Fred Barrett

Where the Filmmaker Pours Himself In: Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters | In Review Online A new Kicking the Canon essay on Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, directed by Paul Schrader, for film review site In Review Online.

i wrote about Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and about how it isn’t really about Yukio Mishima at all

The Cats of Coral Springs A young woman meets an animal killer

wrote a short story about an aimless young woman trying to navigate a new relationship while also being stalked by a cat killer

i think you got the wrong Fred Barrett

Afternoons of Solitude The film opens with the labored breath of the bull, its figure lingers in the shadows, haunting us like a specter.

if you like his short review, make sure to subscribe to his newsletter. here is a piece of his on Albert Serra’s bullfighting doc Afternoons of Solitide

Electric Trio Vol. 10 'The Cigarette' (1919), 'Red Line 7000' (1965), and 'Scan Doll' (1996)

Electric Trio vol. 10 is out! me and my friend Alex took a look at Germain Dulac’s silent melodrama The Cigarette, Howard Hawks’ late style racing film Red Line 7000, and Takashi Komatsu’s voyeuristic cyberpunk thriller Scan Doll. tap in:

First as Tragedy, Then as Farce: The Return of the Living Dead & the Arc of 1980s Horror | In Review Online A new Kicking the Canon essay on The Return of the Living Dead, directed by Dan O'Bannon, for film review site In Review Online.

for In Review Online, i wrote about The Return of the Living Dead, counterculture, punk rock, cynicism, and how the horror genre lost its subversive power in the 1980s. check it out:

Electric Trio Vol. 9 'One Way or Another' (1975), 'Love in the Internet Generation' (1998), and 'The Wolf Knife' (2010)

Electric Trio Vol. 9 is here! i wrote about Sara Gomez’s radical docudrama One Way or Another, Jin Chen’s melancholy romance Love in the Internet Generation, and Laurel Nakadate’s haunting coming of age DV drama The Wolf Knife. tap in!

Tangerines and Agent Orange Hamburg II

some new fiction — i wrote a short story about two people falling in love, daydreaming, battling illness, slipping through time, and succumbing to desire while waiting for a train

i really appreciate this, thank you!

Cars and Girls and Corpses On David Cronenberg's 'The Shrouds' (2024), wanting to be a corpse, listening to Prefab Sprout, and the beauty of ruining your life

i wrote about David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, wanting to be a corpse, being on vacation, listening to Prefab Sprout, and the beauty of ruining your life

appreciate you man, thanks!

The enduring horror of Kiss Me Deadly As Robert Aldrich's 1955 noir turns 75, the film lives on in the work of Cronenberg, Lynch and many more.

As Robert Aldrich's 1955 noir turns 75, the film lives on in the work of Cronenberg, Lynch and many more

The enduring horror of Kiss Me Deadly As Robert Aldrich's 1955 noir turns 75, the film lives on in the work of Cronenberg, Lynch and many more.

i wrote about Robert Aldrich’s 1955 noir classic Kiss Me Deadly, its enduring legacy, ecstatic truths, and the long shadow of the atomic bomb for @lwlies.com

much appreciated man, thank you. i hope you enjoy them!

Electric Trio Vol. 8 'Too Late for Tears' (1949), 'Hong Kong, Hong Kong' (1983), and 'Jessica Forever' (2018)

Electric Trio Vol. 8 is up! this time around i wrote about a particularly nocturnal noir, a gritty romantic drama, and a baffling, spellbinding sci-fi fantasy film that proves once and for all that love is in fact the answer. tap in

Foppa An injury at a hockey game

new short story is up on the newsletter. i wrote about a young hockey player whose game comes to a premature end after a nasty slash by an opponent

Foppa An injury at a hockey game

new short story is up on the newsletter. i wrote about a young hockey player whose game comes to a premature end after a nasty slash by an opponent

bambissima

The Best Films of 2024 Looking for new ways forward

about a month late to the party but i finally put together a list of my favorite films from last year. i also included some honorable mentions, mainly because i was looking for an excuse to write about Denzel Washington's Gladiator 2 performance. tap in:

Electric Trio Vol. 7 'The Wedding March' (1928), 'The Possessed' (1965), and 'Motorway' (2012)

didn’t quite manage to get this out before the new year but here’s a new Electric Trio for you all! featuring a silent romantic drama, a surreal noir mystery, and a no-frills car chase actioner

Past and Present in the Cinema of 2024 A Year In Review

Year-end roundup of sorts: for Long Library, I wrote about how some of my favorite films of 2024 (and one of my least favorite) reflect the complicated relationship between contemporary cinema, nostalgia, and the history of the medium
peterraleigh.substack.com/p/past-and-p...

Electric Trio All the films featured in my newsletter's Electric Trio column, where I look at some of cinema history's underseen, underappreciated, and forgotten works. Links to the capsule reviews are in the notes...

will drop a new Electric Trio piece before the year is over but in the meantime check out the films the column has already covered — Antonioni-flavored slashers from HK, forgotten German Expressionist classics, art horror pornography... lots of good stuff

Glimmering Stars of the Great Bear On Luchino Visconti's 'Sandra' (1965)

excited to share a new Electric Dreams piece, this one on Luchino Visconti’s Sandra, a film not usually considered amongst his greatest. guest contributor Sebastian makes a compelling case for why it deserves to be reconsidered

The Image Is the Feeling It Creates A conversation about Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis' (2024), rewriting the canon, auteurism, and the future of cinema

I’m fairly biased since these are two of my very favorite guys, but really loved this wide-ranging conversation between @fredbarrett.bsky.social & Alex (not on here just yet) on the politics & aesthetics of Megalopolis. Give it a look: fredbarrett.substack.com/p/the-image-...

Alex: That’s not an observation. “The actors say stuff that’s weird.” I don’t need someone to tell me that in a critique. I’m going to see it myself and experience that. I don’t know if that answers your question. Fred: Not really. [Laughs] But you did raise a lot of interesting points so it’s all good. Alex: Fair enough. [Laughs]

you don’t wanna miss out on this one, i promise

The Image Is the Feeling It Creates A conversation about Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis' (2024), rewriting the canon, auteurism, and the future of cinema

i sat down with the inimitable Alex (aka @dogshit95) last month to pick his brain on a wide range of topics, including tech utopianism, the politics of filmmaking, the state of criticism, and the aesthetics of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis

Okay, well, some people I can recommend to follow if you like movies, criticism, and good posts:

@petreraleigh.bsky.social
@narrativematters.bsky.social
@fredbarrett.bsky.social

miss you over on twitter buddy. thanks for the shout!🫡

hey Kafui, still thriving over here i see