Bruce C. Steele
Writer & editor for Disney D23. Author of “One Day at Disney” book. Editor-in-Chief, Disney twenty-three. Co-founder, AshevilleStages.com.
Articles by Bruce C. Steele
Asheville Movies - Wildwood
Bruce Steele: To talk about the new stop-motion animated feature Wildwood, I'm joined by animator Christopher Oakley. In addition to being my husband, Christopher is an animator whose first professional job in the business was with Will VInton Studios, as a stop-motion assistant animator in the mid 1980s.
Asheville Movies — Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom
Aardman Animations’ “Shaun the Sheep” franchise of short films, TV series, video games, and the occasional theatrical movie is like the pre-tween version of “Wallace & Gromit.” Despite Oscar nominations for the two previous features — Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) and A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019) — it’s easy to dismiss Shaun as a Gromit knockoff: a nonverbal domesticated animal who’s much more clever than his human master.
Asheville Movies - The Uprising
Bruce Steele: British filmmaker Paul Greengrass is usually such a contemporary director — United 93 (2006), three Jason Bourne movies, 22 July (2018) — that he seemed an odd match to the subject of a peasant revolt in 14th century England. Now that you've seen The Uprising, how would you rate Greengrass as a historical storyteller? Edwin Arnaudin: He’s so successful at it that I’m surprised he hadn’t attempted one earlier.
Asheville Movies - By Any Means
I suppose the appeal of By Any Means is watching unrepentant, homicidal racists get beaten and tortured by a white mafia enforcer and a black FBI agent. The “a taste of their own medicine” thing.
Asheville Movies - Practical Magic 2
The plot of the original Practical Magic (1998) is jam-packed with plot elements: an ancient curse, romantic attachments, untimely deaths, a zombie, a serial killer investigation — plus all that titular magic. Practical Magic 2, though nearly a half-hour longer, is more bare bones. Three generations of the Owens family women work once again to counter the same curse central to the first movie: Men who love Owens women are fated to die early.
Asheville Movies - Fall 2: Deadpoint
I saw the original Fall movie when it came out in 2022 in a theater with maybe five other people, so I was surprised to learn there was now a sequel — with a third film in the works. Turns out, grossing just $21 million worldwide is a big success when your movie cost a mere $3 million to make. To cut to the chase here, Fall 2: Deadpoint (or just Fall: Deadpoint, as the title appears in the opening credits) does a great job of reproducing the nail-biting vertigo of the original.
Asheville Movies - The Dog Stars
Edwin Arnaudin: While I was drawn to The Dog Stars primarily for its director (Ridley Scott) and cast (which includes Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin, Guy Pearce, and Allison Janney), you’ve actually read Peter Heller’s 2012 source novel. What are your general thoughts on the book and did it seem like material that would translate well to the screen?
Asheville Movies - Mutiny
I’m no connoisseur of Jason Statham movies, having seen just a handful of the many one-noun-titled action flicks he’s churned out since The Transporter (2002). But among this weekend’s new movie selections of raunchy comedy (Spa Weekend), franchise gore (Insidious: Out of the Further), family fantasy served with CG soup (The Magic Faraway Tree), and deconstructed homage horror (Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma), Statham’s back-to-basics, Die Hard on a container ship called out to me.
Asheville Movies - Nimrods
Bruce Steele: The movie Nimrods is many things besides being, at heart, a teen comedy. Mostly, it’s a road movie, about three high schoolers from Kansas City who have a punk band called Analog Dogs and have just a few days to get to Los Angeles, where they believe they’re the opening act for Green Day’s New Year’s Eve concert. Obviously, it’s also a rock ‘n’ roll movie, with plenty of live performances by the Dogs, Green Day, and others.
Asheville Movies - One Night Only
The Black List, in the Hollywood realm, is an annual survey of the “most liked” screenplays that have yet to be set up for production, and One Night Only was at the top of that list in 2024. On the one hand, it’s easy to see why: Travis Braun is a skilled writer who produces clever, believable dialogue and likable characters, and who has a knack for inventing potentially funny situations.
