March 2025 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Films in Focus podcast #8: Penda's Fen

Continuing the provincial theme of the last three episodes of the podcast (albeit without the urban component featured alongside the rural in Safe, Trenque Lauquen, and Evil Does Not Exist), Penda's Fen settles with both comfort and disquiet into the village of Pinvin where its teenage protagonist Stephen (Spencer Banks) comes of age. Introduced as an almost comically hidebound reactionary, Stephen slowly opens up to both the world around him and the world within. This film - or, depending how you classify it, play, series episode, or TV movie - engages in a vast array of topics and approaches, including religion, politics, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, musical appreciation, English history, sexual awakening, and adoptive identity. At times I was thrilled by its ambition, at others frustrated by the range of its focus. Discussing the film allowed me to touch on the Jesus biopic Son of Man, the pastoral reverie of The Wind in the Willows, the historical mythologization of pagan King Penda, the subversive nature of the Protestant-to-Catholic Oxford Movement, and the contrast of twentieth century British social conservatism's indifference to an instinctive reactionary strain vs. twenty-first century America's capacity to groom and empower adolescent traditionalism. In addition to this rich topic for the top tier, all patrons were presented with an advance coda to my Twin Peaks character series through versions including (and excluding) the not-yet-previewed top ten. As for Penda's Fen, if you want to hear my thoughts on one of director Alan Clarke's last projects, check out my podcast on his experimental portrait of the Troubles, Elephant.

What is the exclusive March reward?

May 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Films in Focus podcast #3: The Zone of Interest + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance

I hoped and suspected that The Zone of Interest would be the next film patrons picked for me to cover following its prominence at the Academy Awards in March, where it won much-deserved prizes for Best Sound and Best International Film, as well as the backlash to and praise for director Jonathan Glazer's acceptance speech drawn directly from the film's own themes. The title had appeared in an earlier poll, spurred by last year's podcast on Glazer's earlier Under the Skin; while I missed most of the press around it in 2023 I'd been anticipating this coverage for several months. Nonetheless, I wasn't really prepared for the power of this film, the purity of its aesthetic and especially the emotional devastation of its conclusion. Responding to a post about how the film "must most importantly be 'felt', rather than be 'understood'", I recently commented on Twitter that "The 'felt' and 'understood' were more intertwined than in most films I can think of. So much of its impact relies on what you know rather than see/hear yet it's so visceral. The power of the ending rests in an intellectual concept but [is] as emotional as any ending I've experienced." The Zone of Interest follows several months in the life of the Auschwitz commandant, told entirely on one side of the concentration camp wall - the side on which Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) live in their tidy, well-manicured villa. This episode discusses the film's aggressive, intricate soundtrack, surveillance-style shooting strategy, and differences from the novel Glazer very loosely used as inspiration; I also explore the history of the real Höss, the prisoner-written song "Sunbeam" featured in the film, connections to other famous Nazi- or genocide-themed works like Schindler's List, The Act of Killing, and Dr. Strangelove, what marks the time period as both distinct and resonant, and much more, in one of my longest reviews of a single film.

In addition to that $5/tier feature, for all patrons I've advanced another TWIN PEAKS Character Series entry, in this case one of the most complicated, fascinating characters of the third season (and, in some ways, before that too).

What are the May rewards?

January 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Films in Focus podcast #1: The Red Shoes, True Detective: Night Country viewing diary (first part) & 2023 American Generations Reflections + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance

January 2024 was the busiest month on my Patreon in five years - maybe ever. Not only did I offer the usual Twin Peaks character study for all patrons, kick off a new film podcast, and initiate a new reward system involving patron selections (including ten different polls or updates), I also offered bonus features for the $5/month tier: an ongoing viewing diary for the series True Detective: Night Country (the fourth season of the show whose every episode I covered in the past) and an essay reflecting on the past year in culture and politics through a generational lens. The crown jewel, however, was a podcast on Michael Powell's and Emeric Pressburger's Technicolor ballet masterpiece The Red Shoes - a film I'd never covered and barely if ever even mentioned in my previous work. Suggested by longtime patron Laurence Figgis, the popular pick cleared two rounds of voting including a run-off against Punch Drunk Love, with which it was tied after the first round. Watching this movie for the first time in decades, I was struck by the complexities of the art vs. romance, passion vs. comfort menage a trois trapping rising ballerina Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) between composer/lover Julian Craster (Marius Goring) and impresario/mentor Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook)...

