Grant Watson
@fictionmachine.bsky.social
Rotten Tomatoes-accredited film critic. Award-winning playwright. Noted international education analyst. Serviceable theatre director. Has multiple sclerosis.
www.fictionmachine.com
www.fictionmachine.com
Frydenberg should be ashamed, but I assume he has none.
Despite everything we’ve seen over the past two years, this is probably the most shameful episode in Australian media history/ political collusion.
The lead story on the SMH is Albanese’s political opponent, who lost his seat, trying to force the government to back his own pick for a RC. Madness.
The lead story on the SMH is Albanese’s political opponent, who lost his seat, trying to force the government to back his own pick for a RC. Madness.
January 8, 2026 at 1:14 AM
Frydenberg should be ashamed, but I assume he has none.
NEW REVIEW! Contemporary Japanese cinema is awash with understated dramas about anxious twentysomethings. Summer Blooms is a rock-solid example of the style, for good or bad. It is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/07/r...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/07/r...
REVIEW: Summer Blooms (2017)
Hatsumi (Asakura Aki) is a 27-year-old former school teacher, who has left education to work at a soba restaurant. Her insular life is interrupted when she runs into a former student – now wo…
fictionmachine.com
January 7, 2026 at 10:17 PM
NEW REVIEW! Contemporary Japanese cinema is awash with understated dramas about anxious twentysomethings. Summer Blooms is a rock-solid example of the style, for good or bad. It is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/07/r...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/07/r...
Reposted by Grant Watson
Translation is an art, of course, and translators cannot be neutral... Christine Sun looks at what you can learn from an anthology simultaneously published in English and Chinese.
Read it now, and tell your friends! www.speculativeinsight.com
Read it now, and tell your friends! www.speculativeinsight.com
January 5, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Translation is an art, of course, and translators cannot be neutral... Christine Sun looks at what you can learn from an anthology simultaneously published in English and Chinese.
Read it now, and tell your friends! www.speculativeinsight.com
Read it now, and tell your friends! www.speculativeinsight.com
NEW REVIEW! Caught Stealing (2025) is an effective crime flick that follows a lot of genre conventions. The real surprise is that it's directed by Darren Aronofsky.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/06/r...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/06/r...
REVIEW: Caught Stealing (2025)
Crime film Caught Stealing may be one of 2025’s most surprising feature films. It is not because it is particularly innovative: these sorts of half-comedic, half-dramatic violent capers have …
fictionmachine.com
January 6, 2026 at 10:32 PM
NEW REVIEW! Caught Stealing (2025) is an effective crime flick that follows a lot of genre conventions. The real surprise is that it's directed by Darren Aronofsky.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/06/r...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/06/r...
Reposted by Grant Watson
One of the exclusive essays in our December book is about the overwhelmingly queer nature of award-winning SEA SFF. You can get the ebook by subscribing (AUD30/yr), or you can buy the ebook (AUD20) or paper version (AUD35 inc shipping).
www.speculativeinsight.com/buy-collections
www.speculativeinsight.com/buy-collections
![Purple background, white text, which says Over the course of the 21st century, eight authors from [Southeast Asia] and diaspora have been nominated for the Hugo and Astounding Awards; all but one of them are known for consistently writing about queer love and community. "Dragonfruit Jungle" -- Ng Yi-Sheng](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:etyqh3teyar75uaji3ts4goa/bafkreigyyehgdenxdzxdzpdhe4pdnxs3w3j3wlzmtxeec7amk3qwbxbmhi@jpeg)
January 4, 2026 at 11:12 PM
One of the exclusive essays in our December book is about the overwhelmingly queer nature of award-winning SEA SFF. You can get the ebook by subscribing (AUD30/yr), or you can buy the ebook (AUD20) or paper version (AUD35 inc shipping).
www.speculativeinsight.com/buy-collections
www.speculativeinsight.com/buy-collections
Hans... are we the baddies?
TAPPER: Can you rule out the US is going to take Greenland by force?
MILLER: Greenland should be part of the US. By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? The US is the power of NATO
T: So force is on the table?
M: Nobody is gonna fight the US militarily over future of Greenland
MILLER: Greenland should be part of the US. By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? The US is the power of NATO
T: So force is on the table?
M: Nobody is gonna fight the US militarily over future of Greenland
January 6, 2026 at 3:00 AM
Hans... are we the baddies?
