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?

Teresa With a T fan film added alongside Black Rose project (TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS update)

Josh Eisenstadt has decided to go forward with his fan film Teresa With a T, which we initially discussed (alongside some related Fire Walk With Me analysis) while recording Twin Peaks Conversations with him and Cameron Cloutier. I cut that material out of the episode since the project was in limbo but now that it's back on track, I've uploaded the "missing pieces" as their own audio-only video on YouTube. Although I just revised the master cross-post for the whole discussion (which includes the extra patron exclusive running nearly two hours), I also wanted to let readers of this site know this is out there through this standalone update. So here you go...

belated April 2024 Patreon round-up including TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance & Twin Peaks Conversations podcast (w/ revised patron introduction + Lost in Twin Peaks public status update)

For the first time since 2012, a calendar month passed without any posts on this main site. I couldn't publish this round-up until early May because one of the April rewards was delayed: part two of the bonus Twin Peaks Conversations episode with Cameron Cloutier and Josh Eisenstadt about an upcoming fan film (Josh's potential project is in flux and was ultimately cut out of the discussion). Nonetheless, other content did pop up on Patreon over the past month, in particular the usual advance character entry as we continue our dive into the final twenty. I also polled patrons about their pick for May's Films in Focus podcast. After an initial logjam of individual votes, I put out the call for more participation and got a clear response for a film which I'm looking forward to covering soon.

Meanwhile, I updated my "Welcome to Patreon" video (mostly recorded in December) to include the patron polls which were added to my reward structure in January...

What are the April rewards?

TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS bonus podcast w/ Black Rose director Cameron Cloutier + Teresa With a T director Josh Eisenstadt (YouTube & extended PATREON)

Two years after his last guest appearance to promote the epic four-hour fan film Queen of Hearts, Cameron Cloutier is back on Twin Peaks Conversations with a new project that's just getting going (a fundraising campaign begins on May 14). Black Rose will combine a look behind the red curtains at One Eyed Jack's with a continuation of Annie Blackburn's story from the previous movie. We discuss this project and also spend time chatting with Cameron's collaborator Josh Eisenstadt who is considering a fan film of his own which would share sets, actors, and other resources with Cameron. Since Josh's concept is in flux at the time of this podcast, I didn't include any material about his specific movie*; instead, we discuss his history with Twin Peaks and its cast as a fan and friend - including his connection to Pamela Gidley who played Teresa Banks in Fire Walk With Me. Especially in the $5/month tier Patreon back half (actually nearly four times as long as the public YouTube portion) we dig into many different questions about the show, its creation, and its legacy, of which Josh has a wealth of knowledge. And Cameron sticks around after Josh has to go, talking Mulholland Drive, more details on his own upcoming production, and of course our favorite subject: will there be more Twin Peaks from David Lynch and/or Mark Frost?

PART 1 on YouTube

Listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

*Update 5/9

A week later, Josh ended up going forward with his project Teresa With a T, so I published the previously excised parts of our discussion on YouTube:

Like my December conversation with Rob King, this is a bonus episode of the Twin Peaks Conversations podcast, which ended its monthly run halfway through 2023. This won't be the last such episode.

Watch Queen of Hearts: A Twin Peaks Fan Film on the YouTube channel "Annie Blackburn"

Cameron's main YouTube channel is Obnoxious & Anonymous - subscribe for updates on the upcoming May 14 campaign for Black Rose & possibly Josh's film as well

You can follow Cameron on Bluesky & Twitter as Obnoxious & Anonymous or Queen of Hearts & Facebook in Twin Peaks Worldwide

The Four Placements of FIRE WALK WITH ME by Julius Kassendorf (The Solute)

My video essay Dream Souls: David Lynch & Mary Sweeney

Appreciating the Ending of Twin Peaks • group discussion w/ the "Twin Peaks Grammar" Artists Love Twin Peaks podcast (w/ guests Andrew Cook, Alison Ivy, Patrick Mahan, Courtenay Stallings & John Thorne)

Following up on his last group discussion three and a half months ago - in which four guests offered formal analysis of four David Lynch scenes - Anthony of the "Twin Peaks Grammar" YouTube channel has both narrowed our focus and expanded our range. I joined him as one of six guests this time, focusing on a single scene: the conclusion of Part 18 in The Return. I particularly honed in on sound, while others addressed other aspects of the filmmaking, and together we all explored the larger context of this passage (especially in comparison to Part 17's climax). This was my first time speaking with Talking Backwards podcast host Patrick, while Alison had participated in the previous group chat. I spoke to Courtenay about her book Laura's Ghost several years ago, and I've had many exchanges with John (before and after season three) and Andrew. Together we pondered what significance this scene has for both Cooper and Laura/Carrie, considered what Lynch and Mark Frost brought to its creation, remembered how we first encountered the visit to the Palmer (or rather Tremond) house in 2017 and wondered "...what year is this?"

