"TROOP BEVERLY HILLS has everything you could want in a couch movie: nostalgia, laughs, great outfits, a few heartwarming moments—and Shelley Long giving a comedic performance that (I am only half kidding when I say this) deserves every single award in existence." - @carriecourogen.bsky.social

Troop Beverly Hills (1989): Beverly Hills, What a Thrill!

Troop Beverly Hills has everything you could want in a couch movie: nostalgia, laughs, great outfits, a few heartwarming moments—and Shelley Long giving a comedic performance that deserves every singl...

brightwalldarkroom.com

New on the site! Our Summer Blockbusters issue continues, with Alec Joyner's reflections on Rob Reiner and STAND BY ME 🎨: @ohhhaeee.bsky.social

40 Notes on Rob Reiner & Stand by Me

Stand by Me is about memory. It’s about the ways in which the people who matter do keep standing by us, even after they’ve fallen away.

brightwalldarkroom.com

"While all of the music in HOUSE is evocative, its leitmotif is the Rosetta Stone to understanding its complex attitude toward romance, youth, and the specter of post-war Japan that looms over them."

House (1977): Love, Lies, and Leitmotifs | Bright Wall/Dark Room

While all the music in Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 'House' is evocative, its leitmotif is the Rosetta Stone to understanding its complex attitude toward romance, youth, and the specter of post-war Japan.

brightwalldarkroom.com

"Few films have slipped so entirely under my skin—and changed the way I experience the world—as PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK."

Haunted Blondes | Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Few films have slipped so entirely under my skin, and changed the way I experience the world, as Peter Weir's 'Picnic at Hanging Rock.'

brightwalldarkroom.com

Can confirm. Matthau is a delight in this.

Chad Perman@chadperman.bsky.social · 4d ago

Ok so if you haven’t seen HOPSCOTCH (1980) you need to do so immediately - I can’t believe I waited so long to watch it, don’t be me

Ok so if you haven’t seen HOPSCOTCH (1980) you need to do so immediately - I can’t believe I waited so long to watch it, don’t be me

A ★★★★½ review of Hopscotch (1980)

What an absolute delight of a movie, in every possible way. I’d been meaning to see this since way back in my Scarecrow Video days—after falling for Gambit (a 1966 Michael Caine/Shirley MacLaine heist...

boxd.it

Inspired by other folks comments and reviews, I'm sat here on a Saturday afternoon watching Rio Bravo for the first time. My dad was a big John Wayne fan, so I can't account for never having seen it before. Angie's great, as are Dean and Walter. It's a different kind of storytelling.

Bright Wall/Dark Room@brightwalldarkroom.com · 4w ago

"Like so many good Westerns, Howard Hawks's RIO BRAVO feels like a novel I want to forever have a bookmark in: ready to pick up and enjoy, with a few passages left for next time."

I cannot rest from discourse. I will see that film again tomorrow. I will drink life to the lees. Again I will enjoy greatly, will suffer greatly, both with those that love me, and in Pleasantville NY. I am become a meme. Film showing: burnsfilmcenter.org/booking/the-...

The Odyssey : Jacob Burns Film Center

The Odyssey, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Odysseus, Greek, Classic, Antiquity

burnsfilmcenter.org

By way of the Green Line Bus, Margot prints are now available for pre-order, in a run of 25! www.brianna-ashby.com/new-products...

Movies!

Simply spectacular. This is what film writing is all about.

Bright Wall/Dark Room@brightwalldarkroom.com · last wk.

New on the site! Our Summer Blockbusters issue continues, with Alec Joyner's reflections on Rob Reiner and STAND BY ME 🎨: @ohhhaeee.bsky.social

These Days.

Can’t recommend this essay enough, a unique & heartfelt look at both STAND BY ME and what made Rob Reiner’s best films so good

Bright Wall/Dark Room@brightwalldarkroom.com · last wk.

New on the site! Our Summer Blockbusters issue continues, with Alec Joyner's reflections on Rob Reiner and STAND BY ME 🎨: @ohhhaeee.bsky.social

This is a lovely, poetic exploration of a perfect film.

Bright Wall/Dark Room@brightwalldarkroom.com · last wk.

