Movies I Watched This Week (3/24/25 - 3/30/25)
men (and women) with movie cameras!
PRE-ROLL
i've been super behind with TV watching, but I have one more episode to watch in Season 2 of Severance and I’m very excited to finally be caught up there. it’s been an interesting1 and introspective season so far, and as much as I’m enjoying where things are going, I can’t imagine the show going for more than another two seasons at most. mainly excited to be done so I can jump into The Studio. also people keep saying The Pitt is good. is The Pitt good? sound off in the comments.
John Waters is going to be on John Mulaney’s talk show this week. i’m convinced some Mirror Version of myself is secretly the showrunner here or something. regardless, I will be seated.
Ketchup Entertainment has saved COYOTE VS. ACME.
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THE MOVIES
MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (1929, dir. Dziga Vertov). watched on blu-ray.
watched this in prep for the next film on this list. if you’ve never seen MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (1929), you owe it to yourself to give it a watch, not only as a foundational visual text for the following century of cinema, but also because it’s just an overall banger of a movie2. the edition I have with the Michael Nyman score goes extra hard, but any version will do, its dizzying montage of images as hypnotic and transfixing as anything out there. my “joke” is that this pretty much says all that needs to be said about film as a visual medium, and that the art form hit its peak here. stupider claims have been made!
MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (2025, dir. various). watched on screener.
wrote about this for Cine-File. i enjoyed the challenge of this one, a work I wouldn’t necessarily usually gravitate towards, but one that expanded my curiosity and my personal attempts to grapple with more experimental modes of cinema. i don’t know if i’d ever watch this again, but i’m glad I watched it the one time.
BRIGHT STAR (2009, dir. Jane Campion). watched at Music Box Theatre.
YEARNING!!!!!! such a stunning work (on 35mm especially!), probably tied with THE POWER OF THE DOG as my favorite Campion. no film will make you fall in love with the language of poetry like this one. i think every character in this film has such emotional complexity to their respective journeys3, it makes for a sumptuous watch that is both emotionally devastating and somehow powerfully affirming in the persistence of the human spirit against the powers of class and societal expectation. also, people’s hands touch in this like it’s the sexiest thing you’ve ever seen. this screening was programmed by Marya E. Gates in conjunction with her new book, “Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words,” which you can find anywhere where books are sold. shop local if you can!
what did you watch this week? will Tramell Tillman win an Emmy for Severance like he truly deserves? who’s your favorite poet? does this look infected to you? see you next time!
as someone who thinks Harmony Cobel is the weakest character on the show (from both a writing and performance perspective), Episode 8 was pure torture. otherwise, pretty solid all around! ↩
my guess is that this would be a very fun watch under the influence of some sort of recreational drug. let me know! ↩
do not even get me started on what Paul Schneider is up to in this movie. one of the most underrated performances out there. ↩
