Steve Bowbrick
@bowbrick.bsky.social
GROSS is a materialist history of Hollywood.
At GROSS I’ve got as far as 1975's Jaws. There’s essentially nothing left to say about this movie, so to find an angle I’ve gone back 20 years to John Huston’s 1956 Moby Dick, an oddball masterpiece in its own right and, in many ways, the origin of Jaws: gross.ly.
December 11, 2025 at 6:02 PM
At GROSS I’ve got as far as 1975's Jaws. There’s essentially nothing left to say about this movie, so to find an angle I’ve gone back 20 years to John Huston’s 1956 Moby Dick, an oddball masterpiece in its own right and, in many ways, the origin of Jaws: gross.ly.
The Towering Inferno is a charmless brute, totally without wit, but its finale is a tableau from Dante - the venal and stupid plutocrats trapped in the tower are offered redemption by flood but many will die. It's a winnowing of the San Francisco elite… bit.ly/4oGIgI9
December 8, 2025 at 11:04 PM
The Towering Inferno is a charmless brute, totally without wit, but its finale is a tableau from Dante - the venal and stupid plutocrats trapped in the tower are offered redemption by flood but many will die. It's a winnowing of the San Francisco elite… bit.ly/4oGIgI9
Snow White changed everything, collapsed the wild, barely rational space of early movie animation into something that resembled our own, where the laws of physics applied and where the market, the individual and the logic of capital prevailed: bit.ly/49Vgv7S
December 2, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Snow White changed everything, collapsed the wild, barely rational space of early movie animation into something that resembled our own, where the laws of physics applied and where the market, the individual and the logic of capital prevailed: bit.ly/49Vgv7S
The Exorcist isn’t a horror movie, it’s a strident Catholic evangelical text. And from 2025, when an aggressive and confident new Catholic fundamentalism has made its home in the Silicon Valley elite and in The White House, it looks scarily prescient. More of this in GROSS: bit.ly/48cxVO8
November 25, 2025 at 4:07 PM
The Exorcist isn’t a horror movie, it’s a strident Catholic evangelical text. And from 2025, when an aggressive and confident new Catholic fundamentalism has made its home in the Silicon Valley elite and in The White House, it looks scarily prescient. More of this in GROSS: bit.ly/48cxVO8
It’s almost 90 years old, it’s cheesy and it’s a travesty of English history but it became the model for every action movie that followed. The Adventures of Robin Hood was 1938’s top-grossing movie… bit.ly/3Lsn62Q
November 8, 2025 at 11:51 PM
It’s almost 90 years old, it’s cheesy and it’s a travesty of English history but it became the model for every action movie that followed. The Adventures of Robin Hood was 1938’s top-grossing movie… bit.ly/3Lsn62Q
@reckless.bsky.social You guys have no idea. Talking pictures saved Warner Brothers in 1927. Carving the catalogue up into vertical chunks will do it in 2025!
October 24, 2025 at 6:58 PM
@reckless.bsky.social You guys have no idea. Talking pictures saved Warner Brothers in 1927. Carving the catalogue up into vertical chunks will do it in 2025!
If you want a preview of the world imagined for us by the monarchists, accelerationists, integralists and AI oligarchs look no further than the Dune movies…
GROSS: Villeneueve's Dune - aristocratic excess: bit.ly/48EhUCq
GROSS: Villeneueve's Dune - aristocratic excess: bit.ly/48EhUCq
October 19, 2025 at 1:42 PM
If you want a preview of the world imagined for us by the monarchists, accelerationists, integralists and AI oligarchs look no further than the Dune movies…
GROSS: Villeneueve's Dune - aristocratic excess: bit.ly/48EhUCq
GROSS: Villeneueve's Dune - aristocratic excess: bit.ly/48EhUCq
Is there such a thing as SPEED SUMO?
October 16, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Is there such a thing as SPEED SUMO?
Emotions and a kind of approximate sense of what time it is
October 13, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Emotions and a kind of approximate sense of what time it is
Thing is I'm pretty sure that, when it comes to it, when you're allowed a second to rise from your work and look along the line of toiling miners, one of them is going to be Mr. Bezos himself.
This is from a post I've called 'Paragraphs about AI', where I keep all this nonsense: bit.ly/3XpHiVU
This is from a post I've called 'Paragraphs about AI', where I keep all this nonsense: bit.ly/3XpHiVU
October 5, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Thing is I'm pretty sure that, when it comes to it, when you're allowed a second to rise from your work and look along the line of toiling miners, one of them is going to be Mr. Bezos himself.
This is from a post I've called 'Paragraphs about AI', where I keep all this nonsense: bit.ly/3XpHiVU
This is from a post I've called 'Paragraphs about AI', where I keep all this nonsense: bit.ly/3XpHiVU
When America’s only free-form independent radio station - not part of the American public radio system - feels the need to send physical mail to a fan who’s 3,000 miles from the transmitter on another continent. Must be tough times!
September 30, 2025 at 9:06 AM
When America’s only free-form independent radio station - not part of the American public radio system - feels the need to send physical mail to a fan who’s 3,000 miles from the transmitter on another continent. Must be tough times!
Makes your head spin - a kind of fable of human development - that you could take this little, 200 year-old locomotive and run it without modification on practically any railway in the world, including the TGV to Marseille and the 50,000km of Chinese high-speed rail.
