Hello humanoids. For this week’s “Prix Fixe” culture menu, I’ve gathered a mezze of recommendations from some of my favorite film & culture writers to pair with Steven Spielberg’s alien-truther-opus Disclosure Day.

We’ve got recs from some amazing writers including , film critic & writer of ; , freelance journalist and author of ; , freelance writer and co-Minister of the ; , film critic, film programmer, and writer of and Cinema Her Way; and , film critic and writer of .

Every time I put together a Prix Fixe, I’m so moved by how diverse and unexpected the pairings are — a testament to the enormous array of crafts that go into making a movie, and the intense emotions they elicit. In other words, an exact reflection of the cinephilia and humanism that have defined Spielberg’s life’s work.

There are, of course, spoilers ahead.

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()’s Pick: The KXVO Pumpkin Dance and the subsequent oral history of the KXVO Pumpkin Dance

“In Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg takes a very Man In His 70s approach to how to best deliver an earth-shattering revelation to the world: the local news. I understand the inclination; my grandma is also over the age of 75, and if you were to ask her, the local news is the optimal method of getting information out to the masses. This absolutely makes sense if you choose, like me, to believe that Disclosure Day takes place in an alternate reality where people had iPhone 17s in 2007. Either way, Spielberg’s latest made me think of all the incredible things we’ve gotten courtesy of the local news (“he’s gay — excuse me, he’s blind” and Deedee Megadoodoo come to mind), the most enduring of which is, of course, the Pumpkin Dance.

Isn’t it funny that I roasted Spielberg for being a septuagenarian when I just outed myself as millennial in the most revealing way imaginable? If you’re in my exact age range, you’ve probably also spent much of your life enjoying the sincerely fierce video of a guy dancing to the Ghostbusters theme for four uninterrupted minutes while wearing a pumpkin head and a black unitard. WNYC’s oral history of the Pumpkin Dance is the ideal companion piece to this relic, explaining the charmingly simple story of how this early viral moment came to be: an Omaha news anchor and his team had a micro budget and a lot of air time to fill, their bosses didn’t care what they did with that air time, and Halloween was approaching. Thus, the Pumpkin Dance was born. All these years later and this thing is still pure joy, plus the guy really does have excellent rhythm. And we wouldn’t have him without the local news. Point to you, Mr. Spielberg.”

()’s Pick: You Want It Darker

“I’ve been thinking a lot about Edward Said’s notion of “late style” and the ways in which artists sometimes become tighter, more compressed version of themselves as they age. To that end, I’d like to pair Spielberg with another master returning to familiar territory late in his career and making it fresh: Leonard Cohen, whose last album, “You Want It Darker,” hits all the familiar themes of Eros and death, but does it with an added pinch of verve, and a High Holidays choir for extra punch.”

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()’s Pick: The Sculptures of Gian Lorenzo Bernini

“I thought about going hyper-local with this pairing and writing an ode to my favorite restaurant in Silver Spring, Maryland, a city just north of D.C. that gets name-checked during one of the chase sequences in Disclosure Day. (That got some appreciative laughs at the press screening I attended in downtown Silver Spring.) But that wouldn’t speak to what’s so astonishing about this film, which is the way that Steven Spielberg wallops his characters and audience with a feeling of genuine revelation in the final 30 minutes.

How often do any of us experience awe in our daily lives? I certainly don’t find it in my inbox, or in Google Docs, or when I’m shuttling around my apartment from chore to chore. That’s most of how I spend my non-sleeping hours. But occasionally you’ll encounter something so beautiful — so mind-expanding — that you have to stop and stare in wonder. Awe makes you feel like a kid again, peeling away every layer of grown-up, world-weary cynicism that life has affixed to you.

I last felt that way while looking at Bernini’s sculptures in Rome this spring, at the Galleria Borghese and Saint Peter’s Basilica. Holy shit, man. I spent several long minutes staring at Pluto’s grip on Prosperina’s thigh, trying and failing to understand how a person could take a block of marble and transform it into living, breathing flesh like that. And Bernini was doing this in the 1600s! I felt like I was witnessing a level of human creativity and virtuosity that I didn’t previously know existed. Which, if you think about it, isn’t so different from the discovery that space aliens are real.”

()’s Pick: Taken

“The name Steven Spielberg has been synonymous with American studio filmmaking for the last fifty years, alternating between action-packed blockbusters and humanist awards contenders with aplomb. He's spent just as much of that time quietly defining television as well, executive producing a myriad of sci-fi shows and war miniseries over the last few decades.

One of my favorite Spielberg-adjacent projects is actually a miniseries that combines both of these things: the 2002 Sci-Fi Channel 10-episode, 883-minute long miniseries "Taken." Developed by Leslie Bohem, the show spans seven-decades, from 1944 to 2002, as it follows three families – the Crawfords, the Keyses, and the Clarkes – through WWII, the Roswell crash, and its subsequent cover-up by the government. Like "Disclosure Day," this series focuses not just on the existence of extraterrestrials and the government agency tasked with hiding the truth from the public, but it also focuses on the families affected by this truth, the people who are caught between the mission of the alien beings and the cruel and calculating government spooks who are chasing them. At its core, "Taken" is a humanist, generational epic that asks viewers to think about humanity's greatest strength – our capacity for empathy – and reminds them not to take it for granted.”

(Rodent Reflections)’s Pick: Communion (The Book)

“One of Spielberg’s most endearing traits is his genuine belief that extraterrestrials are real and they are zooming around our skies in flying saucers. Endearing, at least, to someone like me with perhaps too much openness to the Strange and Paranormal. With Disclosure Day, he finally pokes into the common Experiencer notion of abduction as traumatic ordeal, more akin to molestation than transcendent contact.

Few works have expressed this more captivatingly than Whitley Strieber’s book Communion, which some people may know better as the source material for the 80s Christopher Walken film. The film is a wonderful and evocative work of fiction, but the book is arresting in a totally different way. Strieber walks the audience through his experience with alien abduction, presenting all the facts and details in a totally sober way, insisting all along that he is a rational man taking a scientific approach to his inexplicable encounter. He continues in this manner even as his assertions get progressively more bizarre, and the book takes on a more spiritual tenor. What Spielberg does with a nostalgic sentimentalism, Strieber does with an insistent sagaciousness: Try to find a way to not feel sad about their most traumatic memories.

Bonus points if you get the UK paperback edition that has no words on the front cover, just a full-size image of a smirking grey alien. Great for performative public transit reading!”

My Pick: After Life

Spielberg holds a uniquely nostalgic place for most millennials, but I don’t think I finished one of his movies until well into high school. To be clear: not for cool or arty or iconoclastic reasons. Truthfully, I was too scared to watch more than 10 minutes of any Spielberg movie as a kid. Jurassic Park’s thrashing long-toothed dinos were terrifying. E.T.’s spidery fingers unnerved me. Jaws was completely out of the question from minute one. The movie that holds that Spielbergian cozy nostalgia for me is Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life, one of my parents’ favorite films that we watched again and again throughout my childhood.

After Life follows a group of recently deceased souls who find themselves in a bureaucratic way station. In order to move on to the afterlife, they must choose one memory to take with them, which the way station’s staff recreate as a short film. Once the souls watch their film-memories, they disappear, transported into the next life.

Kore-eda’s quietly devastating early-career micro-budget masterpiece and Spielberg’s bombastic $100M late-career entry may appear to be on opposite ends of the cinematic spectrum, but they share a surprising amount of thematic DNA. Both films ask deeply existential questions, use genre premises to explore the connection between memory and cinema, and find creative ways to weave in depictions of the collaborative joys of filmmaking. And both filmmakers see the place where movies and memory intersect as a site of therapeutic alchemy. For all its nuns and crucifixes, Disclosure Day left me feeling that the filmmaking process is what Spielberg actually finds holy.

My Bonus Pick: The Age of Disclosure

I’ll never forget getting coffee with my editor friend Spencer Averick while he was cutting the documentary The Age of Disclosure. As we sat watching cyclists zoom past the La Colombe patio in Frogtown, he very calmly explained to me that after months of sitting with the footage for this documentary, he absolutely believed in the existence of UAPs, aka Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, aka (probably) aliens.

A year later, The Age of Disclosure went on to become the highest-grossing documentary on Amazon Prime within 48 hours of its release, outperforming VOD rentals for narrative hits like One Battle After Another and Jurassic World Rebirth.

Many of my friends walked out of Disclosure Day feeling skeptical that the world would grind to a halt to watch a local news broadcast of grainy alien footage. I’m inclined to agree. But The Age of Disclosure’s breakout success shows that, like Spielberg, we can’t help questioning whether or not we’re alone in the universe.

Also On Never Cursed

Behind the paywall, I chat with guests about their best (and worst) movie date memories, what romance at the movies means to them, & more. Paid subscribers will also soon get access to The Movie Date City Guides, Movie Date Maps, and The Letterboxd Movie Date-abase, compiling guests’ movie, bar, and restaurant recommendations.

Name: Clare Frances

Location: Manhattan

Occupation: Writer

We have an icon in the Movie Date theater this week: , writer of Famous and Beloved Newsletter. She’s one of the funniest & sharpest writers on Substack, writing film reviews and cultural analyses with a specific and fearless POV that I find completely delightful and endlessly readable. (Her latest book club is for ‘s Pool House, which I plan on devouring next week.)

Clare and I became friends after discovering a shared appreciation for the himbo stylings of Austin Butler (who enjoys his own dedicated section on F&BN). We have fabulous movie date chemistry because we both believe in the importance of a post-screening dessert. It doesn’t matter if you just drank a Diet Coke the size of your head, or inhaled a bag of peanut M&Ms by the end of the first act. That was in a dark theater, a place outside of time and/or gustatory realities. That doesn’t count. It’s time for an ice cream. Your tastebuds can handle it.

Clare is an authority on many things: literature, fashion, Harry Styles, men these days. And she’s used the full force of this astonishing range of expertise to design a perfect movie date:

- What movie are you and your date watching? Why do you think it’s a good date movie?

The worst thing a date night movie can be - actually any movie - is boring. The second worst thing it can be is shameful; showing someone you’re still flirting with a movie from your childhood, for example, is a recipe for disaster. Tried and true blockbusters are usually safest; something that produces a shared, physical thrill, or just something that’s pleasant to swallow in one gulp. A Mission: Impossible or a Dune will work.

- Where are you seeing it? Why is that your go-to movie date spot?

I would rather die than watch a movie in someone else’s apartment, and watching a movie in my own apartment is something you do somewhere between month 6 and year 10 of dating. While I loathe their concession and bathroom offerings, Regal Essex is the perfect friend date spot because it feels like you’re meeting your divas at a shopping mall. And, while my favorite theater in the city is the AMC 19th St. East 6 (which should be called the AMC Union Square!), it isn’t a good date spot because it’s just a giant basement. Walter Reade is probably the best place to go on a real date. It’s comfortable and chic.

- Are you having a snack/drink during the movie?

I’ve never altered my eating or drinking desires or habits for a date. I want a Diet Coke or something similar every time I am in a theater, and that’s it.

- Do you prefer to eat before or after a screening?

I waffle on whether dinner should come before or after a screening, but I’ve decided I would rather end the night drunk on martinis than risk coldly concluding an outing with a movie I didn’t like.

- Where are you eating dinner on your movie date? What are you ordering?

