Lost in the Movies: politics

Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts

December 2025 Patreon round-up: 2025 American Generations Reflections + Advanced Script for Mirrors of Kane narration & Twin Peaks Conversations podcast

Following last year's tradition, even though there is a bonus $5/month tier reward I could have featured in the top image, I'm going instead with the $1/month advance - in this case, a screenshot of Susan Alexander Kane overwhelmed by the opera house lights, linked to the narration script for an upcoming video about her. As for the higher tier, in addition to the Twin Peaks Conversations episode on Jane Austen and David Lynch (covered in a separate cross-post earlier this month), I did write a reflection on various generations in the year 2025 (following responses to 2023 and 2024), which was published this morning. Perhaps at some point in upcoming years I will highlight an image associated with that recurring essay project but for now I'll stick with the world of fictional New Yorker Charles Foster Kane rather than real, contemporary New Yorkers Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump (who is, like Kane, both a New Yorker and a Floridian - he also once cited Kane as his favorite film in this bizarre analysis).

This month wraps up my exclusive rewards on the $5/month tier - from now on, I will offer advances on both tiers. Cross-posts will appear on this site less frequently than before (probably alongside project updates at the end of each season), usually to highlight written pieces like a TWIN PEAKS Character Series entry or script for another video essay narration. In 2026, my entire focus will be on wrapping up four projects: Mirrors of Kane, Lost in Twin Peaks, the TWIN PEAKS Character Series, and Journey Through Twin Peaks.

What are the December rewards?

In months when I'm not covering a particular film or TV show for the $5/month tier, I tend to use a group shot of Twin Peaks characters as my top image for a public round-up. These represent the $1/month tier advance entry from my TWIN PEAKS Character Series without giving away which particular character I've written about (since the ranking is supposed to be a surprise until the eventual public reveal). I go this route even when there's another $5/month reward to highlight, usually because that reward is a Twin Peaks Conversations episode which I've already highlighted in a separate cross-post. That was certainly the case this month when I spoke with John Thorne again, this time for his Devious Dreams book on Mulholland Drive; while part two is linked below I already promoted this discussion on this site a few weeks ago. However, there also happens to be a bonus $5/month reward this month: a long written piece in which I explore the year 2024 through several different generations as part of an ongoing project which will hopefully lead to a video essay in the distant future (this is the second year I've offered this bonus, as the video will span 2023 - 31 and I want to prepare the ground with contemporaneous assessments). Why not use an image associated with this subject atop December's round-up?

Well, frankly, I found most of those potential images to be less than enticing both aesthetically and politically. If I'm trying to get people excited for my Patreon work, it's probably best not to frontload either a generic demographic chart (whose generational definitions I probably don't even use myself) or some photo of Trump smirking with eighties celebrities and/or grifting YouTubers (then again, politics always makes for the best clickbait so maybe I've shot my SEO in the foot). None of this is to say the piece isn't worth reading. It was certainly satisfying to write everything down, and hopefully others find my musings insightful and relatable, and not too heavy on generalizations...pardon the quasi-pun. Still, I figured we'd all be better off with a perplexed Gordon Cole and the gang leading the way this time.

What are the December rewards?

After many months - a year in the case of podcast recommendations - I've finally caught up with most of the "bonus sections" I planned to record last fall (aside from listener feedback, which will be featured next month). Film/TV capsules include an eclectic, grab bag mix of shorts, documentaries, shows, and events; how could I, with my generational obsessions, avoid talking about this year's Super Bowl halftime show and commercials? This part is headlined by several minutes (not a full review, but one of the longer capsules) discussing Don't Look Up, a film whose dire, if absurdist, political themes match the spirit of this episode overall. Then I split the podcast recommendations into five different mini-parts that can be used simply as a collection of links to explore or listened to if you want to hear my thoughts on some of these subjects (as always, the longer topics - the ones featured for a minute or more in my rundown - are listed in the show notes). Finally, in time to mark the grim anniversary of Super Tuesday two years ago, I uploaded my latest - and probably last, for a while - political reflections on the country's current, if mercurial, political status (or stasis), the discouraging rut that the left seems to be in, and, of course, the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia which further complicates what we might have thought we understood. This podcast is a mix of celebration - a lot of these audiovisual pieces were fun to dig into - and catharsis, because if the status quo of politics doesn't offer much hope, it's a relief to get those frustrations off my chest (and not in the antagonistic, chopped-up form of Twitter). Besides, as I note at the end, any time things are this uncertain that means there's still a chance for some sort of change.