Reposted by Grant Watson
im genuinely curious if this resonates with voters. this naked appeal to imperialism from a shrieking, shrill man
MILLER: The US is using its military to secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere. We're a superpower. It's absurd we'd allow a nation in our backyard to become a supplier of resources to our adversaries
TAPPER: Sovereign countries shouldn't be able to do what they want?
M: *yells*
TAPPER: Sovereign countries shouldn't be able to do what they want?
M: *yells*
January 6, 2026 at 12:04 AM
im genuinely curious if this resonates with voters. this naked appeal to imperialism from a shrieking, shrill man
So they run to take a lift to a flying fox, to a little ship, that shuttles them to a chair, that lifts them into a robot lion?
Who the hell designed the lion Voltron?
Who the hell designed the lion Voltron?
January 5, 2026 at 9:30 AM
So they run to take a lift to a flying fox, to a little ship, that shuttles them to a chair, that lifts them into a robot lion?
Who the hell designed the lion Voltron?
Who the hell designed the lion Voltron?
Out of all the new films I watched in 2025, these were my 10 favourites.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/05/1...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/05/1...
10 Great Films from 2025
It is early January once again, which means it is time for me to count down my favourite new films of the past 12 months. Please enjoy the 2025 edition of “10 Great Films”. A few caveat…
fictionmachine.com
January 5, 2026 at 5:04 AM
Out of all the new films I watched in 2025, these were my 10 favourites.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/05/1...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/05/1...
Adulthood begins when you realise Ernie is actually a total asshole.
January 5, 2026 at 5:00 AM
Adulthood begins when you realise Ernie is actually a total asshole.
There's a new Hong Kong film out this week, titled Back to the Past, that was ironically filmed in mid-2019.
January 4, 2026 at 11:03 AM
There's a new Hong Kong film out this week, titled Back to the Past, that was ironically filmed in mid-2019.
NEW REVIEW! Steven Soderbergh's supernatural thriller Presence feels like two very different films competing for screen time, but somehow the experiment works surprisingly well.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/04/r...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/04/r...
REVIEW: Presence (2024)
A family of four move into their new home. Their daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) is grieving the death of one of her friends, and comes to suspect that her friend’s spirit may be haunting the …
fictionmachine.com
January 4, 2026 at 1:59 AM
NEW REVIEW! Steven Soderbergh's supernatural thriller Presence feels like two very different films competing for screen time, but somehow the experiment works surprisingly well.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/04/r...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/04/r...
Putting together my annual top 10 films list. Realise I somehow forgot to review films #5 and #9 at the time. Oops.
January 3, 2026 at 4:49 AM
Putting together my annual top 10 films list. Realise I somehow forgot to review films #5 and #9 at the time. Oops.
Thatcher's Britain echoes through Stephen Daldry's wonderful 2000 dance drama Billy Elliot.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/03/r...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/03/r...
REVIEW: Billy Elliot (2000)
The economic policies of Margaret Thatcher’s United Kingdom cast a long shadow over British popular culture. You can find it in the music and literature of the time, as well as in British nat…
fictionmachine.com
January 3, 2026 at 4:24 AM
Thatcher's Britain echoes through Stephen Daldry's wonderful 2000 dance drama Billy Elliot.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/03/r...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/03/r...
Discovering a great older film can be just as satisfying as seeing a newly made one. Here are the 10 best pre-2020s films I watched for the first time in 2025.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/02/1...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/02/1...
10 great old films I discovered in 2025
Each year I put together a Top 10 list, counting down my favourite films from the previous year. It is essentially a list of recommendations to readers, rather than any attempt at something authori…
fictionmachine.com
January 2, 2026 at 1:21 AM
Discovering a great older film can be just as satisfying as seeing a newly made one. Here are the 10 best pre-2020s films I watched for the first time in 2025.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/02/1...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/02/1...
NEW REVIEW! Julia Ducournau's Titane (2021) is absolutely transcendent cinema.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/01/r...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/01/r...
REVIEW: Titane (2021)
In Julia Ducournau’s Titane (2021), a serial killing car model (Agathe Rousselle) falls pregnant to a Cadillac before impersonating the long-missing son of a steroid-addicted firefighter. If …
fictionmachine.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:44 AM
NEW REVIEW! Julia Ducournau's Titane (2021) is absolutely transcendent cinema.
