Watched and Read - September 20, 2026

 Here's what I watched, read and listened to last week...

 

MOVIES

King of New York (1990), Abel Ferrara, is one of his top films. 1990 was a big year for gangster films, such as GoodFellas, Miller’s Crossing, State of Grace, and The Godfather III. Even My Blue Heaven with Steve Martin came out that year! Like many of the movies mentioned, King of New York is a gritty and violent movie about power. The blue motif captures this theme. Who will be the one that holds the blue shield of the law? The gangsters or the police? What I found the most striking about the film is Ferrara’s depiction of drug lord, Frank White, played brilliantly and frighteningly by Christopher Walken, and his surreal demise at the end of the film.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), directed by Robert Wiene, is one of the top films of world cinema, and a key film of German Expressionism. I teach it in my introduction to film course for its atmospheric set designs and creative lighting. It is one of the first films to depict the interior state of a character by deliberate visual distortion. It is a must-see if you are interested in learning about movies, even Portlandia says so! 

  

TV

We watched the first episode of the sixth season of Slow Horses and very much enjoyed it. The setup is really good. It was sometimes hard to recall certain things after a year, such as trying to remember what role Peter Judd plays. But I think this is going to be a good season.

We also watched the first two episodes of Widow’s Bay. I can see why the series won the Emmy this year for Best Comedy. The series has a great mix of comedy and horror. I love the setting and cast of characters. Matthew Rhys and Stephen Root, who both won Emmys, are amazing. This is a new series, so I won’t say anything else. But it is definitely worth checking out.

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BOOKS

Ray Bradbury’s “The Town Where No One Got Off" starts off with a passenger on a train who randomly decides to get off at a town where the train hardly stops. This is an empty town narrative with some good atmospheric tension. The story reminds me of the first story in Now and Forever. See my post. I also watched the episode on The Ray Bradbury Theater on Peacock. The episode lacks some of the tension that’s in the story. But I love the way they depict the town during the fall season. It was also cool to see Jeff Goldblum play the man who visits the town.

 

 

YOUTUBE

Rick Beato recently posted a video about copyright clearance. If you are a content creator, especially for teaching and learning purposes, it is worth checking out.

 Alice in Chains recently posted clips from their 1990 concert at the Moore Theatre in Seattle. “Love, Hate, Love” shows the power, emotion, and amazing vocal range of Layne Staley.

 

MUSIC

I very much enjoyed listening to Anthrax’s new album, Cursum Perficio. Anthrax is one of the Big Four of thrash metal bands I grew up on. I’ve seen them plenty of times when I was in my teens and twenties. Their songwriting has changed and developed over the years, but they still have have a core sound. There are some very good songs on Cursum Perficio. My favorite is “The Edge of Perfection.” Scott Ian is a fan of Deaf Heaven, and you can really hear their influence, especially in Charlie Benante’s blast beats. And Joey Belladonna’s voice still sounds amazing. Time has not impacted his voice. But the band has gotten older, and Scott Ian said it might be their last album.

Watched and Read - September 6, 2026

 Here's what I watched, read and listened to last week...

 

 

MOVIES

China Girl (1987), directed by Abel Ferrara, reimagines the gangster film through the story of Romeo and Juliet. There’s a gang war between the Italian and Chinese gangs. Tony is from Little Italy and Tye is from Chinatown, and they fall in love. You can probably guess what’s going to happen, but I very much enjoyed the film.

The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026), directed by Jon Favreau. I watched the movie with low expectations but wound up really enjoying it. The film had some great surprises, especially in the last half. I also liked that they brought in some characters from The Clone Wars and Rebels. I heard some critics saying that the film is more like television than cinema. I would say it is an intimate and quieter film than the epics we typically associate with the Star Wars universe.

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DOCUMENTARIES

Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing, a new documentary streaming on Netflix, is a startling and shocking documentary about the corporate brass putting money over the safety of people. This was a frightening one to watch.