What are the January rewards?

63 Up

(I covered the rest of the Up series in 2016.)

The ninth entry of the Up documentary series finds itself - if not necessarily its subjects - hovering in a place of uncertainty. For fifty-five years, director Michael Apted at least attempted to interview fourteen British individuals (although a few declined to participate in certain entries) beginning when they were schoolchildren with the intended one-off 7 Up! - which Apted worked on under the direction of Paul Almond for a BBC program. Heading into 63 Up, I expected a more melancholy meditation on aging, loss, and disappointment although I'm not sure why. After all, these people are not quite elderly yet - many of them are still working even if they discuss imminent retirement, several have children still living at home, and more than a few mention parents who died only very recently or who are still alive in their eighties and nineties. There will, inevitably, be an end of the road for the entire ensemble but if they are closer now to that end than their beginning there is still a ways to go. Perhaps my anticipation stemmed from vague knowledge of the exceptions to that general case: two participants have passed away by now (one is mentioned in the film itself, the other shown in ill health). Above all, however, I think it was Apted's own passing which informed my initial impression. More than anything else going forward, the absence of the series' guiding hand casts doubt upon future films.

Under the Skin (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #53)

An unnamed woman (Scarlett Johansson) scopes her terrain and stalks her prey in nocturnal Glasgow, driving a van around mostly empty streets to pick up random men and entrap them in a mysterious extraterrestrial process - an inky, soupy dance that likely inspired Get Out and Stranger Things - inside a vacant building. We find out what's going on - to a degree - quite early in Under the Skin, in contrast to the novel it's based upon; on the other hand, that novel offers a much more detailed portrait of the alien economy and ecosystem that fosters this hunt. Jonathan Glazer's 2013 film, which took years to bring to the screen, is more interested in texture and sensation than weaving a mythology. Long stretches unfold without dialogue and much of the dialogue in Scarlett's van is actually improvised with non-actors who initially didn't know they were on camera. The combination of unusual, divergent elements results in one of the most impressive films of the past decade. This discussion was originally published for my $1/month tier on Patreon as part of my larger coverage of 2010s films in February. I usually prefer to wait at least six months to add a patron-exclusive film review to my public feeds, but since I'll soon be taking a hiatus (at minimum) from this podcast, now seemed like a good time to share. This is my second exception to that rule and as with the first (a Twin Peaks Cinema episode on The Sweet Hereafter), I'm leaving the discussion of the book this film was adapted from on Patreon - so make sure to check that out if you want to hear more.

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(and most places podcasts are found)

Listen to Part 2 of my Under the Skin discussion on Patreon, focused on the book

(begins at 3:14:58)

The Power of Nightmares (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #52)

Both highly relevant and very much a time capsule, Adam Curtis' The Power of Nightmares depicts the War on Terror as a clash between two delusional, unpopular ideologies attempting to replace unfashionable hope with paranoid fear. Curtis' polemical approach involves not just interviews and illustrative b-roll but also propulsive editing of heavily manipulated found footage with immersive electronic pop soundtracks; this is my podcast's third stylistically unconventional, thematically retrospective 2010s documentary in a row (after Heart of a Dog and Blue Velvet Revisited). Coming back to the movie now, I can actually relate to it much more than when I initially watched a few years after its release. Its portrait of an American empire willfully blinded by hubris resonates with how I see the world at present. But Nightmares is also a portrait of a neoconservative right wing that differs from the more cynical, less ambitious national "populism" of the current moment. Even the film's one dip into domestic culture war (a curiously outdated view of the Clinton impeachment) emphasizes the idiosyncrasy. I found the film fascinating to dig into given the passage of time; while the emphasis is more on 9/11, Afghanistan, and domestic prosecutions (as well as the Islamic fundamentalism and Cold War context that birthed the neocons and al Qaeda), the recent twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War makes this episode feels even more apropos.

