A. S. Hamrah

The new issue of the Whitney Review is out now, and features a piece by me on Daniel Kehlmann’s novel The Director, as well as a review of my book Last Week in End Times Cinema. In print only.

Tickets available on McNally Jackson’s website. Hope to see you there.

Iranian actor Ershadi dies at 78 after battle with cancer Iranian actor Homayoun Ershadi died at 78 on Tuesday after a battle with cancer, state news agency IRNA reported.Ershadi rose to international fame with

I’m saddened to hear of the death of Homayoun Ershadi, who gave one of the great performances in one of the greatest films, Taste of Cherry. english.alarabiya.net/amp/life-sty...

Borte med blæsten | Weekendavisen Interview. »Filmstudierne afskyr, når en film har succes og trækker folk i biograferne.« Filmkritikeren A.S. Hamrah mener, at Hollywood aktivt destruerer amerikansk film.

Do you read Danish and subscribe to @weekendavisen.dk? If so, here’s a new piece interviewing me about my two forthcoming books. www.weekendavisen.dk/kultur/borte...

Algorithm of the Night, by A. S. Hamrah “A. S. Hamrah’s criticism is hilarious, irreverent, full of passionate and ingeniously defended judgments.” —Dana Spiotta

ALGORITHM OF THE NIGHT, the new collection of film writing by @hamrahrama.bsky.social, is out next month. Preorder it today:
shop.nplusonemag.com/products/alg...

Rotten Tomatoes by Sophie Haigney and Olivia Kan-Sperling November 4, 2025 – New books by Solvej Balle, A. S. Hamrah, Anika Jade Levy, and Cynthia Zarin.

Excerpt from LAST WEEK IN END TIMES CINEMA in @parisreview.bsky.social today. Book comes out Nov 25 www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/11...

Reading @hamrahrama.bsky.social reminds me of Richard Price’s cameo in Scorsese’s LIFE LESSONS, when he says to the painter played by Nick Nolte: “I’m an artist myself, but when I look at your work I wanna go home and divorce my wife.”

Peter Watkins obituary: radical British filmmaker behind The War Game and Punishment Park The maverick filmmaker and pioneer of the docudrama, whose anti-establishment works redefined political cinema and challenged the very language of mass media, has died aged 90.

Peter Watkins has died, one of the greatest and least known and most uncompromising filmmakers, a life well lived fighting power. www.bfi.org.uk/features/pet...

6 Books We’re Looking Forward to in November The month’s most exciting art books are by Olivia Liang, Patti Smith, Sue Roe, AS Harah, and others.

Art in America looking forward to Last Week in End Times Cinema. www.artnews.com/list/art-in-...

New Books, by Dan Piepenbring

LAST WEEK IN END TIMES CINEMA getting ups in book review section of new Harper’s. Publication date is Nov 25.
harpers.org/archive/2025...

No one told him about the travel-size section?

‘I love you too!’ My family’s creepy, unsettling week with an AI toy The cuddly chatbot Grem is designed to ‘learn’ your child’s personality, while every conversation they have is recorded, then transcribed by a third party. It wasn’t long before I wanted this experime...

“When you ask it what it thinks of Donald Trump, for example, it says: “I’m not sure about that; let’s talk about something fun like princesses or animals.””
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

FILM CRITICS’ GROUPS DENOUNCE NEXSTAR AND DISNEY-ABC DECISIONS TO SUSPEND “JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!” We, the members of the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics, strongly condemn the actions taken by Nexstar and Disney-ABC to pull “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air. For decades, our organizations have represented a profession that is enabled by the First Amendment. Kimmel’s long-running talk show promotes free speech, including when it gives film artists the chance to discuss their work. There is only one word to describe the decision by powerful media corporations to silence an individual’s perspective due to fear of repercussions by the government: censorship. This is the antithesis of the values embodied by our work. We demand a reversal of this decision and encourage our colleagues across the industry to do the same.

We strongly condemn the actions taken by Nexstar and Disney-ABC to pull JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! off the air.

At the same time, AI companies like this, while pretending they are acting in the interest of Welles’s legacy, have no actual interest in artists’ rights. They have nothing to say about whether filmmakers today should or should not be treated the way RKO treated Welles by cutting his movie.

The heirs of artistic legacies will do anything not to work and to keep the money rolling in. That is not new. Which is why this kind of thing should be stopped, so as not to tempt them.

This is worse than the Sphere Oz. The inhuman, raising-the-dead aspect here is repellent in a more troubling way. Everything with the AI people’s desecration of cinema makes you wonder about their broken brains.

This is so outrageously misguided, and the THR article is error-riddled. Even the headline is backwards. Can’t wait for their servers to melt down when they try this with Greed.

Oh no, she was so great!

I’ve been thinking about this film too!

The Haunting of Cracker Barrel | A. S. Hamrah, Will Tavlin, Lisa Borst Semiotically, it's detached from all these kinds of things that it was originally designed for. But this kind of sign was always part of the corporate blandification of the American travel experience....

@nplusonemag.com spoke with me about the dreaded Cracker Barrel rebrand. www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

But using commercial streaming services is even worse.

I lectured a class at a CUNY school in which all the films available to show in classes were stored locally on the school’s server. It was an absurd system.

I don’t understand. So how are you supposed to show films in your classes?

It’s in there.

Algorithm of the Night, by A. S. Hamrah “A. S. Hamrah’s criticism is hilarious, irreverent, full of passionate and ingeniously defended judgments.” —Dana Spiotta

My new book from
@nplusonemag.com, Algorithm of the Night, is now available for preorder at 10% off. shop.nplusonemag.com/products/alg...

Last Week in End Times Cinema Check out Last Week in End Times Cinema - <b>An almanac of every bad thing that happened in the film industry from March 2024 to March 2025.</b><br><br>From A. S. Hamrah, the film critic at <i>n+1</i>...

Right now you can preorder my book Last Week in End Times Cinema at Bookshop for 20% off. bookshop.org/p/books/last...

Yes, film critics for major publications never spout nonsense today.

I’m teaching an online course on film criticism this fall through @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social. Anyone can join!

Bridge of Spies & West Side Story are very good films; but as time goes on his work as director is diminished by his work as producer. He’s made good films, but the industry of franchise films he helped create and profits greatly from is ruinous crap. It’s in the process of swamping everything.

It's workshop time! In addition to the annual Publishing Workshop you know and love, we're hosting two summer writing workshops with Katie Kadue and Nadja Spiegelman—and later down the line, with A.S. Hamrah and Lauren Markham. Learn more at lareviewofbooks.org/learn