In addition to that video, Anthony has also posted this episode in audio form on the Artists Love Twin Peaks feed.

Update 2026: The audio-only version is not currently available on Apple Podcasts, though it may be on other platforms.

March 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Films in Focus podcast #2: May December + ADVANCE - TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance

Although as you read this the ceremony is now several weeks in the past, at the time of writing I've just watched the Academy Awards last night. Though my awards season viewing got off to a strong start last summer with the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon, I didn't catch up with most of the other Oscar nominees - neither seeing nor (obviously therefore) covering the bulk of the list. Killers of the Flower Moon I've been anticipating, but awaiting a forthcoming conversation on Patreon before I dive into that. (Speaking of Patreon conversations, I did see and plan on soon discussing two of the delightful Japanese winners of the night - The Boy and the Heron for animated feature and Godzilla Minus One for visual effects, whose toy-wielding win genre icon John Carpenter himself celebrated on Twitter.) No Poor Things, no The Holdovers, no Anatomy of a Fall, no Zone of Interest (also a contender among March's patron requests, with my interest further piqued after last night's win for International Film and much-praised Sound - as well as Jonathan Glazer's undeservedly controversial acceptance speech). With all that said, I did manage to catch the film that Anatomy of a Fall beat for Best Original Screenplay. A couple months after first requesting it, patron Walker White's suggestion of May December made it to a runoff and then ran away with the follow-up poll to become my March selection.

That the film, directed by veteran Todd Haynes and written by newcomer Samy Burch, didn't garner as much nomination glory as expected (especially for the actors) is both surprising and maybe, some writers have suggested, revealing. Although set in Georgia, the story of Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore), a woman who spent years in prison for having sex with then-thirteen, now-grown (and married to her, with three kids) Joe Yoo (Charles Melton) is filtered through the lens of actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), who has arrived in town to study and perhaps interfere with the family's life as she researches an upcoming role. I was struck by both the film's revelations and its unknowns - the long in-between years, the ambiguous truths and falsehoods characters tell themselves and one another - and I appreciated the opportunity to dig into these and other questions. Alongside this podcast, the second in my every-other-month Films in Focus series exclusive to the top tier, I also shared another advance Twin Peaks character study with all patrons...

What are the March rewards?

belated February 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - True Detective: Night Country viewing diary (second part) + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance

Although I offered a couple standalone sci-fi episodes last fall, True Detective: Night Country is my first (but probably not my last) patron-exclusive TV season viewing diary. It's also my first episodic write-up since 2022 (my Mad Men coverage concluded two years ago as of Thursday), and my first coverage of a brand new series since 2019 (when I wrapped the Veronica Mars revival). This also allowed me to have complete coverage of the whole True Detective run after discussing the beloved first season a year after it aired and the more controversial second and third seasons in real time, offering responses in the weeks between episodes just as I did with this (also controversial) fourth season. Set in Alaska, starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, and involving the mysteries surrounding a vanished group of scientists and a murdered indigenous activist, Night Country is a visual delight, cultivating a rich atmosphere from its nocturnal, wintry setting. This is my favorite element of the season although I (eventually) encountered more difficulties with the plot and particularly the finale - which is frankly a True Detective tradition at this point. Whether or not you're reading this as a patron who can access my full reviews, I'd love to hear your own thoughts on Night Country. Apparently the new showrunner Issa López has been signed for another season and I'm very curious to see where the show goes next.