Asheville Movies - The Sheep Detectives
The sheep will win you over. I think it’s safe to say that no one was clamoring for a movie in which a flock of sheep who talk (only amongst themselves, mind you) solve a murder mystery. But now that The Sheep Detectives is here, it’s the heartwarming spiritual sequel to Babe (1995) moviegoers can embrace as few did the dark and often weird Babe: Pig in the City (1998).
Asheville Movies — You, Me & Tuscany
Yes, the marketing is puerile: “She came for the pasta and got lost in the sauce” is a poster tagline that’s not only unfunny and nonsensical, it’s not even accurate to the story. And that breezy, quippy, give-it-all-away trailer? Super off-putting. The movie is better than that, delivering the shameless romance anyone buying a ticket is hoping for, with charming performances and reasonably effective heart-string-pulling.
Asheville Movies - undertone
For this review, Asheviille Movies contributor Bruce Steele is in conversation with his husband, Christopher Oakley, who's an experienced ghost-hunting enthusiast.
Asheville Movies — 2026 Oscar-Nominated Documentary Shorts
Edwin Arnaudin: And now we come to the dreaded documentary shorts — an annual mammoth undertaking for its runtime (you can count on it being 2.5 hours pretty much every time) and difficult subject matter. And yet its potential for yielding something(s) great and making one feel a little more connected to the human condition make it worth the effort. That's again the case this time as we're presented with four finalists that all have important things to say — and one about a couple of jackasses.
Asheville Movies — 2026 Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts
James Rosario: As is often the case, this year's Oscar-nominated animated shorts inject a bit of whimsy into the mostly dour short film programs, and I have to say, I rather enjoyed the 2026 entries. In their own unique ways, each film presented a fully realized world, strong characters, and complete three-act structures. Certainly some were more "serious" than others, but I wholly enjoyed all five films on one level or another.
Asheville Movies — 2026 Oscar-Nominated Live-Action Shorts
Edwin Arnaudin: Every year, you can count on the Oscar-nominated Live-action shorts covering some hot-button topics as well as frivolous ones. But I'm hard-pressed to think of a batch that does so in as milquetoast a manner as this year's finalists.
Asheville Movies - Midwinter Break
Some movies are epics. Some are novels. Midwinter Break is, in essence, a short story. (Yes, it is adapted from a novel—by Bernard MacLaverty, who co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Nick Payne—but the book is a slim 250 pages with wide margins, so maybe more of a novella.) The film, a first feature from esteemed English theater director Polly Findlay, has just three characters of note.
Asheville Movies - Wuthering Heights
It’s easy to imagine what would draw the writer-director of Promising Young Woman (2020) and Saltburn (2023) to Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights. It’s perhaps the best-known story of a powerless striver avenging himself on the rich and powerful—the pervading theme of Emerald Fennell’s first two features. In the novel (spoiler alert), the brooding, sexy, temperamental Heathcliff loses his great love, Catherine Earnshaw, and sets out to destroy the two families he holds responsible.
Learn All Things Disney With These Books
Although it feels like Disney was always around, Walt Disney came from humble beginnings. He started his first animation studio in 1922, and well, the rest is history! From 1922 to now, The Walt Disney Company has taken leaps into the future with technology, animation, and creativity. Every time you look up at Cinderella Castle, watch a Disney movie at home or treat yourself to a Micky Mouse ice cream bar, you experience the wonderful world of Disney.
Movies | Mountain Xpress
Soul conjures music, faith, eternity, race and more, and so does the Pixar movie that bears that title, a film of eye-popping artistry and great storytelling.
How Far You'll Go by Tim McCanna
Buy Now Available Formats Print This enchanting, lushly illustrated journey through Disney moments of bravery and resilience offers inspiration for fans of all ages, from recent grads to anyone embarking on a new adventure. You’re on a new adventure! It’s challenging and fun. You’ve come so far already, but you’ve only just begun. Starting a new journey can be scary. . .
