Letterboxd — Your life in film

Visually and in a sense perhaps even narratively, it's not fully as impressive as the previous outing, Henry Sugar, but it does benefit from having a stronger emotional center than that one did, with Anderson taking his storybook approach in an even darker direction than the lighthearted whimsy he's usually associated with (and the "twee naivete" he's not uncommonly though in my opinion unfairly accused of), with a tale of outlandishly cruel bullying (which one is unsettled to discover at…

He's speaking metaphorically. He does that a lot.

We are now on our 3rd attempted reboot of the Saw franchise since it "ended" in 2010, and it is with great pleasure that I can report, in the vernacular of the youth of today, that we are so fucking back baby.

Ten movies in, and this one embraces a direction which, in retrospect, feels so obvious, and it's a wonder they hadn't really done it before now: moving John Kramer from…

It's very common when one doesn't listen to or like a genre of music very much - pop or metal or electronic or whathaveyou - to dismiss or decry it as "all sounding the same," because, lacking intimate familiarity with the genre, it's difficult to notice and appreciate the variations within the formula. It's confusing to wonder, well, why is this artist so popular and not that one, they're basically the same - they're not, of course, but you have…

The film opens with main characters Crockett and Tubbs in a club, and does so in such a way that, for me at least, gave the feeling of having been dropped into the middle of a scene, rather than the intro of a movie (I even paused it, 30 seconds in, wondering if I hadn't in fact somehow started partway into the movie).

The further into this I got, the more I was struck with the odd sensation that this…

A guy gets on the MTA here in L.A. and dies. Think anybody'll notice?

Another spectacular outing in which Mann once again mixes his dual interests in working-class strife and thrilling crime capers, this time with an extra dose of of existentialism. The vast urban sprawl becomes a synecdoche of the cosmos, urban apathy a stand-in for our insignificance within the grand scheme of the universe, just tiny little specks flying around in space, crashing into each others' lives, unnoticed…

"Who are these people?"

"Ordinary people under extraordinary pressure, Mike. What the hell do you expect? Grace and consistency?"

The concept of morality, of doing the right thing, has always deeply interested me. My position has always been that there are some things which are truly morally ambiguous, and some things which, no matter how much people try to inject faux-nuance into them, are really just black-and-white, where there's a definitive right and wrong.

Of especial interest to me, and…

That's where my will to live begins
That's where my need for you begins
That's where my love for you begins
My love for you will never end

Another concert that really should've happened a long time ago: Swans.

Been listening to them for 12 or 13 years, and finally got to see them, and woof, what an experience.

I forgot to bring my earplugs, but fortunately the venue had some because holy fucking shit 40,000, they were LOUD. I'd…