The second half of the series was covered for $5/month patrons in February and is linked below (for a round-up of all Night Country entries, including January's, see this cross-post). This month I also solicited requests, conducted a poll, and then narrowed the selection down to a run-off for the film I'll cover in March's $5/month tier podcast. And, a bit late for reasons that (as I explain in its intro) won't happen again, I finally cracked the top twenty Twin Peaks characters with an advance entry accessible to all patrons. This makes eleven entries on Patreon since I paused the public series at #30 last year; as I won't be resuming that public presentation until at least the fall, this is a great time to join. For $1/month (or up), you can take a dive deep into the world of Twin Peaks through the eyes of its townspeople or the occasional visitor.

What are the February rewards?

10 Years in Twin Peaks

On February 26, 2014, the (in-world) twenty-fifth anniversary of Agent Cooper's Red Room dream, I casually picked up a book and began to read it while taking the train to work. At the time I did not know it was the silver jubilee of the events in Twin Peaks (which took place in 1989, over a year before the pilot aired). Nor did I know that a blu-ray release of the series was a scheduled for that summer, and neither I nor the general public had any confirmation that the long-awaited deleted scenes from Fire Walk With Me would be on that collection. And certainly no one aside from the original creators themselves had any clue that David Lynch and Mark Frost were already hard at work on a script for a new limited series season, which would be announced that autumn. The year 2014 was destined to be the biggest year for Twin Peaks since 1990, but my own decade of Peaks enthrallment was sparked independently of all those other unknown and/or forthcoming factors. I'd finished another book the day before and decided it was finally time to pick the used copy of the Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks which had been sitting on my desk for several months. Having sat in an online cart since my first - and much briefer - burst of enthusiasm for the series in 2008, I'd finally ordered it as an afterthought, to round out a gift card purchase. When I cracked open its moonlit cover, I had no idea where this modest path would lead me.

Flash forward to today, February 26, 2024, the (in-world) thirty-fifth anniversary of Agent Cooper's Red Room dream - and the tenth anniversary of my own awakening. The Return has come and long gone, various expressions of fandom have waxed and waned, and I've spent nearly two-thirds of this site's history primarily writing, podcasting, and creating videos about Twin Peaks. I'm both grateful for what this world has given me and slightly weary of my inability to move on from it; while I wouldn't take back any of the hundreds of entries logged on every aspect of Peaks, my coverage - especially the three biggest (and still ongoing) projects - carried on far longer than I expected and have, as a result, delayed other endeavors at a time I thought they'd have long ago begun. This focus also swallowed up almost everything else; a few months ago, I felt compelled to halt all non-Peaks public writing and podcasting. There's something wryly apropos about all of this, isn't there? (Especially since my journey began on the anniversary of the Peaks hero's first glimpse of his own eventual trap in the Black Lodge.) Anyway, I've written in more detail about my personal odyssey in the first, second, and third parts of a behind-the-scenes reflection on the creation of my video series. Eventually there will be a fourth. For now, I'm deep in the weeds of my prose TWIN PEAKS Character Series (begun in 2016) - currently a month into grabbing screenshots for the top twenty. The public release of my audio Lost in Twin Peaks podcast (begun in 2019) finally capped off season three, but I still need to rewind and present season two. And the conclusion of my video Journey Through Twin Peaks (begun in 2014) still hovers on the horizon. These stories will have an ending, however slow the process of getting there.

There are satisfying pleasures and deep joys to be found by getting lost in these woods - funny and melancholy, cosmic and earthy, profound and trivial. Even if we sometimes wonder how we'll ever find a way out...

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?

Now on Patreon: True Detective: Night Country viewing diary through February 25

Although pieces of it will be shared in the January and February round-ups (and the larger True Detective directory will be updated as each part is written, as will this post), I wanted to create a separate public announcement for a bonus feature on my $5/month tier. In addition to this month's official reward - currently being decided between Punch Drunk Love and The Red Shoes in this poll (ends tomorrow at noon) - every week I am going to publish a response to the new episodes of True Detective: Night Country, the fourth season of the HBO show I've covered extensively in the past. This time, the series stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, is written and directed by Issa Lopez rather than the show's creator Nic Pizzolatto, and follows a couple investigations in a remote corner of Alaska where the sun disappears for months at a time in the winter. My format will be slightly different than those older entries, adopting the summary/response approach I used for Mad Men and other viewing diaries, and I'm hoping these reviews will be relatively short although I did not succeed in that effort when discussing last week's premiere. Here is that entry, published yesterday, with more to come following tonight's Part 2 and Parts 3 - 6 in the coming weeks.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Four Great Scenes to Enjoy • group discussion w/ the "Twin Peaks Grammar" Artists Love Twin Peaks podcast (w/ guests Colin, Andrew Cook & John Thorne)

