curated cinema: a little gem from early this year is new on Netflix
2024’s Wicked Little Letters is streaming on Netflix in the US and the UK.
1920s
Wicked Little Letters movie review: the cheek is in the mail
An upending of the period costume drama that’s cheerfully indecent, gloriously naughty, and full of female rage at the expectations women operate under. Funny as hell and bursting with impudent energy.
daily stream: a progressive voice from a century ago, back from the memory-hole
2017’s The Lost City of Z is on Prime in the US, Netflix in the UK.
Killers of the Flower Moon movie review: blood for oil (London Film Festival 2023)
A great American filmmaker on a memory-holed chapter of American history at the intersection of colonialism and toxic masculinity. Massive, epic, and essential. Scorches the earth of our complacency.
Downton Abbey: A New Era movie review: should we improve society somewhat, or nah?
Steady your heart palpitations: it’s the same old era for the nicest feudal hangover. The delusional reactionary fantasy of wealth and privilege for some, cheerful servitude for others remains intact.
Passing movie review: the realities and fallacies of race
Everything about this astonishing, just-plain-satisfying film feels like a revelation. Bone-deep subversive yet universal, dripping with a quiet dread yet also beautiful and beautifully wise.
movies by or about women opening US/Can Sep 25–27
Jill Culton writes and codirects Abominable; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
movies by or about women opening US/Can Sep 18–20
Tuva Novotny directs Swedish dramedy Britt-Marie Was Here, starring Pernilla August; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
Downton Abbey movie review: embarrassment of riches
Wherein the working class revels in servitude, and wealth and privilege are deserved. Deeply reactionary and unlikely to please anyone not already enamored of the show. I get Anglophilia, but really?
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire Sep 13
Lorene Scafaria directs crime drama Hustlers, starring Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
