no surprise I loved this

I loved RETRIBUTION, Kurosawa's supernatural thriller where the post-war urbanization of Japan manifests as a ghostyard of liminal landfills and inevitable violence. one of his best and saddest movies. the composition is especially incredible:

caught up with THE DRAMA, a movie less about the big incendiary political "topic" than the sad way we can only ever love the fictive, imaginary version of our partners in our minds, and the narratives around them. it doesn't do all it can with those tricky ideas, but I liked it!

I pretty much loved SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY, the first of these in forever that feels like it was made by human hands

"A film effectively unstuck in time, in which all events occur simultaneously, gaining shape in a storytelling style akin to recollected memory." for @filmmakermagazine.com, i wrote about Christopher Nolan's editing style and his collaboration with editor Jennifer Lame

Weaving “The Odyssey”

Editor Jennifer Lame’s third collaboration with Christopher Nolan is an epic of emotional immediacy.

filmmaker.substack.com

others have said it but the way this is clearly influenced by TENET is making me lost my mind. so incredibly happy to have Bradford Young back. it looks so slick

Brendan Foley@thetruebrendanf.bsky.social · 2w ago

Hell yeah. www.youtube.com/watch?v=psg5...

Wilson gave a (brilliant) lecture where she nearly called the host misogynistic for calling her "the first woman who translated...." since it genders her work, even if meant in a progressive and laudatory way. Fair, but maybe harsh to say in that context! similar energy here lol

Corey Atad@coreyatad.com · 2w ago

an interesting review in which you can tell Wilson's problem, above all the (mostly very valid) critiques, is that she doesn't respect action movies as any kind of real art, they're a lesser form... which is a bit funny for someone whose life is dedicated to Homer

Almost a year later, we've been able to make up over half of this loss — thanks *entirely* to new subscriptions 🙏— but we still need some help to make up the rest. All it takes to support BWDR is a $29 annual subscription, and in exchange you get full access to everything we've published since 2013!

Bright Wall/Dark Room@brightwalldarkroom.com · 12mo ago

Real talk (reel talk?): BWDR recently lost a partnership that covered nearly half our operating budget, so things are suddenly very tough. If what we do has ever meant something to you, or you’ve ever thought about subscribing, now’s the time—it *truly* makes a difference.

"Positioning a trans actor as the moral voice of reason, an unwavering advocate for Zeus’s law, and a man whose ultimate betrayal symbolizes the destruction of civilized Greek society for the sake of the 'victory' at Troy, is especially pertinent to where we are currently."

Them@them.us · 3w ago

A spoiler-filled discussion of the film’s moral themes — far beyond the casting of Elliot Page and Lupita Nyong'o.

finally watched THE SHEEP DETECTIVES and what do you mean it's a TWILIGHT ZONE-esque cottagenoir about a community of sheep that keeps wiping their collective memory of all emotional pain, showing the danger of living a life of personal and cultural ignorance

Excellent piece on the Steven Spielberg approach, which is to smuggle complexities and unanswerable questions into the middle of pop confections. By @brendanhodges.bsky.social. And thanks for linking to our Steven Spielberg video series from so long ago. lareviewofbooks.org/article/disc...

Lights in the Sky | Los Angeles Review of Books

Considering Steven Spielberg’s ‘Disclosure Day’ and his magic-of-movies persona.

lareviewofbooks.org

for my debut piece @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, I wrote about how Spielberg's DISCLOSURE DAY isn't a naive paean to journalism or even the classic alien, but a cinematic prompt by a conflicted filmmaker praying empathy, hope and the image to regain their power: lareviewofbooks.org/article/disc...

Lights in the Sky | Los Angeles Review of Books

Considering Steven Spielberg’s ‘Disclosure Day’ and his magic-of-movies persona.

lareviewofbooks.org

I ranked every Chris Nolan movie for @nextbestpicture.bsky.social. Yes, TENET is very high. Yes, I love THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. THE ODYSSEY will probably move up with time. Shamelessly, I pretty much love them all: nextbestpicture.com/ranking-chri...

