As is tradition, time for a re-post - www.thefilmagazine.com/friday-the-1...

I'm begging publications to ban the phrase "tour de force". I've seen it in several different film adverts recently and can this many performances be that? It's giving "wish I went to private school". Nobody wants that.

LOL don't sell on #RedBubble kids... (My mark-up is 20%, so the site has charged customers around £33.85 plus postage fees for items I have earned £1.60 from.)

LMAO this is so embarrassingly bad that if I worked for ILM I would be embarrassed to charge anyone for it 😂

It has been more than a year since @thefilmagazine.bsky.social closed, and yet more than 100,000 people have visited the site - thefilmagazine.com - this month. That's amazing. If you are one of those people, thank you. The writers deserve to have their writing read.

Lmao it looks so shit. Also, "short narrative stories" don't tend to do well commercially (ask anyone who ever made them), so why do this at all? AI is a big fat pyramid scheme built on dodgy foundations. Fear not art lovers, this isn't even close to being "cinema". Even the unwashed will notice.

Given the current projection of VPN usage soon needing age verification, it's almost as if this was never an Access to Porn issue and was always a long-term Copyright Protection issue.

I'm not saying I'm back, but I am back on Letterboxd (so there's that) Feel free to follow me: letterboxd.com/JoeTFM/

I love Alan Menken and will forever be grateful for his wondrous contributions to the form of cinema I hold so dearly. www.youtube.com/watch?v=S24F...

It's the first day of 2026, so let's recap 2025, with ten picks for some of the finest films of last year. #filmsky #moviesky #filmreview #moviereview #cinema #filmcritic #moviecritic

I am delighted to announce that The Film Magazine's website thefilmagazine.com reached an audience of over 1,000,000 (1 million) people in 2025. The writing on the site always deserved audiences this big, and I am beyond delighted that we have reached this milestone even after closing down 💖

A tech company loading debts onto an established owner of more than 100 years of art should be incredibly concerning to every single person. We live in a hellscape. Fuck Netflix. Fuck that devil spawn David Zaslav. Fuck it all.

My local cinema - a subsidiary of a major chain promoted on the diversity of its showings and inevitably catalogued to counter programme big sister - is showing only 2 films today. Two. One is everywhere. The other is on Netflix in 2 weeks. Make it make sense!

I'm sad to hear of the loss of Udo Kier today. He was another of our actors lost in 2025 who had an outstanding face for cinema. Harsh edges, memorable features, piercing eyes.

I highly recommend following @secondcutpod.bsky.social and checking out their recent podcast episode on war films. I always learn something new from them, and always appreciate their insight. Subscribe: www.youtube.com/live/KYUTJr6... They're also on Substack with reviews and more 📽

Almost forgot about #GodzillaDay www.thefilmagazine.com/showa-era-go...

Of course Nick Offerman picked 'Kes'. Always knew that guy was decent... youtu.be/Ti-nujcoKnk?...

That special Barry Sonenfeld brand of 90s family movie needs to be captured in today's age.

I've just finished 'Film Club' on BBC iPlayer. It's 3:33am and I am bawling. Utter magic from Aimee Lou Wood. A soft, inclusive, feelings-first love letter to the power of movies and self-realisation. A beautiful, beautiful show. I highly recommend.

Sadako crawling out of your tv, turning motion smoothing off, then crawling back in

I'm dedicated to the preservation of film, and @snipsmovies.bsky.social do some excellent work. As a result, I've become a big fan of the daily TikToks & weekly YouTube videos. This latest is insightful and enjoyable, and I can't recommend it enough. Enjoy film friends! youtu.be/1rd_Uy8iVsE?...

David Zaslav went in to WB, took dozens of millions of dollars in salary and hundreds of millions in stock, sold off every arm and cancelled lots of work, only to sell the thing on the cheap several years later. Criminal.

I just uploaded a video to my Instagram explaining why The Film Magazine can't come back. Same username as here if you're interested.

As of this past week or so, @thefilmagazine.bsky.social 's website has been visited more times in 2025 than in any other year in the history of the site. With most of October and all of November and December left to go! This is wild. All credit to the great minds involved 💗

There is no such thing as "me time" anymore. Neo-liberal capitalism has ballooned into such an uncontrollable state that the only "room for growth" is now in the places capitalism has already forced us to inhabit (apps, programmes, etc. via AI) or in our sleep. We're waking up to the former.