Art of Coloring: Disney 100 Years of Wonder
Pre-Order Available Formats Print The Walt Disney Company honors its 100th anniversary in 2023. As part of the festivities, this must-have adult coloring book offers a fun and familiar look at everything Disney—past, present, and future. Part of the Art of Coloring series, which has sold over 2 million copies across the U.S. On October 16, 1923, Walt Disney and his brother Roy founded what we now know to be The Walt Disney Company.
Treasures of Egypt
Pre-Order Available Formats Print Drawing from National Geographic’s unparalleled photo archive, the images in this breathtaking volume celebrate the vibrant beauty and rich cultural heritage of Egypt on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb. Egypt’s rich history astonishes us again and again with priceless treasures, exquisite craftsmanship, and a bounty of artifacts that enables us to envision the past with extraordinary detail.
Complete National Parks of the United States
Pre-Order Available Formats Print National Geographic’s wide-ranging travel guide to recreation areas, trails, historic sites, nature hikes, seashores, camping, and campgrounds is geared to everyone who loves outdoor recreation.
Women of Walt Disney Imagineering
Buy Now Available Formats Print A dozen female Imagineers recount their trailblazing careers! Capturing an era – and preserving the stories they have told their daughters, their mentees, their husbands, and their friends – a dozen women Imagineers have written personal stories from their decades designing and building the Disney world-wide empire of theme parks.
Clue at Asheville Community Theatre — Asheville Stages
Bruce Steele: I'm afraid I was a bit, um, clue-less as we sat down for the Asheville Community Theatre's production of Clue — the company's first in-person opening night since February 2020. I didn't realize the play was based on the 1985 Clue movie with Tim Curry. Should moviegoers know a little something about the film before they see the stage comedy?
Autumn at the Opry at Flat Rock Playhouse — Asheville Stages
What do I need to say to convince you to make the leap back to live music and theater for the sake of Flat Rock Playhouse’s Autumn at the Opry? How about, it’s the most fun I’ve had at a musical revue since at least the 2019 Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas? Or, you’ve got to see these eight great singers and musicians bring brilliantly to life some of the best classic country and crossover hits of the second half of the 20th century?
Breach of Peace: Stories of the Freedom Riders of 1961 — Asheville Stages
Edwin Arnaudin: It’s strange returning to places I haven’t visited in 18-plus months. We were last at NC Stage on Jan. 29, 2020, for Jeeves Saves the Day, and though the company has produced some impressive Zoom works in the interim, as writer/actor Mike Wiley said, it’s not the same as the live theater setting. What was it like for you during the whole experience of taking in Wiley’s latest one-man play, Breach of Peace: Stories of the Freedom Riders of 1961?
Asheville Movies - No Time to Die
Edwin Arnaudin: Nearly six years have elapsed since the last James Bond film — enough time for an entire Star Wars saga to hit screens. In our first ever dialogue review (!), you were slightly more positive on Spectre than I was, but we agreed that the Daniel Craig run of the popular spy series struggled to string together two great films. Did the rollercoaster trend continue for you with No Time to Die, sending Craig’s Bond off on a high note?
Asheville Movies — The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Not to make this all about me, but I met and briefly hung out with the real Tammy Faye Bakker, and she cannot be duplicated. It was 2000, and gay television-moguls-in-training Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (Rupaul’s Drag Race) had become pals with the former televangelist and had produced and directed an eye-opening, revelatory, and thoroughly entertaining documentary about her and her crooked husband, Jim Bakker.
Asheville Movies — Everybody's Talking About Jamie
You shouldn’t need any reason to tune in to Everybody’s Talking About Jamie other than this: Richard E. Grant plays a semi-retired drag queen named Loco Chanelle (aka Hugo, a dress-shop owner). Grant gives us the sassy, supportive flipside of his venomous gay sidesick from Can You Ever Forgive Me? playing mentor to the film’s teen title character, a drama-prone bleach-blond U.K. high schooler whose one dream is to be a drag queen.
