If you’ve ever wished for Paul Thomas Anderson to be an Oscar front runner or for a major American film to engage with leftist politics, the current wave of annoying blowback is the price you pay for those wishes.

#NowWatching Summer of Sam (Spike Lee, 1999)

#NowWatching Roofman (Derek Cianfrance, 2025)

the thing that ties together the attack on Venezuela, Grok making revenge porn, and ICE killing bystanders and lying about it is that the fascist project is about telling you that they can do whatever they want and you can't do anything about it

What mealy-mouth platitudinous horseshit

I think it was @deepimpactcrier.bsky.social who said that the trailer for the new season of THE PITT had a warmer, less digitally antiseptic look than the first season, and watching the premiere right after the “Previously On” segment really confirmed that observation.

Me to elected Democrats, basically every day.

Divisive, alienating late style heater incoming

Interestingly, right after FOREVER, Paramount announced they were developing a revival of the show for Paramount+. That would have been fun, I'm sure, but I'm happy to see the ambitions of these old cretins remain too big for the small screen.

In a small bit of positive news, I just finalized the licensing agreement on, by some margin, my most prestigious publication to date.

I don't think you can truly grapple with where we are, and how we come back from it, without recognizing this is not a constitutionally legitimate government and he is not the lawful president of the United States.

If they can kill her, they can kill any one of you.

Alana, you get your eyes off of him. He’s only 3 years old.

Rewatched BOOGIE NIGHTS recently, and it struck me how it works as such an excellent bookend with ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, particularly thinking of the protagonists as self-effacing PTA stand-ins. The young, coked-out hotshot becomes the perpetually stoned girl-dad.

Less than 40 bucks and the absolute worst movie in the collection was still partially directed by John Ford. Seems like a steal.

#NowWatching Predator: Badlands (Dan Trachtenberg, 2025)

MAGA appointee Bari Weiss has instantly made CBS News more extremist and disinfo-heavy than Newsmax:

#NowWatching The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt, 2025)

Forget the FIFA Peace Prize, how about the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to the ghoul who begged for Trump's military intervention

Kicking off 2026 with disgusting American foreign policy. Already seeing people trot out the old “we’ll be treated as liberators” line. Everything old is new again.

Ok it was my older brother who sent it :) thank you Lance @gentledoofus.bsky.social

Hell yeah

New year, same Varang. Now seated for AVATAR round 2

As usual, I won’t be posting a year-end list until mid to late January so I can catch up with a few more films. Until then, enjoy my real annual labor of love.

Seems like my last movie of 2025 is going to be BOOGIE NIGHTS (wife’s never seen) and my first film of 2026 will be a second (and final) theatrical viewing of AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH.

My 2025 was all about one thing and one thing only.

#NowWatching It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi, 2025)

Baby got some ENCANTO toys for Xmas, and because I’m a weird completionist, we’re watching it now.

Watching SESAME STREET with the baby and I nearly gasped when they said the number of the day was 0. This is my life now.

She’s in hot girl hell now 😢

So I haven’t watched STRANGER THINGS since season 1, but the vibe I’m getting is very final season of GAME OF THRONES. Terrible writing, bloated budgets, and bets on kid actors that went bust once they got older.

Got a few duplicate Criterion 4Ks, unopened. Looking to sell or trade. MALCOLM X, THE FISHER KING, and GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE

I know it’s become a cliche for anything that distracts idiots, but jingling keys in front of a baby really does do the trick.

One of my favorite things about Marty Mauser is that he is constantly making inappropriate jokes about WWII *way* earlier than would be acceptable. A specific historical character trait that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

Family let me slip out for a late screening of MARTY SUPREME last night, so my good Christmas deed will be watching the baby while my wife and in-laws see AVATAR in Imax.

Can we get Jack Fisk a damn Oscar this year? He’s doing incredible work in Marty Supreme, somehow toeing a line between classical period detail and Safdie urban grit.

#NowWatching Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie, 2025)

The Ghost of Christmas Future Perfect: “You will have been visited by me.”

Joke I just caught in MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL. Since there are two Marleys, one is Jacob, much like the book, and the other is Robert, as in Bob, Marley

This Christmas, moviegoing audiences have an important choice to make about the size of dream they prefer.

Genuine question about THE ODYSSEY: if it was shot entirely with IMAX cameras, one assumes at a 1.43 ratio, why is the trailer (and the non-IMAX release?) in 2.39 instead of 1.85?

Damn Twitter account appears to have been hacked. How's everyone over here?

Pausing the ongoing LOONEY TUNES project for a seasonally appropriate Chuck Jones masterpiece

Do critics get screeners to AVATAR? If so, I would appreciate if one could reach out to me for a unique request.

Chris Evans stars in ALL THAT KEVIN ALLOWS

Made it to one of my favorite subreddits (for the record, I set the height to precisely eye level when seated on the couch, so not too high)

#NowWatching F1 (Joseph Kosinski, 2025)

Folks, I don't like to be a stickler, but the costumes in this ODYSSEY adaptation do not strike me as historically accurate.