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Movies reviewed this week: The Decameron, Hopscotch, It’s Always Fair Weather, The Sweet Hereafter, The American Soldier, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

It is not very useful to argue this shit on Twitter but that’s what blogs are for, right? Anyone who says that Clinton lost because of Russia is wrong. Anyone who says that Clinton lost because she ran a bad campaign is wrong. Anyone who says that Clinton lost because of Bernie is wrong. You’re all wrong. A lot of things happened and I don’t think any of them shift the tide on their own. Here’s stuff that happened in no particular order of importance!

My code is basically working, including spoiler protection and some other fun stuff. It’s more complex than it needs to be since I’m also saving entries to a database, plus it includes a lot of Letterboxd specific processing. Oh, and I’m using basic auth because I’m lazy. Possibly I’ll clean it up and release it soon; I’d just want to make it more of a generic RSS feed to WordPress engine.

Movies reviewed this week: The Gleaners and I, The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later, Shadow in the Cloud, and We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.

I’m experimenting with posting my Letterboxd reviews here, since eventually you have to learn your lesson about hosting your own content. We’ll see how it goes. I’d prefer to filter out the ratings without reviews.

Saskia Reeves is awfully good in Slow Horses. As with more or less everything in both the original novels and the TV show, it’s a slow reveal. They show us the failures that the Slough House denizens have become, and you have to be patient to see the talents – however rusty – that balance out the failings. So up front, Catherine Standish is an aging grey haired alcoholic. I’ve just finished episode 5 of the first season, which is where she lifts her head and sees a chance and takes it. The really good bit is when Reeves makes it clear that her character is incredibly pleased to have gotten this one right, with the slightest shy smile. ...

Movies reviewed this week: Take Me Somewhere Nice, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Closely Watched Trains, The Batman, Election, …And God Created Woman, and The Northman.

Movies reviewed this week: Donkey Skin and Watermelon Man.

Movies reviewed this week: Stormy Weather, Hell Hath No Fury, and Three Colors: White.

I completed my superior court jury duty a little while ago, and enough time has passed so that I can write up some coherent thoughts on the experience. This is as much for myself to help me process as anything, but I do have some helpful tips if you ever find yourself serving on a jury. Mundane details: jury selection was over Zoom, while the trial itself was conducted in person. It was a homicide case, although we had scope to consider manslaughter as well. The whole thing lasted almost exactly four weeks, including a little more than a week of deliberation. We were unable to reach a verdict; the judge and the lawyers were very clear that we shouldn’t consider that a failure on our parts. There will be a new trial. I’m not talking about details in public for various reasons, but feel free to ask in private if we know each other.