Just met with an undergrad who is considering a PhD and has met with like ten different scholars for advice. About an hour into our meeting I thought to mention that any credible PhD program should offer a full tuition waiver and a salary. Not one other person had brought this up

Finally read this after watching Suspiria, folks it's the real deal, tap in, posthaste

Winking, self-referential hokum in a lesser filmmaker's hands becomes a staging ground for some of Carpenter's most elementally strange and unsettling ideas and images. Despite its explicit reference points, too distinctive ever to collapse into pastiche, or even simple homage

Now seated for a 35mm screening (umpteenth viewing)

CHOTINER: So you asked for a Birkin bag? KOKO: Yes. Possession Bag. CHOTINER: And you had the funds to acquire this? KOKO: No, Professor Purchase Koko Gorilla CHOTINER: That doesn't sound like the funds were justifiable. KOKO: Hostility Interviewer

In honor of the season of the witch, I wrote about Suspiria, and about Argento's evolving vision of witchcraft as extraction. Hope you enjoy! peterraleigh.substack.com/p/sighs-from...

Last boost of the night - thanks for reading folks

I have probably watched SUSPIRIA seven times and nothing like the "the witches are rapacious capitalists" reading that Peter suggests here (and supports thoroughly with many downright obvious textual examples) ever occurred to me. Just right over my head. Goddamn, I gotta watch it again.

By the by, if you're not reading @petreraleigh.bsky.social's film criticism blog, Long Library, you should be.

I remember the first time I saw his name in opening credits and said "oh that's Vincent Cassel's dad. I wonder if I'll be able to tell which one he is." Lmao

Suspiria is a film I've "been meaning to get to" for over five years at this point but I'm gonna watch it tomorrow just to read this piece. If you've already seen it or don't care about spoilers read this piece right now!!!!

In honor of the season of the witch, I wrote about Suspiria, and about Argento's evolving vision of witchcraft as extraction. Hope you enjoy! peterraleigh.substack.com/p/sighs-from...

Pete Buttigieg endorses aid restrictions to Israel, Seth Moulton is running away from AIPAC at full speed, Mallory McMorrow says it's a genocide, meanwhile Cory Booker says that asking if Netanyahu is a war criminal is unfair. What the hell is happening? I take a stab at it in the piece below.

I really thought I was never going to go down the "in-class writing assignments only" route but the AI situation is reaching the point where I may have no other choice. Hard to even describe how bad an outcome this would be pedagogically or how dire the situation has become for writing instruction

They’re doing this because it’s so successful

Fun as hell thread here

Look sometimes you put on a few and a wardrobe update is expensive

Since it's that time of year I'm going to re-share my Halloween piece from last year, about two of my favorite films of the season. Tap in if you didn't last October (or hell, even if you did!)

For its 30th anniversary I wrote about STRANGE DAYS, its prophetic vision of the future, Kathryn Bigelow’s formal mastery, and how it ends things on a bold glimmer of hope. Now live over at InReviewOnline: inreviewonline.com/2025/10/15/s...

Whiffing on three grand juries is crazy. I didn't even think that was possible

Since it's that time of year I'm going to re-share my Halloween piece from last year, about two of my favorite films of the season. Tap in if you didn't last October (or hell, even if you did!)

Don’t share much writing anymore because really what’s the point but here’s the time I wrote about The Devil’s Rejects, a true masterpiece of a crumbling American empire: inreviewonline.com/2023/01/13/t...

wrote briefly about architecture and the situation at u Chicago www.thenation.com/article/cult...

The next time someone posts this kind of breakdown I'm determined to make the cut

Liberal pro-Israel politics in the United States and the Anglosphere writ large relies upon an idealized version of a state which does not exist, a political elite which does not act the way the West pretends it does, and a civil society which is far more conservative than the West likes to imagine.

Howdy folks. Will try to be more active over here. If we haven't talked in awhile then I hope you're well! If we just talked I still hope that but have more recent evidence.

Have I ever said that I think THE INSIDER is the greatest movie ever made? Well, for my In Review Online debut, I write about the movie's relevant understanding of journalism's capitulating limitations and how those themes are elevated by Mann's signatures. inreviewonline.com/2025/09/30/w...

Boosting this one very late but I had a truly great time talking about a couple of really interesting Shannon/Herzogs - one of them, Daniella and I agree, criminally under-seen!

Not a new point, but the assumption underlying this idea is that children are simply extensions of their parents’ political ethos and will never divert from it, an idea that is immediately, obviously untrue.

Sharing again for the evening crowd! Hope we're all having a good one

When they built this in the 90s there was talk of putting up signs warning drivers on the highway so that it wouldn’t be a dangerous distraction. But they couldn’t figure out what the sign could possibly say that would make any sense. “Weird building in 800ft” isn’t very helpful

👇👇👇

For Long Library this week, I wrote a little about Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest and a lot more about Tony Scott's Taking of Pelham 123. Hope you enjoy! peterraleigh.substack.com/p/after-the-...

Folks, for Long Library, I wrote about Austen's Persuasion, and seeing the whole of a happy life, and being of use. Hope you enjoy! peterraleigh.substack.com/p/something-...

It must be possible to add a function to my phone whereby if I reject a scam call it will not take that call to my goddamn voicemail

For the evening crowd!

A really lovely article on Persuasion.

like so many products to come out of silicon valley in the last decade or so, AI is a legal innovation masquerading as a tech innovation. the legal theory seems to be that AI is entitled to everything but liable for nothing.

Folks, for Long Library, I wrote about Austen's Persuasion, and seeing the whole of a happy life, and being of use. Hope you enjoy! peterraleigh.substack.com/p/something-...

Sehr guter Essay über Western als der böse Blick auf die USA.

For Long Library, I wrote about Man of the West, Ride the High Country, and the dark heart of the "classic western." Tap in! peterraleigh.substack.com/p/land-of-tr...

The reason it feels like a lot of very famous people are dying lately is because the boomers were the last generation with access to intergenerational and nationwide fame for an extremely broad range of talents and professions, and their actuarial tables are starting to roll over.

A great article about two great movies. This "dorm room cinephile" idea of Westerns is unfortunate, but very common

This is a great read if you like Westerns.

"There have been ‘revisionist westerns’ as long as there have been westerns... [and] the western’s heyday from the 40s to the 60s produced films of astonishing bleakness and cynicism, exploring the pathologies at the heart of the American national project." Truth!

For Long Library, I wrote about Man of the West, Ride the High Country, and the dark heart of the "classic western." Tap in! peterraleigh.substack.com/p/land-of-tr...

this whole thing smacks of gender