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TV

I finished the fourth season of The Wonder Years. There were a lot of great episodes, especially the ones involving Kevin and Winnie. But I also enjoyed many of the episodic ones, such as “The Cost of Living,” “Who’s Aunt Rose?,” and “Separate Rooms.”

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BOOKS

The Children by Melissa Albert. I read almost 300 pages and wasn’t sure what to make of this novel. Stephen King’s quote mentioned that the prose reminded him of Ray Bradbury, which I definitely agree with. But I didn’t find the characters to be likable. However, when I read the last 100 pages, most of my thoughts on the novel changed. I read that this was Albert’s first adult novel. I’d be curious to read her next book.

Now and Forever by Ray Bradbury is a book of two novellas, “Somewhere a Band Is Playing” and “Leviathan ’99.” The first is about reporter who arrives in a mysterious town to learn that the residents never die. The second is Bradbury’s take on Melville’s Moby Dick as a space expedition. Both embody many of Bradbury’s themes. “Somewhere a Band Is Playing” has a nostalgic vibe, one that reminded me of Dandelion Wine. “Leviathan ’99” has a Martian Chronicles feel, especially the part where the crew comes across a moon with an abandoned civilization. I also loved the scene where they make contact with the famous broadcast voices of the past. The story reminded me of Star Trek, given that the crew’s mission is to explore and report their findings.

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PODCASTS

The Kingcast is a podcast I have been listening to since it debuted in 2020. They have had many great guests on talking about Stephen King’s books, including King himself. But the episode they recently did with Sam Weller, who wrote Ray Bradbury’s biography, was one of their best. If you love Bradbury and King, you should definitely check it out.

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YOUTUBE

If you like or even love Pearl Jam, I highly recommend Rick Beato’s interview with Mike McCready and Jeff Ament. Beato asks great questions about their songs and their techniques. I also learned some new history about the band, especially about its formation. It is definitely worth the watch.

 

Watched and Read - August 2, 2026

 

MOVIES

Disneyland Handcrafted (2026), directed by Leslie Iwerks, is a very good documentary streaming on Disney+ about the building of Disneyland. The documentary consists of never-before-seen footage. From what I could tell, the footage was shot on 35mm color film, then scanned and transferred to high definition. 35mm is the ultimate medium because it transfers beautifully for HD viewing. I was shocked to learn how fast they built Disneyland.

Pigs and Battleships (1961) directed by Shōhei Imamura. Out of all the Japanese noir I’ve been watching on the Criterion Channel, this was the toughest one to watch. What stood out to me is the cinematography and the way Imamura captures the gangster underworld of Yokosuka. A gritty film.

Blue Heron (2025), directed by Sophy Romvari. A good film that follows a family who moves to Vancouver in the 1990s. Their eldest son is showing dangerous behaviors, putting the family into a crisis. I was a little thrown off by the structure of the film, but I did enjoy how the film played with the documentary and fictional modes. The movie is streaming on Criterion.

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TV

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. What a great start to the fourth season. The first episode has a classic Star Trek vibe, involving time travel, and reminded me of Star Trek IV. I’m looking forward to episode two.

We finished Stranger Things season 4. This was my second time watching it, and I think it’s one of the best. Episode seven is probably one of the top episodes of the entire series. The Duffer Brothers weave a very large cast of characters, but never to the point where you are confused. There should have been Emmy nods for acting, especially for Joseph Quinn. But as usual, horror and sci-fi are often snubbed when it comes to acting nominations. 

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BOOKS

The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre by Tzvetan Todorov. This is a well-known book in literary studies. Todorov’s definition of the fantastic is the hesitation between reality and the imaginary. The book is a little dense, but Todorov offers lots of examples from different novels to help explain the nuances of the fantastic, including the difference between the uncanny and the marvelous.

