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Flasz on Film
@flaszonfilm.bsky.social
10 followers 8 following 180 posts
flaszonfilm.com - essays on film and culture, reviews and commentary
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Here are some thoughts about some of the most culturally significant movies of this year.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2026/01/14/a...

#AvatarMovie #AvatarFireAndAsh #sinners #Sinners2025 #kpopdemonhunters #kpop
And the Most Culturally Impactful Movie of 2025 Is…
When I read that James Cameron was disappointed with what he saw as his newest movie Avatar: Fire and Ash underperforming at the box office—and it has to be said that having raked in excess of a bi…
flaszonfilm.com
January 14, 2026 at 10:40 PM
flaszonfilm.bsky.social
Also, while I'm gathering my thoughts on 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, have a read of what I thought years ago about Nia DaCosta's take on CANDYMAN.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2021/09/01/c...
Candyman (2021)
MGM If I remember correctly, and you will have to forgive me if I don’t because when I last read Clive Barker’s The Forbidden people were obsessing over tamagotchi and the Y2K b…
flaszonfilm.com
January 14, 2026 at 3:20 PM
flaszonfilm.bsky.social
With 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE coming out this week, check out my writing on the previous instalment in the series.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/06/27/2...

My thoughts on Nia DaCosta's new film are forthcoming.
28 YEARS LATER, Sprinting Zombie Bodybuilders and Dancing on Freshly Painted Surfaces
Columbia/Sony Pictures Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later persists in the cultural memory for a lot of reasons. It is often credited with popularizing the concept of a “fast zombie,” though it needs to be…
flaszonfilm.com
January 14, 2026 at 12:02 PM
flaszonfilm.bsky.social
Here's my take on HAMNET, a powerful and triumphant treaty on the interface between art and life, how grief shatters souls and how art mends them.

Full review here: flaszonfilm.com/2026/01/13/h...

#HAMNET #ChloeZhao #JessieBuckley #PaulMescal
Hamnet (2025) – Review
Synopsis: A young William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) is drawn into a passionate, fated marriage with Agnes (Jessie Buckley), a woman rumored to possess uncanny insight, as love, ambition, and folk m…
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January 13, 2026 at 10:43 PM
flaszonfilm.bsky.social
Here are my two cents on Golden Globes and their ideas about awarding best podcasts.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2026/01/12/g...

#GoldenGlobes #GoldenGlobes2026 #bestpodcast
Golden Globes and Chasing Relevance by Cultural Focus Pulling
Last night the 83rd Golden Globes were awarded. Nikki Glaser came back to host the gig with her signature snarky roast vibe that flew just a few inches above the level we had experienced with Ricky…
flaszonfilm.com
January 12, 2026 at 10:13 PM
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Here's my take on Kelly Reichardt's THE MASTERMIND, a potent masterpiece that hides a relevant conversation inside a genre-adjacent piece of character-driven observational cinema.

Full review here: flaszonfilm.com/2026/01/11/t...

#TheMastermind #Mubi #KellyReichardt #JoshOConnor
The Mastermind (2025) – Review
Synopsis: Set in 1970s Massachusetts, an out-of-work carpenter masterminds the theft of four Arthur Dove paintings, only to watch his carefully rationalized scheme unravel as accomplices are arrest…
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January 11, 2026 at 11:18 PM
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Here's a little essay on how AI has become a divisive dog whistle and a line of cultural division.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2026/01/10/t...

#AI #chatgpt #culture
The AI Clapback, Digital Veganism and Redrawn Battle Lines of Cultural Warfare
The idea of following and observing how AI tools have been slowly incorporated into our everyday existence has grown recently to occupy a non-insignificant patch of my personal mental real estate. …
flaszonfilm.com
January 10, 2026 at 10:01 PM
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Here's my take on SONG SUNG BLUE, a movie that wins over with its charm despite being fundamentally manipulative.

Full review here: flaszonfilm.com/2026/01/09/s...

