Wait, so you're telling me there's another movie coming out this year that focuses on a crew adrift on a mysterious ship in a treacherous and volatile landscape with no memories of who they are or why they got there, that's not called ROSE OF NEVADA
"God is nearer to you than your own jugular. So when you dance, you dance with Him."
Rarely do I get to speak to the same person twice, let alone abt the same movie, but that's what happened with รliver Laxe. For @ncronline.bsky.social, I spoke w/ him about dancing deities, disruptions, & serenity
"I looked up, and up, and up, and up, until I saw Tom Noonan's face, looking down at me with a curious expression. 'What did you say your name was?' he asked." A remembrance of my friend Tom, lost too soon. www.rogerebert.com/mzs/a-beauti...
In honor of #InternationalWomensDay2026 our list of brilliant contributions, from anti-heroines to cozy mysteries to an instantly iconic item of clothing in #heatedrivalry in our annual Women Writers Week www.rogerebert.com/women-writer...
THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!
Thereโs the rub!
No better feeling than introducing a movie you love to friends and they walk away loving it too. The LURKER hive has gained at least two new converts ...
THE MOMENT is now on PVOD. Enamored still w/ Hailey Gates' line deliveries (Whatโs metaphorical cocaine?) & how the film so refreshingly skewers the apparatus of fame, exploring how living your life just becomes one long exercise in brand management:
Embodying the meekness and small scale divinity of its title, A LITTLE PRAYER is streaming now on Prime Video. Grateful I could chat with dir. Angus MacLachlan for @
@sojo.net abt how real love doesnโt prioritize keeping the peace, but rather, it elevates truth-telling and accountability:
Defining my life by BWABT and AWABT (Before watching A BETTER TOMORROW, After watching A BETTER TOMORROW)
Grateful to be writing again for @thirdcoastrvw.bsky.social:
Not to be overlooked in the crop of new releases, I highly recommend Jan-Ole Gerster's ISLANDS, from @@greenwichfilms.bsky.social. It inhales & exhales w/ such a wickedly seductive tempo, proving that thereโs nothing more dangerous than thinking you can start over w/o consequences. Review โฌ๏ธ
Out via Sony Pictures Classics later this year!
"For my characters who donโt feel seen, I want them to feel seen by the camera."
I haven't been able to shake the spell of Stephanie Ahn's U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award winning BEDFORD PARK. For JoySauce, I spoke w/ her abt silence, on-screen eating, & the spiritual life of her characters:
โThere's nothing wrong w/ dreaming big, but it's easy to forget why you were dreaming big in the first place & what you were attracted to.โ
I spoke w/ the ๐ซ& soul of #HowtoMakeaKilling, Jessica Henwick, abt filmmaking as a vessel of rage, on-screen meals, & the through-line of agency w/ her roles:
In #ProjectHailMary, the coldness of the cosmos is replaced w/ warmth, its expansiveness & grandiosity reframed as an invitation to behold & wonder. A visually rich odyssey fueled by a propulsive, emotional core. Pembertonโs score is celestial & coruscating. I need a Rocky plushie asap.
Director Charlie Polinger told @zacharylee.bsky.social about the movies that have been empathy machines for him, particularly as they relate to his debut, THE PLAGUE.
ICYMI: my interview for @ebertvoices.bsky.social with CRIME 101 director Bart Layton. We playfully skewered LA wellness culture, discussed how documentary work influences one's approach to narrative features, and the use of the film's visual art:
PILLION expands (heh) to more theaters this week. In my 1st 4/4 star review for @ebertvoices.bsky.social, I wrote abt this devastating ode to the power of self-discovery. It may titillate w/ its fast & furious fellatio, but such sequences are never divorced from its charactersโ inner lives:
In which I draw some parallels between the words of Thomas Merton and the movie where Glen Powell tries to kill his entire family:
Can't stop jamming to Geoff Zanelli's score for GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN DON'T DIE, particularly the title track. So unpredictable and electric in its crescendo and layers, which stands as a rebuke to the perceived "safeness" of algorithmic music. Will be listening to it many times over:
"To go to paradise, you have to conquer hell. You have to visit your shadows."
For its @TheNYFF premiere, I spoke w/ รliver Laxe & Sergi Lรณpez for @ebertvoices.bsky.social abt the Jacob Elordi approved SIRรT, working in Morocco, and movies as a medium for meditating on death:
"These characters are trapped by the choices theyโve made, many of which are driven by the pressure to have money and status."
@zacharylee.bsky.social spoke with CRIME 101 director Bart Layton about LA wellness culture, how his documentary work influenced the film, & his background in visual art:
โPILLION is a quietly devastating ode to the power of that self-discovery, a reminder that perhaps one of lifeโs greatest tragedies is that we canโt always remain in a relationship with the people we learn the most valuable lessons from,โ writes @zacharylee.bsky.social.
"When you belong to a tradition like mine, you die when you have to die. The more important question is: How do you die? Whatโs the way you will die?"
@zacharylee.bsky.social spoke with รliver Laxe & Sergi Lรณpez about their Oscar nominated film, SIRรT:
โOur movies areย about people trying to create impossible things, impossible projects.โ
Not to be overlooked, for @sojo.net, I spoke with Mona Fastvold about her rapturous THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE, celibacy as liberation, & the churchโs deep roots of inclusivity. L*nk โฌ๏ธ
Thank you for sharing! One of my favorite quotes from the interview.
"Annโs dream of utopia is flawed, but thereโs certainly a lot of beauty and a lot of grace in her experiment that I wanted to lift up and look at," the film's director Mona Fastvold tells @zacharylee.bsky.social for @sojoaction.bsky.social.
sojo.net/articles/cul...
