Brendan Hodges
@brendanhodges.bsky.social
staff @NextBestPicture, further bylines @BWDR @Ebertvoices @inversedotcom @Polygon @Vaguevisages, guest @BBC. I'm prone to ramble about aspect ratios at parties.
Writing: https://brendanhodges.contently.com/
Inquiries: brendan.hodges815@gmail.com
Writing: https://brendanhodges.contently.com/
Inquiries: brendan.hodges815@gmail.com
Pinned
Stairway to Heaven: the sacred spectacle of A Touch of Zen, 50 years on • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
50 years since A Touch of Zen’s first proper release dazzled viewers, Brendan Hodges reflects on King Hu’s revolutionary wuxia that’s both a swashbuckling adventure and a cosmic meditation on reality—...
letterboxd.com
🚨new byline 🚨
for @letterboxd.social I went long celebrating King Hu's wuxia masterpiece A TOUCH OF ZEN, his swashbuckling action epic that's also a powerful, transcendent meditation on reality –– and our place in it.
Very proud of this one!
letterboxd.com/journal/a-to...
for @letterboxd.social I went long celebrating King Hu's wuxia masterpiece A TOUCH OF ZEN, his swashbuckling action epic that's also a powerful, transcendent meditation on reality –– and our place in it.
Very proud of this one!
letterboxd.com/journal/a-to...
really loved DEATH BY LIGHTNING. it's a thrilling study of our American Project, where a Wambsgansian Raskolnikov pathologizes his failings into a mission to murder a president, whose ascendance captures the folly and power of politics. but most crucially: it has all of the boys.
November 9, 2025 at 11:27 PM
really loved DEATH BY LIGHTNING. it's a thrilling study of our American Project, where a Wambsgansian Raskolnikov pathologizes his failings into a mission to murder a president, whose ascendance captures the folly and power of politics. but most crucially: it has all of the boys.
PLURIBUS is amazing. It feels like the classic speculative sci-fi of the 1960s, with Gilligan using his genre setup to provocatively explore nothing less than the nature of consciousness and what makes us human. Every scene is a discovery. And yes, Rhea Seehorn is extraordinary.
November 7, 2025 at 7:54 PM
PLURIBUS is amazing. It feels like the classic speculative sci-fi of the 1960s, with Gilligan using his genre setup to provocatively explore nothing less than the nature of consciousness and what makes us human. Every scene is a discovery. And yes, Rhea Seehorn is extraordinary.
PREDATOR: BADLANDS is a good time, playing as an episode of STAR TREK where a Klingon is stranded with a chirpy android, full of images right out of the gamerbrained sci-fi desktop wallpapers circa 2008. Many will love this, but I'm just so tired of movies looking so fucking gray
November 7, 2025 at 2:36 AM
PREDATOR: BADLANDS is a good time, playing as an episode of STAR TREK where a Klingon is stranded with a chirpy android, full of images right out of the gamerbrained sci-fi desktop wallpapers circa 2008. Many will love this, but I'm just so tired of movies looking so fucking gray
the CHAINSAW MAN movie is terrific, a heart-fluttering, shark-riding, tragicute romance-action movie that subverts anime/manga romance tropes while delivering exhilarating multi-art-styled action. poor Denji. basically the platonic ideal of what I want one of these to be.
November 5, 2025 at 7:38 PM
the CHAINSAW MAN movie is terrific, a heart-fluttering, shark-riding, tragicute romance-action movie that subverts anime/manga romance tropes while delivering exhilarating multi-art-styled action. poor Denji. basically the platonic ideal of what I want one of these to be.
had fun with BUGONIA, a wily dialectic between a maybe-alien's “let’s have a dialogue” corporate speak vs a conspiracist's magical thinking. IE, another movie about the fall of communication across class and ideology. doesn't add up to a ton, but Plemons and Stone fucking rock it
November 1, 2025 at 11:12 PM
had fun with BUGONIA, a wily dialectic between a maybe-alien's “let’s have a dialogue” corporate speak vs a conspiracist's magical thinking. IE, another movie about the fall of communication across class and ideology. doesn't add up to a ton, but Plemons and Stone fucking rock it
I adored RESURRECTION, Bi Gan's möbius stripped cinedreamworld where he celebrates, mourns and reclaims the fading forms of film history with his signature style that expands and compresses time in dazzling ways. We dream to hold on to what's been lost. One of the best this year.
