Robert Joseph

genuinely hilarious that this is the shit Ben Mankiewicz has decided to torch his credibility defending

Between these and rewatching the first two films of the Before Trilogy it’s been a big month for watching couples in two shot.

Favorite first-time viewings for July:
Summer Interlude (Ingmar Bergman, 1951)
A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951)
Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman, 1955)
The Shrouds (David Cronenberg, 2024)

“Got to Get You Into My Life” for the highs, “Mother Nature’s Son” for the lows

Readers, if you don't know, course evals are often a nightmare for women & faculty of color. I've had friends & colleagues report students commenting on their appearance, using racial slurs, & making all sorts of misogynistic comments.
white male = genius, non-white/female = pushing an agenda.

But will he have vinegar and pickled onions with his potato

Me when imposter syndrome kicks in at an academic conference

YouTube video by The Academy You’ll Never Believe How This 'Matrix' Shot Was Done!

I know this is a really basic post but I never thought about how this shot was done and it's really cool!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fads...

A ★★★½ review of The Tin Drum (1979) 1001 Movies #824 Criterion Challenge 2025 27/52: Celine Song’s Top 10 The premise of this movie is fundamentally strange, and the strangest moments of its narrative (the Nazi rally-turned-dance party;...

Some thoughts on The Tin Drum (Volker Schlöndorff, 1979), film #27 in my 2025 Criterion Challenge. For better or worse, this is a very strange film. boxd.it/asbrsF

A ★★★★ review of The Shrouds (2024) Criterion Challenge 2025 26/52: Horror The Shrouds has me thinking about Vertigo, and how the Internet has turned us all into Scottie Fergusons. It has me thinking about 2001: A Space Odyssey, and how...

Some thoughts on The Shrouds (David Cronenberg, 2024), film #26 in my 2025 Criterion Challenge. I had a very personal reaction to this one.
boxd.it/aroSTl

A ★★★★ review of Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) 1001 Movies #823 Criterion Challenge 2025 25/52: Watch a film that would be your first choice in the Criterion Closet After Summer Interlude, another film that challenged my preconceptions of what an ...

My thoughts on Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman, 1955), film #25 in my 2025 Criterion Challenge, which I found to be quite delightful. boxd.it/apR8HN

You’ve inherited a movie theatre. What’s your first double feature?

there are so many great things about generative AI! here are some of my favorites <3

If this is a veiled criticism of Captain John Quin’s dance moves, I won’t hear it and I won’t respond to it

m.youtube.com/watch?v=M4go...

There’s a crane shot that follows a character as they go from the second to first floor that I swear looks like the opening track from Touch of Evil compared to the average camerawork in a film released today

A ★★★★★ review of A Place in the Sun (1951) 1001 Movies #822 Criterion Challenge 2025 24/52: 1950s I swapped this in to my challenge after starting Foster Hirsch’s Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties and knowing he would write about A Place...

Some thoughts on A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951), films #24 in my 2025 Criterion Challenge, and an American masterpiece I somehow waited this long to catch up to. boxd.it/aiIrtf

My summer movies are all over the place #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched

Was he a regular on the Colgate Hour?

A ★★★★ review of Summer Interlude (1951) Criterion Challenge 2025 23/52: Random Number Generator (631) A movie about fleeting summers and creeping autumns. The young people in this movie live in blissful ignorance of their mortality, while t...

Some thoughts on Summer Interlude (Ingmar Bergman, 1951), film #23 in my 2025 Criterion Challenge, and a bittersweet summer vacation movie. boxd.it/afXFt7

Me, an Ohioan who likes country ham: I see no problem with this

Greil Marcus, MYSTERY TRAIN

m.youtube.com/watch?v=gq0N...

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.

It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

A ★★★ review of Red Desert (1964) 1001 Movies #821 Criterion Challenge 2025 22/52: Watch a film from the Criterion Channel’s all time favorites lists In terms of image construction, this film may be peerless (that fog; that fire; thos...

Some thoughts on Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964), film #22 in my 2025 Criterion Challenge. A beautiful, endlessly frustrating film. boxd.it/acmLtr

Runners up: Cooley High (Michael Schultz, 1975); T Blockers (Alice Maio Mackay, 2023); 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle, 2025)

Favorite first-time viewings for June:
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Ivan Dixon, 1973)
Melancholia (Lars Von Trier, 2011)
Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988)
The White Balloon (Jafar Panahi, 1995)

A ★★★★ review of The White Balloon (1995) 1001 Movies #820 Criterion Challenge 21/52: Asian film An Iranian girl from a family of modest means is given a large bill to buy a fish, and she comes across mundane hostility and obstacles from the ...

Some thoughts on The White Balloon (Jafar Panahi, 1995), film #21 in my 2025 Criterion Challenge boxd.it/aaqGEJ

This is now the second time a Disney-related project has scrapped a whole story (that being WISH) to craft something generic and impossible to offend. The new Hays Code.