The sexiest date night agenda is a movie at FLC followed by dinner at Cafe Luxembourg: tuna or veggie burger with fries, share a sticky toffee pudding. Downtown, my favorite combo is trekking from Regal Essex to Superiority Burger: two starters and a burger with fries to share, and two freakish desserts. That’s a much more suburban affair, which is really how movie nights should be.

- Where are you going for a drink after?

Movies kind of tire me out, which is why I don’t understand how people see them before 4 pm. Regal is always a zoo before noon, which gives me acid reflux. All to say, when a movie date is over, it should be bedtime (double meaning, I guess).

In The Nightcap, I ask guests deeper questions about their favorite movie date memories, what cinematic romance means to them, and more. The post-screening nightcap is my favorite part of a movie date, whether it’s over a bottle of wine, accompanied by a couple martinis, or during a long, meandering walk home (ideally, all of the above).

This section will mostly live behind the paywall, but I’m keeping the first couple interviews free!

- What was the first movie date you went on?

I psychosexually tortured my Catholic friend in high school by taking him on dates and insisting they weren’t dates. We saw The Great Gatsby and a Spider-Man. I’m sure there were others. It gave me joy. He became a priest.

- What’s your go-to movie date outfit in summer?

In the summer, I don’t like wearing anything that might expose my bare legs to cloth seats. Other than that, you have to learn the ropes; it’s difficult and cumbersome, for example, to go to the bathroom at the Lincoln Square AMC, so you have to wear something that’s easy to undo. At the Kips Bay AMC IMAX, there’s no good place to put your bag, so you shouldn’t bring anything too bulky. On a date, it’s hard to look good at the movies, and so I can’t say I really make an effort. It’s more of an opportunity to look “cute” and “casual,” I guess.

- What was the best or most memorable movie date you’ve been on?

My first date with my terrible and evil ex was at The Green Knight at The Music Box in Chicago, which I should have taken as a sign of what was to come; I hate that city, that theater, that movie, and that guy. Years later, I saw All That Jazz with his parents in the same theater in the dead of summer, and the AC blew out with the room shoulder-to-shoulder packed with Chicago film Twitter thoughtleaders. Despite my love for that movie, I almost killed myself or others that night.

- What is your favorite movie you watched at home recently?

My boyfriend and I watched half of Margaret the other night, which I was enjoying but was going on too long. We will finish it eventually, when I feel like it.

- What’s your favorite romantic movie? What makes it romantic to you?

Challengers, because despite what she’s been through she’s still cheating.

Thank you Clare for being my Movie Date 💞🎞️🍝.

May your screenings always be air-conditioned and your restaurants always have room for walk-ins at the bar.

xoH

This week, we have:

• how much i loved John Early’s new movie (lots)

• where to stop in for wine & oysters during peak summer seafood weather

• an ode to Foster Face

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Foster Face

I’ve been reading a lot this week about “Spielberg Face” — the low-angle, awestruck pose Spielberg defaults to (with lens flare, if Janusz Kaminski is involved). Disclosure Day is heavy on the Spielberg Face, with every main cast member getting their chance to go wide-eyed at least once.

For me, Spielberg Face is hit-or-miss, depending on how invested I am in the rest of the movie. But rewatching Contact and Silence of the Lambs this week made me realize there’s another iconic cinematic expression that never fails to give me chills: Foster Face.

Foster Face is flinty, direct, soul-rousing. It’s the look on Jodie’s face when she doubles down on her mission, usually in defiance of a powerful but idiotic man. Whether she’s descending into a max security prison or demanding support for a SETI project, Foster Face immediately gets me on-side, without fail.

Unlike Spielberg Face, Foster Face can be achieved at any angle and any framing. Its only mandatory components are a well-placed eye light and tight-lipped determination from JF. Sometimes Jodie switches it up and does a Soft Foster Face, a kind of hybrid between the awe of Spielberg Face and determination of Foster Face, but she never loses the defiant core of her signature look.

Maddie’s Secret

John Early’s new feature Maddie’s Secret is perfect. I brought Camille to see it as a warm-up for her imminent move to LA — the movie is full of LA classics like Spanish-style bungalows, lush produce, strip malls, and mental health calamities. Maddie’s Secret has a completely unique tone, part Douglas Sirk, part Wet Hot American Summer, part Girl, Interrupted. As a former “Cookbook blonde” (as John referred to us), I appreciate how seriously John takes Maddie. She’s ridiculous in many ways, but a fully-formed character with an impressively-executed emotional arc. Demanding Oscar campaigns for John-as-Maddie, bad-boy Kate Berlant, & shirtless Eric Rahill. I highly, highly recommend with the caveat that the movie deals heavily and directly with eating disorders.

You can read MOVIE DATE guest Natalia’s NYT critic’s pick review here. A choice quote:

Where to Eat This Seafood Szn

Once it hits 80 degrees, I lose my appetite for anything that isn’t farm stand produce, ice cream, or seafood of some sort. Bi-valves, crudos, lobster rolls — I’ll take anything as long as it’s oceanic. My ideal summer Saturday starts with sungolds and stone fruit at the farmer’s market, followed by a day of wandering from bar to restaurant to bar again in search of oysters and ice-cold wine, ending with a screening in an air-conditioned movie theater & a Mister Softee on the walk home.

I was lucky to indulge in a couple perfect days like that this week. Here’s where I stopped in:

LELAND EATING & DRINKING HOUSE

I dropped by Leland twice this week for some lemony mussels, vermouth, and golden hour light. Highly recommend exploring their extensive vermouth and amaro menus.

BONG

Bong is the best, long live Bong! Immaculate vibe, immaculate oysters, impressive whole fried fish (above).

TEN BELLS

My new favorite place to watch World Cup. Charlotte and I went by on a whim and caught the end of the Germany v. Ivory Coast match. Solid wine list & an oyster happy hour.

WALLACE

The new Prospect Heights wine bar Wallace has a fantastic wine list & great back patio. Another spot I’ve hit up twice this week — I got a lovely Chardonnay there on Sunday with Averill, and then went for a really lovely barolo and an octopus salad with Sophie later in the week. Perfect for a friend date, first date, or solo date with a book at the bar. I’ve been hoping for a neighborhood wine bar like this for ages…

xoH

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This Month on Never Cursed

Behind the paywall, I chat with guests about their best (and worst) movie date memories, what romance at the movies means to them, & more. Paid subscribers will also soon get access to The Movie Date City Guides, Movie Date Maps, and The Letterboxd Movie Date-abase, compiling guests’ movie, bar, and restaurant recommendations.

Name: Annabelle Attanasio

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Occupation: Director + writer + actor

My movie date this week is Annabelle Attanasio, the writer-director of the utterly perfect Mickey and the Bear. I had a talent crush on Annabelle long before we first met: a mutual friend of ours told me to watch MATB and I was immediately floored by Annabelle’s confidence and empathy1 as a filmmaker. It’s become one of my favorite films of the last few years — if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend watching ASAP.

A couple years later, we were finally introduced. I’m now very lucky to have been on many movie dates with my sweet friend Annabelle, and am looking forward to spending the summer running around catching screenings together. It helps that our taste has essentially 100% overlap: Fosse, Visconti, yearning Euro art house, etc. Annabelle is a cinephile & a true romantic, so I was very excited to get her movie date recs:

- What movie are you and your date watching? Why do you think it's a good date movie?

To date me, you must be willing to watch a) musicals b) chick flicks c) coming-of-age films about female protagonists. It’s the only way I can take you seriously. I feel an obligation to these films to make sure they are adequately appreciated. Enough with your PTA obsession (to be clear, I love PTA too) – let’s make room for some Elle Woods, Celine Sciamma, and Bob Fosse.

- Where are you seeing it? Why is that your go-to movie date spot?

Film Forum. It's timeless. Going to the theater is one of my favorite date activities. You don’t have to talk for two hours, but you can hold hands or brush knees, which is often a better tell of whether you like the person. But the real tell is the debrief afterwards– I relish breaking down the film, what we each liked and didn’t. I also have a television on wheels in my apartment that oscillates between the living room and the bedroom. I watch a lot of films in bed.

- Are you having a snack/drink during the movie?

I like a big Diet Coke with a lot of ice. Although, I recently dragged my friend to a screening of All That Jazz at MoMi in Queens, and picked up cold cuts at Caputo’s Fine Foods before– prosciutto, chicken cutlet, mozzarella balls, olives– to snack on during the drive up and before the film. My friend, who is incredibly polite and composed, was horrified when I spilled the mozzarella juice on the floor of the MoMi theater.

- Where are you eating dinner on your movie date? Do you prefer to eat before or after a screening? What are you ordering?

As a kid, my mom took me to see a lot of theater and we had a ritual of delving deep into what we saw over a meal. In that same tradition, my ultimate movie date is an early screening (between the hours of 5 and 7pm), followed by a bite, drink and in-depth discussion. Daigo Hand Roll Bar is one of my favorite bites after a movie at Alamo. If I go to BAM, there’s a chance I’ll get a seat at the bar at Theodora after. After a screening at Film Forum, I recently sat at the bar at Raf’s which was pretty romantic.

- Where are you going for a drink after?

If we’ve already seen a movie and had dinner, chances are I’m sundowning and ready to go home and get in bed.

In The Nightcap, I ask guests deeper questions about their favorite movie date memories, what cinematic romance means to them, and more. The post-screening nightcap is my favorite part of a movie date, whether it’s over a bottle of wine, accompanied by a couple martinis, or during a long, meandering walk home (ideally, all of the above).

This section will mostly live behind the paywall, but I’m keeping the first couple interviews free!

- What is your go-to movie date outfit?

In the summer, I wear an easy slip dress (shoutout to my favorite vintage lingerie purveyor, Illissa’s Lingerie in Manhattan). Winter is tougher–the pile of layers, and where to put them, always a conundrum.

- What’s a movie date movie you wish you’d made?

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a perfect screenplay and film as far as I’m concerned. Every time I write, I am aspiring to channel a mere iota of Celine Sciamma’s genius. The restraint in that movie stabs me in the heart every time.

- What was the best or most memorable movie date you’ve been on?

In the ninth grade, I got my first and only boyfriend for all of high school. Dating wasn’t my thing–I was more of a yearner. But I did really enjoy making out in public places.

One time, I had my boyfriend pick me up at my parents house and we walked many miles to the Arclight Cinema to see Inglourious Basterds. We were 15. The theater was fairly empty. It was 4 in the afternoon. He wanted to “show me Tarantino.” In retrospect, this was just a guise for the real intent of the date. We made out– greusomely– for the better part of the two and a half hours. I don’t know what was more violent: us, or the film.

- What are you seeing for your next movie date?

I recently saw the film Lucy Schulman at Tribeca, a film I had the good fortune of acting in. I had seen many cuts of the film while writer/director Ellie Sachs was in post, and so it was particularly special to experience it with an audience.

- What’s your favorite romantic movie? What makes it romantic to you?

Once, I was in a relationship that was on its way out. Our fate was especially clear to me when we watched The Worst Person in the World together. This film was so romantic, I think it was responsible for our imminent breakup. You know the long sequence between Renate Reinsve and the man she meets at the party? Talking, peeing in front of each other, sitting on the bed of coats, smoking. It’s tense, it’s sexy, it’s unvarnished. It makes you ache. It elicits this feeling of romantic possibility in a way only film can.

