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one of the first examples of the Dark Woke moment.

Free Sonny.

“You know what the best high of all is? Death.”

Heroin, chronic illness and homelessness make life a miserable existence but love can compensate for a lot. Yet, codependent romance rarely ends well.

With peoples’ material needs insufficiently addressed, or completely neglected, they end up homeless, sick and starving. In order to compensate for such a traumatic situation they turn to theft and heroin—you steal to get heroin and you shot heroin to stay alive. 

When you have nothing, heroin is everything.

Two years after World War II and The Holocaust—the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators, Edward Dmytryk made a noir film surrounding lingering antisemitism within the US military veterans. To be able to hate someone without ever knowing someone, pure ignorance and hate.

“Hate is like a loaded gun.”

Sometimes you gotta just let the weird guy hang out, you never know what’ll happen if you don’t.

I cried laughing at one particular moment and I keep chuckling to myself when I think of it.

Just the boys getting real rowdy, cracking some skulls, overthrowing the Monarchy. I can only imagine the euphoric adrenaline rush of finally fighting back against your oppressor.

A foundational work for filmmaking history. Eisenstein the God. The man who used mass culture ethically and knew its true power for political movement. 

The Odessa massacre scene is so enthralling yet horrifying. The emotion on display translate so well despite the silent format. There’s no wonder films were so important for the Soviet Union’s propaganda when you have someone as effective and masterful as Eisenstein.

“Killed for a plate of soup.”

There’s no telling what humans are willing to do to each other in desperate situations. This felt like a lo-fi, zombie, Lord of the Flies. I had a lot of fun seeing it in theaters. I’m very impressed by the product and the technical execution of the film. The aesthetic that Danny Boyle made with the presumably small sensor digital camera which allows for a shallow depth of field, high speed shutter and rapid movements that all play in his favor. The way they telegraphed the zombies movements were horrifying—a silent but abrupt shaking of the camera for a split second to let you anticipate the worst for the characters.

“I have no one, no son or brother, to help me out. I’m just a good-for-nothing old man.”

Everyone deserves to live a life of dignity, especially elderly people who’ve worked their entire lives and can no longer provide for themselves. There are so many consequences to a country’s negligence of not raising the pension of retired, elderly citizens to a sufficient wage, making them more vulnerable to exploitation.

If one does not have a system to help them in their later years, life becomes increasingly difficult. Without the assistance of welfare, a pension or social security, hundreds of thousands of impoverished and/or elderly workers will become homeless, starving and sick—Umberto Domenico Ferrari is suffering under these exact circumstances. The only thing that keeps Umberto going is his small community consisting of the pregnant janitor of the building, a few fellow poverty-stricken elders and his terrier pup named Fike. 

Vittorio De Sica’s 1950 film, Umberto D., is a masterful addition to the Italian neorealist movement of the ‘40s and ‘50s. A genre created in response to the rise of fascism and Mussolini’s reign. The neorealist movement was used to depict contemporary issues of a post-World War II Italy. It’s a genre I deeply ire. These directors utilized cinema’s power of mass socialization in a stunning and often heart-wrenching manner.

This film is a perfect example of the relentless cruelty of the capital holding class. Landlords would rather you die than to give you any financial assistance regardless of how innocent you are. Even a dying, old man with only a small terrier for a family is not spared from its wrath. If a society helps to cover peoples’ basic, material needs, they will live a longer, happier life—otherwise they may find life no longer worth living—De Sica shows us why.

This also makes me miss my recently deceased dog, Smudge.

If you believe in yourself what others believe in you, you’ll discover the traits you desire were within you all along.

What a beautiful, triumphant depiction of finding a home, not being afraid to branch out and grow as a person in a brand new world.

The attention to detail and scale of the production was awe inspiring. I can’t fathom how they managed to pull this off. The music and choreography was so fun.

I loved this.

A hilarious depiction of two dumbasses way in over their heads and trying to play spy who end of getting hurt in the process. 

This being in the midsts of the Iraq makes it so much funnier. There’s something so funny about the biggest idiots insisting on a plan that is so obviously going to fail. Brad Pitt is flawless as the meat head cyclist and makes me crack up every time, especially when he gets murdered.

The Coens have such a perfect understanding of satirical writing. A sleeper pick for their best work.

Terror in a Texas Town is an old western b-movie that works as an allegory for Hollywood black list. It’s a baroque western and is sort of against all the mythology of the genre we’ve come to know.

A Swedish man comes to Texas to claim his inherited land and learns his father has been killed by big capital baron who runs a corrupt town for his financial gain. This man seeks justice for his own father and newly acquired friend who are both killed. 

It’s very similar to High Noon where not a single citizen refused to stand up to the bourgeois capitalist. This man also quirky literally brings a whale harpoon to a gun fun.

The lead role of the Swedish man, Sterling Hayden, eventually named names on left-wing, communist sympathizers—the very same men that helped him crest this cheap but well made film.

It’s a decent film. I recommend it if you’re interested in American Westerns based on the contemporary context in which they’re made.

“Who would kill four people in cold blood for a radio, a pair of binoculars and $40 cash?”

In 1959, author Truman Capote heard about a quadruple homicide of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. After seven years of investigative journalism, court reporting and writing, Capote released a non-fiction book titled, In Cold Blood and created an early staple of the true crime genre.

Richard Brooks created an unsettling but stylish depiction of a horrific tragedy. The striking shadows, creative editing and wonderful staging create a perfect noir/murder mystery aesthetic. Partially centering the film around the psychology of a senseless killer. 

“His self-esteem is very low, and he feels secretly inferior to other and sexually inadequate.”

Showing the robbery/murder in the third act really gives me the film a second wind. Brooks constructed this film brilliantly. It’s thrilling and horrifying. I’m surprised I loved this as much as I did. I highly recommend this one. I feel compelled to read the book now.

“I was a prisoner of the Holy Agony.”

You’re told that your sacrifice and self flagellation will be rewarded with transcendence. If your eternal sacrifice is not met with this peace you were promised, your internal struggle will only grow. What is the point of penance without any fruit to bear from your suffering?

Bresson’s depiction of a crisis of faith in God hit me deep. I haven’t had a film speak to me like this in awhile. It’s a profound subject that makes for such impactful art. You can see God in the eyes of Claude Laydu.

In a post enlightenment world we can learn from the gospels the same way we do fiction, without any of the suffering. Liberate your soul from the binds of dogma. 

Another masterpiece from Bresson. I can’t believe how good his films are.

Hatari! is fun a times and really well-made but there is some terrible acting. It’s works as an action romantic comedy but in a weird misogynistic way. John Wayne and Elsa Martinelli are the typical archetype: starting the film butting heads and of course can’t help but fall in love. The film is more about unexpected romance and adventure but I was hoping for a bit higher stakes. It’s not too bad but it’s nothing special.

Theres also just a straight up black face scene too. It’s insane.

“This is the West, Sir, when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

A cultural battle between the tenderfooted, East Coast lawman who goes by the book and the rugged individualist, vigilante justice of the gunslingers who handle their own business.

The fading sunset of outlaw country is shadowed by the impending, civilized new world of the 20th century. The gunslingers who helped settle this land no longer belong in the land they called home. It’s a new world and the land they helped bring into being is no longer their home.

You can’t be both the future and the past.

“Nothings too good for the man who shot Liberty Valence.”

“Two people dead, just so we could live without working.”

In the world of gun-toting robbers you rarely find peace or happiness, you’re always running. You may have the cash but you’ll never get to enjoy it. As much as an indictment on American culture as it is on the second amendment. Radical in style and substance, it’s a ‘50s b-movie that holds up better than most of his contemporaries works.

Gun Crazy inspired a young film critic, Jean-Luc Godard and 15-years-later he made his own art pop, new wave version of Lewis’ film.

It’s a remarkable piece of American filmmaking that I think should be more well known. Lewis makes his case as auteur that I think will be confirmed when I watch more of his films.

“This place belongs to whoever the fuck takes it.”

Fukasaku’s crime saga has some of the coolest films you’ll ever see. Fast-moving handhelds, neon lights and lots of blood. Stylistically contrasted by the sleek, sexy Japanese night life being filmed in a raw and intense manner.

After Masuo Gunji serves 10 years in prisons, his turf is no longer for him to claim. So he gets the boys back together to take over ex-Pat-filled Okinawa to start a new branch of their criminal enterprise. The underdog has to do whatever it takes by any means necessary to get back on top. It’s time for revenge for the whole gang. 

What a fucking flick. Without a doubt my favorite Fukasaku film.

“Oh, Mother, Mother. You still think I’m a child. Why can’t I put my head in your lap and cry?”

