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movie review roundup, June-July 2025

2025-08-10T22:26:25Z

June:
The Life of Chuck (2024, ****)

Queer Women of Color Film Festival:
Play It Like It's '54 (2024, ***½), In This Moment (2024, ****), Your Next Door Neighbours (2023, ***), Cape Town Royalty Programme (2023, ****), Can't Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines (2023, ***½)

San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival (Frameline):
By Design (2025, ****), To Live, to Die, to Live Again (2024, ***½), Queer Quickies shorts (1976-2025), Pink Narcissus (1971, ****½),

July:
Speed (1994, ****)
The Addiction (1995, ****)
Habit (1995, ****)
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025, ***½)

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RIP: Stef Schwartz

2025-07-04T02:47:14Z

My friend Stef (who many people knew as Steven), an unforgettable person, died this week after a lengthy struggle with cancer. I knew Stef for a little over 20 years, as part of a community of lovely people I met soon after moving out west; but after that community became more scattered, we had only hung out intermittently in the current decade—most often in conjunction with various mutual interests like science fiction, graphic design, and Robyn Hitchcock. Of course, as one does, I now wish I had made more of an effort. Here's some advice: if someone keeps inviting you to play board games, even if you're not super into board games, just go!

Besides being a fine writer and printmaker, Stef worked for many years as an organizer of the SF/fantasy convention FOGcon, where I vividly remember two things in particular: 1. us speaking together on a panel that may have been the worst-attended panel discussion of that year; 2. seeing Stef, in their official capacity there, have a very long and very very patient and very very very polite (in the Midwestern way where it may not be immediately obvious that the patience and politeness do not imply sympathy) dialogue with someone who I didn't realize at the time was an infamous Internet troll who had showed up looking for trouble. That soft and precise voice—a velvet glove over an iron personality—and extremely dry sense of humor were unmistakable.

I last saw Stef two weeks ago after they had gone into hospice care, and the voice was diminished, but the rest was the same. At the end of the visit, they told me: "See you in the next life. But... [pause] not if I see you first!" Normally I think that joke would be divided up between two speakers, but I guess they were determined to get it on the record even if I hadn't set it up.

The other very characteristic joke, during an earlier visit, happened when the subject of goth music had come up somehow. (Before quoting this, I should clarify that leukemia was not what finally got them; it had already been defeated earlier.) Stef said: "In hindsight, I now know that I attended a Sisters of Mercy concert while having undiagnosed leukemia. The most goth thing to do!"

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movie review roundup, April-May 2025

2025-07-03T04:46:31Z

Mickey 17 (2025, **½)
The Master (2012, *****)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, ****½)
A Nice Indian Boy (2024, ***½)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016, ***)
Sinners (2025, ****½)
Bring Her Back (2025, ****)
Female Perversions (1996, ****½)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014, ****)
Captain America: Civil War (2016, ***½)
Captain America: Brave New World (2025, **)
Thunderbolts* (2025, ****)
Pee-Wee As Himself (2025, ****½)
Midnight Mass (2021, ****½)

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movie/book review roundup - February-March 2025

2025-04-10T17:01:21Z

Movies:
Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016, ***½)
The Monkey (2025, ***½)
The Conformist (1970, *****)
Wicked (2024, ***)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007, ****½)

Books:
The First Bad Man - Miranda July (2015, ****)
Provenance - Ann Leckie (2017, ***)
Monday - Andy Hartzell (2024, ****)
The Bright Sword - Lev Grossman (2024, ****)
Arachne Rising - James Vogh [John Sladek] (1977, ***)
The Message - Ta-Nehisi Coates (2024, *****)
If On a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino (1979, ****)
Naked City - Eric Drooker (2024, ***)
World Within the World - Julia Gfrörer (2024, *****)

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RFK Jr., Duesberg, AIDS

2025-03-25T01:27:31Z

(This is a slight edit of some posts I wrote on Bluesky four months ago, before the confirmation of RFK Jr. It's still relevant so I figured I might as well put it together in one place.)

I'm glad to see Robert Kennedy's bullshit about HIV get some notice; still, when the HIV denialism is brought up, many comments are of the blank stare/"wtf, how is that even a thing" kind. I get it too; vaccines and transgender healthcare are more on people's radar.* But let me tell you about the horrible legacy of the man that Kennedy has called a "heroic healer": Peter Duesberg.

