Matt Cipolla

Suffice it to say that I'm on Instagram far, far more than here or anywhere else.

@ cipolla.matt

Dead Cab for Kennedys

To Wong Foo, Thnks fr th Mmrs! Julie Newmar

Got a *ton* of writing done on another screenplay, then went for a motorcycle ride at around 11:45 pm. Rode past a stranger with a nice Heritage Softail, circled back around to say hi to him, and then we rode around the city for over an hour and chatted at a gas station. What a good day.

The last two days have really been making me think of “The Misery Chick” from DARIA, easily one of my favorite episodes.

Random inspirations: MYSTERIOUS SKIN, LAST DAYS, PARANOID PARK, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, WILD STRAWBERRIES, CHILD'S PLAY 2, AUTUMN SONATA, NEAR DARK; the music of Rilo Kiley, Broken Social Scene, Wilco, and Shellac; and... getting an autism diagnosis in my late 20s! #scriptsky

Mexican Wine

Logline: "A troubled seven-year-old grapples with his identity and post-9/11 life as he and his family take a trip from their suburban Detroit home during the infamous Northeast blackout of 2003."

A playlist I made and wrote a bunch to: open.spotify.com/playlist/2O0... #scriptsky

A laurel with two quills symmetrically surrounding the words: SCRIPT COMPETITION SECOND ROUNDER AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL 2025

An email from the Austin Film Festival. At the top is a graphic of a golden typewriter with the festival's logo directly to the right. The email reads: Dear Matt, Thank you for submitting your work, Mexican Wine, to the 2025 Austin Film Festival Script Competition. We are thrilled to share that your script has been named a Second Rounder in the Drama Feature category! This distinction places your work among the top 20% of this year’s entries and is a recognition of its strong storytelling and craft. This year brought one of the most competitive pools of submissions in our history, filled with dynamic voices and original stories. Your placement reflects the impact your work made on our readers.

Fun! A screenplay of mine, MEXICAN WINE, is a Second Rounder in Austin Film Festival's Drama Feature competition. It also got a 9 on a Black List evaluation a few months back, which about 0.5 percent of all projects get, so if anyone's interested in reading it... or buying it from me... #scriptsky

A ★★½ review of Lurker (2025) It's hard to tell to what degree its staccato, all-too-quick screenplay is a feature and not a bug, but it can't help but feel inherently broad either way. It essentially plays like things happening o...

Saw LURKER. A script this rushed and staccato against such emotionally passive direction would be nice if the film actually used its conceit to any (a)moral purpose, but it’s too rushed and just sort of… there. boxd.it/aXgW4X

A ★★½ review of Pools (2024) This is about the third time in a year that I've seen a new movie and thought, This feels like a web series from 2012. This thing sure does feel like a web series from 2012! It looks quite good, espec...

I saw POOLS last night. It was at least the third time in a year that I saw a new movie and thought, Oh, this feels like a web series from 2012. boxd.it/aRPIDb

YouTube video by Kesa Kay I'm not your daddy I'm your grandpa GEICO Commercial

BOYS GO TO JUPITER kind of reminded me of this. youtu.be/5Tp2acZ95dk?...

AI data centers driving up ComEd electricity prices, experts say ComEd customers viewing their bill for this current billing cycle were hit with sticker shock, and it’s not only the hot weather that’s contributing.

Of course this is why my last two ComEd billing statements have suddenly been 70 percent higher than normal.

wgntv.com/news/chicago...

So… has anyone else’s electricity bill been skyrocketing lately?

The speedometer of my 2012 Triumph Bonneville T100 motorcycle, parked and illuminated in orange. The odometer reads 10,000 miles.

72 degrees, rode up and down Lakeshore Drive past midnight, putted around the city, filled up my tank. I feel cleansed.

Also, I bought this bike with faaar past 9,000 miles on it, but yay, a nice round number!

