Bright Wall/Dark Room
@brightwalldarkroom.com
An independent, reader-supported online film journal, offering a different lens on movies since 2013.
issues/essays/podcasts: brightwalldarkroom.com
support: https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/subscribe
all the things: https://linktr.ee/brightwalldarkroom
issues/essays/podcasts: brightwalldarkroom.com
support: https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/subscribe
all the things: https://linktr.ee/brightwalldarkroom
Pinned
Peter Hujar’s Day and the Art of Yapping
Peter Hujar’s Day opens my vision to the sublime ordinariness of being with others.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
New today!
Our Best of 2025 issue continues:
"On its surface, the film may feel slight on account of its slim runtime & seemingly small stakes. But after sitting with a second viewing, what PETER HUJAR'S DAY opens my vision to is the sublime ordinariness of being with others."
- Spencer Williams
Our Best of 2025 issue continues:
"On its surface, the film may feel slight on account of its slim runtime & seemingly small stakes. But after sitting with a second viewing, what PETER HUJAR'S DAY opens my vision to is the sublime ordinariness of being with others."
- Spencer Williams
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
It’s pretty funny that they’re called Movies
June 2, 2025 at 12:04 AM
It’s pretty funny that they’re called Movies
“What does it mean to be a good person? Is it a small thing, or is it big? Is it enough to try?”
- @kelsfjord.bsky.social
- @kelsfjord.bsky.social
Fargo: This is a True Story
The characters in Fargo are all navigating their own lives, doing their best and their worst. What does it mean to be a good person? Is it a small thing, or is it big? Is it enough to try?
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
January 17, 2026 at 6:42 AM
“What does it mean to be a good person? Is it a small thing, or is it big? Is it enough to try?”
- @kelsfjord.bsky.social
- @kelsfjord.bsky.social
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
Hey folks Calvary Food Shelf has been helping out people in Minneapolis for 30 years, and now they’re ramping up to meet the crisis, including doing home deliveries so people don’t have to risk going out.
They’re just over halfway to their current goal—let’s get them all the way, shall we?
They’re just over halfway to their current goal—let’s get them all the way, shall we?
Support Calvary Food Shelf: Emergency Response Fundraiser on GiveMN
Help us respond to urgent community needs
www.givemn.org
January 15, 2026 at 4:31 PM
Hey folks Calvary Food Shelf has been helping out people in Minneapolis for 30 years, and now they’re ramping up to meet the crisis, including doing home deliveries so people don’t have to risk going out.
They’re just over halfway to their current goal—let’s get them all the way, shall we?
They’re just over halfway to their current goal—let’s get them all the way, shall we?
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
An essential analysis for a must-see film!
New on the site!
Our Best of 2025 issue continues, with @dodgyboffin.com on Steven Soderbergh’s BLACK BAG
Our Best of 2025 issue continues, with @dodgyboffin.com on Steven Soderbergh’s BLACK BAG
Black Bag (2025): Suspicions, Hearsay, and Pillow Talk
Black Bag is a study of the notion of trust—and how it can be assured in a world where everyone is always lying to each other.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
January 10, 2026 at 7:38 PM
An essential analysis for a must-see film!
Durational Distance: Select Memories of Sátántangó
- Hannah Bonner
- Hannah Bonner
Durational Distance: Select Memories of Sátántangó: Select Memories of Sátántangó - Bright Wall/Dark Room
In the images from Sátántangó that still cling to me, I see my mind’s selective memory: its search at work. How the memories of scenes become not a catalogue of the film, but another creation altogeth...
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
January 17, 2026 at 1:51 AM
Durational Distance: Select Memories of Sátántangó
- Hannah Bonner
- Hannah Bonner
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
false
"You’re not going to get in the car and go to the next town to see a movie," says Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos
Ted Sarandos commits to 45-day theatrical windows, believes theaters are for city folk
Ted Sarandos commits to 45-day theatrical windows, believes theaters are for city folk
www.avclub.com
January 16, 2026 at 10:29 PM
false
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
I've been dying to tell people I wrote the essay for TROUBLE IN PARADISE, a true Lubitsch masterpiece, and now I can. It's hilarious, it's gorgeous, there's nothing like it, and spending time with Trouble last year soothed my soul. www.criterion.com/films/723-tr....