Locomotion No. 1 was welcomed into Darlington station by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) yesterday (28th September). https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2025/09/locomotion-no-1-pulls-into-darlington-next-to-lner-azuma.html #darlington #lner #LnerAzuma #locomotion
Locomotion No.1 Pulls Into Darlington Next To LNER Azuma
Locomotion No. 1 was welcomed into Darlington station by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) yesterday (28th September).
www.railadvent.co.uk
September 29, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Makes your head spin - a kind of fable of human development - that you could take this little, 200 year-old locomotive and run it without modification on practically any railway in the world, including the TGV to Marseille and the 50,000km of Chinese high-speed rail.
"Money begets money, my dear…" Mercantile capitalism explained by a shifty-looking old gent during the Restoration. Honestly, Forever Amber is a brilliant movie - wildly silly - essentially the first bonkbuster and the biggest movie of 1947. bit.ly/4cjF001
September 28, 2025 at 11:52 AM
"Money begets money, my dear…" Mercantile capitalism explained by a shifty-looking old gent during the Restoration. Honestly, Forever Amber is a brilliant movie - wildly silly - essentially the first bonkbuster and the biggest movie of 1947. bit.ly/4cjF001
It's forty years since i first saw My Dinner with Andre. I keep changing my mind. Last night I think I did so again, thanks to David Runciman and the @ppfideas.bsky.social crew who put on a screening at the Regent Street Cinema
September 26, 2025 at 9:03 AM
It's forty years since i first saw My Dinner with Andre. I keep changing my mind. Last night I think I did so again, thanks to David Runciman and the @ppfideas.bsky.social crew who put on a screening at the Regent Street Cinema
Eddington is Ari Aster's dark COVID Western: its culture war themes are becoming more relevant daily. Tomorrow, on the GROSS Substack, I'll be discussing the movie with influential @UCIrvine film studies Prof Catherine Liu at 11am PDT/7pm UK. Free and open to all: open.substack.com/live-stream/...
September 15, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Eddington is Ari Aster's dark COVID Western: its culture war themes are becoming more relevant daily. Tomorrow, on the GROSS Substack, I'll be discussing the movie with influential @UCIrvine film studies Prof Catherine Liu at 11am PDT/7pm UK. Free and open to all: open.substack.com/live-stream/...
Reposted by Steve Bowbrick
I have two tickets to the BBC Prom tomorrow night that we can’t use - would anybody be able to go despite the tube strike? Free to a music lover
September 10, 2025 at 12:28 PM
I have two tickets to the BBC Prom tomorrow night that we can’t use - would anybody be able to go despite the tube strike? Free to a music lover
The Exorcist isn’t a horror movie, it’s a Catholic evangelical text. The film’s muscular Jesuit priests send the demon packing and heroic Father Karras sacrifices his own life in saving Regan’s, as a true priest should. The Exorcist is the next review in GROSS, the cinema history newsletter gross.ly
September 8, 2025 at 1:47 PM
The Exorcist isn’t a horror movie, it’s a Catholic evangelical text. The film’s muscular Jesuit priests send the demon packing and heroic Father Karras sacrifices his own life in saving Regan’s, as a true priest should. The Exorcist is the next review in GROSS, the cinema history newsletter gross.ly
The Godfather is a melodrama and The Long Good Friday is an epic. Not going to argue about this. GROSS is cinema history with a bit of politics, a bit of historic context, sometimes some gags. bit.ly/4mGBYbm
August 31, 2025 at 6:55 PM
The Godfather is a melodrama and The Long Good Friday is an epic. Not going to argue about this. GROSS is cinema history with a bit of politics, a bit of historic context, sometimes some gags. bit.ly/4mGBYbm
I've been in touch with these people. Apparently the transformation involves the insertion of small, velvety horns at the front of the scalp and the replacement of your silly, old feet with two handsome cloven hooves. Pain is minimal and you'll definitely see the benefit when it comes to the rut.
August 30, 2025 at 10:14 PM
I've been in touch with these people. Apparently the transformation involves the insertion of small, velvety horns at the front of the scalp and the replacement of your silly, old feet with two handsome cloven hooves. Pain is minimal and you'll definitely see the benefit when it comes to the rut.
Amy Madigan brings a demented Mrs Doubtfire to Aunt Gladys that you have to see. I do hope this is a kind of third-age genre reboot for Madigan and that we now get a sequence of these unhinged characters. She's brilliant. bit.ly/4lBQobn
August 18, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Amy Madigan brings a demented Mrs Doubtfire to Aunt Gladys that you have to see. I do hope this is a kind of third-age genre reboot for Madigan and that we now get a sequence of these unhinged characters. She's brilliant. bit.ly/4lBQobn
Tip: read Les Misérables one chapter per day - there are 365 chapters, you'll be done in a year and everything else you read will be filtered through Victor Hugo's mind-altering, super-immersive VR goggles. It'll make you dizzy.
August 15, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Tip: read Les Misérables one chapter per day - there are 365 chapters, you'll be done in a year and everything else you read will be filtered through Victor Hugo's mind-altering, super-immersive VR goggles. It'll make you dizzy.
Finally some recognition. Thank you Professor van Loon,
August 12, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Finally some recognition. Thank you Professor van Loon,
Don't become ungovernable, become GOVERNMENT! bit.ly/4m8zy51
August 10, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Don't become ungovernable, become GOVERNMENT! bit.ly/4m8zy51
Reposted by Steve Bowbrick
Bonjour. Oh wow. This is the life, wine, cheese, pain, prawns, yes, yes, yes.
August 2, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Bonjour. Oh wow. This is the life, wine, cheese, pain, prawns, yes, yes, yes.