“Every single Shakespeare play ranked” article in The Guardian, because this is what we’ve come to.

Please make it stop.

More Necks magic. This is from the second set.

The Necks at Cafe Oto, Saturday afternoon. First time I’ve seen them play here, and it really feels like the ideal venue for them.

I agree that it felt overstretched. They could have told that story just as well in 30-40 minutes.

“Burn” director Makoto Nagahisa for The Japan Times

Here’s one of my pictures of Nagahisa that didn’t end up getting used. He knows how to strike a pose.

Makoto Nagahisa’s Burn is a difficult film to love, but it’s definitely one of the punchiest things I’ve seen so far this year. I spoke to him about telling the stories of Kabukicho’s street kids, and knowing where to draw the line. www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026...

And February too, while we're at it...

King Lear (1987)
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Monterey Pop (1968)
Killer of Sheep (1978)
Men of Deeds (2022)
Conflagration (1958)
Blood is Dry (1960)

Best new/new for me in March:

Wuthering Heights (2011)
Lost Land (2026)
Blue Moon (2025)
No Other Choice (2025)
Marty Supreme (2025)
Caravaggio (1986)
Labyrinth of Dreams (1997)

Cover for "The Argonauts" by Maggie Nelson (Melville House)

Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts. An amazing meditation on love, gender, motherhood and ass-fucking that I wish I'd read far sooner. Nelson's description of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick as "almost sadistically intelligent" could equally apply to herself.

Cover for "The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea" by Yukio Mishima (Vintage Classics)

Yukio Mishima, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. AKA Chūnibyō: The Novel.

ばちかぶり / 未青年 YouTube video by Mon Ster

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2T...

We All Kiss in Front of Burning Gazas: An Interview with Nadav Lapid | In Review Online A new film interview with filmmaker Nadav Lapid, director of Yes, for film review site In Review Online.

As his new film, Yes!, opens this week, I sat down with Nadav Lapid to talk about the failings of Israeli artists, the rot at the center of Tel Aviv and the necessity of painting the perpetrators of a genocide exactly as they are. It’s a heavy one.

inreviewonline.com/2026/03/24/w...

‘Street Kingdom’ makes a cinematic return to the raw days of Tokyo punk Tomorowo Taguchi lived the early Tokyo Rockers scene — now he channels it into his music biopic capturing the spirit of a movement that burned bright and fast.

It's been a few months since I watched "Street Kingdom," Tomorowo Taguchi's entertaining and exhaustively comprehensive biopic about the late-1970s Tokyo Rockers scene, and I'm still kind of amazed that it exists. I spoke with him about it for the JT. www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026...

Flyer for Protest Rave outside the southeast exit of Shinjuku Station on March 29. -DROP BASS NOT BOMBS- BLOCK PARTY AGAINST FASCISM, RACISM, TAKAICHI AND TRUMP. PROTEST RAVE × クソデカフラッグ部 × 路哲 2026.MAR.29 16:00 At 新宿駅東南口広場

There's a Protest Rave happening in Shinjuku this Sunday, if that's your thing. To quote the organisers: -DROP BASS NOT BOMBS- BLOCK PARTY AGAINST FASCISM, RACISM, TAKAICHI AND TRUMP. More details over on the hell site.

Cover of "The Safekeep" by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin)

Yael van der Wouden, The Safekeep. Still on the fence about whether this is too risqué to give to my mum. Maybe not?

Cover of "Bestiary" by Julio Cortázar (Vintage Editions)

Julio Cortázar, Bestiary. This was my first encounter with Cortázar and he really doesn't hold back. Stories that feel like self-contained worlds (and, sometimes, like a punch in the nuts). Just be warned that the typography in the print edition is horrid.

Black Actresses Are Carrying One Battle After Another Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, and Regina Hall propel the film’s most conflicted ideas, for better and worse.

This was a good piece on the topic (there have been a LOT): www.vulture.com/article/blac...

Yeah, this was a repeat viewing so I didn’t mind the extreme distortion. It definitely wouldn’t be my choice for a film I hadn’t seen before.

Watching Nope from the front row lounger seats in that IMAX theatre was a real meet-your-maker moment.

Small mercies.

American, as far as I could tell.

Just had to tell a white guy holding a can of chuhai to stop pulling Nazi salutes and shouting “Heil Hitler” in the middle of the Shibuya scramble crossing. What the actual fuck.

Uuuurgh why do I keep watching Eiji Uchida films.

Ooh, mine too.

‘#Viral’: A Faustian tale about internet fame and anti-vax anxiety King Bai’s bold but muddled post-pandemic drama skewers how bad actors manipulate online discourse.

I was bracing myself for King Bai's "#Viral" (#拡散) to be a full-on anti-vax screed. The good news is that it isn't – though I'm still not sure what the director was actually going for. www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026...

Black Seraphim, by Werner Durand & John Krausbauer 1 track album

This blew my head off when I first listened to it yesterday, and it's still sounding mighty fine this morning. Tony Conrad fans should definitely apply. movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/black-...

R.I.P. Éliane Radigue, one of the most innovative and radical composers of our century- if you haven’t heard her music yet, prepare for something simultaneously delicate and oceanic. I don’t love the word “genius” but she deserves it.

Cover of "Correction" by Thomas Bernhard (Vintage Classics)

Thomas Bernhard, Correction. A book probably best read in one sustained burst or not at all. Bernhard's Pale Fire? I couldn't wait to get out of that bloody garret.

Cover of "Box Hill" by Adam Mars-Jones (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

Adam Mars-Jones, Box Hill. Some Ishiguro-grade misdirection in this dom-sub romance. Probably funnier if you've been to Surrey.

Catching a film at Bunkamura Le Cinéma after watching one at Theatre Image Forum feels like getting a free upgrade.