Duesberg, unlike Kennedy, had actual scientific knowledge in one field. And early on in the history of AIDS, scientists pursued all kinds of wild-ass guesses about what might be going on; Duesberg wasn't the only one who thought certain drugs, like poppers, might have a role. But he latched onto that idea early on—with some hedging about how maybe other recreational drugs and other STDs could be involved, all stuff he could ascribe to people's behavior, anything except a new viral pandemic—and did no research, and paid no attention to any progress after that.

Duesberg was immediately, and obviously, a crank and an egomaniac. No legitimate scientist ever behaves the way he did. A non-crank would ask themselves questions like "Does my work on retroviruses related to cancer really make me an expert on immunology?", or "Is it risky for me to tell everyone to ignore HIV?", or "Do I know enough about the people who are dying of AIDS for me to portray them as all wildly promiscuous drug abusers?", or "If my insight is so valuable, maybe I should do some research?" Instead he just kept doing interviews. And even though he did get public pushback, the press was still way too generous in describing him as a contrarian, a rebel, etc.—because that's a cool story. Also, some people latched onto the few sane things he said, like "the world isn't doing enough against malnutrition in Africa," and shut their ears to the rest, not unlike willfully ignorant fans of RFK Jr. now who focus on stuff like "well he's in favor of healthy food and doesn't like Big Pharma" as if those are bold new stances.

Of course, Duesberg himself did nothing to help people in Africa. Really less than nothing—since, like Kennedy, he gained influence over the highest elected official in a country: Thabo Mbeki, whose implementation of his advice in South Africa killed hundreds of thousands of people. Effective anti-HIV drugs were already available by then, far better than before; Duesberg didn't care. He also sadly convinced an actual AIDS activist who had HIV, Christine Maggiore, to forego treatment for herself and her child. Maggiore spent the next 14 years spreading the same gospel, even after her child died of AIDS; she only stopped when she herself died of AIDS, in 2008. Duesberg didn't care. His focus was entirely 1. I am right, 2. everyone is against me. And why was everyone against him? Because, in his view, The Establishment was too deferential to activists and minorities—who were the real causes of their own problems; the right-wing aspect of his views was never far under the surface.

The first time I heard Duesberg actually speak was in 1993 or '94, when, for my job, I had to listen to and transcribe an interview with him. He sounded exactly like what he was; he was even less charismatic than Robert Kennedy, but he knew the right phrases to use to appeal to people who fall for cranks. About seven years after that, I entered into the field of HIV care as a nurse (I'm not one now). Most of my co-workers had been in the field since the early years of total horror, and they could've retired, but they were so happy to be there now at a time when treatment generally worked. And that's why HIV denialism is much less of a thing people are aware of these days: people talk and think a lot less about AIDS in general, because it's not as huge a problem as it was (though, to be clear, it's still a bad problem, not over by any means).

But the cranks don't go away. There's no reason for people like Duesberg or Kennedy, or people who give them credence, to change their views just because they're overwhelmingly discredited. The evidence doesn't matter to them, it never did. It's about the personal legend of the contrarian. Kennedy calls Duesberg a healer not because his work ever had any positive effect on anyone's health, but because he wants to see himself that way, and because there's a great appeal in thinking you can be a hero in a way that involves never having to learn anything ever again. Crankism is incoherent in terms of ideas, but consistent in its ability to bring together people with the same personality flaws, imperviousness to evidence, and ability to dismiss the harm they do. There are many, they haven't gone away in 40 years, and giving Kennedy any governmental authority will bring them all in.

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movie/book review roundup, December-January 2024-25

2025-03-25T00:57:02Z

Movies:
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004, ****½)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012, *****)
The French Dispatch (2021, ***½)
A Christmas Dream (1945, ****)
Nosferatu (2025, *****)
The Holiday Exchange (2024, **½)
Babygirl (2024, ****)
Renfield (2023, **)
Bottoms (2023, ****)
Le Pupille (2022, ****)
Born in Flames (1983, *****)

Books: (hey, I remembered how to read books!)
X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes - Eunice Sudak (1963, ***)
Who? - Algis Budrys (1958, ***)
The Brave Little Toaster - Thomas M. Disch (1986, *****)
On Wings of Song - Thomas M. Disch (1979, *****)
The Sub - Thomas M. Disch (1999, ***)

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movie review roundup, October-November 2024

2024-12-24T06:41:50Z

Practical Magic (1998, **½)
Evil Dead (2013, ***)
Cloverfield (2008, ****)
The Substance (2024, ****)
The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka and the Art of Survival (2024, **)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009, ****)
V/H/S/Beyond (2024, ***)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014, *****)