From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury is a book that took him over 55 years to complete. There is definitely an Addams Family vibe in these stories of the Elliott family. After I finished the book, I was surprised to learn that Bradbury and Charles Addams were friends and had discussed working together on the Elliott family. This did not happen, but Addams went to create the famous Addams Family that we all know.

Watched and Read - July 5, 2026

 

Here is what I watched and read last week…

 

MOVIES

Pale Flower (1964), directed by Masahiro Shinoda. I am continuing to watch Criterion’s curation of Japanese noir. Pale Flower places more emphasis on atmosphere rather than plot, with some excellent black and white cinematography. But the standout moment is the haunting imagery of Muraki’s dream. Very cool movie.

The 400 Blows (1959), directed by François Truffaut. One of Truffaut’s best and most personal films. I teach this for the French New Wave and art cinema in my Introduction to Film course. The film beautifully captures the theme of freedom and entrapment, using many of the characteristics associated with the French New Wave, such as handheld camerawork, on-location shooting, and a loose ordering of narrative events. This is a must-see if you are interested in learning about cinema.

No Down Payment (1957), directed by Martin Ritt, is a very good and dark film about four suburban families. The film begins by emphasizing the surface, which is then slowly deconstructed. What we may think is a typical all-American family is underpinned by a dark underside that involves racism, alcoholism, trauma, and money, to name but a few.

Phil Lynott: The Long Goodbye (2022), directed by Remarni Ramchaitar-Jackman, is a good documentary on the legendary singer and bass player for Thin Lizzy. I did learn some new things about Lynott, but I kind of wished the documentary went a little more in-depth into his life. But it is definitely worth checking out if you want to learn about him.

Cover-Up (2025), directed by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, is an excellent documentary on journalist, Seymour Hersh, exploring the major stories he reported on, such as Vietnam, Watergate, and Abu Ghraib. If you are interested in journalism, this is a must-see. It is currently streaming on Netflix.

The Wizard of the Kremlin (2025), directed by Olivier Assayas. I did not connect with this. It was very hard to believe Jude Law as Putin. I also thought Paul Dano was miscast in the film.

Jaws (1975), directed by Steven Spielberg, is a movie I watch every Fourth of July. It is one of Spielberg’s finest and scariest films. I am working on a book on Hitchcock and horror, and discuss The Birds as a precursor to Jaws. Both films feature creatures that defy the laws of nature—what I call supernatural creatures. I also highly recommend The Jaws Log, which explores the making of the film.

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TV

We finished The Boroughs and thought it was a good and entertaining series with a lot of nostalgia. The finale was very good, with some touching moments. I also enjoyed how the series addressed the themes of death and grief.

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BOOKS

I finished reading Jacques Lacan’s Seminar II and thought it was a lot harder than Seminar I. The standout section is Lacan’s reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.” For Lacan, the letter hiding in plain sight stands for the unconscious. This leads him to claim that the unconscious is on the outside. Or, as he puts it, the unconscious is the discourse of the Other.

I very much enjoyed Ray Bradbury’s Green Shadows, White Whale. At first, I thought he was going to write about his process of adapting Moby Dick for John Huston. Instead, it is mostly about the people he met in Ireland, their stories, and their culture. Although he does not delve deeply into his relationship with Huston (he even discusses why at the end of the book), you do get the sense that Huston was difficult to work with. I think this book is more for Bradbury fans than for film buffs.

 

Watched and Read - June 28, 2026

 Here's what I watched and read this past week...

 

MOVIES

Toy Story 5 (2026), directed by Andrew Stanton, is a very good film that focuses on technology and children. The animation is great, with some nice moments that explore the themes of connection, friendship, play, and imagination. We did not see the 3D version. But you can tell there were some shots made specifically for 3D. Toy Story 5 is not as great as the first three movies, but it is definitely worth watching.

Pavements (2024), directed by Alex Ross Perry. I am not really a fan of Pavement’s music, but I thought it would be interesting to learn about their history, particularly how they became a big indie band in the 1990s. The documentary seems to oppose this approach. I felt it was very indie rock snobbish. These were the people I avoided in the 1990s.