The euphoria of nationalist, jingoistic camaraderie contrasted with the dreadful sorrows of death that was unavoidable in the Great War. At the beginning, the school boys were acting like varsity football on a Friday night. Little did they know the horrors that awaited them. This is such a terrifying depiction of war I can’t believe this was approved. The definitive anti-war film.

I loved this spaghetti western B movie. There’s some pretty piss poor acting in this but idgaf it’s awesome and hits all the marks I desire. These Italian westerns deal with revenge so will it makes me want to run through a wall. Dudes rock.

Barbarella is an erotic, campy, psychedelic, Wizard of Oz set in space.

This was such a fun watch. So goofy and corny by Jane Fonda is so cool as Barbarella. We counted 8 costume changes in the 98 min runtime. The acid rock and bossa nova music was a brilliant touch. This is so lates ‘60s it’s incredible. I highly recommend it. I couldn’t stop smiling throughout the entire thing.

James Stewart taps into his post-WWII anger and rage to fight his brother over the ownership of a 1 in 1,000 Winchester rifle. Mann does a great job of exploring Stewart’s rage but does leave me wondering whether his actions are warranted for his motive. Either way I adored seeing the old Tucson backdrops in the shootouts.

There is also a much larger conversation to be held about the history of the firearm in the old west. ‘50s Hollywood production companies having clauses that they can’t make their audience feel any guilt because it won’t sell tickets and it’s obvious here. The settlers are always the heroes and the indigenous peoples’ motives for retaliatory violence is conveniently ignored.

George Lucas saw the Iraq War and said it’s time to get back in the studio

Laughing out loud throughout this entire runtime. There amount of bullshit Exorcist/The Omen rip offs is so annoying. This was some dogshit. 

Netflix should be tried at The Hague for its crimes of feeding the flames of our culture industry.

So fascinating to see how China has fallen victim to the exact thing they’ve been fighting against for almost half a decade. These kids are no older than 22 working in slum-like textile mills that work them to the bone yet barely get by. Yet they seem to find a joy that would be difficult to find for anybody. It builds comion and understanding for a country that we are told is our enemy.

The petit bourgeois textile mill owner has turned them into a modernized feudal system very similar to the United States. Wang Bing says so much by simplify keeping the camera rolling and never adding editorializing commentary. See it for yourself. One of our finest documentarians working today.

The military industrial complex doesn’t just sell death abroad through ammunition, and weaponry, it also sells it at home, through heroin.

Frank Lucas worked with U.S. military personnel to ship heroin out of Vietnam, onto the streets of Harlem and throughout the entire country.

The war of drugs was self propelled by the government on both ends and ruined countless lives through addiction, jail time or death. 

The government extorted the material needs of the desperate working class by incentivizing drug trafficking as a means to getting, although short-term, a comfortable life of financial freedom and prosperity. While ultimately punishing the small time drug deadlier for working alongside them as they collected billions of dollars.

Washington, Crowe, Brolin are all amazing.

What a flick.

Love Hotel is an erotic, tragic love story of repression and redemption in a tight 88 mins. A suicidal businessman spends an evening with a sex worker, intending to kill her along with himself but flees before doing so claiming her as his savior. The businessman and the sex worker run across each other two years later and rekindle their spark by the businessman doing whatever he can to help her out of a desperate situation.

Anti-sex scene zoomers have no idea what they’re messing. Some of the best tension and release you’ll see. It’s sleek and moody which makes the heartbreak hurt even more.

“And this bitter earth
Ooh, may not be so bitter after all.”

Blissful, innocent children contrasted with the frustrated, overworked lives of their parents.

Stan kills sheep at a slaughterhouse in the daytime only to be kept up at night by his own metaphorical killers of counted-sheep.

Burnett’s debut is an endearing and melancholic depiction of his then-very-underrepresented community. The American working class is forced to make sacrifices of their own physical and mental health only to barely get by. It makes every aspect of life more difficult but strangely makes the joys more rewarding.

The 4K restoration screening at the Gene Siskel Film Center was beautiful.

“I’m miss Bonnie Parker and this is Mr. Clyde Barrow and we rob banks.”

