What does IMAX mean? You’ll leave Todd Vazari’s post none the wiser, but somehow, more informed.

…it’s super clear what “IMAX” means.

Finally got around to seeing Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas. What a film.

Magnificent cinematography and color grading. Performances were monumental. Americana for the ages (even through the eyes of a German director). The Criterion 4k remaster is where it’s at.

After watching Kurosawa’s High & Low (Criterion 4k release) and Linklater’s Blue Moon, this list of films set primarily in a single location seems apt. (Even if only the first half of High & Low is a chamber drama, I’d add it.) Nice reminders of Assault on Precinct 13 and The Party.

Really enjoy seeing the younger generations still connecting with cinema, so much so they’re calculating profitability to reassure themselves that if their favorite films are getting box office returns, the studios will hopefully continue to make their ilk.

Watched Blue Moon last night 🍿 — Chamber drama camp, Linklater-style, with long-time collaborator Ethan Hawke. Not perfect, but an extraordinarily intimate way to conduct a biofilm on someone, distilling the relationships and decades-long career of lyricist Lorenz Hart into a 1h 40m runtime.

Watched: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me 🍿 at the Alamo Drafthouse (during a limited two-time showing this past weekend). Last time I watched this was in 2017 shortly after finishing Twin Peaks The Return, and felt it was a masterwork. Nearly ten years later, my mind hasn’t changed.

I take a few weeks off from posting (the current stage of what’s happening with our country has been eroding my brain)… and a plethora of perspectives pile up.

With regards to cinema creation driven completely by AI, I like M.G. Siegler’s take:

Hollywood shouldn’t be concerned about a kid in their basement using AI to make a rogue version of Star Wars, they should be worried about Disney using AI to make a version of Star Wars without much of the headcount currently needed to make a Star Wars. This is the real disruption here.

Relates to my piece a few months ago. This is worth emphasizing in the midst of the Warner Bros./HBO takeover by either Paramount or Netflix. Companies acquire, companies streamline, companies penny-pinch. Hollywood actors, directors, and writers need to be thinking about this every waking moment.

Short clip from Christopher Nolan on the defense of the physicality of movies, both shooting them and rewatching them.

Accurate.

In watching Criterion’s 2025 4K release of Eyes Wide Shut, my immediate thought was that the grain and contrast is spectacular. And evidently, this was a major part of the release: they went back to the original 35mm celluloid for scanning, and it has yielded a film-like master. Bravo.

Edit: Screen Anarchy notes a few of the details from an interview with Larry Smith (the lighting cameraman from the production), available on the disc.

Grain is showy at times – but this is by design, as Kubrick, who preferred bright, glowing images, pushed the film stock two stops in processing in collaboration with his lighting cameraman, Larry Smith, who describes the approach in a newly-recorded interview on the disc.

Smith has gone on to re-time the entire picture during the restoration, attempting to bring it as close as possible to what he believed Kubrick was looking for, as Kubrick died before the film was originally timed.

The resulting image has extraordinary depth and colour fidelity, even given that the colours (nighttime blues; tungsten oranges) are intentionally oversaturated. This is the best I’ve ever seen the film look, including 35mm print projection.

In light of the Warner Bros dilemma, Jason L. Riley writes on the movie theater’s inevitable, unfortunate decline. And as much as we dread the day… it’s likely coming. Only a few generations will remember:

The ticket lines could be long. You had to arrive early for evening showings, particularly on weekends. But what resonated more than the setting was the shared experience. Watching “E.T.” or “Raiders of the Lost Ark” or “Superman” on a giant screen in a dark theater with total strangers offered a visceral thrill that could never be replicated in my living room.

Speaking of the Mad Men debacle on HBO Max, special effects wizard Todd Vaziri has an analytical post up about this.

It appears as though this represents the original photography, unaltered before digital visual effects got involved

The Verge on HBO’s poor execution of the “remastering” of Mad Men in 4k for streaming. It exemplifies bad stewardship of assets and ill-advised processes (missed cropping-out of production crew from scenes we’ve already seen properly sized for TV?). All the more reason to own a Blu-ray version.

As a film lover and, particularly, an enthusiast for film criticism – one of the best ways to truly immerse yourself and re-evaluate your perspective on a given piece of work – I enjoyed this small but important note in Racket’s bi-weekly membership newsletter from their resident film critic, Keith Harris.

Why does a hyperlocal website need movie reviews when you can find them everywhere online? Because a regional criticism scene matters. The coasts shouldn’t totally dominate the way we talk about art.

While I can’t link to the newsletter since it’s only via email, the point of this is that Keith has an important sentiment about film. In an era where it seems very few people have the time or attention to indulge in deep dialogue about films anymore, let alone read reviews, folks need to be reminded that [most] of this art isn’t something to simply pin against aggregate ratings or a singular, outspoken voice from New York or California. Regional, contextual perspectives and attitudes are welcome and warranted here.