Asheville Movies - Dear Evan Hansen
Bruce Steele: When you and I discussed Dear Evan Hansenafter a performance at the Peace Center, you said you might be "the wrong age demographic" for the show. Now that the smash-hit Broadway musical is a star-studded film, do you still feel emotionally detached? Edwin Arnaudin: I think I was just being kind while trying to rationalize why I didn’t see the greatness in the Tony-winning stage show that folks in surrounding generations hailed as a masterpiece.
Asheville Movies — Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Bruce Steele: Ten rings to rule them all? As a Lord of the Rings fan, I was curious to see Marvel's rings story, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Turns out it does involve dragons and mountains, but not hobbits. Were you familiar with the comic book hero and his bracelets before the film?
Asheville Movies - Reminiscence
Bruce Steele: The new Hugh Jackman movie Reminiscence is written and directed by first-timer Lisa Joy, who was a writer on the charming cult-hit TV series Pushing Daisies and on HBO's blustery Westworld. Does her first feature tend more toward charm or bluster? Edwin Arnaudin: I only saw bluster and have to think that the central cast signed on merely after hearing the film's intriguing concept of harried citizens reliving favorite memories to escape the depressions brought on by a flooded Earth.
Asheville Movies - Free Guy
Edwin Arnaudin: Ryan Reynolds is in an epic funk. Following 2018’s terrific Deadpool 2, he’s made Detective Pikachu, Hobbs & Shaw, 6 Underground, and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard — some of the worst films from the past two years. I liked The Croods: A New Age (2020), which features his voice work, more than you did, but now he’s given us another dud with Free Guy, which garnered a lot more laughs from you in our screening than it did from me.
First Date at SART — Asheville Stages
Edwin Arnaudin: Not only is it great to be back inside seeing live theater, but seeing productions that allow you to laugh with a roomful of people. First Date, currently on stage at SART, offers one such experience, humorously expanding on practically everything that goes through two strangers' heads while meeting up for a drink. Was your funny bone likewise tickled? Bruce Steele: I laughed a lot, and got choked up once or twice as well.
Asheville Movies - Luca
Edwin Arnaudin: Six months after its future Oscar winner Soul skipped theaters for Disney+, Pixar is taking the same approach with its latest feature, Luca. But while theaters were largely still shuttered or operating at significantly reduced capacities around Christmas, they’re essentially back to “normal” now, making the decision to eschew the big screen somewhat puzzling, even if it was made months ago before restrictions were lifted.
Asheville Movies — The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard
The 2017 comedy hit The Hitman’s Bodyguard combined the appeal of its stars’ cheeky on-screen personas with John Wick-style spurting-blood gun battles and other frenetic action sequences. The result was either a guilty pleasure or “a confounding mess” (to quote Edwin Arnaudin’s review at the time), depending on your willingness to suspend artistic standards.
Asheville Movies — The Woman in the Window
Bruce Steele: Appropriately for a mystery-thriller, the all-star production Woman in the Window raises a host of thorny questions. We can start with, Is it worth your time? Are its surprises, well, surprising? And should the novel's sticky back story affect how we see the movie? Edwin Arnaudin: You’re the in-house expert on the literary behind-the-scenes details, so I’ll leave that to you.
Asheville Movies - The Truffle Hunters
This poetic documentary is well named. It won’t tell you anything about truffles other than they are prized, expensive, and hard to fine. It won’t tell you anything about how to hunt for truffles, other than it takes a dog and it’s highly competitive. But it will paint a beautiful portrait of a half-dozen Northern Italian truffle hunters, mostly elderly Italian men who think of little else. Just ask Carlo’s wife, who keeps telling her 80-plus husband to stop truffle hunting at night.
Asheville Movies — 2021 Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts
Bruce Steele: Last year’s program of the animated short films nominated for the Academy Award were four gut punches and one dose of levity. How would you characterize this year's batch? Edwin Arnaudin: It’s a more varied bunch, featuring an impressive range of emotions and animation styles. It’s also an unusually strong batch of finalists, down to the three “highly commended” selections that round out the theatrical program.