- What’s a recent solo film/culture date you’ve enjoyed by yourself?

I just saw Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore on 35mm at Metrograph–I love the dead-end housewife tragicomedies of the 1970s– and was so glad to see this one on a big screen. It’s at once so bleak and so funny, anchored by a loving but fraught mother-son relationship, and laden with incredible photography and supporting cast. And young Jodie Foster!!!

- Who is your favorite person to have a movie date with?

There’s nothing more luxurious than a solo movie date. I try to schedule a Sunday matinee for myself most weeks, usually at Metrograph. There’s something about absorbing a film without the intrusion of someone else’s perspective that makes the experience so much more pure to me– but I also find it to be a wonderful way to spoil yourself. Highly recommend.

- What is your favorite movie you saw in theaters recently?

Bellissima by Visconti from 1951. I saw it on a date at Film Forum a few weeks ago. It’s about a Mama Rose-esque stage mom, and a send-up of the Italian film industry. Anna Magnani devours the screen. She reminds me so much of the Italian women I grew up around. And I loved the simplicity of the script and the ingenuity of the shots– there’s this one shot where Magnani is speaking to a hairdresser, reflected in a mirror behind her, but it’s as if she’s speaking directly to the audience.

- What is your favorite movie you watched at home recently?

The Knicks in the finals. #goknicks

Thank you Annabelle for being my Movie Date 💞🎞️🍝.

May your screenings always be air-conditioned and your favorite restaurants always have room for walk-ins at the bar.

xoH

NEW RELEASES

First things first: Happy Bleak Week to all who chose to celebrate. In spite of the GSOT (General State Of Things) I’m clinging to a delusionally good mood this week, so I’m forgoing any BW recs and focusing my recs on things that make me happy, like grimy true crime noirs and Cornish folk horror.

The box office this month of course belongs to Mr Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, which I will be covering soon on a v special post (!). But there are also four very intriguing smaller releases in theaters throughout June that I wanted to highlight:

• Forastera, which my friend Natalia recommended in her Movie Date interview last week.

• Romería, a lush, twisty coming of age story set on the Galician coast.

• Maddie’s Secret, John Early’s psychosexual thriller about a “Cookbook blonde” (me).

• Rose of Nevada, Mark Jenkin’s beguiling third feature that combines two of my favorite things: Cornwall and men slowly going insane on boats.

Some new releases (& limited re-releases) to catch in theaters this month (movies I’m prioritizing to see in theaters in bold): Forastera, The Currents, Romería, The Little Sister, Savage House, Disclosure Day, Maddie’s Secret, Rose of Nevada, The Invite, Jackass: Best and Last

REP SCREENINGS

• 6/17, 7:30PM - Aardman Animations Celebration @ The Academy Museum - The Academy’s animation branch is screening a selection of Aardman shorts including Creature Comforts (my personal fave) and The Wrong Trousers. Heaven.

• 6/17, 10PM - Enys Men (with filmmaker intro) @ Los Feliz 3 - I stumbled upon Enys Men while indulging in my new favorite hungover activity: trawling Shotdeck for interesting botanical shots. Mark Jenkin’s neo-folk-horror is an absolute trip, and I’m so excited that American Cinematheque is doing a retrospective of his work in honor of his new film Rose of Nevada.

• 6/18, 7PM - Batman (70mm) @ The Aero - Not my usual cup of tea, but AC’s “ultra rare” screening of Tim Burton’s Batman on 70mm is intriguing. Apparently it hasn’t been screened in LA since 1998.

• 6/21, 7PM - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (70mm) @ The Aero - A Spielberg Summer Is Upon Us!

• 6/25, 8PM - Talk To Her (35mm) @ Brain Dead - I was just telling my friend about how magical the Pina Bausch dance sequences are in this fucked-up Almodóvar fantasia. I fell in love with Pedro’s movies on the big screen at Cinefamily, now Brain Dead Studios, and would love for you to do the same.

• 6/25, 7PM - Sweet 16mm: Revolutionary Queer Cinema (16mm) @ Vidiots - Per Vidiots: “We’re cranking up the 16mm projector for another program of celluloid rarities and in honor of Pride month, we’re going queer as f@$k with a program of groundbreaking and jaw-dropping short films from the 1930s – 1970s that not only challenged the norms of gender and sexuality but of form and fluidity of filmmaking, including works by Jean Genet, Barbara Hammer, Coni Beeson, James Sibley Watson, and more!”

• 6/27, 7:30PM & 6/28, 6:30PM - The Passenger (35mm) @ The New Beverly - I feel like I recommend this every time it screens, but it’s my favorite Jack Nicholson performance and very nearly my favorite Antonioni.

• 6/28, 8:15PM - Stolen Kisses (35mm) @ Brain Dead - Welcome to “How French Can You Get??!!” : “Antoine’s sweetheart Christine’s father lands Antoine a job as a security guard, which he promptly loses. Stumbling into a position assisting a private detective, Antoine falls for his employers’ seductive wife, Fabienne, and finds that he must choose between the older woman and Christine.” To be clear, I live for this.

• 6/29, 7:30PM - The Hitch-Hiker - Ida Lupino’s true crime ur-text was a favorite of mine in film school. I get spooked thinking about it any time I drive alone through the desert. Fun-to-me Fact: the film’s masterful DP Nicholas Musuraca also shot the film noir classics Out of the Past and The Spiral Staircase.

• 6/30, 7:30PM - Bad Education (35mm) @ Vidiots - It’s Pride Month so I get to pick 2 Almodóvar movies. This is Pedro’s most labyrinthine, Hitchcockian thriller, a movie as lovely and brutal as they come. It’s impossible to pick my favorite of his movies, but this is a frontrunner.

xoH

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RECENTLY ON NEVER CURSED

NEW RELEASES

First things first: Happy Bleak Week to all who celebrate. In spite of the GSOT (General State Of Things) I’m clinging to a delusionally good mood this week, so I’m forgoing any BW recs and focusing my recs on things that make me happy, like grimy post-war noirs and movies where Janusz Kaminski gets to use all the in-camera effects his little heart desires.

The box office this month of course belongs to Mr Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, which I can’t wait to see on 70mm this weekend. But there are also four very intriguing smaller releases in theaters throughout June that I wanted to highlight:

• Forastera, which my friend Natalia recommended in her Movie Date interview last week.

• Romería, a lush, twisty coming of age story set on the Galician coast.

• Maddie’s Secret, John Early’s psychosexual thriller about a “Cookbook blonde” (me).

• Rose of Nevada, Mark Jenkins’ beguiling third feature that combines two of my favorite things: Cornwall and men slowly going insane on boats.

Some new releases (& limited re-releases) to catch in theaters this month (movies I’m prioritizing to see in theaters in bold): Forastera, The Currents, Romería, The Little Sister, Savage House, Disclosure Day, Maddie’s Secret, Rose of Nevada, The Invite, Jackass: Best and Last

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REP SCREENINGS

• 6/12, 6:10PM - The Third Man @ Film Forum - Summer is for boy movies (Nolan! Spielberg! Spiderman!), and it doesn’t get more melodramatically masculine than a classic film noir. Carol Reed’s noir classic is a movie about men being right to trust no one, and about the magnetic power of pulling off a big hat. Rumor has it the new 35mm print playing at Film Forum this month is gorgeous, and printed directly from the original film elements.

• 6/13, 7:15PM - Marnie (intro by John "Lypsinka" Epperson) @ Metrograph - As a former “Cookbook blonde” who sold ‘savory pet nats’ during the WGA strike, you better believe I blushed when I read John Early’s explainer for why he chose Marnie as part of Metrograph’s series on the films that inspired his new feature Maddie’s Secret: “There is a store in Los Angeles called Cookbook that sells artisanal chili oils, nine-dollar bundles of marjoram, and ‘savory pet nats.’ and everyone who works there is extremely beautiful. When trying to explain Maddie to the designers, I would call her a ‘Cookbook blond’ instead of a ‘Hitchcock blond,’ because one of my personal prompts for Maddie’s Secret was, ‘What if a girl from this LA food scene was the subject of a lurid, hypnotic psychosexual puzzle like Marnie?’”

• 6/14, 1:15PM - The Diving Bell And The Butterfly @ The Paris Theater - Schnabel’s adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir blew my mind in high school, right when I was starting to consider studying film in college. I haven’t seen it since, and am curious how it holds up. One thing will remain true regardless of how other elements of the movie have aged: Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography is beautiful and emotive, embracing an extreme sense of subjectivity that he rarely gets to flex to the same degree in his Spielberg collaborations.

• 6/17, 6PM - After Life @ Film Forum - After Life is one of my favorite films of all time, but I don’t know for sure if I’ve ever seen it in theaters: My mom saw this for the first time during its original run at Film Forum in 1998, but we can’t remember if she brought me with her, when I was only 5 — I’m choosing to believe she did, so that I can experience this screening as a sort of homecoming reunion for me and the movie. Either way, it became a staple in our house once it got a DVD release. It’s the ultimate film about the communal experience of making movies, the alchemical magic of taking someone’s memories and working together to recreate them for the screen. I can’t emphasize enough what a miraculous movie it is. See you there?

• 6/19, 6PM - Grand Hotel @ Metrograph - “If you want to see what screen glamour used to be, and what, originally, ‘stars’ were, this is perhaps the best example of all time.” —Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

• 6/20, 4PM - The Burning Sunset aka Killers on Parade (35mm) @ BAM - I’ve never seen any films by Japanese New Wave auteur Shinoda, but this sounds like a fun place to start: “A genre-hopping, candy colored comedy-noir-musical, Shinoda’s third feature captures the anarchic spirit of ‘60s filmmaking—recalling Jean-Luc Godard and Seijun Suzuki. When a muckraking journalist is targeted by a gang of youthful assassins (and their pet goat, The End), she must turn to another killer for help. Again working with poet/filmmaker Shuji Terayama as screenwriter, this jazzy satire of Japanese cinema is filled with comic book, pop art energy.”

• 6/21, 11AM & 1:20PM - Late Spring & 35 Shots of Rum @ Metrograph - I’m trying to embrace ‘s matinee lifestyle, and this cheeky “girl dad double feature” sounds like a perfect Sunday double feature.

• 6/26-7/2 - Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces @ Angelika - This is the only piece of Twin Peaks ephemera that I haven’t seen, “a 90-minute feature assembled by David Lynch consisting of deleted and alternate scenes from the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.” I’ve been feeling homesick for LA, which means feeling homesick for the city’s champion, excavator, and weatherman, David Lynch. Playing as part of Angelika & Criterion’s Lynchian series throughout June & July.

• 6/26, 9:25PM - Europa @ Metrograph - Very sad to be out of town for this — I’ve wanted to see Europa for ages but always seem to miss it when it screens.

• 6/27, 2PM - Death in Venice (35mm) @ Metrograph - Similarly gutted to be missing this 35mm screening of Visconti’s adaptation of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. Think of it as a pregame to get stoked for another upcoming Italian Mann adaptation: Luca Guadagnino’s reworking of Buddenbrooks, which is probably my most-anticipated project in development right now.

xoH

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RECENTLY ON NEVER CURSED

This week, we have:

• The launch of Movie Date!

• A fab Tribeca Film Fest screening

• An accidental weekend with Tom Wilkinson

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Movie Date!

