"I’m most interested in ... people who are not driven by avarice or cruelty but have simply found themselves captured by a system that requires evil of them in order to stay afloat." @jordanharper.bsky.social is fucking aces and you should read this book. www.hachettebookgroup.com/articles/cri...

CHRISTY is on HBO. I am a big fan of this one. MICHOD is one of our best and when this thing gets dark it gets *dark* Very upsetting violence

Jen Johans and I covered THE MAN BETWEEN and THE THIRD MAN in the War Noir of Carol Reed episode of @watchwithjen.bsky.social www.patreon.com/posts/watch-...

Travolta smoking cigarettes like a totally normal human.

@abbiememorydoll.bsky.social‬ designed the poster for RUBBLE NOIR, coming in May. The debris of industrial culture callously scattered in the postwar years in Europe and Asia was a portrait of human folly. The films noir made in this environment are extraordinary. Tickets at Trylon.org

Love this Rubble Noir series coming up at @trylon.org I covered a couple of these in AP No. 1 www.trylon.org/film-series/...

“Life isn’t like that. Life isn’t noble or dignified. Even Latin-American life. Nothing is ineluctable. Life has surprises. Life is absurd. Because it’s absurd there is always hope. Why, one day we may even discover a cure for cancer and the common cold.“ THE HONORARY CONSUL (1973) by GRAHAM GREENE

Vale German/Italian actor Mario Adorf, dead at 95. A huge body of work, 383 film, from 1954 to 2023.

The Wild Bunch by Brian Fox (Tandem, 1970, reprint). Movie Tie-In. #TheWildBunch #BrianFox #1970s #book #books #paperback #TandemBook #TandemBooks #MovieTieIn #FilmTieIn #Western

Nice piece about SISTERS from Joseph Aisenberg: josephaisenberg.substack.com/p/sisters-un...

THIEF is the only film I've ever seen in which the pulsating suspense music lifts the roof of your head off when there isn't much action on the screen but stops when something is about to happen. (1981)

Synecdoche is Everest for cinephiles. Air so thin and rare you may not make it back mentally. You may just give up and die. But if you get up and down that mountain without losing your grip on reality it will be a trip you’ll remember forever. #lastfourwatched #letterboxd #writesky boxd.it/dSzoYJ

It looks like some of Allan Guthrie's books are being reissued in audio over the next couple of months. I hope the right readers find them. Who is Allan Guthrie? I've got you covered "I come to praise Allan Guthrie, not bury him" wp.me/p9Kzqn-fS

I must stop scrolling/I can't stop scrolling

For The Reveal I wrote about John Woo's brutal 1990 war movie BULLET IN THE HEAD, and about what responsibilities war movies have to try to tell the truth about war:

I can’t stop thinking about the scene in THREADS where a pub TV is broadcasting news about the US doing a coup in Iran that leads to nuclear war while everyone just goes about their business like normal

Now you can listen to me talking Michael Mann's THIEF with some great fellas! Even though they are making big profits from my work, my risk, my sweat. But that is okay, because I elected to make that deal. But now, the deal is over. I want my end, and I am out.

HARD BOILED has the better action scenes but this one’s still my favorite.

John Schlesinger’s 1985 spy thriller ‘The Falcon and the Snowman’ boasts fine performances from Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn, and a refreshingly cynical view of the American intelligence apparatus.

NASHVILLE coalesces lightly and easily, as if it had just been tossed off. We float while watching, because Altman never lets us see the sweat. Altman's art, like Fred Astaire's, is the great American art of making the impossible look easy. (1975)

Always Trying to Get Beyond the Veil: An Interview with Abel Ferrara

Good Will Hunting: Robin Williams calls Matt Damon's parole officer when he skips town.

Liked PIZZA MOVIE. Fast-paced stoner stupidity (but in a clever-ish way) with some big laughs. The sheer volume of shit that pays off is a good running gag just on its own. Up on Hulu right now.

I don't know why everybody is talking about book promotion but I have a novel out this month. So buy it. www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jorda...

"I had wired myself from an early age to push against even the most helpful of advice." -- @jaystringer.bsky.social

For Easter, posted over from my old blog and free to all, my decade+-old thoughts on WATER SHIP DOWN: billryan64.substack.com/p/my-heart-h...

When SUNSET BOULEVARD was first unveiled at private screenings in Hollywood, I remember an executive's coming away from it talking as if he'd just been to a wife-swapping session with his father. (1968)

Seeing an original theatrical print really underlined how many little changes were made over the years. I probably haven’t seen the version I saw Friday night since pan-and-scan VHS as a kid. m.imdb.com/title/tt0083...

Dear everybody's favorite boutique blu-ray labels: José Giovanni box set when?

I haven’t seen Whoppers Robin Eggs on any Easter candy grocery shelf for a number of years now. Since we all agree they’re great, I assumed the stores were just constantly selling out. But then I realized that not only had I not seen a bag in ages, I hadn’t even spied an empty shelf space for it

Glorious

French poster for THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (1980) #filmsky

I’m reading Peter Bogdanovich’s 1997 book, Who The Devil Made It - which I purchased at a decent price - and this passage stuck out to me.

SATURDAY'S CHILD by Ray Banks - Scottish noir. Brutal, harsh, beautifully written. PI fiction where actions have devastating consequences. www.amazon.com/Saturdays-Ch...

your must-read for today

*Scott Weiland voice Hyams Hyams Hyams I know what I'm watching next, these two

New issue of my newsletter is up! No foolin' kinoventura.beehiiv.com/p/critical-h...

Rest of the order (haven’t seen KILLERS since the theater so let’s go)

Today I delivered what you've long been asking for: 3,200 words on the original BAD NEWS BEARS trilogy. thereveal.film/the-bad-news...

CITY OF INDUSTRY (1997, dir. JOHN IRVIN) video essay by @honorszombie.bsky.social m.youtube.com/watch?v=6IKJ...

John Cazale‘s run was legendary but she’s got to be part of the conversation

Four shorts written and directed by Wolfgang von Chmielewski, shot on Super 8, without dialog, starring Diana Rigg as essentially Emma Peel together tell the story of killer doll wielding assassins. Rumored to be made for German gas stations at the time. I shit you not. Minikillers 1969 #filmsky

NEW COCKTAILS AND CRIME. The friendship that shaped Hollywood, and the deepest dive on a movie I've ever read. vincekeenan.substack.com/p/c-and-c-93...

You know what movie I'd somehow never seen before? MAJOR LEAGUE. So I watched it and wrote about it for The Reveal:

It has arrived

”What is this odd feeling? Did we just…make a news?”

Barton it's just me, Charlie. I hear it's Mundt... Madman Mundt Jesus, people can be cruel... if it's not my build, it's my personality

Went to a screening of Ben-Hur (1959) today. The movie opens with a 5-minute overture that's just music with a black screen. As I was thinking about how you could never do that today, the projection stopped. After a while, they started the movie from the beginning and then stopped it again...

...I had to explain to the staff that their file wasn't corrupted. It's supposed to be like that.

TRUMP RUINED BAD TASTE John Waters at #NoKings in Provincetown (Pic via petermarietoto on X)