Rob Dunson

Today is a Box Office Gross / Strawberry Penguin crossover! Listen to the podcast! Read the post! Buy our cereal! This was my 4th appearance on Brian and Rob's show, and I gotta say ...probably the best movie I've discussed yet (yes, Pink Panther is better than Batman Begins, not even a debate).

FOLKS, @boxofficegross.bsky.social goes *internationale*! The great @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social returns to help us INSPECT the passable but mostly-justly-forgotten Steve Martin PINK PANTHER remake!!
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2...

i love reading reviews that are about what the writer wanted the movie to be instead of what it actually is

You think something is predatory or problematic, fine. Then either don't write about it or find someone who can tell you why they like it or why they engage with it.

I want less cultural criticism of trends where the writer sounds like their engagement with a subject is dependent on the opportunity to frame the intended audience as ignorant or lesser than them.

Jay-Z & Beyoncé Basquiat’s
posing in front of a “Obnoxious
Basquiat painting Liberals”
for a Tiffany’s ad (1982)
(2021)

Babe is a perfect movie

Finally saw Longlegs. I like this guy (Osgood Perkins, not the titular Longlegs, who I would have disagreements with about music, among other things). Any of you ever play Paratopic? I like when movies are kinda like that

I can only speak for myself but the best experience for me was just watching a wide variety of things as a kid and being encouraged to think about what those things meant. The first “film criticism” i ever wrote was about Joe Dirt, you really just have to find what will activate a curious mind

One of the most important things I worked hard to teach my daughter growing up was how to deal with being bored, and I mostly just wanted her to not have meltdowns as a little kid when nothing was going on, but it made have accidentally prepared her to appreciate art more.

This is a great question. I think for me it is about teaching them to handle experiences of boredom, frustration, and confusion. Sitting with uncertainty, finding your way through an opaque image, letting go of your need to be better than the film, etc., are all skills that can be taught.

icy-hot(?) take his best movie

Awww I forgot she was married to the GOAT Bo Welch 😭😭😭 Unbelievably powerful couple…

A portrait of Television frontman Tom Verlaine done in Microsoft Paint

Ms paint portrait of Television’s Tom Verlaine I did a few years ago when he died

People always talk about Disney Robin Hood but i wanna meet the furries who were activated by Joe Camel

One of the funniest conspiracy theories is that Kubrick was killed for Eyes Wide Shut but at the same time they were like "well he worked really hard on this, only fair to give it a wide release"

a letterboxd review by Gregory Wood begins: "Don't remember if I told you guys I'm not longer homeless I finally got a home" followed by a house emoji

this frickin lore drop though...?????

the album cover for Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen has Emma Mackey's titular Ella McCay character placed on it and the album title has been changed to Ella McCay in the general typeface of the original cover

THE SEARCHERS (John Ford, 1956)

a list of letterboxd tags, including "college" "new york" "realistic" "japan" "just like me fr" "experimental" "4k" "q&a" and the r word with the at symbol replacing the a, ostensibly to censor it and prevent his shit from getting deleted by mods

shout out to this letterboxder who has "college" "new york" "just like me fr" and the barely-censored r word among his most prolific tags, bet you're a very cool guy who I'd love to meet

Best film I saw at Sundance was CLOSURE. Watch online while you still can, or better yet wait for its festival rollout to see and hear it in a theater.

There are people who haven’t quite loomed up the way they may, but who, in small roles, like Catherine O’Hara, do stuff you’ve never seen before, like what she did in BEETLEJUICE. I mean, she’s an amazement. (1992)

I don't know whether it is the #1 Catherine O'Hara accomplishment but the fact that she invented a manner of speaking that no other person in human history has ever attempted for Schitts Creek and made it seem realistic that her character would talk that way felt like a comedy miracle to me

I've learnt today / while falling apart / the most Ella McKay / to speak or to pray / is straight from the heart

Paddy McKay. Ella McCaloon. Steve McKay. "Think of all the things that grew here/ long before she was born and raised here / all of it good and strong, all of it gone."

@jessehawken.bsky.social you're the authority here, thoughts?

the album cover for Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen has Emma Mackey's titular Ella McCay character placed on it and the album title has been changed to Ella McCay in the general typeface of the original cover

Kate Bush in late 1977:

lol yeah it is quite literally a story about a love so powerful that it defies the boundaries of the natural world

The Last Action Director Ric Roman Waugh, director of 'Shelter,' 'Greenland,' and 'Shot Caller."

Director Ric Roman Waugh got his start as a stuntman under Tony Scott, so he's seen a lot. His new one is SHELTER, starring Jason Statham; it's a more deliberate, meditative action movie, and he had lots to say about working with the best in the business. www.thebulwark.com/p/the-last-a...

Basil holds two bullets up close to his eyes

two bullets set end to end under a microscope as Basil analyzes their textures or whatever to determine...something, I can't remember exactly what

The moment where Basil analyzes two bullets, one he fires into a pillow and one unfired, under a microscope, which I assume is rotoscoped in some way, lives rent free in my head