Last week, I launched Movie Date, a new interview series that I’m so, so excited about…

Every week, I’ll be inviting my favorite filmmakers and film-lovers to design their dream dinner-and-a-movie date: each guest chooses the perfect date night movie + where to see it, their favorite spot to have dinner nearby, and the ideal place for a drink & a chat after the screening.

My hope is that Movie Date will:

1. Remind people that going to the movies is cool/sexy/fun/social and so much better out in the real world with other people vs. alone on the couch

2. Satisfy my desire to be nosy about peoples’ personal lives

3. Once and for all answer the question that has been plaguing cities from NY to LA to London for millennia: Where should I go for a drink & a snack after seeing a movie at Lincoln Center / Burbank 16 / BFI?

I’m nostalgic & romantic by nature, so I love hearing peoples’ stories about first loves, memorable dates, and good meals. I hope you do too.

My first two fabulous guests were filmmaker Michael Tyburski (The Sound of Silence, Turn Me On) and NYT film critic Natalia Winkelman, who shared their favorite date night movies and tips for where to go in New York for a post-film-screening flirtation. In the next few weeks, I’ll be having on some of my favorite DPs, actors, food/bev folks, & more. If you have any ideas for future guests, let me know!

Tribeca Sweeties

Speaking of, my sweet friends (and future Movie Date guests) Annabelle Attanasio and Henry Hall were both in Lucy Schulman, Ellie Sachs’ new feature that premiered at Tribeca last week. The film is gorgeously shot, a reminder that low budget films can still have a real visual appetite. Annabelle and Henry were as lovely and hilarious on screen as they were in real life, & I’m so glad that I got to catch the premiere. Annie wore a pair of perfect kitten heels from the movie that I’m going to steal tout suite (pictured above).

I hugged Henry so hard after the screening that I tweaked an old yoga injury in my back (wish I was kidding), which meant…

Wilkinson Weekend

…the next morning my back totally spasmed as I was walking back from buying flowers at the farmer’s market.

I missed out on beach day festivities with Caroline and Kate, and instead spent the weekend lying on my floor rewatching Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton (perfect, always) and Duplicity (better than I remembered). What I thought was going to be a Gilroy-fest turned into a Wilkinson Weekend — Tom Wilkinson just so good in both, on such different wavelengths. Michael Clayton may be my favorite performance of his, but I could watch him for hours in pharma CEO mode in Duplicity talking about “corporate evolution”.

My Wilkinson Weekend reminded me of ‘s great piece on her favorite genres of plane movies. If I had to pick a favorite plane movie filmmaker it might be Tony Gilroy: if Delta’s got a Bourne movie or 90’s/00’s thriller about sexy spies (Duplicity) or anxious lawyers (Michael Clayton, The Devil’s Advocate), I’m watching it.

On flights, I tend towards big, kinetic action movies or procedural dramas, regardless of quality. There’s something very satisfying about watching a movie star be competent at their job on a tiny screen, whether that’s Winning A Case! in a legal thriller or Driving Well, And Fast! in a frenetic action movie.

xoH

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This Month on Never Cursed

Behind the paywall, I chat with guests about their best (and worst) movie date memories, what romance at the movies means to them, & more. Starting next week, paid subscribers will also get access to:

• The Movie Date City Guides, compilation posts of all the best restaurants & bars to pair with movie date screenings in NY, LA, & beyond.

• Movie Date Maps, Google Maps links for each city with all our guest picks.

• The Movie Date-abase, a Letterboxd list of the best date night movies, picked by our guests.

A special thank you this week to Never Cursed’s illustrator-in-chief Camille Coy, who drew both the OG Phantom-Thread-inspired Never Cursed banner and a bunch of upcoming Movie Date doodles!

Name: Natalia Winkelman

Location: Brooklyn

Occupation: Film Critic

My movie date this week is Natalia Winkelman, a brilliant film critic with bylines at The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and many, many more.

Natalia goes to more screenings than anyone I know, and is my favorite person to grab post-movie martinis with and dive into the minutiae of whatever we’ve just seen. Putting in her 10,000 hours at the movies also means that Natalia’s perfected the elusive art of the comfortable-but-cute screening fit. I’m very excited to break down Natalia’s covetable signature movie theater look, and get her recs for the best spots to get dinner and drinks near her favorite NYC theaters.

Natalia recently wrote a critic’s notebook on the Tribeca Festival for the New York Times where she highlights her favorite films in the lineup. Her top pick this year is Sophia Takal’s seductive Act One. (“Don’t miss it!” — Natalia)

- Where are you eating dinner before the movie? What are you ordering?
My dream scenario would be movie, then snacks and cocktails, but if I were to schedule a dinner before a movie, I’d say something on the light side, like sushi at Ozakaya (if headed to BAM) or oysters and the perfect bluefin tuna bites at my friend Patricia Howard’s restaurant Crevette1, if headed to IFC Center.

- What movie are you and your date watching? Why do you think it's a good date movie?
When watching a movie with a date (or a friend or romantic partner) I usually have one rule: They can pick, as long as I haven’t seen it before. There are so many excellent movies I haven’t seen, I’d almost always prefer to see a new film than to rewatch something. There’s a possibility I’ll hit on a new favorite!

But if I were to recommend one, I’d love to do a thriller like The Conversation or Klute, where I can grip my date’s arm, or a relationship comedy that will have us talking and maybe arguing, like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice or The Heartbreak Kid. I’ll also throw in a sexy, sleazy pick for good measure: Indecent Proposal.

- Where are you seeing it? Why is that your go-to movie date spot?
Obviously, the best theater in New York City is Walter Reade at Film at Lincoln Center, but that’s so far from me that I typically only make it up there for special screenings, or during New Directors/New Films and New York Film Festival (screenings at either festival would make for a killer date, by the way). My second choice theaters are IFC Center or BAM, or a comfy couch and all the lights out if viewing at home.

- Are you having a snack/drink during the movie?
A cruel irony: I’m a film critic who doesn’t love popcorn. It gets stuck in my teeth too much. That means I usually don’t snack during movies, but I do like a large fountain Diet Coke, or a fountain seltzer water. I’d say save the cocktail and food for after the movie, when we’ve worked up an appetite and can nosh while deep in discussion.

- Where are you going for a drink after?
After seeing something at IFC, my choices would be Fanelli or Ear Inn for a dirty vodka martini — shared French fries optional. After BAM, Anaïs for a shared bottle or Brooklyn Inn for a beer. I know, I know, these are basic options, but for a date, I’d argue that it’s good to cut down unknowns?

My favorite part of a movie date is the post-screening nightcap debrief, whether it’s over a bottle of wine, accompanied by a couple martinis, or during a long, meandering walk home. (Ideally, all of the above.) In The Nightcap, I ask guests deeper questions about their favorite movie date memories, what cinematic romance means to them, and more.

This section will mostly live behind the paywall, but I’m keeping the first couple interviews free!

- What’s your go-to movie date outfit?
Trousers (jeans risk discomfort, and skirts get cold), plus a top and a sweater over your shoulders. The theater gets chilly! I basically wear the same uniform when I’m moderating Q&As after films. Somehow, nondescript outfits make the most sense to me for dates, although my boyfriend did later tell me that when I showed up to our first date in my black Agnes B. sweater, he thought I looked like I lived in the West Village.2

- What was the best or most memorable movie date you’ve been on?
In college, I went on a date to Django Unchained. The movie was nearly three hours and I hated every second. We went back to his place after and made out, but it was all ruined because I couldn’t stop picturing Quentin Tarantino’s smug face.

- What’s your favorite romantic movie? What makes it romantic to you?
Favorites are hard! I will say that when I was in middle and high school, I watched When Harry Met Sally basically weekly, which is weird, because these days I tend to avoid rewatches in favor of first-time viewings. The movie’s ellipses comforted me; it felt like I had lots of time to meet my soulmate. I love how Harry and Sally evolve over the years the film captures, and how my own understanding of their relationship has evolved over the decades watching it. I can still recite entire scenes verbatim.

- What’s a recent solo film/culture date you’ve enjoyed by yourself?

I see movies by myself multiple times a week, since I go to so many press screenings. I love the ritual of arriving, getting comfy, staging my notebook and pen on my lap for notes. A couple weeks back, I went to a press screening of Forastera at Film Forum, and was the only person in the theater. I was totally transported and ended up giving it a Critic’s Pick for the New York Times.

Thank you Natalia for being my Movie Date 💞🎞️🍝.

May your screenings always be air-conditioned and your favorite restaurants always have room for walk-ins at the bar.

xoH

• The perfect date night movie + where to see it

• Their favorite spot to have dinner nearby

• And the ideal place for a drink & a chat after the screening.

Behind the paywall, guests will chat about their best (and worst) movie date memories, what romance at the movies means to them, & more. Paid subscribers will also get access to:

• The Movie Date City Guides, compilation posts of all the best restaurants & bars to pair with movie date screenings in NY, LA, & beyond.

• Movie Date Maps, Google Maps links for each city with all our guest picks.

• The Movie Date-abase, a Letterboxd list of the best date night movies picked by our guests.

Eventually I hope the never cursed chat can become a place for readers to swap screening recs, movie date fit ideas, and more. For now, I can’t wait to explore the art of the movie date with my favorite film lovers, starting with…

OUR FIRST GUEST

As soon as I started thinking about this series, I knew who I wanted to have on as my first guest: my friend Michael Tyburski, the brilliant filmmaker behind movies like The Sound of Silence and Turn Me On.

Michael is one of my favorite people to see a movie with: he gets to the theater early to save seats, always smuggles in a couple cans of wine for a cheeky mid-movie drink (more on that below), and is the king of the post-screening nightcap.

Michael recently took me to one of his favorite movie date spots, the Roxy, to see Pete Ohs’ latest film, Erupcja, which is all about the messiness of falling in and out of love. We chased our screening at Mr. Fong’s with an on-theme “volcano,” which we shared while chatting about Michael’s favorite NYC movie date moves:

Name: Michael Tyburski

Location: New York City

Occupation: Filmmaker

- Where are you eating dinner before the movie? What are you ordering?

Ideally just a light bite before a film — sushi is always the right move. If I’m going to IFC Center, I love KazuNori. If I’m headed to the Alamo in Brooklyn, meeting up downstairs at Daigo Hand Roll Bar is solid too.

- What movie are you and your date watching? Why do you think it’s a good date movie?

I love going to old films and sharing my favorites with whomever I’m going out with. I once took a first date to see a 35mm print of Barry Lyndon (in retrospect, a bold first-date move given the runtime).

- Where are you seeing it? Why is that your go-to movie date spot?

Metrograph and Roxy are both my favorite date spots. The vibes are ideal, they always have a good rep title showing (plus reserved seating), and you can rendezvous at the bar for a good Negroni beforehand.

Shout out to the Queens Drive-In (RIP), where I went close to a dozen times during the pandemic (when all the usual theaters were closed). It was on the old World’s Fair grounds, and they had a great retro playlist you could tune to on your car radio as you arrived. There was also an Asian food cart out there, with these amazing steamed bao buns that I still think about.

- Are you having a snack/drink during the movie?

I’m admittedly not big on eating during a film, but I do love a drink. If I’m at Nitehawk, I’m ordering their signature “Fire Walk With Me” tequila cocktail. Depending on the theater though, I famously usually smuggle a couple cans of cold rosé in my tote, which is always a pro date move in my book.

