[a pleasurable headache] incredible wood welder
Deer Editor Issue 2 is out in stores. Click through to be taken through to Ryan's newsletter and some lovely preview art as well as another look at that Phil Hester exclusive cover from Issue #1 (including the original art).
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Links
Future Tense Newsletter: My Husband Was Right About DVDs All Along
https://slate.com/technology/2023/01/streaming-libraries-dvds-blu-rays.html
As someone who just brought a limited edition BR of Yakuza Graveyard I am very much back on this bullshit.
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Talking Pictures TV: the story behind the must-watch UK movies channel
The very wholesome story of one the best television channels here in Britain, Talking Pictures TV. The channel shows some absolute gems, including a whole raft of crime and noir flicks waiting to be rediscovered. All of this and it's run from a house in Hertfordshire.
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A Whale of a Time
https://slate.com/human-interest/2024/01/moby-dick-whale-book-ship-massachusetts-captain-ahab.html
Wherein the writer of the piece, Luke Winkie, attends the annual 24 hour Moby Dick readathon. My aim is to finally read the fabled tome this year.
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Donald Glover and Maya Erskine on Real-Life Marriage, Professional Divorce and When to Walk Away
I always find Glover a fascinating interview subject.
"I think that started to happen once I started being on these bigger things where I was talking to people, very sweet people, nice people, cool people, but no vision. A lot of people don’t have a vision. And look, I’m never going to be the best basketball player or an incredible wood welder. But I have a belief in the fact that if I wanted to do those things, I could. And I feel like people should believe in themselves. Part of the problem with a lot of this generation is that they don’t. And the whole cancel [culture] thing is a bit of that. Like, if I do the wrong thing, then people won’t like me, and then I’ll starve to death. And I get that that’s a real fear and I don’t want people to starve to death, but what if your idea is better than what their idea is? "
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The Adventures of Renny Harlin: FFC Interviews Renny Harlin
https://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2024/01/renny-harlin-interview.html
Walter Chaw interviews Renny Harlin on his career, his ideas for his aborted take on Alien 3 and more...
" I'm blown away by your analysis of my work. It really humbles you, because, you know, I don't, I don't know if you realize that when you make all these movies and you pour your heart into every one of them, and whether it's a detail of the sound or the colour of somebody's outfit or the camera angle or whatever it might be, you put everything into it."
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Forever 2014
https://episodes.ghost.io/barbie-oscars-taylor-swift-academy-awards-greta-gerwig-margot-robbie-snub/
The wonderful Emily VanDerWerff on those recent Oscar nomination "snubs" and the reductive conversations still taking place over movies directed by women and the feminist messages present in some of those very same movies.
"On the other side of the discourse line, lots of folks argued over whether the film was feminist enough, if its status as a de facto toy commercial undercut everything it was going for. I found some of these discussions worthwhile, and I even contributed to the conversation myself. But, I also wondered: Are we really still having these conversations?"
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The Day of the Jackal and the joys of logistics porn
https://andrewnette.substack.com/p/the-day-of-the-jackal-and-the-joys
Andrew Nette is clearly a kindred spirit. This edition of his newsletter, Pulp Curry, talks about one of my all time 'comfort movies', 1973's Day of the Jackal.
"The Day of the Jackal spends a hell of a lot of time just showing things being done and the minutia involved. For Jackal this includes creating and sourcing a false identity and designing, ordering and learning how to use a bespoke lightweight sniper rifle. The latter features a series of extremely low key and clinical discussions with Cusack’s gunsmith, which are kind of an introverted version of the scene in Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976) when Travis Bickle buys weapon from ‘Easy Andy’ the gun salesman, played by Steven Price. The mechanics of the police investigation into Jackal’s identity and whereabouts is also painstakingly rendered and I love every minute of it."
I also loved his take on Boorman's Point Blank, another all time favourite movie for entirely different reasons.
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Kings of the Castle #1: Punishment is Stored in the Nipples
https://shelfdust.com/2024/02/14/kings-of-the-castle-1-punishment-is-stored-in-the-nipples/
How can you not read a link with that title? Punisher super-expert Kelly Kanayama has started a new column at Shelfdust on 'bootleg punishers', i.e. all of the non-Frank Castle characters who have taken up the mantle. Glorious.
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I'm off to make sure my Blu-Rays are still in alphabetical order. See you in two!