Amos Moses - Jerry Reed

The Bone Temple does what Disclosure Day couldn't

 "Listen."

  The Fabelmans gave us an explanation, of sorts, as to why Spielberg is such a sentimentalist. He really, really can't help himself. So watching Disclosure Day, his first movie since Fabelmans, it felt like a social blank check in the economy of tact. Since we understand him now...we should just let him get away with it. Right? I mean, he has an excuse; No judgment, cash the check.

  He really outdoes himself here.

  This is gluttony akin to a Las Vegas bender. The ending is so naïve and out of touch that it breaks through to outright delusion. And of course I don't bristle at these ideas but the execution of them; Empathy Good. I'm a fan. Communication also great. But this is so focused on being shameless Wholesome-core Amblin Entertainment that even the villains feel ineffectual. Every time Colin Firth was on screen I was either smiling or chuckling. And not because he's delightfully wicked or pants-pissingly evil, but because he's just...limp. It's an almost comedically pathetic performance. So it makes the action feel benign and inert.

  The only time I really felt anything was when Margaret has a panic attack on the train and Daniel helps her come down from it by placing her hand on piano strings. It's moving because, for the first time in this movie, Spielberg is actually confronting something head-on. But even that's undercut by the story making their trauma...useful? Thank God they have PTSD from being abducted as children, it's so beautiful now that it serves a purpose.

  He doesn't even confront the parallels therein: this information about aliens has been hidden from us, we've been deceived, they've lied to us for 80 years. Yet the aliens do the same thing: use deception to experiment on beings unknown, particularly children who grow up scarred from the experience. But don't think about that! The aliens mean well and they're not scary. Their experiments grant magical powers that, once you work through your trauma, you can tap into.

  All of this would be much more interesting if it was given complexity and nuance, if it was allowed the freedom to be jagged and messy. The idea of these videos making people stop in their tracks and a news anchor simply telling people to 'Listen' to one another is pure fucking lip service, a shortcut. I can clearly see the vision of a more challenging movie that wasn't so antiseptic but Spielberg commits the very sin his villains do: he hides the truth.

  The Bone Temple actually does all of this right, almost word-for-word.

  In 28 Years Later we're given an 'Other' that's not handled with kid gloves. The infected, particularly the Alphas, are fucking scary, but they're never dehumanized. In fact, Samson's arc in Bone Temple is about him getting back to his normal self and the grander implications therein. So we sympathize with the infected because we're shown that they're not zombies or monsters but just sick people. It's about the importance of grace, empathy, and patience. Though we're also never deluded into thinking they're not dangerous in this state.

  Garland gives the movie a hopeful ending but one that comes with a healthy dose of skepticism. Despite Spike and Kellie being complete strangers to Jim and his daughter, watching them from on high through binoculars, they still decide to help them. The last exchange of the movie being 

"Do we help them?" 

"[...] Of course we do."

  Jim has a pregnant pause but he nonetheless decides to do the selfless thing despite his limited perspective. This isn't just a set-up for a third movie or a fan-service cameo but it ties up the thematic follow-through of the entire movie.

  In conversation with the bit in 28YL where Jamie tells Spike about how scared he was of Kelson as he waved him over, there are so many instances in this movie of people watching others from afar and making up their minds about them:

  • Kellie sees Kelson and Samson from a hilltop and thinks they're the Devil and his demon in a Castle Of Bones, even convincing Jimmy and the gang of this

  • The man in the barn, forced to take part in a duel with a Jimmy, picks Jemima because he perceives her as the weakest

  • Conversely, Kelson recognizes Spike through his mask because he has clear vision

  • The infected turn on Samson as he changes back just as the Jimmies turn on Jimmy as they're shown his true self

  • Jimmy's entire perspective is literally turned upside-down and he's killed by a horned red-skinned Samson as he sees him in a hallucinogenic haze

• Most interestingly, we're finally given the infected POV which reveals that they see non-infected as snarling monsters that need to be killed. This isn't dissimilar from how people like Jamie, Erik, and the Jimmies see the infected as monsters that need to be killed

  Jimmy had mentioned early on how each of the Teletubbies "have televisions in their tums" and that they'll "watch each other's televisions ad infinitum." This recalls the opening of the original 28 Days Later where the virus originated because of a bite by a chimp being forced to watch televisions showing barbarity; infected and non-infected alike, both sides killing each other ad infinitum because of what they perceive.