- Where are you going for a drink after? What are you ordering?

For Nitehawk Prospect Park, a stroll in the park (possibly with more canned bevs) is perfect for a post-screening debrief, followed by nightcaps at nearby Saint Eves (they make a great Boulevardier). After Metrograph, I like to relocate to The Ten Bells to share a bottle of vino. And after a film at Roxy, there’s a cool speakeasy in the basement of The Walker Hotel called Saint Tuesday. They have really good cocktails, and there’s usually a classy little jazz duo playing in the corner too.

My favorite part of a movie date is the post-screening nightcap debrief, whether it’s over a bottle of wine, accompanied by a couple martinis, or during a long, meandering walk home. (Ideally, all of the above.) In The Nightcap, I ask guests deeper questions about their favorite movie date memories, what cinematic romance means to them, and more. This section will mostly live behind the paywall, but I’m keeping the first couple interviews free!

- What was the best or most memorable movie date you’ve been on?

Many years ago, I studied abroad in Florence, and I remember taking a girl I had a crush on to see The Life Aquatic at this gorgeous theater called Cinema Odeon. It’s since been converted into a glorified bookshop, but back then it was still an ornate movie palace preserved from a different era, with chandeliers and a velvet curtain. After the movie, meandering through the cobblestone alleys of that inherently romantic city made for a pretty dreamy night all around.

- What’s your favorite romantic movie? What makes it romantic to you?

Probably a tie between Harold and Maude and Phantom Thread. They’re both very particular types of romances with very particular characters, and I suppose I’m a very particular type of guy.

- What # date is ideal to see a movie together for the first time?

Going to a movie is always a great second-date choice, in my book. It’s also a good way to get a read early on whether they’re the sort of person who will stay seated for the end credits with you too.

- What is your favorite movie you saw in theaters recently?

A friend took me to see All That Jazz (on 35mm!) at the Museum of the Moving Image the other evening, and it was truly fantastic — my first time seeing it.

- What is your favorite movie you watched at home recently?

I have a projector at home, with a large bespoke canvas screen I made for the space, so it’s always a nice venue to watch something. I recently screened the new Criterion Blu-ray of Birth for a friend who had never seen it. I love that film so much.

Thank you Michael for being my first Movie Date 💞🎞️🍝.

May your screenings always be air-conditioned and your restaurants always have room for walk-ins at the bar.

xoH

This week, we have:

• Bathhouse’s new BAM-adjacent sauna

• Battling a deluge to go to the movies

• Pete Ohs’ Charli-xcx-starring Erupcja

• New column percolating…

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Downpour!

Carlen and I went to BAM on Wednesday to see Berlin Express, a Jacques Tourneur x Merle Oberon post-war thriller that’s been on my watchlist for a long time. The movie was uneven but fascinating, featuring the first European on-location footage shot by an American production after the war. I really loved how economically the predominantly male cast is introduced: Merle Oberon walks down a train platform, turning down each of her cast mates as they try to hit on her help her with her bags. The simple interaction creates contrast between her admirers’ tactics/characters and establishes her as a clever polyglot, happy to be underestimated by the men around her.

Our one-block-odyssey to the theater was arguably more thrilling than the movie itself: just as we were wrapping up a quick dinner at Tacombi across the street, sudden torrential rain ripped through the neighborhood. After two aborted attempts to cross the street, we were completely soaked. The BAM steps and lobby were full of sad, wet people commiserating about their commutes to the theater. The nervous camaraderie felt strangely festive/cathartic after the dulling effects of the heat earlier in the week.

🌋 Volcano x Volcano

Michael and I finally caught a screening of Pete Ohs’ delightful Erupcja at the Roxy. I love seeing films that feel this loose and experimental in both process and form — a nice counterweight to my own perfectionism. The film’s inciting incident involves a volcanic eruption, so Michael suggested getting a thematically-appropriate “volcano” beforehand (which I’m still recovering from). We spent the night scheming on a fun interview series launching on never cursed this week, which I can’t wait for you to read soon.

Sauna Report

Bathhouse invited me to drop by their new Atlantic Ave location for the national aufguss competition. I slogged through the heatwave and met up with my friend Blair and some other girlfriends for a steam. Topics of sauna conversation: the highs and lows of puppet theater, David Foster Wallace chest tattoos, and the rise of “feminist” breadcrumbs preemptively published by straight men who know they’re about to get cancelled. We had a sublime night sauna-ing and soak-ing, followed by my first michelada of the season.

I’m still not entirely sure what defines an aufguss champion, but I’m eternally grateful to have a Bathhouse within walking distance of BAM, especially since rumor has it that there is an outdoor pool opening on the roof this summer… A movie + a sauna could be the new perfect Brooklyn day date.

xoH

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This Month on Never Cursed

This week, we have:

• The inevitable dawn of my Akerman era

• Where I took my 3 b2b2b house guests in town visiting for my birthday

• Plus, some tunes: a Prince megamix; Italo Disco, Stockholm style; & my current playlist for long, sunny, almost-summer walks

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New Obsession Percolating: Akerman’s La Captive

Chantal Akerman feels like a friend of a friend who everyone insists I’ll be obsessed with. After years of anticipatory pressure, the likelihood of a letdown felt high. It’s silly, and self-sabotaging, and I should just accept that my taste is pretty predictable, but my contrarian streak has made me avoid her films for years. Or maybe watching and inevitably loving Akerman’s work felt narcissistic: “A female filmmaker working between New York and Europe interested in desire, memory, time, and domesticity” could be my own aspirational bio.

So, with a heavy heart, I have to report that I finally watched my first Akerman feature, La Captive, and, as promised, absolutely loved it. It’s a Hitchcockian story of obsession that oscillates between unsettling intimacy and cold, analytical affect. I immediately revised my Letterboxd 4 to make space for it.

La Captive lead me to watch a few Akerman shorts (including La chambre, which I want to write about in greater detail), and now I’m officially in my Akerman era.

Love at first sight (finally).

Birthday Eats

I was so lucky to have friends fly in from LA, Berlin, & Italy for my birthday this month, which was a great excuse for a lot of delicious, indulgent meals. Cordelia flew into town for my birthday proper, which we celebrated with friends at my new favorite pasta spot Sullaluna before seeing Seduction of Mimi at Film Forum — my ideal birthday night. Next, Nathan came in from Berlin to celebrate our joint birthdays at Saint Julivert. Saint Julivert is a perfect neighborhood spot, and allows for my favorite dinner format: many hours sitting at the bar, slowly covering every available surface in wine bottles and small seafood plates until getting kicked out at closing. Then Geraldine flew in from a shoot in Italy for a long weekend of shopping and snacking. We had an amazing dinner at Bong, which may be my new favorite restaurant in Brooklyn.

Coasting

I lived on the side of a giant hill in LA for many years that turned any neighborhood walk into a hike. Strolling on flat ground with minimal car-dodging still feels like a luxury. I think better on my feet, and start and end most writing days with an hour+ walk. This is obviously way more fun in April and May than in the frigid depths of winter or sticky heights of NY summer, but I’ve become pretty dependent on long daily walks as a mood-regulating, thought-percolating routine year-round. In my head I refer to this as “coasting” — long, frictionless walks where my feet go on autopilot and my mind clears. I get that same feeling on long bike rides along the coast in Maine, or after a couple hours on the dance floor.

I usually like to listen to albums all the way through while on a coasting sesh, but have been on a playlist/NTS kick lately. Here’s my own playlist made for sunny coasting, plus a couple NTS mixes I’ve had in rotation:

• coasting, a playlist

• A Prince megamix from Theo Bark and Fat Tony

• Italo Disco by way of Stockholm from Sally Shapiro

xoH

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This Month on Never Cursed:

NEW RELEASES

Calling out 2 intriguing new releases this month from 1-2 Special, who just put out Miroirs No. 3 (more on how much I loved Miroirs here):

• Silent Friend, which sounds like it was made for me in a lab (Tony Leung Chiu-wai & Léa Seydoux communing with a tree in a botanic garden).

• & Time and Water, a new doc from Fire of Love director Sara Dosa (which I still need to see!).

Some more new releases (& limited re-releases) to catch in theaters this month (movies I’m prioritizing to see in theaters in bold):

Devil Wears Prada 2, Hokum, The Currents, Backrooms, I Love Boosters, Tuner, Stolen Kingdom, Blue Film, The Sheep Detectives, Harlan County USA (4K Restoration), Our Land, Is God Is, The Wizard of the Kremlin

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REP SCREENINGS

• 5/17, 7PM - Under The Cherry Moon (w screenwriter intro) @ Vidiots - My first Prince vinyl was Under The Cherry Moon’s soundtrack album, Parade, but I’ve never seen the film! Shocking considering it’s a Riviera gigolo jewel thief romp starring Prince and Kristin Scott Thomas (In her feature debut! Legend.). Reviews at the time were bad, but ‘90s film critics rarely knew how to relax and have fun so don’t let that deter you. I’d go to this if only to hear the album blasting on Vidiots’ sound system.

• 5/18, 7:30PM - The Passionate Friends @ The Academy - My friend Michael introduced me to this movie and I’ve watched it at least 3 times in the last 2 years. Between this and Brief Encounter, David Lean is one of my favorite romantic drama directors. It also has a really beautiful use of VO and a fab Claude Rains performance. Its one flaw, as Caroline said:“Lot of movies out there where ppl are upset about being married to Claude Rains and I never buy it.” Part of The Academy’s series on post-war British cinema.

• 5/19, 10PM - Le Déménagement & L’Homme À La Valise @ Los Feliz 3 - Listen. I try not to recommend screenings that I wouldn’t go to myself, and a 10pm screening on a Tuesday would usually be a tough sell. But I’m finally in my Akerman era, and I’m very intrigued by her shorter form work. A 40 minute film described as “Surrounded by unpacked boxes, a man delivers an extended monologue on indecision and regret.” might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it is absolute catnip to me. Part of the tail end of AC’s Akerman retrospective.

• 5/21, 7:30PM - The Hidden Room (aka Obsession) @ The Academy - A Kafkaesque noir from the director of Crossfire and the composer of The Godfather theme about “a London psychiatrist smuggling acid from work daily to a blitzed building, with the aim of killing and dissolving the body of his wife’s American lover.” Yes please, to all of the above.

• 5/23, 1PM - West Side Story (70mm) @ The Egyptian - I’ve been thinking a lot about dinner/drinks-and-a-movie pairings for an upcoming series on never cursed, and this might be my perfect Saturday day date: 1pm screening of a gorgeous 70mm print of West Side Story, followed by a snack at Luv2eat Thai Bistro and a martini (or two) across the street at Musso & Frank.

• 5/24, 8PM - Beauty and the Beast (1978) @ Braindead - I don’t know much about this Czech version of Beauty and the Beast, but it looks and sounds incredible.

• 5/25, 4:15PM - Jurassic Park (35mm) @ Vidiots - I was just talking with my writer’s group about how I was too scared to watch Jurassic Park as a kid, despite being obsessed with paleontology. Now that I’m a brave girl and not scared of dinosaurs (or Jeff Goldblum) anymore, I’ll take any chance I can get to watch it in a theater. Perfect studio filmmaking. Perfect early internet “hacking” moment.

• 5/28, 8:45PM - They Come Out of Margo & Last Tropics @ Braindead - I’m intrigued by all of the screenings in the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival this month, but this double feature of new releases particularly caught my eye.

