefully written item, the story shows us the complications surrounding identity—and has no resolution at the end. Worthy, this, and superior to such men-in-love Malamud works as Dubin’s Lives and even “In Retirement.”

Somebody mentions in the Amanda Milius documentary The Plot Against the President, from 2020, that “Devin Nunez [a former Congressman] sensed there was wrongdoing early on.” Nunez was right: the corruption was deep, the wrongdoing that of lying about Pres. Trump and Russia. First, though, the doc tells us of an intelligence community working to service not the country but the Obama regime. Indeed, it did so with its plot against Trump. Republican officeholders speak of their perplexity and disgust over the “Clinton disinformation” in the Steele dossier. Consider that Trump was accused of sexual perversion in a Moscow hotel room which did not exist. Consider the ugly treatment of foreign-policy advisor Carter Page. A FISA court kept mum about Page’s being an asset to the CIA—because he just had to be a Russian asset.

Long before Tulsi Gabbard declassified DNI documents, Ms. Milius knew that making a film about anti-Trump wickedness in high places was justified. And a good idea. We are fortunate to have it, even if this kind of doc ought to have emanated from the legacy media.

Gee, I wonder if the cops on the TV show Chicago P.D. like working under Mayor Brandon Johnson. Doubt it. I don’t think Johnson is as sweatily concerned about Chicago crime as Sgt. Hank Voight is.

In an interview on his morning program, Joe Scarborough never got Johnson to admit that Chicago crime would or might drop if there were more police officers on the streets. Say, 5,000 more, Scarborough said. Johnson replied that he doesn’t believe in “arbitrary” numbers. Is this arbitrary leadership?