I don’t quite understand the NIRVAN[N]A THE BAND webseries joke in which Matt says, for no reason that makes any contextual sense “SEX AND THE CITY theme!” and Jay immediately sits at the piano and starts playing the theme to the ‘90s animated X-MEN show, but it made me laugh anyway.

Congratulations to ELLA MCCAY on getting a higher Skandies average than SPANGLISH (but not than HOW DO YOU KNOW). #fridaynightpartyanimal

“This piece should really be written by someone Gen X.” “What if the best writer for it is just honorary Gen X?” “You mean Vikram? [Boyega voice] Allow it.”

Translation: I barely read anything and what little I do read I don’t understand.

Read economic analysis noting that certain consumer items, like flat-screen TVs, have become markedly less expensive recently and dude it is 2026, you can just say TVs now, they’re all flat-screen, try getting in your horseless carriage and finding a big ol’ tube set.

Rewatching WHAT HAPPENED WAS… for the first time since it opened (don’t even recall my opinion, though it wasn’t on my top 10 that year) and three minutes in Noonan executes a stunning cut within a whip-pan. R.I.P. (Warning for epileptics?)

Was going through old Usenet posts and found one that makes me feel positively decrepit. (This was in reference to a review of THE GAME I wrote for Entertainment Weekly.)

It’s really too bad that social media (and smartphone cameras) didn’t exist in 1997 so that people could’ve done the IN & OUT challenge in theater lobbies.

What hardy soul will devote I’m gonna estimate about 130 hours to giving us “Every Frederick Wiseman Film, Ranked”?

I mean, what are they gonna say when he's gone? 'Cause he dies when it dies, when it dies, he dies! What are they gonna say about him? He was a kind man? He was a wise man? (They will simply say: He was Wiseman.)

My first goofy thought was “Oh, man, I *just* saw him in THE OUTFIT” (a film he starred in 53 years ago). In my mind, for just an instant, that was emotionally equivalent to “But I had lunch with her just the other day.” The power of movies and acting.

Petition to retitle 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU as THE “TAMING” OF THE “SHREW.”

How can we sell Bud Cort to the kids? Is there a EUPHORIA connection?

Hands up everybody else who saw Kelly Reichardt’s RIVER OF GRASS first-run in 1995. YEAH THAT’S WHAT I THOUGHT PUNKS.

Think I’ve now seen four distinct accounts of what inspired the El Paso weirdness, not one of which remotely explains why airspace needed to be shut down for 10 days nor why it would then be possible to say “Nvm, eight hours was sufficient.”

Is there a Pulitzer Prize for a single sentence? (Author: Josh Tyrangiel)

Have been rewatching favorite Catherine O’Hara SCTV sketches and was reminded that she and Andrea Martin performed what’s more or less the DOGTOOTH dance. (They’re playing 11- or 12-year-olds but the effect’s quite similar.) youtu.be/NMKFl14o_BA?...

brb, off to make Burj Khalifa look tall.

Finally!* * Must be 55 years or older to appreciate this reference.

Not anticipating this is sheer idiocy. Incredible.

“Look, we’ve made life terrible for our voters. It’s important that we at least make life even more terrible for the people they irrationally despise. We can’t take that away from them.”

Great idea, MUBI, let's go back and make sure all of Rosi's docs sport more helpful titles. Murderer: El Sicario, Room 164 Highway: Sacro GRA Immigration: Fire at Sea War: Notturno

Fell in love with Catherine O’Hara at age 14 when I used to sneak out of bed to watch SCTV at 12:30am. The second screenplay I wrote, in 1991, was meant (in my young delusional mind) for her to star in—a mostly non-comedic role that I was certain she could pull off. Was not ready for this yet.

With deliberate irony I plan to spend this on a Criterion box set.

We need a Congressional investigation into what happened to Paul Haggis (and Robert Moresco) between EZ STREETS and CRASH.

How prevalent were 70mm blow-ups in the ‘80s? I just discovered that I almost certainly saw ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING in 70mm.

Chuckling to myself about this exchange, neither part of which any non-cinephile would even recognize as an attempt at humor.

Also rewatched BARAKA in 70mm (pretty sure the print I saw in ’93 was 35, given the venue), an experience you should leap at should it come within range.

Rewatched RETURN TO OZ last night with Walter Murch in attendance and he related a remark someone (I forget who) made to Anthony Minghella following terrible test-screenings results for RIPLEY: “When you’re taking the audience to hell and back, the front of the bus needs to say TO HELL AND BACK.”

Who do we think I was behind? Lasseter?

This is more explainlikeimone.

“I can’t see me lovin’ nobody but you for all my life” is actually quite ambiguously phrased.

Kill it with fire.

WICKED not even being nominated for the exact same production design and costumes that won it Oscars last year reminded me that my annual cinephile survey, the Skandies, awarded Best Actress to Uma Thurman for KILL BILL VOL. 1 and then didn’t “nominate” her (she placed 6th) for VOL. 2.

I attended Sundance 11 times from 2005–2020, the last trip featuring nervous chatter at the condo about a highly contagious virus that was in the news. Dunno whether I’ll ever go to the CO version. Regardless, some favorites I saw there.

Rarely do these prompts but I’m reading T.C. Boyle’s TALK TALK (nearly 20 years after I bought it) and page 42 sentence 2 happens to be pretty good. Too long for Bsky character count, Boyle loves commas.

Babies born when BALLAST premiered start college this year.

Watching A$AP Rocky on SNL and somehow also watching someone I saw perform live in 1983.

@msicism.bsky.social Is there. Is there a stone.

He answered!

Radu Jude’s doing an AMA tomorrow and I’m really hoping he’ll answer this question (which I’ve now submitted).

Zoey Deutch appears to currently be on the exact same safari (Okavanga Delta, Botswana) that I took last April. I recognize everything on her IG.

@scottrenshaw.bsky.social DoThey. DoTheyDream.

Anyone else have a retail job decades ago that required facing bills and still obsessively turn all your bills the same way for no reason whatsoever? Related: Anyone else still use cash?

“What kind of movies did he make?” This kind.

There’ve only been four films since 1975 (when the NSFC was formed) that have swept NBR, NYFCC, LAFCA and NSFC. Schindler’s List (1993) L. A. Confidential (1997) The Social Network (2010) One Battle After Another (2025) Only SCHINDLER also won the Oscar, decent chance this becomes the 2nd time.

Last film that won Best Picture from NBR, NYFCC, LAFCA and NSFC was THE SOCIAL NETWORK.