#SongSungBlue #HughJackman #KateHudson #CraigBrewer
Song Sung Blue (2025) – Review
Synopsis: A Don Ho impersonator who refuses to perform as anyone but himself reinvents his career and his life when he partners with a Patsy Cline tribute singer to form a Neil Diamond–inspired duo…
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January 9, 2026 at 7:59 PM
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John Boorman's EXCALIBUR turns 45 this year and here's why it matters.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2026/01/09/e...

#fantasy #JohnBoorman #excalibur
EXCALIBUR at 45: The Last Gasp of New Hollywood
Upon its original release, the John Boorman-directed Excalibur registered as a box office hit, and although it split the critical opinion, it was a much-needed comeback for the director whose caree…
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January 9, 2026 at 12:03 AM
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Here's an essay about the 1994, how it remains relevant today and, most importantly, how it was a mirror in which Mike Nichols could see his own reflection.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2026/01/07/w...

#MikeNichols #jacknicholson #michellepfeiffer
WOLF, Modes of Masculinity and the Liberation of Mike Nichols
In the early 1990’s Mike Nichols’s filmmaking career was at a precarious juncture. He had just turned sixty in 1991, in the year that also saw his movie Regarding Henry flung into the weeds by crit…
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January 7, 2026 at 10:33 PM
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Here's my take on MARTY SUPREME, a fundamentally good movie that reminds you of much better movies you could revisit. But it also solves the question of which Safdie is the dominant one.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2026/01/05/m...

#JoshSafdie #timotheechalamet
MARTY SUPREME, Anatomy of a Collaborative Endeavour by Selective Deletion and the Perils of Updating ROCKY with Extra Steps
Much like the Coen Brother Separation Experiment, which produced some meaningful initial results recently, The Safdie Iteration of the Brother Separation Experiment is now officially available for …
flaszonfilm.com
January 5, 2026 at 11:21 PM
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The period of end-of-year self-reflection concludes with this - a little piece on planning and expectations.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2026/01/03/o...
On the Futility of Planning for Growth
You get out of bed, shuffle along to the bathroom and look in the mirror. “New year, new me,” you mutter to yourself exactly as you did the year before. What’s changed? What have you achieved? How …
flaszonfilm.com
January 3, 2026 at 5:28 PM
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Happy New Year! 2025 in review concludes with this final list of articles I wrote last year that I see as my best work. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I loved writing them.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2026/01/01/2...

#yearinreview2025 #YearInReview
2025 in Review: 10 Best Articles I Wrote
This is it! 2025 in Review concludes with this entry where I trawled through everything I wrote in 2025 to choose a selection I’d happily include in my portfolio, if anyone ever asked me to c…
flaszonfilm.com
January 1, 2026 at 5:21 PM
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My Year in Review series has entered its final stages. Here's 5 articles I wrote this year that barely anybody saw.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/31/2...

#yearinreview2025 #yearinreview
2025 in Review: 5 Articles Nobody Read
The end of the year is now well in sight and so is this Year in Review series. On this occasion, I decided to dig out a small selection of articles that I wrote in 2025 that for one reason or anoth…
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December 31, 2025 at 4:23 PM
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Year in review continues! This time, have a look at five articles I wrote this year that ended up clicked on and read the most.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/30/2...

#yearinreview2025 #yearinreview
2025 in Review: My 5 Most Read Articles
Here’s another little roundup of articles I’d like to highlight as part of my Year in Review series for 2025. This time, I would like to list a handful of pieces I wrote throughout the …
flaszonfilm.com
December 30, 2025 at 9:41 PM
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My own year in review continues today with a handful of articles I wrote this year that ended up seeing the most engagement.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/30/2...

#yearinreview2025 #yearinreview #writing #writingcommunity
2025 in Review: My 5 Most Liked Articles
It’s time to move this year’s review from movies onto my own work, which I have decided to divide into four neat little pile. The first little grouping of articles concerns the five pie…
flaszonfilm.com
December 30, 2025 at 2:43 PM
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Here's my take on the new ANACONDA, which is a movie that is way more fun than it honestly should have been.

Full review here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/29/a...

