Grant Watson
@fictionmachine.bsky.social
Rotten Tomatoes-accredited film critic. Award-winning playwright. Noted international education analyst. Serviceable theatre director. Has multiple sclerosis.
www.fictionmachine.com
www.fictionmachine.com
Trying out Mick Garris' TV adaptation of Stephen King's Bag of Bones. It is, thus far, ungainly and pedestrian. Pierce Brosnan seems miscast.
November 26, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Trying out Mick Garris' TV adaptation of Stephen King's Bag of Bones. It is, thus far, ungainly and pedestrian. Pierce Brosnan seems miscast.
There is a long British tradition of slipping a coin into a Christmas pudding, to bring good luck to whoever found it. When I was a kid my Dad faked choking on it as a joke, and my mother was so angry she never put a coin in the pudding again.
It's been 40 years. Dad died of old age. Still no coin.
It's been 40 years. Dad died of old age. Still no coin.
yes, hello, I would like to place an order for everyone’s funniest stories of holiday food-related family grudges / drama / chaotic incidents / lore
I feel like we need this
I feel like we need this
November 25, 2025 at 9:39 AM
There is a long British tradition of slipping a coin into a Christmas pudding, to bring good luck to whoever found it. When I was a kid my Dad faked choking on it as a joke, and my mother was so angry she never put a coin in the pudding again.
It's been 40 years. Dad died of old age. Still no coin.
It's been 40 years. Dad died of old age. Still no coin.
If you're after a late period Udo Kier movie to watch, I recommend Brazilian multi-genre thriller Bacurau.
November 24, 2025 at 3:56 AM
If you're after a late period Udo Kier movie to watch, I recommend Brazilian multi-genre thriller Bacurau.
Reposted by Grant Watson
Udo took a chance on my rinky-dink festival in Vancouver back in 2000 - he went on TV interviews with me, carried 35mm film prints up stairs, went to get me coffee and even live-dubbed Giancarlo Giannini's voice when BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA showed up without subs. RIP Udo, you were a star 🌟
November 24, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Udo took a chance on my rinky-dink festival in Vancouver back in 2000 - he went on TV interviews with me, carried 35mm film prints up stairs, went to get me coffee and even live-dubbed Giancarlo Giannini's voice when BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA showed up without subs. RIP Udo, you were a star 🌟
NEW REVIEW! Before he turned to an increasingly surreal series of contemporary crime thrillers, Japanese director Suzuki Seijun made this little Taisho-era melodrama. Today we're taking a look at The Incorrigible, aka The Bastard!
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/24/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/24/r...
REVIEW: The Incorrigible (1963)
Konno Togo (Yamauchi Ken) is the brash and rebellious son of a Taisho-era noble Japanese family. Expelled from one school due to an affair with a teacher’s daughter, he is dispatched from Kob…
fictionmachine.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:55 AM
NEW REVIEW! Before he turned to an increasingly surreal series of contemporary crime thrillers, Japanese director Suzuki Seijun made this little Taisho-era melodrama. Today we're taking a look at The Incorrigible, aka The Bastard!
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/24/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/24/r...
RIP Udo Kier, 81. Such a wonderful actor.
November 24, 2025 at 12:09 AM
RIP Udo Kier, 81. Such a wonderful actor.
NEW REVIEW! You can see the thinking behind Doctor Who's 2011 Christmas special, but it simply fails to come together.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/23/t...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/23/t...
TV REVIEW: Doctor Who (2005), “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe”
First broadcast 25 December 2011. One can clearly see the intentions behind “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe”, but despite some clever ideas from writer/producer Steven Moffat an…
fictionmachine.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:18 AM
NEW REVIEW! You can see the thinking behind Doctor Who's 2011 Christmas special, but it simply fails to come together.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/23/t...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/23/t...
Abandoned academia to care for a disabled spouse, arts management paid shit, got a six week gig writing education sector market insight reports that turned into 3 1/2 years, moved to Melbourne and have worked in international education ever since.
November 23, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Abandoned academia to care for a disabled spouse, arts management paid shit, got a six week gig writing education sector market insight reports that turned into 3 1/2 years, moved to Melbourne and have worked in international education ever since.
Reposted by Grant Watson
Same big strong manly John Wayne who had to be physically restrained from hitting a First Nations woman who said something he didn't like at the Oscars.
November 22, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Same big strong manly John Wayne who had to be physically restrained from hitting a First Nations woman who said something he didn't like at the Oscars.