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movie review roundup - July-September 2024

2024-10-07T06:16:06Z

Maxxxine (2024, ****)
Inside Out 2 (2024, ***½)
A Dog's Life (1918, ****)
Shoulder Arms (1918, ***)
The Piano (1993, *****)
Ocean's Eleven (2001, ***)
The Oyster Princess (1919, ****)
Meyer from Berlin (1918, **½)
My Old Ass (2024, ***½)
Caligula: The Ultimate Cut (1979/2023, ****)
The Decameron (2024, ****)

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movie review roundup - May/June 2024

2024-07-05T22:01:37Z

Challengers (2024, ****)
Beau Travail (1999, *****)
Stepfather 2 (1999, ***)
Naked Ambition: Bunny Yeager (2023, ***)
Film Is Dead. Long Live Film! (2024, ***½)
Kinds of Kindness (2024, ****)

San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival (Frameline):
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (2024, ****½), Crossing (2024, ****½), Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers (1972, ***½), Paradise Europe (2023, ****), 100 Boyfriends Mixtape (2015, ***½), Loads (1980, ****), Birthday (2018, ***), The Judgment (2023, ***), Mad About the Boy: The Noel Coward Story (2023, ***)

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lab leak debunking #10000

2024-06-03T20:17:39Z

Here's something I bet you've heard about once a week for some time: "Was COVID from a lab? Just asking questions!"

Like most "just asking questions" things, this keeps getting brought up long after the questions have been answered. Sometimes that's because the goal wasn't really to ask questions but to push an agenda. Other times people just don't understand or don't trust the answers, or have followed some of the answers but then stopped updating their knowledge. I don't know which explanation is true for the latest fear-mongering op-ed in the New York Times by Alina Chan—which, like all such pieces, is presented so as to give a false impression that Dr. Chan either speaks for most researchers, or has put together evidence nobody else noticed.

This series of posts by Phillipp Markolin, summarizing a longer article that they link to, is the best I've seen lately about why most researchers don't think there's any real doubt about the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) having evolved and spread naturally. It's technical, and Markolin does a decent job of boiling it down some, but I think it's possible to make it a little easier to follow for laypeople—so I'll try to do that here. (Standard disclaimer: my credentials are only that I've read enough about molecular biology in school to understand the gist of what Markolin is saying, and to see that it's consistent with what other scientists are saying, and that Chan's arguments do not take it into account.)
( Read more... )

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my trip to the vault

2024-05-08T19:35:21Z

There are things that are even more predictably mid-life-crisisy than spending time at age 51 poring over the details of your life in your 30s by reading old emails. But a lot of of those things, like buying a fancy car, are just not in the cards for me, and/or don't have the same inherent appeal for a compulsive reader and overthinker. So emails it is.
( Read more... )

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movie review roundup - April 2024

2024-05-01T18:30:51Z

Fire Island (2022, ***½)
Fellow Travelers (2023, ****)
Dawn of the Dead (1978, ****½)
Kajillionaire (2020, ****½)
Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal (2001, ***)

SF Silent Film Festival:
The Black Pirate (1926, ****), The Pill Pounder (1923, ***), Dancing Mothers (1926, ***½), Oh! What a Nurse! (1926, **½), The Lady (1925, ***½), The Sea Hawk (1924, ****), The Opportunist / The Self-Seeker (1929, ****½), East Side, West Side (1927, ***), The Red Head / Poil de Carotte (1925, ***½), Poker Faces (1926, ****), Häxan (1922, *****) [more], Two Tars (1928, ***), The Finishing Touch (1928, ****), You're Darn Tootin' (1928, ****), Hell's Heroes (1929, ***½), I Was Born, But... (1932, ****½), The Gorilla (1927, ***½), The Kid Brother (1927, ***½), The Phantom Carriage (1921, ****)

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movie/book review roundup - February/March 2024

2024-04-09T21:20:36Z

Victor/Victoria (1982, ****½)
Poor Things (2023, ****)
One False Move (1992, ****½)
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995, ****)
Dune: Part Two (2024, ****½)
Jurassic Park (1993, ****½)
Pearl (2022, ***½)
Baby Driver (2017, ****)
Mulan (1998, ***½)
Alligator (1980, ****)
Kong: Skull Island (2017, ***)
Late Night with the Devil (2023, ***½)
Alfie (1966, ****)
The Cat (1992, ***½)
Deep Space (1998, ***)

