i really enjoyed OBAA, a movie that invites - even necessitates - consideration of its political propositions, and is made more essential by acknowledging its material contradictions.

Had an awesome time talking about one of my favorite filmmakers, Clint Eastwood, and two thoughtful meditations on justice that conceal some remarkably subversive ideas beneath their handsome studio thriller facades.

Happy November! This week we do things a little differently as we have a special Clint Eastwood-themed episode with a look at TWO movies, 1999's TRUE CRIME and 2024's JUROR #2. Joining us this time is Aaron from the great podcast @hitfactorypod.bsky.social Here or wherever you get podcasts!

Rodriguez's THE FACULTY is a much smarter movie than suggested at first glance...a clever probing of capitalism's oppressive hierarchies and our inability to structure meaningful alternatives, all in the skin of fun teen sci-fi/horror riff.

struggled with Kore-eda a little bit...a filmmaker i found stuck in a dispassionate and unfulfilling middle ground between slow cinema's formal discipline and a mawkish dramaturgy.

NEW HIT FACTORY // The fine gentlemen of @podcastyforme.bsky.social join to discuss Hirokazu Kore-eda's delicate, understated AFTER LIFE - a meditation on death and the hereafter as well as a treatise on artmaking itself; how cinema reflects and retains memory. Links below.

sorry, i'm confused...did you get a nazi tattoo because you were drunk with some marine buddies in croatia without knowing what it meant, or because you "used to say and believe things that today [you] find abhorrent"?

if you've talked to me about movies any time in the past year+, then you know that i think FAILED STATE is one of the best American independent films of the decade. I'm thrilled to get the chance to watch it with you all and to talk to the immensely talented Chris Bell about his work. Tap in!

One of the best new films I’ve seen in a long while. You don’t wanna miss this!

if you've talked to me about movies any time in the past year+, then you know that i think FAILED STATE is one of the best American independent films of the decade. I'm thrilled to get the chance to watch it with you all and to talk to the immensely talented Chris Bell about his work. Tap in!

HIT FACTORY PRESENTS - Join us Thursday, November 6, 2025 for a virtual screening of Christopher Jason Bell & Mitch Blummer's FAILED STATE (2023) feat. a live Q&A w/ dir. Christopher Jason Bell. Hit Factory Patrons get access at no additional cost w/ RSVP. Buy your tickets below!

I really like what Aaron said when I asked him pointedly what he thought Magnolia was about: reckoning with the truth of life, that living is often being both a recipient of and a source of pain. Interestingly and typical of PTA, he doesn’t really offer an answer.

THE BPM

in which i attempt to answer carlee's extremely probing inquiry, "what the fuck is pta's deal, and why should i like him?"

when this happened, everyone had to play coolly nonchalant, like they barely noticed it...but i got several follows/follows back from people on this list as it started making the rounds on the other place

We can rebuild her anew on a new platform.

havent watched a horror movie yet this month denzelhighest2lowestfingergun.gif

other site's so washed im getting fed shaun king tweets on the fyp

you people have no idea the discourses we can bring to this app. you’re not ready

why did everyone jump ship over here today?

This mask always makes me laugh. i don't like to look at the other one..

this track absolutely fucking goes btw

me: Aaron please ... finish this movie so we can talk about it @notoriouslightning.bsky.social: youtu.be/i7UHEFmW6EU

Great question! and gives me the chance to plug Chritsopher Jason Bell & Mitch Blummer's FAILED STATE. A film of bracing intimacy that feels gargantuan, poetic, devastating...will age better than 95% of all movies set during COVID.

should probably post about movies on here again at some point

looked a *little* rough, but we got 5x315lb

3x315lb achievement unlocked

hit 305lb today. ten pounds away from previous 5x squat pr.

with the caveat that there are (by my last count) at least two dozen more features that i would have liked to see before finalizing this list, here are my 25 favorite films of 2024:

with the caveat that there are (by my last count) at least two dozen more features that i would have liked to see before finalizing this list, here are my 25 favorite films of 2024:

hadn't heard much on lisandro alonso's EUREKA, so imagine my surprise to discover a favorite film of 2024 in its waning days. traverses genre and form to reveal the disquieting resonances of capitalist/colonial violence perpetually shaping indigenous realities. mesmerizing.

gonna keep posting these here where i have a smaller audience than the other place. working back up to 405lb pr. made it to 5x365lb today.

NEW HIT FACTORY // Writer @robrubsam.bsky.social joins to discuss the career of the brilliant Terence Davies and his 1992 masterwork THE LONG DAY CLOSES - an impressionistic, elliptical journey through childhood memory both warmly nostalgic and mournfully ruminative. Links below.

Went on @hitfactorypod.bsky.social to talk with @notoriouslightning.bsky.social about everything I find poignant and profound in the life and work of Terence Davies, crystallized so perfectly in the Long Day Closes. Listen here and everywhere else: open.spotify.com/episode/6kzI...

THE ORDER: as bad as they should reasonably allow any movie to be, which is to say...not all that bad, but puddle deep & often very dumb. kurzel shows off in the more contained moments, which makes the perfunctory execution of its would-be showstoppers all the more frustrating.

hasn't been done, im afraid

nearly back up to previous pr. one more week then onward, upward, etc.

finally caught up w/ GOOD ONE. hinges on a moment so abrupt, yet finely executed that it left me breathless. patiently charts the topography of middle-aged discontent before shifting to account for its wreckage, all captured within the wonderful lily collias' attuned performance. a major work!

any chance anyone wants to do my job for me for the next week so i can marathon the 20 movies i still want to try to get to before i finalize my year-end list?

carlee got me the new criterion 4K of HAPPINESS, which has yet to be delivered...she drew this by hand and wrapped it at approx. 2am last night and thinks it's not very good despite being perfect. i would have recognized it even without the text.

Best release news ever

apparently alan rudolph's CHOOSE ME is coming to criterion 4k in 2025. incredible news. youtu.be/SaOQbpBJ6t0?...

Bringing Out the Dead (1999); happy birthday to Marty, impossible to pick just one fave but have always had a soft spot for this one. Some of Cage’s finest work, and the god Robert Richardson shots the hell out of it. Glad that its reputation seems to have grown over the years.

On Red Rooms and our moral stasis

ICYMI - we talked to Pascal Plante, director of RED ROOMS and its thematic ties to Spanish thriller THESIS. its a great conversation about art, mediated experiences, and the joy of watching a film that treats you as an intelligent participant.

Like Plante's latest RED ROOMS, Amenábar's THESIS (1996) has much to say about emerging technologies as empathy killers that derealize our corporeal experiences, diminish our discernment, and produce a flattened equivalency of violent images across screens. real & unreal merge into one.