This is tonight. My favourite podcast :) Subscribe so you don't miss it. youtube.com/@secondcutpo...

Removing myself from the pressures of the current release schedule has proven to be the healthiest thing possible for my relationship to cinema. I have seen some of the best and most important work of all time in 2025. Most importantly to me, I have watched films that make me feel seen.

Another great movie face lost. RIP Graham Greene

Dear Cinemas, Introducing tiered seating prices shatters the illusion that your experience is "the best experience possible", and forces potential visitors to think more than once about acquiring a ticket, thus giving them reason to do something else instead. Do better. Sincerely, A Fan

Critics, please explain your turns of phrase. Explaining something as "silly" means nothing. Explain how it's silly, or in what way it is silly, and use a comparison ("it is silly like Liar Liar" or "it is as silly as How to Lose a Guy In 10 Days without going full Naked Gun").

The Film Magazine has had more visitors in 2025 so far than it had in the entirety of 2024. Not bad. Especially considering we haven't published a single thing since 31st December 2024. Thank you for clicking. Thank you for caring. I'm glad the writers can have their work seen and appreciated.

Terrence Stamp had one of the most cinematic faces in history. All angles and character.

I still watch the credits to all movies. So should you.

The culture of social media is broken. I used to gain joy seeing what people I knew were up to, now everything is aggravation, opposition. It's horrible. I took a short break and returned to endless confrontation and violence and putting people down. I'm tired.

Real Real Real 💖

The final legacy of TFM is here, the one and only print magazine. Thanks to @joetfm.bsky.social, all hail TFM #moviesky #filmsky #filmcritic #moviecritic #cinema

Batman Begins turned 20 this month. My anniversary review is now online - secondcutpod.substack.com/p/batman-beg...

There have been as many years between Toy Story 3 and now as there were between Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 1.

Meal Deals being supposed "loss leaders" is a joke bro. £4 for two slices of bread, a slice of cheese, some fried potatoes and some caffeinated piss water? Give me a break. In what universe was a can of coke ever £1.40 before The Meal Deal tax? Piss off.

Recently went on a run of films directed by: Spike Lee Martin Scorsese Oliver Stone John Carpenter Steven Spielberg Denis Villeneuve Steven Spielberg (again) It has been a good month.

Indiana the frog 🐸 All shot using real figures, lighting and miniature sets.

I just finished #MinorityReport on ITVX. The 7 minutes of credits were sped up to only last 1/2 minutes. Surely this can't be allowed? The names were incomprehensible, the score faded out rather than respectfully played until completion. The industry's in the toilet.

I've been writing a page of insight, thoughts, critique, whatever, on every film I've seen thus far in 2025. The additional time I've had, plus the lack of pressure to keep up with contemporary releases, has in a strange way afforded me the opportunity to better interact with cinema. I'm a fan.

Wow. The Film Magazine has had such an uptick in search engine hits this past 5 months that the site has now been visited more in 2025 than it was in the whole of 2020. I don't have the words.

I binged #Andor on the promise that it was amazing (thanks Abigail) and that it had a revolutionary spirit (thanks article headlines). It was and it does. I can't do space magic. But I can choose good over bad. Andor is about such people, and the splashes they create that turn into tidal waves.

Five months on from closing the (figurative) doors of @thefilmagazine.bsky.social , we have just set a record for the most website visits in any given month... after just 15 days of May. Years of passion from a super-team of brilliant people have made this possible. Big love ❤️

A small update on @thefilmagazine.bsky.social After less than four months of 2025, thefilmagazine.com has been visited by more people than in the entirety of 2019, our breakout year. In fact, this is one of our best four month runs ever. Even in the absence of new articles. 💗💗💗

Me 🤝 Pokemon Pearl (It's nice to reconnect with myself.)

Thanks @secondcutpod.bsky.social for getting it into my head that I need to rewatch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for the first time since I was 10!

I've been doing a lot of reading on Ken Loach, and let me tell you that all of academia (including & particularly regarding film studies, the study of the so-called people's artform) is horrifically classist. And that, historically, classist perspectives have shaped our cultural POVs on all things.