Come join @cjprince.bsky.social, @tylekurner.bsky.social, Lena Wilson & me on Saturday afternoon as we ponder what we even mean by queer and trans stories? How has this shifted in the last 5, 10, 50 years (or more)? And what that means for what stories get told, reach you, and are still missing!

Update:

👥 Featuring Elspeth Brown, @emilygarside.bsky.social @bwestcineaste.bsky.social, Anamarija Horvat, Angelo Madsen, @cjprince.bsky.social, @tylekurner.bsky.social, and Lena Wilson 👉 Save your seat: seventh-row.com/livingoutloud

Kaouther Ben Hania's Venice winner The Voice of Hind Rajab is noble in its intentions but filled with questionable choices around its execution. Read @cjprince.bsky.social's review:

Stillz's Harmony Korine-backed Barrio Triste is exhilarating, tense, personal, enigmatic, and among this year’s best first features. Read @cjprince.bsky.social's review:

Arnaud Desplechin's Two Pianos is an ideal vision of the prestige film: handsomely mounted and splendidly acted while teeming with sudden tonal shifts and emotional volatility. Read @cjprince.bsky.social's TIFF review:

Genki Kawamura's videogame adaptation #Exit8 relies on horror’s tried-and-true method of leaning into allegory. Read @cjprince.bsky.social's TIFF review:

My annual round up of highlights from TIFF's Short Cuts programme is now live at @thefilmstage.com. As always, whittling it down to just ten films was difficult, and I wanted to mention other films I enjoyed and couldn't include... thefilmstage.com/10-must-see-...

Jay Kelly Rowling

I'm miserable

I got to see some titles from this year's Locarno Film Festival and wrote a few words about them. Includes Alexandre Koberidze's Dry Leaf, Jérôme Reybaud's A Balcony in Limoges, Julian Radlmaier's Phantoms of July, and Sho Miyake's Two Seasons, Two Strangers. open.substack.com/pub/acquired...

"Karsh, where we're going we don't need roads."

thank god

Deadline revealed today that TIFF withdrew its invite to this film from the festival over several issue, including legal clearance of footage in the documentary. deadline.com/2025/08/tiff...

TIFF uploaded a trailer today for a documentary about a former IDF general rescuing his family on October 7, even though it wasn't in their TIFF Docs press release and there isn't a film page on their site. They made the video private but the trailer can still be viewed here: vimeo.com/1105546177

Is it an anti-woke reboot or a TBI

There is no safe space to be a Luca Guadagnino hater

I wrote up some thoughts on a handful of films from the first half of 2025. Includes writing on Sinners, Warfare, Presence, Black Bag, Bring Her Back and more. open.substack.com/pub/acquired...

Me reading the news about Denis Villeneuve directing the new James Bond movie

Blue sky exclusive list of me fucking around

Cinematheque audiences

I wish I had someone to talk about this to, guess I am part of the select few now who saw the original cut

Materialists bad, Phoenician Scheme just okay, could a potential rewatch of Caught by the Tides save the weekend

The Life of Chuck tells a simple message, one Mike Flanagan tells with full-throated sincerity, and none of which rings true. Read @cjprince.bsky.social's review:

The longer a film series continues the more abstract it should become.

Wrote about three solid films playing in parallel sections at this year's Cannes: A Useful Ghost, Drifting Laurent, and Drunken Noodles. www.edgemedianetwork.com/story/339562

Bring Her Back is a new nadir of the grief/traumacore horror trend of recent years. At least prior trends like the New French Extremity didn't wrap their shitty juvenile instincts in an unearned sense of self-importance and "heavy" themes.

Wrote about three solid films playing in parallel sections at this year's Cannes: A Useful Ghost, Drifting Laurent, and Drunken Noodles. www.edgemedianetwork.com/story/339562

God forbid a region of France take a break from energy for a little bit

I can't manage more than one of these platforms. It feels like my parents follow me on here.

In his late 60s, Michael Rozek managed to get Isabelle Huppert to star in his directorial debut despite having no background in filmmaking. Now he's begging people to watch it. For Indiewire, I wrote about the unconventional story behind his film Marianne: www.indiewire.com/features/int...

In his late 60s, Michael Rozek managed to get Isabelle Huppert to star in his directorial debut despite having no background in filmmaking. Now he's begging people to watch it. For Indiewire, I wrote about the unconventional story behind his film Marianne: www.indiewire.com/features/int...

Had a fun time talking to Joel Potrykus last year about Vulcanizadora, which is also one of the best films to come out this year. Go see the film if it makes its way to you during its limited release, and check out my interview too.

You're describing a twitch stream

Kind of crazy to me that people are raving about a sequence in Sinners that comes across like a Super Bowl ad for Spotify

"I live for cinema, and I think that we need it to change if we want to survive, and you gotta have young people really care about it." Allen Sunshine director Harley Chamandy talks with @cjprince.bsky.social ahead of the screening of his debut this Friday at Roxy Cinema:

The Cannes Distribution Watch for 2025 is now online. Still waiting on Cannes Classics/Cinéma de la plage and any new additions in the main selection but everything else is there. open.substack.com/pub/acquired...

Watching Warfare in 4DX

By using a clever formal gimmick that limits events to a single perspective, the Slamdance Grand Jury Prize winner #TheAccident makes for a kinetic, creative, surprisingly funny experience. Read @cjprince.bsky.social's review as the film arrives on @fandorfilms.bsky.social:

Mission: Impossible dropping its trailer the same morning as the trailer for the new Wes Anderson film...weird ass rivalry.

Honoré Honoured To Honour Films On Or Made By Queers

Good question too!

I interviewed Alain Guiraudie about Misericordia for a brief but insightful chat. He told me I asked him something no one's ever asked him before. Don't know if that's a good or bad thing. Read it here www.edgemedianetwork.com/story/338670

I think co-opting issues around labour and unions in the film industry just so you can try to take a film you don't like down a peg is gross. People's livelihoods shouldn't be treated as pawns in extremely online point scoring.

"Lighthearted, Melodramatic, and Hateful"

People are being so weird about Sean Baker on Twitter

Part Two of my Slamdance 2025 coverage is online now. I review Richard Hunter's Foul Evil Deeds and Bean Mckee's Fanboy, both a part of the festival's Narrative Features strand open.substack.com/pub/acquired...