Spirit Phone - Lemon Demon

 

some thoughts on some things

SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER

Steve Zaillian is mostly known as a screenwriter. Famous for winning an Oscar for Schindler's List. He adapted The Irishman for Scorsese, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo for Fincher, Moneyball for Bennett Miller. He wrote American Gangster for Ridley Scott. All of his works an couched in realism. 

He has directed three features and the pilot episode of The Night Of which I raved about here before. I haven't heard anything good about All the King's Men so it's not a must watch anytime soon. This leaves his two pictures I can safely say are A level material: A Civil Action and Searching For Bobby Fischer. Both underrated to the point of tears. Both sorely missing any physical media release outside of a bare bones DVD. 

In the case of Searching For Bobby Fischer, I'd heard about it years ago when first seeing A Civil Action and wanting to find more of Zaillian's directorial work. For one reason or another, it slipped through my fingers. Until now.

The film addresses a number of themes. The weight a boy wonder has to carry, if the parents are in this for their kid or to capture another chance at glory due to missing their opportunity previously, speed chess vs. methodical chess i.e. not overthinking your moves vs. analyzing your and your opponent's moves. I know little about chess but the way it is shown in the movie keeps it exciting. 

The relationships of the characters are so finely sketched that it manages to be a father/son movie, a mentor/student movie, mentor vs. mentor, and finally you have the moral compass of the mother. All portrayed by a stunning cast: Joe Mantegna, Joan Allen, Laurence Fishburne, Ben Kingsley with scenes of Laura Linney, Dan Hedaya, William H. Macy, Tony Shalhoub and Austin Pendleton. The movie could have been even better with more Fishburne's character. 

I can only see this movie climbing in esteem.  

THE MANIAC BY BENJAMIN LABATUT

While we are on the topic of genius, let's talk about The Maniac. AI is seeping into the entertainment world. The Writers and Actors Strikes went on for months because of this. The Maniac hit for me at just the right time. I read it during the writers strike Swirling around in my head around the same time was Oppenheimer and the book it was based on, American Prometheus. 

The Maniac is told in a triptych structure. The first part is about John Von Neumann. A mathematical genius whom Einstein considered his equal. Like Oppenheimer, he is one of the minds who worked on the atomic bomb. The idea of the greatest minds working on a project with the capability of destroying the planet is fascinating albeit obsidian dark. Labatut chooses to focus on how these minds, in this case Von Neumann's descend into madness. When do mathematics and science go to far? 

The book then leaps into the 21st century and centers on Lee Sedol, the champion of Go. This is the section that has chilled me to the bone. First off, the game of Go is monumentally more intricate than chess. The amount of possible positions in a game of Go is 300 times more than chess and more than the total number of atoms in the known universe. Lee Sedol is considered one of the greatest Go players of all time. In 2016, Lee accepted a challenge from Google's Deep Mind Lab to play against their AI program for $1 million. More than 100 million people tuned in for the match up. He eventually lost the tournament 4 games to 1. 

It started with a training set of recorded games that contained over 30 million moves made by expert Go players and logged ino the 'convolutional neural network.' The network learned how tho predict the next move and learned to predict the outcome from different arrangements on the board. 

Now the breathtaking part. In the second game of the tourney, the AI makes a move that stops Sedol in his tracks.

As Labatut put it: "When future historians look back at our time and try to pin down the first glimmer of true artificial intelligence, they may well find it in a single move during the second game between Lee Sedol and Alpha Go, played on the tenth of March 2016: Move 37." The AI's intuition was both different and better than human intuition. It offered a glimpse of what intelligence looks like. It thinks differently but it very much adept at accomplishing tasks. 

I immediately watched the documentary Alpha Go after finishing the book because of how riveted I was about Lee Sedol's story. 

The move Alpha Go played against Lee Sedol was a one in 10,000 type move. This sets a scary precedent. How far will we see the utilization AI go in our lifetimes? We've seen AI used not just in this way but through the film industry and military. The former taking away jobs from creatives.

The way it is being used through the military obscures accountability from decision making and moves it away from individuals and into a system. 

The Maniac is a book whose ideas are still blooming on a consisent basis in my mind and, like the ending of Oppenheimer, form the basis for truly terrifying possibilties. 

AMERICAN CONSPIRACY: THE OCTOPUS MURDERS

When journalist Danny Casolaro was found dead in a bathtub in a hotel, police ruled it a suicide. Colleagues believe he was murdered for investigating stolen government spy software, major political scandals and a string of unsolved murders. It gets deeper and deeper. 

There's a high people get when chasing conspiracies. This high can even be felt when watching this. I wasn't able to stop watching until I got through all 4 episodes. 

There are figures who are called web spinners. People who have kernels of truth but spin lies around it. These figures turn out to be instrumental to government organizations because of their unreliable nature. They do hold truths, but these truths are encased in falsehoods to the point where when they do come forward, people throw out everything they say as false. Thus creating perfect foibles. 