Lost in the Movies patron episode #89...

As promised, my main patron podcast quickly got back on schedule after weeks of delay for the July episode. However, the biggest August event on Patreon was the grand conclusion of my Lost in Twin Peaks podcast, with a nine-part Fire Walk With Me episode which stretched into September (the daily uploads are still wrapping up in the next couple days, but I'm including all nine entries here in this August round-up for clarity's sake - evening update: there are now twelve, not nine, parts planned). In a month I will begin publicly unveiling my entire Twin Peaks series breakdown, from the pilot through the season three finale, but this film will not be available on a public feed until the thirtieth anniversary of its Cannes premiere in May. So if you want to hear these hours of commentary, now is the time to become a $5/month patron - plus you'll be able to listen to extended conversations with other Peaks commentators every month going forward as this tier switches to a new format.

The main episode tackles another Nicholas Ray film after casting a Peaks spotlight on Rebel Without a Cause in January. In this case, Bigger Than Life's dark portrait of a "possessed" patriarch makes a fascinating companion piece with Fire Walk With Me in particular, which is why it was chosen for this month. The film's grim social portrait also suits other aspects of this podcast, like my political reflections section in which I delve into the disappointments and frustrations (if not yet full-on despair) facing the left and the country as a whole this summer...and that's without even getting into the Delta variant or Covid vaccine culture wars! The episode ends with a reading from Greil Marcus' The Shape of Things to Come, a gorgeous sketch of American exhaustion that seemed apropos, not least because it describes a single frame from the Fat Trout Trailer Park sequence in Fire Walk With Me - a location that is also part of my "Twin Peaks Reflections" this month.

Lost in the Movies patron edition #82: Twin Peaks Cinema - Bigger Than Life (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Randy, Jones, Great Northern Hotel, Fat Trout Trailer Park, Windom Earle's scheme/My Life My Tapes, Afghanistan withdrawal, Nina Turner loss, other recent political developments & more)

My coverage of Fire Walk With Me was split into many parts because it was so long (dwarfing even my finale episode) but this also serves as a preview of how I'll be repackaging the previous episodes when the show goes public, presenting sections like "historical context" or "my archives" as standalones for listeners particularly interested in a deep dive. Here, the heart of the episode(s) are numbers seven and nine: called "Laura Palmer" and "The Mysteries," they dive deeply into the rich subject of her onscreen journey and what this means in the larger context of Twin Peaks, expanding on ideas I've previously touched upon in video essays and other media. (Initially, these two episodes were intended to be one and described as one in this passage, which I've now revised.) The entries consisting almost entirely of readings from work (my own or others') previously published or quoted on this site are free to all listeners.

Introduction to Lost in Twin Peaks #31: Fire Walk With Me

Lost in Twin Peaks #31A: Fire Walk With Me, Part 1 - Production Context

Lost in Twin Peaks #31B: Fire Walk With Me, Part 2 - Historical Context

Lost in Twin Peaks #31C: Fire Walk With Me, Part 3 - Critical Reception (PUBLIC)

Lost in Twin Peaks #31D: Fire Walk With Me, Part 4 - Fan Reactions (PUBLIC)

Lost in Twin Peaks #31E: Fire Walk With Me, Part 5 - My Reactions, Fans Today & the Feel of the Film

Lost in Twin Peaks #31F: Fire Walk With Me, Part 6 - Structure, Subplots & the Periphery

Lost in Twin Peaks #31G: Fire Walk With Me, Part 7 - Laura Palmer

Lost in Twin Peaks #31H: Fire Walk With Me, Part 8 - The Mythology

Lost in Twin Peaks #31I: Fire Walk With Me, Part 9 - The Mysteries

Lost in Twin Peaks #31J: Fire Walk With Me, Part 10 - My First Archive (PUBLIC)

Lost in Twin Peaks #31K: Fire Walk With Me, Part 11 - My Second Archive (PUBLIC)

Lost in Twin Peaks #31L: Fire Walk With Me, Part 12 (Bonus) - Season 3 spoiler discussion

Finally, for $1/month patrons, I've opened up my discussion of "episode 24" which I consider one of the series' more underrated, in which the world of Twin Peaks is saturated with a fresh springtime feeling before we are swept toward the dark finale and, ultimately, the film.

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #25 open to all patrons

Podcast Line-Ups for...