January 16, 2026 at 6:28 PM
I've been dying to tell people I wrote the essay for TROUBLE IN PARADISE, a true Lubitsch masterpiece, and now I can. It's hilarious, it's gorgeous, there's nothing like it, and spending time with Trouble last year soothed my soul. www.criterion.com/films/723-tr....
Pre-code perfection coming to Criterion in April:
Ernst Lubitsch’s TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Ernst Lubitsch’s TROUBLE IN PARADISE
January 16, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Pre-code perfection coming to Criterion in April:
Ernst Lubitsch’s TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Ernst Lubitsch’s TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
Yall not only is BOYZ N THE HOOD in the Criterion Collection but so are BABY BOY and POETIC JUSTICE too!! This is amazing news.
January 16, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Yall not only is BOYZ N THE HOOD in the Criterion Collection but so are BABY BOY and POETIC JUSTICE too!! This is amazing news.
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
Tokyo Drifteeerrrrrrrrrrrrr!!
January 15, 2026 at 12:44 AM
Tokyo Drifteeerrrrrrrrrrrrr!!
New today!
Our Best of 2025 issue continues:
"On its surface, the film may feel slight on account of its slim runtime & seemingly small stakes. But after sitting with a second viewing, what PETER HUJAR'S DAY opens my vision to is the sublime ordinariness of being with others."
- Spencer Williams
Our Best of 2025 issue continues:
"On its surface, the film may feel slight on account of its slim runtime & seemingly small stakes. But after sitting with a second viewing, what PETER HUJAR'S DAY opens my vision to is the sublime ordinariness of being with others."
- Spencer Williams
Peter Hujar’s Day and the Art of Yapping
Peter Hujar’s Day opens my vision to the sublime ordinariness of being with others.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
January 14, 2026 at 6:40 PM
New today!
Our Best of 2025 issue continues:
"On its surface, the film may feel slight on account of its slim runtime & seemingly small stakes. But after sitting with a second viewing, what PETER HUJAR'S DAY opens my vision to is the sublime ordinariness of being with others."
- Spencer Williams
Our Best of 2025 issue continues:
"On its surface, the film may feel slight on account of its slim runtime & seemingly small stakes. But after sitting with a second viewing, what PETER HUJAR'S DAY opens my vision to is the sublime ordinariness of being with others."
- Spencer Williams
In honor of Steven Soderbergh's 63rd birthday today, we've unlocked our 2018 Soderbergh issue and it's now entirely free to read!
(🎨 by Tony Stella)
www.brightwalldarkroom.com/magazine/iss...
(🎨 by Tony Stella)
www.brightwalldarkroom.com/magazine/iss...
January 14, 2026 at 6:33 PM
In honor of Steven Soderbergh's 63rd birthday today, we've unlocked our 2018 Soderbergh issue and it's now entirely free to read!
(🎨 by Tony Stella)
www.brightwalldarkroom.com/magazine/iss...
(🎨 by Tony Stella)
www.brightwalldarkroom.com/magazine/iss...
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
January 14, 2026 at 11:56 AM
Even Though It’s Breaking: On Barbarism and Barbers - @frankfalisi.bsky.social
Even Though It's Breaking: On Barbarism and Barbers | The Great Dictator (1940)
To be bold, to dare to be stupid: this single frame in The Great Dictator is the most essential frame occurring in Charles Chaplin’s filmography.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
January 13, 2026 at 10:04 PM
Even Though It’s Breaking: On Barbarism and Barbers - @frankfalisi.bsky.social
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
January 13, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Putting Paddington into TRAIN DREAMS makes as much sense as anything else right now, only in a good way.
I Photoshop Paddington into a movie, TV show, or pop culture until I forget: Day 1731
January 13, 2026 at 8:57 AM
Putting Paddington into TRAIN DREAMS makes as much sense as anything else right now, only in a good way.
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
I Photoshop Paddington into a movie, TV show, or pop culture until I forget: Day 1765
January 13, 2026 at 6:26 AM
I Photoshop Paddington into a movie, TV show, or pop culture until I forget: Day 1765
"Many directors find truth in skepticism, but Jonathan Demme often found it in the sparseness of in-betweens. He knew the great promise of rehearsals: for wedding dinners & musical performances & people trying on new ways to heal.”
