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…

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…

Network television had, by 1969, converted almost entirely to color. (And if you don't think it's a pain putting the little "C" after all these shows, you've got another think coming. Someone at TV Guide must have felt the same way, because it isn't long after this that they start labeling those few shows that air in black-and-white instead.) You'll notice, though, that there are still a handful of daytime programs, mostly reruns, from the pre-color era. Most educational programming is still in…

The WertzoneNewsS.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope launches on 20 AugustAmazon's Warhammer 40,000 project recruits Mike FlanaganBethesda confirm Fallout remasters and new games from themselves and Obsidian EntertainmentFirst trailer for Dune: Part Three releasedVERY STRONG RUMOUR: Obsidian Entertainment to develop a new Fallout gameAvatar: The Last Airbender sequel movie gets a trailerNivalis gets new trailer, name and release dateRussell T. Davies leaves Doctor Who (again), 2026 Christmas Special…

Brand New Day, as the title attests is a relatively fresh start. What you need to know is neatly summed up at the time you need to know it and even though most of the main characters are not new, they feel fresh again. People are saying this is the best of the current era of Spiderman films which may be true though we should acknowledge the excellence of the previous three has created the platform on which this one can triumph. Brand New Day is a joyride to experience and by a comfortable…

The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel – Horace Walpole

The Inside Story of Blockbuster's Inevitable Bust The post Netflix DIDN’T Kill Blockbuster — Here’s What Really Happened – The Retro Hour EP540 appeared first on Retro Hour Podcast.

During the 1900s and 1910s there was one genre of American film that skyrocketed in popularity, becoming more prevalent in those few years than at any other time since. It wasn’t the western, or even the slapstick comedy–but the Civil … Continue reading →

In a few weeks, a new movie based on Warner Brothers Animation at least briefly hits the theaters.While well aware that Warner Bros. Animation stalwarts Chuck Jones, Mike Maltese and animators Lloyd Vaughan, Ken Harris, Phil Monroe and Ben Washam are long gone, nonetheless, this looks pretty darn good.Also involved in this Road Runner - Wile E Coyote opus: one of our favorite current comedians and comic actors - Will Forte. MacGruber is one of this blogger's favorite recurring Saturday Night…

Historische Häuser und Kirchturm in Tallinns Altstadt Tallinn gehört zu den kleineren Hauptstädten Europas. Die Altstadt ist überschaubar, viele interessante Viertel liegen in Laufweite und auch weiter entfernte Ziele sind mit Bus, Straßenbahn oder Zug gut erreichbar. Trotzdem lohnt es sich, mehr Zeit einzuplanen als nur ein Wochenende. Denn Tallinn besteht nicht allein aus mittelalterlichen Gassen, Stadtmauern und Aussichtspunkten. Wir waren im Juli 2026 eine Woche in Tallinn und hatten keinen…

More than three decades after Twin Peaks wrapped its initial run, I am always amazed to find original props that have both survived the years and remained unexamined. This piece, which actually served as two different props, has a fascinating story to tell. Let’s take a look at the screen-used Miss Twin Peaks sash. MISS... The post Twin Peaks Prop – Screen-Used Miss Twin Peaks Sash appeared first on TWIN PEAKS BLOG.

Project Runway's producers came up with a decent challenge! And then piled several hats on top of each other. One of those hats, Stassi Schroeder, didn't show, nor did Nina Garcia.

Or, there’s nothing more motivating than “someone is wrong” — on the internet, in print,

Welcome to the fourth celebration of the work of director Alfred Hitchcock. I have decided to extend the blogathon to start today instead of tomorrow(1st of August). You now have three days of celebrations. As always, I am once again so grateful and thankful to everyone who takes part in this annual celebration. I have so enjoyed reading your insights and beautifully crafted articles and reviews over the last few years. Looking at this year’s entries that I’ve seen so far, I think I can safely…

Back home this week, Brattle back open, and the blockbuster one-two meaning Fantasia hasn't go tme too enormously far behind! The big opening is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with Destin Daniel Cretton taking the reins for the Tom Holland series which sees all Peter Parker's friends no longer aware of his dual identity and changes in his powers, leading to the question of whether, with one of the

Last week, the Canadian-led Operation Latitude and the U.S. Coast Guard-led Operation Frontier Sentinel overlapped in what was termed Operation Tundra Merlin in the Bering Sea. It saw the U.S. Coast Guard Cutters Storis (WAGB 21), Fir (WLB 213), and Munro (WMSL 755) team up with the Royal Canadian Navy’s HMCS Max Bernays (AOPV 432) for a steaming evolution and photo ex conducted by an HC-130J out of Kodiak. For reference, the red-hulled 13,000-ton Storis (formerly the polar tug Aiviq) is the…

The Prada Marfa sculptural installation by artists Elmgreen & Dragset. The post West Texas Prada appeared first on 75CentralPhotography.