Bright Wall/Dark Room
banner
bwdr.bsky.social
Bright Wall/Dark Room
@bwdr.bsky.social
A different lens on film | An independent, reader-supported film journal

issues & essays: brightwalldarkroom.com
support: https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/subscribe
all the things: https://linktr.ee/brightwalldarkroom
Pinned
New today on the site:

"Matteo Garrone’s IO CAPITANO is told with magic & narrative uplifts that amount to miracles, surpassing documentary or reportage or neorealist cinema into something like a modern-day legend, storytelling that wants to take the journey further."

- @natmissildine.bsky.social
Io Capitano (2023): We Passengers
Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano surpasses documentary or reportage or neorealist cinema into something like a modern-day legend.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
New today on the site:

"Matteo Garrone’s IO CAPITANO is told with magic & narrative uplifts that amount to miracles, surpassing documentary or reportage or neorealist cinema into something like a modern-day legend, storytelling that wants to take the journey further."

- @natmissildine.bsky.social
Io Capitano (2023): We Passengers
Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano surpasses documentary or reportage or neorealist cinema into something like a modern-day legend.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
I really enjoyed reading this relevant, thoughtful, lovely essay.
November 25, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
Since it's still been mostly flying under the radar, a reminder that we have a 30 hour Wong Kar-wai series being released over the next two months.
"Once you start watching it, you will be hooked,” promises @petersob13.bsky.social about Wong Kar-wai’s thirty episode series, BLOSSOMS SHANGAI. Streaming now on the Criterion channel with three new episodes dropping every week:
Wong Kar-wai's Gorgeous, Captivating "Blossoms Shanghai" Arrives on the Criterion Channel | TV/Streaming | Roger Ebert
Wong Kar-wai's Blossoms Shanghai is finally here. It was worth the wait.
www.rogerebert.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
I was able to be a part of this latest issue at @bwdr.bsky.social and sit still with the unfinished journey of this film. Thanks to @carriecourogen.bsky.social and @eccantwell.bsky.social for helping the words along. I could be moved…
www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/11/24/w...
Io Capitano (2023): We Passengers
Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano surpasses documentary or reportage or neorealist cinema into something like a modern-day legend.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:53 PM
New today on the site:

"Matteo Garrone’s IO CAPITANO is told with magic & narrative uplifts that amount to miracles, surpassing documentary or reportage or neorealist cinema into something like a modern-day legend, storytelling that wants to take the journey further."

