CRIME 101 (Layton, B): Heat smell of success #Crime101 letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

This episode features a bunch of smart people making a bunch of thoughtful insights about a bunch of good movies... and also me defending the honor of Mila Kunis.

This weekend in “I contain cinematic multitudes”:

Evening bump: Better late than never, I wrote about Sam Raimi’s SEND HELP. Good movie! #SendHelp moviemanifesto.com/2026/02/send...

This is so embarrassing. Our President is a hateful bigot who constantly spews toxic rhetoric, but heaven forbid CNN might quote a few swears.

I’m sorry, but this specific language—“I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future”—is so hilariously sweaty. He’s the kid whose dog ate his homework.

ETERNITY (Freyne, B-): [Arcade Fire voice] Afterlife, oh my god, what an awful world #Eternity letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

“SEND HELP functions as a robust defense of a specific form of filmmaking... original entertainments in which a gifted director places capable actors in a hooky premise and gets down to work... This species of genre fare must survive at all costs.” #SendHelp moviemanifesto.com/2026/02/send...

New piece: I reviewed Sam Raimi's SEND HELP, a deeply enjoyable desert-island thriller that’s also a very funny comedy that’s *also* a playful satire of workplace culture. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien both going great work. Movies! Review here: #SendHelp moviemanifesto.com/2026/02/send...

#NW This is why I wait to file my “best of” list until February, to ensure I have sufficient time to watch all the contenders.

This week’s #Shrinking closed with a Bon Iver song, in case you were wondering how skilled it is at emotional manipulation.

I don’t think Ryan Murphy’s #TheBeauty is a good show, but last night’s episode features a deranged sequence that’s basically a music video for Tame Impala’s “Dracula” and I do, in fact, gotta hand it to him.

ISLANDS (Gerster, B+): Tennis things I hate about you #Islands #IslandsMovie letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

One Battle After Another >> Sentimental Value > Sinners >> Hamnet > Marty Supreme >> Train Dreams > The Secret Agent > Bugonia > Frankenstein >>>>> F1 (If you perform this exercise without using tiers you are dead to me (and by “dead” I mean “mildly annoying”))

DRACULA (Besson, C+): I am all in a sea of blunders #Dracula letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

This weekend in “I contain cinematic multitudes” (screw you Super Bowl you can’t stop me from seeing multiple movies):

Night bump: Sure most of TV is blandly mediocre, but some good shows out there! moviemanifesto.com/2026/02/the-...

ICYMI, I wrote about some TV shows. moviemanifesto.com/2026/02/the-...

Are you interested in how I ranked 97 different 2025 TV shows, but not interested in scrolling through all of my pesky writing? Have I got the link for you! moviemanifesto.com/2026/02/rank...

I don’t put as much care into my writing with these TV rankings as I do with formal reviews or features, but I feel like I did a decent job diagnosing my issues with modern television and how it’s turned into a content mill. moviemanifesto.com/2026/02/rank...

Good morning, every year I perform this insane exercise wherein I rank and write about every single TV show I watched. Here lies the first installment for 2025, in which I ask: Is TV bad? (Answer: No, it’s just fine.) moviemanifesto.com/2026/02/rank...

Will be awhile before I can write about #SendHelp, but between that and 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, this has been an awfully good January for genre fare.

LURKER (Russell, B+): Fan with a plan #Lurker letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

Evening bump: I wrote about how two recent quasi-musicals, THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE and 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, subvert the genre’s conventions, tying the art of performance to the act of worship. #TheTestamentOfAnnLee #28YearsLater #TheBoneTemple moviemanifesto.com/2026/01/in-t...

“It’s what believers feel in a place of worship when they’re overwhelmed by rhapsodic ecstasy. As Kelson sings and twirls and leaps, you aren’t just watching a man execute a daring piece of deception; you’re bearing witness to a god.” #28DaysLater #TheBoneTemple moviemanifesto.com/2026/01/in-t...

“Whereas most musicals function akin to action pictures, brandishing their numbers like gung-ho set pieces, THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE embeds its vocals more organically, as though they’re bubbling out of the characters’ innermost desires.” #TheTestamentOfAnnLee moviemanifesto.com/2026/01/in-t...

