Blast of Silence is available as a @criterion.bsky.social Blu-ray with cover art by me! observer.co.uk/culture/film... @guylodge.bsky.social

My @sightsoundmag.bsky.social top 10, with a few additional notes. All world premieres since November 2024 (the deadline for last year’s list), so not in line with any release calendar. Browse all the individual lists here: www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

People always say these lists are just PR-created, but what publicist would choose GOOD FORTUNE, and why

Taken back for a second by the Year in Review on my fitness app

Good.

Sirat! Sirat! Sirat! Sirat! Sirat! (One exclamation for each shortlist mention.) press.oscars.org/news/98th-os...

RIGHT HERE: click the first link called Finsbury Park bowling alley Click “No” to say you do not support the proposal Then give an IMPASSIONED PLEA to save Rowan’s in the box asking for reasons why. Please don’t let them take it away 😫😫😫😫😫 haringeynewlocalplan.commonplace.is/en-GB/propos...

One of the great failures of contemporary political news coverage in a lot of media is the unspoken principle that no violation of norms or decency by Trump is really news, worthy of sustained attention, unless it also upsets people who love him. It isn't "not taking the bait"; it's sleepwalking.

Thrilled with this year’s London Critics’ Circle Film Awards nominations, a nice rangy selection that runs the gamut from ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER to SIRĀT to SINNERS to WEAPONS. Full list here: criticscircle.org.uk/one-battle-a...

Here’s my Film Comment ballot — it’s going by the US release calendar, so several of these were on my personal best-of-2024 list, but whatever: great films for any year.

As per usual, a great @filmcomment.com.web.brid.gy list of the year’s best. www.filmcomment.com/best-films-o...

My review of Kate Winslet’s directorial debut GOODBYE JUNE, the latest of several 2025 releases to be missing a comma (see also: DIE MY LOVE, IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU), though this one’s missing other things too. variety.com/2025/film/re...

Congratulations to promising ingenue Rose Byrne on her breakthrough, just 25 years after winning Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival.

Reviewed JAY KELLY, which is ungood.

Chalamet is very good as an exasperatingly hubristic narcissist in Marty Supreme, and let’s just leave it there!

What happens when most of the viable contenders for Best Actor in a Drama are either dubiously classified as being in comedies, or even more dubiously classified as supporting actors.

Nominating a Netflix movie for “Cinematic and Box Office Achievement” is top-tier trolling by the Globes, well done

Laxe!

YES

Hometown advantage, sure, but incredible choice either way.

From the replies and retweets here, it’s clear Brazilian Film Twitter has another dog in the hunt.

And Byrne storms on! No surprise, but still exciting to see such an adventurous performance in such an abrasive film getting this much love.

Very cool.

FUCK YEAH

Yes!

Such rich and pleasurable reading, even when I don’t co-sign the choices, though I co-sign so many of Justin’s that my eventual list will look like I’m copying his homework.

Best Casting AND Ensemble? Seems the Critics’ Choice Awards don’t really understand what casting is, but know the Oscars have an award for it now, so this is the best they can do.

Is this in any way offputting to Farage’s supporters, though?

A truly excellent list, and likely the only top ten where you’ll see Zach Cregger’s WEAPONS nestled right next to Alexandre Koberidze’s DRY LEAF. (The latter very little-seen thus far, so a particularly delightful surprise that its champions came through so strongly.)

And the winner is… ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER Paul Thomas Anderson’s incendiary portrait of modern America has been voted best film of 2025 by our critics Find out what Sight and Sound critics have voted as the 50 best films of the year www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

This is such terribly sad news. Tammie was always so kind, so helpful, so infectiously enthusiastic — this loss leaves the festival world so much poorer. www.screendaily.com/news/tammie-...

Even by National Board of Review standards, that’s a notably terrible list.

Why say this though

Tuned out for a while but excellent choices down the line!

Recently caught up with this and I’m happy for the kids, but we really are looking at an exceptionally thin animated race this year.

The streak had to break! (I get why a lot of people love this work though.)

Excellent choice!

Excellent choice!

Excellent choice!

Excellent choice!

There has been a change of plans in my next (now current) free to all Reading Project post. My review of Louis CK's novel INGRAM is going up on its own (with added comments on HAROLD by Steven Wright). Please read! billryan64.substack.com/p/everything...

He’s obviously written far more offensive things, but this from Jeff Wells, on how to pronounce “popular”, might be his most demented moment.

I remember last year, when I referred to splitting the musical into two films as a cash-grab, some fan corrected me that it was an artistic choice that allowed the universe to be explored in so much more detail. And clearly they were right!

A movie that takes place where you’re from.

Ah yes, the Virtuosity Award for being virtuous

Come to read Justin on his very best pun game, but stay for the most detailed and on-point breakdown I’ve read of what a sad retrofitting exercise this all is.

Add “oral sex” to the long, long, long list of things that make Jeff Wells uncomfortable

On reflection, retitling it WICKED: FOR GOOD was the right move, as it’s the only way for those of us who don’t know the musical to tell which of the almost entirely indistinguishable songs in the second half is supposed to be the big one

You know when you’re watching a movie at home and you really need to go to the bathroom, so you pause it, and then start it again, only to find there were only five minutes left? Make those five minutes 135 minutes, and that’s WICKED: FOR GOOD.

A rave for SIRĀT, the movie of the year: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...