  " 'cause in my mind it's always there, the evil face that twists my mind and brings me to despair."

  When Kellie, finally disillusioned, asks Kelson if he's Old Nick, he says "No. Nothing is. No one is. It's just us." It encapsulates everything that Disclosure Day wanted to achieve but fell short of.

  Kelson puts on the Iron Maiden show for Jimmy out of fear, of course, but Jimmy only opened up to him because Kelson was patient and empathetic enough to listen. Jimmy even says "I like talking to you" because, for the first time, he's actually feeling heard. The same applies to Kelson accidentally finding a cure: he decided to sedate Samson instead of simply killing him. Change is brought about because of grace and empathy.

  Peace and respite are possible.

Wake Rock - Wrong Organ

 

Mixtape: The Wild West

See them tumbling down. Pledging their love to the ground. 

Coming July 2026

In the meanwhile, some tunes for the dusty trail. 

Now you may get the sheriff. 

PLAYLIST

The Ecstasy of Gold by Ennio Morricone from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

C'era Una Volta Il West by Ennio Morricone

Osage Oil Boom by Robbie Robertson from Killers of the Flower Moon

My Rifle, My Pony and Me by Dean Martin from Rio Bravo

Lonesome Town by Ricky Nelson from Rio Bravo

I Got A Name by Jim Croce from Django Unchained

The Stranger Song by Leonard Cohen from McCabe and Mrs. Miller 

Knockin' On Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan from Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Johnny Guitar by Peggy Lee

The Big Country Theme

Blue Shadows on the Trail by Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers by Elton John

Wild West Hero by ELO

Ghost Rider in the Sky by Johnny Cash

El Paso by Marty Robbins

The Ballad of Jeremiah Johnson

The Big Gundown (The Haunting) by Ennio Morricone

Soundtrack of The Grand Duel by Luis Baclov

Navajo Joe by Ennio Morricone

L'Arena (The Mercenary) by Ennio Morricone

Tumbling Tumbleweeds by Sons of the Pioneers

Cool Water by Sons of the Pioneers

When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings by Willie Watson and Tim Blake Nelson

Cowboy Song by Thin Lizzy

There Won't Be Many Coming Home by Roy Orbison from The Hateful Eight

Hog of the Forsaken by Michael Hurley from Deadwood

A Prayer by Madeline Peyroux from Deadwood

Waltzing Matilda from Deadwood: The Movie

Claudia's Theme from Unforgiven

Ride to Death by Carter Burwell from True Grit

Leaning On the Everlasting Arms from True Grit

Song for Bob by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Wazhazhe (A Song For My People) from Killers of the Flower Moon

Sundown At Between the Reels

Big things are coming, I assure you. Just because I'm not posting as much as I used to doesn't mean I'm not working on anything. 

As a Constant Reader, the Dark Tower was hanging over my head since I embarked on reading Stephen King. I'd kept it at bay because it is fantasy. And the fantasy genre is anathema to me. Especially when it comes to books. I don't have time to take on an 8 to 10 book series when my to-be-read- pile is hundreds of books long. I prioritize the classics. Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Different Seasons, Pet Semetary, It, Misery and some of his later works like 11/22/63 and Revival. 

The Dark Tower is such an overwhelming undertaking because not only is it an 8 book series but several books outside of it serve as important books to have the 'full experience' of reading the series. The Stand, Black House, Salem's Lot, Insomnia and Eyes of the Dragon are just some of the required readings you have to do in order for full immersion. I don't want to half ass this journey, so I am prepared to take on the books I have already read as well as ones I have avoided (I'm looking at you Insomnia). 

Music has become a major blind spot for me. Maybe it's because my time has been occupied by other art. A couple of artists have come onto my radar like Yo La Tengo, thanks to their score to Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy. Yet the longing in my pop art heart has yearned for some catchy tuneage. I've listened to Olivia Rodrigo's Guts album front to back for the past couple years and count myself as a fan. Her new album, you seem so sad for a girl so in love, is to be released June 12 and I for one am hyping it as an event. You remember those, right? 

Sure we have movies and shows we associate with summer. But what about characters? Tom Ripley fits that description. The Talented Mr. Ripley was my first exposure to the character, and I quickly succumbed to his devilish charms. Patricia Highsmith created this murderous sociopath in 1951. Highsmith's magic trick was creating a villain who not only gets away with murder but becomes the person they murdered. He is a terrible person but Highsmith writes him in a way where you want him to get away with it. 

Watching Tom Ripley stroll through Italian villas and beaches wishing for the life of playboy Dickie Greenleaf. Like some dark, twisted flipside of a coin to the suave James Bond, I've seen this story and character play out through the eyes of Alain Delon in Purple Noon, Dennis Hopper in The American Friend, Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley, John Malkovich in Ripley's Game and, in the latest incarnation, Andrew Scott. 

Steve Zaillian is responsible for the latest version of the story. Having been obsessed with The Night Of and a fan of Searching For Bobby Fischer and A Civil Action, I'm kind of disappointed I haven't already watched this. 

FILLING IN THE GAPS

Steven Spielberg has a new film coming out. A science fiction one at that- Disclosure Day. 

Three films of his have eluded me: The Adventures of Tintin, The BFG, and Ready Player One. In the same way Zemeckis' animated films have eluded me, they don't nearly interest me as much as those director's live action features. I have nothing against animation. I love Pixar and several other non- Pixar works. It's just that when ranking their filmographies in terms of what interests me, the animated works are toward the bottom. 

There are around two dozen Hitchcock flicks I haven't seen. Movies that are more him mastering his craft and ironing out all the kinks. The movies he made before he was known as the 'Master of Suspense'.

There are also works from Mike Nichols, Coppola, Ford, Friedkin, Wilder, Leigh, Tony Scott and many others I plan on seeking out. 

Wither - Fat Dog

  

  

  

  

  

Cover to Cover: My favorite cover songs

What makes a good cover? You might as well be asking, what makes a good remake. It has to take the source material and render it near unrecognizable. A new coat of flesh on the skeleton. Some of these songs I find the original to be as good as the cover, and some I find the cover to be superior. 

Bridge Over Troubled Water by Roberta Flack (Simon and Garfunkel)

The whole album has a Sunday driving feel to it. This song in particular has gospel music shining through like light through a stained-glass window. When I first heard the Roberta Flack cover, it wasn't a single window, it was an entire cathedral of them. What Simon and Garfunkel helped start, Flack embellishes with her backing choir, piano melody and soulful voice to bring it all on home. 

Avalanche by Aimee Mann (Leonard Cohen)

The theme song to a riveting true crime doc I'll Be Gone In the Dark. The opening chords remind me of spiders crawling across a wooden floor in the dark. Leonard's song is a goosebump raiser and this cover is somehow more eerie. 

One by Aimee Mann (Three Dog Night)

Another beautifully rendered cover from Aimee. This time for the film Magnolia. This version feels more wistful than the original. Inseparable from the feeling the introduction of our cast of characters gives you. 

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by Devo (The Rolling Stones)

A complete deconstruction of the Stones song and building back up with Devo DNA. This is what a cover should sound like. Devo manages to change the aesthetic sensibilities of a 60's pop song into those of the 80's. 

Across the Universe by Fiona Apple (The Beatles)

One of the very first Beatles songs I was addicted to. Fiona's smile as the chaos abounds around her as if to say "If we can achieve inner peace, nothing around us can hurt us". 

Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon by Urge Overkill (Neil Diamond)

To be played right after you win a trophy for dancing at Jack Rabbit Slims and before you find a baggie of cocaine in your dance partner's coat pocket. Like many on this list, I first heard it in a movie. Urge Overkill updates the Diamond classic with 90's attitude. 

People Are Strange by Echo and the Bunnymen (The Doors)

I have to thank The Lost Boys for introducing me to this cover. I can't listen to it without thinking of amusement parks. And mohawks. 

White Wedding by Roland S. Howard (Billy Idol) 

Producer: Hey could you make this sound like Billy Idol's song was found in an alley next to a dumpster? You know, that bedraggled, weary look after you were kicked out of a bar for starting a fight. 

Roland: I'm your guy! 

Immigrant Song by Karen O, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Led Zeppelin)

First teased with one of the sharply edited trailers, Reznor gives the Zeppelin song an industrial makeover. Complete with Karen O's Plant-like vocals. When we finally heard the whole thing, it played alongside what I consider Fincher's best opening credit sequence since Se7en. 