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You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

(and most places podcasts are found)

The Olympic Films, part 6 of 7: Summer 1952 / 1948 / 1936 (+ 1932 bonus) & Winter 1998 / 2002 / 2006

Visit the full directory

for the introduction & line-up of monthly capsules

running from August 2021 to February 2022

The Devil Rides Out & Brawl in Cell Block 99 (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #35)

After preparing what ended up being the second part of this double feature for a December episode, I realized it was too short to justify a full podcast on its own. Looking for something to pair it with, I dug into my archives and pulled out The Devil Rides Out, Hammer's take on occultism among the aristocracy (obviously influenced by Aleister Crowley). Fascinated by what this Christopher Lee-led horror film takes for granted in terms of storytelling and the villain's behavior, I drew connections to Twin Peaks and explored the history of Dennis Wheatley, the original novel's eccentric author. The narrative concern with Satanic youths run amok in the British countryside is also colored by World War I, since the book was written in 1934 (the year that the similarly-themed The Black Cat was released). However, its theme of generational divides and the fight to uphold virtue and tradition against a decadent challenge of "do what thou wilt" also resonated in the sixties, when the film was produced. That said, the evil Mocata remains surprisingly gentlemanly in his pursuit of the heroes, following the manners and methods of high society despite his ends. Ultimately, his prey must gather inside a circle drawn on the floor to guard themselves when assaulted by the spirit world.

One of my shorter reflections, on S. Craig Zahler's neo-exploitation prison film Brawl in Cell Block 99, nonetheless packs many observations into its ten or eleven minutes, including an emphasis on formal as well as narrative elements. Early on in my Patreon podcast, when I was recording "films in focus" based on patron suggestions, someone recommended this then-new release starring Vince Vaughn as a drug dealer forced to descend further and further into maximum security prisons (in order to fulfill a ransom request of kidnappers who are holding his pregnant wife hostage). At first I wasn't sure what to make of this odd mix of realistic textures and cartoonish plot points, but with time I warmed up to the film's cheerfully crackpot extremism and was fully on board as soon as Don Johnson appeared onscreen to ham it up as a psychotic warden. That same patron also recommended the even more gonzo Bone Tomahawk, a sci-fi(?) western horror film which I also reviewed but did not have the opportunity to publish. Unfortunately, I didn't save that recording (it would have made a good double feature with this) but that discussion dug further into the ways Zahler's films coyly flirt with right-wing tropes without fully committing to them, a fascinating and sometimes frustrating dance. If you've seen Zahler's films and have your own thoughts on them, please share below (or anywhere else you can find me) so we can continue the exploration in upcoming episodes...

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(and most places podcasts are found)

LINKS

New on other podcasts

Twin Peaks Cinema - Vertigo

Illustrated companions (w/ individual podcast links) for Lost in Twin Peaks #6 & 7

+ the last few episodes from #5 that I mentioned are gathered in Lost in Twin Peaks #5

New on YouTube

Twin Peaks Conversations w/ PeaksChatz hosts Allen, Magellan & Ryan, part 1

New on Patreon

(for $5/month)

Twin Peaks Conversations w/ PeaksChatz hosts Allen, Magellan & Ryan, part 2

(for $1/month)

Episode 84: Twin Peaks Cinema - Field of Dreams (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Rusty, Annie, Library, Easter Park, Lodge Mythology/Season 3 Part 14 & more)

 

Episode 85: Twin Peaks Cinema - Drugstore Cowboy (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Windom, Major Briggs, Airfields in Twin Peaks and Oregon, Audrey and John Justice Wheeler romance/Season 3 Part 12, Elephant archive reading & more)

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #28 open to all patrons (+ a status update)

+ other updates/questions etc on the Patreon feed

New on the site

Mad Men season 6 viewing diary - "A Tale of Two Cities" (episode 10), "Favors" (episode 11), "The Quality of Mercy" (episode 12) & "The Better Half" (episode 13)

