SHANGHAI BLUES: Pure melodrama, gorgeously restored. Evokes classic Hollywood with its “backlot” vibe, quality gags & clever complications. Walks & talks like a tearjerker but never quite quacks like one — slight miscalibrations in pace and plot (but not performance). #wifilmfest

BREAKING GLASS: Amazingly, the lead in this new wave musical was a competitive gig, who then got to write the songs that define it. Impossible to imagine this Thatcher-era paean to nonconformity without Hazel O’Connor’s music and galvanic screen presence. #wifilmfest

MOTEL DESTINO: An exercise in why certain story templates work. What knobs can be twisted on POSTMAN? Sympathy for husband? Possibility of throuple? What if wife doesn’t backstab/there’s no murder/it’s set at a sex hotel? Good & sleazy, but more sleazy than good. #wifilmfest

TWO WOMEN: Sorry to report 14 years after TAKE THIS WALTZ, Canada’s wife satisfaction problem remains unaddressed; here, two couples struggle to stay the course. Each scene works, but ending could reverse polarity w/ equal credibility, so … does it have credibility? #wifilmfest

THE SHROUDS: Kassel’s dental appointment/bad date twofer at its start acknowledges the movie’s off-putting essence. Despite thinking I was on Cronenberg's wavelength from the jump, I was unprepared for its reality-shredding conceit. Need to sit on deep vs trite. #wifilmfest

COCKSUCKER BLUES: Absolutely lives up/down to its reputation — hedonists hoist by their direct cinema petard. Tour tedium punctuated w/ genuine shocks, assembled in a(n intentionally?) non-illuminating way; muddy sound contributes to its fugue. Stevie Wonder collab: ! #wifilmfest

MILK PUNCH: A lost transmission from the passed-away analog world, set in the Madison I moved to 30 years ago. Three hand-to-mouth non-strivers get 12 hours of wish fulfillment, and two settled suburbanites get unsettled — (mostly) gentle comedy, lovingly observed. #wifilmfest

FLORENCE: Last year I saw a concert by a ’90s-one-hit-wonder-no-longer-making-new-music. It was truly great, for reasons legit & nostalgic. This short doc about such a band addresses both reasons, serious abt musicians’ gifts, lives & what lies at the end of 30 years. #wifilmfest

I see lots of familiar names there ... but not a lot of posts. I'll try to do my part to tend that garden.

I don't post much but I'm here daily to check in with online folk I've come to care about. I wanted to treat it like a public forum independent of its ownership, but that doesn't feel tenable any longer. I'll be where you'd expect.

if you can't handle me at my nightbitch, you don't deserve me at my daybitch

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI is chockablock with unflattering close-ups, which fit its grimy plotters. Does Welles take this to the point of nightmarish parody? The answer eel surprise you.

As an Oklahoman: WOW.

Trump Calls Out Arlington National Cemetery For Hazard-Filled Fairways

You know Matt Walsh? That frickin nut job that went around creating a bad faith transphobic documentary… well, the Democrats or whatever heard he was coming, so they set a trap for him. This whole convention is a trap.

https://t.co/syucpPhSuE

Supreme Court Overturns 'Right v. Wrong'

Steve Erickson’s 1992 review of Fire Walk with Me — very prescient on modern cinephile culture, and which Manohla Dargis called “one of the bravest pieces of film criticism I've read.” https://t.co/K5krf54zSd

I mean, ain’t it the truth?

Upon seeing this (1:30), I proposed to Bordwell a way to ID film scholars: "If Tilda Swinton is dancing at your feet, do you (a) dance or (b) record her dancing?" He assured me, "I compromised by neck dancing." David was so wise, warm, generous; the best.