Where Did You Sleep At Night by Nirvana (Leadbelly)

Of the 90's grunge bands, Alice In Chains was the one that always had my heart. Maybe because they weren't entirely grunge. But what is? Nirvana was a band with a fresh sound for teenagers waiting for a new idol after they became sick of their parent's big hair and jean jacket wardrobe. Record labels took advantage. I don't count myself as a fan insomuch as throwing them on regularly. But if I'm going be honest, the vocal performance here from Kurt is the best he's done and proof he was the real deal. 

Dear Prudence by Siouxsie and the Banshees (The Beatles)

My favorite cover of a Beatles song and I love the original dearly. While it doesn't quite surpass the original, Siouxsie gives it a new life entrenched in 80's goth pop. 

Sinnerman by 16 Horsepower (Nina Simone)

16 Horsepower are one of those hidden treasures of the 90s. A band who feel like they crawled out of a Flannery O'Conner or Harry Crews Southern Gothic novel. 

The President Threatened to Exterminate A Civilization Today

April 7, 2026

Had a dream where my mother was lying face down on the lawn in front of my house. I walk toward her and turned her over and she was completely still. I tried pounding on her chest to bring her back to life. I screamed. My brother was standing at the top of the stairs in shock. 

I woke up at 7:44 am with the knowledge my alarm will go off at 8. I couldn't get back to sleep. The voice of my brother in the kitchen prompted me to get out of bed. He was talking to my mother. 

Every morning my routine is the same. 

The routine is coffee.

First, I fill an electric kettle with 540 grams of water. The recipe calls for 500 but I use 40 extra grams to wet the paper filter. Or otherwise, the coffee has a papery taste to it. Then I measure out 30 grams of beans and throw them in the grinder. I wait until the kettle is at 194 degrees and then I wet the paper filter and grind the beans. 

I dump the grounds into the filter which sits snug in a V60. I tare the measuring device and start a timer. I start to spiral pour until I reach 60 grams on the scale. Double the amount of coffee. This is called the bloom stage. Where all the CO2 in the coffee is released. I wait until the timer hits 45 seconds to do a second spiral pour. When I reach 300 grams, I stop. When the timer reaches 2 minutes, I make my final pour until I reach the goal of 500 grams. I watch the water draw down into the grams and my end time is 3:12. Anything over 3 minutes is my intended goal. Some drawdowns are faster than others. Some are slower. Especially if the beans are from Ethiopia. Reason being they are smaller so the finer the grind the slower the water absorption. 

At 8:07 I take a shower.

I get out, put on fresh clothes and ask my brother if he wants to continue watching Breaking Bad. He says yes. We sit down in my room to watch the second episode of the final season, titled Buried. My brother tenses at the fight between Marie and Skylar as Marie attempts to take baby Holly. 

8:45

I go to Great Clips down the street to get my hair cut. There is no one there so I don't have to wait. The barber is sitting in one of the chairs waiting for a customer. She has green hair, tattoos and glasses. Usually when I'm at the barber the talking veers in the direction of where I work, if I have plans for the rest of the day, etc. Standard questions to pass the time. All of which were asked. Only when it came to passing the time, I brought up how I liked to read. She too was a reader. This caused me to become excited. Anytime I talk to a reader, there is a lot to talk about. So the conversation lasted for the entire haircut. Something that doesn't happen often. I was finished around 9 and left. 

9:06

When I got home, I watched The Man Who Wasn't There. The Coen Brothers movie about a barber in the 1940s who suspects his wife is cheating on him. It leads him down a path of blackmail and murder. I recently got the Criterion 4K and watching it revealed how crisp and beautiful Roger Deakins' black and white cinematography is. 

12:45

I went to Cooper Hawk in Oak Lawn to grab something to eat. The hostess sat me in the bar area at a raised table. The waitress, Vanessa, came over and took my order. I got the Spaghetti and Meatballs. Can't go wrong with a classic. I doomscrolled on my phone. Letting myself fall down worst-case scenario rabbit holes with every headline, meme and news report. The worst of which dealt with nuclear weapons. 

There was a birthday at a table and the lady at the end of the bar mentioned how she was an Aries. The guest sitting at the table by the birthday girl mentioned how they were born on March 30. 

The check came and I left. 

2:12

Arrived at the Alsip Merionette Park Library with the intention of reading Kanley Stubrick by Mike Kleine. Purchased it because it was acclaimed book from a small press and I try to support small presses as much as I can. Plus it was a play on the name of my favorite director. The premise: A girl loses her shoe and the guy she lives with starts calling their friends to see if they know anything about the missing shoe. Some of them have theories, others don't seem to care. Then the girl herself disappears and the guy goes looking for her.

