About

Your host Bryant Durrell is a manager, a system administrator, a writer, a political observer, a gamer, a movie buff, and a collector. Most of these find their way into the blog eventually. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two cats.

I started this blog (using Movable Type) back in 2002. In 2007, after a hard drive crash, I recovered the blog but somewhat moodily decided to move blogging over to LiveJournal and Imaginary Vestibule. That never really worked out right for me, so I am now merging the Vestibule and a side blog I was running for my 101 things in 1,001 days back into Population: One. Cogs will stay unmerged.

Find me other places via this page.

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Naked, 1993 - ★★★★★
December 17, 2024
All that and a bag of chips. I kept marveling at the way Dick Pope captured London as hell; the early driving sequence, which is one of the few times Johnny has to be alone with himself, reminded me of Crash in the way the cold highway implies isolation. Then Johnny throws himself against kindness until […]
Viva la Muerte, 1971 - ★★★★
December 16, 2024
Fascism and religion will fuck a kid up. It’s a coming of age movie set in difficult circumstances; the fact that it’s autobiographical in origin doesn’t make it go down any easier. The corrosive effects of cruelty are laid bare, and the solarized colors of the fantasy sequences make it really easy to see how […]
The Shadow Strays, 2024 - ★★★
December 15, 2024
Not quite even the sum of its parts. The parts are really good: Tjahjanto knows his way around an action scene, and I’m always up for an emotional revenge flick set in an underworld of deadly assassins. His trademark bloody battles clearly draw on more gruesome horror tropes, starting with that very first kill. So […]
Ghosthouse, 1988 - ★½
December 15, 2024
Chaotic and untethered. There’s a hefty amount of reasonably okay low budget imagery, none of which holds together well. The cool concept of ghost hunting via ham radio completely vanishes midway through. The acting is mostly poor. I got some nostalgia value out of the Massachusetts locations: that’s my childhood skyline.
The NeverEnding Story
December 15, 2024
With The Brutalist on the horizon and Interstellar re-releasing in IMAX, we’re living la dolce vita by celebrating the art of the long film. Whether you’re a wolf of Wall Street or a humble fiddler on the roof, go the extra green mile and make a Schindler’s list of your top movies (no miniseries!) with […]