Smart distinction here between era of Marvel corporate-driven film-making and the Trumpian YouTube-driven one bit.ly/3ZFQBkW

Having watched a bunch of Ryan Reynolds' streaming landfill lately, I am impressed at what a consistent, clearly communicated and zeitgeist-appropriate star persona he has created: snarky scamp

Feeling dog-tired, emptied out and 100% defeated by life last night, it was amazing how MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO - which somehow I'd never seen before - wiped that slate of shit clean with sheer beauty and optimism

Found a copy of Marcel Carné's HOTEL DU NORD on DVD in our holiday home last night. Apparently RATATOUILLE's Anton Ego was modelled on Louis Jouvet

Where I feel Amazon's RED ONE captured the true spirit of Christmas was when Santa's helpers performed the extraordinary rendition and torture of an innocent person. Also: how the film functioned as propaganda for a global logistics operation, complete with hench Father Bezosmas

Where I was supposed to see Nosferatu, I kept seeing Derek Smalls

Given Hollywood's current ossified state, the McConaissance merits more historical study as someone who escaped the parameters of the film industry and redefined himself

BIRD is the first Andrea Arnold film from which I am getting self-parodic vibes (from the trailer). Should I see it?

Another film CARRY-ON has in its bloodstream, apart fron DIE HARD, is COLLATERAL: forced intimacy with a maniac who criticises your life choices

Foreign directors doing Americana is so often cringe, but not here bit.ly/4aguI0t

What is it with Paul Thomas Anderson and the world of mattress salesmanship?

This is the most perceptive take I've read on the Neil Gaiman affair - and the whole art-by-monsters conundrum

Hollywood studios, with the exception of The Straight Story, hadn’t given Lynch the time of day in decades. Pretty much all his funding was independent. He had to go to France and Poland to get his films funded. Despite this, the work got done. Hollywood is not the world.

I accepted the fool's errand of attempting to rank David Lynch theguardian.com/film/2025/jan/…

Bonjour

Love this killer rendition of The Lass of Aughrim by David Patrick Kelly on the set of TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN. I like to think such artistic happenings popped up every 5 minutes on Lynch's sets youtube.com/watch?v=aJL3BO…

New piece for The The Independent. I wrote about Mark Wahlberg’s shaven bonce in Flight Risk, how it was cropped off the poster, and the general representation of baldie baddies in Hollywood. independent.co.uk/life-style/bal…

BUBBLE BATH “A gallopingly neurotic modernist-psychedelic musical” Phil Hoad The Guardian “Broods with the faint discontent of a generation spurned” ag “Incredibly restless” Dillon Gonzales Geek Vibes Nation Now streaming courtesy Deaf Crocodile ovid.tv/videos/bubble-…

I've been chipping away for a while on a Guardian Long Read about how Netflix and other streamers' algorithms and data are shaping cinema. I'm looking to chat to directors, producers and writers about their experiences with these companies - on or off the record. Anyone keen ?