A couple weeks ago, Anthony - the host of the "Twin Peaks Grammar" YouTube channel - suggested a "scene analysis idea". What if a group of commentators got together, each picking a different scene, and each focusing on a particular formal element (editing, cinematography, performance, and so on). The idea stuck with me after I listened and I encouraged Anthony to pursue the concept. And so he did, as a birthday present to himself, featuring not just both of us - for the fourth time after his guest appearance, mine, and another group discussion - but also Wrapped in Plastic publisher (and my own frequent guest) John Thorne, Creamed Corn and the Universe podcast host Colin (with whom I've previously discussed Sarah Palmer and Ronette's angel, in addition to his project more broadly), and film/TV commentator Andrew Cook (with whom I've previously discussed Eyes Wide Shut and Southland Tales).

With links to the discussion timecodes (the clips themselves can be watched here and here), John selected the Winkie's diner exchange and trip out back from Mulholland Drive, Andrew the Tremond's Meals on Wheels scene from the original series of Twin Peaks, myself the Mike in traffic/Teresa flashback sequence from the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and Anthony the nighttime Cooper/statue passage from Twin Peaks: The Return (Colin joined last-minute and took part in the commentary without picking a scene himself). Before each clip, we'd choose our focus and begin with observations on that before expanding to a broader back and forth. This was a great conversation, and hopefully a format that will be pursued in the future with other guests, scenes, and even concepts (I'd love to see this applied to non-Peaks work as well, even to scenes from films the guests aren't familiar with and are watching for the first time).

In addition to this YouTube video, Anthony has also posted this episode in audio form on the Artists Love Twin Peaks feed.

Update 2026: The audio-only version is not currently available on Apple Podcasts, though it may be on other platforms.

On a side note (mentioned at the end of the episode), this week I've been conducting a poll on Patreon for the $5/month tier to determine what film I'll cover for this month's reward. Based on suggestions from patrons, so far The Red Shoes is in the lead but others include Brick, City of Pirates, May December, Punch Drunk Love, Ruthless, and Trenque Lauquen. Make sure to jump in if you're interested, as the poll closes at noon on Friday.

belated December 2023 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Twin Peaks Conversations podcast w/ Rob King, editor of David Lynch and the American West (including public teaser) + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance & new introduction to patrons (w/ public status update/32 Days of Movies video revision)

David Lynch's work is often connected to specific locations like sunny suburbs, industrial cities, and the backlots and bungalows of Hollywood, as well as to genres like noir, horror, and melodrama. The broad Western landscape, and the Western genre, are less frequently associated with Lynch (aside from Lynch's short film The Cowboy and the Frenchman and his cameo as none other than John Ford in The Fabelmans). In his recent anthology of commissioned essays, David Lynch and the American West, Rob King gathers a number of perspectives particularly focused on how Lynch's works play with the history and mythology of the actual region. The terrain stretches from the parched deserts of the Southwest to the foggy forests of the Pacific Northwest, the timespan from ancient indigenous civilizations to the modern highways running across this landscape today. I spoke with King a couple months ago; technical difficulties unfortunately cut our discussion short and we were unable to resume, but for a half hour we dug into how he and other scholars approach this material. Because this is a shorter Twin Peaks Conversations episode than usual, most of it has been reserved for $5/month tier patrons. I published a brief teaser on YouTube, rather than the much longer public "first half" I normally share.

I'm also previewing another character entry for the $1/month tier - in this case, very interesting revisions to someone featured in the earlier series. And I've officially updated my tier structure, as explained in the following video:

+ read the public announcement:

Updated tiers, new intro & new directories (+ December update)

For more details and other updates, check out the above public post, shared in mid-December. As mentioned in there, I've recently added some new pages to this site's directories so that now you can navigate patron rewards without having to scroll past public material. The directories are as follows:

All Available rewards (by Topic) // EXCLUSIVE Films in Focus // Twin Peaks // EXCLUSIVE Film Capsules // Political Topics on Podcasts // Random Topics on Podcasts // All Available rewards (by Entry/Episode) // Essays

What are the December rewards?