Plan for JOURNEY THROUGH TWIN PEAKS & more (status update & progress tracker)

Lost in Twin Peaks - A Pause Before the Finale (announcement) & Patreon Update - new approaches, delayed rewards, abandoned public projects & Pausing Lost in Twin Peaks & more (status update) gathered here

Alan Clarke's Elephant (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #34)

When I looked through my archive for something to share this month, I was struck by my episode on Elephant recorded for patrons in early 2018, coincidentally around the time of the Parkland massacre. Since I may be covering Gus Van Sant's work on my Patreon this month, I was struck that Alan Clarke's British TV film is, like Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy, a moody, lo-fi, offbeat urban portrait from 1989 - and most notably, of course, it shares a title, aesthetic, and undoubted influential lineage with Van Sant's 2003 school shooting film which also uses long behind-the-character tracking/handheld shots of people walking (which I compare to a video game perspective in my discussion). There are notable differences between those two Elephants, however, which I dig into. While both take inspiration from violent current events (Columbine vs. the Troubles in Northern Ireland), Clarke's film is grounded in a more inherently political context which he defiantly refuses to engage with. Is that lack of engagement subversive, simplifying, or - as one of my listeners argues in a compelling piece of feedback which I share at the end of the podcast - just the recognition of redundancy? After all, Irish and British TV audiences of the late eighties were already bombarded with the details of sectarian conflict, and this presented them with an opportunity to engage on another level. In addition to that feedback, the coda to this podcast includes excerpts from a fascinating back-and-forth involving the critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky and a commentator regarding Elephant as television vs. cinema (and the nature of audience engagement with both forms of media).

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LINKS

My review of Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003)

PODCAST: Delete Your Account - "The Vampire Castle" (w/ guest Liz Ryerson, discussing video games)  + my appearance on Liz's podcast to discuss Twin Peaks

Video clip from Memories: of Elephant

"The other Elephant and the art of context-free TV violence" by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (A.V. Club) - I can't link directly to a comment but look for the one by "The Angry Internet" about halfway through the replies

My reply to Geoff about Northern Ireland & American cinema

New on other podcasts

Twin Peaks Cinema - Laura

Illustrated companions (w/ individual podcast links) for Lost in Twin Peaks #2, #3, #4 & #5

+ the few remaining episodes on the pilot I mentioned are gathered in Lost in Twin Peaks #1

New on YouTube

Twin Peaks Conversations w/ John Thorne, part 1

New on Patreon

(for $5/month)

Twin Peaks Conversations w/ John Thorne, part 2

(for $1/month)

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #27 open to all patrons (+ a further status update)

Status update - upcoming/delays/possible revisions

New on the site

"A Revised Schedule" status update

Mad Men season 6 viewing diary - "For Immediate Release" (episode 6), "Man With a Plan" (episode 7), "The Crash" (episode 8), "The Better Half" (episode 9)

Cross-posts for September's podcasts (including Eraserhead)

The Olympic Films, part 1 of 7: Summer 2021 (broadcast) / 2016 / 2012 / 2008 & Winter 1924 / 1928 / 1936 (+ 1932 bonus)

Visit the full directory

for the introduction & line-up of monthly capsules

running from August 2021 to February 2022

High-Rise (LEFT OF THE MOVIES podcast #4/LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #23)

For what will hopefully be the last time (I think it's only happened once before) my podcast was a little late this week. This cross-post went up as scheduled but with a notice that the actual episode would appear sometime in the next few days. Having just started my new "Path back to JOURNEY THROUGH TWIN PEAKS" (a methodical approach to the next year and a half of online work), I wanted to stubbornly stick to it, even if that made me miss a few deadlines initially. Now I am on track to catch up with everything and actually be a fair amount ahead of schedule within the week.

