Dan Berlinka

Me also!

That line annoyed me the most for exactly the reason you describe.

I also want to see it and I'm deeply suspicious of a review that doesn't mention Daughters of Darkness in this context.

I liked Nobody, but that was not without its silliness too. Two of the JW sequels are on Prime for another 9 days and I'm pretty committed to giving them a go!

Last night I finally watched John Wick. What took me so long? It's a glorious bit of action hokum, but it plays its mythology straight and never winks at the audience. And for such an obvious "comic book movie", it's wonderful that the source is an original screenplay and not some rebooted IP.

Yesterday I watched Perfect Days. Wim Wenders' beautiful Tokyo story captures a yearning I think many of us feel for simplicity, routine, and the dignity of honest work - a kind of secular monasticism. Kōji Yakusho delivers the best "face acting" since Bob Hoskins. I loved every second.

I did *not* know this!

Last night I watched Pleasure. Ninja Thyberg's adult film industry drama is neither romanticised nor judgemental - at least not about productions that protect the actors. And thanks to Revika Reustle's terrific supporting performance it's also a quietly moving story about friendship and ambition.

Funny that the new Jim Rockford was previously known for playing Angel. (Well it's funny to *me*. Stuart Margolin forever!!)

Last night I finally watched Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig's Frances Ha. Released the same year as the first season of Girls, it feels like a time capsule of millennial life and it could be infuriating if it wasn't so very well done in every department. I liked it a lot.

No hate, but I saw a post referring to "an early Edward G. Robinson movie called Little Caesar" and it made me realise there's no longer an assumption that everyone would be familiar with it. Mother of mercy, this really is the end of Rico.

Le Monde on The Vanishing Kind: "It takes a certain audacity,a certain talent,or perhaps both,to return to the well-trodden soil of the alternate history genre...Tidhar lacks neither, and he subtly shifts the genre's center of gravity...constant tension [leads to] to a final twist of rare elegance."

Last night I watched Die My Love. It takes more risks than Nightbitch, but doesn't go as far as mother! (Jennifer Lawrence cannot catch a break in isolated rural houses.) The use of grating sounds (flies buzzing, a dog barking) is effective but not exactly enjoyable. That may be how I felt overall.

Having just watched this yesterday, I'm so pleased to read this review because it perfectly captures everything I loved about it.

Yesterday I watched anti-heist movie, The Mastermind. It shares a "staying one step ahead" premise with Marty Supreme. But where the latter is propulsively "masculine", Kelly Reichardt's film is spare and elliptical, sometimes frustratingly so. I liked it a lot and think it may haunt me for longer.

On Friday I saw Marty Supreme. Timothée Chalamet is terrific - his relentless intensity reminded me not only of Uncut Gems and Good Time, but also Sammy Glick, Rupert Pupkin and New York, New York's Jimmy Doyle. I'm not entirely sure what it adds up to, but I liked it a lot while I was watching it.

Horror movies for Black History Month! Good and very useful list. A couple here I need to catch up on.

I saw it on Mubi, which has a terrific offer in the UK right now - 3 months for £1. It does have a very idiosyncratic watchlist feature though. It lists almost any film you can think of, but for most of them, if you hit play, it says, "lol we don't have that. How about Inland Empire instead?"

Last night I watched quirky French Canadian horror / comedy Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. It's in a Venn Diagram of What We Do In The Shadows, Ginger Snaps, and Let The Right One In, but is very much its own thing and perfectly captures lonely teenage melancholy. I liked it.

5/10. Very poor.

Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis - Tom Waits

youtu.be/mxVo5mjK4eg?...

The Death of Hamnet and the Making of Hamlet | Stephen Greenblatt 1. Shakespeare was in the business, all of his life, of probing the passions of his characters and arousing the passions of his audiences. His skill in

Last night I saw Hamnet. I'm not big on biography (speculative or otherwise) as the explanation for art, so this wasn't really one for me, though I was moved by Emily Watson's quiet stoicism, and the film did lead me to the Stephen Greenblatt essay quoted at the start: share.google/sK5kY7Tr1n1D...

Gonna toot my own horn briefly here as I just found this interview in which Bernard talks about us working together on his book and says nice things about your pal. www.northernsoul.me.uk/bernard-sumn...

"What do I want with half your estate? Do you think I am a Jew-usurer, seeking good investment in land?" (A quote from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë)

Read a classic work of English literature without finding any antisemitism challenge: failed again.

Audience review:

Return To Silent Hill. The Forest Cinema. February 1st.

A fingers-of-one-hand audience who were impeccably behaved. The film would probably work better with a bit of audience participation, but I can't deduct points for people being too respectful.

*****/5

Yesterday I saw Return To Silent Hill. This was a trip born of love for the video game and it met our expectations. I will say that it doesn't feel like a cynical cash-in, as it seems to alienate fans and non-fans alike. I enjoyed some of the art direction and Hannah Emily Anderson's performance.

Yesterday I watched Shih-Ching Tsou's Taiwanese family drama Left-Handed Girl. The iPhone aesthetic is similar to co-writer / editor Sean Baker's Tangerine, but far less frenetic. Terrific performances by Ma Shih-Yuan and Nina Ye (the best child actor I've seen in a long time). I liked it a lot.

Even Dickens would have thought that name was too unsubtle

This is this Saturday!

I just object to the format. But yeah, the list can be useful.