Bright Wall/Dark Room

in case you've never seen it, this is Roger Ebert on The Mummy

Black Bag (2025): Suspicions, Hearsay, and Pillow Talk Black Bag is a study of the notion of trust—and how it can be assured in a world where everyone is always lying to each other.

"Steven Soderbergh's BLACK BAG is a study of the notion of trust—who gives it, who earns it, and how it can be assured in a world where everyone is always lying to each other."

I really, really, really loved this movie. Part for what it shows, and part for what it makes you feel. And also part for things you sometimes can't even grasp properly. Some of them are in this text.

(spoilers ahead. Not that the movie is too plot-twisted, but I liked it more by not knowing)

Start a video store in your town, you can do it

Watched this in my lead-up to Oscars, filling in some Best Pic gaps.

Really glad I did. Felt good to sit alone in a dark room, my wife asleep in our bed upstairs, and just be immersed in unstated emotion.

And you'll be really glad you read this piece.

Train Dreams (2025): The Foundation of All Things The “great mystery” that the opening narration of Train Dreams gestures toward is, perhaps, love—a love that forgives and persists without guarantees, that remains present even after the people who in...

"The 'great mystery' that the opening narration of TRAIN DREAMS gestures toward is, perhaps, love. Specifically, the kind of love that survives damage, guilt, and time—a love that forgives and persists without guarantees, that remains present even after the people who inspired it are gone."

“Can I At Least Get My Money?” Music, Money, and Sinners (2025) In Sinners, money kills you. Music might bring you back. But first, you’re going to die.

“Can I At Least Get My Money?”: Music, Money, and SINNERS

As much as I enjoyed Marty Supreme, it does bother me that there is little to know Oscar talk about Ethan Hawke, who really got the contradictory essence of Lorenz Hart just perfectly in this.

Broadcast News: Nothing Like Wrestling With a Moral Dilemma, Is There? No one really changes. But, 'Broadcast News' asks, isn’t that kind of beautiful?

"It’s impossible to watch BROADCAST NEWS today and not think about the way it predicted the current state of 'mainstream' news."

Religious Cinema for Non-Believers: Martin Scorsese’s 'Silence' | BW/DR Martin Scorsese's 'Silence' is about entering into the cloud of unknowing, the dark night of the soul, listening to the silence of God and waiting eternally for a response.

Religious Cinema for Non-Believers: Martin Scorsese’s SILENCE

If I Could Believe That - The Birdcage (1996) | Bright Wall/Dark Room In The Birdcage, jokes aren't simply clever bits of wordplay, but rather a continual give and take. This is the May touch—no one ever fully wins an argument; instead, it’s a constant battle for the la...

Happy 30th to The Birdcage, too! (words by @franhoepfner.bsky.social)

Fargo: This is a True Story The characters in Fargo are all navigating their own lives, doing their best and their worst. What does it mean to be a good person? Is it a small thing, or is it big? Is it enough to try?

Happy 30th Fargo!

(words by @kelsfjord.bsky.social, art by @briannaduggan.bsky.social)

I would not have had the success I’ve had with my book if Matt hadn’t championed it first. Send him and Judith your support!

Few voices in the culture and media landscape are irreplaceable. MZS is irreplaceable. Not just a clever, cutting, and insightful critic, but a champion of other writers and artists in so many ways big and small.

Do yourself a favor: buy from his bookstore. Buy a lot. Read, read, read: mzs.press

absolutely, one hundred percent yes

If you know my work, it’s down to Matt. He championed not only what I did, but what everyone at @brightwalldarkroom.com was doing when we first decided to have a go at creating a magazine. My entire career traces back to his generosity of spirit, and I know I’m not the only one.

We literally wouldn’t still exist if he didn’t reach out to us in 2014 to help spread the word about the magazine & offer us a monthly essay spot on the Ebert website. And that’s only one of soooo many stories that sooo many writers, critics, and outlets have about this absolute gem of a human!

It should be your absolute goal to make sure any film/tv/arts/culture book you purchase from now on is directly from mzs.press, “the arts bookstore of the internet.” Matt is the best of the best, human & writing wise, and when he needs some help, we all gotta help! Plus: it’s a fantastic bookstore!!

this is anecdotal bullshit that probably felt right and obvious to the author and the outlet, but it's actually false. I'm always pleasantly surprised by how much people love a long read.

❤️🙏

Almost every essay we publish is at least that long, often longer. People still enjoy deep reading & are looking for a good excuse to immerse themselves in something worthwhile—especially in a clickbait economy/world. Clickbait articles are cheetos & some of us still prefer a well-prepared meal 🤷‍♂️

Blue Moon (2025): Prayer The fallout of Blue Moon is an assertive, pile-driving movie star performance from Ethan Hawke, but most compelling is how Linklater & his collaborators have rendered this occasion to tell about a lif...

New today on the site!

The Best of 2025 issue concludes with @frankfalisi.bsky.social on musical theater, My Funny Valentine, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater, Lorenz Hart, and BLUE MOON

Someone Else’s Shoes Throughout their body of work, and especially in 'The Red Shoes,' Powell and Pressburger return to the question of whether life and art can co-exist.

"Throughout their body of work, Powell and Pressburger return to the question of whether life and art can co-exist, and if the urge to live or the urge to create will win out in the end."

Avatar: Fire and Ash—Dreamwalking and the Book of Eywa Avatar: Fire and Ash—the end of one trilogy and the potential beginning of another—is the darkest, most complex, and personal of the three.

I wrote 6,000 words on AVATAR for @brightwalldarkroom.com, diving into how James Cameron's stereoscopic dreamland is a conduit for a radical, transportive empathy that harkens back to the origins of cinema itself:

www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2026/03/02/d...

Love this!

Avatar: Fire and Ash—Dreamwalking and the Book of Eywa Avatar: Fire and Ash—the end of one trilogy and the potential beginning of another—is the darkest, most complex, and personal of the three.

New on the site!

Our Best of 2025 issue continues, with @brendanhodges.bsky.social on AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH

(🎨 by @mosesleeart.bsky.social)

Lone Star (1996): No Wild and Aberrant Star The driving force of Lone Star isn’t the suspense of discovery, but the moral weight of what’s already known—and what people choose to do with it.

Yesterday was Texas Independence Day. Today is Election Day. Last year for @brightwalldarkroom.com I wrote about Texas and Texans in LONE STAR, a film which is perhaps more relevant now than it was when it premiered thirty years ago.

Towards a True Children’s Cinema: on My Neighbor Totoro My Neighbor Totoro requires this kind of childlike mindfulness. It’s less like a ride you can strap into and more like a place you can go.

Towards a True Children’s Cinema: on My Neighbor Totoro - @laurenwilford.bsky.social

Linklater // On Cinema & Time Created for Sight & Sound / BFI

A video essay from Kogonada about Richard Linklater and the Before trilogy that never doesn't hit hard, slows down your brain a little, and makes you cry in the good way

All That Jazz (1979): Hello Loneliness, I Think I'm Gonna Die Bob Fosse's 'All that Jazz' is at once a confession, a self-promotion, a showbiz love letter, an apology, and a middle finger.

Hello Loneliness, I Think I’m Gonna Die: Bob Fosse’s Dance with the Five Stages of Grief in ALL THAT JAZZ

- @aheartofgould.bsky.social