“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come” –Victor Hugo 2010’s Shinryaku! Ika Musume was one of the more memorable series of its time – centred around the premise of ocean-dweller Ika Musume, Shinryaku! Ika Musume follows Ika Musume as she migrates onto dry land with the singular […]
The swashbuckling classic THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH (1954) has just been released on Blu-ray by Universal Pictures.I don't use the word "classic" lightly; like Curtis's earlier SON OF ALI BABA (1952), this film is a joy start to finish, '50s era studio entertainment at its best.The movie played on local television often when I was young -- I seem to recall it was KHJ Channel 9 which showed it -- and the wonderful cast and combination of action, humor, and romance helped draw me into the…
A fascinating read by Albert Wegner
BERTAIL, Thomas; GHERGHESCU, Mica;LUCCI-GOUTNIKOV, Nicolas. L’Internationale situationniste. Vies, textes et pratiques (2026). Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2026. 183 p.; ill.; white wrappers with text in black. Francais Suite à l’acquisition des archives de Guy Debord par la BNF en 2009, et de celles de tous ses petits camarades de l’Internationale situationniste par Yale dans les quinze années qui ont suivi, les chercheurs ont enfin pu avoir accès à la majorité des lettres, manuscrits et…
Click here to book through August, September & October . I cycled along the River Lea to Waltham Abbey. On my approach, even from the riverbank, I could see the majestic tower rising over the water meadows as the Abbey has done for the past thousand years, commanding the landscape and undiminished in visual authority. Once you see it, you realise you are following in the footsteps of the innumerable credulous pilgrims who came here in hope of miraculous cures from the holy cross, which had…
In my Kurosawa festival, I’ve gotten to The Bad Sleep Well, which is astonishingly good, with a riveting performance by Mifune — I can’t believe I’d barely heard of it. (Actually, I can, because it’s the grimmest, bitterest movie he ever made aside from Ran, and it openly attacks the corruption and brutality of corporate life.) But I bring it here for its title, which in Japanese is 悪い奴ほどよく眠る Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru. Now, I don’t actually know Japanese, but I did when I was very young and…
The following was written for Locarno Film Festival’s retrospective and book Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema 1945-1960, edited by Ehsan Khoshbakht. It wasn’t called Foul Pest at the time, but actor Brian Pettifer tells me that was Guest’s nickname in the industry, and even though I love a lot of his work as a blog […]
*Jacques Henri Lartigue, "Florette, Piozzo, Juillet 1959." (Other Lartigue clotheslines here.)*James Tate, "At the Clothesline."*Related: "Love calls us to the things of this world."
Born Nigel Neill in 1947 in Omagh, Nth Ireland to an English mother and a New Zealand father serving in the British army. His family moved to Christchurch N.Z in 1954 where Sam went to school. He took the name Sam because there were several Nigels at school, saying “I moved more easily in the world as a Sam”.Sam Neill and Meryl Streep as Michael & Lindy Chamberlain,Evil Angels, 1988Sam Neill went on to study English literature and acting at Canterbury Uni. He began acting in Canberbury Uni…
My latest Film Data Scientist video, this time investigating why so many film posters seem to have forgotten the names of their lead actors.I’ll be uploading new video essays every couple of weeks throughout 2026, so make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube to get notified when another drops (also, subscribing will really help me out with the Algorithm Gods, so it would mean a lot to me - thank you!).https://www.youtube.com/@TheFilmDataScientistAnd to help explain the channel, I also created a…
I enjoyed the space art in this book. It is a nice background for these fictional space adventures.Bleep and Booster was a beloved children's animated sci-fi series featured on the BBC's Blue Peter from 1963 to 1977. The story followed the galactic adventures of Bleep, an alien boy from the planet Miron, and Booster, an adventurous young human boy. Originally shown on the BBC's Blue Peter. A total of 313 five-minute episodes were made. There were a series of books and Annuals issued over the…
For the longest time, I’ve had a page on my blog dedicated to my favorite movies. The original idea was to showcase the movies I love most, kind of like the four favorites on Letterboxd. But over time, it gradually shifted from movies I loved to movies I simply liked, and it became an almost endless list. They were all great movies, and I would recommend every single one of them, but not every title was an absolute favorite of mine. So, I made quite a few changes to the list. It now only…
I've written plenty of times about how I don't much care for Tom Cruise as a person whenever I've read about how he's quite unpleasant, egocentric, and so forth. That said, I will never deny that the man can act. That is quite on display in the trailer for the upcoming dark comedy, "Digger." Cruise plays an elderly and deranged oil tycoon whose company's actions put the safety of our planet at risk, so he's got to save us all from the problem he created. Give the trailer a view:Cruise is the…
I'm out of town so this is obviously my second priority, but the studios have fortunately made it pretty easy on me! The big opening is The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan's star-studded version of the classic adventure, featuring Matt Damon as Odysseus and Anne Hathaway as Penelope, plus seemingly half of Hollywood. Shot entirely on Imax film, it's getting most if not all of the premium screens in
A delightful explainer video from the Buckinghamshire Archives posted to Bluesky on 14 July 2026 contains a cheeky stringboard toward the end. ▲ “Who doesn't love a bit of gossip?" Buckinghamshire Archives (2026) ▲ “Who doesn't love a bit of gossip?" Buckinghamshire Archives (2026)
I wasn't expected to post after the Apple Hide My Email case post today, but then I scrolled my feed and ran into this. If you've been following along, I've been covering Warner Bros Sale since Netflix first started to buy Warner Bros. — back when Paramount wasn't even the frontrunner. Since then Warner Bros went with a counter offer from Paramount and as I was mentioned a few days ago the DOJ okayed it and several states said no and are taking it to court. On Wednesday, ProPublica gave us the…
The trailer has dropped for the latest Jane Austen adaptation, a feature-film version of Sense and
Project Runway 22 episode 2 brought back the jury of designers, and somehow it's even worse this season! Let's recap all the ways this episode went awry.
