I finally watched Project Hail Mary last night. My plan was to watch it on the big screen, but then— Well, I hardly need to explain the concept of time. It was good, the movie, but the book was better. It almost always is. Especially if you read the book first. And some books, when read after watching the movie adaptation, is a whole new story. Like “The Lost World” by Michael Crichton. Since the screenplay of “Jurassic Park” diverged so much from the book, there was no way to unify the sequel…

It's August, which means it's time for the annual Summer Under the Stars month on Turner Classic Movies!As always, TCM's August festival started today, on the 1st, and runs through the 31st. During this month the regular franchises, including Noir Alley, Silent Sunday Nights, and TCM Imports, will have the month off before returning in September.As regular TCM viewers know, each day in August celebrates a different star. For a quick overview of the entire lineup, please visit my preview which…

Miscellaneous bits of news and fun stuff from around the Internet......More good news from Kino Lorber Studio Classics: The Dark Side of Cinema XXVIII Blu-ray collection will be out in November! It will include the Dick Powell gem CRY DANGER (1951), which was previously released by the now-defunct Olive Films, and two rarities, the "B" CITADEL OF CRIME (1941) and Scott Brady in TERROR AT MIDNIGHT (1956). I'm very excited about the "deep dives" Kino Lorber has been including in these…

The title of this promotional CD, issued with the May 2001 edition of Musica Jazz, borrows from John Surman’s acclaimed 1981 album The Amazing Adventures Of Simon Simon (ECM 1193), recorded with Jack DeJohnette. Yet this Italian release serves a different purpose. Rather than presenting a single studio statement, it surveys more than two decades of Surman’s work across 11 tracks. The result is a compact career portrait that moves through chamber jazz, free improvisation, electronic…

Did I watch a movie just so I'd have something to automatically repost to my blog with my new automatic letterboxd reposting tool? Yes.

Today’s recording is a repeat of The Simpsons – Mom and Pop Art. Media Centre Description: Homer pursues a career as an artist when his misshapen barbecue attracts the attention of a gallery. With the guest voices of Isabella Rossellini and Jasper Johns. Recorded from Channel 4 on Friday 23rd April 2010 17:58 After this the recording ends with the start of Hollyoaks. Here’s the ad breaks. Adverts: Lloyds TSB RoC Macmillan Cancer Support trail: Borat: Cultural learnings of America for Make…

Apologies for the missed review last week but the film I selected works for both themes, so we should be on track this week. Family emergency. Silent movies and slapstick are practically synonymous but I am not actually a huge fan of the rough stuff. Some physical comedy, yes, but I tend to like absurdity, […]

YouTube loves recommending video essays to me, so for a long time I’ve seen thumbnail after thumbnail promising a deep dive on “The scariest scene ever filmed!” or “The hidden secrets of the most surprising twists!” and the like. Often, it’ll be “The most horrifying TV broadcast you’ve never heard of!” and about 90% of the time, they’ll be talking about Ghostwatch as if they’re the first ones to introduce it to anyone. So I’ve had years of having the internet hyping it up, elevating it to…

StarringJake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, Chloe Fineman, Aaron Chen, and Patton OswaltDirectorJosh GreenbaumOverviewDesperate to save a struggling country club and earn his father's respect, a washed-up tennis pro is compelled to break a sacred vow and do the unthinkable: play pickleball.Review The Dink What if Nick Miller had been a one-time tennis prodigy who somehow fell into a Dodgeball-adjacent universe? That’s basically what you get here. It’s funny, it has a really good cast, and a very…

In the second season opener for Twin Peaks, Carel Struycken made quite an entrance playing the Giant. He appeared twice to Special Agent Dale Cooper toward to beginning and near the end of the episode. As part of the show’s publicity, a close up photo slide of the Giant in room 315 at The Great Northern... The post Twin Peaks Publicity – Carel Struycken as The Giant appeared first on TWIN PEAKS BLOG.