A vague fucking premise if there ever was one. But enough to hang a slim, experimental, 100-page novel on. 

Halfway through the book I had the urge to scream at the top of my lungs in the middle of the library. 

The experience of the book felt dream like. Where the landscape of the text became smaller and more ephemeral as it went on. Time and space are fluid.

2:47

Finished Kanley Stubrick.

2:50

Left library

2:57

Arrived home

3:30

Started Chinese Roulette on the Criterion Channel. Slowly working my way through Rainer Werner Fassbinder's rather large filmography. Chinese Roulette has one of the most dysfunctional mother-daughter relationships I've seen in a movie. Like most of his movies, there are no purely good characters. On a psychological level, no one leaves the movies unscathed.

5:30

Made my second coffee. Black and White Coffee Roasters' Diego Bermuda. 

6:30

Started my second book of the day, David Kuhnlein's Bloodletter. This one was about a blood cult.  

8 pm

My dad turns on Fox News. Emissions of fear, paranoia and xenophobia festoon out of the television. I tune everything out by putting on headphones. I listen to Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 and continued to read David Kuhnlein's Bloodletter.

9:30

I finished Bloodletter. Spent the rest of the night writing more of my essay on the American West and the Western. Working on the final segment and planning to do another pass and finishing touches in the coming weeks. 

At roughly 8 am, the President of the United States threatened genocide against Iran, a country of 90 million people. 

People went to work. 

People went to school.

They went about their day. 

At around 6:30pm it was announced there was a 10-point plan for a ceasefire.

At 11pm, I went to bed. 

WEAPONS is unfortunate

First off, a nitpick purge: it's not structured like magnolia.

  I can see clear wisps of its inspiration (ensemble cast, hyperlink, dopey cop with a mustache, "what do kids know?") but the comparison to its structure, specifically, makes me wonder if people have... actually...seen magnolia...recently...?

  Multiple times throughout Weapons the narrative restarts in a non-linear fashion, featuring alternate scenes based on differing perspectives.

  magnolia is, in the humble opinion of this narrator, the opposite:

Strictly linear, no narrative restarts, no alternate scenes playing out multiple times.

  I will contend that I got huge Frank and Earl vibes when Archer was crying by his son's bedside and it was just as moving. That's a lie: I would have found it moving if I could have fucking seen what was happening.

  I don't love how the rest of the movie looks but, holy God, the lack of lighting and color during night/dark indoor scenes is unforgivable. That lifeless muck retroactively tarnishes anything I do like about the script, performances, etc., which is quite a bit. It has such a great set-up, an incredible villain, a climax for the ages, outstanding tonal shifts, and a devastating ending that negates any clean narratives about trauma.

  Putting Alex's chapter after everyone else's makes for a more effective climax. We spend so much time navigating comedy and horror that Alex's domestic drama feels like a funeral for any of the 'fun' we were having. So by the time Gladys is screaming through the neighborhood pursued by killer kids, it's fucking satisfying. Which, in turn, makes the ending such a stroke of genius: Cregger pleases the crowd but then asks if it's enough and immediately tells us it isn't. And he makes us sit with that.

  But, again, I can't give him too much credit because I only like these choices on paper. As Mike Stoklasa put it, with a joke I'm very jealous of, "Zach Cregger achieved night-for-night." There's little value to Weapons' aesthetic choices.

  In an ironic twist, the most effective scare (and the most lasting image) was an accident. From an interview with make-up artist Leo Satkovich:

"It was through a routine touchup that the lit-up scene came about: Filmed onstage in a tiny room, the goal was to utilize VFX overlay so Matthew could seamlessly transition into Gladys, meaning the two performers had to be tucked into the bed’s blankets just so. After nailing Madigan’s position, Satkovich went in to add more lipstick.

'I’m crawling over lights, crawling under lights, under flags. There’s so much stuff in this room … And I couldn’t see because the room was [so dark]. I think it was a grip that used their iPhone light,' he recalls. 'When DP Larkin Seiple reacted, everyone’s first thought was trouble, but he and the VFX team liked the look, and the shot stayed'."

   Lol at "I couldn't see" but wow, who knew? Who knew that LIGHTING would be a good thing?? Go figure. Actually, no, that's not enough: seeing what's happening shouldn't be the baseline. It should be lit with purpose, it should be artful and creative, not merely visible.

