Thrilled to stop by @kneelbeforeblog.co.uk to talk about the third season of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds", and the show's suffocating cosiness with with great @nemesis4909.bsky.social and Chris Mackrell. kneelbeforepod.podbean.com/e/star-trek-...

I had forgotten that "The Conjuring 2" establishes that it is set in London by literally playing "London Calling" over an establishing montage filled with this imagery. It's very subtle, you see.

An underrated part of the appeal of "Alien: Earth" is the fact that there are extended portions where - true to the 1979 original - the xenomorph is very clearly a performer in a suit.

I will say that rewatching "Fargo" cements why Noah Hawley was a good choice for "Alien: Earth." One of the big recurring themes of Hawley's "Fargo" is that organised crime is particularly evil not because of the crime, but because of the unchecked, unregulated capitalism.

Only one of those movies starred Jennifer Lopez, though.

It isn’t surprising that “One Battle After Another” is good. What’s surprising is how propulsive it is. It makes sense Warner Bros. see this as a potential commercial play. In the nineties, this’d arrive as a dad movie classic, grossing $200m and being in steady rotation on cable.

#OneBattleAfterAnother is a delight, “Battle of Algiers” as a neo-western, the perpetual and unending American Revolution as a saga of peaks and valleys, a struggle passed from one generation to the next. Propulsive, thoughtful and - in that wry Andersonian way - very funny.

#NowWatching “One Battle After Another”

Oh, we can tweet about Mae Martin’s upcoming show, “Wayward”, which launches on Netflix next week, starring Toni Collette. It’s a very charming, well cast, often moving look at America’s “troubled teen” industry, boomer hangovers and parental anxieties. Pretty good.

Really enjoyed Jason Aaron and Doug Mahnke’s “Batman: Off-World”, a really fun “Batman outside his element” story. Bat’s in SPAAAAACE! (Batman: Off-World #2.)

It occurs to me, with Zach Cregger’s “Resident Evil”, Alex Garland’s “Elden Ring” and Michael Sarnoski’s “Death Stranding”, we’re in the “sure, you can have an auteur version of this intellectual property” phase of video game movies, like with the Raimi, Nolan, Lee comic book films.

Hello! I realise I am never over here but i'm letting y'all know Horrorthon now has a BlueSky account for all your horror film festival needs if you would like to give us a follow bsky.app/profile/horr...

It is slightly frustrating how often I’ll be like “I should finally watch [movie made before 1995]”, discover that it’s owned by a studio with a proprietary streaming service - Paramount and Disney are the main culprits - and then discover the film is not on the service to which I am subscribed.

Thinking about how genre entertainment has arguably done a much better job of reacting to this cultural and political moment than more ostensibly "respectable" media. Shows like "Andor", "Severance" or even "The Boys", films like "28 Years Later" or "Weapons."

The thing about a mediocre, uninspired three-star movie is that at least it's over in give-or-take two hours. But, without naming names, there is something exhausting about having to mainline three mediocre, uninspired eight-hour seasons over a single weekend.

I wrote about the third season of "Foundation", which wrapped this week, for @secondwindgroup.com. A lot of people will tell you it's about history, empire, knowledge, narrative. And maybe it is. But it's also about dicks. It's very much about dicks. READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...

New 250 episode is out, with @cynicalfilm.bsky.social & @ohdeerdiner.bsky.social joining us to discuss Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood." Is it the American film of the century? Is it a "War on Terror" film? Was Daniel Plainview the first tech disruptor? soundcloud.com/the250/436-t...

"But you're the oldest, and then there's Bear, and that's the throne. What am I ever gonna be except the kid you send out for milk?" Rewatching the second season of "Fargo", and delighted to see one of my beloved neurotic failed sons.

Listening to some David Bowie, and “Everyone Says Hi” came on, which is commonly read as being about the death of his mother. (And also about his son going to college, but set that aside.) I aspire to this level of passive-aggressiveness in upbeat synth pop.

#NowWatching #SpinalTap2

To quote Darren, "For DiZ-neE, It Ain't E-Z Chasin' Gen Z"

In about and hour, @darrenmooney.bsky.social, Marty, and I are back talking movies! Darren has some hot takes on The Conjuring franchise and I have some mild takes on BioDome!!! Watch/Listen here:

Last week, it was reported that Disney wanted to pivot to Gen Z males. This week for @secondwindgroup.com, @janjozone.bsky.social and I take a look at Disney’s past attempts to pivot to Gen Z boys and how those… didn’t work out the way the company might want. WATCH: youtu.be/tWK66lm02qw?...

