curated cinema: a previous trip to Arrakis
1984’s Dune leaves UK Mubi in 6 days; it’s streaming on Max in the US.
my picks for tonight’s 96th Academy Awards (the Oscars for 2023’s films) (winners indicated)
I correctly guessed 12 out of the 23 categories, which is a little worse than how I did last year but better than the year before. So about par for the course for me.
Dune: Part Two movie review: shifting sands
Ugly, outrageous, brutal, and cynical; a genuinely terrifying film about power and politics as religion and control. There is little escapism here; hits square in the social plexus of horrifying 2024.
loaded question: what movies beyond ‘Mary Poppins’ deserve a rethink of their official ratings?
What older movies might warrant a rethink, either to acknowledge their suitability to audiences of all ages or to restrict them to more discerning adults?
Madame Web movie review: absurdly tangled
A travesty of corporate cynicism. Its desperation to ride Spider-Man’s coattails is pathetic, but its convoluted, coincidence-laden nonsense is duller than you’d imagine: it’s not even so bad it’s fun.
Stopmotion movie review: bleed for your art
Unusually psychologically astute and utterly unnerving as it digs into the enigmas and anxieties of artistic creation. Style is substance in this challenge to the very concept of an “animated movie.”
loaded question: what location, specific or general, inevitably makes you think of a line of movie dialogue?
Like you’re constitutionally incapable of not muttering a line of dialogue to yourself when you’re in that particular place?
curated cinema: flip Putin the bird by watching this fantastic doc about Alexei Navalny
2022 doc Navalny is on Max in the US, Dogwoof on Demand in the UK.
loaded question: what are your memories of ‘Star Wars: The Phantom Menace’ as we approach its 25th anniversary?
It’s almost impossible to convey the level of excitement and anticipation if you didn’t experience it that spring and summer of 1999…
now make donations via PayPal even without a PayPal account
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