Forrest Cardamenis
@fcardamenis.bsky.social
NYC-based freelance film critic. Books, music, and sports, occasionally.
Much consternation at the Nitrate Picture Show for choosing Veit Harlan’s The Journey to Tilset as the blind screening. I think this was a bold and brilliant decision, for reasons I hope I can elaborate on elsewhere.
June 2, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Much consternation at the Nitrate Picture Show for choosing Veit Harlan’s The Journey to Tilset as the blind screening. I think this was a bold and brilliant decision, for reasons I hope I can elaborate on elsewhere.
They should make the jalapeños spicy again IMO
February 11, 2025 at 11:50 PM
They should make the jalapeños spicy again IMO
Another IFFR in the books. 8 days, 31 screenings, and about as many glasses of white wine and hours of sleep. Best film I saw was this avant-garde masterpiece. boxd.it/l0la
Night 'n' Day (1976)
First of all, the music. The music in Night and Day by Gianni Castaglioni is in the repetitive rhythm of the images, usually very rapid (with some suddenly slowed down, figements, yet with a fiery int...
boxd.it
February 8, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Another IFFR in the books. 8 days, 31 screenings, and about as many glasses of white wine and hours of sleep. Best film I saw was this avant-garde masterpiece. boxd.it/l0la
Londoners…if you’re cool and free this evening, HMU! I’m in town, one night only.
January 30, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Londoners…if you’re cool and free this evening, HMU! I’m in town, one night only.
We need a list of the top eccentric dudes in Bob Dylan songs. The Dancing Child in a Chinese Suit, the Diplomat Who Carried On His Shoulder a Siamese Cat, The Hysterical Bride in the Penny Arcade—These folks had very little representation in popular music before Dylan.
January 23, 2025 at 3:10 AM
We need a list of the top eccentric dudes in Bob Dylan songs. The Dancing Child in a Chinese Suit, the Diplomat Who Carried On His Shoulder a Siamese Cat, The Hysterical Bride in the Penny Arcade—These folks had very little representation in popular music before Dylan.
RIP to Garth Hudson, who was the last living member of The Band. Always loved what he did for Like A Rolling Stone on both the ‘66 and ‘74 tours. Here he is on the latter. open.spotify.com/track/68qKGz...
Like a Rolling Stone - Live at Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, CA - February 11, 1974 (Afternoon) [Incomplete]
open.spotify.com
January 21, 2025 at 6:42 PM
RIP to Garth Hudson, who was the last living member of The Band. Always loved what he did for Like A Rolling Stone on both the ‘66 and ‘74 tours. Here he is on the latter. open.spotify.com/track/68qKGz...
Apparently this makes me something of a rube among the intellectual commentariat but I actually don’t think that combining things an actor did in different takes or moving them around a scene is the same as making it sound like an actor does something they don’t actually do.
January 21, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Apparently this makes me something of a rube among the intellectual commentariat but I actually don’t think that combining things an actor did in different takes or moving them around a scene is the same as making it sound like an actor does something they don’t actually do.
I think TP:TR being 18 hours has made people overlook this, but: Lynch spent most of the 21st c. unable to get funding. At a certain point he seemed to give up entirely on getting a feature funded. Lynch! The best US filmmaker of the last 50 years! What is the industry good for?
January 17, 2025 at 1:44 AM
I think TP:TR being 18 hours has made people overlook this, but: Lynch spent most of the 21st c. unable to get funding. At a certain point he seemed to give up entirely on getting a feature funded. Lynch! The best US filmmaker of the last 50 years! What is the industry good for?
David Lynch was probably the greatest, most inventive Hollywood(ish) filmmaker since the Golden Age. His films were infused with an enormous belief in the unique emotional truths sound & image could access but a keen awareness of the dark side of all forms of escapism. RIP, king.
January 16, 2025 at 9:24 PM
David Lynch was probably the greatest, most inventive Hollywood(ish) filmmaker since the Golden Age. His films were infused with an enormous belief in the unique emotional truths sound & image could access but a keen awareness of the dark side of all forms of escapism. RIP, king.
It's unfathomable how bad the IFFR website is. If the description "a kaleidoscopic all-archival exploration of the work of intrepid mid-century utopian neuroscientist John C. Lilly" doesn't compel you to click, you wouldn't know it's Michael Almereyda and Courtney Stephens!
January 15, 2025 at 6:29 PM
It's unfathomable how bad the IFFR website is. If the description "a kaleidoscopic all-archival exploration of the work of intrepid mid-century utopian neuroscientist John C. Lilly" doesn't compel you to click, you wouldn't know it's Michael Almereyda and Courtney Stephens!
One of the funniest things to ever happen
January 15, 2025 at 4:40 PM
One of the funniest things to ever happen
The fires show that some widely inhabited parts of the country are simply not safe to inhabit. We can’t rebuild there and need to relocate people to safer parts of the country. That this is getting buried beneath other fights doesn’t bode well for how we deal with/prevent future climate disasters.
January 13, 2025 at 5:40 PM
The fires show that some widely inhabited parts of the country are simply not safe to inhabit. We can’t rebuild there and need to relocate people to safer parts of the country. That this is getting buried beneath other fights doesn’t bode well for how we deal with/prevent future climate disasters.
Incendiary live cut of Dylan’s best Born-Again song. You’d have to be Blind Willie McTell to be a better guitar player than Mike Bloomfield! open.spotify.com/track/2MsI60...
The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar - Live
Bob Dylan · From His Head to His Heart to His Hands · Song · 2014
open.spotify.com
January 12, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Incendiary live cut of Dylan’s best Born-Again song. You’d have to be Blind Willie McTell to be a better guitar player than Mike Bloomfield! open.spotify.com/track/2MsI60...
