One of the more ridiculous stacks of new discs in a while

Didn’t expect 2026 to be the year that Afroman came back to protect free speech and take down loser cops, but here we are.

🫠

Desperate Living on 4K UHD is easily the grossest move Criterion has made since Salò on Blu-ray. Might be Waters’ best movie but is definitely his most disgusting (high praise).

A big takeaway this year has to be that Sinners and One Battle After Another were big, artist driven, swings bankrolled by WB whose future is ultimately unclear. I like living in a world where people like PTA and Ryan Coogler get to make the films they want to make with those resources.

Took three fucking hours but Javier Bardem finally said it: Free Palestine

Embarrassing that it has taken this long for a woman to win an Oscar for cinematography but I’m very happy to be here to witness it for Autumn Durald Arkapaw, especially with that speech which was the best of the night so far.

I wish every other winner had the courage to actually say something like the two doc winners tonight. A global platform where injustice can be called out and it’s routinely used for…. nothing

Will never get tired of hearing Ryan Coogler talk, just infectious sincere energy that is also as palpably anxious as the rest of us

Could have actually committed to this Casablanca bit and shot it in 1.37

Wait, so Pfizer is doing commercials with Al Pacino dialogue from Any Given Sunday laid over video of sick people? What a time to be alive.

It’s early, but more than half of the five awards announced so far have gone to horror films and, I’m assuming, there’s only more to come. Pretty big deal by Oscars standards.

Thought that the Oscars was actually going to do a nice thing about film preservation. Joke is on me!

Hopefully a trend of celebrities tearing down AI tonight: “animation is more than a prompt, it is an art form that deserves to be protected” — Will Arnett ahead of the animated short award

I’ve been working on a MARRIED TO THE MOB event at @paristheaternyc.bsky.social which is happening in just under two weeks and will feature a very special Q&A with Matthew Modine, Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns. Tickets : www.paristheaternyc.com/film/nyfcc-m...

Most recent batch of new arrivals, which is pretty all over the place

This week’s batch of new disc arrivals!

Frederick Wiseman was such a massive force; he changed how I thought about cinema. Not just documentary, but the medium itself. His films were the my first exposure to anything they could be considered “slow cinema” and it enthralled me. I wouldn’t be who I am today without his work. Nor would film.

Maybe I’m alone in this but I’m more likely to knowingly see a mediocre new movie in a theater than stream a great one at home. I love the urgency, the scheduling, the turning my phone off (even if others around me refuse to) and the big screen. It’s a respite from every day life and home, I need it

Most recent stack of new discs, which includes two of my most wanted 4K upgrades: Playtime and Excalibur

Ready to spend an obscene amount of time at Film Forum next month.

“Wenders interjected and lent his support for Puszczyńska: “We have to stay out of politics,” he said. “We are the counterweight of politics, the opposite of politics, we have to do the work of people — not the work of politicians.” Nah, this isn’t the move, Wim

If you’re in Atlanta, come see me at the Plaza next month for five VS action movies in one overnight show! Tickets on sale now: www.plazaatlanta.com/movie/all-ni...

I really hope people support GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T die in theaters — a truly, uniquely, weird movie that will open on thousands of screens this weekend and is aggressively anti-AI, it’s very fun and nobody but Gore Verbinski could have made it

This was fun!

You know you’ve been there too

Most recent stack of new arrivals, including a few major HD and 4K upgrades.

I wrote a thing for Letterboxd to get people in the *mood* for Valentine’s Day

“At Indiana University, where Erpelding worked until 2024, professors could track whether students watched films on the campus’s internal streaming platform. Fewer than 50 percent would even start the movies, he said, and only about 20 percent made it to the end.” Rather disheartening statistics

The weird thing about male front nudity in American movies, especially almost anything mainstream, is that it is often prosthetic based. Including all three examples here. Is that really progress? I suppose it’s a good thing that studios are willing to “go there” but I don’t think this is it.

I don’t think the box office is a gauge of quality or even necessarily public interest in film but, even still, that the number one movie in america yesterday was directed by a popular YouTuber and the number three is, well, MELANIA is a proper sad state of affairs. Embarrassing, to be honest.

Just removed over a dozen titles from this list but there's still nearly 300 to go! I know that a few are planned though...

Been working on this for a few months, feels like the right time to share it. Watch something radical if you’re snowed in today, maybe it’ll inspire you to act.

At what point do we just actually try to overthrow the government? Asking for a country.

I’m so sick of people throwing their hands up and saying abolishing ICE isn’t possible right now. Abolishing ICE is extremely popular and calls to do so will only continue to grow, meanwhile conservatives manage to do incredibly unpopular things all the time because nobody stops them

"Just stay cool and don't make trouble until the midterms" is not going to cut it as an opposition response to a murderous regime whose masked thugs are killing people in the streets and then attempting to round up witnesses and destroy evidence.

ICE must be destroyed.

First stack of new arrivals for 2026

Oscar nomination for SIRĀT for sound is fitting, but diabolical, work.

I can’t recommend this book by @xuanlintham.bsky.social enough — a brisk read about the politics of sex scenes that offers an essential counterpoint (if not a few) to the constant barrage of sex negative discourse that we get around our media. Published by @404ink.bsky.social

The current state of pre-orders for me going into 2026. I have a bunch to add to this but there's a bunch of major, long wanted, upgrades here already!

There used to be four multiplexes in Hartford, CT before 2020. All four have now closed, matching the similar fate which fell on New Haven. That’s two cities of over 100k people with no multiplex in the city limits, a truly sad state of affairs for moviegoing in 2026. Support your local cinema!

Coming to NY cinemas, and elsewhere, very soon! @hoperunshigh.bsky.social x @cine-matographe.bsky.social

I love seeing movies in theaters more than doing just about anything else, new or old. I know that people often harp on etiquette at multiplexes but rep crowds are just getting worse and worse. But it isn’t even limited to just phones now: it’s the constant laughing at *everything* — I don’t get it!

I’m sure a lot of people are stoked that a big movie like THE RIP went direct to streaming this weekend but I long for the days when mid-tier genre programmers like that dropped in the local multiplex every weekend. I haven’t watched yet, and will, but I’d definitely have seen it by now in a cinema.

2026 vs 2016

I didn’t love DEAD MAN’S WIRE but I do love that we have a new Gus Van Sant movie that is playing wide and that it is a bonafide Movie for Adults that isn’t based on IP. It’s good, has a stacked cast and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Sometimes, that’s all you need.

This is such a huge release because Boyz always gets the attention for Singleton but his body of work, almost entirely, is consistently interesting if not great — especially Poetic Justice and the (criminally underrated) Baby Boy. Already a contender for most exciting package of 2026

Not to pile on the hype but THE BONE TEMPLE is the real deal — the type of legacy sequel that is reverential but is also willingly doing its own insane thing that nobody could have ever seen coming back in 2002. All hail Ralph Fiennes, a true madman and treasure.

We are hiring a social media manager, for anyone in the CT area who wants to work with me and my colleagues. It's a good gig! This is an in person position with marketing experience required. Please, please, don't send me resumes -- just apply via email per the link!