So here is that delayed episode, a bit of a hybrid featuring my 2018 discussion of the British satire High-Rise, an exchange between myself and the listener who recommended it, and also an addendum in which I discuss the British election of 2019, among other issues. High-Rise depicts the seventies UK (or at least the British middle class) as a towering monstrosity of a society in which everyone is at war with everyone else in the building, while the clueless architect sits in his penthouse and ponders his grand plan. I frankly didn't care for the film much at all, which actually made it even more fascinating to pick apart - what was I turned off by in Ben Wheatley's directorial vision, Wheatley's and Amy Jump's adaptation, and/or J.G. Ballard's source material? Aside from aesthetic and narrative frustrations, which I spend a good deal of time discussing, does the story endorse a proto-Thatcheresque cynical dismissal of "utopian" social planning? Or is it a more left-leaning critique of bourgeois foibles, or a more ostensibly apolitical work which defaults toward the conservative status quo? This led to some thoughts about the broader phenomenon of creative types kicking against a materialist, collective politics in a way that may undercut the association we often make between artists and the left.

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A Tale of Two Expectations (visual tribute)

A visual tribute to David Lean's Great Expectations (1946) & Alfonso Cuaron's Great Expectations (1998)

European New Waves in the Sunday Matinee

In 2010, I launched a three-month series called "The Sunday Matinee" for Wonders in the Dark which covered several films each from four different European cinemas of the sixties: Italian, British, Czechoslovakian, and French. The essays are finally gathered here for convenient navigation.

The Prisoner viewing diary

With this sixties British cult classic, I faced an unusual dilemma: despite a clear (arguably) beginning and end, The Prisoner has no one proper viewing order. I chose to follow one fan's particular preference and spoke to him afterward about why he chose this line-up as a guideline (as described in my introduction). This was my first experience of the series, composing my reaction to each episode soon after watching.

Patreon update #32: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 13 (+ This Sporting Life, living in 3 centuries, the decline of Hollywood, Richard and Audrey Horne & more)

Cooper is back with a vengeance; the first half of Part 13 is almost entirely dominated by both of his incarnations. Among other topics, this podcast episode digs into the nature of Mr. C and his juxtaposition not with the "whole" Cooper but with the equally partial "Dougie." Listener feedback encourages further discussion on the decline of Hollywood as the physical (and spiritual) center of the film industry as well as the Horne family's purpose in the Twin Peaks' third season. My Opening the Archive reading of the British New Wave essay ends with a review of This Sporting Life. (I actually forgot to mention what the next archive highlight will be, despite teasing it at the end of this episode - it's my essay on Let the Right One In as a novel, Swedish film, and American remake.) And just for fun, I'm re-visiting a Twitter thread, and some replies, from a while back in which I explored how close certain events are to past eras compared to today, a nineteenth-century president whose grandchildren are still alive, and a woman whose life spanned three centuries (meaning that she lived at the same time as people who were alive in the 1600s and also people still alive today).

Episode 32: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 13 (+ This Sporting Life, living in 3 centuries & more)

Line-up for Episode 32

INTRO

WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress: archive, Twin Peaks character runners-up

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS Return Rewatch Pt. 13
The feel & structure of the episode
Twin Peaks - Cooper investigation/Richard's father/Becky/Ed & Norma/RR Franchise/Jacoby/Sarah/James/Roadhouse/Audrey's world
Mr. C
Las Vegas - Dougie at work/Dougie at home/Assassination/Mitchums
Spirit World - Red Room
Character introductions & re-introductions/screentime rankings/timeline of events
Coffee, pie, and donuts
Lodge lore
Laura Palmer

OTHER TOPICS: The Passage of Time & Lifespans - how close events are to the present and earlier events, living in 3 centuries, generations close together & far apart

LISTENER FEEDBACK: Pt. 10 feedback including Audrey Horne's original storyline, Pt. 12 feedback, Richard Horne's importance

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: British New Wave (3 of 3): This Sporting Life

OUTRO, including the possibility of making some older segments public on YT

Her lifespan overlapped with people who experienced both the Glorious Revolution and the 2012 Olympics pic.twitter.com/H4OZHW72qA

