Now that I’m officially a registered independent it’s so easy to see how pernicious the word “bipartisan” is…

Only met him once but he was very good-natured and his blog and books are absolute treasures.

Danny Glover

Couple hours from now…

The magazines of my childhood/young adulthood: Ranger Rick Cricket National Geographic World Electric Company Magazine Boys’ Life Dragon Games Compute White Dwarf Rolling Stone BAM Spin Alternative Press

On Wednesday February 11 I’m returning to my alma mater Grinnell College in Iowa, to present on an almost-forgotten Maine record label events.grinnell.edu/event/38432-... (An I’m also performing a live soundtrack to one of my wife’s films on Thursday night.)

Setting up for this show now- gonna be a good one if you know anyone near Iowa City…

The last gasp of monoculture is seething contempt for JD Vance.

What unique claim do the following films have in common? EL NORTE (Gregory Nava, 1983) FARGO (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1996) 13 LAKES (James Benning, 2004) The answer can be found by perusing my newest Letterboxd list: boxd.it/Sj8xW/detail

My week…

20 great Westerns Hell’s Hinges The Pilgrim Greed The Big Trail Ruggles of Red Gap Wagon Master the Big Sky The Far Country Deputy Droopy 40 Guns Day of the Outlaw El Topo Quick Billy Buck and the Preacher China 9, Liberty 37 ¡O No Coronado! Tears of the Black Tiger Atanarjuat Shimásání First Cow

😡

Cool event in San Francisco tonight- more specifically at Artists’ Television Access, one of the last outposts of underground culture on Valencia Street!

RIGHT THEN, RIGHT NOW

Do I know anybody near Iowa City? Or anybody who knows anybody in Iowa City? Because on Monday I’ll be there (for the first time in 30 years) with my filmmaker spouse, who will be showing (mostly) 16mm works at a place called @icfilmscene.bsky.social (FilmScene). icfilmscene.org/film/the-cat...

I also just learned that searching Google Books is not working. It’s really bizarre. It appears at least some of the advanced search functions still work. 🗃️ inauthor: intitle: intext: insubject:

Just saw legendary independent filmmaker Rob Nilsson is presenting his 9@Night series at the @tenderloinmuseum.bsky.social in San Francisco! I’m briefly seen on screen in the last film GO TOGETHER, which screens February 26. Tonight USED, film #2 in the not-necessarily-chronological series screens

A fun one but it didn’t accept THE SAGA OF GOSTA BERLING as a Greta Garbo movie based on a book or play…

Lewis black knew he was gonna show up and got ahead of it with a very believable “they wanted to hang out but I realized they were freaks” and no one seems to be mad at him

Not sure but this reminds me of something I discovered when taking a screen shot from ONE FROGGY EVENING a while back. The text from the newspaper in this frame comes from an article about the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. A hidden-in-plain-sight message from Chuck Jones and his team?

When they say Me Too "went too far," they mean "got too close."

Noteworthy first views of January 2026 (new films excluded): Monrovia, Indiana (Frederick Wiseman, 2018) Jero on Jero: ‘A Balinese Trance Seance’ Observed (Patsy Asch, Timothy Asch & Linda Conner 1981) À Propos De Nice (Jean Vigo 30) Dogfight (Nancy Savoca 91) The Mask (Julian Roffman 61)

In eleven months James Whale’s FRANKENSTEIN and Tod Browning’s DRACULA enter the public domain at the same moment and you know they’re gonna be shipped to blazes.

“QAnon is a conspiracy theory in which Trump is a good person” is a penny drop phrasing that I think may drive me more insane than QAnon already did. One of the most purely psychotic and divorced from reality theories ever, all bc it’s impossible to rationally posit him as a decent human being

Oh my

Decided to rewatch this awards albatross following its entry onto the National Film Registry- liked it more than I’d remembered the first time around, and glad it got a couple oddball animators into the Registry through the side door…

Great film to see with a laughing audience

Wrong HOME ALONE 2 cast member

My first viewing from the new crop of #nationalfilmregistry inductees involves a Cecil B. DeMille bit player and is set partly at UC Berkeley. Was it actually shot there? Would love to hear opinions from campus experts willing to watch the 31-minute film online for free…

Am I really the first person to interact with this thread with a suggestion of Wisit Sasanatieng’s 2000 film TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER? (Maybe everyone else is a stickler for beginning the 21st Century in 2001?)

Finally catching up with some of my Letterboxd review backlog. Canada’s (maybe) first horror movie is something to behold, or at least its 3D sequences are…

There are years when the Registry skips over one of these decades (or the 10s, 20s, or 50s) but I don’t think any where they’ve skipped multiple. Carla Hayden went lighter on silent cinema than her predecessor James Billington so I’m glad to see an attempt at backfilling. No shorts past 1916 though?

Wow- the 2025 National Film Registry list has been revealed, and includes the oldest surviving student film. a Frank Borzage silent I’ve long wanted to see & the first Registry entries for Julie Taymor Ethan Hawke, Ken Burns, Jim Carrey & Edward Zwick but no selections from the 30s, 40s, 60s or 70s!

Five ‘70s flicks that you love and return to time and again: Take Off Take the 5:10 to Dreamland The Bead Game Wild Night in El Reno Kristallnacht

Many such cases

It’s a dangerous, often immoral industry that leaves vulnerable people in the dust and we’re all complicit because of our love of what the industry makes. This is why the people shunned BABYLON, it told the truth.

if you can stomach it, it's good to read all of this. (and if you can't: Josh is the one who looks way worse here)

there is no earthly reason to believe that these goons will comply with any new regulations! it’s like if I put a sign on my door ordering the pines not to drop their needles! they’re pines and those needles will drop! zero funding, “reform” my ass, this guy must be stopped

I always liked how Eddie Hazel was holding Billy Bass. They were so young and I believe they’re abroad in this picture. R.I.P. Billy Bass.

Good movie

*loading a pistol and getting back in the time machine* television as a concept's haunted

A Cinematrix puzzle where a Tommy Lee Jones row doesn’t include a single opportunity for me to use EYES OF LAURA MARS just makes me want to go back to bed and try again tomorrow.

San Francisco: The first of these shows starts in about half an hour, and the second (featuring one of my wife’s best films, made long before we met) a couple hours after that!

A film company logo that tells you you’re about to see highly entertaining greatness

They’re selling the HÄXÄN disc including the Matti Bye score for less than ten quid (plus shipping)

I wish No Other Choice had been nominated for something, for the selfish reason that I couldn’t squeeze a viewing into my San Francisco holiday trip, never made it to Portland during its run ending yesterday, & it seems unlikely to be brought to any other Maine cinemas without the Oscar excuse.

Just remembered I still haven’t seen ANORA…

Disappointed NOUVELLE VAGUE couldn’t make it on the Best Casting nominee list.