Soham

7 classic Japanese horror movies that aren’t Ringu Some of the most influential scary films stem from the twisted auteurs working in mid-20th century Japan.

I wrote this a few years ago, but I still feel like a bunch of these (namely #2,4,5,&6) are pretty underseen horror films, so posting this list as a recommendation for October again!

i-d.co/article/clas...

Apologies to all the wonderful soup and rice dishes from Vietnam but there’s nothing that will top Bún chả for me

I hate to do this to my Mariners mutuals, but the most Mariners thing in the world would be losing to the Detroit Tigers

The Woke Agenda when their favorite TV liberal is under threat

I am obviously rooting for the Cubs to win the WS but I would be very happy to see the Mariners do it too. But it'll prob be someone stupid like the Phillies or the Yankees.

LAJWANTI (Pushpendra Singh, 2014)
eng: The Honour Keeper

I'm sure the movie is devastating and will move millions to tears but I cannot for the life of me say the word "Hamnet" with a straight face.

TIFF 2025 Review: Benny Safdie's 'The Smashing Machine' TIFF 2025 Review: Benny Safdie's 'The Smashing Machine' | Vague Visages

Some words on THE SMASHING MACHINE, a movie that is basically a beat-by-beat remake of the documentary but strangely lethargic and lacking in the doc's intensity and emotion:
vaguevisages.com/2025/09/17/t...

TIFF 2025 Review: Gianfranco Rosi's 'Below the Clouds' TIFF 2025 Review: Gianfranco Rosi's 'Below the Clouds' | Vague Visages

Another one from TIFF: Gianfranco Rosi’s BELOW THE CLOUDS uses its central object, Mt. Vesuvius, like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey - connecting humanity and community in Naples through the ages from violent tragedy to future discovery

vaguevisages.com/2025/09/17/b...

You better buy and learn how to use firearms before they make them illegal for everyone who doesn't have the word "Property of Trump" with a heart tatooed on their ass.

TIFF 2025 Review: Gianfranco Rosi's 'Below the Clouds' TIFF 2025 Review: Gianfranco Rosi's 'Below the Clouds' | Vague Visages

Another one from TIFF: Gianfranco Rosi’s BELOW THE CLOUDS uses its central object, Mt. Vesuvius, like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey - connecting humanity and community in Naples through the ages from violent tragedy to future discovery

vaguevisages.com/2025/09/17/b...

Apple TV shows either don’t exist to anyone on earth, or they exist too much to too many people. Zero in between

LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN (King Hu, 1979)

My 5 fav performances of the decade so far:

Amanda Seyfried - Seven Veils
Sidney Flanagan - Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Delroy Lindo - Da 5 Bloods
Mammooty - Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakam
Mike Faist - West Side Story

TIFF 2025 Review: Óliver Laxe’s ‘Sirāt’ TIFF 2025 Review: Óliver Laxe’s ‘Sirāt’ | Vague Visages

My TIFF reviews have slowly started coming out. I wrote here about Oliver Laxe's SIRĀT. A death-rattle not for the end of the world, but our collective indifference to the end of the world:

vaguevisages.com/2025/09/11/s...

In 2016, CNN asked famously, "what is this 4... chan??" and it took them ten fucking years to get to the question "what is a groyper?"

No wonder journalism is dead

TIFF 2025 Review: Óliver Laxe’s ‘Sirāt’ TIFF 2025 Review: Óliver Laxe’s ‘Sirāt’ | Vague Visages

My TIFF reviews have slowly started coming out. I wrote here about Oliver Laxe's SIRĀT. A death-rattle not for the end of the world, but our collective indifference to the end of the world:

vaguevisages.com/2025/09/11/s...

James Whale is such a simple but incredible name for a film director

I wonder if you're one of those actors who played some bit non-mob part in The Sopranos like a pizza store owner who gets tortured or a garbage man who gets lit on fire and then several years later you get cast as a mob boss in a mafia film it feels like being made

i can't be the only one who thinks the P&I schedule is downright nonsensical this year right?

Don't be fooled, he's eating his 12th fish filet McDonalds meal of the week and his heart is working like the CERN hadron collider through it. He is invincible

The fact that "The Rizzler" has handled internet fame this well makes me think there's an ORPHAN (2009) situation going on here

I don't have any particular reason for wanting this but I would really like a Jon Bois style video series about Henry Darger

Ooo interesting

Just better quality or a lot of missing bits?

Kinda fun you can just watch the full 2013 restoration of von Stroheim's FOOLISH WIVES on Wikipedia

The fact that a lot of people seem to agree both Beavis & Butthead Do the Universe and the King of the Hill reboot have successfully navigated social changes from the 90s to today is a huge win for Mike Judge

Yknow I thought after liking Delirious and Living in Oblivion quite a bit that I would find Double Whammy to be an interesting off-kilter misunderstood fun time that shouldn't have gotten relegated to DTV but no, it is embarrassingly bad.

The Other Side of Hope During the end of the 2010s, there seemed to be a conscious shift in several filmmakers to create more politically direct films. Mike Leigh’s Peterloo (2018) was perhaps the most viciously direct anti...

In case you missed it, I wrote up a brief word at Screen Slate on Aki Kaurismäki’s THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE. Perhaps his most urgent film and one of my fav films of the 21st century:
www.screenslate.com/articles/oth...

The cool thing about movies that have different versions and scans and transfers and cuts is you can just keep watching the one you like best 🙂