October 28, 2025 at 12:07 AM
I adored RESURRECTION, Bi Gan's möbius stripped cinedreamworld where he celebrates, mourns and reclaims the fading forms of film history with his signature style that expands and compresses time in dazzling ways. We dream to hold on to what's been lost. One of the best this year.
woke up to the happiest news I’ve read in a while: after almost ten years without a 15/70 IMAX screen in Chicago (and driving hours away to Indianapolis for it) we’re finally getting one back in the suburbs. losing my mind right now lol
from: variety.com/2025/film/ne...
from: variety.com/2025/film/ne...
October 27, 2025 at 5:19 PM
woke up to the happiest news I’ve read in a while: after almost ten years without a 15/70 IMAX screen in Chicago (and driving hours away to Indianapolis for it) we’re finally getting one back in the suburbs. losing my mind right now lol
from: variety.com/2025/film/ne...
from: variety.com/2025/film/ne...
It’s interesting and actually a little heartening that both Adam Driver and Kit Harrington cared so much for their characters after a much maligned finale in their respective franchises they tried creating a sequel themselves as a way to keep exploring that character.
October 21, 2025 at 8:16 PM
It’s interesting and actually a little heartening that both Adam Driver and Kit Harrington cared so much for their characters after a much maligned finale in their respective franchises they tried creating a sequel themselves as a way to keep exploring that character.
WAKE UP DEAD MAN is terrific, with Rian Johnson spinning a devious, gothic-infused churchbound murder musing on how to live with our sins. Easily the best puzzle-box mystery of the three. Craig is a delight, but Josh O'Connor is once again sensational. A great time!
October 20, 2025 at 10:04 PM
WAKE UP DEAD MAN is terrific, with Rian Johnson spinning a devious, gothic-infused churchbound murder musing on how to live with our sins. Easily the best puzzle-box mystery of the three. Craig is a delight, but Josh O'Connor is once again sensational. A great time!
THE SECRET AGENT is incredible, a stirring, playful and affecting hauntological thriller on how we try to hold onto memory — our own, our cultures, our art, and how that search shapes them all. In this film of forgotten things, Wagner Maura is the heart. One of the best this year
October 17, 2025 at 9:36 PM
THE SECRET AGENT is incredible, a stirring, playful and affecting hauntological thriller on how we try to hold onto memory — our own, our cultures, our art, and how that search shapes them all. In this film of forgotten things, Wagner Maura is the heart. One of the best this year
can someone recommend me their favorite spooky book
October 16, 2025 at 3:36 AM
can someone recommend me their favorite spooky book
I wrote about ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
and how PTA uses armed revolution as a means of exploring dadhood, compromise and the struggles of aging in a world that never seems to change. It's one of the best movies this year:
nextbestpicture.com/in-one-battl...
and how PTA uses armed revolution as a means of exploring dadhood, compromise and the struggles of aging in a world that never seems to change. It's one of the best movies this year:
nextbestpicture.com/in-one-battl...
In "One Battle After Another," The Kids Are Alright
As Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master“ ends, Lancaster Dodd, a charlatan of cosmic promises, sings a love song. He hopes to win back the affection of Freddie Quell, a wandering post-war brute of deadl...
nextbestpicture.com
October 9, 2025 at 9:48 PM
I wrote about ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
and how PTA uses armed revolution as a means of exploring dadhood, compromise and the struggles of aging in a world that never seems to change. It's one of the best movies this year:
nextbestpicture.com/in-one-battl...
and how PTA uses armed revolution as a means of exploring dadhood, compromise and the struggles of aging in a world that never seems to change. It's one of the best movies this year:
nextbestpicture.com/in-one-battl...
just saw ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER for a third time last night and it’s actually ridiculous how it only gets better, faster, richer and more emotional with each viewing. think it’s time I finally admitted it’s a masterpiece.