Books:
House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski (2000, ***)
Monica - Daniel Clowes (2023, ****)

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TV: The Midnight Club (Netflix, 2022)

2024-03-15T23:36:53Z

This is the only one of Mike Flanagan's TV projects that was meant to continue, but it was immediately cancelled so for better or worse it ended up being another of his horror miniseries. (That's why this review isn't on Letterboxd, where ongoing or meant-to-be-ongoing shows aren't listed.) I liked two of the earlier ones a lot, another more-than-a-lot, and another not as much. It's obvious right away that this is the same guy, working in a similar style, doing another mashup of multiple works with an ensemble cast—but instead of his usual ensemble (except for a few cameos), it's a bunch of teen characters in adaptations of young-adult books by Christopher Pike. And it's great—one of his best I think, although the material is so different that it's hard to compare.
( Read more... )

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movie/book review roundup - January 2024

2024-03-15T22:26:10Z

Movies:
Godzilla Minus One (2023, ****)
The Double Life of Véronique (1991, ****)
9 to 5 (1980, ***½)
The Return of the Great God Pan (2024, **)
Heaven Can Wait (1943, **½)
Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962, *****)
Watchmen (2019, ****)
Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees (2024, ****)
The Midnight Club (2022, ****)

Books:
The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen (1894, ****)
The Annotated Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie/Maria Tatar (2011, *****)
Impossible People - Julia Wertz (2023, ****)

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movie review roundup - December 2023

2024-01-27T02:57:16Z

Pavement Butterfly (1929, ****)
Saltburn (2023, ***½)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, ****)
Holiday Inn (1942, **½)
Gremlins (1984, ****)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1960, **½)
Zazie dans le métro (1960, ***½)
May December (2023, ****)
The Fall of the House of Usher (2023, ***)

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book review roundup - 2022

2024-01-02T02:20:54Z

I've been slowly recovering from a major crash in my reading momentum, to the point where I could easily believe I'm reading fewer than a dozen books a year. Actually when I looked back and figured out what I had read in 2022 and 2023, it wasn't that bad... but it was skimpy enough, with a relatively small amount of denser stuff, that it didn't take me long to bash out a bunch of retrospective capsule reviews for a year at a time. Here's what I can remember from the year before last, plus a handful of related ones from 2021. I'm sure there are some I missed but whatever.

Piranesi - Susannah Clarke (2020, *****)
Titan - François Vigneault (2020, ****)
Feast Your Eyes - Myla Goldberg (2019, *****)
Qualification - David Heatley (2019, ****)
Your Black Friend and Other Strangers - Ben Passmore (2018, ****)
All Systems Red - Martha Wells (2017, ***)
Gender Queer - Maia Kobabe (2019, ****)
Bringing Out the Dead - Joe Connelly (1998, ***)
Joseph Smith and the Mormons - Noah van Sciver (2022, *****)
The Searching Dead - Ramsey Campbell (2016, *****)
Born to the Dark - Ramsey Campbell (2017, ***)
The Way of the Worm - Ramsey Campbell (2018, ****)
A Touch of Chill - Joan Aiken (1979, ****)
Fellstones - Ramsey Campbell (2022, ***)
From a Buick 8 - Stephen King (2002, **)

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movie review roundup - October-November 2023

2024-01-01T01:43:34Z

Interview with the Vampire (1994, ****), The Innocents (1961, ****½), Totally Killer (2023, ***), Frankenstein (1931, ***½), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, ****), Contempt (1963, ****) ,The Marvels (2023, ***)

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movie review roundup - September 2023

2023-10-01T22:20:21Z

The Outsider (2020, ***½), The Nun (2018, **), The Nun II (2023, **½), Oppenheimer (2023, ****½), Wild Wild Country (2018, ****), Kill List (2011, ****), V/H/S/94 (2021, ***), No One Will Save You (2023, ***½)

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good comics I read lately: Time Zone J

2023-09-17T20:32:53Z

Time Zone J by Julie Doucet (2022): It'd be hard to overstate what a big deal Doucet was to indie comics readers in the '90s, including me, and it was a bummer (but understandable) that the unrewardingness of the field led her to give it up for a long time. This wild book isn't a return to the kind of things she used to do but it's unmistakably hers and I love it. It's definitely comics, even though it has no familiar layout cues and starts out looking like just an especially good sketchbook until a narrative thread starts emerging from Doucet's many faces that wend their way through the riot of images—she doesn't ever literally depict the story she's telling, only her internal process of reliving it. Great at evoking stormy youth seen through older sadder eyes, while the energy and beauty of all the tangential stuff on every page, and the sharpness of the writing, make it clear that she's as strong as ever.

