Watched and Read - April 26, 2026

Here's what I watched and read...

 

 

MOVIES

Black River (1957), directed by Masaki Kobayashi, is a dark and gritty Japanese noir film. I had a hard time connecting with this one.

I Am Waiting (1957), directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara, is a good film, with some cool cinematography.

Tron: Ares (2025), directed by Joachim Rønning, has amazing visuals and a great soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. But the film’s story is not very good. The performances are not good either. A big disappointment.

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TV

I enjoyed the new PBS Nova episode, Artemis II: Return to the Moon. It is amazing how much work goes into rocket launches and all the precautions taken, especially the crew’s reentry to Earth. I wish they showed more pictures of the Moon and Earth from Artemis. Overall, it’s a very enjoyable episode.

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BOOKS

I finished The Chrysalids by John Wyndham last week. An excellent and powerful book by one of the great sci-fi writers of great writers of the twentieth century. See my post on Chocky.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. This is a disturbing story I am teaching for horror studies. If you have not read it, I will not go into detail. What I will say is that the story invites conversation. My take is that the horror of the story is in the re-reading of it. The horror is assigned to the everyday and the procedures associated with conducting the lottery. It is a great example of ideology, evident in the exchange between Mr. Adams and Old Man Warner. We learn that another village is thinking of giving up the lottery, which upsets Old Man Warner. Ideology operates by not calling attention to itself as ideology, and I think that’s one of the things that makes “The Lottery” so disturbing. They have a choice not to do this. Great read by another great writer of the twentieth century.

 

 

Watched and Read - March 8, 2026

 

Here’s what I watched and read…

 

MOVIES

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), directed by Jacques Demy, is a very good musical in which every line is sung. Since I don’t speak French, it was sometimes difficult to fully connect the music with the characters’ emotions while reading the subtitles. Still, I thought the final section, when Guy returns home, was outstanding.

Man on the Run (2025), directed by Morgan Neville, is an excellent documentary about Paul McCartney and the formation of Wings. I’ve always loved this period of McCartney’s career and the music he wrote during those years.

Sunset Boulevard (1950), directed by Billy Wilder, is one of Wilder’s best films. I teach it when discussing film stardom and film noir. This semester, I’m also using it to explore the themes of reality, dreams, and illusion.

A Perfect Murder (1998), directed by Andrew Davis, was my second viewing. The first time I saw it was when it was released in theaters, and it didn’t connect with me then. When I noticed the Criterion Channel was showing it, I decided to give it another try, especially since it’s based on Dial M for Murder. Because I’m currently finishing a book on Hitchcock, I was curious to see Davis’s interpretation of the material. My recommendation, however, is to skip A Perfect Murder and watch Dial M for Murder instead.

Videoheaven (2025), directed by Alex Ross Perry, left me feeling very mixed. It’s a very long documentary, and by the end I felt that all I learned was that many movies (a lot that look bad) contain scenes set in video stores. It didn’t evoke much nostalgia for the video-store era, and I was surprised that it didn’t explore the broader relationship between technology and culture. For example, there’s no discussion of changing family dynamics in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s, which was one of the factors that made the VCR appealing. A great book on this topic is Frederick Wasser’s Veni, Vidi, Video.

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TV

DTF: St. Louis. I watched the first episode and I’m not entirely sure about some of the story decisions yet. Still, I like the characters and plan to watch the next episode. It’s great to see Linda Cardellini in the series. Also, Steve Conrad wrote the excellent film Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, which starred Robert Duvall, Richard Harris, Shirley MacLaine, and Sandra Bullock.

The Mystery of Méliès (2021) is a great television documentary currently streaming on HBO. It works both as a biography of Georges Méliès and as an account of how many of his lost films were discovered and restored. Highly recommended.

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BOOKS

I finished Chocky by John Wyndham and think it ranks among his best books, along with The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos. The novel centers on a boy named Matthew who may—or may not—be inhabited by an external entity, possibly an unknown life form. It’s a very engaging story that keeps you guessing from page to page. The ending is especially strong, and the book also includes a great introduction by Margaret Atwood. I highly recommend it.

 

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.