There are still things to celebrate, and art that guides us through.

Desperation is one of the most efficient projections. It's easy for a desperate figure to sow desperation because it creates like from like. It's difficult for an angry figure to convince others to be calm, or for the hateful to garner commonly agreed sympathy. Projection struggles with opposites.

What are your favorite films each year so far? 2020: Lingua Franca 2021: Passing 2022: Qala 2023: Suzume 2024: The Peasants 2025: Baby Assassins: Nice Days

All due respect to the trailer for Christopher Nolan's Zack Snyder's Viking Batman Odyssey, but...never forget what could have been.

Al Michaels describing Kyren Williams' hard-fought run as "Williams burrows" is the most under-appreciated announcing moment this year.

The most important part of an hourlong, unbroken take is the small flaw that's left unpolished.

Most Joyful is always my favorite end-of-year 'award' to give.

Watched the Game Awards for the first time ever in the desperate hopes there'd be a Half-Life 3 reveal. Which there wasn't. Holy crap, that thing is mostly ads. They'd sprint through entire genres' worth of awards without presentations or acceptances to get to more ads.

Alia Shawkat stars in a military satire, Zooey Deschanel leads a dog comedy, and a few limited theatrical releases expand to more screens.

"For that 20-30 minute stretch where her figure’s regularly in closeup at this or that specific angle, it feels like she’s the last person controlling her character’s actions on-screen. The level of skin shown isn’t what makes things like this creepy. It’s the level of control the actor has lost."

Personally really looking forward to '100 Nights of Hero'.

I like to think Varsapura only exists bc someone from Hoyoverse played CONTROL and got genuinely confused Remedy featured a floating woman but never gave her an umbrella, so now they'll make CONTROLish 2 and everyone floats with an umbrella, damn it.

A Claire Danes thriller, Argentina's Oscar entry, Lohan, and more.

What are your Top 5 Movie Genres? Mine are: -Nobody believes the kids so they'll save the world themselves. -Magical realist isekai -Big ships chase each other around on sea/in space -Social deduction sci-fi/fantasy -Quiet, understated, atmospheric giallo w/musical score trying to deafen you

"It's a silly thing, but in the hands of people who know how to instill a serious, beating heart inside of a silly thing, so that it’s not just a lark for us to forget as soon as we walk out of the theater, but a whole emotional center that can stick with us and keep making us smile."

"If her novel is grief caught in amber, his film is a lens through which we can see how desperately it tried to reach out, to breathe, to last another moment, both grief and griever alike; to become something else, to transmute meaning from suffering, to justify endurance."

Among the best weeks for women leads I've covered.

Star Rail: What if your mom Franz Kafka and her gamer pal hacked the universe to attack a Terry Pratchett Witch's space station where she homunculuses life-sized puppets to make a Matrix to research gods inside and later you have to Inception Space Greece with time travel to bring back the dead?

For when oppressive horror no longer feels like escapism, please find within: 2 great found footage horrors, 2 experiments that have fun with their genres, and 1 Krysten Ritter glam witch.

"Deep down, it forces us to glimpse the repulsion of an uncanny valley that each of us carries within ourselves, something that’s increasingly lured out bit by bit in the social media age, that we’re then taught to frenzy and lure out of each other."

Pippin: But what about Fetterman? Aragorn: You already have him. Pippin: We've had one, yes. But what about second Fetterman? Merry: Don't think he knows about second Fetterman, Pip. Pippin: What about homophobia? Victim blaming? No voting record? That tattoo? He knows about them, doesn't he?

This show is such an unexpected and needed highlight.

The horror boom finally arrives.

A vengeful genie. A self-regulated psychopath who refuses to use her wishes. A love story, kind of? A surprisingly responsible and moving exploration of regulating psychopathy? A powerhouse... slapstick performance? Evil real-estate angel? I...what is even going on?

New A24 weirdness. A Korean romance sees a psychopath who's trained to keep herself in check find a trickster genie. We're continuing to see a few more women directors in anime. And more.

Japan's 2 for 2 in shows about women drummers knocking sh*t over this year. And like the last, this is absolutely phenomenal.

Since this is getting floated again: "A “Passion of the Christ 5” filmed in Italy with 10% American crew would get an exemption. Something filmed in the U.S. with 90% American crew but with VFX work done in India might face a massive tariff...it’ll be based on pay-offs and political views."

Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut, Italian action-comedy, French romance, and who wouldn't let Willem Dafoe live in their basement, what could go wrong?

Congratulations on getting through this week.

New K-dramas and British dramas lead the way... ...and I wrestle with whether the art and artists outweigh the hideousness of the corporation that hosts their work...and how the critical industry is failing to have this larger conversation.

This whole experiment - parodies of sports previews - is different from what I normally write, but I badly needed to stretch my joke muscles. That's been hard to do this year and I know enough about this to make fun of it under any circumstances. This one's mostly about Chicago vs. New York pizza.

The horrible people who own the Broncos, the horrible people who play for the Chiefs, and the perfect time for Yellowstone to erupt.

First some jokes. Then: every other awful thing I've talked about team owners doing pales in comparison to what the Saints did.

I continue my football preview that barely talks about football, such as: Good Morning Football introducing an A.I. co-host on...Labor Day. That timing sure isn't a mistake.

The one time I'll say something nice about an NFL owner, why do we keep forgetting how organizationally creepy the Texans are, and the city that's everything you've ever dreamed of.

Sorry to be an SEO-chaser and lead with a picture of Aaron Rodgers.

Weird that so many NFL owners are linked back to a Florida town known for its palms and beaches an hour north of Miami, sometimes for very creepy shit. Must be a coincidence.

An experiment, to be weird and funny and sad about something I love and hate.

Tackling a Jackie Chan fight this week, and trying something difficult at the end: breaking down the body mechanics of a complex move in a way that may (or may not) help you understand how it's done.

Celine Sciamma co-writes Noemie Merlant's horror comedy, an Amanda Knox bio-series, and a host of new thrillers.

I know the assignment. If Pedro Pascal's in something new, I put him in the feature image.

"I haven’t seen anything this year that so deftly permits and complexly joys in the legitimacy of anger, that in a year where I think what’s the fucking use of writing about art when the world’s falling apart tells me, 'Here’s the fucking use, don’t ever forget it again.'"

Michelle Yeoh and Hiroyuki Sanada kicking ass together 40 years ago.

A nice, long update on everything I've written the past two months.

A lighter week, so let's also mention some of the standout titles from the past month or so.

I just can't get into Netflix's flagship original anime this year.

Fight scenes are my momentary escape, like a great song or dance clip. They help me get my head on straight. They can also give me an opportunity to talk about the vast gulf in priorities between Eastern and Western fight choreo for women. Also also: what having a shattered instep is like.

I go long in the intro, on how Netflix tests international work, MUBI having an excellent recent history backing women filmmakers, and on who's bringing what British fare over. Read the open if that interests you, or skip ahead to get straight to the new shows + movies women make.

Might seem odd, but fight choreo is one of the mediums of art that helps me get through things. Maybe breaking down how can share some of that, so let's start with the 2023 Korean "Ballerina", one of the most clear-eyed pieces of social anger in the past few years.

Some captivating-looking indie films, Eric Bana & Sam Neill chase a mystery, and why Jennifer Kaytin Robinson ("Do Revenge") gets me curious about the new "I Know What You Did Last Summer".