I haven’t updated this newsletter for a few reasons. Notably, it was a very busy month at my day job, I went out of town to celebrate my anniversary, I had the worst cold I’ve experienced since grade school and, as the month ended, I got a mild case of COVID. This precluded me attending a screening Priscilla at the beginning of the week, a film I still hope to see and write about.
I have more screenings lined up for which I’m tring to place reviews. The ed of October, from the 19th to the 29th, marked the 32nd annual Philadelphia Film Festival, my second consecutively attended. I have two reviews up at Vague Visages this week – for black comedy samurai epic Kubi and Chinese children’s adventure animation Deep Sea. I have a couple other reviews that will be coming up in publication soon, and I’ll be sure to let y’all know.
The next things I’m planning to write in this space will likely involve Starfield, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Cyberpunk 2077, in uncertain order. But I also owe this space some other things I still intend to get done, that I’ve been planning since the summer.
I have seen about 70 movies this year. There’s yet time, but I don’t expect to hit 100 this year. It’s not out of the question. Even of the many I’ve seen, some were rewatches, most weren’t made in 2023. I didn’t even get through all the horror and thriller on Criterion I wanted to this past month. But, as aforementioned, there’s yet time.
One other thing dominating my focus has been violence in Gaza, the continued disproportionate media coverage and military funding by the U.S., protests, and how they’ve been responded to. I’ve witnessed some truly heinous things and been told not to believe my eyes; I’ve seen discourse on the internet curve toward an election taking place in the U.S. in roughly a year.
It's disgusting, but my exhaustion and frustration and even grief pales in comparison that experienced by Palestinians in Gaza having their homes and churches and mosques and hospitals bombed. The main recourse for sympathetic Americans appears to be marching in the streets, CALLING AND EMAILING LEGISLATORS DEMANDING A CEASEFIRE, and posting on social media. All of these things can get you accused of bigotry, even fired, in part though by no means exclusively because of neo-Nazis taking any opportunity to engage in antisemitism.
I remain impressed by the people moved to action by compassion, rather than frozen by despair, including though not limited to conscientious objectors in Israel refusing to join the IDF, and the great displays of solidarity in peace and solidarity marches including those led by Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now here in the United States and in other countries in the West. There is, at present, an interfaith protest taking place in 30th Street Station here in Philadelphia.
While it remains unclear to me whether the situation should resolve to one or two states (and is not, in any case, my place to declare), I remain certain that genocide and ethnic cleansing – on the part of the IDF or any other organization – is not a path to lasting peace but a provocation for endless violent resistance.
I could go on, but will leave it at that for now, for many reasons.
Movies, games, and books next.
I’ve still not finished Necromancer, though it’s very good and quite a page-turner. And I recently got semi-obsessed with Philip K. Dick’s friend K.W. Jeter, pioneer of steampunk and fellow pioneer of cyberpunk.
Perhaps I’ll share my thoughts on some of that soon.