I'm starting to sound like Jim Garrison here, but the recent news of John Barnett, a Boeing whistleblower who was set to testify against them and winding up being found dead from an apparent suicide is startlingly similair to the documentary.

GENERAL SMEDLEY BUTLER

Smedley Butler is a historical figure who begs for a film to be made about him. Paradoxically, the biopic is the subgenre I would consider the most boring. Only a handful are riveting- Ed Wood, Mishima: A Life In Chapters, Amadeus, Born On the Fourth of July. 

In the case of Born On the Fourth of July, the film follows Ron Kovic. A patriot who volunteers to defend his country only to find himself disillusioned with the Vietnam War after his experience in it. It's the basic rule of characters in storytelling. By the end of the story, the character goes on a journey and arrives at a different place from where he was in the beginning. This trajectory is similair to Butler. 

Butler won the Medal of Honor. Twice. In two seperate conflicts. This quote eloquently summarizes his experiences on war. 

"I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. Their record of racketeering is long. Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate his racket in three city districts. We marines operated on three continents. I spent 33 years in the marines, most of my years being a high class muscle man for big business for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism." 

Overlooked

  For some reason I've seen Kubrick's Shining adaptation pop up in more than a few reviews for The Zone Of Interest, as if it's some obvious cinematic inspiration - it is very much not.

  The truth is that the formal techniques used in The Shining (slow zooms, snap-zooms, POV shots, flowing Steadicam, cross-cutting, stylistic lighting, helicopter shots) are so far outside of Jonathan Glazer's visual language in Zone as he goes out of his way to avoid using these and other techniques. So, how exactly are these two similar? I mean, they're both creepy movies but by that logic I could compare Zone to The Babadook or Insidious. Even their temperaments are diametrically opposite; The Shining is dramatic and heavy-handed in everything it sets out to do* while The Zone Of Interest is undramatic, observational and subtle.

  *I'm not saying this is a detriment, I'm a fan of everything Kubrick does in that movie, I'm just pointing it out for the sake of the comparison. I mean, for fuck's sake, the 'Kubrick Stare' became a meme for a reason yet he's still regarded as this 'subtle' filmmaker. There's a huge gap between the movies people think Kubrick made and the movies he actually made - just as there's the myth and mystique of him as this elusive figure vs. the regular-ass Roseanne-loving dude he was (not to mention the persistent misconception that he abused Shelley Duvall, which she has explicitly debunked).

  So what is this comparison to The Zone Of Interest based on, exactly? I think trying to unpack that lies probably somewhere in Rodney Ascher's Room 237 about the cumulative effect of how The Shining became a cultural black hole. Again, there's the misconception that Kubrick was a perfectionist, so when we have clear continuity errors they're blown out of proportion. Kubrick was more focused on performances than he was on chair placement but when you see him through the lens of an infallible genius, a chair moving from one part of the frame to another means 'secret ghosts.' Jonathan Glazer's movies have that air of mystique and perfectionism so maybe that's why the Kubrickian stereotype is laid upon him and his work...despite having nothing to do with The Shining.

   It's also why so many interpretations of Glazer's approach flatten the movie into being about "the banality of evil" despite that classification not applying in the slightest (and I've been talking about positive reviews, just to be clear). One person says it, then another, and eventually it gets parroted absentmindedly until we have a consensus of cliches. The Shining is a buzzy, nostalgic, easily recognizable IP to point to - which is exactly what a 'Pick Me' review thrives on in the attention economy of Film Twitter and Letterboxd.

  The amount of reviews eschewing craft for purely vibes-based analysis is seriously fucking worrisome. If that sounds sensationalistic consider that there are even established filmmakers (Ava DuVernay and Scott Derrickson) who've said that the filmmaking process isn't important to them.

  Both quotes indicate fundamental misunderstandings of their chosen artform. They're essentially prioritizing 'feelings' over craft as if the two are at all separate to begin with, admitting to a willingness to abandon artistic integrity because execution isn't as important to them as intent. This 'Content over Form' philosophy is anti-art brain rot. That's why comparisons to The Shining are evidence of a skill issue; media illiteracy.

  But, I mean: vibes.

  Despite attempts to smear him and his intent following his Oscars speech, Glazer's film accomplished everything it set out to, without any Derrickson/DuVernay compromise, because he deftly understands aesthetic virtues. His craft and his intentions aren't even 'tied,' that's too weak: they're connected down on an atomic level. His movie and its restraint wouldn't exist without the disciplined technique he employed to make it.

  That's why it's so frustrating (paradoxically so) to see what he's done go unnoticed: a profoundly thoughtful movie that interrogates its audience's ignorance.

