I know this is corny to say but this is the real America, man. This is what it’s all about. This is what those freaks are trying to destroy & we won’t let them

Béla Tarr, 1955-2026 🤍

The fact that someone calculated that a $25,000,000 political donation in a six month period was a rational business decision says a lot about how precarious the people pushing AI think the fate of the technology is.

Holiday sale! $19 for an entire year of Bright Wall/Dark Room, including full access to the 1500+ essays we’ve published since 2013. Each subscription *directly* helps support independent media & the writers, editors, and artists who make each new issue possible. Coupon code: HOLIDAY2025

Record breaking prices for artwork sales do not, sadly, represent an investment in art and artists. Investors are reducing their taxable profits before the end of the tax year with big one-off purchases while universities cut their humanities faculties and artists earn less than minimum wage.

New today on the site: “Ivan Dixon’s THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (1973) is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet, a vicious bit of malware streamed through hijacked plutocrat satellites.” - Bryan Miller

One of the kindest, most thoughtful, committed platforms for film writing out there. You get so much beauty with a subscription!

New today: "At its core, HIGH NOON is a parable about civic abandonment, the inherent danger in waiting for the moment to act & discovering that no one will stand beside you—a quality which makes it an apt tale for our current political moment." - Riley Womack (🎨 by @studioralston.bsky.social)

New today! "Seen through the prism of Samsara—the Buddhist cycle of rebirth driven by ignorance & attachment—BARTON FINK becomes a spiritual classroom wherein karma serves as teacher & each turn of the wheel offers the same lesson until it's learned." - J.D. Biard (🎨 by @mosesleeart.bsky.social)

Still reeling from this, still need a whole lotta help to cover next year, if you feel so inclined, consider a subscription?

Watching the Wheels: Finding Meaning and Purpose in PATERSON

New on the site! Our brand new Teachers issue kicks off with @dodgyboffin.com's Double Features column on ROAD HOUSE and MAGIC MIKE

Real talk (reel talk?): BWDR recently lost a partnership that covered nearly half our operating budget, so things are suddenly very tough. If what we do has ever meant something to you, or you’ve ever thought about subscribing, now’s the time—it *truly* makes a difference.

It’s still shocking and still painful. The venture capitalesque dismantling of public good continues. To see these ghouls care so little of our great civic accomplishments is a boot heel on my soul…

Ugh, what was the other bisky topic of the day? This is exhausting, you all live like this?

Patriarchal society tells men that they can only experience tenderness in a sexual context, then capitalist agents exploit this fear of being unloved in order to sell them nonsense. This leaves young men at loggerheads with the communities and avenues they’ve been pitted against

MOTHRA - Premiered in Japan this day in 1961

New today on the site! “Consider how THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS revolves around vision. Not only perception, but empathy and hindsight, and the non-empirical prick of intuition, where vision exceeds the reach of training.” - Veronica Fitzpatrick (art by @bturnerinfo.bsky.social)

My professor Steven Bach, producer of Heaven’s Gate, once took me to task in front of our entire class for suggesting Gummo was a film worthy of notice. It’ll always have a place in my heart for that. Go read Nathaniel’s piece. Gummo is good actually

BW/DR continuing to be the most interesting film writing around, a truly thoughtful report on a fascinating slate

"In principle, apocalypse might imply a clean, sudden ending, but in practice, it’s a drawn-out and uneven descent. I can think of few works of art that understand this better than THE LEFTOVERS." - @sophiastewart.bsky.social

New today on the site! The Jonathan Demme issue continues, with @lindseyromain.bsky.social on RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (art by @ohhhaeee.bsky.social)

New today on the site: Our new Jonathan Demme issue kicks off with post @eccantwell.bsky.social on Talking Heads, Demme, STOP MAKING SENSE, absurdity & anchors, existentialism, bodies in motion, and the transcendent joy of art in this moment (🎨 by @studioralston.bsky.social)

Today I’m learning that a lot of people don’t read biographies of directors that they like. Which is fine! But also, I’ve got some bad news for you about a lot of other directors…

sorry i don’t think Zohran’s win indicates how state or national races will go. Zohran campaigned against unaffordable basic needs and an old pervert. problems that are unique to new york city and no where else in the country

You should subscribe to some of the best film writing around! Support independent film thoughts. Find joy!

