Watched and Read - September 7, 2025

 

Here’s what I watched and read last week:

MOVIES

Caught Stealing (2025). I didn’t think the contrast of humor and extreme violence always worked. But there were some good moments, especially the third act.

The Crow (1994). The visuals were excellent. Great gothic / noir atmosphere. But I didn’t connect with the story.

Tomorrowland (2015). Not a bad Disney film. Some cool old school sci-fi stuff, which I always enjoy. The effects were great. But the story was clunky at times.

Network (1976). A masterpiece by Lument. Written by one of our greatest writers, Paddy Chayefsky. Timeless film.

Winter Kills (1979). Watched it on the Criterion Channel. Had no idea this was a dark comedy. I thought it was going to be an intense thriller like The Parallax View. Overall, I was mixed on the film, but I really enjoyed Jeff Bridges.

Love letters (1984). Also watched it on the Criterion Channel. Good movie. Excellent performance by Jamie Lee Curtis.

Can’t Stand Losing You (2012). Great documentary about Andy Summers and The Police. We watched it this past weekend at The Aero with Q&A with Summers.

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TV

Still watching the seventh season of Little House. Still enjoying it.

I’ve caught up with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I really liked episode 7—which was a documentary on the crew. Very cool idea. Episode eight, though, was not that good.

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BOOKS

I didn’t finish any books this week, so I thought I share some of the academic articles and chapters I’ve read. I am writing a book on Hitchcock and am working on the chapter on Psycho.

Elsa Court, The American Roadside in Emigre Literature, Film, and Philosophy. I read the chapter on Psycho and its connection to motels and the constructions of highways in post WWII America. Excellent reading of the film.

Bernice M. Murphy, The Highway Horror Film. Read the chapter on Psycho. Murphy lays out tropes associated with horror and motels - Psycho being the first to do so. Very good chapter.

Laura Mulvey, Death 24x a Second. I’ve read this book numerous times. Very good reading of stillness and movement and the uncanny in Psycho. But I disagree with her reading of the death drive at the end of the film.

Robin Wood, Hitchcock Revisited. Wood was one of the early writers on Hitchcock. His chapter on Psycho is excellent, offering interesting insights into the act of watching and highlighting our complicity with Norman Bates after Marion’s death. I usually assign this chapter when I teach the film, and it was enjoyable to read it again.

Peter Wollen, “Hybrid Plots in Psycho.” Interesting short piece about plotting in Psycho, Marnie and North By Northwest. Wollen claims Psycho has a fairy-tale structure.

Watched and Read - August 31, 2025

 

Here’s what I watched and read last week:

Movies

Orpheus (1950). Beautiful film by Jean Cocteau. Love the story and special effects. The underworld sequences are superb and great examples of the fantastic.

Marnie (1964). I’m starting to see why a lot fans of Hitchcock like this one - at least from what I’ve been reading. This was my third time seeing it since the early 2000s and I really enjoyed it. Marnie breaking into Rutland’s safe is classic Hitchcock and great example of his commitment to pure cinema.

Topaz (1969). The first half was very good and suspenseful, especially the opening sequence. But the second half of the film was a let down. Minor film by Hitchcock.

Broken Flowers (2005). One of my favorites of Jarmusch’s. Great and subtle performance by Bill Murray. Jeffrey Wright is so funny as Winston who does the investigating for Murray. I also love the soundtrack, which I still own on CD. Slow cinema greatness!

The Majestic (2001): Nice film. Has a kind of Frank Capra vibe. I love the way Frank Darabont captures the small town of Lawson. I also enjoyed the 1950s invasion narrative that Darabont was engaging with. Nice performance from Jim Carrey.

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TV

We started the seventh season of Little House on the Prairie. Some good episodes so far. Curious to see how the characters develop. I really like the episode that featured Madeleine Stowe.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The first episode was a washout for me. Too much time had passed since the second season for me to remember what happened in the last episode — even with the recap. The same thing happened when I tried watching the second season of Severance — I had no idea what was going on. Overall, based on the first six episodes I’ve watched, the third season of SNW includes some questionable choices by the writers, but I’m sticking with it.

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Books

Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light by Patrick McGilligan. Outstanding read. What a journey to read about Hitchcock’s life in film. I read Donald Spoto’s book on Hitchcock back in 2015. Now having read both books, I feel I have much better understanding of Hitch’s work. One of our greatest filmmakers.