I had a nightmare last night that I was at a SCREAM marathon and someone told me that Jonathan Glazer used AI for THE ZONE OF INTEREST.

My black and grey 2012 Triumph Bonneville T100 motorcycle sitting with a black gloss Biltwell Gringo SV helmet on the seat, its visor up. Behind the bike is a small grassy area, and behind that is a harbor filled with parked boats, all their masts pointing up toward the mostly cloudy sky. The picture is taken from the left side of the bike.

My black and grey 2012 Triumph Bonneville T100 motorcycle parked with a field of grass behind it and a large tree to the left side. In the far background is the distant Chicago skyline.

Glad I was able to get a quick ride in today before the sky completely opened up.

Pleasantly surprised to see a Criterion release for perhaps the best movie ever. When they didn’t do anything when it turned 25 last summer, I just figured it wouldn’t get anything ever.

YouTube video by accochamps Ten Skies (James Benning) - 2004

I’m sure the feeling will come back. I tend to hyperfixate on interests, but that doesn’t mean interests can’t still ebb and flow. Writing about movies could not pay less, so it’s not like I ever really did it for money.

Anyway, here’s James Benning’s TEN SKIES to watch: youtu.be/dnBGr6VsDVU?...

I currently learn less from new films than I did before. Perhaps it’s because I already spent so many years dissecting my own taste. Maybe it’s because movies used to be more of a social vessel for me, but now that I’ve learned more about myself elsewhere, I get more from other things in my life.

So, do I still love movies? Yes. That’s about 90 percent of what I write about, or what I write, as an author. But as a projectionist in my life once said regarding new releases, “No, I don’t hate movies. I love movies; I just don’t love any of *these* movies.”

I recently watched James Benning’s TEN SKIES and was blown away by it. 98 minutes, ten different shots of skies, and nothing else. Its life is overpowering and I’m still digesting it. If there were more stuff like that in theaters, I guess I’d be more excited, but that’s a pipe dream.

I guess it makes sense that I pivoted to screenwriting about a year and a half ago. I figured I’d write stuff I’d like to see: stuff with wavering, sometimes lackadaisical plots; occasionally bleak work; scripts where things just continue to happen because the world somehow doesn’t ever end.

If there were more movies out there that toyed with internalization and lyricism—what Omnes Films is doing is a great example—I’d be more into contemporary film. But with a few precious exceptions (e.g. THE BEAST, EEPHUS), this is the least I’ve ever cared about new movies in my life. It’s weird.

If I think about what art form I consume the most on a quantitative level, it’s music. The form is inherently less literal than film because it lacks visuals, and it also happens to be an art I can often consume while doing other things without compromising my digestion or perception of it.

Impromptu thread!

I’ve kind of been having a minor existential crisis over the last year or so as to whether I ever actually loved movies in particular or if I’ve always just loved art that’s good. Maybe the medium of film was, for lack of better phrasing, incidental. (Sorry, Marshall McLuhan.)

A still from that infamous moment from Ronny Yu’s FREDDY VS. JASON (2003). Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) stands with his back to the camera opposite Kia Waterson (Kelly Rowland), who looks at him with her left arm up, pointing at him menacingly. They’re standing outside in a heavily foggy wooded area.

Happy (?) 22nd anniversary to this

Also, between this and EEPHUS, 2025 is a big year for October 16 in movies.

A ★★½ review of Sinners (2025) I finally saw it. I don't think it's bad, but I do think it's a mess. For a while, it's somewhere between slight and slightly too much: slightly over-edited, slightly over-scored, slightly jarring in ...

I finally saw SINNERS. It didn’t do a ton for me. I don’t think it’s bad; its bright spots are quite bright and it’s clearly earnest. I do think it’s sort of a mess, though, partly due to a running impatience the movie seems to have with itself. (Why is it edited like a trailer?) boxd.it/aIZPP3

Charli XCX is a SCREAM 4 fan yaaay

Also, between this and EEPHUS, 2025 is a big year for October 16 in movies.