Recent Posts

• June 26, 2026

  Disclosure Day

  I wasn’t dying to see this, but I went because I haven’t seen a Spielberg in the cinema since Lincoln in 2012 and how many more will there realistically be? And also because it’s not a sequel, franchise, IP, reboot, etc etc. Have to encourage that kind of thing. Spielberg is back on his aliens. I did not recognise Josh O’Connor until I saw his name in the credits, despite having seen his Knives Out movie. He, Kellner, works for some private sector equivalent of the NSA, which exists, if I remember rightly, because then they aren’t subject to government rules. Kellner sneaks a whole bunch of sensitive documents and videos out of his place of work, and goes on the run. Emily Blunt, Margaret, is a TV weather person. She has something of a mysterious role. They spend the whole time trying to escape Colin Firth, and there’s an alien doodad that does whatever the plot needs it to.

• June 25, 2026

  The Substance

  This is not a subtle movie. It is not a movie that does anything close to building a believable world. Demi Moore’s Elisabeth gets told by some hospital tech that she’s “a good candidate” and gets a USB stick with THE SUBSTANCE written along the side. She sticks it directly into the TV, which is not my first instinct. The title sets the tone, there’s not even a pretense of what this substance might be, where it came from, why it’s free, who should use it and why. It’s just the substance, shut up. You switch every seven days. Feed daily. Go on, I guess, forever. Those are the rules, shut up. The thesis, unless I’m being dense, is that you were once young and now you’re not. When you’re young you don’t consider your old self, and when you’re old you’re jealous of the youth you once had. Despite, obviously, old you and young you being the same person. Let’s make an insane phantasmagoria from this idea.

• June 04, 2026

  Se7en

  Seven is a foundational text for me. I borrowed it on VHS from someone in school in my Junior Cert year (1998 I think) and took it home on a Wednesday where we had a half day every week. Watched it before my parents got home. Absolutely floored by the ending. Still holds up. It’s become comfort food now, grim, horrifying comfort food.

• May 01, 2026

  Hokum

  I was hyped for this, after Oddity legitimately scared the hell out of me in a way that few movies have for a long time. But first: I missed the first ten minutes, give or take. This is because I strolled confidently into the cinema foyer two minutes after the advertised start time, hopefully missing a few ads, only for the ticket scanning guy to say “this ticket isn’t for here”. Not only was it not for here, I had somehow bought a ticket to see it in a cinema that was neither the one I was in, nor the one I had intended it to be in. I had gone to the wrong one twice removed and had to burn it to the subway to try figure out where this mysterious third cinema indeed was. The show was underway when I arrived, so I don’t really know how much I missed, but for the first time in my life I was thankful for the relentless onslaught of ads that we all have to put up with.

• April 06, 2026

  The Week In

  It’s Monday, but it was a four day Easter weekend. On Friday it went above 20 degrees, and the entire cohort of neighbourhood children (give or take) emerged as if from hibernation to ride bikes around the school running track. It was nice. Then today it snowed a little.