rabbit rabbit rabbit to inaugurate August, with a leporine shout-out to remember 1291, the traditional date of the formation of the Swiss federation: Hail, Helvetia! Now to dive into today’s topic in medias res, with this 7/30 Facebook greeting from Pietro Giovanni to Aaron Broadwell on the occasion of AB’s 64th birthday, somewhere around that time: Many returns of the day to my favorite linguist AB is George Aaron Broadwell (known as Aaron Broadwell), Elling Eide Professor of Anthropology at…

Der gute alte süßsaure Puszta-Salat im Glas inspiriert mich immer mal wieder zu neuen Rezepten. Er ist so herrlich säuerlich und besteht aus einer schönen Mischung Gemüse, die zu vielem paßt. Aus dem würzigen Sud entsteht dieses Mal gleich die Marinade für den Wurstsalat, den wir besonders an heißen Tagen mögen. Mir gefiel es, Wurst und Käse mit meinem gezackten Teigrädchen zu schneiden,

StarringZendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie, and Hailey Benton GatesDirectorKristoffer BorgliOverviewWitness the wedding of the year.A happily engaged couple is put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails.Review The Drama Whatever you think this movie is about, you’d be wrong. There was a turn that I was not expecting and it made for a pretty enjoyable film. Will I watch it again? Probably not, but it’s still worth a watch. Buy on Amazon

Obsession was pretty good, but perhaps not as good as some of the reviews suggest. It’s a great achievement for such a small budget film, and the two lead actors were excellent, but I found it a little slow and predictable. It might be my age, but the gore level was also too much. Not at The Substance level, but still too high. Do we really need to be that graphic? Urgh.Writer/Director Curry Barker is a real talent, and with Obsesion’s worldwide gross of nearly $500m, he’s clearly going…

Fred Hyndman died a few days ago, news I was sad to receive, as I had great admiration for him as a businessman, philanthropist, and raconteur.Back in the summer of 2019 I was invited to join John Robinson, Fred Hyndman, Alan Holman and Keith Piggott one week for coffee at Casa Mia, a special guest star, of sorts, at the weekly meeting of group of esteemed men that I had no business among. It was thrilling: the collective wisdom and connections of those four was a rare thing to be invited to…

🍿 Backrooms (2026) was the horror movie Wes Anderson would have made if he made horror movies and forgot everything he knew about plot. Fortunately, the plot was not the point — the physicality of the set and special effects more than make up for it.

Personally, I have never come across a video store clerk that recommended movies for me. But there is one person whose taste and opinion has shaped my movie-watching experience: Mr Roger Ebert. Nowadays, after I watched an 'old' movie, I will still go to Ebert's website to find out his opinions. ~ Link: The Lost Civic Life of Movie Rental Stores, by Joshua M. Greenberg, MIT Press Reader

Image source: IMDB I’ve been going through the work of the great French filmmaker Agnes Varda this summer. While I was long familiar with her masterful features Cleo from 5 to 7 and Vagabond, the rest of Varda’s filmography has long lingered on my watchlist. While my schedule does not always allow me to fit in a feature film, the nice thing is that Varda made a lot of shorts over her sixty-plus year career. There are few things more pleasurable than starting the day with a cup of coffee and…

Robert Redford and Natalie Wood in This Property Is Condemned (1966) Vitals Robert Redford as Owen Legate, railroad representative Mississippi, Summer 1931 Film: This Property Is Condemned Release Date: August 3, 1966 Director: Sydney Pollack Costume Designer: Edith Head WARNING! Spoilers ahead! Background Robert Redford was on the verge of stardom when he was cast as the romantic lead opposite Natalie Wood in This Property is Condemned, released sixty years ago this week on August 3, 1966 and…

What, Who & Why? The original challenge was to post 31 times during the month of August. This can be posting every day or doubling up on some days to make the schedule a bit easier. The idea is to spark creativity and get folks to create more content, not grinding them into burnout for some lofty goal. Blaugust is the brainchild of Mark Temple, more commonly known as Belghast, author of Tales of the Aggronaut. We lost Belghast on July 2, 2026. The Blaugust Discord mentors have decided to move…