September 29, 2025 at 10:00 PM
just saw ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER for a third time last night and it’s actually ridiculous how it only gets better, faster, richer and more emotional with each viewing. think it’s time I finally admitted it’s a masterpiece.
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER is an exhilarating gauntlet of American psychosexual paranoia and fight, where PTA pivots from years of Bad Dads into musing on a father's place to raise the next generation after his own already failed. A triumph, and an all-timer California movie.
September 25, 2025 at 10:43 PM
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER is an exhilarating gauntlet of American psychosexual paranoia and fight, where PTA pivots from years of Bad Dads into musing on a father's place to raise the next generation after his own already failed. A triumph, and an all-timer California movie.
Reposted by Brendan Hodges
heard there’s a new @hitfactorypod.bsky.social about Saving Private Ryan in which @brendanhodges.bsky.social mounts a defence along the lines of this thread
one day i'll write my big essay defending Saving Private Ryan as a subversive masterpiece about the pointlessness of war, and the violence undergirding the politics of that Norman Rockwell America
September 21, 2025 at 1:36 AM
heard there’s a new @hitfactorypod.bsky.social about Saving Private Ryan in which @brendanhodges.bsky.social mounts a defence along the lines of this thread
now seems like a good time to say I just flew to Boston where I’ll be seeing ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER in Vista Vision and dual laser 1.43. getting to the point where the hype feels dangerous.
September 18, 2025 at 3:06 PM
now seems like a good time to say I just flew to Boston where I’ll be seeing ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER in Vista Vision and dual laser 1.43. getting to the point where the hype feels dangerous.
Reposted by Brendan Hodges
Re Kimmel, it's important that Disney has left itself an out--it is a "suspension," not a cancellation or firing. What happens in the next two days--reaction within the company but also in the press, in the industry, in Washington, among consumers, and on social media--may affect how this plays out.
September 18, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Re Kimmel, it's important that Disney has left itself an out--it is a "suspension," not a cancellation or firing. What happens in the next two days--reaction within the company but also in the press, in the industry, in Washington, among consumers, and on social media--may affect how this plays out.
we'll see how it does at the box office but with ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER apparently being a rousing, action-packed commercial movie, it has to be studied why the studio thought they should market it as a zany slapstick stoner thing instead of a gripping, relevant action-comedy
September 15, 2025 at 7:44 PM
we'll see how it does at the box office but with ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER apparently being a rousing, action-packed commercial movie, it has to be studied why the studio thought they should market it as a zany slapstick stoner thing instead of a gripping, relevant action-comedy
the fact the DEMON SLAYER
movie is on pace to potentially out-earn FANTASTIC FOUR is as good reflection of the shifting cultural tides in the last ten years as I’ve seen. nobody would’ve thought this was possible not long ago, crazy stuff
I reviewed it for NBP:
nextbestpicture.com/demon-slayer...
movie is on pace to potentially out-earn FANTASTIC FOUR is as good reflection of the shifting cultural tides in the last ten years as I’ve seen. nobody would’ve thought this was possible not long ago, crazy stuff
I reviewed it for NBP:
nextbestpicture.com/demon-slayer...
"DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA - INFINITY CASTLE" - Review
THE STORY – The Demon Slayer Corps are drawn into the Infinity Castle, where Tanjiro, Nezuko, and the Hashira face terrifying Upper Rank demons in a desperate fight as the final battle against Muzan K...
nextbestpicture.com
September 14, 2025 at 4:47 PM
the fact the DEMON SLAYER
movie is on pace to potentially out-earn FANTASTIC FOUR is as good reflection of the shifting cultural tides in the last ten years as I’ve seen. nobody would’ve thought this was possible not long ago, crazy stuff
I reviewed it for NBP:
nextbestpicture.com/demon-slayer...
movie is on pace to potentially out-earn FANTASTIC FOUR is as good reflection of the shifting cultural tides in the last ten years as I’ve seen. nobody would’ve thought this was possible not long ago, crazy stuff
I reviewed it for NBP:
nextbestpicture.com/demon-slayer...