Talk Radio (1988), directed by Oliver Stone. This film is often overlooked in Stone’s body of work. But it may be one of his best, especially given the rise of social media. I wrote about the film in my book Cinema of Confinement, discussing how Stone creates a space of paranoia within the confined setting of the radio station. Tension lies between Barry and his listeners. Who are his fans? Who are the threat? My book is available through open access and can be downloaded if you want to check out the chapter.

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), directed by Jack Clayton, is a good atmospheric horror film based on Ray Bradbury’s great novel. I was skeptical about watching it because I love the book so much. Johnathan Pryce and Jason Robards give great performances. It is a quick watch and is available for streaming on Disney.

The Sheep Detectives (2026), directed by Kyle Balda, is a very good whodunit movie with some very nice moments. I loved Nicholas Braun (aka Cousin Greg from Succession) as Denbrook’s only police officer. The CGI sheep worked, but I would rather see real animals. However, given the complexity of the plot, it makes sense that they took the CGI route. Nevertheless, the film gave me some Babe vibes. I highly recommend it.

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TV

The new Lord of the Flies is a pretty good series on Netflix. Although, I personally prefer the black and white version from 1963. I thought that some of the episodes could have been shorter. There were also many unnecessary close-up shots of characters looking directly at the camera. I am unsure what that was all about. It is hard not to think of the great TV series, Lost, which I am guessing drew some inspiration from Golding’s novel.

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BOOKS

Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta is a good and very engaging coming-of-age book, involving Jimmy, a thirteen-year-old growing up in an Italian American community in New Jersey in the early 1970s. Perrotta strongly captures the time period with some very interesting characters. The story reminded me of the collection of short stories he wrote in Bad Haircut: Stories from the Seventies.

Bradbury Speaks is a great collection of essays written by Ray Bradbury. I enjoyed reading all of them, especially the ones on Los Angeles and Paris. Other standouts were, “How Something Wicked Came,” “Mars: Too Soon From The Cave, Too Far From the Stars,” “Mouser,” “Lord Russell and The Pipsqueak, and “Any Friend of Trains is a Friend of Mine.”

 

 

Watched and Read - May 3, 2026

 Here's what I watched and read last week...

 

MOVIES

A Colt is My Passport (1967), directed by Takashi Nomura, is a very good Japanese noir. It has a Hollywood B-film feel, mixed with a Spaghetti Western. Great performance by Joe Shishido. Super cool ending.

Cruel Gun Story (1964), directed by Takumi Furukawa, is another great Japanese noir. I really enjoyed the film’s setup, which reminded me of Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing. I am starting to become a fan of Shishido. I highly recommend this one.

The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel (2026), directed by Ben Feldman, is a great documentary on the band’s emergence in the early 1980s. It is very tragic and sad about what happened to Hillel Slovak.

Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game (2022), directed by Austin Bragg and Meredith Bragg, is a very enjoyable film based on a true story. I liked how they structured the film, intercutting Roger Sharpe (not the real Roger Sharpe) talking to the filmmakers throughout the story. It reminded me of American Splendor, which mixes real footage of underground comic book artist, Harvey Pekar, and the fictional account of his story. Pinball is streaming on Hulu. 

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TV

Pistols (2021). I finished the series and thought it was excellent. They crammed in a lot in the last episode, but overall it was a lot of fun to watch. There is a lot of humor, mixed with gritty realism. Boyle brilliantly captures the feel, energy, and excitement of a punk rock show. I would definitely put this up there as one of Danny Boyle’s great works. I highly recommend it.

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BOOKS

I finished reading Ray Bradbury’s collection of short stories in I Sing the Body Electric! And Other Stories. Lots of great stories, especially “The Burning Man,” “The Lost City of Mars, “The Utterly Perfect Murder,” and “Punishment Without Crime.”

