The telos of this website, its abiding purpose, is a record of the things that I have read and watched. For the reasons undergirding this project see comments on cultural consumption.
1/1
— Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Directed by Joel Coen, written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen; starring Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, Jon Polito, J. E. Freeman, Albert Finney, Mike Starr, and Al Mancini.
1/3
— Will Tavlin, “Casual Viewing”, N+1
Two thoughts: 1. Advertisements in SoCal solely for the film producers; 2. Films that include dialogue to make the film easier to follow if you are not paying attention
— Mina Tavakoli, “Planet Puppet”, N+1
— Despicable Me 3 (2017)
Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio; starring Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker, Miranda Cosgrove, Steve Coogan, Jenny Slate, Dana Gaier, and Julie Andrews.
— Heat (1995)
Directed and written by Michael Mann; starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd, Natalie Portman, Danny Trejo, Kevin Gage, Hank Azaria, Ted Levine, Dennis Haysbert, and William Fichtner. And don’t forget about Henry Fucking Rollins! And Tone Loc!
1/4
— Ian Buruma, Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah, 26 pp.
I really enjoyed reading about Spinoza as a person. He sounds so fascinating. I actually hesitated before finishing the book because I didn’t want him to die. Buruma, for what it’s worth, does some good work to contextualize him …
— Ted (2012)
Directed by Seth MacFarlane, written by Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin, and Wellesley Wild; starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane (voice of Ted), Joel McHale, Giovanni Ribisi, Patrick Warburton, Matt Walsh, Jessica Barth, Aedin Mincks, Bill Smitrovich, Patrick Stewart (narrator), Norah Jones, Sam J. Jones, and Tom Skerritt.
Pretty sure that I’m going to parenting hell because I permitted my son, 14, who asked to see this, to see this. But I did stop it a couple of times and say, these guys are bros and beware.
1/5
— City of Fear (1959)
Directed by Irving Lerner, written by Robert Dillon and Steven Ritch; starring Vince Edwards, Lyle Talbot, John Archer, Steven Ritch, Patricia Blair, Kelly Thordsen, Joseph Mell, Sherwood Price, and Kathie Browne.
This was actually really good, in the sense that it started with Vince Edwards and you think he’s just a psychopath and what’s going to happen, but what happens is that he’s confused a lion’s share of heroin with a city-poisoning vat of Cesium-60.
— Spinoza, 30 pp.
1/6
— Finished Spinoza. See review in December. Basically, Buruma wants to get Spinoza back on the team.
1/8
— Carlo Ginzburg, Cheese and Worms, 12 pp.
— Rushmore (1998)
Directed by Wes Anderson, co-written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson; starring Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Seymour Cassel, Brian Cox, Mason Gamble, Sara Tanaka, Stephen McCole, Connie Nielsen, Luke Wilson, Kumar Pallana, Andrew Wilson, Marietta Marich, Alexis Bledel, and Wallace Wolodarsky.
I’d forgotten how stunning is Olivia Williams.
1/9
— Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
Directed by Chris Columbus, with a screenplay by Steve Kloves, based on the novel by J.K. Rowling; starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Alan Rickman, Tom Felton, Ian Hart, John Hurt, Fiona Shaw, Richard Griffiths, Harry Melling, Warwick Davis, and John Cleese.
— Ginzburg, Cheese and Worms, 15 pp.
— Vicki (1953)
Directed by Harry Horner, written by Elliott Arnold, based on the novel I Wake Up Screaming by Steve Fisher. Starring Jean Peters, Richard Boone, Paul Douglas, Max Showalter, Cecil Kellaway, Sara Allgood, Elisabeth Fraser, Ralph Dumke, and Regis Toomey.
Sort of a funny, perhaps unmemorable movie. I only saw
1/10
— Quantum of Solace (2008), first hour.
Directed by Marc Forster, with a screenplay by Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade, based on characters created by Ian Fleming; starring Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Gemma Arterton, Jesper Christensen, Giancarlo Giannini, David Harbour, Joaquín Cosío.
Watched this on the trainer, which meant that I couldn’t really hear it that well.
Not sure I understand why he put Mathis’ body in the dumpster. He hadn’t really forgiven him, despite what he said? Kurylenko as a Bolivian? I mean, come the fuck on. Please. She had a really good agent, that’s for sure.
1/14
— Prey (2022)
— Cheese and Worms, 5 pp.
1/16
— Dawn Lundy Martin, “Dancing Inside The Box”, N+1, 49
1/18
— Spinoza, Letters, #18-20
These letters include Blyenburgh’s first letter to Spinoza in which he gives every indication of being an ardent seeker of truth but perplexed by the pantheistic implications of the Theological-Political Treatise; Spinoza’s encouraging response, assuming some ideological common ground; and Blyenburgh’s tendentious second letter both expressing agreement and very strong disagreement about the theological implications … [tl;dr: Spinoza’s view makes God responsible for evil, no?]
— Raymond Williams, Television, 15 pp.
Technological determinism is a form of critical blindness.
— The Godfather (1972), 20 m.
Thought maybe Lucian might be up for this … nope.
1/19
— Once Upon A Time in the West (1968)
Lucian asked to watch this film, and of course I assented, but with the proviso that once we started we would watch the entire thing (it’s freaking long, y’know).
The way I see it now is quite different from how I saw the first and other times … Then “spaghetti Western” as some mysterious, fascinating chapter of film history, whereas now “spaghetti Western” as this sort of tawdry, tired chapter of film history, owing more to Kurosawa than anyone else.
But in Once Upon A Time in the West there is also a sort of funny relation between the narrative and the sound/musical track in which they are not a single thing, but two distinct entities acting and reacting to each other and not always in concert. Admittedly, not in really interesting ways. But for 1968, short of Goddard, this was something.
The Criterion Channel is offering this as an example of “Cast Against Type: Heroes as Villains” and in this instance, Henry Fonda as the bad guy.
1/20
— The Godfather (1972), 50 m.
Episode #99 of Stupid Parent Tricks: namely, the one in which the father’s desire to share this experience with his son overlooks the fact that only a couple of days prior the son had expressed anxieties about watching violence on screen.
1/21
— American Fiction (2023)
The film adaptation of the Percival Everett novel Erasure, which I read earlier this year, starting back early in 2024.
1/22
— Tankers (2018)
A second viewing, following a first viewing months before. Lucian’s selection.
— The Man from Laramie (1955), last 30 min
Right when Stewart’s character has been shot through the hand
1/24
— Emilia Pérez (2024)
— Finished The Cheese and the Worms