  So Now Then

  There are stories of coincidence and chance and intersections and strange things told. Maybe that iPhone light wasn't an accident.

2025: The Lists

25 FAVORITES OF 25

1. One Battle After Another (Anderson)

2. 28 Years Later (Boyle)

3. Resurrection (Gan)

4. Marty Supreme (Safdie)

5. The Shrouds (Cronenberg)

6. Caught By the Tides (Zhangke)

7. Sentimental Value (Trier)

8. Sinners (Coogler)

9. The Secret Agent (Filho)

10. Magellan (Diaz)

11. Reflections In A Dead Diamond (Catett/Forzani)

12. Weapons (Cregger)

13. Cloud (Kurosawa)

14. It Was Just An Accident (Panahi)

15. Train Dreams (Bentley)

16. Eephus (Lund)

17. The Mastermind (Reichardt) 

18. Wake Up Dead Man (Johnson)

19. Sorry, Baby (Victor)

20. Black Bag (Soderbergh)

21. Eddington (Aster)

22. Friendship (DeYoung)

23. Die My Love (Ramsay)

24. No Other Choice (Chan-wok)

25. The Testament of Ann Lee (Fastvold)

Special Mention: The Voice of Hind Rajab

Favorite score: The Young Fathers, 28 Years Later

Runners up: M83, Resurrection

Daniel Blumberg, The Testament of Ann Lee

Favorite music cue: Beware of Darkness by George Harrison (Weapons)

DISCOVERIES

There were two destinations I kept frequenting in 2025- the western and Hong Kong cinema. There were off ramps to other genres too but those were the two I kept circling back to.

The string of Westerns will make sense next year. John Ford, Howard Hawks and Anthony Mann are classic movie royalty and 

The Golden Princess acquisition by Shout Factory and the streaming of a bunch of Hong Kong action films on the Criterion Channel helped me check off so many of those films I always heard of and wanted to see but just didn't have access to. Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark, John Woo, Johnnie To, Lau Kar-leung, Sammo Hung became names that constantly cropped up on my journey. 

With the final Mission: Impossible being released, I decided to watch all the movies. Outside of the first two, I hadn't seen any of them. Of the new group of films, Fallout and Rogue Nation were most impressive. 

Comedy classics ranging from screwball (Ruggles of Red Gap) to satire (Top Secret!) to Dirty Work helped fill in some of the gaps.

As far as horror was concerned, silent films like Dante's Inferno and A Page of Madness reiterated my love for the visual form. While the films of Larry Fessenden (thanks VS!) were a quiet revelation. 

Movies that don't quite fit into the above categories were Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies, a film I sought out from his filmography specifically because I was so knocked over by Marianne Jean-Baptiste's performance in Hard Truths. 

Diane Keaton's passing prompted me to seek out and watch Warren Beatty's epic Reds. A film of hers I watched during the beginning of the year, Looking For Mr. Goodbar confirmed her as not just one of the greats, but someone who was fearless and diverse, turning in a dark, complex performance in the same year she did Annie Hall.

Peter Watkins passing similarly caused me to seek out The War Game. Punishment Park is an all time favorite and The War Game is every bit as good. Should be mandatory viewing for everyone in a time where we have so many nuclear weapons stockpiled. 

All of these discoveries were wonderful. But the one filmmaker that knocked me on my ass and made me re-orient my views on what film could do was none other than Frederick Wiseman. I saw 23 of his films in 2025 and intend on watch the rest of them in 2026. Each one has showcased brilliant editing, endless compassion for humans and the art of visual storytelling. 

Other Favorites (in order of when I watched them): 

A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood, 1993)

The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995)

Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)

Looking For Mr. Goodbar (Richard Brooks, 1977)

Nothing But A Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)

The Crazy Family (Gakuryu Ishii, 1984)

Noises Off... (Peter Bogdonavich, 1992)

Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey, 1935)

Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)

PTU (Johnnie To, 2003)

Macumba Sexual (Jess Franco, 1983)

Dishonored (Josef Von Sternberg, 1931)

Eastern Condors (Sammo Hung, 1987)

Full Contact (Ringo Lam, 1992)

Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)

Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, 1965)

Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996)

Sparrow (Johnnie To, 2008)

The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage, 1972)

Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage, 1959)

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015)

Wheels on Meals (Sammo Hung, 1984)

A Moment of Romance (Benny Chan Muk-Sing, 1990)

