I can't pretend to have seen that many 2025 films but The Mastermind really stands out for me

"crawling to a standpoint"? "Slowing to a crawl?" I swear my English is getting weirder and weirder after all these years in France

I know they can but I think people should pay because if nobody pays no films will be made

😆 shockingly poor form

bit of a shame to stream this for free if it's a film from only last year. It's on Mubi at the moment and presumably video on demand

I was referring to the leg in the post when I was talking about outré leftfield moments (this bit didn't really work for me, to be honest)

Overall, though, it is vivid and transportive, with an lurking, rather sickly sense of dread. Filho drops the viewer into a world the parameters of which are rather murky, and which only partially become apparent by the end. Love, love, love the use of music in particular. 3/3

Despite the tough subject matter and occasional extreme violence, it is shot through with the haunted nostalgia that seems to characterize all Filho's movies. It is also sprawling and a little uneven, crawling to a near standpoint one moment, with outré leftfield moments the next. 2/3

The poster for Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent (2025)

First watch: The Secret Agent (2025). Another film set in director Kleber Mendonça Filho's hometown of Recife, this time against the backdrop of military dictatorship and political resistance. Harking back to the 70s political thriller, the film has great texture and an immersive sense of place. 1/3

Retweeting your post has led to some interesting new followers! 😅

Gay Telese is a great name in any circumstances, but for a book on this subject it's just perfect

Just finished Thy Neighbor’s Wife (1981) by Gay Talese, a fascinating account of America’s mid-century sexual revolution.

Written over a decade and employing a good amount of ‘participant-observation’, it caused a stir at the time but is maybe less read nowadays? 🧵

#booksky

Ticks a lot of boxes for me then!

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker I have to start by thanking Andy Miller for recommending O Caledonia during a previous episode of Backlisted, back in January, I think. It was introduced as Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived i…

From the archive for Elspeth Barker who died on this day in 2022, my thoughts on O CALEDONIA, a dazzling gem of a novel, rich with vivid imagery.

Think Barbara Comyns meets I CAPTURE THE CASTLE, maybe with a dash of Shirley Jackson's Merricat in the mix! 💙📚

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2022/04/26/o...

Got the plumber in today? 😅

A still for The Twilight Zone episode The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine.

Happened to tune in to THE TWILIGHT ZONE, starring Ida Lupino as an aging star refusing to accept reality, in an episode titled THE SIXTEEN-MILLIMETER SHRINE.

It’s the fourth episode of season 1, and damn it’s good.

Would immediately buy the mid-century novel that began with this sentence.

There are times in All My Sons where I think it is worth considering whether Edward G. Robinson was the best working actor of his era. This is a marvellous performance of temper and moral cowardice; a garrulous and pleading turn. He relishes the character's weakness and the specificity of language.

oh nice, Adieu is on Mubi. I'll give it a spin

Probably a lot of less-reputable ones, but fewer in this more reflective mode

Good one! I Vitelloni is a great comparison

A shot from the film showing the four men in summer shirts / tops - two of the men are smiling, while a third looks across at them. The other man is in the background and is harder to see.

DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST (Satyajit Ray, 1970).
I loved this witty, humane, beautifully observed film about relationships, privilege, entitlement and class. Some interesting contrasts emerge when a group of middle class men travel to the forests to get drink and pick up girls. (1/3) #FilmSky

oh man, that's some serious film-watching time

Let me know. I need a nudge!

Have you seen any of the Jacques Rozier films? They have some on Mubi but I have procrastinated...

The Illuminated Man by Christopher Priest and Nina Allan review – an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard The biographer’s terminal illness and death is woven into this original and moving account of Ballard and his work

“His editor Malcom Edwards recalled how Ballard, on receiving the first payment for the film rights for Empire of the Sun, decided to splash out by visiting his local supermarket. After wandering the aisles for some time, he returned home with a tin of salmon.” www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Got a delivery

Wow, really intriguing! I remember that Doyle refused to accept that Houdini (who was trying the disprove spiritualist tricks) was just doing stunts, and preferred to believe he had actual supernatural powers

This - which appears to speak to me on many different levels - looks incredibly interesting...

his books were the only known ones in my house growing up that contained a bit of nudity! Instructive!