New today!

"Having the privilege of being a local & living a short commute away from Festival Street, I’m able to focus on what makes TIFF special for me: its varied Canadian programming."

- Michelle Krasovitski on BLUE HERON, NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE, THE COST OF HEAVEN and more

I rewatched this movie recently after having not seen it in decades and it was even better than I remembered. Some movies age badly, but MIRACLE MILE keeps finding new ways to reveal how ahead of its time it was.

"MIRACLE MILE is about many things — romance and Los Angeles and the looming threat of nuclear devastation at the close of the Cold War — but also, obsessively, it’s about marking the passage of time."

watch the clip and you’ll hear Benecio say “Kid A for me.”

ocean waves

"One could fairly criticize Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman)—“player-coach” of the Charlestown Chiefs in the chaotically raunchy SLAP SHOT—for a wide variety of character flaws and professional failings, but he is true to the letter of St. Francis de Sales’ wisdom: Be who you are & be that well."

Towards the Afropastoral: What NOPE Says About the Black Western

sunday is also a good day for Seven pods

i believe there are about a hundred and fifty million people like me who would pay $17 to watch benicio del toro as sergio st. carlos plan and execute a tight sunday costco run before he has to man the barbecue after his niece's afternoon soccer game (run time: 2 hours 20 minutes)

hey if you're up late we've got a treat for you: we just released a brand new pod celebrating/unpacking the 30th anniversary of SEVEN, with the always wonderful Adam Nayman open.spotify.com/episode/2Oir...

I took probably too many words here to grapple with Paul Newman’s supposedly favorite role, Reggie Dunlop; what it means to be a good teacher; what it means to try to succeed in America; and how to subvert the systems that want to keep us down. Give it a read?

Now streaming on @watchshouttv.bsky.social: "Big Fan"

Wrote for @bwdr.bsky.social about its seemingly prophetic insights into toxic fandom, the male loneliness epidemic, and the modern conception of political identity as one more form of team loyalty:

www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2021/04/14/b...

See also:

“Every film is political. Most political of all are those that pretend not to
be: entertainment movies. They are the most political films because they dismiss the possibility of change. In every frame they tell you everything's fine… a continual advertisement for things as they are.”

- Wim Wenders

What’d you think??

"Conversation between women is powerful—it can poison, it can cure, it can transmogrify."

- @wolfandfox.bsky.social on Bergman's THE PASSION OF ANNA

Now streaming on the @criterionchannl.bsky.social: CHRISTINE.

I wrote for @bwdr.bsky.social about CHRISTINE as John Carpenter's unfairly neglected masterpiece, "a painful meditation on lost youth, cruising deep into the heartaching horror of aging, change, and time’s unstoppable drive forward."

“There are other, grander filmic imaginings of what theater means to the people who make it, but no film better celebrates community theater’s peculiarly turbulent power as an organizing force than WHO AM I THIS TIME?, a PBS adaptation of a Kurt Vonnegut short story, directed by Jonathan Demme.”

There is no better movie you can watch right now than A Hidden Life to steel your moral code, to draw red line your soul will not cross.

“No matter how many times he is taken down by rival monsters, oxygen destroyers, or box office bombs, Godzilla always returns, animated not only by the eternal specter of nuclear armageddon but by whichever new anxiety is clawing its way into the world’s psyche.”

RIP Jane Goodall 💔

A while back I wrote this piece for @bwdr.bsky.social on Brett Morgen’s documentary, Jane, composed of gorgeous 16mm footage shot by Hugo Van Lawick.

It’s a beautiful tribute to her and her work, and a dream to watch.

“JANE doesn’t attempt to explain her research or findings, rather it paints a portrait of Gombe through Goodall’s eyes. In interviews, Goodall reflected that it was the first film that truly evoked the feeling of being there.”

R.I.P. Jane Goodall 😢