ICYMI: my interview for @ebertvoices.bsky.social with CRIME 101 director Bart Layton. We playfully skewered LA wellness culture, discussed how documentary work influences one's approach to narrative features, and the use of the film's visual art:

PILLION expands (heh) to more theaters this week. In my 1st 4/4 star review for @ebertvoices.bsky.social, I wrote abt this devastating ode to the power of self-discovery. It may titillate w/ its fast & furious fellatio, but such sequences are never divorced from its characters’ inner lives:

In which I draw some parallels between the words of Thomas Merton and the movie where Glen Powell tries to kill his entire family:

Can't stop jamming to Geoff Zanelli's score for GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN DON'T DIE, particularly the title track. So unpredictable and electric in its crescendo and layers, which stands as a rebuke to the perceived "safeness" of algorithmic music. Will be listening to it many times over:

"To go to paradise, you have to conquer hell. You have to visit your shadows." For its @TheNYFF premiere, I spoke w/ Óliver Laxe & Sergi López for @ebertvoices.bsky.social abt the Jacob Elordi approved SIRÂT, working in Morocco, and movies as a medium for meditating on death:

"These characters are trapped by the choices they’ve made, many of which are driven by the pressure to have money and status." @zacharylee.bsky.social spoke with CRIME 101 director Bart Layton about LA wellness culture, how his documentary work influenced the film, & his background in visual art:

“PILLION is a quietly devastating ode to the power of that self-discovery, a reminder that perhaps one of life’s greatest tragedies is that we can’t always remain in a relationship with the people we learn the most valuable lessons from,” writes @zacharylee.bsky.social.

"When you belong to a tradition like mine, you die when you have to die. The more important question is: How do you die? What’s the way you will die?" @zacharylee.bsky.social spoke with Óliver Laxe & Sergi López about their Oscar nominated film, SIRÂT:

“Our movies are about people trying to create impossible things, impossible projects.” Not to be overlooked, for @sojo.net, I spoke with Mona Fastvold about her rapturous THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE, celibacy as liberation, & the church’s deep roots of inclusivity. L*nk ⬇️

"Ann’s dream of utopia is flawed, but there’s certainly a lot of beauty and a lot of grace in her experiment that I wanted to lift up and look at," the film's director Mona Fastvold tells @zacharylee.bsky.social for @sojoaction.bsky.social. sojo.net/articles/cul...

“Anyone can learn the technical skills of filmmaking, but passion can’t be faked, and Fischbach has the latter in grisly, cosmic spades,” writes @zacharylee.bsky.social about the grungy and blood-soaked IRON LUNG.

"Thankfully, the three films in this dispatch–which would have soared even if they were told more “traditionally” thrive thanks to their directors taking creative risks in their presentation,” writes @zacharylee.bsky.social.

Leaving Utah for the last time. Big thanks to BFFs and condo mates: @aadowd.bsky.social @erikthemovieman.bsky.social @812filmreviews.com @zacharylee.bsky.social and Steve Prokopy.

“QUEEN OF CHESS acts not only as a celebration of the sport’s versatility but as a testament to the enlivening power of one woman’s ambition and determination,” writes @zacharylee.bsky.social.

For @sojo.net, I counted down films I'm most looking forward to w/ faith & justice tendrils. Featuring: 2 projects w/ "Mary" in the title, the latest from Boots Riley, kaiju chaos, existential road trips, sci-fi epics galore, & a mystery drama centered on a cult (w/ Carrie Coon & Lily James):

i'm not saying i threatened to resign if @sojo.net didn't include 'Godzilla Minus Zero' on our most-anticipated 2026 films list, but i'm saying it wasn't in @zacharylee.bsky.social's original pitch and it DID make the published piece. sojo.net/articles/cul...

“Are you saying that now if I experience hardship, I should just get rid of my competitors?” For @ebertvoices.bsky.social, I interviewed Park Chan-wook & Lee Byung-hun abt NO OTHER CHOICE, artificial vs natural light, how to respond to failure, & the protagonist’s fatal foolishness 🔗⬇️

“The great tragedy of this film is that rage is not aimed at the right target." @zacharylee.bsky.social spoke w/ NO OTHER CHOICE dir. Park Chan-wook & star Lee Byung-hun abt the film’s interplay of light helps, their thematic fascinations around rage and masculinity, & family ghosts:

"It is sympathetic to the ways we’ll migrate to digital worlds to escape the hell of embodied living, but it sweetly and gently reminds us about the beautiful inconvenience of community,” writes @zacharylee.bsky.social in praise of OBEX.

NEW from me: “I was talking with one ICE agent about Matthew 25, ‘Whatever you did for the least of these, you did unto me,’ ... He told me he was going to go home and read Matthew 25 tonight. I encouraged him to take a look at Matthew 5 also for the Sermon on the Mount.” sojo.net/articles/new...

Utterly enraptured by Albert Birney’s OBEX, from its hypnotic sound design to how it reminds us abt the beautiful inconvenience of community, even while it's sympathetic to our digital plight to escape our embodied hells. 2026 is off to a great start. Review for @ebertvoices.bsky.social:

Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)

Grateful for all the outlets that served as home for my words and ideas this past year. Wanted to craft a thread of some of my favorite pieces I had the chance to write:

I wrote about Josh O'Connor in WAKE UP DEAD MAN as one of @ebertvoices.bsky.social's best performances of 2025, and how his anguished priest –– young, dumb and full of *Christ –– is one of the most resonant depictions of spiritual struggle in years: www.rogerebert.com/features/the...

