Landon Palmer

www.jstor.org/stable/10.15...

Kushner: "I felt very, very strongly that, while of course the murder of innocent civilians and innocent athletes is abhorrent and unforgivable, that no violence occurs without cause, and it originates somewhere, and where does it originate? I think if we’re going to make a movie about this terrible thing, we have to ask those questions. Otherwise, you have to say that the people that did this are operating off of unrecognizable motivations and incomprehensible nonhuman directives and mandates. That is never true of human beings. You can always understand. And the mandate, as far as I’m concerned, of writing about anything, is: Try and understand it. That’s what you’re trying to do."

This long interview with Tony Kushner about writing Munich, one of the most profound films distributed by a Hollywood studio this century, is excellent. This passage stood out in particular www.gq.com/story/tony-k...

The existence of same-sex relationships and gender nonbinary people is some of the easiest shit in the world to explain to your kid. Like, two sentences tops

Meme of Tobias Funke saying "but it might work for us" from Arrested Development

New cabinet members:

First Cow. Was getting the best reviews of Reichardt’s career and had the highest per-screen-average of any of her films a week before lockdown. She pulled it hoping to get it back in theaters later but then it quietly went to PVOD that summer. A real loss for a movie like that

The thing I got wrong in this post was that it won’t be 10 years

Lost 19th century film by Méliès discovered at the Library | Timeless Library conservators recently made a startling discovery in a batch of decaying film reels -- a long-lost 1897 film by early cinema icon George Méliès. The French magician-turned-filmmaker's

Lost Méliès found that was owned by "a potato farmer and schoolteacher in western PA by day, but by night he was a traveling showman. He drove his horse and buggy from town to town to dazzle the locals with a projector and some of the world’s first moving pictures." blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/02/...

When you’re doing curriculum work and accidentally call a new prep a curse instead of a course

I'm guessing theaters don't do this as often because it relinquishes a later-night showtime, but 8pm is truly the optimal time to see a movie

This week for Silent Sundays, a look back at five lost films made by Bluebird Photoplays with a little history lesson about the filmmakers and stars who made them.

Read: oldfilmsflicker.substack.com/p/favorite-p...

The Homework Machine, Oh, the Homework Machine, Most perfect contraption that's ever been seen. Just put in your homework, then drop in a dime, Snap on the switch, and in ten seconds' time, Your homework comes out, quick and clean as can be. Here it is— 'nine plus four?' and the answer is 'three.' Three? Oh me . . . I guess it's not as perfect As I thought it would be. [A child receives paper from an elaborate machine in which hides another child]

"Homework Machine" by Shel Silverstein

the technology the left is excited about is 16mm projectors

I feel like I honored the memory of Fred Wiseman today by having a series of long meetings

I got to talk with @historyonfilm.bsky.social about my 70s Hollywood class :) open.spotify.com/episode/1Ne0...

Duval, in full priest garb, swinging in an SF park next to a child.

my favorite Robert Duvall role is where he appears as a priest on a swing for 2 seconds for no apparent reason in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

A garish PowerPoint slide with a cropped image of Tom Hagen whispering to Don Corelone with a cartoon bubble saying "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse," which is not when he says this line. Business-speak text at the top: "Paramount has now made an improved formal offer that even the conflicted WBD Board should deem as one that 'could reasonably be expected to result in' a Superior Proposal" Business-speak text on the right side: "The WBD Board now has no choice but to deem Paramount’s amended offer as one that could reasonably be expected to result in a Superior Proposal, given Netflix’s presently inferior proposal and unaddressed regulatory issues. Once that happens, the Board could then engage in good faith with Paramount to maximize shareholder value, paving the way for WBD to secure an even higher offer. If the WBD Board refuses to do this, Ancora will vote “NO” on the inferior Netflix deal and seek to hold the WBD Board accountable at the 2026 Annual Meeting." .

Here's the slide in question, a rich text.

I will give Ancora this, although I'm certain they haven't thought through this quote: the argument that a WB-Paramount deal would have an easier regulatory path is not unlike what Don Corleone means with this line

Warner Bros. Discovery’s deal with Netflix has faced scrutiny from some shareholders, including the investment firm Ancora, which last week said it opposed a deal with Netflix. (In its presentation arguing that Warner Bros. Discovery should consider the Paramount deal, the firm used a photo of Marlon Brando from “The Godfather,” one of Paramount’s most famous movies, with a speech bubble saying, “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”)

gonna go out on a limb and say the folks at the investment firm Ancora are overpaid

(via www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/b...)

Drop an album that was important to you when you were 19

Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick

from Variety: “I hate to say it. It’s likely over for us,” wrote Rhett Reese, writer of the “Deadpool” films, in a comment on the Cruise-Pitt video. “In next to no time, one person is going to be able to sit at a computer and create a movie indistinguishable from what Hollywood now releases.”

I do not believe that an AI video of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting threatens the practice of screenwriting, but I do understand why it would threaten the specific career of the guy who wrote 'Deadpool & Wolverine'

lol

Alfre Woodard seated opposite me in a studio space with a large TV between us. Students look on in the foreground

Last month a got to host a conversation with Alfre Woodard for our students. A fr “oh wait my job is cool” moment

Love it when my health insurance provider e-mails me that my prescription costs will go down with this one cool trick when the one cool trick was supposed to be enrolling in health insurance

The Secret Agent. What a picture

My wife is teaching a very cool class on the romance novel, and UA student media interviewed her about it: barefield.ua.edu/2026/02/02/e...

we've ended up at a pretty weird equilibrium of privacy breaches + unequally distributed legal power where our info is constantly stolen and sometimes you get an e-mail that says you're part of a class action lawsuit and sometimes you get another e-mail that says here's $20 then it all happens again

Lounging in green corgi socks with the 2026 Sundance Film Festival on TV

One last trip from my couch to Park City

Congrats @akstuhl.bsky.social! I look forward to reading it

The moment in Home Alone where John Candy is listing his polka hits and Catherine O’Hara dryly says “These are songs.” is an all-timer of a line reading for me

lotta 21st century Australian westerns