This column is a guest author feature, written by a friend of the site whose work I am thrilled to host at Retro XP. This entry is from Ashley Schofield, author of VA-11 Hall-A: Design Works. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link.I'm going to spend the process of drafting this piece seeing how long I can go before talking about EVO Moment 37. Let’s find out together.Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is not the greatest fighting game ever made, nor a perfect one. It’s…
Maultaschen italienisch mit einer Füllung aus geschmorten Auberginen, Zucchini und Kräutern auf einem Bett aus leicht spicy italienischem Gemüse Gestern hatte ich dem Professor die neuen Maultaschen vorgestellt – italienische Art. Mit einer Füllung aus Auberginen, Zucchini, frischem Thymian… Auf einem Bett aus spicy Gemüse mit wunderbarem Olivenöl. Mild – wie ich es mag. Caprese brummte. Nickte. Betrachtete die Sauce. Die Augen blitzten. Ich erkannte Wohlgefallen. »Wie nennen Sie Maultaschen in…
FLOWERS, PHONETICS, PHABULOUS Always a joy to have them back: the phoneticist and the flower-girl, born to enthral one another and us. Cheers first for Keziah Ibe as Eliza, fresh out of Arts Ed on a first professional job. She eooowessand garrrrns at the start with confidently alarming shrillness, then suddenly – as the opera-crowd leave the stage to Covent garden workers round a brazier – sings “Wouldn’t it be loverly” at first merrily then downstage with a brief wistful sadness, then again…
Cars (2006)
Watched on Thursday July 16, 2026.
In this week's very special Project Runway episode: A Project Runway 22 episode 2 recap and review, with a special guest star! Should we flee like Nina Garcia did?
The greatest joy in my quest to document and archive all things Twin Peaks is finding something I’ve never seen. Take this publicity photo I acquired at auction from my favorite David Lynch film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. The black and white shot shows Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) sitting in the Red Room. In... The post Twin Peaks Publicity – Spelling Films International – Laura Palmer in Red Room – 164-27 appeared first on TWIN PEAKS BLOG.
Bright and breezy, Pretty Woman the Musical is bolstered by a terrific Australian cast, working at the height of the powers on this final leg of the Australian tour. As far as movie-to-musical adaptations go, 1990 film Pretty Woman is about as well known and much loved a title as can be found. Memorably played by Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, the lead characters of business magnate Edward and hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold Vivian translate perfectly into romantic musical theatre principals.…
Comically evil monocled crown prince Roy D’Arcy (The Last Warning) and his more traditionally evil-rich-guy cousin John Gilbert (star of The Big Parade the same year) are both charmed by traveling performer Mae Murray and compete to get her into bed. Gilbert really falls for her, but the royal family says he can’t marry a commoner, so she thinks he hasn’t been serious. After plans to marry the least-evil of the royals falls apart, she decides to marry the evilest guy around as revenge: the…
Today we conclude Columbia Shorts Department with a tribute to director Edward Bernds. Finishing an extended plunge into the slapstick of The Shorts Department, the spotlight shines on the guy who cranked out numerous Three Stooges shorts in the latter 1940's and early 1950's, longtime Columbia Studio soundman Edward Bernds.Chicago-born Edward Bernds was a pioneering soundman who worked with Frank Capra and Howard Hawks who ultimately became a prolific director of comedy films, television…
Twelve years after the film shone an overdue light on the relationship between the LGBTQ+ and mining communities that were equally targeted by Margaret Thatcher's Britain, director Matthew Warchus reunites with original screenwriter Stephen Beresford, who provides the book and lyrics, plus composers Christopher Nightingale, Josh Cohen and DJ Walde to stage Pride the musical. In 1984, young gay activist Mark Ashton (Jhon Lumsden) is looking for a way to mobilise his and his friends' Pride…