• 5/29, 7:30PM - Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion & The Wedding Singer (w/ costume designer Q&A) @ The Aero - Romy and Michele is an all time comfort movie for me, and would be a blast to see with a crowd. American Cinematheque is putting on a really fun retrospective of the work of iconic costume designer Mona May (who also designed Clueless, The House Bunny, & many more). I’m always an advocate for anti-auteurist retrospectives that expand beyond the oeuvres of directors to consider the work of filmmakers of all kinds, especially in a working entertainment town like LA.

• 5/31, 2PM - Sátántangó @ The Aero - To kick off the 5th annual Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair, American Cinematheque is screening Béla Tarr’s 7 hour epic in full. For the real heads. Speaking of…

SPECIAL ALERT FOR THE FREAKS: BLEAK WEEK IS BACK

🚨: Tickets are on sale now for the 5th annual Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair running during the first week of June. Flagging it ahead of time because there are so many delicious downers sure to sell out fast this year, including:

• A new 4K resto of Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin

• A nitrate print for a Polish demonic nun movie I’d never heard of but am obviously now dying to see

• Q&As with Werner Herzog, Denis Villeneuve, Ari Aster, and more.

• A tribute to the queen of bleak Euro cinema herself, Isabelle Huppert, who is also joining for a few Q&As.

• The 7-hour Béla Tarr epic Sátántangó

xoH

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MAY SCREENINGS (NY)

Every spring I get the sinking feeling that there’s nothing to see in theaters, and every spring I prove myself wrong as soon as I actually look into what’s playing. After the marketing deluge of awards season, any release campaign for the type of indie and international film that tend to open in the spring feels whisper-quiet. Spring actually tends to be when I see my favorite films of the year (La chimera, Misericordia, Afire, etc). Maybe I keep my release blinders on so that I can enjoy sunny, lengthening days guilt-free, without hearing the siren song of a dark, chilly movie theater. Speaking of…

NEW RELEASES

Calling out 2 intriguing new releases this month from 1-2 Special, who just put out Miroirs No. 3 (more on how much I loved Miroirs here):

• Silent Friend, which sounds like it was made for me in a lab (Tony Leung Chiu-wai & Léa Seydoux communing with a tree in a botanic garden).

• & Time and Water, a new doc from Fire of Love director Sara Dosa (which I still need to see!).

Some more new releases (& limited re-releases) to catch in theaters this month (movies I’m prioritizing to see in theaters in bold):

Devil Wears Prada 2, Hokum, The Currents, Backrooms, I Love Boosters, Tuner, Stolen Kingdom, Blue Film, The Sheep Detectives, Harlan County USA (4K Restoration), Our Land, Is God Is, The Wizard of the Kremlin

REP SCREENINGS

• Through 5/21 - Bellissima @ Film Forum - Film Forum’s description of this early Visconti film has me absolutely sold: “…this hilarious 1951 comedy, tailored to the talents of Anna Magnani, about a working-class woman who is determined to get her plain seven-year-old daughter into movies. A wonderful send-up of the Italian film industry and the illusions that it fosters, delineated in near-epic proportions with style and brio.”

• 5/15-5/20 - Aloïse & Qui donc a rêvé? @ Metrograph - I’d never heard of Liliane de Kermadec before seeing this listing, which feels like a major blind spot. She was a producer for Chantal Akerman and set photographer for filmmakers like Agnes Varda and Alain Resnais, as well as a director in her own right with multiple projects premiering at Cannes. In Aloïse, Isabelle Huppert & Delphine Seyrig portray the Swiss artist Aloïse Corbaz, who was institutionalized as a schizophrenic for over 45 years while continuing to make work.

• 5/16, 8:30P - The Face of Another (35mm) @ Metrograph - This ‘60s Japanese psychological thriller about a man who undergoes facial reconstruction surgery to disastrous results has been recommended to me many times because I am a fiend for similarly-themed The Skin I Live In and Phoenix. Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto (you’ve probably seen photos from his eerie and beautiful “Theater” series) selected this movie as a part of the the Fraenkel Gallery Presents series.

• 5/17, 1P - Hahaha @ Metrograph - Hard to believe given the gloomy weather this week, but this weekend is going to be hot and humid as hell. That means I’ll be bopping from my morning farmer’s market jaunt to a matinee at Metrograph, my preferred venue for a little AC-cooled afternoon escapism. I think I prefer seeing Hong Sang-soo movies in a matinee — there’s something subtle and dreamy about his pacing that hits me perfectly on a lazy afternoon. I also like going into his movies knowing as little as possible, so I won’t spoil any plot details here. As Isabelle Huppert said about her (now frequent) collaborator: “He makes me reflect profoundly on the meaning of cinema…Hong’s methods make me remember how cinema can be so vast and also so small.”

• 5/18, 7P - USA: POETRY @ Anthology Film Archives - My heart skipped a beat when I saw that Anthology is doing an entire series on films featuring/related to Robert Creeley, one of my all time favorite poets. “Richard Moore’s series of USA: POETRY films – produced for and aired on public television – adopt a style poised between vérité and theatricality to achieve rich portraits of many of the most prominent figures of mid-sixties American poetry, from both sides of the era’s so-called poetry wars, with segments on Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton in the mix with features on Charles Olson and Ed Sanders…In the spirit of Creeley’s lifelong dedication to the work of his friends and peers, a dual segment featuring Robert Duncan and John Wieners is included, to provide some context for what is meant by “company.”” The doc apparently prominently features Creeley’s partner Bobbie, who I’m so curious to learn more about. For the poetry-curious among us, here’s “For Love,” maybe my favorite Creeley poem.

• 5/20, 7:25P - The Long Goodbye (35mm) @ Metrograph - I’ve LOVED the theme and programming choices in Metrograph’s After The Case series. I didn’t realize it until seeing this collection of titles, but “hapless and/or jaded investigator grooves around only-kind-of trying to solve a case” is one of my favorite subgenres. And The Long Goodbye is the most perfect example of this — peak hot Elliot Gould bumming around LA. On 35mm no less!

• 5/21, 1P - Oceans Eleven @ The Paris Theater - What could be more delicious than playing hooky on a weekday afternoon & checking in with Danny Ocean and the gang? Make it an Elliott Gould double feature with The Long Goodbye at Metrograph the day before.

• 5/23, 6:45P - Lady (with director Q&A)@ BAM - The annual FilmAfrica festival is back at BAM this month, and this new feature from Olive Nwosu sounds especially intriguing. “In the restless night of Lagos, one of the city’s few female cab drivers, Lady, survives by staying tough and focused. She dreams of escape, saving her earnings for a new life far from the chaos of this Nigerian metropolis. But when long-lost childhood friend, Pinky - now a sex worker - returns with a burst of colour and trouble, Lady is pulled reluctantly into her orbit. Soon she’s driving a crew of glamorous, reckless, fun-loving women through the underbelly of Lagos nightlife. What begins as judgement becomes unexpected sisterhood: wild, tender, and disarming.”

• 5/26, 9:15P - Mission: Impossible II (35mm) @ Nitehawk Prospect Park - Mission: Impossible II haters have it all wrong. The whole thing is so fun and so stupid and so gorgeous — exactly what I want from a Tom Cruise spy movie. Mission: Impossible II is an absolute treat compared to the dour moralizing & CIA black site aesthetics of the follow up Mission: Impossible III, which almost manages to make a mustache-twirling Philip Seymour Hoffman boring. Thandiwe Newton should’ve gotten an Oscar for being the only actress to convincingly pretend to have chemistry with Tom Cruise.

• 5/28, 5:10P - The Evolution of Betty Boop @ Film Forum - This program of Max Fleischer’s Betty Boop cartoons shows “how Betty went from dog character (in her debut, Dizzy Dishes), to skimpily-dressed Pre-Code icon, to career woman, to supporting character.” I’d never made the connection between cartoonist Max Fleischer (Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman) and Richard Fleischer, director of Fantastic Voyage, 10,000 Leagues Under The Sea, etc., but Film Forum is doing a fun father-and-son joint retrospective of their (at first glance) wildly different work.

xoH

Welcome to Earthly Delights, a weekly roundup of things I’ve enjoyed reading/watching/listening to/doing lately.

This week, we have:

• A fever dream of an occult dramedy that I watched while having a real fever

• The sweet treat that healed me

• SIR Ian McKellan x Soderbergh

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Spring Cold Cinema: Blithe Spirit

I was laid out at the beginning of the week with the spring cold that’s been making the rounds in NY. At the peak of my low-fever-induced-semi-delirium I watched Blithe Spirit, a 1945 David Lean x Noel Coward occult dramedy shot and co-written by Lean’s Cineguild co-founder Ronald Neame. Neame has fascinated me for a long time: at the beginning of his career he collaborated with Lean as a DP, producer, and screenwriter who seemed to move fluidly between the three roles. After Cineguild folded, Neame became something of a journeyman director on UK-Hollywood co-productions. Blithe Spirit is wacky but entertaining and beautifully shot, perfect for watching with a head cold. Its florals throughout are particularly stunning, from climbing wisteria to delicate arrangements of tulips, which inspired me to start a little research side project combing through Shotdeck (❤️) to look at the use of specific plant species through film history. I’ve been teaching myself to ID plants on my daily botanic garden walks for the past year or so, and it’s been fun to apply that to film.

Treat Report

Speaking of my botanic garden walks, I’m convinced that a cherry blossom stroll listening to ‘s Famesick for ‘s book club followed by a Mr. Softee is what finally put me on the mend.

New Sodey: The Christophers

I celebrated being over my spring cold by seeing The Christophers with Jason at Alamo. This movie has had zero marketing put behind it, which is bizarre because Ian McKellen feels like a shoo-in for a Best Actor nom. Maybe that made Neon’s marketing team feel like they could coast. I am one of approx. 5 people who even knew it was released this weekend because it has several of my favorite things:

1. Sir Ian McKellan being bitchy and mischievous

2. Forgery process sequences

3. Sneaky art heist scenes

4. Michaela Coel staring at someone like they’re an idiot

5. Mister Steven Soderbergh cooking with a tight, low budget concept

The best parts of the movie are:

1. Ian McKellen. Maybe my favorite performance of his since LOTR, both delightful and deep. His performance reminded me of Christopher Plummer in Beginners: the unique desperation of a flawed but charming man in denial about nearing the end of his life. He throws away some fantastic lines with an ease that makes me wonder how much was on the page, and how much was Sir Ian just vibing: “I was bisexual, Lori, when it actually cost you something to be so…”

2. All step-by-step shots of Michaela Coel forging a painting in a dingy studio.

3. The production and costume design were fantastic — it must have been so fun to find reference shots for Coel & McKellen’s art studios.

All in all, like many recent Soderbergh movies, I wish he’d taken another month with the script (especially to streamline the back half), but I had a great time. Also, am playing with the idea of forbidding Soderbergh, Ed Solomon, and/or David Koepp from writing female characters under the age of 40. Between the teens in Presence, Marisa Abela’s dialogue in Black Bag, & Michaela Coel in this, they’re 0/3. The Christophers has strange parallels with After The Hunt in that it is utterly disinterested in the POV of its queer, female, Black lead, and can only pretend to engage with her on any serious emotional level for the first half of the film.

