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.
Vladimir Putin
loaded question: what are the best movies about resistance to oppression, repression, and colonialism?
Apropos of, oh, nothing at all that might be in the news at the moment (Free Palestine!)…
daily stream: meet Putin’s worst nightmare, Alexei Navalny
2022 doc Navalny is on Max in the US, Curzon Home Cinema in the UK.
weekend watchlist: a movie worth paying premium VOD prices for
Plus horrors fantastical, hellish, alien… and all too down to Earth. (First published May 14th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
Navalny documentary review: celebrating the biggest pain in Putin’s ass
Spectacularly entertaining. As gripping, as suspenseful as a finely wrought fictional thriller; a sheer delight as a portrait of the man himself. Films don’t get much more daring or crucial than this.
a documentary about Ukraine that Putin probably should have watched
If you need a bit of background on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia this week, the Netflix documentary Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom is absolutely essential and unmissable.
Citizen K documentary review: behind the new Cold War
Muckraking documentarian Alex Gibney on why Vladimir Putin is so dangerous, via the tale of a Russian oligarch of the post-Soviet era turned dissident. Vital context for the state of the world today.
The Gentlemen movie review: sufficiently advanced crime
Guy Ritchie ups his game on his signature subgenre with a hilariously sublime crime comedy that acts as mirror on the legit world and oozes with crackling cynicism about culture and politics as well.
Robin Hood (2018) movie review: it should be outlawed
Ugly, garish, anachronistic like a small mean child playing with matches, and completely lacking in anything Robin Hood–y: there’s no fun, no romance, no virtue. Instead? Bizarre “aesthetics” and even worse politics.
Hunter Killer movie review: dead in the water
The Hunt for Red October as made by a Michael Bay wannabe who can’t even rise to the level of giving-a-propagandistic-crap. Absurd geopolitics and laugh-out-loud clichés abound; tension and excitement do not.
