If you only listen to Pam Bondi's voice, she sounds exactly like one of Catherine O'Hara's utterly vapid SCTV self-deluding characters

Reading reviews of MELANIA, I wondered how all those music cues had been approved. So this is interesting. I'm not the first to say this, I'm sure, but using PHANTOM THREAD music (wife slyly poisons control-freak husband) is certainly a choice. Or high-level trolling. variety.com/2026/film/ne...

Was I hallucinating or was John Schneider wearing a Hugh McElhenny T-shirt under his jacket? If so, that is a deep, deep PNW football cut.

Something on Lav Diaz' MAGELLAN, naturally paired here with Craig Brewer's SONG SUNG BLUE. Reason: cinema! roberthorton.wordpress.com/2026/02/06/t...

If you watch WALK DON'T RUN (1966) you pretty quickly get why Cary Grant thought "Eh, I think I'm finished here."

An "On this day in pictures" thing from February 3rds of the past popped up in my email.

The best there was.

Quick riff on THE RIP. roberthorton.wordpress.com/2026/01/27/m...

Here it is. Took a long road to get here, and there's a long road ahead, but - frickin' wow.

Francis Iles' novel BEFORE THE FACT (basis for Hitchcock's SUSPICION) is strong as suspense, but superb as a study of a toxic relationship; the Joan Fontaine character is at least as fucked up as the shifty husband.

HI IS FOR HAWK: On the one hand, a somewhat numbly well-made British drama; on the other, an authentically weird and sometimes abrasive protagonist, ably played by Claire Foy; on the other, it all seems too neat; on the other hand, amazing shots of a noble goshawk; on the other hand, are we allowed

The night before the NFC Championship game, I watched H IS FOR HAWK. Coincidence, or omen? (Go Seahawks.)

So many Safdie projects seem inspired by the same key noir.

Thinking about MARTY SUPREME reminded me of co-writer Ronald Bronstein and DADDY LONGLEGS; he stars in that Safdie Bros. film, and co-wrote it, too. My 2010 Herald review is here (on my antique website, sharing space w/WINTER'S BONE). roberthorton.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/i...

Weighing in on MARTY SUPREME & ANN LEE through a post-Oscar-noms lens: roberthorton.wordpress.com/2026/01/23/t...

Casting category voters did themselves proud w/two of the most extraordinarily precisely-cast movies I've ever seen, SECRET AGENT & MARTY SUPREME. (Other nominees, also cool.) But will this category always favor movies with a huge roster? That old Oscar truism: people vote for most, not best.

You don't pick the Neil Diamond songs that get stuck in your head. They pick you.

Interesting that SIRAT (terrific movie, but strange, gauzy, hard to peg) gets International Oscar nom rather than, say, THE PRESIDENT'S CAKE (also good, but much more conventionally satisfactory). Oscar voting/voters really HAS changed in recent years. True in Best Pic, too, where

Since @siffnews.bsky.social is going through some things, it's worth noting their current bounty: new Dardenne bros., restoration of JU DOU, 4K of J Tourneur's CANYON PASSAGE, AW's MYSTERIOUS OBJECT, + year-end awards worthies. Good idea to support w/$ right now. www.siff.net/cinema/in-th...

Another nail. www.kiro7.com/news/local/s...

Something on Nia DaCosta's 28 DAYS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, in which Ralph Fiennes is both Hamlet and Yorick: scarecrowvideo.org/posts/the-se...

Finally got to it. roberthorton.wordpress.com/2026/01/09/2...

Best Film Not in the English Language: THE SECRET AGENT (58 points) Runners-up:
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (57 points) SENTIMENTAL VALUE (38 points)

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (54 points) Runners-up: Jafar Panahi, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (48 points) Richard Linklater, BLUE MOON and NOUVELLE VAGUE (39 points)

Best Picture: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (57 points) Runners-up: SINNERS (29 points) THE SECRET AGENT (27 points)

Best Screenplay: Jafar Panahi, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (53 points) Runners-up: Robert Kaplow, BLUE MOON (50 points) Kleber Mendonça Filho, THE SECRET AGENT (40 points)

Best Supporting Actor: Benicio del Toro, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (54 points) Runners-up: Delroy Lindo, SINNERS (37) Stellan Skarsgård, SENTIMENTAL VALUE (30 points)

Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, BLUE MOON (57 points) Runners-up: Wagner Moura, THE SECRET AGENT (43 points) Michael B. Jordan, SINNERS (36 points)

Best Cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, SINNERS (50 points) Runners-up:
 Adolpho Veloso, TRAIN DREAMS (36 points) Michael Bauman, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (29 points)

Best Supporting Actress: Teyana Taylor, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (56 points) Runners-up: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, SENTIMENTAL VALUE (47 points) Wunmi Mosaku, SINNERS (41 points)

Best Actress: Kathleen Chalfant, FAMILIAR TOUCH (45 points) Runners-up: Rose Byrne, IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU (39 points) Renate Reinsve, SENTIMENTAL VALUE (37 points)

Film Heritage Award: Cinema Tropical, for its tireless efforts to distribute, program and promote Latin American cinema in the U.S.

Film Heritage Award: The Film Desk, for releasing key movies from all over the world, in 35mm prints and on home video, and publishing books that have enriched the public’s knowledge of cinema.

Film Heritage Award: the late Ken and Flo Jacobs, an irreplaceable, gravitational center of the American avant-garde, with a shared artistic sensibility that helped define experimental cinema.

Year 7 of Scarecrow Academy begins Sat. 3/15 at 2pm Pacific Time: "Visions of America on Film" is our topic for the next 10 weeks, and Capra's AMERICAN MADNESS (32) our first movie. Join me for the free online talk, and see the full sked here: scarecrowvideo.org/posts/scarec...

"Beginnings are so difficult" - Herbert Marshall, TROUBLE IN PARADISE.