That being said, I had a great time at The Movies. I don’t have a problem with films that people say “could be a play.” Often that just means it’s an entertaining, contained, well-written character study. I actually found the film to be extremely cinematic in its use of close ups — there are multiple shots of Ian McKellen processing a dozen layers of emotion at once that simply could not be translated to a medium outside of film. And cinema allows us to move in and discover the nooks and crannies of a beautifully designed, lived-in set — an underrated pleasure unique to the medium.

Minus points for having possibly the worst in-theater food I’ve ever experienced, and for the man behind us going “HA!” or “HEUH!” any time he felt an emotion, but that’s on me for seeing the movie at Alamo, a theater with a terrible vibe that I’m unfortunately tethered to until they open an AMC in Brooklyn.

xoH

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THIS MONTH ON NEVER CURSED

This week, we have:

• Some exciting new releases in theaters this week

• A botanic garden writing sesh

• An album to listen to while admiring NY in bloom

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Leaf Alert

I’ve been writing a ton this week and usually either start heavier writing days with a park walk or do a stroll through the Botanic Garden on my lunch break. It’s my favorite time of year at the garden — things change so much day to day, and it’s amazing to see the grounds fill out with color. It’s been particularly gorgeous in NY this week so I’ve gone nearly every day. This weekend I edited my feature draft at the garden and brought along my Rollei 35 to photograph the cherry, apricot, and magnolia trees starting to bloom. I love the delicate color combo of buttercream, blush pink, and blue sky:

Ella in Bloom

If you’ve got a garden stroll planned or are just generally enjoying NY’s fruit trees starting to bloom, pop on Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Harold Arlen Songbook. Start with “I’ve Got The World On A String”, touch grass, have a little drink, fall in love, spring has sprung!

New Releases

It feels criminal to go to the movies when it’s 75 and sunny but needs must — there are so many intriguing new releases in theaters over the next week or two. My top picks: The Christophers, Kontinental ‘25, Faces of Death, Hamlet, Blue Heron, Marama, Mother Mary, Erupcja.

xoH

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MARCH SCREENINGS (LA)

First things first: my pal Oscar’s brilliant movie Our Hero, Balthazar is in theaters now! If there ever was an audacious independent film to support, it’s this one. I’m genuinely awed by Oscar’s risk-taking and tenaciousness in making this movie on his own terms, and he’s created a completely unique tone that feels both timeless and timely. If you don’t take my word for it, read Elissa Suh‘s great profile on the film over at Filmmaker Magazine. A choice quote: “Rather than mock its characters, the film exposes the fragile, front-facing logic of internet life—the way identity is performed, curated, and often untethered from reality.”

Another strong new release rec: Christian Petzold’s Miroirs No. 3, which I wrote about here.

Some more new releases (& limited re-releases) to catch in theaters this month (movies I’m prioritizing to see in theaters in bold): Our Hero, Balthazar, Mirrors No. 3, Alpha, Kontinental ‘25, Faces of Death, Hamlet, Blue Heron, Marama, Mother Mary, Erupcja, Wasteman, Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (rerelease)

• 4/10, 4:30PM - After Dreaming @ 2220 Arts & Archives - This new Armenian film presented by LAFM & the Armenian Film Society sounds very intriguing: “In the aftermath of an unnamed war, a soldier (Davit Beybutyan) is sent by a family to take their daughter (Veronika Poghosyan) under his wing, while withholding the news that her father has been mistakenly killed. Traveling on the road, the couple are intimately drawn to each other as they drift through the war-torn landscape.” Director Q&A to follow the screening.

• 4/11, 4PM - Sweet Smell of Success @ The Egyptian - My favorite screening series in LA is the annual Noir City festival, but this year they’re doing some kind of funky live music theme, which initially made me panic since live accompaniment to non-silent films drive me nuts. HOWEVER it appears the festival screenings are mostly being preceded by live performances, and then screened as normal. Phew. I was just talking with friend-of-Never-Cursed Dema about how it’s hard to explain the way Sweet Smell of Success feels utterly, electrically contemporary. It’s noir to the core, with bone-deep cynicism and an almost French New Wave feeling to the verité sequences shot in 1950s New York by legendary DP James Wong Howe. And the jazz soundtrack is incredible. Love.

• 4/13-4/26 - Rocco and his Brothers @ The Academy - I just realized that The Academy (of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, tyvm) is coordinating screenings of their “branch selects” series in NY at The Paris as well as at The Academy, so I’ll be catching this Visconti classic on the East Coast.

• 4/16, 7:30PM - Harlan County, USA @ The Aero - I don’t know how this isn’t sold out yet — icon (& personal hero of mine) Barbara Kopple is opening the This Is Not a Fiction 2026 doc festival with a new 4K restoration of her classic documentary. Seeing this in college changed my life. Filmmaking as an act of solidarity, of bravery, of urgent cultural preservation.

• 4/17, 7:30PM - The Idiot (35mm) @ The Academy - The Academy is doing a big Kurosawa retrospective this month. I’d love to see this print of Kurosawa’s Dostoevsky adaptation, even though it was a flop when it was initially released. Per the Academy: “Facing an original runtime of more than four hours, the studio Shochiku forced him to cut it down to less than three, despite the director’s protests: “If you want to cut it, you had better cut it lengthwise.” Shochiku won the battle; Kurosawa left the studio.” I’m curious to see what Kurosawa called a risky “mistake”.

• 4/18, 1:45PM - Other Music @ Vidiots - Vidiots is throwing this cute screening for Record Store Day, which will be accompanied by a pre-show montage of music videos curated by Pop Overbite Records. Other Music tracks the demise of the legendary NYC record store Other Music, a casualty of the double bullets of streaming and gentrification. There’ll be a conversation with the filmmakers plus special guests Gary Wilson and Dam-Funk after the show. And if you bring in a receipt from any independent record store dated April 18th, Vidiots will give you a free small popcorn or video store rental!

• 4/19, 4PM - Fire at Sea @ Los Feliz 3 - I haven’t seen this doc, but it was emphatically recommended to me by several DP friends. It’s screening this month as part of This Is Not A Fiction 2026 doc festival and AC’s run of films by Gianfranco Rossi, titan of contemporary Italian documentaries. Per AC: “FIRE AT SEA takes place in Lampedusa, a remote Mediterranean island that has become a major entry point for refugees into Europe. There, we meet Samuele, a 12-year-old boy who lives simply, climbing rocks by the shore and playing with his slingshot. Nearby, we bear witness as thousands of men, women, and children risk their lives to make the brutal crossing from Africa. Award-winning filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi masterfully juxtaposes these realities, jolting the audience into a new understanding of what is happening in the region, the heavy toll of the migrant crisis, and the price of freedom.” With post-film filmmaker Q&A.

• 4/21, 10PM - Tsai Ming-Liang’s Back Home @ Los Feliz 3 - A lot of doc recs this month, I know, but the programmers of This Is Not A Fiction 2026 have put together a really enticing festival. Tsai Ming-Liang’s narrative films can have a verité, observational quality to them, so I’m curious to see him work in a pure documentary form.

• 4/22, 6:30PM - Our Land (Nuestra Terra) @ Vidiots - Absolute legend & international treasure Lucrecia Martel is swinging by Vidiots to present her newest documentary Our Land (Nuestra Terra). The screening will be followed by my favorite type of Q&A, i.e. not a Q&A: instead of a bunch of meandering questions, there’ll be a conversation between Martel and her DP Ernesto de Carvalho. One of the best Q&As I’ve seen was when Kelly Reichardt was sick of answering inane non-question-questions about Meek’s Cutoff and just started having a chat with her DP who was sitting in the crowd. More of that, please!

• 4/22, 7PM - Remake @ Los Feliz 3 - Legendary American documentarian Ross McElwee is back with a personal look at his relationship with his late son, Adrian. Post-screening filmmaker Q&A.

xoH

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This week, we have:

• Italy update

• What I think you should see twice in theaters this week

• LA’s hometown heroes

• A spring bop

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Rome Was Heaven

I got back from a truly heavenly week drinking my weight in machiatti in Umbria & Rome to see this lovely Maira Kalman NYer cover, appropriately entitled “Rome Was Heaven.”

Some highlights:

• Digging through a Roman restaurant supply store to find the little bar glasses Italian cafés serve water in alongside espresso.

• Homemade strozzapreti (aka “priest-strangler”) pasta in misty, empty Assisi.

• The frescoes at Palazzo Altemps.

Petzold, Again

I broke up a slow writing day by catching a matinee of Miroirs No. 3 and left the theater completely re-energized, writing late into the night. I’ve already written a bit about how charmed I was by both the movie and Petzold’s charismatic post-screening Q&A, but had to pop back in and report that it’s even better the second time around. I agree with ’s Letterboxd review after her second viewing — “thought this was minor Petzold but might actually be major.” Petzold’s endings! Paula Beer’s haircut! Worthy of repeat theatrical viewing, if you can swing it. There’s also a great needle drop that I won’t spoil, but has been stuck in my head for days…

California Love

Beloved friend-of-Never-Cursed Kate Holguín was interviewed on KCRW along with other members of Stay in LA, an amazing grassroots movement doing real, tangible work to keep productions in LA. The amount of solidarity they’ve built among film crews and local businesses is remarkable and inspiring, and I loved listening to film workers talk passionately about keeping cameras running in California. This made me homesick for the LA I love — tenacious, multifaceted, & ever-optimistic. 💓 Chase this with my favorite California song, which I listen to every time I fly over the mountains into LA.

On Repeat

My girl with immaculate taste put me on to this new single from Alice Costelloe, which I’ve had on loop since hearing it on Jacqui’s weekly Dinner Music playlist. Perfect for the temperamental springtime weather in NY this week.

xoH

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APRIL SCREENINGS (NY)

First things first: my pal Oscar’s brilliant movie Our Hero, Balthazar is in theaters now! If there ever was an audacious independent film to support, it’s this one. I’m genuinely awed by Oscar’s risk-taking and tenaciousness in making this movie on his own terms, and he’s created a completely unique tone that feels both timeless and timely. If you don’t take my word for it, read ‘s great profile on the film over at . A choice quote: “Rather than mock its characters, the film exposes the fragile, front-facing logic of internet life—the way identity is performed, curated, and often untethered from reality.”

Another strong new release rec: Christian Petzold’s Miroirs No. 3, which I wrote about here.

Some more new releases (& limited re-releases) to catch in theaters this month (movies I’m prioritizing to see in theaters in bold): Our Hero, Balthazar, Mirrors No. 3, Alpha, Kontinental ‘25, Faces of Death, Hamlet, Blue Heron, Marama, Mother Mary, Erupcja, Wasteman, Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (rerelease)

• 4/1-4/9 - Days and Nights in the Forest (4K Restoration) @ Film Forum - I haven’t watched a Satyajit Ray movie in theaters since college, which I hope to correct by catching this classic before it leaves Film Forum.

• 4/8, 7PM - Leviticus @ MoMA - I’ve heard amazing things about this new Aussie queer horror film, which got picked up at Sundance by NEON for wider release later this year. Per MoMA: “Ingeniously complicating the deep interrelation between teen sexuality and slasher movie iconography, and staging his set pieces with chilling precision, Chiarella announces himself as a new Aussie horror auteur to stand alongside Jennifer Kent.” Ms. Kent mentioned, I’m sold. Screening as part of New Directors/New Films.