NEW REVIEW! Dan Trachtenberg becomes the first director to make more than one Predator movie with the new instalment Badlands. Click through to see how it shapes up!
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/21/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/21/r...
REVIEW: Predator: Badlands (2025)
Pretending on whether or not you count the two Alien crossovers, Predator is now sitting on either six or eight films. It is a long, lucrative road for a franchise that has been effectively based o…
fictionmachine.com
November 22, 2025 at 6:06 AM
NEW REVIEW! Dan Trachtenberg becomes the first director to make more than one Predator movie with the new instalment Badlands. Click through to see how it shapes up!
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/21/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/21/r...
Today is the 30th anniversary of Toy Story. To celebrate, why not read this free essay at FictionMachine on how the world's first CGI-animated feature film came to be.
fictionmachine.com/2020/04/16/t...
fictionmachine.com/2020/04/16/t...
“To infinity, and beyond!” | Toy Story (1995)
Twenty-five years ago film history was made when Walt Disney released Toy Story, the debut production from Pixar Animation Studios. It was the first computer-animated feature film ever produced, an…
fictionmachine.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Today is the 30th anniversary of Toy Story. To celebrate, why not read this free essay at FictionMachine on how the world's first CGI-animated feature film came to be.
fictionmachine.com/2020/04/16/t...
fictionmachine.com/2020/04/16/t...
NEW REVIEW! Miike Takashi's latest directorial feature is a queasily uncertain legal drama, with a pronounced debt to Kurosawa's Rashomon.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/19/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/19/r...
REVIEW: Sham (2025)
In 2003 accusations that a Japanese school teacher bullied one of their students to the point of near-suicide, an ensuing court case over the incident, and a best-selling book by Fukuda Masumi all …
fictionmachine.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:26 AM
NEW REVIEW! Miike Takashi's latest directorial feature is a queasily uncertain legal drama, with a pronounced debt to Kurosawa's Rashomon.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/19/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/19/r...
NEW REVIEW! Zach Cregger's sophomore horror feature Weapons is broadly very good, but it remains overly long and suffers from false expectations.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/18/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/18/r...
REVIEW: Weapons (2025)
Zach Cregger’s first horror feature Barbarian (2022) was a superb, visceral, and consistently inventive work. His much-hyped follow-up Weapons (2025) demonstrates a growing talent for screenw…
fictionmachine.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:37 AM
NEW REVIEW! Zach Cregger's sophomore horror feature Weapons is broadly very good, but it remains overly long and suffers from false expectations.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/18/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/18/r...
Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell turns 30 today.
November 18, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell turns 30 today.
Just an opinion, but we should keep George Miller away from children's entertainment.
November 17, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Just an opinion, but we should keep George Miller away from children's entertainment.
I feel that Ally McBeal has been largely forgotten, despite being one of the biggest American shows of the 1990s. I recently checked out its third season premiere to see how it fares after almost 30 years.
Did anybody else watch this back in the day?
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/17/t...
Did anybody else watch this back in the day?
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/17/t...
TV REVIEW: Ally McBeal 3.1, “Car Wash”
First broadcast 25 October 1999. Ally McBeal came to American television in September 1997, accompanied by an explosion of media coverage, water cooler conversation, and a general sense of enthused…
fictionmachine.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:22 AM
I feel that Ally McBeal has been largely forgotten, despite being one of the biggest American shows of the 1990s. I recently checked out its third season premiere to see how it fares after almost 30 years.
Did anybody else watch this back in the day?
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/17/t...
Did anybody else watch this back in the day?
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/17/t...
NEW REVIEW! Kwok Wai Lan's 2016 drama Out of Frame, about a rebellious contemporary artist working in China, seems criminally underseen. Good performances and stripped-back production values make it worth fans of Chinese independent cinema tracking it down.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/16/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/16/r...
REVIEW: Out of Frame (2016)
Tang Ping (Wang Bo Lun) is an independent painter in a Chinese artist’s village. His refusal to compromise and make commercial art sees him struggle to provide for his wife (Yuan Li) and daug…
fictionmachine.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:07 AM
NEW REVIEW! Kwok Wai Lan's 2016 drama Out of Frame, about a rebellious contemporary artist working in China, seems criminally underseen. Good performances and stripped-back production values make it worth fans of Chinese independent cinema tracking it down.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/16/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/16/r...
For the 2nd time I've seen a film obscure enough that I've had to personally add it to the Movie DB so that Letterboxd will let me record that I watched it.