Following on from my previous movie summaries, this is my July 2026 review. Overall, I watched 31 new movies this month, taking the total for the year to 213! Watched 31 Hours 54 Average Rating 6.5 Highest Rated 9 I decided on July's IndieWeb Movie Club topic, and it was silent movie star Charlie Chaplin. Born in 1889, the English filmmaker was a worldwide phenomenon, with his instantly recognisable on-screen persona, "The Tramp". He wrote, directed, starred, produced, and even composed the…

Video transcript: Did you know that there is a performance space at the back of the Calder Bookshop on the Cut, opposite the Young Vic? I didn’t until the brilliant blogger Lou Reviews asked me if I would join her for an Edinburgh preview performance of Krapp’s Last Tape, starring David Westhead and directed by Stockard Channing. [Details of Edinburgh Fringe run below.] Now I saw this play back in May with Gary Oldman, and I actually saw him perform it up in York last year. And this is a very…

Rudolph Vanlentino Jean Acker One hundred years ago this month, Grace Kingsley was writing about the usual assortment of casting news and Hollywood party-going, and she debunked some gossip about Rudolph Valentino. On the twelfth she mentioned that despite the rumors, his first wife Jean Acker wasn’t going to marry him again. They had been seen together in New York, but Acker said, “That’s all rot. We are just good friends, and I was very glad to see him again, but right now I’m too busy with…

Himbeer-Torte mit Kokos Ich hatte mir eine Torte gewünscht. Eine Himbeertorte. Fruchtig. Sahnig. Mit Kokos im Boden und auch auf der Sahne. Und einem knuffigen Biskuitboden. Alles ganz einfach. Und wenn sie direkt aus dem Kühlschrank kommt, dann soll man sich auch etwas verlieben. Zutaten (Backform 20 cm) Anmerkung: Natürlich können Sie die Zutaten auch an größere Backformen anpassen mit meiner Umrechnungstabelle für Backformen. Das ist ganz einfach. Für den Boden 1 Ei 50 g weiche Butter 50 g…

Code Trek (last updated: 1 Aug 2026) [ Violent / Grease / Tamper ] scripts for HN – (August 2026) HackerBrain | HackerTrain✓ 8 minutes ago ago

A quick look at the Tin Bath racing that I saw on my visit, along with the skateboard racing I missed because Groudle was calling.

— I’m not a major film buff or anything like that, but who doesn’t enjoy a good classic film? You might remember how I love the film Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders and how that led me to Perfect Days, which I also love. And because the universe is generous sometimes, I was led from these films to being asked to look at Young Ali. (Trailer). Anyway, we recently watched A Special Day, 1977, Criterion Collection. — Deborah Young on the Criterion site says in an essay: “Though not quite a love…

What a movie to watch as a sober adult. Obviously I needed to see this as a Beatles completist, but also it came up indirectly (about a thousand times) in the last novel I read. Unfunny Monty Python outtakes mixed with a childrens adventure story voiced by Beatle impersonators, it’s not bad. Meanies: But oh, the designs! There’s some really wild animation and character design in this. And the story pauses six or ten times to play an illustrated Beatles song, nothing wrong with that. I thought…

After this week’s Big Brother 28 elimination, I’m revisiting an interview I did with Big Brother producers Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan about the show’s format. Has anything changed in 12 years? What still needs to change?

Longtime Turner Classic Movies viewers may recall that the channel showed documentaries on weekends under the title Films on Film. On September 4, 2026, Films on Film is returning to TCM, although with a slightly different format. Films on Film will feature a documentary followed by movies dealing with the subject of the documentary. It will be hosted by Ben Mankiewicz and airs at 8:00 PM Eastern/7:00 PM Central on Fridays. Films on Film debuts on September 4 with the documentary Charles…