I promised this one - or rather, these ones - a long time ago, but kept postponing. The bonus sections, featuring film capsules, podcast recommendations, political reflections, and listener feedback, were originally planned for the summer but work on Journey Through Twin Peaks videos pushed them back to February (same with my "Twin Peaks Cinema" coverage of the dark small town melodrama Kings Row, starring Ronald Reagan, which I wanted to discuss in conjunction with a documentary on the fortieth president). Then, for complicated reasons, I found myself working on several projects simultaneously while also traveling for the first time since the pandemic began (as well as getting sucked into the drama surrounding the stimulus vote in Congress) - so the "February" podcasts ended up getting published in March.

Hopefully, the material was worth the wait. Kings Row was a particularly fascinating work to dig into between its social drama, psychological motifs, and dark family dynamics; it makes an interesting comparison point not just to Peaks but to other films discussed as "Twin Peaks Cinema" like Peyton Place and Our Town. Only after recording was I reminded that the same director, Sam Wood, helmed both Our Town and Kings Row - so perhaps I'll have more to say on those films from that angle in the future. At one point, I also hoped to offer full "film in focus" reviews on the 2019 horror film Us, Jordan Peele's clever, twisty follow-up to Get Out (which I reviewed a couple years ago), and Brideshead Revisited, the definitive arthouse-TV literary adaptation. Although I ended up shaving them down to extended capsules, I will definitely be revisiting both titles in other mediums.

Elsewhere, listener feedback ranged across numerous aspects of Twin Peaks (from the zeitgeist of its different eras to the collaboration between Lynch and Frost to its impact on multiple video games). Podcast recommendations on historical, cinematic, and political subjects were divided into four mini-episodes with all the accompanying links in the show notes. And my political reflections ended up standing on their own as a ninety-minute episode...unsurprisingly, given that 2020 was arguably the most historically significant year in America since 1968 even if just for the pandemic (which takes up less than ten minutes, although it hovers in the background of everything else).

That's just a small sample of what's in these podcasts; I even had to excise and save more than half the film capsules and the Journey Through Twin Peaks feedback for upcoming episodes. I did get up my belated Lost in Twin Peaks coverage of the comeback (?) episode where the late second season really begins, which was also meant to publish in February. My "March" rewards will be a little late too, but only by days in this case. So stay tuned. Meanwhile, here are links to all the podcasts, followed by a detailed rundown of the content for each one....

Lost in the Movies patron episode #76: Twin Peaks Cinema - Kings Row (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Nicky, Dougie, Hide-Out Wallie's, Timber Falls Motel, Milford family/The Secret History, Lee Atwater documentary, updates on Journey Through Twin Peaks/Lost in Twin Peaks & more)

Lost in the Movies patron episode #76 bonus - Film Capsules: Us, Brideshead Revisited, The Roosevelts, Reagan (+ A Letter to Three Wives, The Enchanted Cottage, Waking Sleeping Beauty, Knights of the Round Table, Rasputin and the Empress & more)

Lost in the Movies patron episode #76 bonus - Listener Feedback: Twin Peaks & video games, Audrey/Cooper, what led to Cooper's downfall, Sunset Boulvard, importance of season 2 subplots, "wrong turn" in season 3 climax?, Mark Frost in collaboration and tension w/ David Lynch, Laura (1944), Seattle connections, 2014 zeitgeist vs 80s/90s era & now (+ why podcasts are late, upcoming installments & more)

Lost in the Movies patron episode #76 bonus - Political Reflections: Pandemic, Protest, Election & The Future

Lost in the Movies patron episode #76 bonus - (1 of 4) Podcast Recommendations

Lost in the Movies patron episode #76 bonus - (2 of 4) Podcast Recommendations

Lost in the Movies patron episode #76 bonus - (3 of 4) Podcast Recommendations

Lost in the Movies patron episode #76 bonus - (4 of 4) Podcast Recommendations

Lost in Twin Peaks #25 - S2E17 (Wounds and Scars/"Episode 24")

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #19 - S2E11 (Masked Ball/"Episode 18") open to all patrons

Podcast Line-Ups for...

I thought April's main podcast episode would be a quickie; instead it transformed into either my second or third-longest monthly entry. It's been a busy three months, so there was a lot to cover: films watched, podcasts listened to, projects and plans to update, and - perhaps especially - a monumental political moment to discuss. That episode is divided into three separate parts: one Twin Peaks-themed, one politics-themed, one film-themed. And both of my Lost in Twin Peaks episodes are split up too: each covers a major Lynch episode of season two and I had too much to say to fit it all into a three-hour audio file (not to mention the convenience of giving listeners space between them).