I’m watching SAVING PRIVATE RYAN again and knowing Spielberg didn’t shot list the opening 25 minutes and in fact blocked and shot it on the fly is a little like finding out Beethoven made up Symphony No. 3 on the spot
September 13, 2025 at 3:20 AM
I’m watching SAVING PRIVATE RYAN again and knowing Spielberg didn’t shot list the opening 25 minutes and in fact blocked and shot it on the fly is a little like finding out Beethoven made up Symphony No. 3 on the spot
really enjoying the mad science of ALIEN: EARTH, where corporate overlords use technology to control us (especially children), as Timothy Olyphant does xeno-mischief. It’s also one of the best and most “cinematic” looking shows recently, with actual lenses, grain and halation:
August 27, 2025 at 10:43 PM
really enjoying the mad science of ALIEN: EARTH, where corporate overlords use technology to control us (especially children), as Timothy Olyphant does xeno-mischief. It’s also one of the best and most “cinematic” looking shows recently, with actual lenses, grain and halation:
I wrote about Zach Cregger's Rorschacian horror epic WEAPONS for @nextbestpicture.bsky.social, unpacking its cauldron of themes, the divided discourse, and what it means to be "about" something:
nextbestpicture.com/weapons-the-...
nextbestpicture.com/weapons-the-...
"Weapons" - The Illusion Of Safety And What It Means To Be About Something
Horror has a long history of confronting us with what we take for granted, revealing the dark truths we keep in the locked basements in the back of our minds. We may not like to think about it, but we...
nextbestpicture.com
August 14, 2025 at 10:32 PM
I wrote about Zach Cregger's Rorschacian horror epic WEAPONS for @nextbestpicture.bsky.social, unpacking its cauldron of themes, the divided discourse, and what it means to be "about" something:
nextbestpicture.com/weapons-the-...
nextbestpicture.com/weapons-the-...
some friends attend annual spiritual retreats to reconnect with our uncertain cosmos. I just see 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY on 70mm at the @musicboxtheatre.bsky.social once a year.
August 11, 2025 at 11:22 PM
some friends attend annual spiritual retreats to reconnect with our uncertain cosmos. I just see 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY on 70mm at the @musicboxtheatre.bsky.social once a year.
🚨new byline 🚨
for @letterboxd.social I went long celebrating King Hu's wuxia masterpiece A TOUCH OF ZEN, his swashbuckling action epic that's also a powerful, transcendent meditation on reality –– and our place in it.
Very proud of this one!
letterboxd.com/journal/a-to...
for @letterboxd.social I went long celebrating King Hu's wuxia masterpiece A TOUCH OF ZEN, his swashbuckling action epic that's also a powerful, transcendent meditation on reality –– and our place in it.
Very proud of this one!
letterboxd.com/journal/a-to...
Stairway to Heaven: the sacred spectacle of A Touch of Zen, 50 years on • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
50 years since A Touch of Zen’s first proper release dazzled viewers, Brendan Hodges reflects on King Hu’s revolutionary wuxia that’s both a swashbuckling adventure and a cosmic meditation on reality—...
letterboxd.com
August 7, 2025 at 10:04 PM
🚨new byline 🚨
for @letterboxd.social I went long celebrating King Hu's wuxia masterpiece A TOUCH OF ZEN, his swashbuckling action epic that's also a powerful, transcendent meditation on reality –– and our place in it.
Very proud of this one!
letterboxd.com/journal/a-to...
for @letterboxd.social I went long celebrating King Hu's wuxia masterpiece A TOUCH OF ZEN, his swashbuckling action epic that's also a powerful, transcendent meditation on reality –– and our place in it.
Very proud of this one!
letterboxd.com/journal/a-to...
Reposted by Brendan Hodges
bumping -- would love it if you gave this one a read
jonathan demme's THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is a modern american masterpiece, a prescient slice of paranoia and disinformation that understood how much of our political landscape was, & will, be based on lies. honored to write about it for @bwdr.bsky.social.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/08/06/w...
www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/08/06/w...
August 7, 2025 at 1:34 AM
bumping -- would love it if you gave this one a read