The first was a documentary about Japanese pop art. The second is Out of Frame, a Chinese drama about an artist. Weird they're both about art.
The first was a documentary about Japanese pop art. The second is Out of Frame, a Chinese drama about an artist. Weird they're both about art.
November 16, 2025 at 1:11 AM
For the 2nd time I've seen a film obscure enough that I've had to personally add it to the Movie DB so that Letterboxd will let me record that I watched it.
The first was a documentary about Japanese pop art. The second is Out of Frame, a Chinese drama about an artist. Weird they're both about art.
The first was a documentary about Japanese pop art. The second is Out of Frame, a Chinese drama about an artist. Weird they're both about art.
NEW REVIEW! A neighbourhood parking dispute grows terribly unhinged in Son Hyeon-woo's South Korean thriller No Parking.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/15/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/15/r...
REVIEW: No Parking (2025)
Director Son Hyeon-woo aims for bold, pulpy suspense in the Korean thriller No Parking, but it seems the results fall somewhat short of expectations. Enjoyable to an extent, this new feature feels …
fictionmachine.com
November 15, 2025 at 7:03 AM
NEW REVIEW! A neighbourhood parking dispute grows terribly unhinged in Son Hyeon-woo's South Korean thriller No Parking.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/15/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/15/r...
Nakadai Tatsuya has passed away, aged 92. He was one of the greats of Japanese screen actors, appearing in The Human Condition, Harakiri, Kwaidan, Ran, Sword of Doom, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, and many, many others.
November 11, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Nakadai Tatsuya has passed away, aged 92. He was one of the greats of Japanese screen actors, appearing in The Human Condition, Harakiri, Kwaidan, Ran, Sword of Doom, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, and many, many others.
More holiday filler while I am on vacation: here's an older review from The Angriest, on René Clément's late career thriller The Deadly Trap (1971).
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/11/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/11/r...
REVIEW: The Deadly Trap (1971)
Jill (Faye Dunaway) cares for her two children while her talented scientist husband Philippe (Frank Langella) works in Paris. Jill’s memory is slipping and Philippe is growing concerned with …
fictionmachine.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:27 AM
More holiday filler while I am on vacation: here's an older review from The Angriest, on René Clément's late career thriller The Deadly Trap (1971).
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/11/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/11/r...
Doctor Who's 6th season reached its climax with "The Wedding of River Song" - but was it any good? fictionmachine.com/2025/11/09/t...
TV REVIEW: Doctor Who (2005) 6.13, “The Wedding of River Song”
First broadcast 1 October 2011. It is the final episode of Doctor Who Season 6, and that means it is time to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks, including past episode references, ans…
fictionmachine.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Doctor Who's 6th season reached its climax with "The Wedding of River Song" - but was it any good? fictionmachine.com/2025/11/09/t...
Hey, Rambo prequel director Jalmari Helander, gimme a quote showing your lack of understanding of the character.
“It won’t be as dark as the last two Rambos. It’s going to be a little more adventurous, and I hope to inspire a new generation of 10-year-olds to go into the forest to play Rambo."
“It won’t be as dark as the last two Rambos. It’s going to be a little more adventurous, and I hope to inspire a new generation of 10-year-olds to go into the forest to play Rambo."
November 8, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Hey, Rambo prequel director Jalmari Helander, gimme a quote showing your lack of understanding of the character.
“It won’t be as dark as the last two Rambos. It’s going to be a little more adventurous, and I hope to inspire a new generation of 10-year-olds to go into the forest to play Rambo."
“It won’t be as dark as the last two Rambos. It’s going to be a little more adventurous, and I hope to inspire a new generation of 10-year-olds to go into the forest to play Rambo."
Reposted by Grant Watson
Japanese jazz biopic Between the White Key and the Black Key does not quite manage to pull itself together, but the ambition in its structure is admirable.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/07/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/07/r...
REVIEW: Between the White Key and the Black Key (2023)
Jazz and crime have gone together in Japan ever since the musical genre was adopted by post-war teens to rebel against their more conservative parents. One of my favourite Japanese films is Kurahar…
fictionmachine.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Japanese jazz biopic Between the White Key and the Black Key does not quite manage to pull itself together, but the ambition in its structure is admirable.
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/07/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/11/07/r...
Reposted by Grant Watson
If you ever question if your fanfic is too self indulgent please remember that’s actually the point of fanfiction
November 6, 2025 at 2:56 AM
If you ever question if your fanfic is too self indulgent please remember that’s actually the point of fanfiction