For the Great Craft of 2025 piece for @ebertvoices.bsky.social, I wrote about Nine Inch Nails' propulsive & gritty TRON: ARES score. It’s as if the duo predicted the hellscape we might find ourselves & decided that if democracy were to fall, it could be heralded w/ thunderous bass:

"Today, we go behind the camera to pick some of the great craft of the year in film, including excellence in cinematography, editing, original score, casting, and more.” Read our writers’ picks:

"It feels as if they tried to make a score that the film would have to bend around to accommodate, rather than the other way around." Marvelous (and short) appreciation of Reznor & Ross's score for Tron: Ares," by @zacharylee.bsky.social. www.rogerebert.com/features/the...

Delayed in sharing, but I'm delighted that projects like All THAT'S LEFT OF YOU, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, SINNERS, TRAIN DREAMS, THE ALABAMA SOLUTION, and COEXISTENCE, MY ASS (among others) made the Oscars shortlist. Had the privilege to write about some of these 🧵:

now that Wake Up Dead Man is in the wild i think we can have a conversation about how, pound for pound, bridget everett has 2025’s most impactful ~2 minutes of screen time as Louise. Somebody Somewhere streaming on HBO Max!

“Only good can come out of loving & forgiving your enemy.” For @@ncronline.bsky.social, a gift to speak w/ @@rianjohnson.bsky.social abt swearing priests, thinking abt spirituality beyond the language of warfare, & deconstructing gracefully.

Via @zacharylee.bsky.social in NCR - A very Catholic 'Knives Out': Director Rian Johnson talks about priests, forgiveness …and his own complicated faith #KnivesOut #Hollywood #movies #Catholic #Christian www.ncronline.org/culture/very...

"The whole beauty of Jud is this acceptance that he’s flawed & others are flawed." For @@ebertvoices.bsky.social, I spoke w/ Josh O'Connor abt revisiting similar themes but w/ different filmmakers, where activism intersects w/ artistry, & what Father Jud might say to his character in THE MASTERMIND

I sat down for a conversation with the one and only @rianjohnson.bsky.social to talk about Wake Up Dead Man, the Mountain Goats, grace, and the ordinary lives of priests.

For the evening crowd: @dodgyboffin.com's interview with Rian Johnson for S&B is now live! Excited about this one.

Grateful to contribute my top ten list which is ever changing. For now, a snapshot of the films that meant the most to me and stuck with me this year:

One of the greatest joys of this year has been going through the GODZILLA movies with @mitchellatencio.com. GODZILLA vs. HEDORAH has stuck with me since March. Thrilled to write about the spell it put me under for @letterboxd.social:

As the closing credits of 2025 roll, Letterboxd crew and contributors round up their favorite films that they watched for the very first time this year, from underseen international gems like Forever a Woman to acclaimed mainstays like Paper Moon. boxd.it/2S8

“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and Conclave both depict faith at work in a world that’s dark & growing darker. Each film holds faith up to the light and asks: In times like these, what are the faithful to do?”

I talked to Kleber Mendonça Filho and Wagner Maura for THE SECRET AGENT over @nextbestpicture.bsky.social, diving into the importance of memory, political amnesia and I had to ask about the best split diopter shot of the year: nextbestpicture.com/the-next-bes...

"So long as we stoke the fires of memory, we’ll never lose the people, places, and experiences that have made us." In your EOY catch-up, don't miss LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN. Now on VOD; my full review over at @movie-web.bsky.social:

"If you squint your eyes at it, [the story of the Holy family] is sort of a superhero origin story." Lotfy Nathan's THE CARPENTER'S SON is available on VOD now. I chatted with him for @sojo.net about the film’s depiction of hell, tapping into the horror DNA of the Bible, and set superstitions:

Pleased as punch to contribute the intro to @ebertvoices.bsky.social's Top Ten Films of 2025 list, and extol the virtues of Jafar Panahi's intense, mournful IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT. Great crop of flicks, and an even better basket of blurbs to describe them. www.rogerebert.com/features/the...

Really happy with the CFCA nominees this year! www.rogerebert.com/festivals/on...

"I hope things can develop in a way where we can address individual traumas and histories, and also collective traumas and histories." It was a delight to speak w/ Hikari, Takehiro Hira, & Mari Yamamoto about RENTAL FAMILY & Japan’s pervasive cultural attitudes around suppression & shame:

Delighted to kick-off the next month of 2025 listicle writing by contributing blurbs on KPOP DEMON HUNTERS and 28 YEARS LATER to @sojo.net Top Movies of 2025 list. These films, w/ their encouragements to take down the bellicose and shameful spirit that so easily entangles, are among the year's best:

Last year, I had the immense privilege to be a part of the inaugural @sojo.net Journalism Cohort, under the editorial guidance of @mitchellatencio.com. What I learned as a religion journalist then are skills I still carry with me me in my writing today. Applications are open now for the next cohort!

Dug MAN FINDS TAPE very much, a found footage horror film that’s in dialogue with everything from David Cronenberg to H.P. Lovecraft to Steven Soderbergh’s recent genre exercises, UNSANE & PRESENCE. It one just might ruin watching home videos for you forever. Review for @movie-web.bsky.social:

"I think every filmmaker is a dinner party host in some form." Elated for my @filmmakermagazine.com.web.brid.gy debut where I spoke w/ @dantrachtenberg.bsky.social abt PREDATOR: BADLANDS. We chatted abt Terrence Malick, avoiding overexplanation, & having his cinematic influences fellowship together

Hold your horses: Netflix's THE ABANDONS ain't the gender-swapped Western epic it hopes to be, instead stranding Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey in old, creaky material not even they can elevate. An "Oh no"-ater of the highest order. For @ebertvoices.bsky.social: www.rogerebert.com/streaming/th...

Zachary Lee interviews Lofty Nathan, the director of ‘The Carpenter’s Son,’ a new Nicolas Cage horror movie that uses the apocryphal ‘Infancy Gospel of Thomas’ as inspiration. sojo.net/articles/cul...