“The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson is a classic short story. Miss Strangeworth is what we would call an online troll. There is no evidence in the mean letters that she sends anonymously to the people of her small town. All she is doing is stirring up trouble. In her view, it is because people need to open their eyes and be aware of the evils lurking in the world. The brilliance of Jackson’s story is that good and evil are not dualistic but dialectical. That is, they are intertwined with each other. The idyllic fantasy is always threatened by something that wants to undo it. I am teaching this alongside Hitchcock’s Shadow a of Doubt. Both are examples of evil within small places.

 

 

Watched and Read - Februrary 22, 2026

 

Here’s what I watched and read last week…

 

 

MOVIES

The Aviator (2004), directed by Martin Scorsese, is an excellent film about filmmaker and aviator Howard Hughes. Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance powerfully captures Hughes’s obsessive-compulsive disorder. The scene in which Hughes locks himself in the projection room is probably the most unsettling moment in the film. Cate Blanchett’s portrayal of Katharine Hepburn steals the show. This film, along with Gangs of New York, marks Scorsese’s turn toward epic filmmaking.

The Color of Money (1986), directed by Martin Scorsese, is a follow-up to The Hustler. The performances are outstanding, especially Paul Newman, who finally won an Oscar for his role. Only Scorsese could create such energetic and cinematic pool scenes. The score by Robbie Robertson is very good, and of course there’s the song “It’s in the Way That You Use It,” performed by Eric Clapton, which I remember MTV playing constantly in 1986. Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel were hard on the film, and I don’t think their analysis was entirely fair. I think it’s definitely worth checking out.

Nirvana: Up Close and Personal (2007), directed by Bob Carruthers, is an okay documentary about Nirvana. Most of the film focuses on Kurt Cobain, featuring interviews with people who knew him in Aberdeen, Washington, including his grandfather and former guitar teacher. Much of the information about the band and Cobain was already familiar to me, but it was still interesting to hear from those who knew him before he became a rock star.

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TV

American Prince: JFK Jr. (2025) is a three-part series created by CNN. It offers a largely surface-level account of JFK Jr.’s life in the 1990s, focusing on the launch of his magazine, George, and his marriage to Carolyn Bessette. It’s not a bad documentary, but I wish it had explored his life in greater depth.

Ray Bradbury: The Illustrated Man is a 1980 documentary produced by the BBC. It’s an excellent film that explores Bradbury’s thoughts on writing, technology, and the importance of reading. I especially enjoyed the segments in which excerpts from his short stories are read aloud and acted. It’s available on YouTube and well worth checking out.

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BOOKS

Martin Scorsese: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work by Ian Nathan is one of the best books of his that I’ve read. He gives particular attention to films such as Taxi Driver and Goodfellas, though the book provides strong coverage of Scorsese’s career overall. It’s an excellent read and made me want to revisit several of his films.

Widow’s Peak: The Complete Haunting, written by Richard Chizmar and Billy Chizmar, picks up where the 2025 novella leaves off. I very much enjoyed the book. The story has more room to breathe than the novella, though you do have to pay close attention to the slug lines to keep track of where you are. The novel definitely has a Blair Witch vibe. Most of the characters are unlikable (except for the professor) but that makes sense, given what typically happens to the main characters in found-footage horror. I would definitely recommend it.

“I Sing the Body Electric!” by Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite short stories, and I’m excited to teach it in my writing class this semester. I’m pairing it with discussions of utopian and dystopian depictions of technology and science in speculative fiction. This story leans more toward the hopeful, particularly in the way the electric grandmother is embraced by the two boys and their father.

However, the emotional center of the story is Agatha, who is initially skeptical of the electric grandmother but eventually comes around after the grandmother saves her from a car. Cars are often depicted negatively in Bradbury’s work, and it’s no surprise that he himself did not drive.

Reading the story closely, it feels especially relevant today, prompting us to reflect on artificial intelligence and the question of human intimacy.