19 Comments
User's avatar
Lucy Werner's avatar

Spirited Away is the benchmark of finding my people.

Expand full comment
Rob Schulte's avatar

Smoking is BACK, in a big way!

Expand full comment
Scott Kirtley's avatar

You’re one of the few I’d pay money to just to read. We always need more...[wait for it]...DeVore! 👏👏👏

Expand full comment
Gina Braden's avatar

Hhhuuurrrrrraaayyy! Now I have something to look forward to!!

Expand full comment
David Perlmutter's avatar

As a former reader of your blog, I am glad you are here now.

Expand full comment
Teri Adams's avatar

Welcome! I am a huge movie and TV watcher, with a broad taste—westerns to science fiction to old musicals.

I just rewatched Fiddler on the Roof (10th time?)—I subscribed because you mentioned it!

Expand full comment
John DeVore's avatar

I never tire of Tevye

Expand full comment
Eric Pierce's avatar

Hey John! I followed you here from Humungus and have been a long-time admirer of your work. Any chance you'll write an essay about Coming to America?

Right now I'm watching and thinking a lot about White Men Can't Jump. Fav X-Men: Nightcrawler or Colossus, though the animated series put Gambit on my map.

Expand full comment
John DeVore's avatar

I think Coming to America may be one of the last great, broad American comedies, I love it as much as Blazing Saddles, for instance.

Expand full comment
Akos Peterbencze's avatar

I'm glad you're back in the movie blogosphere. :)

The Killer comes to Netflix on my birthday, and I can't wait to celebrate with it.

Expand full comment
Benjamin Adler's avatar

Longtime Medium follower. Please continue.

Expand full comment
Michelle Frankfurter's avatar

I just subscribed but my continued support is conditional upon you agreeing to watch and review Aniara. I’m kidding. Mostly. But for real, I’d love to hear your take on it, even if you hate it.

Expand full comment
John DeVore's avatar

I adored Aniara, even it's low-production values. Its final half hour or so is so beautifully, cosmically bleak. If I didn't know any better, it seemed to have been an inspiration for HBO's terrible comedy Avenue 5, which is about a spacecraft knocked off course.

Expand full comment
Karina's avatar

What fun! Thank you for finding me in the Substackery world. I used to write reviews long ago and I miss doing it sometimes. I will enjoy reading the fruits of your labor, thank you!

Expand full comment
Jeff Lewonczyk's avatar

I look forward checking the word count on every post. And arguing about hyphenation.

Expand full comment
Michelle Frankfurter's avatar

That final scene still haunts me, especially in the middle of the night when I wake up to have a pee. It takes me a minute to fall back asleep. I see that giant, yet infinitesimal sarcophagus floating inexorably into the void. Did you know that the film is an adaptation of a poem by the same name, written by a Swedish poet in the 1950s? Talk about prescient!

Expand full comment
Olivier Lefevre's avatar

I won't watch The Killer because, firstly, I find this popular fascination with killers-for-hire scabrous, secondly, because I find Fassbender a bit monotonous (although he was terrific as the android David: the last scene of Alien: Covenant is the most terrifying thing in the entire history of SF) and lastly and most importantly because I can't forgive that egotistic prat of Fincher for being responsible for the demise of the fantastically good Mindhunters TV series, which he sabotaged so he could film Mank instead.

Paris was long a town with a very strong movie culture; good to know that it still seems to be the case.

Expand full comment
John DeVore's avatar

I, too, was disappointed he didn't continue with Mindhunters, which had surprising moments and insights for the serial killer genre, which is one of my least favorite. Also: Mank was terrible.

Expand full comment
Olivier Lefevre's avatar

I, too, dislike the serial killer genre as a rule but Mindhunters doesn't belong to it. Instead serial killers in Mindhunters are weaponized by a group of quirky individuals (yes, even the older family man) who use them in a competition to see who's the most accomplished analyst. It's a fascinating study in the culture of the nascent FBI.

Expand full comment