Perspective and interpretation is the flip side to creation, and that’s the beauty of human connection through art. We may connect magically over a line, an image, a sound, or the intricate unification of all of them, or have a widely different connection to a piece of music used to the backdrop of a scene that resonates because of known experiences, regional differences, or a wholly unique memory. One of the most notable pieces I’ve ever read on this was Geoff Dyer’s Zona, a wildly opinionated, sarcastic, and thoroughly sardonic take on Tarkovsky’s Stalker. When I read that, it reminded me at a critical age of film appreciation that not everything needed to be interpreted “correctly”. You can absurdly over-analyze a film that can be interpreted in a myriad of ways and still come out the wiser.

I only wish there was even more accessible film criticism for newer generations, because cinema is a rich culmination of so many complementary art forms, its endless in the ways of reward.

A rewatch of Laloux’s Fantastic Planet (1973) re-establishes — in my mind — its boundless inventiveness and vision. It also operates as an historic spiritual precursor to the Scavengers Reign series, which was unjustly cancelled by both HBO Max and Netflix.

The precursor to capitalism’s demise may have just begun…

A moviegoer from Bangalore became so vexed by the trailer marathon to which he was subjected that he filed suit against the cinema chain in question and won. The court awarded him the equivalent of 450 quid for having his time wasted and another 45 pounds for mental agony… this precedent is going to bankrupt not just every cinema chain on earth, but pretty much everything on earth.

Discussed on The Monocle Daily (timestamp), which, as a podcast, can be hit or miss, but 100% represents the international pinnacle of snark.

Kottke has a rundown on the recently released 4K restoration of Seven Samurai. Funny he mentions getting a Blu-ray player and returning to physical media… I just bought a handful of favorites from Criterion a few weeks ago. Feels good to have a real backup in case, you know, the worst happens.

Rewatched Twin Peaks: The Return and can reaffirm, it still operates on its own masterful level of cinema.

It’s David Lynch’s magnum opus, and it will stand the test of time as one of the absolute best films/shows ever conceived.

Watched the French film The Taste of Things twice this past week, and can’t get its immaculate vibe out of my mind. My wife said it best — it’s like ASMR for food obsessives. If you like cuisine, cooking, the details of hospitality, or a lovely, focused, quiet cinema experience, this if for you.

True Detective: Night Country was a succinct masterclass in whodunit that delivered a rewarding cohesiveness to all character arcs. It’s too bad it was only six episodes — it was drenched in a blustery winter vibe that was enjoyable to visit — but it was also the perfect length.

Scavengers Reign is one of the most surprising, strange, and best shows of the year. So glad I happened upon this – binged the entire thing in two days.

Just received my first issue of MUBI’s Notebook, and it’s an incredible print production. Absolutely love a surprise and delight moment with anything I wasn’t expecting to have such a moment with, and this hit the mark.

MUBI is a niche/classical/independent/international film streaming service that’s been around for over a decade (I originally subscribed back in 2010). I recently re-subscribed and learned that they were producing a bi-annual magazine that accompanies the company’s super-focused spotlight on cinematic experiences.

And it is a beautiful object.

• It ships in a magazine-sized box (not plastic wrap!)
• The magazine inside is wrapped with a re-usable, water-resistant sleeve that makes the printed pages inside feel cared for
• The pages are printed on thick, punchy stock that feels unlike any other magazine, including the crown jewel, Monocle
• Lay-flat design, so you can open any part of the magazine and keep it comfortably open without the pages curling back around
• Beautiful orange stitching throughout, which is… notable

This issue (#3) is dedicated to weather throughout film:

…saboteurs are afoot and unpredictable weather is in the forecast! With thematic pieces devoted to the appearance of weather inside and outside of movies—w(h)e(a)ther cataclysmic or beautiful, documented or created—and to the disruptive ways film culture and industry can be sabotaged, this Issue is expected to reach record readings (!).

I’ve only just begun paging through it, but it’s a joy to read and see so far. Highly recommend — keep print alive!

Another cinema rant: Khoi Vinh observes Wes Anderson like he truly is, for better or worse:

Anderson is essentially a children’s storyteller. For my money, he’s most at home when he’s telling stories through the lens of child characters

I haven’t seen Asteroid City (honestly, not planning on it). But… Barbie and Oppenheimer were fantastic.

While I enjoyed Oppenheimer, Keith Harris’s full review here helps solve my askew feelings about it.

Our cultural fascination with violence is endless. When it comes to meeting it up close in various media forms, its reception is also very dependent on the lens of the gazer – are you bringing your critical, introspective brain to the party, or are you watching for bloodlust?

I enjoyed this piece from Dylan Walker over at Trylon Cinema's Perisphere Blog. They were showing the Dirty Dozen earlier this month, and... why not put out some commentary on this. It includes worthy comparisons to The Last of Us (both the game and the TV series), but this line of thinking should be applied to all major forms of violent media -- particularly those brought in as sacrificial lambs in the news media or as "inspiration" from violent offenders here in America.