• 4/9, 6PM - È Piccerella (with live piano accompaniment) @ Film Forum - I just got back from a perfect week in Umbria and Rome and am aching for some Italian melodrama. Now I don’t know who I’m going to convince to go see an hourlong silent Italian movie with me on a Thursday night, but this is exactly the kind of thing that makes me love seeing movies in NY. Live piano! Intro by a cultural theory professor! Everyone at this screening is going to be ancient! Yes!!

• 4/11-4/12 - Caché (35mm) @ The Paris Theater - A thousand pale imitations later, and Haneke is still so fucking cool. Juliette Binoche is perfect, of course, but I also absolutely love Daniel Auteuil in this. Genuinely subversive and unnerving in a way few contemporary domestic thrillers manage.

• 4/16, 7:15PM - Pauline at the Beach (35mm) @ The Roxy - By mid-April it should be safe to indulge in an early sip of summer. This is classic Rohmer, beautiful and sun-drenched, and with a particular sensitivity to the astute moral compass of teenage girls in the face of needlessly complicated “adult” problems.

• 4/17, 7PM - Susaki Paradise: Red Light @ Japan Society - Brilliant, recently relaunched feminist film journal Another Gaze is presenting this screening at Japan Society (AG’s publishing imprint has released the first English translation of the stories the film is based on). Per Japan Society: “Based on Yoshiko Shibaki’s eponymous collection of stories (also the source material for Mizoguchi’s Street of Shame) and adapted by proto-New Wave filmmaker Yuzo Kawashima, Susaki Paradise: Red Light remains a crucial work of postwar cinema, its feverish undercurrent of desperation swelling as opportunism, love, desire and dreams collide over the shimmering waterways of Suzaki.” Sounds incredible.

• 4/19, 11AM & 4/27, 7PM - Rocco And His Brothers @ The Paris Theater - I didn’t realize that The Academy (of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, tyvm) is doing screenings at The Paris! I really loved their “branch selects” series at The Academy Museum in LA, & am excited to check out this screening of a Visconti classic picked by the writers branch.

• 4/24+ - The Seduction of Mimi (4K Restoration) @ Film Forum - I’m considering it an early birthday present that Film Forum is screening this new 4K restoration of one of my favorite movies of all time. Lina Wertmuller is massively underrated beyond film school circles — I predict that her edgy blend of comedy and social commentary is going to have a major revisitation soon. The Seduction of Mimi, for its part, also features one of the great knitting jokes in cinema history. A satire of passivity, perfect for our screen-numbed times.

• 4/24, 7PM; 4/26, 7PM - Klute @ BAM - I’ve got a major soft spot for 70s paranoid conspiracy thrillers, and the fact that Klute stars young Donald Sutherland has cemented it as one of my faves. Come for the incredible clothes & hair, stay for the prescient anxiety about surveillance and intimacy.

• 4/28, 9:30PM - Italo Disco Legacy @ Nitehawk Williamsburg - I spent my birthday last year having an existential crisis in a matinee screening of 8 1/2. This year I think I’ll take it easy and ring in the new year with this doc about the groovy Italo Disco subgenre, ft. this guy with a mesmerizingly thin mustache:

xoH

Forgive any typos — writing this from JFK departures next to a man named Braden who could be an extra on Industry (crushing spritzes while rolling unintelligible conference calls about Business on speakerphone).

This week, we have:

• a playlist for the spring equinox

• Christian Petzold’s spellbinding movie Miroirs No. 3

• my favorite photographer profiled in the New Yorker

20 Songs For Spring

The spring equinox was this Friday, which happened to coincide with my favorite day of the year in NY: the first sunny day in spring when everyone simultaneously agrees it’s time to start bumping Mimi and Ja Rule from their stoops/cars/bikes again. This should be an official city holiday.

In honor of this hypothetical holiday, I made a playlist to soundtrack the city-wide psychosis that sweeps New York in early spring. Also appropriate for the delirium of the current LA heatwave. Apple Music link here.

Miroirs No. 3

After swinging by the Elizabeth Street Garden spring equinox party (ft a crowd straining to listen to a very quiet ambient set amid sun showers and the din of local traffic), I met my friend Michael at IFC for a screening of Christian Petzold’s new film Miroirs No. 3. Petzold has been a favorite filmmaker of mine since seeing Barbara in a “New New German Cinema” class in college, and his previous film Afire was the first new release I wrote about on Never Cursed. I settled into the screening completely relaxed, knowing I was in the best possible hands. Miroirs is an immensely moving portrait of rebirth: of a woman who’s become numb to the world and lost touch with her purpose, and of a fractured family slowly coming back together. Petzold is a master of endings. It doesn’t really matter if you sense the backstory before it’s revealed in full — there’s no way you could anticipate the emotional and tonal shifts of the profoundly moving and diabolically funny final 10 minutes. Michael can attest that I was giggling with delight during every second of the Q&A between Petzold and Ira Sachs after the movie (I believe his exact words were “He had you CHARMED”). A favorite snippet was Petzold comparing himself stubbornly trying to force an ending to the Miroirs script that was smugly clever but not quite right to Jimmy Stewart standing triumphantly over Kim Novak’s corpse in Vertigo — a feeling of temporary victory masking a deeper impotence. We followed the screening with a perfect nightcap at Le Gigot, which may become my new post-screening go to in the West Village.

Jima in the New Yorker!

In an interview a couple years ago, Ilford asked me which contemporary photographers I find personally inspiring. I immediately knew my answer: Atsushi Nishijima aka Jima. We met years ago working on When They See Us, and he quickly became both one of my favorite photographers and a dear pal. I miss Jima loads but he’s a very busy guy, shooting unit stills for filmmakers like Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrea Arnold, and Ava DuVernay. His work was featured in a lovely piece in The New Yorker this month. Yay Jima!

Misc. Bits & Bobs

• The brilliant sculptor Thaddeus Mosley passed away last week. I loved this profile on his work from a couple years ago.

• An industrious Shotdeck-er put together a cool watchlist of films that some of this year’s ASC Award nominees cited as influences.

• This flip-through video of a book on French signage is mesmerizing.

xoH

This week, we have:

• New Oscars categories

• A perfect date night

• A moody playlist for almost-spring

Happy Oscars Sunday to all who celebrate. & to those skipping this year’s ceremony — I get it. After the highs of 2024 (La Chimera! Queer! …both of which got shut out entirely by the Academy), 2025 was a bit of a cinematic comedown. That said, there were a few films and performances worth calling out. And maybe the Academy would retain more viewers if they updated the categories per my suggestions, as follows:

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Best Instant Classic Picture, Best Soundtrack, & Best Casting: The Secret Agent

The only movie I truly, unabashedly loved this year was The Secret Agent. Formally idiosyncratic, undeniably stylish, surprisingly emotional, politically fascinating. All bolstered by an incredible score of 70s Brazilian jams and rounded out by an ensemble cast of unforgettable faces and voices. Wagner Moura is a Star.

Best Movie Star: Denzel Washington (Highest 2 Lowest) // Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)

Speaking of which, there were two movies this year made me slip into the voice of an olde-timey movie mogul/power agent and say THAT’S A STAR: Highest 2 Lowest felt like a reminder of what Denzel is capable of when he’s really cooking. Truly could watch him sparring in a recording booth for hours. And The Secret Agent felt like the announcement of the first real new movie star in ages. I don’t know a single person who left Secret Agent and didn’t immediately text someone “Wagner Moura hot”.

Best Bittersweet Slice of Americana: Kelly Reichardt, The Mastermind

Maybe the most underrated movie of the year, a quiet takedown of the American political ambivalence that One Battle After Another embodied. The last few minutes of the movie have really stuck with me, a beautiful example of how to end a film with pure visual storytelling. Josh great, of course. Small town museum setting also a winner. Reminded me of French New Wave classics in how it captures the chaotic ennui of privileged masculinity from within the casing of a conventional crime film.

Best Movie I Went Into With A Bad Attitude But Ended Up Being Charmed By: Nouvelle Vague // The Phoenecian Scheme

I had low expectations for the latest from Richard & Wes, for different reasons: on the one hand, I have never really vibed with Linklater and him helming a BTS movie about Godard sounded on paper like it would be an indulgent mess; on the other, I’ve been left cold by Anderson’s last few movies despite his earlier work holding a huge place in my heart. But I can admit when I was wrong, and had a great time in both of their new movies.

Best Vibes-Based Experience: One Battle After Another at the Burbank 16

I’ve barely thought about One Battle After Another since seeing it, especially since The Secret Agent’s blend of political commentary and emotional parenting storylines was a lot more coherent. But OBAA is an excellent California vibes movie, and I left the Burb 16 feeling giddy. (Shoutout of course to Benicio Del Toro who is my pick for Best Supporting Actor and by all accounts should be getting a “story by” credit.)

Best Breakout Cinematography: Peter Hujar’s Day // Train Dreams

The two most beautifully-photographed movies of the year feel like calling cards for their up-and-coming cinematographers. Peter Hujar’s Day is elevated from a simple chamber piece into a captivating exploration of space and time by Alex Ashe’s shape-shifting cinematography. And Train Dreams felt like forest bathing thanks to Adolpho Veloso’s lush framing.

Best Picture I Loved But Feel Uncomfortable Recommending: If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

If I Had Legs was one of my favorite movies of the year (anchored by Rose Byrne, who would be my pick for Best Actress), but I feel like I have to read off a litany of disclaimers before recommending it. Maybe the most simultaneously anxious and enraptured I’ve been since seeing Safe for the first time.

Best Movie It Took Me 2.5 Tries To Get Into: Sentimental Value

Some of my absolute favorite books and movies took me a couple tries to get into (Magic Mountain, Phantom Thread, etc). Sentimental Value didn’t really click for me until what was technically my third screening (I walked out of my second attempt due to the woman next to me who came in 20 mins late and promptly fell asleep while holding a bouquet of lilies that made me sneeze). But once I settled in for my third watch, I was blown away by its delicate structure and beautiful final act — knowing where the story ends up definitely rewards a repeat viewing.

^me and watching the red carpet tonight. “Shoes.”

In Other News: Movie Date Perfected

I was wined and dined by my friend Caitlin this week, who went with me to see introduce a 35mm screening of I Am Love at BAM. It’s a rare perfect movie to me, so emotionally layered and effective. And politically sophisticated in a way Luca rarely gets credit for — I can’t think of a more gutting recent melodrama about the implicit (and explicit) soul-erasing evils of wealth. Tilda’s transformation over the course of the movie feels like a magic trick, as chameleonic as she is in flashier roles like Orlando. The crowd was strangely very Badly Behaved, laughing at all the most emotional beats — what’s with that?! After I shook off the impulse to start a fight with the chuckleheads in our row, Caitlin and I ended the night eating prawns, drinking negronis, and reveling in a perfect chocolate cake at Theodora. A perfect Tuesday date night.

In Other News: Leaf Alert!

Maddie and I went birding in Prospect Park last weekend while it was briefly (deceptively) feeling like springtime. When we weren’t gabbing about The Bride! (still haven’t seen) or listening wistfully to birdsong (highly recommend Merlin if you’re a birding novice like I am), we were ecstatically photographing the first snowdrops and crocuses starting to sprout up across the park.

To cope with this false start to spring, I put together a playlist of Moody Tunes. (Apple Music link here)

Come back, spring! We beg. 🌱

xoH

This Month On Never Cursed: Some Screening Recs

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