Robert Joseph

The situation in America is not great. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

'Look at that old grizzly bear.' - The Royal Tenenbaums Royal: [seeing Ethel with Henry for the first time] Look at that old grizzly bear.

Me when I see Andy Reid coaching on the sidelines clip.cafe/the-royal-te...

The Royal Tenenbaums, Bottle Rocket, The Grand Budapest Hotel

this is every Guy Ritchie film

I mean, if you go by their U.S. discography count…

I am very firmly in spooky season
#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched

If you want to understand how we got here, go watch The Insider.

“Don’t worry. We still call the shots around here.”

Physical Media Collector Pumped For Downfall Of Humanity

Physical Media Collector Pumped For Downfall Of Humanity https://theonion.com/physical-media-collector-pumped-for-downfall-of-humanity/

Favorite first-time viewings for September:
Weapons (Zach Cregger, 2025)
Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon, 1986)

And there’s the issue of masks. This Court has listened carefully to the reasons given by Öztürk’s captors for maskingup and has heard the same reasons advanced by the defendant Todd Lyons, Acting Director of ICE. It rejects this testimony as disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable. ICE goes masked for a single reason -- to terrorize Americans into quiescence. Small wonder ICE often seems to need our respected military to guard them as they go about implementing our immigration laws. It should be noted that our troops do not ordinarily wear masks. Can you imagine a masked marine? It is a matter of honor -- and honor still matters. To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police. Carrying on in this fashion, ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everyone who works in it. “We can not escape history,” Lincoln righty said. “[It] will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.” Abraham Lincoln, Second Annual Message to Congress (Dec. 1, 1862).

(Battle Hymn of the Republic continues playing)

This is one thing giant movie studios can still do--the crazy big swing that costs a lot of money and is not tied to an algorithm or concern about "viewer retention rate at minute three"--that no other entity can. It is one reason the film ecosystem still needs them.

#filmsky right now

her name couldn’t really be WILL OBEY

Mark Ruffalo in Task

From NYT piece: Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, said he did not believe Mr. Kimmel’s removal was an example of “cancel culture.” He said that “when a person says something that a ton of people find offensive, rude, dumb in real time and then that person is punished for it that’s not cancel culture. That is consequences for your actions.”

As opposed to when someone says something that a ton of people find offensive, rude, and dumb then builds a whole media empire out of the practice.

Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause By ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy.

I’ve been avoiding posting about Charlie Kirk for obvious reasons, but Ta-Nehisi Coates puts it better than I can: we can mourn the dead without averting our eyes to who they were and what they stood for. If that stance is worthy of reprisal, then I don’t even know www.vanityfair.com/news/story/c...

A ★★★★ review of Weekend (1967) 1001 Movies #833 Criterion Challenge 37/52: Dark Comedies This is just the Internet. For better or worse, Godard predicted the Internet.

My two-sentence review of Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967), film #37 in my 2025 Criterion Challenge boxd.it/b42B2L

Crow: Rutherford B. Hayes was born humbly to his own son, Rutherford B. Hayes Jr., in Delaware, while it was still ohio, some time after the French Revolution. Rejecting a career as a professional speller, he was admitted to the bar in 1845, though he did not drink lustfully from it. Serving heroically in the Civil War, Hayes admitted later that it was in the army he first tasted human flesh. In 1876, Hayes beat Bill Tilden in a three-set quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows, which caused the electrical college to declare him President of the United States. Joel: Uh, crow, you just kind of threw this together, didn't you? Crow: Please, Joel. I'm quoting from the World Book, Chapter H. Here are a few of the highlights of the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes: In 1877, Reconstruction ended and Jacques Derrida was named Secretary of Linguistics, and the era of deconstruction began, and continues to this day. Tom Servo: I just don't think...

Crow: Thomas Edison invented the pornograph, beginning the age of pornography. President Hayes then passed the Hayes Act, started the Hayes Office, won fame as an American lyric tenor, and was named Archbishop of New York in 1919. Gypsy: I think he's lying. Crow: No I'm not! After he retired he founded the original ZZ Top with James Garfield and Chester Alan Arthur, shocked the world with a publicity stunt, then, on a bet, he made a tent out of the underwear of William Howard Taft and lived inside for a full year. Well, he did! And in later years Hayes retired from the stage and did a series of memorable character parts in Hollywood. Who could forget the time he was slapped by Jacqueline Bisset in the 1971 Universal movie “Airport?" And then, after inventing ringworm, Hayes died. His last words were, "I have only one life to live, let me live it as a blonde!" Crow: The End.

my friend Darren said all AI sounds like Crow’s Rutherford B. Hayes report; he’s right

That sublime feeling when you finally track down the intersection used for a film you’re researching

one unfortunate outcome of this recent AI scam bubble is that it has absolutely killed my interest in AI's in fiction. the Alien tv show doing the whole "is AI a human" routine we've been doing for the last hundred years but now I'm like no, it's a shitty chatbot that destroys fresh water

I can’t wait to read it, Michael. Congrats!

A ★★★½ review of Things to Come (1936) 1001 Movies #832 Criterion Challenge 36/52: Ben Wheatley’s Closet Picks Knowing nothing about this before watching except that it was high-concept sci-fi, I did not expect it to be an alternative futu...

Some thoughts on Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 1936), film #36 in my 2025 Criterion Collection boxd.it/aXgmjR

Honorable mentions: Companion (Drew Hancock, 2025); Dangerous Animals (Sean Byrne, 2025); Materialists (Celine Song, 2025); A Kiss Before Dying (Gerd Oswald, 1955); Nine Queens (Fabián Bielinsky, 2000). A great movie month.

Favorite first-time viewings for August:
Rocco and His Brothers (Lucino Visconti, 1960)
Europa Europa (Agnieszka Holland, 1990)
Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)
The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977)

A ★★★★½ review of The American Friend (1977) 1001 Movies #831 Criterion Challenge 2025 35/52: Noir and neonoir A shaggy, oddball, character-driven arthouse noir that is essentially about the same thing as friendship: how it’s a bad idea for a ma...

My thoughts on The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977), film #35 in my 2025 Criterion Collection, and featuring my favorite Dennis Hopper performance outside of Blue Velvet boxd.it/aUi9bR

A ★★★★½ review of Mirror (1975) 1001 Movies #830 Criterion Challenge 2024 34/52: Watch a film from the CC40 Boxset This reminded me of Aftersun, and how unreachable the perspective or our parents (living or dead) really are. It also...

My thoughts on Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975), film #34 in my 2025 Criterion Challenge boxd.it/aP6irP

BBC News headline: Frankenstein is monster success at Venice film festival

Actually, Frankenstein is a doctor success at the Venice film festival

Vampire: Sinners
Werewolf: The Wolf Man (1941)
Ghost: The Shining
Slasher: Halloween (1978)
Folk: The Witch
Big Monster: King Kong (1933)
Zombie: Shaun of the Dead
Comedy: Dead Alive
Alien: The Thing (1982)
Psych: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Anthology: Kwaidan

Looper was the subject of my master’s thesis, and the fact that it was filmed in New Orleans inspired my dissertation. So yeah, Looper!