#anaconda #Anaconda2025 #jackblack #paulrudd #SteveZahn #ThandiweNewton
ANACONDA (2025) and the Strategic Choice to Reboot the Cult Instead of the Movie
The fact that the 1997 Anaconda spawned a franchise is already a bit of a miracle. That this franchise includes three direct sequels, a made-for-SyFy crossover with the Lake Placid series and now a…
flaszonfilm.com
December 29, 2025 at 10:53 PM
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Today is the day of context. To supplement the top 10 list of 2025 movies I shared recently and the 8 more great movies that followed, here's a list of 5 films I did not get to see that you might think that I should have included in my lists.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/28/2...
2025 in Review: 5 Films I Missed
I am a big fan of context and I believe that a big part of composing a best-of list of movies, such as it was, does not stop at just firing off the top ten and leaving things be. However, in additi…
flaszonfilm.com
December 28, 2025 at 2:15 PM
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Year in review continues with 8 more movies worth highlighting that for one reason or another did not make it onto my Top 10 list of the year.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/27/2...

#yearinreview #yearinreview2025 #bestmovies2025
2025 in Review: 8 More Great Films I Watched
The formation of any end-of-year best-of list always comes with the need to make difficult choices, which means that some movies that otherwise would have made it onto the podium need to be left to…
flaszonfilm.com
December 27, 2025 at 3:23 PM
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2025 in Review begins today! Here's the top 10 movies I watched this year! Enjoy!

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/26/2...

#YearInReview #Top10 #bestmovies #bestmovies2025
2025 in Review: 10 Best Films I Watched
2025, a ballistic missile of a year in its own right, has now entered its terminal phase. As is traditional in all corners to use these final days of the year to look back and reflect on things, it…
flaszonfilm.com
December 26, 2025 at 4:31 PM
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Here's a little pre-Christmas piece that looks like rage bait but I promise you it is not one.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/24/i...

#gremlins #gremlinsmovie #Christmas #joedante
Is GREMLINS a MAGA-Coded Christmas Classic?
I sat down the other night and barricaded myself in the living room. Surrounded by rolls of wrapping paper, strings, bows and stickers and with a stack of assorted merchandise I was almost ready to…
flaszonfilm.com
December 24, 2025 at 2:13 PM
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Here's my take on THE HOUSEMAID, a perfectly disposable thriller that works on its fundamentals and sticks the landing despite occasionally long bouts of exposition.

Full review here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/23/t...

#sydneysweeney #AmandaSeyfried #TheHousemaid
The Housemaid (2025) – Review
Synopsis: Fresh out of prison, Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) takes a live-in maid job with a wealthy Long Island family, only to find herself drawn into a household defined by paranoia, locked d…
flaszonfilm.com
December 23, 2025 at 11:02 PM
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Here are some thoughts on one of the often overlooked reasons why high frame rate is slowly becoming accepted.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/22/t...

#AvatarFireAndAsh #AvatarMovie #JamesCameron #peterjackson
The Silent Acceptance of High Frame Rate Filmmaking
With the recent release of Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third instalment in the Avatar franchise, the debate surrounding its use of high frame rate in large portions of the movie has reignited anew. W…
flaszonfilm.com
December 22, 2025 at 9:50 PM
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Here's my take on WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY, which is exactly what you think it is - a murder whodunit following the template of its predecessors.

Full review here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/21/w...

#WakeUpDeadMan #Netflix #DanielCraig #RianJohnson #knivesoutmovie
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) – Review
Synopsis: A hot-headed former boxer turned priest (Josh O’Connor) is reassigned to a decaying rural parish, where he clashes with its extremist pastor (Josh Brolin)—only to become the prime suspect…
flaszonfilm.com
December 21, 2025 at 8:54 PM
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Here's my take on AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, a feature-length in-game cinematic made for a video game that doesn't exist.

Full article here: flaszonfilm.com/2025/12/20/a...

#AvatarFireAndAsh #AvatarMovie #avatar #JamesCameron
AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, Feature-Length In-Game Cinematics and Bedsores
There was a time when Blizzard Entertainment, the video game developer responsible for the iconic Diablo, Starcraft and World of Warcraft franchises, would occasionally treat their fans to truly as…
flaszonfilm.com
December 20, 2025 at 10:19 PM