- @lindseyromain.bsky.social on RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
- @lindseyromain.bsky.social on RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
Rachel Getting Married: Yesterday Is Gone & Tomorrow Is Not Here
So much of Jonathan Demme's 2008 film Rachel Getting Married is about needle-fine moments of grace and clemency.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
January 13, 2026 at 8:02 AM
"Many directors find truth in skepticism, but Jonathan Demme often found it in the sparseness of in-betweens. He knew the great promise of rehearsals: for wedding dinners & musical performances & people trying on new ways to heal.”
- @lindseyromain.bsky.social on RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
- @lindseyromain.bsky.social on RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
“At its core, HIGH NOON is a parable about civic abandonment, the inherent danger in waiting for the moment to act and discovering that no one will stand beside you—a quality which makes it an apt tale for our current political moment.”
- @rileywomack.bsky.social
- @rileywomack.bsky.social
High Noon (1952): Wait Along, Wait Along…
At its core, High Noon is a parable about civic abandonment, the inherent danger in waiting for the moment to act and discovering that no one will stand beside you.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
January 13, 2026 at 6:36 AM
“At its core, HIGH NOON is a parable about civic abandonment, the inherent danger in waiting for the moment to act and discovering that no one will stand beside you—a quality which makes it an apt tale for our current political moment.”
- @rileywomack.bsky.social
- @rileywomack.bsky.social
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
All billionaires love Citizen Kane and zero understand it
www.vulture.com/article/larr...
www.vulture.com/article/larr...
January 13, 2026 at 2:43 AM
All billionaires love Citizen Kane and zero understand it
www.vulture.com/article/larr...
www.vulture.com/article/larr...
"UNCUT GEMS is itself an uncut gem—jagged and terrifying on the outside, yet encompassing a startlingly beautiful and cosmic humanism within." - @aheartofgould.bsky.social
This Is How I Win: The Cosmic Humanism of 'Uncut Gems' - BW/DR
Uncut Gems is itself an uncut gem—jagged and terrifying on the outside, yet encompassing a startlingly beautiful and cosmic humanism within.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
January 12, 2026 at 10:46 PM
"UNCUT GEMS is itself an uncut gem—jagged and terrifying on the outside, yet encompassing a startlingly beautiful and cosmic humanism within." - @aheartofgould.bsky.social
not giving the award to benicio is how you know the whole thing is rigged
January 12, 2026 at 1:27 AM
not giving the award to benicio is how you know the whole thing is rigged
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
I swear to god that’s what’s wrong with most entertainment these days, not enough people get to just write and make things they like
(in previous times, of course, mainly just a handful of white guys got to do that, so imagine a world with artistic freedom AND diversity)
(in previous times, of course, mainly just a handful of white guys got to do that, so imagine a world with artistic freedom AND diversity)
January 11, 2026 at 11:55 PM
I swear to god that’s what’s wrong with most entertainment these days, not enough people get to just write and make things they like
(in previous times, of course, mainly just a handful of white guys got to do that, so imagine a world with artistic freedom AND diversity)
(in previous times, of course, mainly just a handful of white guys got to do that, so imagine a world with artistic freedom AND diversity)
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
My favorite critics always have a handful of "brother, what the fuck are you talking about?" level opinions, real passion that comes out of left field for absolute dogwater, that they are not only willing but able to defend to the point where they almost win you over.
January 11, 2026 at 9:44 PM
My favorite critics always have a handful of "brother, what the fuck are you talking about?" level opinions, real passion that comes out of left field for absolute dogwater, that they are not only willing but able to defend to the point where they almost win you over.
Reposted by Bright Wall/Dark Room
Excellent movie and book
We All Came Out of Gogol’s Overcoat: The Uneasy Duality of Identity in Mira Nair’s THE NAMESAKE
We All Came Out of Gogol's Overcoat | The Namesake (2006) - BW/DR
On the uneasy duality of identity in Mira Nair's 2006 film, The Namesake.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
January 11, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Excellent movie and book