Decided to skip MIFF this evening, and instead went to see CAMERA BUFF (AMATOR) at the Krzysztof Kieślowski season that's just started at the Classic/Lido. Not only was it perhaps the best thing I've seen all year, it also means I've finally seen the film behind one of my fave Polish posters ever.

Randomly found an original French copy of the soundtrack to Fassbinder’s LOLA in the second hand record rack at one of my local charity shops. Like, okay! Among the Mozart compilations, Nana Mouskouri LPs, and Rodgers & Hammerstein soundtracks, this was just hanging out for $2.

Do you think the Bette Midler fan club still exists at this New Jersey PO Box address that I found in the inside sleeve of my ‘No Frills’ vinyl (a second hand one from the ‘80s)?

I used to love writing about film posters, but the art got so severely lacking that I gave up even paying attention. This design for IT ENDS is so great though; a true rarity.

Season 1 drag race entrance look for the drag queen Andrea Taint.

Man, you just don’t see the Turner Pictures logo enough for how beautiful it is.

So, about last night… Confessions II is a real winner. Madonna is engaged musically, spiritually, physically. A lot of these songs have some real guts to them, others playful, stretching out to the morning after comedown that ends the record. Hearing these in a club for first listen was A+.

Even the Peabody people can’t spellcheck these days

I’m so happy to see Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler are to receive honorary Oscars for their work with Killer Films. Announcing during Pride Month a nice bit of symmetry considering their work is the sort of queer, subversive, independent work that’s all too often ignored by Academy voters.

So often my Spotify podcast page just does this for certain shows. Anybody had this? Seems to be no consistency with whether it’s only when WiFi isn’t on or even what shows. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t 🤷🏻‍♂️

Who’s going to tell the K-Mart people that their new homeware superstore’s name is so very close to slang for being in a drug-induced state?

Bailey Smith calling Nathan Buckley a DILF 👀

I like that my friend’s massage gun looks like a piece of modern sculpture.

This man! Whatta game! 😍

I wouldn't have been too disappointed with APEX as a $6 new release rental from Blockbuster on a Friday night. Manages enough excitement and Charlize is great to watch (as is Taron...'s butt). And it's only 96 minutes!!! The River Wild meets Wolf Creek (rather unexpectedly). Silly, but enjoyable.

Embracing having turned 40 by finally watching Ken Burns' 680-minute tv docuseries THE CIVIL WAR. Burns could have hardly foreseen what would become of the "United" States some three decades after completing this mammoth undertaking of historically dense non-fiction, but he ought to've known better.

My submission to the latest @letterboxd.social (DON'T SELL TO VENTURE CAPITALISTS!!!) showdown. This time it is the best contemporary costume design since 1990. As ever, I have no doubt left out something major. Couldn't fit Drive, Jackie Brown, The Devil Wears Prada or Mulholland Drive.

You can’t tell me there’s anything better in life than tripping out in the country listening to Madonna on a DJ sound system. (Ignore the camerawork and the smoke machine; I was too distracted!) We got “Hung Up” about six hours later, too.

Sure, the pacing of LEE CRONIN'S THE MUMMY is off (if THE EXORCIST can do it in 2hrs...) and that third act is such a dumb-dumb explosion of excess that ruins any atmosphere that Cronin was able to achieve... but have you also considered the Jack Reynor is so damn hot. A right DILF, you might say.

Does Microsoft’s AI also think Smarch is an actual month on the calendar? It probably comes right before Juneanuary.

My entire Instagram also is just Madonna. Madonna as Coachella. Madonna’s new song. Madonna dancing to other musicians at a music festival where *nobody else* seems to be having any actual fun. Madonna Madonna Madonna. What a wild weekend this has been for us all!!

Ngali Shaw in Deadloch s2 is *so* hot. It just bares people’s awareness (although he’s only in one scene).

Are there recommendations for movies (features or shorts) that have the same aesthetic vibe as Eurythmics’ video for “It’s Alright (Baby’s Coming Back)”? I gather it’s anime inspired but with more of a surrealist quality that I don’t know I’ve seen much of from my limited history. Look at it!!

“In 2024, Russell released her first AI-generated short film… It was the first [AI] climate music video to come out of Africa. The experience confirmed her belief in AI‘s power as both a creative medium and as a tool to bypass traditional gatekeepers”.., Meanwhile, “Afriican” and three-armed women!

Is the scourge of ‘casted’ bleeding outwards, or is “forecasted” something that people say and I’ve just missed it…?

You know what would be deeply funny? If somebody in the Warner Bros archives would release the full, uncut version of Ken Russell's THE DEVILS—with every salacious, scandalous minute in tact—the day the Paramount/Ellison sale goes through. Just, whoops, how'd that get out there? Who'll ever know?

I’d just like to point out Mark O’Connor.

Can you imagine getting around the the Commonwealth Games now in regional Victoria with petrol prices and just general cost-of-living?

Another insanity, this time from the BBC. A missile “lands” next to a journalist. Jesus wept.