Hello and thanks for checking out this new venue for my musings. Nearly all of my public facing writing has been a result of my enthusiasm for film and a few other modes of fictional storytelling. I don’t have much talent or facility for activism or advocacy and don’t normally make it a large part of my online presence. However, that’s never meant that I’m an apolitical person; my background is rooted in the hardcore and punk scenes, I was a member of various political groups and have volunteered, demonstrated, donated, and otherwise have tried to be of service to others I think are doing good work. It doesn’t add up to doing enough and I’m not sure I’ll ever feel differently about that but I do make an effort. This is all to say that you’ll have to excuse a brief departure from my normal output as I write from a still occupied Twin Cities and Minnesota where federal goons have murdered two of our neighbors and brutalized, harassed, detained, kidnapped, and terrorized countless others. It’s an unconscionable assault on human rights and the US Constitution and it must come to an end. ICE out of everywhere, now.
It’s reasonable to ask what utility film, crime film, or other fiction can provide during times of profound turmoil. They can, naturally, be a comfort if you’re someone like myself who is weirdly soothed by images of guys in suits firing off guns and insults at each other. However, and more importantly, film is a community of people who care about and can support one another. To say I’m completely astonished by the immediate level of commitment I’ve seen from my neighbors to aid each other would be incorrect—I was here in 2020 and while that was a very different situation, it was filled with the same kinds of everyday heroics—but I’m still in awe of how people are coming together and offering such steadfast resistance to absurdly well-resourced (and armed) invaders. Our local film institutions are in this struggle as well and have been vocal in their solidarity, raising awareness, closing for and participating in demonstrations, or even distributing things like zines and whistles. Personally, it’s been restorative to go to screenings and see my friends and colleagues, check in on each other, share resources, and collectively experience our preferred artform before going back out to offer whatever resistance we can. It’s a crew of oddballs that I’m proud to be a part of and I hope that you too are finding that sense of community wherever you may be reading this from.
I posted a few reviews this month and would love for you to check those out if you haven’t already. One film I didn’t write about but has stuck with me a bit is Ryan Prows’ horror/crime mashup, Night Patrol. You may remember Prows’ 2017 film, Lowlife, a heavily Tarantino-influenced indie crime picture that I didn’t react to so favorably at the time. I felt that Night Patrol better delivered on its pulpy promise and offers up a sometimes silly but ultimately satisfying slice of bloody genre fun. Briefly, Justin Long plays an L.A. cop who is attempting to join up with the titular elite law enforcement squad who are, in turn, hiding some supernatural secrets of their origins. The thing that persists with me how Prows portrays law enforcement in the film: an early scene involves Long’s character doing a kind of “scared-straight” intervention with some juvenile offenders where he trots out the kind of “ few bad apples” rhetoric I’ve heard from both law enforcement and elected officials my entire adult life, the kind of rhetoric we even hear about the feds in our midst. However, not only are the infamous Night Patrol (helmed by CM Punk who might want to keep his day job) depicted as hyperviolent assholes who don’t blink at extrajudicial brutality, every cop in the picture, including ones trying to do the right thing, is compromised and a danger to the people around them. The only folks left to defend the housing projects that become the venue for the film’s final siege are the people living there. It’s a message not born of this moment but certainly one that resonates. Night Patrol had a limited theatrical run and I think it’s hitting Shudder in the near future if it hasn’t already. I’d recommend checking it out and I might have to give Lowlife another chance.
Other notable viewings this month were Metropolitan with Whit Stilman present for a Q&A, a press screening of Send Help during which a bunch of critics all laughed our asses off, an Independent Film Spirit Awards screening of Twinless which is every bit as good as everyone said it was, and a screening of the newly restored Fatal Termination. It’s for the best that they don’t make them like that one anymore, but I’m glad we have a record of that level of stunt recklessness. At the end of last year I was poring over my Letterboxd stats (as I’m sure we all do) and realized I was exactly 12 movies short of completing the AFIs 100 Years 100 Movies list and have committed myself to watching one of these a month. To that end I watched On the Waterfront for what I’m fairly certain is the first time and I’m a little embarrassed about that but I’ll continue to share these as I have always felt (paraphrasing Edgar Wright, here) that it is truly never too late to see a great movie. To no surprise to anyone, Waterfront is excellent (Kazan’s still a rat fink, though).
It hasn’t been a huge month for reading things that aren’t the news, but I do have a few things worth noting. I finally read Jason Bailey’s short book/monograph It’s Okay With Me: Hollywood, The 1970s, and the Return of the Private Eye. Bailey’s a critic, author, and podcaster who I’ve been trying to keep up with for a few years now and he reminded me of this book when I noted to him that our respective reviews of Honey Don’t were likely the only two to invoke counter-culture detective/Richard Dreyfuss vehicle, The Big Fix. I’ve liked everything I’ve read from Bailey, but this was pure movie catnip for me. I’ve seen and loved all the major films discussed in Bailey’s book and now have a few more to add to my watchlist. I’m halfway through Donald Winslow’s Crime 101 (originally published as Broken) short story collection, one of which provides the basis of the film by the same name coming out in early February. Like a lot of Winslow’s writing, 101 is sharp, cinematic, and effortlessly entertaining. I’m hopeful that the film will deliver and I’ll be sure to review it. In comics, I read through Fantagraphic’s recent volume of Petra Chérie from the Italian author/artist Attilio Micheluzzi. Chérie is an aviator and adventuress who participates in a variety of schemes mostly opposing the Germans and associated Central Powers during WWI. It’s not really crime fiction, but it’s an easy recommendation if you enjoy some nostalgic, two fisted pulp action as well as stories of resistance. Micheluzzi doesn’t always provide the most coherent narratives, and he’s prone to the kind of “exoticism” that plagues genre work of this ilk, but he renders action impeccably while also managing some sumptuous atmospheres. I could luxuriate his panels for days.
Thanks as always for reading this. If you like what you’re seeing, it would be awesome if you subscribe or share the newsletter with a friend. I’d also love to hear from you: what you’re watching, what you’re reading, what you’re doing to support your community, or what you’re doing to stay sane. I’m just one guy and my experience is far from universal, but I’m happy to answer any questions I get about what it’s like in my part of Minneapolis in this moment. Stay strong, stay safe, and fuck ICE.