Noel Thingvall
@noelct
Podcaster. Historian. Minnesotan. Collects far more comics, books, scripts, tv, and movies than I'll ever get to. He/Him.
#Filmsky Erased (2016) The lead is miscast, I'm not a fan of the ending, and it's overstuffed in its adaptation of a full manga. But the focus on emotional beats and character is strong, and it's a moving riff on the "Leapt Through Time" formula. letterboxd.com/noelct/film/...
#Filmsky Desert Hearts (1985) Great use of the quiet desert landscapes. Solid cast. Story is too much by-the-numbers old school melodrama, but hey, how many by-the-numbers romance dramas was the lesbian community getting in 1985? letterboxd.com/noelct/film/...
#Filmsky Hell of a triple feature day. The VVitch, The Lighthouse, and Thesis. My first time with Eggars', both were rich, weird, painful, and eveloping. Been 25 years since I saw Thesis. A little awkard, but striking, challenging, and still quite relevant.
#screenplay Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980) Sayles keeps descriptive text minimal like a play, letting dialogue reveal most of the story and characters. More a series of vignetes than a rich story, some more compelling than others, but interesting and engaging, never falls into melodrama. #Filmsky
#screenplay Memoir of a Snail (2024) Simple yet vivid, moving human story of tragedy, despair, abuse, alienation, and disconnect, but also hope, connection, and growth. Didn't know the film was stopmotion when I started reading. The script is so strong it could be realized in many formats. #Filmsky
Reading Little Women for the first time. 1 chapter in, and I can already see why Jo is a fan favorite.
#Booksky Animorphs 5: The Predator (1996, by KA Applegate) Heaps of great setpieces with a nice exploration of the anxieties beneath Marco's wisecracks. app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/f883...
Three episodes into Northern Exposure, and I can definitely see why it's had the lasting appeal it does.
#Filmsky Enola Holmes 3 (2026) Charming and fun, Brown continues to shine, and I still adore this take on the iconography. But the editing is distractingly messy, and I don't think they fully thought out some of the choices they made in terms of plot and themes. letterboxd.com/noelct/film/...
#Filmsky Yudo: The Way of the Bath (2022) Courtesty the JFF Theater app. A warm, bouncy, whimsical, moving ensemble about the characters in an aging public bathhouse, and the meaning brought to their lives through both community and a warm soak in water. letterboxd.com/noelct/film/...
#Filmsky Shoot the Piano Player (1960) My first Truffaut. Stylish and energetic riff on thrillers and noir, juggling serious and outright parody. Gets bogged down in French film stereotype of men ponderously stating their philosophies about women and relationships. letterboxd.com/noelct/film/...
Today was a wonderful wrapup to the con experience, so of course on my way to my ride home, I rolled my ankle and went down hard in a crosswalk, spilling everything I was carrying all over the street. I am ouch.
Delighted in hilarity at Mega Panel, plus @kelvinhatle.bsky.social reading his wonderful stories. Grabbed a few more classics from Book Swap, and now I'm watching distant fireworks from my hotel room. Happy 4th to those of us fighting for that to mean something again. #cvg2026
I have obtained Toast from House of Toast! Topped with Nutella, dijon mustard, and Spaghetti-Ohs! #cvg2026
Passed the bookswap room on my way to bed. Snagged some light reading. #cvg2026
My panel schedule for CONvergence 2026! If you're attending, come say hi! #CVG2026
#Filmsky Color Out of Space (2019) The detonation of a nuclear family. Effective use of eerie visuals and sounds builds a unique atmosphere of dread, with some genuinely horrifying and striking payoffs. Cage's wildly inconsistent choices are a huge distraction. letterboxd.com/noelct/film/...
#Filmsky Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) Tight and poetic script, directed well with a quiet camera and focus on the open road. Interesting mix of amateur and experienced actors. Races are sporadic, but as a parable of nameless archetypes on a drive to nowhere, it's fine. letterboxd.com/noelct/film/...
#Filmsky Blood Tea and Red String (2006) Rough and wonderfully hand-crafted stop-motion fairy tale. The pacing is all over the place and the ending feels too subdued, but it's striking and surprisingly accessible. Macabre and twisted, but in a timeless storybook way. letterboxd.com/noelct/film/...
#Filmsky The Game (1997) Rewatch. Remains a clever and slick mix of witty nightmare and twisty paranoid thriller. Pacing is a little uneven and some beats go long, but it's smart, exciting, layered, cast is spectacular. Very Quitter's Inc by way of Rod Serling. letterboxd.com/noelct/film/...
#Filmsky Black Narcissus (1947) The film is stunning to look at, but the story is an overblown melodrama, with a plethora of setups which fade to the wayside for a central romantic triangle that takes a bizarre turn to misguided horror. It needed a lot more focus. letterboxd.com/noelct/film/...
#Filmsky Caveat (2020) Interesting debut for McCarthy. Lots of tension and atmosphere, some genuine surprises and jumps. But never sells the the premise, the mystery is too confusing, and while the lead actor is great, his character constantly makes really bone-headed and infuriating decisions.