  Alissa Wilkinson, for Vox: 

 "The effect of watching The Zone of Interest ought, I think, to make us feel a mounting horror — and then, from there, to make us think, an act Arendt was always writing about. In the Life of the Mind introduction, she argued that the antidote to the thoughtless cruelty of the autocratic systems around us might be thinking: 'Might the problem of good and evil, our faculty of telling right from wrong, be connected with our faculty of thought?'

Maybe, she wrote. 'Could this activity be among the conditions that make men abstain from evildoing or even actually ‘condition’ them against it?' she asks. In other words, could learning to think, to avoid cliched thought and stock phrases, train us out of complacency? Could being shocked and horrified and made profoundly uncomfortable, left without easy language, perpetuate a moral good?

What Glazer does with The Zone of Interest is give the audience just a taste of that shock, and then force us into thinking. He never shows the atrocities outright — not to pique our curiosity but because we do not want to see them. To depict it would be, in its own way, an atrocity. Instead, he adds a visual and aural layer of abstraction in order to let us test ourselves, to see if we are, perhaps, the sort of people willing to be in their place now."

2023 Watchlist

2023 was a tumultuous year for me. So I thought I continue my trend of what I read and watched which I so blatantly ripped off from Steven Soderbergh. 

JANUARY

1- Road House (1989)

2- Ricochet (1991)

    RRR (2022)

3- The Menu (2022)

    One False Move (1992)

    The Italian Connection (1972)

4- The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950)

5- One Week (1920)

    Buster Keaton Rides Again (1965)

    Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema and the Invention of the 20th Century by            Dana Stevens (2022)

6- Variety (1983)

7- The Godfather Part II (1974) (R)

    Babylon (2022) (R)

10- Scream For Help (1984)

11- Wild Milk by Sabina Orah Mark (2018)

12- The Seventh Curse (1986)

      Working Girls (1986)

13- Hangover Square (1945)

      The Limey (1999) (R)

      The Obscene Madame D by Hilda Hilst (1982) (tr. Nathanael)

15- Tar (2022) (R)

IN THE HOSPITAL (16/- 1/24)

21- Back to the Future (1985) (R)

      Back to the Future Part II (1989) (R)

      Back to the Future Part III (1990) (R)

22- Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O'Brien (2022)

OUT OF THE HOSPITAL; RECOVERY AT HOME

24- The Right Stuff (1983) (R)

25- The Last of Us (2 episodes)

      The Shout (1978)

      Youth of the Beast (1963)

26- Atlanta (2 episodes)

     Breaking News (2004)

     On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (2019)

27- Atlanta (2 episodes)

     In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson At 50 (2022)

     Irma Vep (1996)

     Viva Erotica (1996)

28- Atlanta (2 episodes)

     City Slickers (1991) (R)

     The Long Riders (1980) 

     Bonnie's Kids (1973)

29- Atlanta (2 episodes)

     Freeway (1996)

     The Trial (1962) (R)

     The Last of Us

30- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) (R)

      The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)

31- HyperNormalisation (2016)

      Exiled (2006)

      The Ascent (1977) (R)

FEBRUARY

1- Atlanta (2 episodes)

    That Most Important Thing: Love (1975)

    Immortal Tales (1973)

2- Atlanta (2 episodes)

   The Killers (1946)

   The Killers (1964)

   One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967)

3- Atlanta (2 episodes)

    Reform School Girls (1986)

    My Man Godfrey (1936)

    Pandora's Mirror (1981)

4- Atlanta (2 episodes)

    Watermelon Man (1970)

5- Atlanta Series Finale

   The Cabin At the End of the World by Paul Tremblay (2018)

   Election 2 (2006)

   The Last of Us

6- The Long Goodbye (1973) (R)

    Out For Justice (1991)

7- Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993)

    The Insider (1999) (R)

8- Clearcut (1991)

    The Grave (1996)

9- The Century of Self: Happiness Machines (2002)

    The Century of Self: The Engineering of Consent (2002)

    The Other Side of the Mirror (1973)

10- Jackass Forever (2022) (R)

      Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)

11- Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe (2021)

      Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Leger (tr. Natasha Lehrer and Cecile Menon) (2012)

      Wanda (1970) (R)

      Nekromantik 2 (1991)

12- Electric Dreams (1984)

      James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket (1989)

13- Her (2013) (R)

14- Punch-Drunk Love (2002) (R)

      Infinity Pool (2023)

15- The Demon's Baby (1998)

16- Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult At Sarah Lawrence (2023) (3 episodes)

17- A Better Tomorrow (1986)

     Erotic Nightmare (1999)

18- Police Story 2 (1988)

      Dark Side of the Ring (3 episodes)

19- Dark Side of the Ring (3 episodes)

      The Outwaters (2022)

20- Argentina 1985 (2022)

     Crumb (1995) (R)

     Dark Side of the Ring (2 episodes)

21- Dark Side of the Ring (2 episodes)

      EO (2022)

      Knock At the Cabin (2023)

      Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez (tr. Megan McDowell) (2023)

22- The Iceman Cometh (1989)

24- The Story of A Three Day Pass (1967)

      Daisies (1966) (R)

      Double Agent 73 (1974)

      In A Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner (1974)

26- Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (2023)

      On the Run (1988)

      The Last of Us

      Blue Steel (1990)

27- Video Violence (1987)

      Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows (1998)

      Zerograd (1988)

      Topper (1937)

28- Juice (1992)

      Daughters of the Dust (1991)

      On Palestine by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe (2015)

MARCH

1- Yes, Madam! (1985)

    The Heroic Trio (1993)

2- Score (1973)

    Design For Living (1933)

    Shanghai Express (1932)

3- Broker (2022)

    Air Doll (2009)

5- King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) (R)

    Three Ages (1923)

    The Last of Us

6- World On A Wire (1973)

    Lord of Dark Places by Hal Bennett (1970)

    Perry Mason

8- Our Hospitality (1923)

    Pedicab Driver (1989)

9- The Lower Depths (1957)

    The Fog of War (2003) (R)

10- Santo Vs. Doctor Death (1973)

     City of God (2002) (R)

11- Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) (R)

12- Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) (R)

      The 95th Academy Awards

      The Last of Us Season Finale

13- Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973)

      Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701's Grudge Song (1973)

      The Righteous Gemstones 

14- Aftersun (2022)

     Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992)

15- Royal Warriors (1986)

      Eastern Promises (2007) (R)

16- The Castle by Franz Kafka (1926)

      Tokyo Fist (1995)

17- Bullet Ballet (1998)

18- Perry Mason

19- The Sword of Doom (1966)

      All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)

 20- Samurai Rebellion (1967)   

      A Snake of June (2002)

      Swarm

      Perry Mason

END OF RECOVERY; BACK AT WORK

21- Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight For Sex Workers Rights by Molly Smith and Juno Mac (2018)

      Undeclared War (1990)

      The Warped Ones (1960)

      Violence At Noon (1966)

      AEW Dynamite

23- Rouge (1987)

      No Regrets For Our Youth (1946)

24- After Life (1998)

25- Yellowjackets

      Jiro: Dreams of Sushi (2011)

26- Ash Is Purest White (2018)

      Succession

27- The Righteous Gemstones (2 episodes)

      Lady Snowblood (1973) (R)

      Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance (1974)

      The Mission (1999)

28- The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias (2022)

      Perry Mason

      Guilty of Romance (2011)

      Wrestle Kingdom 9

29- Intimidation (1960)

      Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (2022) (Crestwood 18)

      AEW Dynamite

30- The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)

      Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss (1970)

31- Dragon Inn (1967)

      Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003)

      GCW Spring Break 7

APRIL

1- Yellowjackets

    Enys Men (2023) (The Music Box)

2- Wrestlemania 39 Night 1

    Succession

3- Wrestlemania 39 Night 2

    Sister, Sister (1987)

    Vibes (1988)

    Monday Night Raw

    Perry Mason

4- Above the Law (1988)

    Imagine: John Lennon (1988)

5- Breathless (1983)

7- Dr. Caligari (1989)

8- Tex Avery: World of Tomorrow shorts

    Yellowjackets

9- The Undertaker: The Last Ride (2020)

    Succession

10- The Descent (2005)

11- Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2011)

      Perry Mason      

13- Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973)  (R)

      Thriller: A Cruel Documentary (2022)

14- Songs From the Second Floor (2000) (R)

      Augustus by John Williams (1973)

15- Yellowjackets

      Ride In the Whirlwind (1966)

16- The Resurrection of Jake the Snake (2015)

      Succession

      Barry (2 episodes)

17- Wrestle Kingdom 11

      The Wrestler (2008) (R)

      There's Just One Problem by Brian Gewirtz (2022)

18- The Legend of Drunken Master (1994)

20- Beau Is Afraid (2023) (Marcus Theater Orland Park)

      Dazed and Confused (1993) (R)

21- Closely Watched Trains (1966)

22- Yellowjackets

      Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1988) (R)

      Fully Loaded 2000

23- The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated Ameica by Richard Rothenstein (2017)

      The Righteous Gemstones

      Succession

      Barry

24- Mrs. Davis

      Great American Bash 1989

      High Plains Drifter (1973)

      The Righteous Gemstones (2)

25- The Righteous Gemstones (2)

      Perry Mason Season 2 Finale

      Purple Noon (1960)

28- Mrs. Davis

      WWE Vengeance 2005

      Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name Is Paul Heyman

      The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (1955)

29- Party Girl (1995)

      The Reflecting Skin (1990)

30- Succession

      Barry

MAY

1- Mrs. Davis (3 episodes)

    The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) (R)

2- Day of Anger (1967)

3- Gate of Flesh (1964)

4- American Graffiti (1973) (R)

    Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Rafferty (2019)

5- Mrs. Davis

    How to Blow Up A Pipeline (2023)

    Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

    Bitter Moon (1992)

6- Swarm (2 episodes)

    Mikey (1992)

    Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973)

7- Swarm (4 episodes)

8- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

    A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence (2014)

9- The Breaking Point (1950)

10- The Gleaners and I (2000)

11- The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later (2002)

      High Anxiety (1977)

      Mrs. Davis

      RIP Kenneth Anger

12- The Worst Person In the World (2021)

13- Blackberry (2023)

14- News From Home (1976)

      Succession

      Barry

16- Have A Nice Day! A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks by Mick Foley (2000)

      Out of Sight (1998) (R)

      Judgment Night (1993)

17- Alley Cat (1984)

18- Mrs. Davis Series Finale

19- Set It Off (1996)

20- Yellowjackets (2 episodes)

21- Waiting For the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee (1980)

      Succession

      Barry

22- Another 48 Hrs. (1990)

     The American Friend (1977) (R)

     Light Sleeper (1992)

23- Olivia (1983)

25- My Struggle Book 4 by Karl Ove Knausgaard (2014) (tr. by Don Bartlett)

     Moonage Daydream (2022)

26- David Bowie: The Last Five Years (2018)

27- The Great Race (1965)

28- Succession Series Finale

29- Barry Season Finale

      The Celebration (1998)

      Can't Get You Out of My Head Part 1: Bloodshed On Wolf Mountain (2021)

30- Can't Get You Out of My Head Part 2: Shooting and Fucking Are the Same Thing (2021)

      Varda by Agnes (2019)

31- Can't Get You Out of Me Head Part 3: Money Changes Everything (2021)

JUNE

1- Can't Get You Out of My Head Part 4: But What If the People Are Stupid? (2021)

2- Dressed In Blue (1983)

    King: A Life by Jonathan Eig (2023)

4- Can't Get You Out of My Head Part 5: The Lordly Ones (2021)

    The Idol (Series Premiere)

5- Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023)

    Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

    Can't Get You Out of My Head Part 6: Are We Pigeon? Or Are We Dancer? (2021)

6- Psycho by Robert Bloch (1959)

    Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) (Marcus Theater Orland Park)

    His Motorbike, Her Island (1986)

7- F/X (1986)

    F/X 2 (1991)

9- Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (1842) (tr. Pevear and Volokhonsky)

    I Think You Should Leave (6 episodes)

10- Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets (4 episodes)

      The Doom Generation (1995)

11- Everybody: A Book About Freedom by Olivia Laing (2021)

      Totally F***ed Up (1993)

      The Idol

12- The Man In the White Suit (1951)

       I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)

13- Drowning By Numbers (1988)

      RIP Cormac McCarthy

14- The Swimming Pool (1969)

16- The Sandlot (1993) (R)

17- City of Night by John Rechy (1963)

      Buddies (1985)

      Fresh Kill (1994)

18- The Righteous Gemstones (2 episodes)

19- The Player (1992) (R)

20- Sing Backwards and Weep: A Memoir by Mark Lanegan (2020)

      Coffy (1973) (R)

      Undefeatable (1993)

21- The King of Comedy (1983) (R)

      The Wicker Man (The Final Cut) (1973) (R)

22- The Bear

23- The Bear (2 episodes)

24- The Bear

25- The Bear (3 episodes)

26- Last Action Hero (1993) (R)

      Bringing Up Baby (1938) (R)

      Strangers With Candy (3 episodes)

27- Happy 37th Birthday!!!

      The Bear (3 episodes)

28- Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen (2021)

      All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace Pt. 1 (2011)

      The Righteous Gemstones

29- All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace Pts. 2 and 3 (2011)

      RIP Alan Arkin

30- Shakedown (2018)

      Philadelphia (1993) (R)

JULY

1- The In-Laws (1979) (R)

    Ghost In the Shell (1995)

    Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion (1970)

2- Peep Show (4 episodes)

    The Rehearsal

3- The Rehearsal

    The Righteous Gemstones

    Once Upon A Time In China (1991)

    The Jaws Log by Carl Gottlieb (1975)

4- Past Lives (2023) (AMC Crestwood 18)

    Jaws (1975) (R)

    The Twilight Zone: And When the Sky Was Opened, Nick of Time, Mirror Image, Mr. Dingle the Strong, The Silence, Deaths Head Revisited

5- The Rehearsal (3 episodes)

    The Last Detail (1973) (R)

6- Summer With Monika (1953)

7- Peep Show (2 episodes)

9- Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara (2022)

    Peep Show (2 episodes)

10- Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) (R)

      Kids In the Hall (4 episodes)

      Burnt Offerings (1976) (R)

11- Stakeout (1987)

      The Day After Trinity (1981)

12- The Righteous Gemstones

       Pierrot Le Fou (1965)