Disney has a pattern of repeating the same mistakes... over and over and over again. This week's episode of The Backdrop is now available from @darrenmooney.bsky.social.

I had forgotten that the first season of "Fargo" featured Steven Root as a dentist. More like Steven Root Canal, am I right?

Rewatching the first season of "Fargo", quite taken with the choice to set it in the late Bush era of 2006-2007, just as the film was set in the late Reagan era of 1987. There's a real sense of greed and indifference in the air, this time with the Great Recession looming large on the horizon.

Some quick bus ride home thoughts about “The Long Walk.” boxd.it/b0ZfDR

You know what today is?!?! ASIDE from Lost Soul Aside, @prettygrimgames.bsky.social, @sigmagears9.bsky.social and I are sporting matching shirts! Because it's a special day! See yall at 7est on @secondwindgroup.com twitch and youtube for HOT MONDAY ENERGY www.youtube.com/live/POXjkno...

Really impressed with “The Long Walk.” Maybe the best Stephen King adaptation since “The Mist?” In many ways an extension of what Lawrence did with “Songbirds and Snakes”, taking the themes of “The Hunger Games” and stripping out the visceral thrill to linger on the melancholy.

#NowWatching “The Long Walk”

A welcome reminder that the “movies are too long” discourse is complete nonsense with no actual connection to the real world. Movie goers of all generations are more than happy to sit for a movie over two hours.

Thomas Haden in a Church.

Quite enjoying Ram V and Evan Cagle’s “New Gods.” (New Gods #1.)

This week at @secondwindgroup.com, I wrote about the big release of the weekend, "The Conjuring: Last Rites." In particular, the film's fascination and fixation on masculine anxieties, and how those ghosts lurk just out of frame. READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...

In The Conjuring: Last Rites, the current political moment becomes a ghost story. @darrenmooney.bsky.social's latest column is live on Patreon. www.patreon.com/posts/column...

It literally just occurred to me that "The Dead Zone" is a Stephen King novel about an English teacher who has the uncanny ability to look at people and visualise the worst possible thing that they could experience. I can't believe I never twigged that before.

Sometimes, you stumble across an illustration of how broken culture is, where someone believes the only reason that Noah Hawley didn’t do a lazy, derivative prequel season about the Billy Bob Thornton hitman from the first season of “Fargo” because of… (scare chord) “…woke.”

“See, I just... I just wanted something for Don, you know?” “You done? Here it is. You're screwed. You made a choice and this is the consequence. Me, I'm the consequence.” Rewatching the first season of “Fargo.” The show is still finding its feet and voice, but it’s great.

The latest episode of the 250 is online, with Andrew and I filling a vacant recording slot just talking about "Star Trek Into Darkness." We talk "late Obama era cinema", large hamminess, fan culture, khantinuity errors and how "Yellowstone" is on Netflix. soundcloud.com/the250/435-s...

“The Conjuring: Last Rights” suffers from the four-quadrant-isation of blockbuster horror - it’s bloated, distended, melodramatic and lore-driven. It implodes in its last act. But has its moments as a fascinating study of Reagan era masculine anxiety. With John Wayne as the Nun.

It is no exaggeration (and no spoiler) to say that “The Conjuring: Last Rights” ends with the “Conjuring-verse” version of Tony Stark’s funeral from “Avengers: Endgame.”

#NowWatching “The Conjuring: Last Rites.”

Pedro Pascal isn't over-exposed, he's just seizing the moment. The latest column from @darrenmooney.bsky.social on how the star is putting his newfound fame to good use. www.patreon.com/posts/column...

Having rewatched the entire Coen Brothers filmography recently, I present my completely arbitrary ranking of the brothers’ films.

For all its dysfunction - and its inelegant third act - I found myself somewhat charmed by “Honey, Don’t!” Its folksy tone belies a fatalism that is as bleak as anything the Coens ever put on screen, a world of dying strip malls and eerie abandoned busstops. We’re all ultimately on the same route.

#NowWatching #HoneyDont

Very much appreciate that "Alien: Earth" includes what can only be described as "a flaccid penis monster" that ejaculates "little wiggling sperm monsters."

Recently finished a big reread of Geoff Johns’ “Green Lantern” and Gibbons/Tomasi/Gleason “Green Lantern Corps.” It’s a comic of its time in many ways, but goodness is this a beautiful pay-off to nine years of comics.

Now that Twisted Metal's second season has wrapped, @darrenmooney.bsky.social had some thoughts on how the series isn't just nostalgic, but very much about nostalgia itself. His latest is on Patreon now -- www.patreon.com/posts/column...