Adam Nayman

Indeed I did

“Sentimental Value” Is an Upper-Middle-Brow Crowd Pleaser Joachim Trier’s skillful, literate movies tick a lot of boxes.

On SENTIMENTAL VALUE, for @newrepublic.com

newrepublic.com/article/2025...

Cronos, Mimic, Blade 2, Devils Backbone, Pinnochio… I like Ron pearlman in hellboy and some of the staging in crimson peak.

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein Plays It Too Safe The Netflix movie, starring Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac, is lavish and meticulous—and strangely hollow.

On FRANKENSTEIN for @newrepublic newrepublic.com/article/2027...

In ‘A House of Dynamite,’ the End of the World Is Ho Hum Kathryn Bigelow’s latest feature, hitting Netflix this weekend, documents doomsday from the too-static confines of a situation room

On Kathryn Bigelow's A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE, for @the-ringer.bsky.social www.theringer.com/2025/10/22/m...

that's very kind, and thank you so much for coming

After the Hunt Would Like to Touch a Nerve Director Luca Guadagnino has turned transgression into its own sort of comfort zone.

On Luca Guadagnino's enervating AFTER THE HUNT, for @newrepublic.com newrepublic.com/article/2011...

Chess an example of how a show doesn’t have to be good to be good

Love Chess

Jafar Panahi’s Revenge Road Trip Masterpiece “It Was Just An Accident” reckons with cruelty and repression.

On Jafar Panahi’s IT WAS ONLY AN ACCIDENT, for @newrepublic.com newrepublic.com/article/2011...

Sunken Places: Hypnosis in Horror Cinema (Online) - The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies Horror cinema's obsession with mind-controlling mesmerists illuminates something essential – and unsettling – about the very nature of film spectatorship.

This is next Tuesday afternoon; excited to talk about this group of movies. Hope you'll consider joining the session. miskatonicinstitute.com/events/sunke...

‘One Battle After Another’ Is Paul Thomas Anderson at His Best A director who never misses is back with his most urgent film to date, about the messed up world we’re passing on to our children

On Paul Thomas Anderson's phenomenal ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, for @the-ringer.bsky.social www.theringer.com/2025/09/24/m...

Sunken Places: Hypnosis in Horror Cinema (Online) - The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies Horror cinema's obsession with mind-controlling mesmerists illuminates something essential – and unsettling – about the very nature of film spectatorship.

A few years ago I did an online lecture for @miskatonicihs.bsky.social
on SPOORLOOS and had a blast; in October, I'll be doing another one on motifs of hypnosis in horror cinema, including clips from THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, CANDYMAN, CURE and GET OUT. miskatonicinstitute.com/events/sunke...

That’s right mutt-benny

Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’ Is a Mirror. Like What You See? The Big Picture · Episode

EDDINGTON is the movie of the year. Maybe of the decade.

Amanda, @brofromanother.bsky.social, and I dive into it on The Big Picture. Then Ari Aster joins me to talk about his new film.

open.spotify.com/episode/3dSC...

Thanks for taking the time for all that, I did read it. I will say that only one of these three movies that feels like art to me— which is open and risky enough to "give myself over to" as you put it, and which is dealing with reality as I recognize it, albeit in a funny, stylized way— is TRAP.

On SUPERMAN, for @the-ringer.bsky.social

OK, I'll bite: what are SUPERMAN's terms? And what are TRAP's terms? Which parts of these reviews (newrepublic.com/article/1844...); www.theringer.com/2024/02/29/d... do you disagree with? You tagged me, soI'm asking with genuine interest.

‘28 Years Later’ Is Infectious Two decades removed from the frenetic glory of the first films, anything was possible with a return to the franchise. Consider what we got a best-case scenario.

There’s no discharge in a war, and no iPhone charger, either. On Danny Boyles’s goofy and moving 28 YEARS LATER for @the-ringer.bsky.social www.theringer.com/2025/06/20/m...

Materialists review: Match me if you can Celine Song’s second feature starring Dakota Johnson as a matchmaker for rich New Yorkers aims for screwball velocity, but the dialogue keeps missing the mark.

On Celine Song's MATERIALISTS, for @sightsoundmag.bsky.social www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

fantastic piece. Parts of Materialists bothered me in ways that reminded me of one of my least favourite movies ever (Up in the Air).

On THE REHEARSAL season 2, for @thewalrus.ca

Tried to take Avery on a set of failed adventures today (TTC delays, fire station not open to visitors, lousy weather). Apologized to her as we limped home in the grey. “It’s ok, it was fun to be out, don’t worry.” Occasionally life is perfect.

For @filmcomment.com.web.brid.gy on THE STUDIO, which nibbles the hand that feeds

The Woman in the Yard review: no garden variety horror Director Jaume Collet-Serra brings an expressionist touch to a domestic horror about a grieving family featuring terrific lead performance from Danielle Deadwyler.

On THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Val Kilmer obituary: mercurial A-lister who toggled between total immersion and resistance From his Iceman in Top Gun to an uncanny Jim Morrison in The Doors, Kilmer was a gifted Method man known for his heart-on-sleeve weirdness and myriad eccentricities.

From his Iceman in Top Gun to an uncanny Jim Morrison in The Doors, Van Kilmer was a gifted Method man known for his heart-on-sleeve weirdness and myriad eccentricities. By @brofromanother.bsky.social

www.bfi.org.uk/features/val...

21st-Century Cinema in Review: ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ Kicking off a yearlong series about the movies that defined the last 25 years of filmmaking, two critics tackle the one blockbuster to rule them all

Here is the first instalment of a new monthly essay series for @the-ringer.bsky.social , co-written by myself and @manilazic.bsky.social we’ve made a list of 10 films from the last 25 years that we wanted to go back and forth about; first up, THE LORD OF THE RINGS www.theringer.com/2025/03/28/m...

The Irishman and the Empty Man: The Biden Years On-Screen, Part One | Los Angeles Review of Books In the first installment of a quarterly series, Brendan Boyle and Adam Nayman use two films as a lens on the Biden years.

Collaborating with @brendanowicz.bsky.social on a four part series on Biden era cinema for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social; part one is out today

In Dreams, David Lynch Walked With Us The iconic director who spanned generations, built worlds unto their own, and redefined multiple forms of media, passed away at the age of 78

I have a David Lynch story: www.theringer.com/2025/01/16/m...

i wish