— Joel Bocko (@LostInTheMovies) June 5, 2018

BECOME A PATRON

Patreon update #31: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 12 (+ Billy Liar, The Great Movie Ride & more) and description of Laura character study, pt. IV

After two long episodes (especially last week), this one's a nice little digestible nugget - it comes in at almost exactly an hour. There's no film of focus; however, for the first time the Opening the Archive section emphasizes a particular title as I read aloud my review of Billy Liar from 2010 (part of a longer essay which I'll conclude next week with a review of This Sporting Life). My Return rewatch reaches Part 12, widely considered a disappointment at the time although I found it really rich to explore on this viewing. I also read some feedback on Part 9 and talk about Disney World's late Great Movie Ride which I was compelled to bring up for some reason. For my biweekly preview, the Laura character structure finally reaches the most interesting section, in which I organize the scenes that feature her "spirit" in one way or another.

Incidentally, this weekend I saw Sorry to Bother You, a major new release that will definitely be featured as a film in focus in August. This will probably be the week after next week so I have more time to read some other takes on it and dialogue with them. Quick take is I thought it was funny, fascinating, and flawed, and that it offered an extraordinarily and unusually deep well to draw from.

THE SPIRIT OF LAURA PALMER: Telling Laura Palmer's stories, part 4 (July "See the Future" Preview #2 - 2nd tier reward)

Episode 31: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 12 (+ Billy Liar, The Great Movie Ride & more)

Line-up for Episode 31

INTRO

WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts: comments from limbo, fixed Wire images

WEEKLY UPDATE/Patreon: 2nd tier biweekly - Laura Palmer character study structure Pt. IV ("Spirit")

WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress: the full archive

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS Return Rewatch Pt. 12
The feel & structure of the episode
Twin Peaks - Cooper investigation/Jerry/Sarah/Fat Trout/Hit and run/Richard's father/Ben & Beverly/Jacoby/Roadhouse/Audrey's world
FBI in South Dakota - Yankton/Buckhorn
Las Vegas - Dougie at home/Jade & the key
Character introductions & re-introductions/screentime rankings/timeline of events
Lodge lore
Laura Palmer

OTHER TOPICS: The Great Movie Ride in Disney World

LISTENER FEEDBACK: Pt. 9 feedback including the Search for the Zone site and the Hornes & the waterfall

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: British New Wave (2 of 3): Billy Liar

OUTRO

BECOME A PATRON

Patreon update #30: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 11 (+ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the British New Wave, Twin Peaks as a meditation on art and creativity, podcast recommendations & more)

This ended up being a surprisingly long podcast (as well as a surprisingly late one - I got the actual episode up within an hour of its schedule, but the show note links, this cross-post, and other details took a bit longer). The Return rewatch, which resumes this week with an exciting, acclaimed episode, isn't much longer than usual and there's no film in focus, so I guess it was mostly the "other topics" section (with a little bit of help from some in-depth listener feedback) that stretched things out. This was my first opportunity to discuss the lightning-fast rise of Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - I address the success of her campaign, the differences between democratic socialism and social democracy, some of the left's criticisms of her recent statements, the unsurprising but still amusingly frantic reaction of both the right and the center, and more. As if that wasn't already enough, I also round up a number of podcast episodes (including several that address Ocasio-Cortez's win) plus a few videos, shows, and films that I've watched since June - so all in all, this section is about as long as it's ever been.

Afterwards, I feature some feedback on my Part 8 episode from listeners/patrons, including a long comment from Jake and an even more extended analysis of how Twin Peaks relates to art and creativity as indirect subjects, from Laurence. Finally I kick off a new era on "Opening the Archive" - from now on it will be a sort of reading series, in which I share older pieces from this site. Longer essays will be divided over several episodes, as is the case here; in anticipation of my Billy Liar and This Sporting Life reviews in the next two weeks, I lay out the history of the British New Wave and the cultural context of 1963, when both films were released.

