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If you're a man and you're not very good at it, check out the wonderful stories directed by John Cassavetes. He was a brilliant independent film maker and sort of spearheaded the idea of independent film in America. His movies tend to revolve around the themes of the dark sides of masculinity — aka guys being dudes (derogatory). His films were also his own various insecurities, both personal and professional, made naked on screen.
Please check out Husbands, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and A Woman Under the Influence. These aren't typical independent films (i.e., they're not black and white and 4 hours long). They're profoundly unpretentious yet are deeply thoughtful all the same.
John Cassavetes — truly a brilliant and underappreciated director.
May 12, 2024
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Went thru an Ang Lee kick a few years back and found his early movies about taiwanese-American immigrant/blended families reconciling their 2 cultures soooo so heartwarming. Brokeback and The Ice Storm (!!!) two of the most memorable and stylistically sophisticated movies I’ve ever seen. Dude has major heart and a very sweet sense of humor and always picks the sexiest people for main roles.
Antonioni…where do I start.. watch anything that has Monica vitti in it and Blow Up. if you’re not trying to pick apart how his surrealism maps onto Italian history and politics then just come for the sexy people , eerie music, and ridiculous cinematography
Feb 15, 2024
Eyes Wide Shut // Stanley Kubrick
Apocalypse Now // Francis Ford Coppola
Cries & Whispers // Ingmar Bergman
Chinatown // Roman Polanski
Learn From Masters ..
Jan 8, 2025
he made “halloween“ so he sorta owns the holiday. like duh the dude is the best - it’s not common to have directors that also score their films and that’s part of why he’s so epic. controlling both sound & vision and really sucking you into these weird movies - his genre is so complex too, not straight horror, not quite comedy
i love all his films for different reasons but these are maybe my top 3:
in the mouth of madness
they live
the fog
Oct 13, 2024
Top Recs from @mightychooch
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just get clothes for yourself damn, stop driving the goodwill prices up
Apr 19, 2024
With the recent passing of David Lynch, I felt it necessary to explore his works in totality in tribute to the loss of a brilliant artist. This is a journey that I have not yet completed, but it has been a tremendous self-actualizing experience.
I am not alone in this journey. Last week, I watched Blue Velvet for the first time. Not long after I finished the film, analysis videos appeared on my Tiktok feed. It was a fine video and a sound analysis of the film, but not long after I felt as though I had been mentally visited by David Lynch's ghost; shaking his head in disappointment at me. For many years I had been happy to listen to reviews, video essays, other people's analyses, etc., sometimes even before coming to my own conclusions about them. I think the point of David Lynch's works — and indeed art, media, etc., broadly — is to keep asking questions about them. The second you come to a conclusion at all, you stop thinking about the work, and that magic of exploration is lost.
David Lynch believed that within every human being is a vast ocean of consciousness, a creative force within us all or — in a word — magic. When you sit, think, ask questions, and catch your own unique ideas, this is a scrap of magic from that creative ocean within you. It's what makes you human.
So please, put down your phone and log off of your computer a while. Go to a museum and stare at a painting that catches your fancy for a long, long time. Watch a weird artsy film and then take a walk in a park and argue with yourself. And never stop doing that. You are beautiful and capable of making ideas that no one else has had before. And that is magical and should be celebrated.
Thank you for reading this kind of rambling post. I hope you have a nice evening. RIP David Lynch.
Jan 23, 2025
Apr 18, 2024