Both coincidentally and by design, some of my major Twin Peaks-related coverage arrives at the same time I'm renewing my Journey Through Twin Peaks video series. This includes one of the key "Twin Peaks Cinema" entries, on the 1944 noir Laura (I'll follow with the perhaps equally important Vertigo next month). Most famously, this film lent several character names to the series but its core idea is also poetically echoed in Twin Peaks - including in season three (which I've never really had the opportunity to discuss before, despite touching on the two works' relationships in the past). For good measure, I include my 2011 review in the "Opening the Archive" reading series.

As for Lost in Twin Peaks, this month we reach the exact halfway point of the series and perhaps the most important episode of any: the killer's reveal...

Lost in Twin Peaks #15A: S2E7, Part 1 (Lonely Souls/"Episode 14")

Lost in Twin Peaks #15B: S2E7, Part 2 (Lonely Souls/"Episode 14")

Lost in the Movies #66A
(Path through Journey Through Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks Listener Feedback: The Big Sleep, Mark Frost interview book, Windom/Mr. C and tulpas, "Twin Peaks Reflections": Waiter, Gersten, Diane, hospital, Ronette's bridge, Audrey at One Eyed Jack's/Part 18 & more)

Lost in the Movies #66B
The Bernie campaign & the populist left (+ podcast recommendations)

Lost in the Movies #66C
"Twin Peaks Cinema" - Laura (+ capsules on David Lynch's shorts and Hotel Room, Frank Capra's dark side and The Bitter Tea of General Yen, John Carpenter "alien" films: They Live, Village of the Damned, The Thing, the Spanish Civil War in The Silence of Others and The Fallen Sparrow, Federico Fellini's Il Bidone, 3 "Disneylands" in Pinocchio, Ken Burns' The Congress & more)

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #9 - Season 2 Finale/S2E1 (May the Giant Be With You/"Episode 8") open to all patrons

Podcast Line-Ups for:

A year ago, I published my longest podcast episode, one so long I had to divide it into three parts. As 2020 kicks off, I've definitely topped myself. The bulk of Episode 63 not only needed to be divided into six episodes, it also spawned another six mini-episodes' worth of podcast recommendations. This is catch-up for the past nine months, as I gather feedback I've received, podcasts I've listened to, films I've watched, and political events I've observed. And that's not even getting to the main course: my most sprawling "Twin Peaks Cinema" study incorporating a last-minute Lynch short addition, an old show that turned out to be worth an entry of its own, and a dozen capsules to observe the work of each Twin Peaks episode director (save Tim Hunter, featured last month, as well as David Lynch and Mark Frost). Usually I try to dig a little deeper into each episode in this round-up, but there's so much here already I'll trust the titles to do the talking.

Here are all the parts, illustrated and described...

Episode 63A
(Intro/Path to Journey Through Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks Reflections: Bobby, Einar, the Log Lady + her cabin, Jacques' cabin, the Ghostwood Deal/Part 1 & more)

Episode 63B
Twin Peaks cinema - What Did Jack Do?/Wiseguy's Lynchboro arc & Twin Peaks directors' films (Halloweentown, Zelly & Me, Now and Then, The Escape Artist, The Wizard, Frances, Pay the Ghost, Heaven, After Dark My Sweet, Code Name: Emerald, Losing Isaiah, Matthew Blackheart: Monster Smasher & more)

Episode 63C
Media Journal - Class violence in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Irishman, Joker & Parasite (+ more capsules on Midsommar, Shin Godzilla & the original Godzilla, Ah Wilderness, My Brilliant Career, Knock Down the House, Ad Astra, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Won't You Be Me Neighbor?, The American Experience: Walt Disney, Glory, Space Men, Seven Days in May, Adopt a Highway, The Kominsky Method, Living With Yourself, Schitt's Creek & much more)

Episode 63D
Listener feedback, part 1 (Lost Highway, Lynch in Twin Peaks season 1, ordinary/mythological character connections, "primal scene" locations, Twin Peaks as Laura's Projection & more)

Episode 63E
Listener feedback, part 2 (Twin Peaks season 3 as Laura's psychodrama, Veronica Mars, Neon Genesis Evangelion & more)

Episode 63F
Endorsing Bernie 2020 (+ the 60s in 80s media, podcast recommendations, 2019 politics - campaigns, Bolivia, UK election, Iran & more)