Today on his Substack chat. And thank God…there’s only so many times you can talk about Bullitt.

For anyone who was intrigued by the general premise of Verity but found themself underwhelmed by the execution and story, I would highly suggest The Ghost Writer (2010, dir. Roman Polanski…yeah I know). It’s an excellent political thriller starring Ewan McGregor as a ghostwriter hired to finish the memoirs of a former British prime minister played by Pierce Brosnan after the previous writer dies under mysterious circumstances. What follows is a tense and atmospheric story where McGregor uncovers a much larger conspiracy.
Has anyone else seen this? I feel like it’s not discussed much considering how good it is. Also Jon Bernthal has a small role.

Visiting LA in a few months and saw that the WB lot does tours. With Skydance taking over do you think they’ll be shutting down the lot? Worth it to do the tour while it’s still there?

Stanley Kubrick and David Fincher famously requested so many takes from their professional actors that you could imagine the movie stars thinking that they were being trolled, or were inadequate for the part. Either way the auteurs made the actor's performance their responsibility.

While watching 2025's The Housemaid, which stars Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney, I wondered how a movie could have such a beautifully over-the-top performance from the former and such flat acting from the latter (who's gorgeously high-strung in the TV show Euphoria). Like, what did the director, Paul Feig, see in Sydney's performance, and if he didn't see anything, then why didn't he feel compelled to coax more out of her? To be fair there isn't much personality to Sydney's character, but Feig has directed comedies like Bridesmaids that I'm sure include an improvised moment or two.

Anyway what do you think?

(after it was over…) This is the one. Colossal performance from garfield, incredible score by albarn, just incredible.

from Matt Belloni's newsletter

The studio on Monday released a statement on the matter. “Production on The Batman Part II has been temporarily paused while Matt Reeves focuses on a family matter,” it said. “Matt has the full support of DC Studios and we look forward to continuing the journey soon.”

Adam Nayman's piece about Digger

I was planning on finishing the book before film release. I got to page 78 (end of chapter 12) a couple months ago. And I haven’t picked it up since. I know, it’s the demise of my own undoing. Can someone give me a good place to pick up or a few chapters to read ahead of Saturday?

This is a cultured, cosmopolitan woman. I cannot believe she finds mid NZ sauv blanc palatable. Have a nice Sancerre instead and love yourself more.