Joshua Polanski
@joshuapolanski
A pessimist writing about movies from a world in collapse. Thinking mostly about non-English cinemas (Baltic, Korean, Chinese, etc). Tomatometer approved. Watches too much hockey. Occasionally uses full sentences. therewerenogodsleft.com
If it werent for how good looking Monica Barbaro is, I probably would have walked out of One Night Only. The Little Caesars of movies about sex ual connections at the box office right now.
Did it bother anyone else that Lord Ormund mentioned his diet of vegetables... as he grabbed a fruit?
Most people will go through life without ever getting attacked by a dog. I, on the other hand, have now been attacked twice. I am okay. It could have been much worse. My brand new phone took most of the worst bite, saving my hand from a major surgery.
Immortals holds more style in its pinky than Odyssey has in its entirety.
The writing of Rhaenyra this season is so infuriating. Emma D'Arcy is an incredible actor, but all they are allowed to do is cry, sob, and pout so far.
Starfleet Academy wasn't the greatest of Trek but it was certainly horny in an era of erotic-phobic TV and there is something life affirming in that.
I wrote a very nerdy, two-part essay on Anderson as a religious filmmaker for the Boston Hassle years ago. It's titled Of Myths and Monster Hunters. bostonhassle.com/part-1-relig...
Some musings on the sex scenes in Renovation (dir. Gabrielė Urbonaitė) for the Boston Hassle.
Red Code Blue, the big winner of yesterday's Latvian national film awards, is a true crime epic set in the early years of independence. They shot for more than 80 days and, formally, it is a remarkable film. bostonhassle.com/bbff-dispatc...
More from the Boston Baltic Film Festival. bostonhassle.com/bbff-dispatc...
Flesh, Blood, Even a Heart is a thematically rich film with no easy answers. Life is complex, and so too are the relationships that make it so wonderful in the first place. bostonhassle.com/bbff-dispatc...
Four glimpses into the films we will be watching in my guided film club Discursions in Time: Slow and Poetic Cinema(s). Do you recognize any of the films?
I am most excited for our meeting on the Baltic poetic documentary tradition. It is one of the great cinema movements that not enough people know about. We will watch 235 000 000 (1967). The title refers to the USSR population at the time and it's a full celebration of life across the union.
A lot of talk today about "slow cinema," if it's real, etc... I find this interview between Paul Douglas Grant and Lav Diaz to be particularly insightful, especially Diaz's claim to be filming "Mindanao time" or "Malay time." offscreen.com/view/stories...
This was exciting: a quote from my review of Laguna was included in the trailer (In Review Online). The cinema of Šarūnas Bartas, the most important Lithuanian filmmaker alive, means a lot so this was a really cool thing to happen.
Can't believe this is real and they are having press screenings for it.
Sent in my first end of the year ballot and I struggled not just giving everything to Magellan.