Episode 30: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 11 (+ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the British New Wave, Twin Peaks as a meditation on art and creativity, podcast recommendations & more)

Line-up for Episode 30

INTRO (including recent visit to Twin Peaks locations)

WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts - correction of previous podcast, cross-posted 25 Years Later, "Greeting from Twin Peaks" photos

WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress - videos of locations for Journey series

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS Return Rewatch Pt. 11

The feel & structure of the episode

Twin Peaks - Cooper investigation/Hit and run/Becky/RR Franchise/Steven & Gersten/Shelly & Red/Ed & Norma/standalone scenes/mood of the town

FBI in South Dakota - Buckhorn

Las Vegas - Dougie at work/Debt/Assassination/Mitchums

Spirit World - Red Room (glimpse)/Convenience Store/Zone Spiral 

Character introductions & re-introductions/screentime rankings/timeline of events

Coffee, pie, and donuts

Lodge lore

Laura Palmer

OTHER TOPICS, Pt. 1: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (her victory, definitions of social democracy vs. democratic socialism, left-wing criticism of her Israel statements, right-wing and centrist attacks)

OTHER TOPICS, Pt. 2: podcast recommendations (including some about left electoralism & Ocasio-Cortez), John Oliver on Venezuela (& the debunking video), Eric Andre, High Maintenance, Sweetie, North Shore

LISTENER FEEDBACK: Pt. 8 feedback including a lengthy passage on Twin Peaks, art, and creativity

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: British New Wave (1 of 3): 1963 & "Whaddya got?"

OUTRO

BECOME A PATRON

Patreon update #21: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch (public video) - Parts 1 & 2 / film in focus: Radio On (+ Josie Packard as a character, my video essay Learning to Look & more)

After months of hype, the Return rewatch series has begun! From now through September 3, I will publish a new podcast entry every Monday on Patreon at 6pm in honor of the third season's first anniversary. I knew that "Twin Peaks Reflections" would become a more ambitious segment  with the dawn of this approach, but I was surprised by how lengthy, comprehensive, and structured the new section ended up being. My coverage of the two-hour premiere - Parts 1 & 2 - runs for over an hour. It explores every nook and cranny of the show, and does so through a format I will follow week to week: looking at the feel and structure of each episode, breaking the plot into story sections (New York and other random locations, Twin Peaks, the FBI in South Dakota, Mr. C, Las Vegas, and the Spirit World), analyzing statistics (characters introduced or re-introduced, ranking screentime, and determining a plausible timeline for the out-of-order scenes), and finally digging into three different areas: coffee/pie/donuts, Lodge lore, and Laura Palmer. It's going to be a blast re-visiting the Showtime series this way.

Despite the overwhelming dominance of Twin Peaks at this point, the rest of the podcast chugs along at its normal pace, making this by far the longest episode so far. From now on, each episode will run closer to two hours than just an hour. My Film in Focus is the second in a row from the UK, the third in a row from the British Isles, the fifth in a row from Europe, and the ninth non-American film in a row, if we discount exile Stanley Kubrick's last film (next week's Hollywood classic will break this streak!). It's also yet another movie, following A Man Escaped and Spirited Away in the past few months, that I first reviewed in the summer of 2008, the earliest days of my blog, but haven't seen since then. Radio On is a captivating musical journey from London to Bristol, and I focus on its strangely political apolitical outlook, its German influence (and possible influence on Jim Jarmusch), and even its early use of video games.

In the "other topics" section I dig into several really absorbing podcasts I've listened to recently, and in listener feedback I hear from one patron who had their own thoughts going into season 3 and another whose take on Josie Packard is at least as comprehensive as what I shared in my biweekly preview last week. Apologies for the strange audio quality in these sections; I think once again the phone itself, rather than my headphone mic, was picking up my voice - hopefully it's still listenable for you. Finally, in "Opening the Archives" I move into the post-Journey Through Twin Peaks era on my site (which feels like a step into the present), when I kicked off my viewing diary approach with True Detective, resumed the Evangelion episode guide, and began creating regular video essays for Fandor. My archive highlight this week is an exploration of eye contact in an iconic sales film, resulting in one of my favorite video essays that I created.