Enjoying Right & Left by Todd McGowan. Excellent read. McGowan, as always, does a great job of explaining the concepts - focusing on the differences between belonging and nonbelonging and their relationship to enjoyment. McGowan offers lots of great examples to explain how the right and left organize enjoyment and the important role of contradiction. I love the chapter on Christmas movies and the last chapter on Heathers.

Watched and Read - August 23, 2025

 

Here’s what I watched and read last week:

Movies

I’m continuing my Jim Jarmusch marathon.

Night on Earth. Very enjoyable. The first story with Winona Ryder was my favorite.

Dead Man. I haven’t seen this since it was first released on video in 1996. The movie is starting to grow on me, but still my least favorites of Jarmusch’s.

Coffee and Cigarettes. The name says it all. A collection of stories or conversations. My favorite ones are Jack and Meg White and Steve Coogan and Alfred Molina.

Sinners. Very good horror film. Really liked that Coogler allowed us to know the characters and their world before getting into the horror.

In Time. Great premise. Loved the first part of the film. But I felt some of the acting was not good, and kind of surprising given Niccol had written and directed Gattica, which I love.

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TV

We finished the sixth season of Little House on the Prairie. The last three episodes were classic. The sixth and second seasons, so far, are my favorite. Michael Landon has a great eye for composition. The high definition images look great on Peacock.

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Books

Foul Play Suspected by John Wyndham. A crime novel written under the name John Beynon. I wasn’t expecting something like The Day of the Triffids or The Midwich Cuckoos, but there are some interesting topics discussed—stuff that he would later explore in his sci-fi books. I’d consider it a minor work of his, but worth checking out. The book reminded me a little of the film noir Kiss Me Deadly.

Reading Lost's Walkabout

In my television theory class, we watch the episode "Walkabout" from the series Lost as an approach to studying semiotics - the study of signs. This posting contains spoilers!!

Roland Barthes:

Using semiotics is the basis on how to conduct a close analysis of a film or a television series. Roland Barthes's work on Mythologies is one of the founding texts for this type of analysis. And to keep things simple, I will focus on the terms: denotative and connotative. 

Denotative Meanings:

Denotative is the surface level of a sign. For example, if I see a stop sign while driving, I know to stop my car. It is a sign that we can all agree upon - at least I hope we do.

Connotative Meanings:

Connotative is the secondary level of a sign. This means there can be multiple meanings of a sign. For example, I could read the sign "snake" not only as a slimy reptile, but as "sin." The surface reading (denotative) of a snake means a reptile and it slithers. The secondary reading (connotative) of a snake could mean "sin," or it could mean "friend." I preferably would not like to think about snakes at all! But you get the point...

Rhetoric: Making Your Case Convincingly

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. A connotative approach to studying film or television involves how well you can argue your case. This means when you unpack secondary meanings (connotations), you have to make your case convincingly. To do this, you must inventory the signs of a film and or television episode.

"Walkabout" Example

Lost is a television series about the survivors of Oceanic 815 stranded on a mysterious island. "Walkabout" is an early episode in the first season that focuses on John Locke (Terry O'Quinn), a mysterious man who decides to hunt for a boar after learning the survivors had ran out of food.

"Walkabout" involves Locke's journey into the mysterious island. This odyssey entails a physical component (find and kill the boar), and an interior component (Locke's re-birth). We can track these two registers by inventorying the episode's signs.

Locke's Wheel Chair

The wheel chair is more than simply a means of transportation; it is also about Locke's backstory and his internal struggles before he crashed on the island, which is told through flashbacks. His wheel chair has an added charge of meaning when we learn that Locke can walk after surviving the airplane crash at the end of the episode.

Movement and Stillness

Locke is shown a number of times lying on his back, looking at his feet. Movement has multiples meanings, especially when you consider the title of the episode: "walkabout." It is a spiritual renewal for Locke.

Re-Birth

Locke is re-born as he learns to walk again. The fire framed by his wheelchair at the end of the episode helps to communicate this at the connotative level. He is no longer the same person we saw in the episode's flashbacks.

There are many connotations I could have discussed in this episode. But I chose signs that are tied to a specific theme: Locke's re-birth as a "walkabout" in his hunt for the boar. At the end, he successfully kills the boar and provides food for the survivors. At the same time, Locke's soul is nourished by the hunt in the form of a walkabout.