Folks are not appreciating A Complete Unknown enough. For the first time, men everywhere can talk to their girlfriends about Dylan without watching their eyes glaze over. This is Chalamet’s doing. In a month or two, when the world has moved on, you’ll realize how good you had it.
January 10, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Folks are not appreciating A Complete Unknown enough. For the first time, men everywhere can talk to their girlfriends about Dylan without watching their eyes glaze over. This is Chalamet’s doing. In a month or two, when the world has moved on, you’ll realize how good you had it.
I’ve always supported congestion pricing because it will cause fewer people to drive in Manhattan and will raise some money for the MTA, but it never occurred to me that it would also give us the privilege of watching the tri-state’s biggest narcissists have meltdowns.
January 7, 2025 at 3:01 PM
I’ve always supported congestion pricing because it will cause fewer people to drive in Manhattan and will raise some money for the MTA, but it never occurred to me that it would also give us the privilege of watching the tri-state’s biggest narcissists have meltdowns.
🎶Man to woman
Or woman to man?
Man to woman🎶
Or woman to man?
Man to woman🎶
January 6, 2025 at 4:48 AM
🎶Man to woman
Or woman to man?
Man to woman🎶
Or woman to man?
Man to woman🎶
For those attending IFFR 2025 (hi!), here’s what’s screening on film.
Cinema Regained:
The Red Badge of Courage
La Nott’e’l giorno
Focus: Through Cinema...:
Ballad of the Cart
Short/Mid-Length:
Am Telefon Milena Fina
A Patriot of These Woods
2020
Unearthed
The Individual
Skeyesee
Razorhead
Cinema Regained:
The Red Badge of Courage
La Nott’e’l giorno
Focus: Through Cinema...:
Ballad of the Cart
Short/Mid-Length:
Am Telefon Milena Fina
A Patriot of These Woods
2020
Unearthed
The Individual
Skeyesee
Razorhead
January 2, 2025 at 11:36 PM
For those attending IFFR 2025 (hi!), here’s what’s screening on film.
Cinema Regained:
The Red Badge of Courage
La Nott’e’l giorno
Focus: Through Cinema...:
Ballad of the Cart
Short/Mid-Length:
Am Telefon Milena Fina
A Patriot of These Woods
2020
Unearthed
The Individual
Skeyesee
Razorhead
Cinema Regained:
The Red Badge of Courage
La Nott’e’l giorno
Focus: Through Cinema...:
Ballad of the Cart
Short/Mid-Length:
Am Telefon Milena Fina
A Patriot of These Woods
2020
Unearthed
The Individual
Skeyesee
Razorhead
People who booed Dylan for going electric are always mocked for their myopia but I think if you listen to popular guitar music from before July 1965 and then listen to what Mike Bloomfield does on “Maggie’s Farm” at Newport it’s actually easy to see why it broke so many brains.
December 31, 2024 at 11:25 PM
People who booed Dylan for going electric are always mocked for their myopia but I think if you listen to popular guitar music from before July 1965 and then listen to what Mike Bloomfield does on “Maggie’s Farm” at Newport it’s actually easy to see why it broke so many brains.
My mother-in-law keeps talking about parents who have someone dressed up as The Grinch enter the house during their gift exchange and start taking away the presents from children and she doesn’t understand why I think this is hilarious.
December 27, 2024 at 3:44 AM
My mother-in-law keeps talking about parents who have someone dressed up as The Grinch enter the house during their gift exchange and start taking away the presents from children and she doesn’t understand why I think this is hilarious.
Quite the year I had
December 26, 2024 at 12:03 AM
Quite the year I had
Just hearing about the death of the great Shyam Benegal. Ankur: The Seedling is a remarkable film, and Mandi (Market Place) is not far behind. R.I.P. to a still-underrecognized great.
December 23, 2024 at 5:49 PM
Just hearing about the death of the great Shyam Benegal. Ankur: The Seedling is a remarkable film, and Mandi (Market Place) is not far behind. R.I.P. to a still-underrecognized great.
Watched Juror #2 yesterday. Really good script (albeit a bit on-the-nose at times). Visually undistinguished (some will no doubt exalt it as “classical”). Good anyway! Once upon a time we got 100 Hollywood movies a year as good as this one but now we get 3, so it seems special.
December 23, 2024 at 5:35 PM
Watched Juror #2 yesterday. Really good script (albeit a bit on-the-nose at times). Visually undistinguished (some will no doubt exalt it as “classical”). Good anyway! Once upon a time we got 100 Hollywood movies a year as good as this one but now we get 3, so it seems special.
Does anyone I know ride for Jacques Audiard? Retrospectives in NY and LA, now another at the Santa Barbara FF. To me he’s the guy who made a movie I liked in high school (A Prophet) and then some festival garbage whose acclaim befuddles me (Rust & Bone, Dheepan, Emilia Perez).
December 16, 2024 at 8:59 PM
Does anyone I know ride for Jacques Audiard? Retrospectives in NY and LA, now another at the Santa Barbara FF. To me he’s the guy who made a movie I liked in high school (A Prophet) and then some festival garbage whose acclaim befuddles me (Rust & Bone, Dheepan, Emilia Perez).
The WNBA is fumbling Caitlin Clark like it’s one of her teammates trying to catch her passes.
December 16, 2024 at 8:38 PM
The WNBA is fumbling Caitlin Clark like it’s one of her teammates trying to catch her passes.
Is the best needle drop of the year (non-“Evergreen” division) “Dirty Boots” in Last Summer?
December 15, 2024 at 11:15 PM
Is the best needle drop of the year (non-“Evergreen” division) “Dirty Boots” in Last Summer?