Barbara VanDenburgh
@babsvan.bsky.social
Poor, obscure, plain, and little. Writer, critic, friendly neighborhood anarcho-socialist. Former books editor at USA TODAY. Let’s talk movies https://boxd.it/lA7b
Can we talk about how cool the coffins are in Frankenstein
November 11, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Can we talk about how cool the coffins are in Frankenstein
2025 watch #160: Frankenstein. What a grand, gluttonous feast of gothic melodrama. I’ve got that woozy, sort of sickly feeling one gets after they’ve gorged themselves. I’m not sure all of it was good, but I enjoyed devouring it. May del Toro never stop creating fuckable monsters.
November 11, 2025 at 4:10 AM
2025 watch #160: Frankenstein. What a grand, gluttonous feast of gothic melodrama. I’ve got that woozy, sort of sickly feeling one gets after they’ve gorged themselves. I’m not sure all of it was good, but I enjoyed devouring it. May del Toro never stop creating fuckable monsters.
2025 watch #159: Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery. Take me back.
November 11, 2025 at 3:58 AM
2025 watch #159: Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery. Take me back.
Hey @democrats.org great job, just updated my party affiliation for the first time since 2008. If you’re going to willingly hand the Trump administration victories, then you’re functionally no different than republicans and I no longer have a party. Primary all these motherfuckers.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 AM
Hey @democrats.org great job, just updated my party affiliation for the first time since 2008. If you’re going to willingly hand the Trump administration victories, then you’re functionally no different than republicans and I no longer have a party. Primary all these motherfuckers.
2025 watch #158: Eddington. This shit is exasperating.
November 8, 2025 at 6:08 PM
2025 watch #158: Eddington. This shit is exasperating.
2025 watch #157: Barefoot in the Park. People shouldn’t be allowed to be this beautiful. It isn’t right.
November 8, 2025 at 6:05 PM
2025 watch #157: Barefoot in the Park. People shouldn’t be allowed to be this beautiful. It isn’t right.
Okay, Pluribus whips ass and I am ecstatic to have Rhea Seehorn back on my TV
November 8, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Okay, Pluribus whips ass and I am ecstatic to have Rhea Seehorn back on my TV
Brontë wanted me to show you her football.
November 7, 2025 at 5:29 AM
Brontë wanted me to show you her football.
Just emerged from watching Rufus Wainwright perform 10 feet away from me to Mayor Mamdani. God is a woman and she wants us to be happy.
November 5, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Just emerged from watching Rufus Wainwright perform 10 feet away from me to Mayor Mamdani. God is a woman and she wants us to be happy.
Hit up Spirit Halloween the day after to prep for next year and forgot to unload, been driving around looking like a serial killer all weekend.
November 3, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Hit up Spirit Halloween the day after to prep for next year and forgot to unload, been driving around looking like a serial killer all weekend.
Favorite first-watches of October
November 2, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Favorite first-watches of October
2025 watch #156: The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Has any man ever possessed a hotter sense of self or more enviable main character energy than Tim Curry in this? He couldn’t be anything but a legend.
November 1, 2025 at 11:10 PM
2025 watch #156: The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Has any man ever possessed a hotter sense of self or more enviable main character energy than Tim Curry in this? He couldn’t be anything but a legend.
Saw a good lizard today. Thought you should know.
November 1, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Saw a good lizard today. Thought you should know.
I’ve already traumatized my first batch of children
November 1, 2025 at 1:21 AM
I’ve already traumatized my first batch of children
2025 watch #155: Bugonia (in 35mm!). May Yorgos Lanthimos never get a diagnosis for whatever's wrong with him.
October 31, 2025 at 6:23 AM
2025 watch #155: Bugonia (in 35mm!). May Yorgos Lanthimos never get a diagnosis for whatever's wrong with him.
If you see this, post four female characters you love
October 29, 2025 at 7:17 AM
If you see this, post four female characters you love
2025 watch #154: Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I too would leave my drip of a solicitor husband for an undead prince who had crossed oceans of time to find me.
October 29, 2025 at 4:18 AM
2025 watch #154: Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I too would leave my drip of a solicitor husband for an undead prince who had crossed oceans of time to find me.
Seeing Bram Stoker’s Dracula on the big screen for the first time since I was 10, when my dad ill-advisedly took me to see the wolf fuck that lady.
October 29, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Seeing Bram Stoker’s Dracula on the big screen for the first time since I was 10, when my dad ill-advisedly took me to see the wolf fuck that lady.
Found his scrawny matted ass in a bush and he ended his life beloved in a bow-tied. Can’t live a better cat life, really.
October 28, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Found his scrawny matted ass in a bush and he ended his life beloved in a bow-tied. Can’t live a better cat life, really.
This is the last photo I took of my sweet boy Link, just two days before he had a catastrophic stroke out of the blue. There’s not a day that’s passed in the last 4 and half years that I haven’t thought of him and gotten a lump in my throat.
October 28, 2025 at 1:14 AM
This is the last photo I took of my sweet boy Link, just two days before he had a catastrophic stroke out of the blue. There’s not a day that’s passed in the last 4 and half years that I haven’t thought of him and gotten a lump in my throat.
2024 watch #153: Warfare. Technically well executed, yeah, sure. I just don’t think that in the year of our lord 2025 I need Alex Garland to give me a lesson in the brutal ugly unrelenting dumb pointlessness of war (duh) that refuses to put any political or personal skin in the game.
October 26, 2025 at 5:48 AM
2024 watch #153: Warfare. Technically well executed, yeah, sure. I just don’t think that in the year of our lord 2025 I need Alex Garland to give me a lesson in the brutal ugly unrelenting dumb pointlessness of war (duh) that refuses to put any political or personal skin in the game.
2025 watch #152: The Substance. Free life advice: don’t watch this with your dad, like I did. Mike’s final review: “That was whack.” The scene where she can’t bring herself to go on that date remains such a potent short horror film.
October 25, 2025 at 8:14 PM
2025 watch #152: The Substance. Free life advice: don’t watch this with your dad, like I did. Mike’s final review: “That was whack.” The scene where she can’t bring herself to go on that date remains such a potent short horror film.
The original Fright Night is my favorite has neon-lit Chris Sarandon seducing Amanda Bearse, you can’t go wrong
October 25, 2025 at 3:14 AM
The original Fright Night is my favorite has neon-lit Chris Sarandon seducing Amanda Bearse, you can’t go wrong
A week full of horrors, real and imagined.
October 24, 2025 at 9:16 PM
A week full of horrors, real and imagined.
Checking in with Junie B, mustard lover.
October 24, 2025 at 3:07 AM
Checking in with Junie B, mustard lover.