Twilight of the Warriors snuck on to my Hardboiled list last year! kino-ventura.blogspot.com/2024/12/best...

Just nabbed a discounted copy of Narc on 4K which reminded me that Carnahan's The Rip is dropping this month. I love what he's saying about it and not allergic to Damon and Affleck (esp. in genre mode), remaining cautiously optimistic.

Was thinking I already had a copy of this, but was confusing it with Shock Treatment - also with Delon but a very different movie!

Someone wrote to me and let me know that they actually look forward to my annual review every year. That'll keep me going for another 12 months.

The MNFCA awards just dropped! No big surprises, I think a lot of us are aligned on some of the major films this year. I was happy to see Stellan Skarsgård get the nod for supporting actor though. mnfca.com/2026/01/02/m...

I'm back at the job I get paid to do, but I also do a bunch of writing for absolutely no money. You can't afford to not subscribe to this newsletter: kinoventura.beehiiv.com/p/welcome-al...

It's the first Friday of 2026 so I'm doing my first #LastFourWatched of the year. Silent Partner was the last movie I watched in 2025 and The Apartment was my first for the new year. Not a bad start. I'll be posting a review of Maldoror this month. Short version: it's good!

Also for your 2026 reading pleasure, I posted my annual year in review on the blog. Like the last few years, it's largely a celebration of seeing great movies with other human beings: kino-ventura.blogspot.com/2026/01/2025...

My first ever newsletter is live! I wanted to get some thoughts down on the THREE Westlake film adaptations that released in 2025. I hope you check it out and subscribe for future missives about crime fiction. kinoventura.beehiiv.com/p/welcome-al...

My first ever newsletter is live! I wanted to get some thoughts down on the THREE Westlake film adaptations that released in 2025. I hope you check it out and subscribe for future missives about crime fiction. kinoventura.beehiiv.com/p/welcome-al...

What an unimpeachably amazing double feature! If you want to hear me groggily express my adoration of Penn's ultra bleak noir, I joined the @trylovepodca.st guys to discuss it a while back. podbay.fm/p/trylove/e/...

Something I'm planning on playing around with in 2026 is a newsletter. I've already written a piece and will post on NYD this week. However, if you want to be one of the first to have it sent to your inbox, you can sing up today! kinoventura.beehiiv.com

Something I'm planning on playing around with in 2026 is a newsletter. I've already written a piece and will post on NYD this week. However, if you want to be one of the first to have it sent to your inbox, you can sing up today! kinoventura.beehiiv.com

The longest LB review I've written (and probably will ever write) is for Castle of Cagliostro. It's a movie I've been watching for decades and I still consider it one of the great adventure films. letterboxd.com/kino_ventura...

I'm not a fan of the Knives Out series, but I do wish we could get a mystery movie in theaters every December as a kind of tradition. Make them faster, cheaper, definitely shorter, and keep the stakes low. I would go every year.

Working on my annual year in review post and reminded that I made a YT playlist based on the I Knew Her Well soundtrack at the beginning of the year: youtube.com/playlist?lis...

There's plenty of middling contemporaneous reviews of Kansas City, but I'd argue it's close to 4 stars just with the music and Belafonte's performance. Add in the period detail and one of Altman's most cutting portraits of American myth-making and it's an absolute banger. #LastFourWatched

You will be visited by three spirits. The spirits:

I don't know that it will come to anything, but I did nominate Heger for our local critics' awards. Genuinely impressive stuff.

You never know what I might stumble across before the end of the year, but I think it's safe to publish my "discoveries" list of 2025. These are memorable first time watches that aren't also widely recognized classics: letterboxd.com/kino_ventura...

Bingo: "Frankly, it feels like a male fantasy of what emotional adulthood looks like"

Definitely hitting fatigue with my #LastFourWatched Got a few new releases to catch this weekend then I’m as ready for voting as I’m going to get

Released #OTD in 1972 #filmsky

A very happy Peter Hujar's Day to all who celebrate

The new @filmsradiance.bsky.social trailer for Illustrious Corpses popped up in my feed today and weirdly the last time I watched it was exactly 3 years ago. It's a marvelous 70s conspiracy thriller AND a masterclass in men's eyewear youtu.be/GPFLK9UEgZo?...

I will organize an entire evening around a visit to Good Time. I roll with their cheese pizza + pickled peppers.

Film can be a weird world to make pals - you spend a lot of time in dark rooms not talking to anyone - but I ran into folks going into and coming out of a screening last night and we were all seeing different stuff. Nice little scene we've got going here.

Happy to finally be able to upgrade my dvd copy of Classe Tous Risques, but maybe one or two new special features would have been cool. I'd would have gladly written something!

Glad to see someone banging the drum for Fucktoys but sad that that's the only one of these movies I've even seen. Would love for these to get some decent distribution indiewire.com/lists/best-u...

@themaincinema.bsky.social is coming out hot in early January with Resurrection, No Other Choice, and Father Mother Sister Brother. However, they're also doing a screening of Metropolitan with Whit Stillman in person. What else could you have to do on a Wednesday? mspfilm.org/show/metropo...

Once again I'm grateful that the MNFCA nomination and voting window is towards the end of the month. Really loved Peter Hujar's day and it's playing at The Walker next month! #LastFourWatched

I confess I have some reservations about this BUT I've also seen too many ultra-awesome small independent theaters close not to have some hope in the concept wbez.org/movies-tv/20...

Drop something BADASS 👊🏻🖤😎 youtu.be/f3DXfK5ECF8?...

Despite the Sweeney controversy, the timing of the film's release in theaters and the film's rudimentary plotting, there's a really good performance here by both Sweeney and Foster, for a very important story of abuse and homophobia. boxd.it/c0GzBL

I haven't seen The Brink's Job in a few years. I liked it enough to write a review a while back and this new piece might nudge me towards a rewatch soon.

Was not expecting Reflection in a Dead Diamond on many critics' lists. I can dig it.

I'm in the thick of it now. Happy Awards Season to all who soldier through it #LastFourWatched

Very cool! @musicboxfilms.com and @vinsyn.bsky.social are releasing El Jockey/Kill the Jockey. I included this one in my Hardboiled Top 10 for the year: kino-ventura.blogspot.com/2025/12/best... vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/...

This one still has a shockingly low number of views on LB. I reviewed it there: letterboxd.com/kino_ventura...

Crucial stuff. Unbelievably helpful to a guy like me who doesn't always know what to look for(or what to request) at my local shops.

I've never been able to fully answer the question of how Richard Crenna wound up in this movie, but it's great and it's a solid December choice as well.

Great piece, I would have loved to see Reflection in a Dead Diamond theatrically

One final repost of this list, check it out!

This was very high on my anticipated list for the year. Really hoping the TC market is part of "select US theaters"

I find Minneapolitans' cold weather resiliency generally overhyped but I saw some kids with blank skate decks (no trucks/wheels) doing rail slides into the snow at Smith Triangle Park last night, and that's pretty cool.

It's that time of year again - my Hardboiled Top 10 Film List! I really enjoyed putting this together last year and decided to keep the tradition alive. Check it out, tell me I'm wrong, tell me I'm right, and let me know what I missed! kino-ventura.blogspot.com/2025/12/best...

Working out of order on this one. I’ve already seen Park Chan Wook’s loose adaptation, gonna read the original, and eventually track down the Costa-Gavras version

Very little info seems to exist on Godfather's Fury (1978), but that's one heck of a poster image

Desert Island actor filmography? Hideo Murota is regularly one of my most watched actors, but I might go with Willem Dafoe. Deep catalog, lots of variety. Plenty of faves, too.