Bonnie and Clyde keep the live fast, die young spirit of the Old West Outlaw alive by adapting it for the new millennium of automobiles and automatic weapons. Bonnie and Clyde become adrenaline junkies and they’d rather be in prison than to be living a regular life. Car chases, shootouts and stickups are the life they chose. This comes with an infamous repetition and the attention of law enforcement across the country. They may have all the power and money you can imagine but they’ll also have no moments peace and are always looking over their shoulder.

“How do I talk to Isabelle?

Up and downs, magical moments and bad dates and the mental gymnastics of trying to find out which man you’d rather draw. Who would you choose? The douchey, manipulating novelist or the sweet, caring pickle salesman?

This was a stressful but adorable NYC love triangle romantic comedy from Joan Micklin Silver.

Michael Mann’s moody, slick style brings the emotional weight to Muhammad Ali’s legacy that it deserves. It’s much more than a typical sports biopic. It’s mostly focused on Ali’s fights outside the ring: his up and down relationship with the nation of Islam, his Supreme Court battle over dodging the Vietnam draft, the volatile race relations of the US and the affects of his life on his marriages.

“Ain't no Vietcong ever called me n*****.”

An experimental film surrounding the topic of melodramas of the ‘50s that are about women yet they are used as the periphery to their male counterparts rather than be seen as full fledged characters.

A very creative visual collage with a cozy yet haunting element to it.

This is a great concept that’s well executed.

A meditative experience thwarted by migrant hysteria from Angolan authorities. What starts as an expression of freedom ends ends up being the opposite once the filmmakers are arrested and detained on false charges of forged visas.

SINNERS is Ryan Coogler’s Southern Gothic, Robert Johnson, Night of the Living Dead. It’s a rich expression of Southern Baptist spirituality, grief, community and the Delta Blues. Music can bring everyone together, including people you don’t necessarily want. 

The film’s technical production is immaculate. It’s, in my opinion, the best use of the IMAX 65mm cameras yet. Coogler doesn’t just use the large format for aesthetic either. He sparsely uses the entire screen but when he does it’s holds a transcendent effect.

I really enjoyed the film but ultimately found the Vampire-fighting premise to be a bit gimmicky. I feel that he missed out on an even more potent expression of horror and mystery surrounding the Delta Blues, hedonism and Christianity. 

Despite the metaphor for vampires and the Klan feeling a bit heavy-handed at times, it’s undeniably an apt analogy for a Robert Johnson-like tale.

Robert Johnson was of a Black man from Mississippi who helped create the Delta Blues genre at the beginning of the 20th century. His tale is one of a man who learned to play the guitar so well that his community was certain he had sold his soul to the devil in exchange for legendary guitar prowess. 

It’s also the tale of a man who lived a contrasting life of horror and hedonism; the horror of the ever present lynchings of the South, juxtaposed with the Biblical hedonism of lust, booze and nightlife — a life that was cut short when Johnson was murdered for dancing with a married woman.

“I got to keep movin', I got to keep movin'
Blues fallin' down like hail, blues fallin' down like hail
Hmm-mmm, blues fallin' down like hail, blues fallin' down like hail
And the days keeps on worryin' me
There's a hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail
Hellhound on my trail”

Coogler is a generational talent in the making and I believe he’s just getting started.

“Strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they’re fascist.”

Kevin Costner plays, Crash Davis, a veteran, journeymen catcher called down to AA ball in Durham, North Carolina and finds himself competing on and off the diamond. He had a cup of coffee in the majors and has been cranky his whole career about it. Crash is secretly an intellectual, who loves literature and can’t wait to retire.
 
Susan Sarandon plays a groupie who picks one player every season to date and prepare them for the big leagues, who happens to be the rookie pitcher Costner is assigned to mentor.

Bull Durham isn’t the best baseball film, it’s more about the love triangle. It’s pretty cheesy and leans into the, “terrible but lovable team,” trope. Despite this I do enjoy the films attention to detail around the 80’s era of baseball. But it’s disappointing that Susan Sarandon’s character only exists as a sexual or romantic extension of the two men.

“Here’s looking at you kid.”

A budding romance in Paris is forced to split up due to escaping the impending Nazi occupation, only for them to run into each other in Casablanca, Morocco. Instead of rekindling the relationship Bogart helps Bergman escape with her husband who is wanted by the Gestapo.

An antifascist, tragic, romance film that hits all its mark while being the most quotable movie ever. I’m glad I finally saw this landmark of cinema but I thought it was just fine. I’m not quite sure why this film holds the legacy it’s does but I still had a nice time seeing it on 35mm. The shimmer and glow of celluloid makes Ingrid Bergman look even more angelic than she usually does.