- @natmissildine.bsky.social
Io Capitano (2023): We Passengers
Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano surpasses documentary or reportage or neorealist cinema into something like a modern-day legend.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Someone Else’s Shoes: Collaboration & Control in THE RED SHOES
Someone Else’s Shoes
Throughout their body of work, and especially in 'The Red Shoes,' Powell and Pressburger return to the question of whether life and art can co-exist.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Hello Loneliness, I Think I’m Gonna Die: Bob Fosse’s Dance with the Five Stages of Grief in ALL THAT JAZZ
All That Jazz (1979): Hello Loneliness, I Think I'm Gonna Die
Bob Fosse's 'All that Jazz' is at once a confession, a self-promotion, a showbiz love letter, an apology, and a middle finger.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:46 AM
We Do What We Can to Endure: On David Lowery’s A GHOST STORY
We Do What We Can to Endure: A Ghost Story (2017)
On the simple poetry of David Lowery's "A Ghost Story"
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
HAPPY THE ICE STORM WEEK!
November 23, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
It is a rare thing to really love movies these days—not as products, or meme factories, or greasy nuggets of pop culture that pass through our collective memory faster than shit through a gander, but as the real true powerful thing—and @bwdr.bsky.social really loves movies. Worth your support.
Doing one of those earnest posts where we kindly remind you that we lost half our operating budget over the summer, and that we're looking for ways to keep this whole thing going, and that if you like what we do or that we exist, the best thing you could possibly do to support us is to subscribe
Subscribe - Bright Wall/Dark Room
Subscribe for $29 a year Subscribe now to receive immediate access to each new essay we publish, plus our entire 140+ issue archive. Bright Wall/Dark Room is 100% independent, runs no ads, and strongl...
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Thanks to all of YOU, we’ve almost got Q1 locked down for next year, but we’d love to make it “we’ve got 2026 locked down” so if you’re looking for something to support and/or find benefit in what BWDR provides, we’d love to have you join us as a subscriber!
Doing one of those earnest posts where we kindly remind you that we lost half our operating budget over the summer, and that we're looking for ways to keep this whole thing going, and that if you like what we do or that we exist, the best thing you could possibly do to support us is to subscribe
Subscribe - Bright Wall/Dark Room
Subscribe for $29 a year Subscribe now to receive immediate access to each new essay we publish, plus our entire 140+ issue archive. Bright Wall/Dark Room is 100% independent, runs no ads, and strongl...
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 22, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
Always glad to find a @bwdr.bsky.social article on a movie that just happened to be on. Especially one where the movie itself might look different 20 years later, compared to how it was initially received.
The Manchurian Candidate: Imperial Dreams and Bloody Truths
In Jonathan Demme’s 2004 adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate, the truth is a nightmare.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
Josephine Baker in La Sirène des tropiques (1927)
November 21, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
Love Cavett - he does a four-part interview with Richard Burton that starts slow and kind of basic and ends at just one of the most transcendent places.
Happy 89th Birthday Dick Cavett, thank you for making television that would absolutely never be made by a major broadcast network any more, like letting Orson Welles perform a 9 minute monologue on ABC
Orson Welles Performs A Monologue About Noah's Ark | The Dick Cavett Show
YouTube video by The Dick Cavett Show
youtu.be
November 20, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Happy 89th Birthday Dick Cavett, thank you for making television that would absolutely never be made by a major broadcast network any more, like letting Orson Welles perform a 9 minute monologue on ABC
Orson Welles Performs A Monologue About Noah's Ark | The Dick Cavett Show
YouTube video by The Dick Cavett Show
youtu.be
November 20, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
a movie so sharp and funny that it basically killed the musical biopic for a decade
November 19, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
A good piece about a great, thought provoking movie (suppressed in part by the FBI) that you must see. You must also militate for someone solid to release the new 4K restoration on blu. (The only DVD release was 26 years ago!)
New today on the site:

“Ivan Dixon’s THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (1973) is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet, a vicious bit of malware streamed through hijacked plutocrat satellites.”

- Bryan Miller
The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973): Weaponized Expectations
Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat By the Door is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
Definitely one of my top discoveries this year. Saw it on a brand new 35mm print that I think would kill if it toured repertory theaters all over the country.
New today on the site:

“Ivan Dixon’s THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (1973) is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet, a vicious bit of malware streamed through hijacked plutocrat satellites.”

- Bryan Miller
The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973): Weaponized Expectations
Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat By the Door is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
I can't express just how hard this film goes.
New today on the site:

“Ivan Dixon’s THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (1973) is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet, a vicious bit of malware streamed through hijacked plutocrat satellites.”

- Bryan Miller
The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973): Weaponized Expectations
Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat By the Door is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
Remains criminally underseen and underappreciated
New today on the site:

“Ivan Dixon’s THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (1973) is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet, a vicious bit of malware streamed through hijacked plutocrat satellites.”

- Bryan Miller
The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973): Weaponized Expectations
Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat By the Door is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
And if you want to know more, check out the excellent essay on SPOOK
by @magonzales.bsky.social in the book l coedited, REVOLUTION IN 35mm: POLITICAL VIOLENCE & RESISTANCE IN CINEMA, FROM THE ARTHOUSE TO THE GRINDHOUSE, 1960-1990, published by @pmpress.bsky.social

pmpress.org/index.php?l=...
November 18, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
This movie whips
New today on the site:

“Ivan Dixon’s THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (1973) is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet, a vicious bit of malware streamed through hijacked plutocrat satellites.”

- Bryan Miller
The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973): Weaponized Expectations
Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat By the Door is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:47 PM
New today on the site:

“Ivan Dixon’s THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (1973) is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet, a vicious bit of malware streamed through hijacked plutocrat satellites.”

- Bryan Miller
The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973): Weaponized Expectations
Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat By the Door is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
🎁Well, it's birthday week! My goal for birthday week? Sell one print for every year I've trodden this earth, plus one for the year to come. 43 in all. Can I do it? Let's see!

(Now is also the time to place holiday orders so they actually arrive for the holidays!)

www.brianna-ashby.com/new-products
November 17, 2025 at 4:41 PM