      Spacked Out (2000)

13- Kudos by Rachel Cusk (2018)

      Peep Show

      Full Circle 

14- Happy Gilmore (1996) (R)

      Full Circle

16- This Is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor (2023) (tr. Sophie Hughes)

17- Boogie Nights (1997) (R) (The Music Box) (70mm)

18- The Righteous Gemstones

      Serpico (1973) (R)

      Last Call: When A Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York (2023) (1 episode)

19- Interstellar (2014) (R)

      Justified

21- Justified

22- Full Circle

     Jusified

23- Full Circle

     Justified

     The Righteous Gemstones

24- Oppenheimer (2023) (The Music Box) (70mm)

25- Jurassic Park (1993) (R)

      Summer of Night by Dan Simmons (1991)

26- Justified

      Devil In A Blue Dress (1995)

      China Girl (1974)

27- Keoma (1976)

      In the Cut (2003)

      Full Circle (2 episodes)

28- Nighthawks (1981)

30- Hiroshima by John Hersey (1946)

      The Righteous Gemstones 

31- The Righteous Gemstones Season 3 Finale

      Five Element Ninjas (1982)

      Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

      RIP Paul Reubens

AUGUST

1- Justified (3 episodes)

    Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985) (R)

2- Barbie (2023) (Marcus Cinema)

    Justified

3- Menace II Society (1993)

    Justified

4- National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) (R)

    Jade (1995)

    Justified (2 episodes)

5- Golem (1980)

    Sans Soleil (1983) (R)

7- Sorcerer (1977) (R)

    RIP William Friedkin

8- Citizen Kane (1941) (w/ Ebert commentary)

    The Complete Citizen Kane (1991)

9- Charley Varrick (1973) (R)

    The Ear (1970)

10- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) (Marcus Cinema)

      Rampage (1987)

12- The Stronghold by Dino Buzzati (1945) (tr. by Lawrence Venuti)

      The Last Waltz (1978) (R)

14- The Third Man (1949) (R)

      The Counselor (2013) (R)

      White House Plumbers (3 episodes)

15- City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood In the 1940s by Otto Friedrich (1986)

      Oppenheimer (2023) (AMC Theaters Crestwood) (70mm) (R)

      Telemarketers

16- Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) (R)

      OldBoy (2003) (R)

      Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond (2023)

17- Marathon Man (1976) (R)

19- Wonder Women (1973)

      Paper Moon (1973) (R)

20- What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (2018)

      Night Call Nurses (1972)

21- The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy (1965)

      White House Plumbers (2 episodes)

      Telemarketers

22- The Fortune Cookie (1966)

      Mr. Klein (1976)

23- Falling Down (1993) (R)

24- American Gigolo (1980)

27- Forty Guns (1957)

      A Fuller Life (2013)

     Telemarketers

28- Demonlover (2002)

      MST3K: The Touch of Satan

29- American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (2005)

     Pit Stop (1969)

     Sick of Myself (2022)

30- The Stonemason: A Play In Five Acts by Cormac McCarthy (1994)

      Fit to Kill (1993)

      Hickey and Boggs (1972)

      Sex and Fury (1973)

31- Key Largo (1948)

SEPTEMBER

2- Sorcerer (1977) (The Music Box) (R)

    The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) (Gene Siskel Film Center) (R)

    Duplex by Kathryn Davis (2013)

3- The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966)

    Taxi Hunter (1993)

4- Father of Lies by Brian Evenson (1998)

    The Innkeepers (2011) (R)

    Poison of the Fairies (1986)

    The Trap Part 1: Fuck You Buddy (2007)

5- The Trap Part 2: The Lonely Robot (2007)

    The Trap Part 3: We Will Force You to Be Free (2007)

    The Age of Innocence (1993) (The Music Box) (R)

6- Bottoms (2023) (Marcus Cinema)

7- Nightmares (1983)

    Mr. Vampire (1985)

8- Wild Things (1998) (R)

9- The Black Maybe: Liminal Tales by Attila Veres (2022) (tr. by Luca Karafiath)

    Mill of the Stone Women (1960)

10- Master Gardener (2023)

11- Ms. 45 (1981) (R)

      9/11: One Day In America (2021) (5 episodes)

12- The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq (1998) (tr. Frank Wynne)

      Primal Rage (1988)

      Red Spirit Lake (1993)

13- Satan's Slave (1976)

14- Demons (1971)

15- Psycho II (1983) (R)

16- Boys In the Valley by Philip Fracassi (2023)

      Evil Toons (1992)

18- The Invisible Man (1933) (R)

      Misery (1990) (R)

      The Cormorant by Stephen Gregory (1986)

19- Christine (1983) (R)

      The Haunted Palace (1963) 

      Tales of Terror (1962)

20- Taste of Fear (1961)

      Offspring by Jack Ketchum (1991)

21- Pigs (1973)