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/01/r...
fictionmachine.com/2026/01/01/r...
Those fucking mice get everything.
Wanna see real-life miracles? Fund scientific research.
A team of US scientists just cured Alzheimer’s in mice — and there is now hope that the disease can be reversed in humans.
futurism.com/health-medic...
A team of US scientists just cured Alzheimer’s in mice — and there is now hope that the disease can be reversed in humans.
futurism.com/health-medic...
Alzheimer's Fully Reversed in Mice, Scientists Say
A new compound has been shown to reverse late stage Alzheimer's disease in lab mice, which gives millions of sufferers new cause for hope.
futurism.com
December 31, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Those fucking mice get everything.
Demon Slayer economics: how the anime juggernaut became a saviour
Demon Slayer economics: how the anime juggernaut became a saviour
Once underground art form now props up slumped box office sales and is used by governments to build soft power
www.theguardian.com
December 31, 2025 at 6:37 AM
I don't think I'm getting to another film in the next 6 1/2 hours, so this means in 2026 I watched 355 films and my @letterboxd.social account has the following insights:
- Comedy was the most frequent genre, followed by drama.
- Most films were in English, followed by Japanese.
- Comedy was the most frequent genre, followed by drama.
- Most films were in English, followed by Japanese.
December 31, 2025 at 6:27 AM
I don't think I'm getting to another film in the next 6 1/2 hours, so this means in 2026 I watched 355 films and my @letterboxd.social account has the following insights:
- Comedy was the most frequent genre, followed by drama.
- Most films were in English, followed by Japanese.
- Comedy was the most frequent genre, followed by drama.
- Most films were in English, followed by Japanese.
NEW REVIEW! The first episode of The Last of Us Season 2 is honestly more western than sci-fi horror - but there's a lot of foreshadowing for things to come.
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/31/t...
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/31/t...
TV REVIEW: The Last of Us, 2.1 “Future Days”
First broadcast 13 April 2025. The Last of Us, a HBO drama series based on the popular Playstation videogame, was one of my favourite shows of 2023. It was effectively a textbook example of how to …
fictionmachine.com
December 31, 2025 at 1:29 AM
NEW REVIEW! The first episode of The Last of Us Season 2 is honestly more western than sci-fi horror - but there's a lot of foreshadowing for things to come.
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/31/t...
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/31/t...
Jeff Man's Paper Marriage is a well-observed light drama about faking a husband to immigrate to America. It's currently streaming (for Australians at least) on Tubi.
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/30/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/30/r...
REVIEW: Paper Marriage (2024)
A Chinese immigrant resorts to initiating a sham marriage to stay in the USA in Jeff Man’s low-key and low-budget drama Paper Marriage. It is an independent feature from noted mumblecore prod…
fictionmachine.com
December 30, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Jeff Man's Paper Marriage is a well-observed light drama about faking a husband to immigrate to America. It's currently streaming (for Australians at least) on Tubi.
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/30/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/30/r...
Give a Best Of list every time. The more the merrier. I love them.
But no Worst Of lists. Whatever is the point, besides clickbait?
But no Worst Of lists. Whatever is the point, besides clickbait?
December 30, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Give a Best Of list every time. The more the merrier. I love them.
But no Worst Of lists. Whatever is the point, besides clickbait?
But no Worst Of lists. Whatever is the point, besides clickbait?
NEW REVIEW! While the overall film is showing its age, Herbert Wise's The Woman in Black (1989) features some of the best scary moments in the history of British television.
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/29/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/29/r...
REVIEW: The Woman in Black (1989)
When the titular woman in black descends, it is arguably the single most frightening moment in the history of British television. While the rest of this 1989 made-for-TV film is an effectively play…
fictionmachine.com
December 29, 2025 at 1:31 AM
NEW REVIEW! While the overall film is showing its age, Herbert Wise's The Woman in Black (1989) features some of the best scary moments in the history of British television.
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/29/r...
fictionmachine.com/2025/12/29/r...
RIP Brigitte Bardot.
a black and white photo of a woman with a big smile on her face
ALT: a black and white photo of a woman with a big smile on her face
media.tenor.com
December 28, 2025 at 11:40 AM
RIP Brigitte Bardot.