Adding to creators' rightful defense of violence as a means of storytelling and, in The Last of Us Part 2 game in particular, a twisting of the concept of revenge through a player's agency, Dylan notes:

I wholeheartedly agree with messages that are anti-war and anti-revenge. I also don’t agree with censorship and believe Aldrich and Druckmann aren’t responsible for consumers misinterpreting their intended messages. Furthermore, I think the human desire to test ourselves with exposure to violence is natural, especially when we are so surrounded by violence every day; so I’m not going to report myself or anyone else who consumes violent media.

I've changed my mind significantly over the decades from watching film as a literal process or as entertainment vs watching as a critic and admirer of the medium. The violent and ostentatious films seen at a much younger age vs fully developed adult (you realize "oh, this film is actually a condemnation of this kind of thinking"), typically stack up as lessons in both empathy and critical thinking. I'm thinking of Pulp Fiction and Fight Club as two great examples here. Seeing them (albeit probably at too young an age), and revisiting in later years, totally changed my mind about what those were actually about.

This kind of obsession with violence is interesting – we condemn it, but we are also fascinated with it. (The popularity of the horror genre... same thing.) So we should continue to look the violent-leaning outputs of any medium as expressions of its creator(s) to allow for a meaningful reaction worthy of critical thought, and/or an influence on agency in the case of a game experience that continues to itch our curiosity here, but also keeps us in check on over-indulgence and intentional reflection.

Over the last seven years, a small New York studio’s films crept into the film distribution scene. I only started recognizing the studio’s logo lede after about the third time. Its intertwining lines shaping ‘A24’ was an entirely different, stylistically clean animation from the excessively ornate nonsense of its peers. It probably helped that each film I saw attached to it was exceptionally memorable. The time it finally clicked was watching the 2016 film, The Witch (inside the then-new Arclight theater in one of Chicago’s most yuppie neighbhorhood). Since then, I’ve been following A24’s activities and fervently anticipating just about every one of their imminent titles. Only two other film studios come to mind that equal such enthusiasm, and both have far longer stretches between film releases: Lucasfilm and Pixar.

Thinking back, Harmony Korine’s absurdist, anti-summer vacation flick Spring Breakers was probably my first A24 film. I recall going into that one thinking one thing, and a quarter of the way through thinking the exact opposite — undermining your expectations so astutely way was a wonderful thing.

Every year now, A24 has a few films that hit a fervor of mainstream discussion. This year it’s French director Claire Denis’s High Life, which I have unfortunately not seen yet, but have read the NYT interview and listened to A24’s podcast between her and Rian Johnson — it sounds fabulous. Three years ago it was the Academy Award-winning Moonlight, a freshman effort by the young Barry Jenkins. I was disappointed that in 2017 The Florida Project didn’t receive the award accolades it deserved, but what a phenomenally-acted film that was. A24 cranks out consistently good fare, ruminating and thoroughly exploring scripts and completed films to distribute. And since Moonlight, they have begun funding and distributing some their own films (albeit most disappointingly with the recent David Robert Mitchel film, Under the Silver Lake, which was just recently distributed straight to streaming instead of a more formal theatrical release).

In addition to the consistency in quality, A24 successfully accomplishes unique contributions to its work to bolstering marketing efforts, notably standing out to a new generation of audiences, and addressing the changing technological formats of distribution.

1. A24 does a stellar job with film posters. They are oftentimes off kilter, using colors and typefaces in direct opposition to adjective thumbnail images of films when scrolling through lists in whatever app you’re using to pick a film. They usually don’t follow traditional patterns, compositions, or styles, oftentimes reminding me of enthusiastic graphic designers’ riffs on classic film poster designs as fanfare.
2. The trailers are wholly untraditional, operating more as teaser previews for the films whilst avoiding detailing out the entire narrative like so many other distributors. A24 is getting (or have already gotten?) to the point of relying entirely on brand. What a millennial convenience.

Founded by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges back in August of 2012, A24 has had and continues to pave an independent legacy of great film production and distribution. As the technology/streaming services become more complicated, and production of film and prestige television become more competitive, it’s good to see a company carve out a sort of niche in storytelling and film aesthetic, which they dial directly into their desired audiences. Like so many of the “millennial” direct-to-consumer brands such as Quip, Flamingo, Harry’s, Burrow, YES PLZ Coffee, Casper, Parachute, and Away, A24 is synonymous with consistent expectations (or the thrill of undermining expectations in traditional film structure). I wouldn’t be surprised if they charged a subscription fee to help fund their more experimental films in the future, uplifting the film production paradigm further. They’ve become such a prized product that recently they’ve partnered with HBO (for the show Euphoria), Hulu (for the show Ramy), and a partnership with Apple for their upcoming Apple TV+ service.

It’s great to see a scrappy, well-directed company succeed on so many fronts while staying true to its nature in the modern era of convoluted entertainment production and distribution. Fingers crossed they keep it up.