Overstreet

Sure, I can ask about that.

Painting with John on HBO Max is the entirely unlikely, heaven-sent sequel to series to the cult classic Fishing with John. The new All Creatures Great and Small is playing things entirely too safe. It could have been generated by a BBC A.I. program based on what their older viewers want. Hilda Season 2 was just so-so for a while, but the second half of the season began reaching some of the glory of Season 1. Little by little, I'm working my way through Abstract on Netflix, which is a remarkable series of documentaries on creativity. Song Exploder's episode on "Losing My Religion" is fantastic; the episodes on "Wait for It" and "Hurt" are good too.

Haven't finalized the list yet — I'll post a more precise one soon: TOP TEN ALPHABETICAL Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets Emma First Cow Minari Nomadland Portrait of a Lady on Fire Small Axe: Lovers Rock Small Axe: Mangrove Shirley Wolfwalkers NEXT SIXTEEN American Utopia Another Round Da 5 Bloods Dick Johnson is Dead Driveways Extra Ordinary Little Fish Miss Juneteenth Never Rarely Sometimes Always Rocks Sound of Metal Tesla The Invisible Man The Vast of Night Vitalena Varela Young Ahmed

I'm interviewing Chad Hartigan tomorrow about his new film Little Fish. Has anyone here seen it yet? It's uncanny about how pandemic-focused this project was already before the pandemic hit. Anybody have a burning question for him? I'm happy to take suggestions.

Gut-wrenching, stomach-souring, infuriating, like crawling through broken glass... this is one of the most difficult documentaries I've ever sat through. What I began to think was too sensationalistic, characterized by a spirit of vengeance, eventually justifies itself by broadening its scope to reveal the purposefulness within it all. It's a necessary film and I'm glad it exists. I wish I could remove the word harrowing from all of my previous reviews, though, so that I could more properly and powerfully apply that term here.

I love this video and was going to share it today, but I'm realizing that it's really difficult for people to find a formal presentation of the list itself. The link given with the video is just artsandfaith.com. A newcomer arriving at the home page could have a hell of a time wandering around trying to find whatever we're considering the central publication of the list. Similarly, if I go to Ken's introduction to the list on The Porch, I can read that long essay and still not know where to click. So... forgive me if I've missed something obvious, but what link represents the public-facing announcement with the full list? Seems like it deserves a hub with the Intro and then the detailed rollout of titles and summaries.

It's great. (I saw it during a brief big-screen exhibition in Seattle earlier this year.) It's compromised, as each episode increasingly seems to be, by how fragmented the stories are becoming. But there is an emotional gut-punch in this once that was inevitable, and I have to stop there to avoid spoilers. Here's what I posted at Letterboxd.

Whoa! That's fantastic!

Thy Kingdom Come, a short made entirely from outtakes of To the Wonder, following Bardem's priest as he takes confessions that are actually true confessions, is now streaming on Kanopy and rentable elsewhere.

The sale is totally on... and I am in torment. Too short of spending cash to participate this time. So many titles I'm drooling over.

This EOB album is a lot of fun, although I'm glad that Radiohead leaves the lyrics to Thom Yorke. The rhythms and sounds here are very Radiohead, but the lyrics aren't nearly as compelling. When I first heard "Shangri-La," I thought I'd be buying this record on vinyl. After a few spans, I still like it, but I don't feel like I need to give it the deluxe treatment. Here are my favorite albums for 2020 so far.

I didn't like Madelne's Madeline. Shirley, by contrast, is my favorite film of 2020 at the halfway point. My review is up at Looking Closer.

Regarding the question of comparison — since I'm the one that was doing that most insistently in the Zoom discussion, let me clarify. I don't mean to say "I love A, and since B doesn't impress me as much as A, I don't like B." For me, it's more like this: "B left me curiously unmoved. I'm trying to work my way to why. It is styled like other films — A and C, for example – that really did move me. And it deals with subject matter that other films — like D and E — have dealt with, and those films moved me. I can talk about what worked in A, C, D, and E stylistically and substantively. I can't make the same claims about B. Maybe this helps me explain, somewhat, why I'm disappointed with B. "Having said that... I can't deny that B is very interesting and very well made. I'm glad I saw it. And I will see it again, fully anticipating that I might come to appreciate it more the second time." Please remember that in that Zoom discussion, we also began making comparisons and asking questions that I found quite exciting — particularly when it came to moments of intimate touch in the film and what they represented. I remember being inspired by that and saying that now I was ready to go back and reconsider the film.

I have utterly failed to provide new blurbs for anything. I'm going to make a run at it this weekend.

I don't have Disney+ either, Beth. And the pilot episode to The Madalorian didn't persuade me to prioritize it..