New on the site! Our Summer Blockbusters issue continues, with Alec Joyner's reflections on Rob Reiner and STAND BY ME 🎨: @ohhhaeee.bsky.social

Delighted to be back at @brightwalldarkroom.com for a fun piece about Stand By Me! www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2026/07/27/m...

My lunchtime read. 👇 A lovely piece on time, memory, friendship, storytelling.

Bright Wall/Dark Room@brightwalldarkroom.com · last wk.

New on the site! Our Summer Blockbusters issue continues, with Alec Joyner's reflections on Rob Reiner and STAND BY ME 🎨: @ohhhaeee.bsky.social

New on the site! Our Summer Blockbusters issue continues, with Alec Joyner's reflections on Rob Reiner and STAND BY ME 🎨: @ohhhaeee.bsky.social

40 Notes on Rob Reiner & Stand by Me

Stand by Me is about memory. It’s about the ways in which the people who matter do keep standing by us, even after they’ve fallen away.

brightwalldarkroom.com

This essay appears (revised) as a chapter in my new book LOST & FOUND IN THE CATHEDRAL OF CINEMA. So, if you enjoy it or find it meaningful, I have good news for you! bookshop.org/p/books/lost...

Lost & Found in the Cathedral of Cinema: A Spiritual Journey

What if watching movies could be a spiritual discipline? For one film critic, great films became guiding lights -- an escape from fear-based religion into richer experiences of imagination, beauty, co...

bookshop.org

Bright Wall/Dark Room@brightwalldarkroom.com · 2w ago

Jeffrey Overstreet (@overstreet.bsky.social) on death-sentence testimonies in Blade Runner, Wings of Desire, and Nomadland

Easily one of my favorite subscriptions, well worth the money!

Bright Wall/Dark Room@brightwalldarkroom.com · last wk.

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!

BW/DR is fantastic; after I watch something new to me it’s the first place I go to find someone engaged and with a POV writing about it. Cheap sub and well worth it

Bright Wall/Dark Room@brightwalldarkroom.com · last wk.

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!

LOS ANGELES: The Clock is returning for the first time in over a decade. Experience a 24-hour journey through movies, TV, and time in this piece for @brightwalldarkroom.com www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/02/27/2...

This is great news (halfway to goal), but more is needed. If you aren’t subscribed, *it’s worth it!* My July fave was the (what else?) Jaws commentary by Elizabeth Cantwell, It’s Only An Island If You Look At It From The Water.

Bright Wall/Dark Room@brightwalldarkroom.com · last wk.

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!

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.

"THE PRESTIGE might be Nolan’s greatest work because he isn't trying to prove his own cleverness. His structural logic gives way to the absence of any moral clarity, complexity that isn’t presented at the expense of depth. The twist becomes a vise."

It Was the Look on Their Faces | The Prestige (2006)

The Prestige paints twin portraits of men driven by ego, by an existential hole that won't allow them to find satisfaction anywhere but on stage.

brightwalldarkroom.com

New on the site! Julia Laurel Mueller on shyness, trains, and BRIEF ENCOUNTER

Shy Creatures: on Brief Encounter (1945)

The express train in Brief Encounter is called the express not only because it doesn’t stop, but because, in its not-stopping, it expresses the shy heart of Laura Jesson.

brightwalldarkroom.com

I wrote about what might be the only overlooked aspect of The Odyssey.

The Most Overlooked Performance in The Odyssey Is Also the One That Towers Over All the Rest

How did Christopher Nolan’s movie do its Cyclops? The answer is its secret weapon.

slate.com

Heavy. (But for real, great analysis.)

Bright Wall/Dark Room@brightwalldarkroom.com · 2w ago

"Nostalgia is cheap, and plenty of films peddling it have died on the vine. No, what sets BACK TO THE FUTURE apart is not that it is nostalgic, but that it grasps nostalgia as a production, a site of labor. It doesn’t remember the past; it re-manufactures it, to spec, on a studio lot."

"Nostalgia is cheap, and plenty of films peddling it have died on the vine. No, what sets BACK TO THE FUTURE apart is not that it is nostalgic, but that it grasps nostalgia as a production, a site of labor. It doesn’t remember the past; it re-manufactures it, to spec, on a studio lot."

Back to the Future (1985): A Nice Place to Live

What sets Back to the Future apart is not that it is nostalgic, but that it grasps nostalgia as a production, a site of labor.

brightwalldarkroom.com