      Dracula Sucks (1979)

22- Eugenie de Sade (1973)

23- Fangs (1974)

24- Axe (1974)

     Kidnapped Co-Ed (1976)

25- Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (2023) (3 episodes)

26- Shock Value by Jason Zinoman (2011)

      The Boogey Man (1980)

      The Sect (1991)

      I, Madman (1989)

27- Elizabeth by Ken Greenhall (1976)

      Songs of A Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe by Thomas Ligotti (2015)

      Horrors of Malformed Men (1969)

28- Nightmares Come At Night (1970)

30- The Mummy (1932) (R)

OCTOBER

1- House of 1000 Corpses (2003) (R)

    Bloody Muscle Body Builder In Hell (1995)

2- Penda's Fen (1974)

    The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (1973)

3- Doctor X (1932)

    Stop Making Sense (1984) (R) (AMC Crestwood 18)

    The Seventh Victim (1943)

4- Cujo by Stephen King (1981)

    Graverobbers (1988)

5- The Royal Hotel (2023) (AMC Crestwood 18)

7- The Inferno (1979)

    Blood (1973)

8- Sweet Home (1989)

9- The Inconsolables by Michael Wehunt (2023)

    The Sender (1982)

    The Black Tower (1987)

10- 964 Pinocchio (1991)

      Winter Kills (1979) (The Music Box)*

      Requiem For A Vampire (1971)

11- Don't Look Now (1973) (R)

12- When Evil Lurks (2023) (Marcus Theater)*

      The Crazies (1973)

13- Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) (R)

14- Wicked, Wicked (1973)

15- The Croning by Laird Barron (2012)

      Castle of Blood (1964)

16- Interview With the Vampire (1994) (R)

      Fall of the House of Usher (5 episodes)

17- Fall of the House of Usher (2 episodes)

      Hour of the Wolf (1968) (R)

      Through the Looking Glass (1976)

18- The Secret Life of Insects by Bernardo Esquinca (2023) (tr. by James D. Jenkins)

      The Nude Vampire (1970)

19- Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) (AMC Crestwood 18)*

20- Fall of the House of Usher (Series Finale)

      Out Ther Halloween Mega Tape (2022)

      The Joffrey Ballet Presents Frankenstein

21- J.D.'s Revenge (1976)

      Blood Ceremony aka The Legend of Blood Castle (1973)

22- Splatter: Naked Blood (1996)

23- WNUF Halloween Special (2021) (R)

      Inferno (1980) (R)

24- The House On Sorority Row (1983) (R)

      Redeemer: Son of Satan (1978)

      Malatesta's Carnival of Blood (1973) (R)

25- Sonny Boy (1989)

      The Unknown (1927)

26- The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty (1971)

      The Exorcist III (1990) (R)

27- Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (1972)

29- Lorna the Exorcist (1974) (R)

30- Casper (1995) (R)

     The Appointment (1981) 

     Trick Or Treat (1986)

     Lips of Blood (1975)

31- The Haunting (1963) (R)

      Messiah of Evil (1973) (R)

      The Exorcist (1973) (R)

NOVEMBER

1- Big (1988) (R)

    New Rose Hotel (1998)

2- Double Indemnity by James Cain (1936)

    Double Indemnity (1944) (R)

3- Victim (1961)

4- Mildred Pierce (2011) (2 episodes)

5- Mildred Pierce (2011) (2 episodes)

6- Mildred Pierce (2011)

    Johnny Guitar (1954)

    Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children (2020) (3 episodes)

7- Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children (2020) (2 episodes)

    Divinity (2023) (AMC Crestwood)*

    The Devil, Probably (1977)

    Mascara (1983)

8- The Day of the Jackal (1973) (R)

9- Door (1988)

    Now and Then: The Last Beatles Song (2023)

11- Saving Private Ryan (1998) (R)

12- The Killer (2023)

13- Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) (AMC New City)*

      Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

      Mindhunter (3 episodes)

14- The Curse

      We Kill For Love (2023)

      The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

15- Anatomy of A Fall (2023) (AMC Crestwood)*

16- Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (2023)

     The Big Combo (1958)

17- The Lineup (1958)

      Murder By Contract (1958)

20- The Tall T (1957)

      The 4th Man (1983)

21- Dutch (1991)

      The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)

23- Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon (1997)

     Addams Family Values (1993) (R)

24- Magnificent Obsession (1954)

25- The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

      Caged (1950)

26- The Big Fix (1978)

      Mean Streets (1973) (R)

27- The Holy Mountain (1973) (R)

      The Sting (1973) (R)

28- Secret Ceremony (1968)

      Practical Magic (1998) (The Music Box)*

      Vampyros Lesbos (1971) (R) (The Music Box)*

29- The Holdovers (2023) (Marcus Cinema)*

30- A Civil Action (1998) (R)

     Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown (1970)

DECEMBER

1- May December (2023)