“Looks like Chuck was taking old one eye to the optometrist.”

Two old best friends who hate each other but they end up being the only ones who are there for each other. This was hilarious.

The superstition and romantic mythology of the old Italian country is born again in New York City. Whether it’s bad luck or fate, Loretta has once again spoiled a marriage but this time it’s been ruined before it even started, with her finance’s brother.

There is such a beautiful sincerity to this film. It’s so loving and tender, it makes you blush for some of the characters. This genuine love is mixed with the chaotic situation of Cher sleeping with Nic Cage, her soon-to-be-brother-in-law.

I did enjoy the almost astrological fate of a single nights moon hitting everyone like Cupid’s arrow, making them feel a romantic spell they haven’t felt in forever.

I guess the moral of the story is: Cheating is ok if you are really love with your side piece lmao.

John Wayne is in charge of a Union Calvary outfit but feels bad about having to command a platoon into fighting the confederate soldiers while being constantly betrayed by the Southern people he feels bad for. I think Ford was attempting to point out the “brother killing brother” tragedy without even mentioning chattel slavery. What a strange stance to take on the civil war of all wars. 

I could be missing the greater point of the picture but it’s strikes me as very bizarre.

In a country where we are desperate for a comfortable life, some people might be willing to take a subway car hostage for a million dollars. 

It’s pretty silly to be like, this fictional movie would have never happened had they had their material conditions provided but it’s difficult for me not to think about the origins of crime in modern society while watching a crime movie.

There will always be greed but covering their needs decreases the likelihood of violent crime used to leverage financial gain if they have a comfortable enough life to not risk everything in crime.

Either this was a fun watch. I loved the Columbo-ass ending. It was surprisingly goofier than I anticipated. I enjoyed it more than the 2009 Tony Scott remake which I had seen a long time ago.

Live fast, die young 
everyone you know is dead 
unlimited power and money 
ruin the lives of your friends and family
drugs, sex, guns 
paranoid of being arrested or murdered 
Live old, rot in witness protection

An unsustainable life can catch up to you real quick. Your greed and gluttony will back fire. Every act has an equal and opposite reaction. This life is a gamble and you better know when to quit, because when the hot hand turns cold, so will your corpse.

“Thumbing rides may save you bus fare, but it’s dangerous. You never know what’s in store for you when you hear the squeal of brakes.”

A run-of-the-mill noir that was a bit disappointing. I still enjoyed it but it’s nothing special imo. Some noir films lean so hard into the metaphor-heavy, quick-witted dialogue that I can never take it seriously. It’s so unnatural and it takes me out of the film every time.

The plot feels so rushed and for seemingly no reason. I don’t understand why they couldn’t add a bit more meat to this since it’s only a 68-minute runtime.

Greed creates sad, lonely people

NYC Photographer, Elliott Gould, struggles with his relationship due to his borderline-autistic, deadpan personality that clashes against the narcotic, dramatic personality of his fiancé and her family.

One of the most stressful comedies I’ve seen. Hilarious yet exhausting satirizing of ‘70s murders of New York.

“I’ve been shooting shit for over year, and I’ve already won half a dozen awards. And Harper’s Bazaar wants me to do its Spring issue.”

Old Westerns fill me such a strange contrast of warm nostalgia and melancholic disappointment. Although John Ford does a good job of portraying the harsh reality of the past, it always feels like I’m mourning the death of a land that never existed. We were sold an America mythology and wonder that never really happened — one of adventure, exploration and justice amidst a beautiful backdrop of the western landscape filled with both lonely hot deserts and dense snowy forest of mountains connected to the Rocky Mountains — one I’ve called home for 26 years.

I day dream of a world that I know was never true and it’s childish to think it wasn’t a horrific time built of colonialism, murder, genocide and disease.

Why must I be burdened with the dreams of a land that will never exist. My naivety blinds me from the fact that I was fooled and propagandized — I still dream of what should have been. I’ll never stop mourning for the land that America was supposed to be.

The Wizard of Oz is the ultimate blueprint.

This documentary is pretty much six different video essays on interpreting The Wizard of Oz and the work of David Lynch. It was very educational and sort of felt like a lecture but still really interesting. With Lynch having ed away it also feels like an endearing tribute to him and his work. All Lynch fans will get some good things out of this.