Asheville Movies - The Courier
Bruce Steele: The Cold War, as they say, was neither cold nor a war, but it did disrupt a lot of lives. We get one such little-known but gripping story in The Courier. Were you transported? Edwin Arnaudin: I was — and not a moment too soon! I’d just started watching the acclaimed French drama Night of the Kings, the first 20 minutes of which were such utter nonsense that I started wondering if I was in a mood and/or had lost the ability to connect with movies.
Asheville Movies — Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman
North Carolina’s Bruce Johnson and his annual National Arts & Crafts Conference at Asheville’s Grove Park Inn play a central role in the new documentary Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman — just as they have played a major part in the preservation and advancement of the Arts + Crafts movement. The chief creative force behind what we now call Arts + Crafts was furniture designer and manufacturer Gustav Stickley, born into a big immigrant family in Wisconsin in 1858.
Asheville Movies - The Father
Many fine films past have depicted the onset of dementia (or Alzheimer’s) from the outside, witnessing the memory loss and distressed loved ones as the disease worsens. The Father puts viewers in the head of aging Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) as he struggles with his confused reality. Who is the man in his living room? What was it his daughter told him? Who, even, is his daughter? And is it his living room? The plot is less important than the way Anthony responds to various situations.
Asheville Movies — Handicapping the 2021 Oscar nominees, and where to see them
Edwin Arnaudin: #OscarsSoNotWhite Bruce Steele: Indeed. The COVID-19 pandemic cleared out a year's worth of white-bread event movies, from James Bond to Black Widow (they'll be back, of course) and left behind a diverse, scrappy lineup of mostly indie contenders. Not that there aren't a few sweeping, prestige releases reminiscent of past Oscar lineups. In that category, I'd put Mank, with its ten nominations, as well as the six-nods-each The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Judas and the Black Messiah.
The Book Club Play at NC Stage Co. — Asheville Stages
Edwin Arnaudin: It’s odd to think that we’re approaching the one-year anniversary of the last time we saw live theater in person. With venues temporarily shuttered by law to stop the spread of COVID-19, our rich local scene has offered a decent number of live and prerecorded virtual performances — and, in the case of The Magnetic Theatre, some socially distanced outdoor shows — to help bridge the gap.
Asheville Movies - Blithe Spirit
Full credit to Dan Stevens for keeping his resume as diverse as possible. Post Downton Abbey, he has played heinous villains, a Disney Beast, a Marvel antihero, Charles Dickens, and even a bare-chested Scandinavian pop idol. With Blithe Spirit, he adds a dapper Noel Coward protagonist to the list. Stevens follows in the footsteps of Rex Harrison, who starred in David Lean’s 1945 adaptation of Coward’s 1941 stage comedy.
Asheville Movies - My Darling Supermarket
Working from the dual premise that everyone is a philosopher and every location can yield beauty, My Darling Supermarket introduces six staff members of a Brazilian supermarket and gradually reveals their inner lives while they bake bread, scan for shoplifters, and restock shelves. Meanwhile, the curious camera of director and co-editor Tali Yankelevich wanders the aisles and backrooms, searching out patterns, symmetry, and incongruities (a butterfly is a repeated motif).
Asheville Movies - Twilight's Kiss
It’s been said that good things come in threes, and that’s certainly true of this year’s coincidental appearance of three contemporary same-sex love stories focused on older adults. The fine new Twilight’s Kiss, set in Hong Kong, follows on the heels of the moving French drama Two of Us, while the mini-trend was ushered in a few weeks ago by the terrific Supernova, with Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth. There are no stars in Twilight’s Kiss, and that’s fine.
Asheville Movies — Ruth: Justice Ginsberg in Her Own Words
If you thought you didn’t need another documentary about U.S. Supreme Justice Ruth Ginsberg so soon after the entertaining hit RBG (2018), you would be mistaken. Ruth tells the same life story, of course, but director Freida Lee Mock tries to keep the focus on archival interviews and speeches by Ginsberg herself, as the subtitle promises.
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