Finally, I've also decided to post the Twin Peaks part of this episode publicly on YouTube for non-patrons to enjoy. If you like it, and can do so at the present moment, consider becoming a patron so that you can hear the rest of my series coverage. Only three more patrons to go, and I'll hit fifty!

Patreon update #20: My questions before Twin Peaks season 3 & film in focus: The Devil Rides Out (+ making Journey Through Twin Peaks & more) and preview of Josie character study

For the last time - at least for a while! - I'm releasing a podcast at the very end of the week. I've already got a lot of the next one down, which is good, because from now on the episodes have a hard deadline of Monday at 6pm (these updates/round-ups will continue to post on Saturdays). My Return rewatch begins in a couple days, just in time for the first anniversary of the May 21 premiere. The last "Twin Peaks Reflections" before that rewatch is an epic countdown of questions I posed both before the third season and before the finale last September. I go down the line and answer each one as best I can, determining how accurate my assessment of Cooper's direction was, whether the elements coalesced in Parts 17 and 18, and if the Frost/Lynch dynamic played out in new and interesting ways. I had a lot of fun revisiting these questions, most of which I hadn't looked at since writing them - this was pretty much a "live" response to that speculation.

My film in focus this week has a bit of Peaksian charm about it, as many have: a "drawing room horror" movie from the sixties, with Christopher Lee as the good guy battling a Satanic cult, The Devil Rides Out plays with social conventions in interesting ways while also being occasionally too straightforward for its own good. "Other topics" this week include several films and TV shows I've been watching, including Isle of Dogs, Downsizing, and Homeland, while my archive series finally reaches Journey Through Twin Peaks (my selected highlight, however, may surprise you).

See you Monday night on Patreon.

Josie Packard (May "See the Future" Preview #2 - 2nd tier reward)

Episode 20: My questions before Twin Peaks season 3 & film in focus: The Devil Rides Out (+ making Journey Through Twin Peaks)

Line-up for Episode 20

INTRO: longer than usual - invitation to submit memories of "Twin Peaks in-between years, announcement of rewatch schedule

WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts: Veronica Mars series (were the 00s a distinct era?)

WEEKLY UPDATE/Patreon: 2nd Tier biweekly preview - Josie

WEEKLY UPDATE/work in progress: Twin Peaks characters runners-up (the New Mexico townspeople)

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS/Pre-s3 questions, part 1: Cooper, before the premiere

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS/Pre-s3 questions, part 2: Before the finale

FILM IN FOCUS: The Devil Rides Out

OTHER TOPICS: Isle of Dogs, Downsizing, Homeland (Russia episode), Ferdy on Films ends its run

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: "Journeying into Twin Peaks" (July 2014 - February 2015), this week's highlight: Opening the Door - interview w/ Lynch scholar Martha Nochimson

OUTRO

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Patreon update #9: High and Low & Elephant (+ podcast recommendations & more)

update: this page now includes a link to the podcast

This week's podcast features a couple intense movies with very different approaches to violence. The first film in focus is an Akira Kurosawa masterpiece, enveloping the viewer in the ever-shifting world of a businessman who must decide if he'll pay the ransom for a servant's son, the cops who try to find the kidnapper, and the sociopathic kidnapper himself. The second film in focus stages a series of shootings, with no context or dialogue provided as we follow characters in long takes until either they deliver death or death is delivered to them. I also recommend a whole host of recent podcast episodes and continue my survey of Twin Peaks books with a discussion of Agent Cooper's "autobiography."

Episode 9: High and Low & Elephant (+ podcast recommendations & more)

Line-up for Episode 9

INTRO

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WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts: tweeting 10 archive pieces a day until the 10th anniversary

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FILM IN FOCUS: High and Low

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FILM IN FOCUS: Elephant

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TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS: My Life, My Tapes: The Autobiography of FBI Agent Dale Cooper

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OTHER TOPICS: Podcast recommendations

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OPENING THE ARCHIVE: "Four's Company" (February - May 2010), this week's highlight (The Hurt Locker)

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