They use a comma, you use a semi-colon; they use a colon, you use a full stop. That’s the Chicago style.

Come on! Carl Jungfraumilch was right there!

This day in 1980 saw the release of Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “The Shinning”. #filmsky

“The Shining” was released on this day in 1980. I saw this burger joint in Victoria, Vancouver Island on this day in 2026. #filmsky

In the light of the AI suspicions around the story than won the Commonwealth Prize and the claim that the author portrait might even be AI, the second paragraph reads like some sort of winking performance art.

Thank God the OdysseyBros have never heard of Woolf. www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma...

#lastfourwatched #filmsky @letterboxd.social Swedish comedy of embarrassment; American indie anti-heist movie, and two classics of necrorealism, combining absurdism with comedy violence and obscure politics in a silent Soviet cinema style using punk DIY aesthetic.

“Fancy watching the new film with Sally Field, a young man and an octopus?” [Sally Fields is 80 and has done a remake of “Possession”!?]

First asparagus of the season, and a new toy for Chaika and Sputnik. #cats #blackcats

I suppose the experiment was to stick a whale’s head and a raccoon’s penis onto a bear’s body. Unless there are more revelations to come from Robert Frankenstein Kennedy Junior.

Sputnik’s a bit confused.

“Planet of the Apes”, but more so… Artemis emerging from the dark side of the moon and the crew thinking, “Hang on, wasn’t there an Earth there a few hours ago?”

A doc about women, a 70s meta comedy-actioner, a story which has attracted the ardent though misguided enthusiasm of true believers, and a doc about Bigfoot.

@jaspersharp.bsky.social I’m sure you know this…

#letterboxdFriday. A five-hour doc, a one-hour experimental drama with doc elements, and two films called “Secret Agent”, one of which includes a clip from another film whose hero imagines himself as a Secret Agent.

The great thing about the X-Files is that even if it’s a poor episode, you can while away the time being amazed at how much Texas looks like Vancouver, or how much Ohio looks like Vancouver, or how much Chicago looks like Vancouver, or how much Montana looks like Vancouver, or how much …

Films in Inuktitut, Iraqi Arabic, 19th-century English obscenity, hard-boiled Chicagoese and North Carolinian. #letterboxdfriday

It’s always worth sticking around for the credits. This is the first film I’ve seen that included a credit for the people keeping watch for approaching polar bears. youtu.be/XHx3GsodHGs?...

Sputnik and Chaika are nine today.

#Letterboxdfriday. Three great and interesting films. And a Guy Ritchie.

Happy birthday, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor!

Weird crossover moment. Currently working our way through “Twin Peaks” and “The X-Files”. On two consecutive nights, we get…

If you like Canada, strange landscapes, birds, fronted adverbials or sentence fragments… substack.com/@johnlemanri...

I’m not surprised that people parade their ignorance on Letterboxd, but I am constantly amazed that they pay to become Patrons in order to do it.

Lots of people liked “Orwell: 2+2=5”. For some reason. substack.com/@johnlemanri...

It’s a film set in the 19th century. Someone coughs. We, who have never seen TB, immediately know what will happen. The characters, who are intimately familiar with the disease, have no idea.

It seems weirdly specific to wish a merry Christmas to 19th-century railway construction workers living near Edinburgh, and with children, but … For Leith navvy dads!

How is it that every hotel in the world has a different model of coffee maker, all of which operate differently, and none of which are supplied with instructions. I JUST NEED A CUP OF BLOODY COFFEE!

I see Google are advertising their new phone with a song about a class A drug that can cause mini-strokes, brain shrinking, mood disorders and tremors; impair problem-solving, decision-making, spatial understanding, vocabulary, attention, learning, and memory, and increase the risk of dementia.

#Christmas #Caturday #Catfight

BlueSky accidental commentary

A while back I was on @severinfilms.bsky.social BluRay of “Viy”, talking about Russian/Soviet horror & scifi. Here’s a @letterboxd.social list of the films I mentioned, plus more. It’s still very incomplete, so I might expand it, but it’s a sort of starter pack to the subject. boxd.it/QjiKI/detail

If you've ever wondered how to watch a film, this might answer some questions. Or it might not. open.substack.com/pub/johnlema...

It's #GreyCup Day. #RoughRiders vs #Allouettes. If you don't know anything about #CanadianFootball or the #CFL, this might help. Slightly. Regina - the Game's Afoot open.substack.com/pub/johnlema...

If you like Kurt Vonnegut. Or if you don't like Kurt Vonnegut. open.substack.com/pub/johnlema...

Let the celebrations commence! youtu.be/W5wtaMQYJGY?...

Amused to see that the episode of The X-Files that visits (the fictional) Steveston Massachusetts was shot in (the actually existing) Steveston in Richmond, Metro Vancouver. So at least they didn’t have to change that street sign.

One of those excruciating self-promotional moments, this time at least justified by the fact that it's Shostakovich's birthday. open.substack.com/pub/johnlema...

When your name's Chase Infiniti you haven't really got any other choice than to appear in a Thomas Pynchon adaptation, have you?

Apparently there’s a new AI thing called ZeroGPT. But it’s uncannily close to another product with a similar name. Imagine - an entire product based on stuff you’ve stolen.

Scrolling through my @letterboxd.social I came across this #LetterboxdSentence

Why, when trying to map a journey across Canada, does Google Maps take any opportunity to divert you into the USA when there are more straightforward routes wholly within Canada?

@bcferries.bsky.social raising so many questions. “No pets allowed” “But pets can use this staircase. The one also used by orca.”

Given that people are wanging on about "The Salt Path Debacle", I thought I might weigh in on "The Salt Path Debacle". Salt(y) Thoughts, by @riley_leman substack.com/@johnlemanri...

David Shire (88 a couple of days ago) had a blistering run between 1974 and '76. I was delighted to guest on "Tipping My Fedora" to talk with Sergio about "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3", "The Conversation", "Farewell, My Lovely" and "All the President's Men" www.podbean.com/pw/pbblog-y2...

What do Ennio Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith, Michael Small and me have in common? They all feature in "Tipping My Fedora", the essential pod-guide to all things Noir, in which I talk with Sergio about neo-noir film music from the 1960s and 70s. www.podbean.com/pw/pbblog-y2...

#Dollarama Swift Current AB is closing. Just watched staff dumping trolley loads of stock into skips rather than move it back to the warehouse.

Here I am, talking about neo-noir film music…