2- Kubrick by Kubrick (2020)

3- The Go Between (1971)

4- Cash On Demand (1961)

    May December (2023) (R)

5- Five Decembers by James Kestrel (2021)

    Millennium Mambo (2001)

6- Dream Scenario (2023) (AMC Crestwood)*

7- Ronin (1998) (R)

9- Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel and Ebert Changed the Movies Forever by Matt Singer (2023)

    Distant (2002)

11- Fargo (4 episodes)

12- Godzilla Minus One (2023) (AMC Crestwood)*

      Tokyo Story (1953)

      Talking With Ozu (1993)

13- Safety Last! (1923) (R)

14- Christmas In July (1940)

15- Three Days of the Condor (1975) (R)

16- Against the Grain (2023)

17- Bad Santa (2003) (R)

18- Poor Things (2023) (Landmark Theater)*

      Blast of Silence (1961) (R)

      Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God (2023)

19- Tangerine (2015) (R)

      The Mask (2023) (short film)

      Die Hard (1988) (R) (AMC Crestwood)*

20- Die Hard 2 (1990) (R)

      Fargo

      Eyes Wide Shut (1999) (R) (The Music Box)*

      The Curse

21- The Curse (2 episodes)

      Dial Code Santa Claus (1989) (R)

22- The Curse (3 episodes)

     The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow (2021)

23- The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) (R)

      The Curse

24- A Christmas Story (1983) (R)

     Sex Is Crazy (1981)

26- Terminal Island (1973)

27- Ferrari (2023) (Marcus Cinema)*

      Fargo

29- The Curse

30- Attack of the Beast Creatures (1985)

     Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector (1973)

31- The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973) (R)

The 2O24 Oscars Race is Heating Up!!

  

 That title was a bait-and-switch, I couldn't care less about The Oscars, so let's talk about something more important, more entertaining, and all-around healthier:

  Right up top: the overall plot is predictable. You know this story, you know this structure, and it doesn't take any interesting detours along the way - I'm unbothered by this because what IS surprising is, for the first time in fucking ever, the TEENAGE part of a TMNT movie is actually given some consideration.

   The way these kids talk over each other and act fucking annoying is pretty great, charming even. Mutant Mayhem is a testament to verisimilitude; through dialog that's both written and improvised on a single mic (as opposed to each voice actor having their own booth) the teen actors imbue Mikey, Raph, Donnie, and Leo with so much history and character (especially Donnie because he still has a pre-teen squeak). They're lame where it counts but also fucking cool when the challenge arises (with a fucking stellar score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross). The same goes for Splinter, April, Superfly, and the Mutants - everyone is given a chance to shine (Jackie Chan, Ayo Edebiri, and Ice Cube fucking nail it [Cube hasn't been this funny since 22 Jump Street]).

  Hell, I haven't cared about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since I was a kid but I saw this movie three times in the theater and showed it to two different sets of friends at home. When I first saw it, during the sing-along to What's Going On by Four Non-Blondes, I realized my face hurt from smiling so much. And to make matters worse/better: when Mondo Gecko is launched out of the window and earnestly asks "What's going on?!" on cue and in pitched-down slo-mo...I lost my entire shit. Didn't expect this to be the funniest movie of 2023 but what a surprise it turned out to be, on so many fronts.

  Even the way their physicality is animated makes them feel authentic; the way they hang on each other and navigate their spatial awareness (and lack thereof) in their action scenes as well as the hangout moments. More than that, the textures of the entire world are so rich. Taking a cue from the Spider-Verse aesthetic, Mutant Mayhem details its animation with action lines, sketch marks, and other 'imperfections.' Like artists who broke out of hyper-realism in favor of abstract expressionism, animated movies are in transition. Hopefully the super synthetic and rubbery polish of Pixar and Illumination will die out completely because what Mutant Mayhem, the Spider-Verse movies, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, and The Mitchells Vs. The Machines have given us instead have so much more personality and nuance.

  Mutant Mayhem is, more than any of its contemporaries, kinda gross and ugly - thankfully. The whole movie looks like teenage scribbles on the margins of math homework - the kind of doodles born out of procrastination. Even the light rays from street lamps are sloppily sketched in instead of having a 'natural' glow, which isn't something I ever thought I'd praise but, in our ongoing AI plague, it's refreshing to see such deliberate human touch.

  The climax is, again, so fucking great that it dodges any criticisms I'd normally lob against the familiar predictability of it all. The characters and their arcs are so well-written, well-acted, and well-animated in an inexorably funny movie that it makes for one of the most thoroughly enjoyable experiences I've had this decade. When April was throwing up or the boys were doing their Oldboy-style match-cut fight sequence set to No Diggity, or Superfly talking about forced "Big Booty Boy Races" he has planned for human slaves - plot was the furthest thing from my mind.

   I'm not gonna yuck my own yum.