Paul Gallagher

This week's University Challenge had a question about Monkey Island. Peak TV.

“Superb...a marvel” ★★★★★ – The Irish Times

ON FALLING is cinemas from Friday.

Visit conic.film/onfalling for screening information.

This is no slight on Brady Corbet, in fact I think he would agree with me.

Okay so The Brutalist is brilliant and I love it, BUT if Brady Corbet wins a Best Director Oscar while Paul Thomas Anderson still doesn't have a Best Director Oscar - well, that's just stupid.

Going for a second watch of The Brutalist in 70mm!

Calling all folk-horror fanatics!

Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Harvest is an atmospheric adaptation of Jim Crace’s novel about a rural Scottish village on the brink of irrevocable change.

Join us on 2 March for a Q&A with Athina Rachel Tsangari! loom.ly/Mifzw4s 🎟️

ON FALLING the new film from the Ken Loach & Sixteen Films team

Out in Cinemas March 7th (early tickets here: conic.film/films/onfalling)

The film is about precarity, exploitation and loneliness in the modern world. Please share and help us get the word out.

An empty cinema auditorium with a bare concrete floor and dismantled blue seats piled up against the wall.

Cinema three may have no seats, but we do have JOBS JOBS JOBS!
Finance Manager, Programme Manager and Marketing Manager roles all live now: filmhouse.org.uk/jobs

A group of people carrying luggage with soldiers pointing guns at them. They are silhouetted against a skyline with a yellow, orange and black sky above, suggesting fire.

A figure silhouetted against a rich blue backdrop

Two young men kissing in a bathtub. They both have short hair and tattoos on their arms. One is wearing a white vest and the other is topless and wearing white trousers.

A grainy, blurry image of three figures. In the foreground, a figure dressed in a long white dress and cape and wearing a skull mask stands with their hands above their heads. Behind them, there is a figure wearing a long black dress and a headpiece with black horns. Behind them, just visible, is a third figure wearing what appears to be a padded suit and some kind of helmet. The background is orange and suggestive of pyramids and sand. The sky is a teal colour.

Just announced 📢

In collaboration w/ @hunterianglasgow.bsky.social, we're bringing you a season celebrating the work of Derek Jarman, one of the most original filmmakers of the past 50 years

🎫http://bit.ly/GFT_DerekJarman

Visit The Hunterian before 4 May for an exhibition focused on Jarman’s work

And a beautiful object too - amazing work @firefliespress.bsky.social

Just finished this excellent book by Nick Pinkerton, it's exemplary long-form film criticism. A great mix of scholarship, close observation, insightful interpretation, personal opinion and cultural context - it hugely enriched my experience of watching the film.

@alhunterfilm.bsky.social hi Allan! Welcome to this place, unlike any other social media network, and yet exactly the same.

Walter Salles' excellent (and triple Oscar-nominated) new film I'm Still Here opens this Friday at @glasgowfilmtheatre.bsky.social, a week ahead of it's general release.
I wrote a bit about what's so great about it, and why you should catch it early at GFT: www.glasgowfilm.org/in-praise-of...

Mike Leigh was on brilliant form for his Q&A with us at @glasgowfilmtheatre.bsky.social last night. What a legend - excellent to hear his next film is already in the works. HARD TRUTHS is essential viewing, another Leigh masterpiece.

Vermiglio for International Feature. Outrageous!

Team Deakins: MOHAMMAD RASOULOF - Director SEASON 2 - EPISODE 121 - Mohammad Rasoulof - Director On this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we’re joined by director Mohammad Rasoulof (THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG, THERE IS NO EVIL, A MAN OF IN...

The #teamdeakins interview with Mohammad Rasoulof is so brilliant. Highly recommend listening to be inspired by this incredible and seemingly fearless filmmaker.
teamdeakins.libsyn.com/mohammad-ras...

Eraserhead
The Elephant Man
Dune
Blue Velvet
Twin Peaks
Wild at Heart
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Lost Highway
The Straight Story
Mulholland Drive
Inland Empire
Twin Peaks: The Return

What a legacy.

Can even believe we’re writing this, but… David Lynch - RIP

I recently got the third volume of Roger Ebert's The Great Movies - I love this from his introduction

I feel bad for the people who keep voting Best Film for Emilia Perez and A Complete Unknown - they clearly didn't watch many good films in 2024!

What's you favourite movie soundtrack and score to listen to?
Lost in Translation is my go to soundtrack - such perfect mood curation - while for score I just can't get over If Beale Street Could Talk.

Covid was supposed to kill cinema – but did lockdown and gen Z save cinephilia? Sites such as film discovery platform Letterboxd promote a new way of film-viewing, eschewing sneering gatekeepers for a more open-minded and eclectic experience

I spoke to Tom Shone a few months back about Letterboxd and indie cinemas, and it's turned up in this great piece he's done - well worth a read: www.theguardian.com/film/2024/de...

Here my fave 10 films of the year - going by UK release dates. Notes and thoughts here: boxd.it/B9ll2

Train journey consequences

✨As we come to the end of the year, we look back at some of our fav film restorations this year, particularly those that we caught on the big screen at UK cinemas and festivals via @letterboxd.social

boxd.it/B4q8s

What about your highlights? ✨

I loved seeing Lone Star at Cinema Rediscovered, a genuine rediscovery for me (and other Sayles films this year too). But equally Chinatown, seeing the 4K restoration at GFT was incredible. The power of that film on the big screen - that's something else.

‘Love exists beyond death’: Andrew Scott on All of Us Strangers – and whether his character was dead The co-star of the Guardian’s film of 2024 talks about director Andrew Haigh’s ‘unabashedly romantic’ love story, loneliness – and the idea of seeing your parents as your peers

This is a lovely interview with Andrew Scott, marking All of Us Strangers as Guardian's number one film of the year. Good choice!
www.theguardian.com/film/2024/de...

Which is the lesser of two evils? The disruption to Sauchiehall St due to it having been dug up for the past few years, or the return of the awful buskers the moment that the barriers have come down? It's a tough call.

Just watched Rebel Ridge, great film, brilliant performance by Aaron Pierre.
But man, it's indicative of how little Netflix's decision-makers care about what makes a good cinema experience that they didn't release Rebel Ridge in cinemas, and yet they did give a release to The Piano Lesson.

One of my favorite parts of Ministry for the Future was the abolition of the billionaires. Just to be that rich makes you an enemy of democracy. Wrote early this year:

What has happened to a UK release for Paul Schrader's Oh Canada? Its really odd that it doesn't even seem to have a UK distributor yet. It's good - better than Master Gardener! Someone get it out here in 2025 please.