New piece: I wrote about THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE and 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, two dissimilar movies that combine music and religion in surprisingly similar ways. #TheTestamentOfAnnLee #28YearsLaterTheBoneTemple #28YearsLater #TheBoneTemple moviemanifesto.com/2026/01/in-t...

MERCY (Bekmambetov, B-): An eye for an AI #Mercy #MercyMovie letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

“Have a scotch. Sign the paper. Close your eyes.” Great stuff here from Peter, also does it look like she’s negotiating

THE THREESOME (Hartigan, B): Please a crowd letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

”I believe you have something that belongs to my husband, and therefore to me.” Among other things, this scene with Kiernan Shipka on last night’s #Industry really recontextualizes the show’s “MAD MEN 2.0” reputation.

Wrote this before yesterday’s ghastly State-sponsored murder in Minneapolis, but reupping it as a rejoinder to the “How *dare* you post about anything so trivial as movies when society is crumbling before our very eyes??” crowd: moviemanifesto.com/2026/01/osca...

Minority Report: Everybody runs Mercy: Everybody sits

This weekend in “I contain cinematic multitudes”:

IS THIS THING ON? (Cooper, B): I don’t like stand-up, it’s coarse and rough and irritating letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

“He’ll pay you five thousand dollars, no questions asked.” “And who are you?” “I’m one of the questions you can’t ask.” I know that Season 2 of #TheNightManager is totally pointless, and it’s annoying how much it ties back to the first season, but I am powerless to resist this kind of spy shit.

I get the logic underlying F1 landing a Best Picture nomination: It’s a big-budget, star-driven film that (technically) tells an original story rather than leveraging IP. I just think that movies nominated for Best Picture should be, y’know, good. Anyway! moviemanifesto.com/2025/07/f1-r...

#NW Crossing my fingers that this is somewhat like STRANGER BY THE LAKE and nothing like STAYING VERTICAL.

Good morning, I predicted the Oscar nominations. THE SECRET AGENT for Best Picture! Both Joachim Trier and Elle Fanning for SENTIMENTAL VALUE! F1 for Best Film Editing! A bunch of these will probably be wrong! #Oscars #OscarNominations moviemanifesto.com/2026/01/osca...

Legacy media is desperate to frame Trump as calculated and rational, rather than acknowledge that he’s idiotic and capricious, because such an acknowledgement would also mean accepting that we elected an evil, stupid man to be President. And that truth is just too upsetting for them to accept.

INFLUENCERS (Harder, B): The Social Wetwork letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

So last night’s #Industry needle-dropped the Shostakovic waltz from EYES WIDE SHUT, riffed on ideas from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and delivered a reveal straight out of THE NEWSROOM. This show is my cocaine.

Surprised to discover that not one but two of these movies can be fairly described as, “Ralph Fiennes puts on a show.”

This weekend in “I contain cinematic multitudes”:

Evening bump: I wrote about PRIMATE. Some decent set pieces, but overall just not a very good movie, sorry. #Primate #PrimateMovie moviemanifesto.com/2026/01/prim...

“It has no frills, no dreary trauma metaphors, no enigmatic themes, no convoluted backstory. These nominal negatives are designed to underscore the picture’s bestial intensity, but they really just create a void in lieu of a center.” #Primate #PrimateMovie moviemanifesto.com/2026/01/prim...

Barber: So what do you like to do? Me: I watch movies. Barber: Cool. So when you watch movies, do you do puzzles and stuff? Me: No, I just, y’know, watch the movie. Barber: [deeply confused] Oh okay.

New piece: I wrote about PRIMATE. You may have heard that it’s an unusually good January horror movie. I regret to tell you that you’ve been misinformed. A few cool set pieces, but otherwise pretty dumb! Review here: #Primate #PrimateMovie moviemanifesto.com/2026/01/prim...

Quite a few of Jesse’s excellent under-the-radar picks are likely to end up on my own year-end ballot, which is gratifying and also extremely annoying.

Seeing a lot of, er, chatter regarding ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, so resharing my review, in which I express my opinion that the movie is quite good. moviemanifesto.com/2025/10/one-...