Darren Mooney

#NowWatching “How to Make a Killing”

In his latest Patreon column, @darrenmooney.bsky.social dug into Chainsaw Man, and how its dehumanizing horror speaks to life in the modern era.

www.patreon.com/posts/column...

But, crucially, anti-director!

I had a hankerin’ fer some mankerin’.

I thought it was pretty good.

*adds Jay to the “Clint Booth” guest pool**

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I remain fascinated by how, whether consciously or not, both “Mank” and “The Killer” feel like Fincher reckoning with the possibility that he may have inadvertently helped to kill cinema.

Sad studies of sad men in which he insists *a little too strongly* that he doesn’t care.

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Rewatching “The Killer.”

Quietly top tier Fincher, and as much of a sequel to “The Social Network” as we need, a study of what it means to navigate this disaffected and impersonal world, and the kind of person evolved to it.

Thank you, James!

Good gods, thank you, The 250! You may be my new fave podcast, with your Irish hosts and erudite, thought-provoking talk about Predator: Badlands. Been dying to see the flick since catching a glowing @ebertvoices.bsky.social summer review.
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437. Predator: Badlands - All-ien 2025 (#---) Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Jess Dunne, this week with special guest Joey Keogh, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by ...

Absolutely digging
Andrew Quinn, @darrenmooney.bsky.social and Jess Dunne
on the The 250 episode 437, talking Predator: Badlands, paricularly examing briefly how Star Wars, Die Hard and Rambo as US filmmakers revisiting 'Nam.
Podbean.
www.podbean.com/ea/dir-m8f47...

441. One Battle After Another (#---) Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week with special guests Phil Bagnall and Darcie-Jade Faccio, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as

The latest episode of The 250 is now online, with @ohdeerdiner.bsky.social and @cynicalfilm.bsky.social joining us to discuss the Best Picture Frontrunner, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another.”

We think it’s a fun one. We hope you enjoy!

soundcloud.com/the250/441-o...

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#NowWatching #Hoppers

[COLLUMN] Scream 7 Doesn't Just Hate Itself - It Hates Its Audience | by Darren Mooney | Second Wind Get more from Second Wind on Patreon

FREE COLUMN!

At @secondwindgroup.com , I wrote about the strange soullessness of "Scream 7", a movie about the condescending emptiness of fan service nostalgia that revels in condescending empty fan service nostalgia.

Give it a read! If you want.

READ: www.patreon.com/posts/collum...

There is a part of me that is like, “Make a big deal of paying Campbell $7m to star in the movie, then make a generic Scream sequel about sexy teens and just keep randomly cutting back to Sydney enjoying a mundane day half the country away.”

I think so, narrowly beating “VI.”

“VI” is bad. This is bad and smug.

To be fair, six is really just a generic slasher film. To the point the killer’s whole deal is “… I don’t even really like movies that much anyway.”

I think a “Scream 7” that goes full-tilt into the “they’re not Scream fans, they’re Neve Campbell fans” would be interesting.

But the movie is too interested in fan service to actively do it. It’s like, say, critiquing AI while using it for nostalgic cameos.

Honestly, and this may be controversial, I don’t think so.

There is a half-decent movie in here about the cynicism in doing that, and I think it fits with Williamson’s cynicism in the second and fourth films.

It’s the execution - pardon the pun - that does it in.

It’s close in quality to six. Significantly worse than five, I thought.

A ★★ review of Scream 7 (2026) “Tough talk from a man hiding behind a mask.” “Oh, I'm not hiding, Sidney. Not this time.” Look, as somebody who did not care for Scream VI, I think it is perfectly reasonable to make jokes at the exp...

Some quick post-embargo thoughts on #Scream7, the worst of the series.

A movie that is so true to its Gen X spirit that is whining about selling out while enthusiastically selling out.

boxd.it/djjgkz

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I always have a soft spot for the knee-jerk frustration of a “burn it all down” self-loathing sequel, but little patience for wrapping it in toothless pandering.

Don’t piss on my leg and tell me we’re singin’ in the rain. Don’t pretend to critique nostalgia while selling it.

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I really did not care for “Scream 7.”

Like the other sequels involving Williamson, there is a healthy dose of contempt for horror franchising, but this time the film reserves its greatest contempt for the audience.

So smugly cynical it’s cynical of its own cynicism. Sigh. How Gen X of it.

Apparently, the fandom did not like it - it was not “manga accurate.”

And I’ve seen it suggested that this is why the film has a different director and style.

(Still in preliminary research mode.)

The animation on the show is different from the manga, more photorealistic because the director made an artistically reasonable creative choice to adapt the spirit of the manga than ape the art style.

(His logic was the manga was heavily influenced by live action films, especially American ones.)

I am reading about the… ahem… debates over the show’s animation, and my blood is boiling.

You make an important point.

And the chainsaw dog is cute.

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Given how hard I bounced off “Demon Slayer”, a little surprised as how much I’m enjoying “Chainsaw Man.”

It is a beautifully animated study of the dehumanising effects of postmodernism and late capitalism, reducing the human body to either commodity or instrument.

I doubt it's intentional, but rewatching "Scream VI", I like how the crags and crevasses of the Paramount mountain look *just a little* like the eyes and mouth of the Ghostface mask.

YouTube video by Second Wind Does A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Bring the Juice Back to Thrones? | The Rewind Podcast

In about 30 minutes Marty, @darrenmooney.bsky.social and I will put my F.D.T. (Floppy Dong Theory) to the test when we talk about Knight of the Seven Kingdoms... and all the other stuff we watched.

Here: