Episode Reviews

Setting an Example, Not a Cautionary Tale - The Pitt s02e02

Ogilvie knows Farsi?

Book Reviews

Isles of the Emberdark - Sandee Boyz

Late Cosmere space opera powers activate!

The Diplomat

Who Do You Work For? - The Diplomat Season 3

Marital intimacy comes in all sorts of different forms...

Episode Reviews

What's up, Mel... ancholia? - The Pitt s02e01

Independence Day in January? Must be the beginning of another day in The Pitt...

Monthly Check-in

Jan 2026 Check-in

Mrs. Landingham... what's next?

Martin Scorsese

A Very Personal List of Top 250 Films - Part 5: #50-1

A list in which there aren't any films that are better than these...

Steven Spielberg

A Very Personal List of Top 250 Films - Part 4: #100-51

Three of Satoshi Kon's four films, a couple of Best Picture winners, and a heaping dose of DiCaprio...

Rian Johnson

A Very Personal List of Top 250 Films - Part 3: #150-101

A bunch of black and whites, a few with the word "sun", and a previous #1...

Martin Scorsese

A Very Personal List of Top 250 Films - Part 2: #200-151

Featuring a couple Wachowskis, a couple Paul Thomas Andersons, and a couple of mashups

Martin Scorsese

A Very Personal List of Top 250 Films - Part 1: #250-201

Spoilers: gotta get the MCU out of the way...

The Top 250 Films

A Very Personal List of Top 250 Movies - Intro: Honorable Mentions

The Overture to the Substack Event of the Season™ is here!

2025 Films

Because I Saw You - Avatar: Fire & Ash

It's more Avatar: The Way of Water 2...

Alfred Hitchcock

The Highest Heights - Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock's undeniable masterpiece owes its success to many different sources...

Criterion Challenge

Selections for the Letterboxd 2026 Criterion Challenge

Now with commentary!

Building the Top 250

In the Shadow of Greatness - To Kill A Mockingbird

A cinematic translation of the 20th Century's most-read book

Broadway

We Haven't Got Time - Merrily We Roll Along

The new pro-shot of the recent Broadway revival unlocks the full potential of Sondheim's hidden gem masterpiece

Building the Top 250

Harnessing the Metatext - Unforgiven

Clint Eastwood deconstructs westerns, tests his audience's patience, and delivers a masterpiece

Monthly Check-in

December 2025 Check In

Somehow the year is over? Yeesh.

Wes Anderson

A Sense of Belonging - Moonrise Kingdom

When society fails, fall out of it and build your own

Rian Johnson

Paying For Your Sins - Wake Up Dead Man

In which Benoit Blanc goes to church

Wicked

When All Your Dreams Come True - Wicked

Part One, For Good, and all the challenges of adaptation

Before Midnight

Myth Meets Reality - Before Midnight

It's one of the great cinematic love stories and unlike the others, this one isn't exactly a feel good...

Episode Reviews

Does the Title Even Matter Any More? - The Morning Show s04e10: "Knowing Violation"

Another season, another hinge point where Alex Levy makes news on a live broadcast?

Edgar Wright

Left Out In the Cold - The Running Man & the Films of Edgar Wright

In which I argue that maybe he should leave the emotion out of it...

World War II

That's Just the Way You Make Me Feel - Casablanca

So good, so good, so fucking real.