Mirrors of Kane continues w/ "Susan" chapter (video)

Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 5 on YouTube:

My summer of Kane continues with the only female narrator of Kane's story - although at one point in pre-production, the screenwriters considered having his first wife share her perspective before deciding to kill her off earlier in life. Susan was in many ways the closest person to Kane, yet she also feels among the furthest away: very much his victim and too busy struggling for survival in his shadow to remember him as much else than a fairy tale monster keeping her locked up. (Though these details don't make it into the video, when we approach the Rosebud sled atop a pile of possessions in the film's finale, a nearby box contains a toy monkey holding tightly to the doll we already saw in Susan's room; indeed, when Kane seems most like Kong terrorizing Fay Wray - during the tropical picnic before Susan decides to leave him - the background "jungle" projection happens to include footage from fellow RKO feature Son of Kong, complete with pterodactyls.)

This chapter is also available on Vimeo:

Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane, Thatcher, Bernstein, and Leland (the series is based on this essay). The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist.

Summer 2026 Project Update: Journey Through Twin Peaks "Americana" chapter & Lost in Twin Peaks Season 2 Premiere episode complete

Every turn-of-the-season (this one is publishing at the exact minute of the summer solstice), I'm offering readers of this website an update on my three major unfinished projects: the Journey Through Twin Peaks video series (begun in 2014), the written TWIN PEAKS Character Series (begun in 2016), and the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast (begun in 2018). Work on a fourth project, the Mirrors of Kane video series (begun in 2016 but based on an essay written in 2011), concluded this past winter and release is currently underway.

Since pausing my exclusive Patreon content in December, I've been focusing my personal online work time almost entirely on my long-term projects. There was, however, an interruption in June when I shared a round-up of the late critic Allan Fish's reviews for Wonders in the Dark. I'm also looking forward to a conversation on Twin Peaks and The Shining with Cameron Cloutier and John Thorne, hopefully in the near future. Other than responding to guest invitations like these, any public work I share in the coming year and a half or so should be limited to the publication of these four projects.

This past season (following my previous update on the first day of spring), I finished a chapter of Journey Through Twin Peaks that I'd begun during the winter. Then I moved onto Lost in Twin Peaks, completing one episode recently before shifting my approach to re-editing that podcast. More details on that, and each project, follow below - along with reminders of what's been published or finished behind-the-scenes (more specific daily progress can be tracked on this constantly updated page):

Beyond the Countdowns: Allan Fish's Film & TV Reviews

For the tenth annual Allan Fish Online Film Festival, where I am cross-posting this round-up, I couldn't think of a better way to pay tribute to the late critic than to lead you right back to his own writing. Having already gathered his decades countdowns in two directories (one text, the other purely image) I'm combining those approaches for this round-up of all his other film and TV reviews published on this site. Since he was as fond of chronology as I am, I've organized them from earliest to latest release. If you have a favorite era, scroll down fast (or control-F a year) and you'll reach it in a moment - but I'd encourage a more leisurely perusal, in order to soak in the full sweep of this cultural history.

Some titles were entries in the multiauthor genre countdown series, some were part of his own exclusive endeavors like "the Fish Obscuro" (which led me to many wonderful cinematic experiences I never would have discovered otherwise). Many were entries in a "Top 100 British TV" countdown entirely authored by him, the only such exercise after his decades countdowns concluded. And almost all of these selections were part of his ongoing process, cultivated for an eventual book: simple, straightforward but deeply evocative prose limited to one page but containing volumes.

Rest in peace, Allan; your legacy lives on.

Mirrors of Kane continues w/ "Leland" chapter (video)

Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 4 on YouTube:

Jedediah Leland is Kane's close friend and eventually his bitter enemy. Writing about the narrators of Kane's life in an essay fifteen years ago, I had a very jaundiced view of Leland's own jaundiced view; at this point, for whatever reason, I am a bit more sympathetic even as I still think his sense of betrayal says as much about him as Kane. Leland's section of the movie is one of the most unusual and fascinating. These flashbacks, which hardly feature Leland at all, contain much of the most essential material, extend far longer than other flashbacks, and offer an ambivalent view of the protagonist in which the narrator's own open hostility in his spoken dialogue contrasts with a surprisingly nuanced portrait of the subject onscreen.

This chapter is also available on Vimeo:

Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane, Thatcher, and Bernstein (the series is based on this essay). The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist.

Citizen Kane at 85 (video): Returning to conclude Mirrors of Kane this summer, beginning w/ "Bernstein" chapter (+ announcements on YouTube & podcasts including Lost in Twin Peaks)

Ten years ago - exactly, to the day - I celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of Citizen Kane by announcing a video essay series on the movie, focused around the five narrators of Charles Foster Kane's story. I did not expect a decade to pass before I finally wrapped this project up, but here we are. After releasing a first chapter in 2016 and a second chapter in 2021, I spent much of the past winter editing the remaining chapters so that they're all ready to share this summer. I'll publish one a month starting with a chapter devoted to Bernstein, Kane's loyal business manager who presents a rosier picture of the young man than others will offer of Kane at different stages of his life.

Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 3 on YouTube:

This chapter is also available on Vimeo:

Additionally, I've published an update on my mostly-dormant Lost in the Movies podcast feed promoting this series:

And last week I offered a YouTube announcement of this series which included some other updates on my work:

Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane and Thatcher. The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist (the series is based on this essay).

Finally, although unrelated, this is the first opportunity to share an announcement I published on the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast feed about resuming work on that project:

Spring 2026 Project Update: Mirrors of Kane complete, Journey Through Twin Peaks "Americana" chapter underway (+ new Patreon welcome video)

Every turn-of-the-season (this one is publishing at the exact minute of the vernal equinox), I'm offering readers of this website an update on my four major unfinished projects: the Journey Through Twin Peaks video series (begun in 2014), the written TWIN PEAKS Character Series (begun in 2016), the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast (begun in 2018), and the Mirrors of Kane video series (begun in 2016 but based on an essay written in 2011). In December, I stopped offering exclusive podcasts and reviews on Patreon so that I could focus as much attention as possible as these long-term goals, and I'm pleased to announce that progress has been made. I've entirely concluded my work on the Mirrors of Kane series; new chapters will be published on YouTube and Vimeo on Citizen Kane's eighty-fifth anniversary, May 1. I'm also chipping away at a particularly complex Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter on Twin Peaks' connections to American history and iconography. This should be finished within a week or two.

After that, I will focus on completing the public presentation of Lost in Twin Peaks' second season, followed by the top nine entries (based on screentime) for the TWIN PEAKS Character Series. I hope to wait until after those two projects are complete to focus exclusively on Journey Through Twin Peaks, but depending how bogged down I get on Lost in Twin Peaks this summer I may pause that work to research, outline, and write the narration for remaining Journey chapters. We'll see how it goes.

Here is a status update with more details, as well as a reminder of what's been published or finished behind-the-scenes, for each project (more specific daily progress can be tracked on this constantly updated page):