had a great time at the new york film critics’ circle awards tonight (thank you so much @thehighsign.bsky.social for letting me tag along) and, among many other things, it was great to learn that everyone else who cares about movies feels just as embarrassingly parasocial about Jafar Panahi as I do

Béla Tarr, 1955-2026: the great cinematic poet of despair, whose movies were as rigorously bleak as they were paradoxically invested in the infinite value of every human life. The Kafka of motion pictures. Thread of images from his masterpiece Damnation (1988).

lot of things i could say here but mostly i guess i would like to implore everyone to find a personality other than "least favorite roommate during a house meeting in portland, oregon"

RIP to Béla Tarr, an artist who made beautiful (often haunting) films on his own terms and took no prisoners when talking about them. Truly one of the best to ever do it. Full interview: www.filmcomment.com/blog/intervi...

turning the 3rd of January into the 3rd of Shit

Could an empire in decline do THIS? *launches deeply unpopular invasion cementing status as lunatic-led pariah state, its not clear what kind of move i was trying to do*

this is one of the most beautiful human acts I've ever seen, read the write-ups

"Too many New Yorkers have been forced to pay more for less—living in unsafe, unconscionable, and unaffordable housing... Today's executive order is the first step towards giving New Yorkers a voice in addressing the housing crisis that is pricing them out of our city."

it is incredible that the entire high level legal apparatus of the United States is "anything that helps people is impossible, anything that kills people is permitted"

The entirety of Powell and Pressburger's THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COL. BLIMP (1943) is available on YouTube for free, so you have no excuse not to watch it One of the gayest antifascist stories ever filmed, as well as just one of the best goddamn movies ever made, period Hit that play button, folks!!

I’ve thought about this monologue, and this one particular line, every single day since I saw it for the first time a year ago

did the classic-since-movies-have-existed move of coping with the news by hiding in a movie theater all day, and saw what are now two of my favorites of last year (Resurrection; The Secret Agent) plus a screening of 8 1/2 beforehand, which is maybe the most unhinged triple feature in known history

It's a big day for those fluent in the good grammar of civility looking to deploy decorum to mask agendas of cruelty

cool, great day to wake up

Coming up on nine years

not sure that “Not Our Kind, Dear” is really such a banger, if I’m honest

not a fan of living in a pariah nation tbh

In our name, with our money, ostensibly for oil, but mostly because we have a president who's addicted to power and attention and needs to deflect from being friends with the world’s most famous pedophile. Shame on these fucking monsters who run my country. They need out.

I will hate these people for the rest of my life.

One thing I would like in 2026 is to have more copy editing work coming in! I’m a developmental editor at heart but people don’t freelance that out as much and I’m good at CE as well. If you’re involved in freelance CE hiring for any presses besides S&S (who I already do work for) pls get in touch!

how fast I sent these links and “FIELD TRIP” to the friends with whom I went to see the Ann Lee movie last night may have broken some kind of land speed record, which also pretty much tells you how we all felt about the film

a thing that truly does keep me going sometimes is, do you notice how often when people talk about History, they skip forward 10 years without a second thought

yelling “don’t you know this is bad for the Left” at the car alarm that’s been going off in my neighborhood for I swear to god 10 straight minutes

they’re going to want to kill him for this but he’s so right, individualism as an ideology needs to end

2020: Lovers Rock 2021: Drive My Car 2022: Tár 2023: Asteroid City 2024: April 2025: Sentimental Value

I usually consider a few other songs to be the final boss of this thing (song that means so much to me I can only listen to it maybe once a decade) but tonight I was reminded that that’s only because I don’t even allow myself to think about Bread and Roses more than once every couple years

finally watched the video of this and however much I thought it would fuck me up, which was already a great deal, wow no turns out it was MUCH more

I just saw The Testament of Ann Lee and one of my boatload of thoughts is that it would make an incredible double feature with Tár

again, not only is Moby-Dick my answer, but Moby-Dick should be the default answer for every american inauguration the way the bible is now

man's here to grind bones and make bread. thank god.

“you’re a real New Yorker if you’ve lived here more than ten years” “you’re only a real New Yorker if you were born here” no you’re a real New Yorker if you instantly knew what this means

the effort to delete this movement from the historical understanding and cultural notion of its era and of our generation has been overwhelming, which makes it all the more beautiful whenever we get to see that that effort has failed and will continue to fail

BREAKING: Explosions felt across New York City as full socialism begins

Better year I can feel it

zohran was sworn in and twenty minutes later it was so impossible to get a cab on New Year’s Eve that a dude in a random absolutely-not-a-cab car leaned his head out his window and asked for $50 in cash to take us the 30 blocks home, nyc is back baby

gonna do some Phantom Thread role play later tonight (going out on New Year’s despite feeling too tired to go out on New Year’s)

not the real answer but my personal favorite will always be the time I sent my friend Eva a photo of my outfit for some event and she said “you look like Tár AND like someone Tár isn’t allowed to email anymore”

and forgive us our emails, as we forgive those who email against us

David Mitchell (the Mitchell & Webb one) once explained cricket to me at a dinner party, I know that it’s among the hardest I’ve ever laughed but I have no memory of any of the specifics of what he said (this is, among other things, why I don’t drink anymore)

on Letterboxd I said that the recent Knives Out is like the steak at the bar at Joe Allen; it’s also the movie equivalent of having a martini and fries for dinner at a great bar. mid but the absolute pinnacle of mid, give me a million more of it

on my way to the airport wearing two pairs of socks, three pairs of pants, three shirts, and two sweaters: packing light for a long trip is easy I don’t why everyone gets so stressed about it

wow, sorry. Deleting now. I didn’t know she was French

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On the island we can meet a cyclops When he sees us he will eat a guy When he asks who stabbed him we'll say "No Man" And he'll yell "Nobody destroyed my eye!"

“I have no professional interest in people looking at my face” is, not to be dramatic about it or anything, an idea for which I am willing to live and die

and Tiny Tim, who has escaped alone to tell thee

So much is asked of us on Christmas, so much to remember, to consider, but make room for Mary’s own declaration. A handful of verses so threatening to Empire that nations have banned it and will continue to do so.

it makes me cry every single year. merry christmas to one and all.