Ranking Christopher Nolan's Filmography Following "The Odyssey"

After thirteen films, writer and director Christopher Nolan has become the prolific director of our time. It’s extraordinary to think he’s long escaped the bat-shaped shadow of his “The Dark Knight” T...

nextbestpicture.com

"People have called the ending ridiculous, beautiful, stupid, amazing, emotional, cheesy, naive, too far and not far enough. They’re all right." @brendanhodges.bsky.social on "Disclosure Day": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/disclosure-day-hodges-spielberg/

No surprise I loved THE ODYSSEY, an apocalyptic epic obsessed with societal collapse and the cost of violence; dreamily elusive and crowd-pleasing at once, Nolan blends the poetry of Homer with a moral reckoning entirely his own. Flawed but deeply emotional, a major achievement

i wrote about disclosure day, steven spielberg, and human compassion as sci-fi for @brightwalldarkroom.com

The Speculative Empathy & Radical Hope of Disclosure Day

For most of Spielberg’s career, science fiction has been the mechanism through which he learns and teaches empathy. But in Disclosure Day, empathy itself is the speculative leap

brightwalldarkroom.com

For me, DUNKIRK is still Nolan’s best and most total film — it’s as mythically heroic as THE DARK KNIGHT, as dreamy as INCEPTION, as morally uneasy as MEMENTO, and as much a Borgesian labyrinth as INTERSTELLAR. Every shot a perfect study of movement and behavior. A masterpiece

when you turn on WAGON MASTER only to discover John Ford is a god damn fraud

watched Anthony Mann's RAW DEAL expecting a nifty little noir before he became a god of westerns, only to get a wilderness crime caper full of some of the most stunning deep focused Wellesian compositions i've ever seen

people keep saying how good the visuals looks but it's obvious they just spiked the contrast with some warm tones after the backlash. it's overcooked to the point there's tons of crushed shadows so you can barely see Holland's eyes at times. it's better but still doesn't look great imo!

Culture Crave 🍿@culturecrave.co · 2mo ago

New trailer for ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ 🕷️ In theaters July 31

my favorites of the decade so far:

not to question the marketing of DISCLOSURE DAY when it opened higher than expected, but in retrospect it was a bad choice to center the wonky CGI animals and little girl so much –– and drawing intense scrutiny all over –– when those are pretty small parts of the movie

I loved THE FURIOUS, a walloping greek tragedy of a martial arts movie with each fight is propelled by a character's passions. some of the wildest hits, kicks and throws in years, with a tilting wide-lensed camera that lets you follow every hit. I have no idea how they made this

I ranked Spielberg's sci-fi movies for @nextbestpicture.bsky.social, writing about how many of them –– CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, E.T., and yes even READY PLAYER ONE –– are allegories for Spielberg himself nextbestpicture.com/ranking-the-...

Ranking The Sci-Fi Films Of Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is a genre unto himself. It’s to the point it’s easy to forget he’s one of the great masters of science fiction on film, having redefined the genre multiple times over his half-centur...

nextbestpicture.com

i will simply never understand when people talk about spielberg like he’s held back by sentimentalism. i would argue he’s one of our most repeatedly cynical directors.

if THE FABELMANS is Spielberg processing the traumas of his childhood and the way art shapes our lives, then DISCLOSURE DAY is about Spielberg processing the autobiographical turmoil of making THE FABELMANS

I never do this, but editors please let me write about the ending of DISCLOSURE DAY and what it says about the film, Spielberg, and his career as a whole. very eager!

Oh my god just realized this moment from SECRET AGENT was a callback to the lovely silent father/son scene from JAWS… the levels to this

Jesse Hawken@jessehawken.bsky.social · 2mo ago

One thing I could HARD RELATE to in THE SECRET AGENT: I too was a 70s child who wanted to see JAWS even though it was “too scary” according to my parents. Then I became a film snob who wanted to see it “properly” so I didn’t see it until I was in my twenties! But what a picture youtu.be/5AiYQtzRD8w

happy to see PRESSURE has reached its target audience

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE is a fascinating object, a celebration of 80s fantasy camp that also wants to be BARBIE for boys; it constantly questions how to "be a man," yet mostly resorts to talk about "having feelings" and "talking things out" that never impact story or character.