Love Hotel (Shinji Somai, 1985)

My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

Electric Dragon 8000V (Gakuryu Ishii, 2001)

The Big Country (William Wyler, 1958)

Dirty Work (Bob Saget, 1998)

Wagon Master (John Ford, 1950)

O.C. and Stiggs (Robert Altman, 1987)

Dirty Ho (Lau Kar-Leung, 1979)

City on Fire (Ringo Lam, 1987)

Mermaid Legend (Toshiharu Ikeda, 1984)

Peking Opera Blues (Tsui Hark, 1986)

Top Secret! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, 1984)

Cafe Flesh (Stephen Sayadian, 1982)

Wendigo (Larry Fessenden, 2001)

The Night of the Hunted (Jean Rollin, 1980)

A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)

The Demon (Brunello Rondi, 1963)

Curse of the Dog God (Shinya Ito, 1977)

In the Dark (Clifton Holmes, 2000)

Dante's Inferno (Giuseppe de Liguoro, 1911)

City on Fire/Prison On Fire/School on Fire (Ringo Lam, 1987/87/88)

Night of the Juggler (Robert Butler, 1980)

Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981)

The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk, 1957)

Re-Wind (Hisayasu Soto, 1988)

The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1966)

A Better Tomorrow II (John Woo, 1987)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osborne (Walerian Borowczyk, 1981)

Tiger On the Beat (Lau Kar-leung, 1988)

TELEVISION

1. Pluribus

2. Andor

3. The Rehearsal

4. The Chair Company

5. The Pitt

6. Shifty

7. The Bear

8. The Righteous Gemstones

9. Severance

10. Alien: Earth

BOOKS

FICTION

1. There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm

2. Shoot Me In the Face on A Beautiful Day by Emma Murray

3. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon

4. So Tender the Killer by Matthew Kinlin

5. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi

6. Silicone God by Victoria Brooks

7. The Squimbop Condition by David Leo Rice

8. Doom Is A House Without A Door by Logan Berry

9. Baby Bruise by Danielle Chelosky

10. Cartoons by Kit Schluter

Favorite Non-Fiction I Read in 2025: One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

TOP 15 NON-2025 BOOKS

1. Satantango by Laszlo Krasznahorkai

2. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

3. Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz

4. Ubik by Philip K. Dick

5. A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe

6. Frisk/Try by Dennis Cooper

7. Vineland by Thomas Pynchon

8. My Struggle Vol. 5 by Karl Ove Knausgaard

9. The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark

10. Autoportrait by Edouard Leve

11. Collected Works Vol. 1 by Scott McClanahan

12. The Magician by Christopher Zeischegg

13. Blind Owl by Sadeq Hedayat

14. The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson

15. Log of the S.S. the Mrs. Unguentine by Stanley Crawford

Ordinary World - Duran Duran

Good Poster Art

   The quality of studio posters are on the upswing while fan posters have gotten increasingly worse.

  Most Fan Posters amount to very little. When they're not pastiche/reference slop, they're typically esoteric visual puns that reek of desperation. They want, so badly, to be perceived as 'clever' but garner nothing more than an "ah-ha" in the viewer. Or, worse: woefully ill-fitting font, textures, and imagery misrepresenting the movie. Absent is a sense of awe, intrigue, mystery, et all purely alluring spectacle.

  And I used to eat up the former, too. I thought this was the coolest fan poster ever:

  But now I look at it and I'm like "Yep...that sure is a shark fin, alright............." It's definitely clever but that only gives it the illusion that it's intriguing. It grabs my attention but it can't sustain a hold on me. I especially hate the narrow and weightless font, a baffling change that subtracts from it.

  I was going to post the original here for contrast but I don't need to: It's already conjured in your head. It's so simple, so evocative, so textured, and concise. Same goes for the Silence Of The Lambs poster (which is the greatest poster of all time), I don't need to show you what's already in your frontal lobe right now! And that's an example of a poster that has the best of both worlds: it's just as eye-bugging as it is clever. There are layers and complexity to it but it also manages to be subtle and concise at the same time. It's a remarkable one sheet.

Meanwhile, a fan poster:

  

    So I decided to celebrate some of the best Studio-mandated posters that have come out this decade. I've wanted to do this for a while now, especially since we're dangerously close to most studios using generative A.I. to make, upscale, or touch-up posters (like A24 did with Civil War in 2024).