Culture

I saw Buddy and Coyote vs. Acme within a couple of days of each other and I was struck by how much they occupy the same territory while still being wildly different movies. One is horror, and one’s a heartwarming comedy. Both are about the border between reality and children’s television; both are surrealist exercises. Will Forte and Cristin Milioti are the pivot points, the humans with a foot in both worlds. I’m surprised there hasn’t been more discussion of this, but I suppose the circumstances of Coyote vs. Acme’s release were the elephant in the discourse room. ...

Another month, another Criterion Channel lineup. Still no Boston Crime collection. It’s OK, this is my first of these posts from the lovely city of St. Paul so now I’m gonna demand a Viking themed collection instead. Fun month this month, which definitely reflects the wide range of programming the Channel provides, so without further ado, let’s hit the headliners. And this month the main attraction is Directed by Abel Ferrara. They did a great job here, getting movies from Ferrara’s whole career. I’m interested in his first (non-pornographic) movie, The Driller Killer, and his most recent fictional movie, Padre Pio, both of which are here. So are his classic New York movies, his Body Snatchers, New Rose Hotel — it’s really comprehensive. The only thing I’m sad is missing on a quick look is Mary, which has such a good cast (Binoche, Whitaker, Cotillard), but it looks like rights are a bit of a bear there. ...

Coming at you hot this month cause I was at Fantasia for a week and a half and like I had time to write a whole extra blog post… it’s the August 2026 Criterion Channel lineup with commentary by me! And it’s a hot month. Because of the collections. Desert Trips, get it? Maybe I’m still a bit thrashed from the festival. Let’s run through this in order. Opening up, Rock Biopics That Don’t Suck, which is fair. Michael will not be appearing in this list. It includes the best biopic of all time, which happens to be about a fictional rock star, Velvet Goldmine. It’s also got Love & Mercy, which anyone curious about Brian Wilson should watch – there’s a great Paul Dano performance in there. Putting in Amadeus and Lisztomania is clever (plus I’m generally up for a Ken Russell I haven’t seen). Oh, and Nico, 1988 will give me my Velvet Goldmine fix. This is one of those collections that seems fairly complete on the topic. ...

Here we are in the middle of 2026, which is as good a marker as any to see where my movie watching is at. Thanks, Letterboxd, for enabling my OCD! All stats are as of June 30th. I watched 197 movies in the first half of the year. I have a not totally serious goal of 500 this year, which is a number I hit in 2023 after which I decided to stop being quite so obsessive. You don’t need to make the number go up every year, so I pulled back for the sake of my sanity. Now, however, I have more free time. The math says… maybe, particularly since I’m gonna see like 75 movies at Fantasia. (I do count shorts in this.) ...

Now entering the summer months. Maybe a little bit of the summer doldrums — I can’t say that July’s releases make up an exceptional lineup. It is a very comfortable one with a handful of gems buried way down in there. So let’s do the hidden treasure first. We’ll get back to Harry Dean Stanton, I promise. Before that, though, I need to urge you to make time for Ninón Sevilla: Queen of the Mexican Cabaret. So I’ve only seen one of these, Victims of Sin, but it’s so good and I’ll take any excuse to recommend it. There’s a third act scene where Ninón Sevilla bursts into a room with iconic style and more people should see it, plus the musical numbers are stunning. So I’m gonna want to see the three of these I haven’t seen. Amazing introduction to cine de rumberas and to the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema in general; there are noir overtones and melodrama and they’re just so much fun. ...

I recently watched Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, and respected it very much. Inevitably, I wound up comparing it to the other auteur school shooting movie based on an actual shooting, Denis Villeneuve’s Polytechnique, which in my eyes is the best thing Villeneuve has ever done. The two movies are on par in terms of craft; my gut reaction is that Polytechnique is a wiser movie. So I wanted to think about why I reacted that way. ...

To celebrate my retirement (which is a retrofitted justification; I’d have done this anyhow), S. and I woke up at 5 AM Friday, left the house at 5:30, and drove down to Portland for the Criterion Mobile Closet. We didn’t get back home until 10 PM. This… is our story. Seattle to Portland chews up about 80-90% of our ID.4’s battery, depending on weather. Usually we pause for a 30 minute charge somewhere north of Portland, so we have more flexibility coming home. This time we knew we had to get there early in order to secure a spot in line, so we just pushed through, arriving with around 60 miles of range left. Plenty. ...

Now that I’ve slept for a week or so, it’s about time I wrote a post about my SIFF experience. (Link goes to the stable film program page for 2026, not the top level page which is subject to change.) I made a mistake by attending a midnight showing the first Friday of the festival, which left me pretty wrung out for the rest of the week. I feel better now, though. ...

Decent month with a great themed collection as the centerpiece. Any time you can put one of the biggest stars in the world in your banner image has to feel like a win for the Channel and there’s George Clooney being all home spun front and center. Do you ever contemplate the fact that Clooney is a nepo baby, or is that just me? So let’s start with Odysseys, since that’s the collection we’re talking about. Brilliant theme, everything from Sullivan’s Travels to After Hours to, yes, O Brother, Where Art Thou? There is not a bad choice in the bunch, and the concept is focused. I think this one is simply deilghtful. ...

About time for another Criterion Channel lineup. I’ll admit it, it’s been kind of a middling few months on the Channel, usually with at least one really exciting collection. I’m not sure May even has that one standout. Obviously the long-awaited Boston Crime collection is the answer here; until that day comes, it’s hard to complain too much. Still a cinephile’s delight. OK, let’s run it down. The first collection is ‘80s Remakes (and Their Originals) which is at the least a clever idea. Everything from The Thing and The Thing from Another World to Breathless and Breathless. I can’t say I’d go out of my way for most of these remakes, though — Carpenter being the clear exception. This feels more interesting as an exploration of how remakes can go wrong than anything else. ...