Hey guys! I got to go long on the complex beauty of community in Miyazaki’s films over at @bwdr.bsky.social - thank you to @chadperman.bsky.social for helping shape this into something I’m really excited for you all to read www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/06/27/c...

New today on the site— The Community issue continues, with @thisishannahkim.bsky.social on KINDS OF KINDNESS and WOMEN TALKING: "A certain kind of kindness and a certain kind of despair start to sound like the same tune."

“Setting your house on fire is just meant to distract you from the other house fires!” Oh really? You ghouls, you absolute cowardly revenants

“Killing these people is a distraction from these other people they’re going to kill!” Like… okay? Seems like the right thing to do is pretty obvious

Again, the single greatest problem (among the many problems of being ruled by 9 Wizards In Robes) with SCOTUS is that its "conservative" members systematically ignore science, history, data, empirical evidence, & statistics. The fascism comes robed in parlor game theories, gut feelings, & anecdotes.

transition care for trans people is life saving healthcare. the only regret with my transition is that i didn’t start when i was younger. fuck everyone who is cheering on the destruction legal trans healthcare, and fuck those indifferent to it

We're living through unfathomably terrible times for civil rights and human rights. If you've got the chance to vote in a primary this year, I recommend voting for the furthest left person on your ballot. The "centrists" are not ready for these times and will bargain away our rights.

My heart breaks for trans kids, who do not deserve this obsessive animus that adults are directing at them.

New today on the site: The community issue continues, with @rileywomack.bsky.social on John Sayles' LONE STAR (1996) (art by @mosesleeart.bsky.social)

New today on the site! The community issue continues, with @amembrey.bsky.social on SHORT TERM 12

Feels a little weird to publish an essay that’s about my personal LA depression while people are in the streets fighting for the very soul of our community. Be safe, fight, don’t bow to fascism, not now, not ever

I hate the caricature of Americans as couch potatoes who don’t do anything about fascism. People in LA and NYC are doing the international legacy of stuff like the Battle of Cable Street proud.

Incredible thank you to Bright Wall/Dark Room for allowing me to be weird and personal about this film. It's so colored with my personal story that I didn't know if I had the goods to write about it. Could not have done it without them. Go read it! Go watch Perfect Days! Go be kind to the world!

New today on the site! The Community issue continues, with @nataliesnotinit.bsky.social on love, laughter, connection, and community in the JACKASS franchise: "One of JACKASS's perpetual charms is that it feels like it can belong to anybody, that anybody can become a part of it."

Going to see Ran in 4K today… all those horsies are going to look so crisp!

Sorry, gen ai is silicon valley snake oil being stapled to everything to make money, it has no benefit and untold detriments. It’s gross bro. Avoid at all costs

You know, I really don’t think we should be giving up on pursuing the human rights and dignity of any person as a requirement for political viability. If that’s what you think it takes, I’d encourage you to abandon those politics and imagine a kinder world

New today on the site! "The Entity: On the Technologies of Late Cruisedom" - Jadie Stillwell (art by @ohhhaeee.bsky.social)

New today on the site! Dylan Fugel on Les Blank's polka documentary, IN HEAVEN THERE IS NO BEER?: "In the classic manner of all of Blank’s wonderful filmography, when I watch it I am comforted, I am soothed, I am entranced by the incredible devotion his subjects show to their chosen communities."

Coming next Tuesday: Join us for a live chat about Antonioni’s THE PASSENGER over at @galerie.com! www.galerie.com/discuss/the-...