Check out my interview with @strohltopia.bsky.social on his most recent book, Hard to Watch: How to Fall in Love with Difficult Movies (link in the comments)!!! We focus on how algorithms harm our tastes and how to resist them, the values of humility and boredom, and much more. youtu.be/GJRFHSoe7pA
This week we are by joined by
@strohltopia.bsky.social to talk CHILL FACTOR, a pretty mediocre movie that nevertheless leads us to a conversation about how we engage with art and cinema! Also, ice cream puns! t.co/GyPvDN6P44
Had a great time talking CHILL FACTOR on Die Hard on a Blank.
In honor of Émilie Dequenne's passing, here is Mouret's LOVE AFFAIR(S), a great film that has still not been widely released in the USA or on disc. She is extraordinary in it. drive.google.com/file/d/1jfWj...
By tradition, the Strohl family posts our cinematic year in review on Oscar Sunday. Here it is for 2024, including my top 25 with commentary as well as lists of favorites from my beloved wife, @angelastrohl.bsky.social, my brother Josh, and my sister-in-law Isabel. strohltopia.com/2025/03/02/s...
I’ve got the Potato Cut in hand and I’m going in for round two. I loved the version of Meiyazhagan on Netflix, but it was a bummer to learn how much was cut out for the streaming release.
This is a painting from last month,
Still Life of Jewelry Box, Candlestick, Pearls and Perfume
24” x 20,” Oil on Canvas
In which Seymour Cassel comes out of the closet to Judd Nelson and then Nelson says many very homophobic things.
It’s rough around the edges, but I can’t emphasize enough how much I loved Power Paandi, about an old Tamil stunt man searching for another chance at happiness. (It’s on Netflix, which for all its faults has an excellent selection of 21st century south Asian films.)
Great news for the Dwan Patrol: one of his long-unavailable best, The River's Edge, is now on Prime Video (an exemplary work in the fascinating subgenre of the modern Western) (word x2:
www.newyorker.com/culture/rich...
www.newyorker.com/goings-on-ab...
Watching obscure Gary Daniels DTV movies on an airplane, the guy next to me keeps looking at my tablet. When we land he says “You’ve got some great movies on your little box there, I haven’t seen American Streetfighter in ages!” (It has 265 logs on letterboxd)
The new one from @adrianpmartin.bsky.social is awesome.
Would love to!
Woohoo. Christy is organizing this, he’d be the one to check in with if you have any questions about location or whatever. I expect to show up and just be led around.
Headed to Houston this week, will give an academic talk for the philosophy department on Friday but there will also be a public event on Thursday where I’ll give a 30-min talk along with a PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE screening and then Q&A.
7 Women
Nomad
Workers for the Good Lord
Favorite first viewings for January. Really went for it, best month in a long time for me.
I was on the fence about watching FLOW, but was quickly won over by an African Queen homage with a cat and a capybara.
I love that instead of some fluffy “Taylor Swift and philosophy” thing, Brandon has brought us a deep dive into the metaphysics of re-recording.
Starting with low hanging fruit in Tamil and Malayalam. I do want to try to watch some more stuff in the 1950-1975 range but there is a lot of newer stuff readily available.
One of my goals for this year is to watch more Indian movies than French movies. Angela developing a crush on Dhanush is really helping the cause, though she’s also lobbying to finish the Brisseau filmography (and she won’t have to twist my arm on that one).
Man, that Paul Schrader movie messed me up. I did not know what I was getting into.
Misuse of the Italian “finger purse” hand gesture emoji (🤌) has gone on too long. It absolutely does not mean “that’s delicious” or *chef’s kiss*. It means “what do you want?” or “get to the point” or “what the hell do you mean?” or “what the hell are you saying?”
Great stuff, always enjoy hearing from @emmiemalone.bsky.social
It’s pretty funny because I use my cousin’s profile on my uncle’s account. He mostly watches anime and various serials but his recommended titles are wall to wall Indian movies because of my influence on his algorithm.
If you like fun, Rifle Club is on Netflix. Malayalam siege thriller set in the Western Ghats. Great style. I was hooting and hollering.
My 2024 new release favorites as of now. I had Close Your Eyes on my list last year or it would be #1.
Favorite first viewings for 2024, loosely ranked. Letterboxd link below.
By the way this is going it looks like it will sell out on passes, might be the new normal.
But the whole system is a little bit of a bummer because my family lives in Rochester and now they can’t simply come to one or two movies and sit with me.