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movie review roundup - August 2023

2023-09-14T01:34:36Z

Sanctuary (2023, ***), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023, ***), The Meg (2018, ***½), Theater Camp (2023, ****), Talk to Me (2022, ****), The Invitation (2015, ****), The Apartment (1960, *****), Passages (2023, ****)

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notes on Busybody #1

2023-09-07T17:32:32Z

I wrote these because I just reprinted the first issue of my solo-anthology thing and the second one is finally underway. There's really no need to read these notes but I just like writing them.
( Read more... )

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movie review roundup - July 2023

2023-08-07T01:54:58Z

House of Izabel (2022, ***½), Old Narcissus (2023, ***½), Red Eye (2005, ***½), Up in Mabel's Room (1926, ***½), Three Ages (1923, ***), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1925, ****), Crainquebille (1922, ****), Walk Cheerfully (1930, ***½), But I'm a Cheerleader (1999, ****), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954, ****), Joy Ride (2023, ***½), Barbie (2023, ****), Porco Rosso (1992, ****), Bird Box Barcelona (2023, ***)

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the truth is out there and it's horrible but actually it'll be fine!

2023-08-02T00:41:31Z

Listening to this well-done episode of the Conspirituality podcast about RFK Jr. and how he's managed to unify New-Age-flavored apocalypticism with nostalgia for an idealized America, I suddenly realized where that kind of thing is so familiar to me from: The X-Files! Specifically the less good parts of the show, usually written by Chris Carter, where:

1. we find out once again that we're utterly screwed because the conspiracy of aliens and federal dudes (and the UN) has been controlling everything for our whole lives, and all kinds of medicine and technology that we take for granted are part of this scheme, and every kind of authority is totally corrupt, and everyone who finds out about any of this will almost immediately get killed;

2. but then Agent Mulder finds some evidence, and at the end of the episode he testifies in a hearing where he goes on and on trying to sound like Kevin Costner in JFK, and unfortunately he can't really show any proof just yet, and they're all against him anyway, but they'll never get around to actually shutting him up or killing him, and ultimately if he can just get The Truth and get the truth Out There, then... I guess the system will work and the villains will be fired or arrested or something, and then it'll be like the good old days before the villains took over, some time in the 1950s or 60s.

I mean, ultimately Mulder is a simple guy who just wants people to be honest and also enjoys finding out about weird monsters, and he has to believe that America basically works because otherwise there's no point in him working for the FBI and testifying in hearings. But the story also requires this massive level of world-crushing evil that can't be reconciled with that at all. Similarly, RFK Jr. will go on about how the vaccine brainwashing conspiracy has almost totally destroyed freedom and poisoned us all... and then he'll say that all we really need to do is elect a guy who's "not afraid to ask questions" etc., and then it'll be like the good old days when America didn't have terrible problems (or at least not the kind of problems that RFK Jr. cares about), some time in the 1950s or 1960s. Is Chris Carter writing his campaign?!

There's a specific Kennedy connection too, because in the X-Files episode where we get the life story of the main villain in the conspiracy, the biggest revelation isn't that he did all this alien coverup stuff—it's that he shot JFK. And it's the most simple-minded version of the assassination legend from a liberal angle, where Kennedy had to be killed not because of the aliens or the Mafia, but because he was supposedly thinking about de-escalating the Vietnam War and the Cold War. (The same villain also shoots Martin Luther King, after explaining that the conspiracy's problem with him isn't actually about civil rights, it's about the Vietnam War. Because what really mattered in US history, in this version of "where did we go wrong", was Vietnam and JFK.)

Of course, since that episode is written by Glen Morgan and not Chris Carter, it's actually enjoyable and more funny than preachy. But it still fits with the show's idealization of the past, which also fits with RFK Jr.'s worshipful treatment of his uncle and his dad as the two guys who would've saved America, if only.

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movie review roundup - May-June 2023

2023-07-01T06:25:03Z

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023, ****), Brightburn (2019, **), How to Tell a Secret (2022, ****), All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White (2023, ***½), Casa Susanna (2022, ****), Labor (2023, ****½), Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music (2023, ****½), Smile (2022, ***), The Guest (2014, ***½)

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