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Today's eclipse brought this movie to mind, easily my favorite Weerasethakul and maybe my favorite film depending on the day. Haunting and healing is kinda his whole thing but I find Syndromes to be the most so, truly a trance I never want to end. Would you believe me if I told you one of cinema's most unnerving moments is a slow zoom into a pipe?
"No matter what people do, no matter what we do, something always watches us. Like you coming here... it knows all about you. I know as well"
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This incredibly special film will challenge and comfort you: it will place the spectre of death on your shoulder and shoo away any worries you had about it being there. It’s full of beautiful images, but the most lasting are the ones that transcend the screen. I’ve not had a cinema experience like it
Feb 2, 2024
I think about this film so often, I don’t know why. I don’t think it’s a very good film, in fact in parts it is actively bad, but it is one of my favourite films because it clearly had some kind of big impact on me! I have rewatched it a few times and (other than being visually pleasing) I still can’t figure out why i love it or why it takes up such precious brain space.
Nov 22, 2024
Ok, it’s about a Tokyo toilet cleaner. And he barely speaks. But bear with me.
It’s a film that is luminous with beauty from a director nearing the end of his life (Wim Wenders is in his eighties.) And it says so much about what is important in life, and what isn’t …
Relinquishing complication, I think, is the key. Plus the quietness of simplicity. And the ability to cleave to a simple life - if you possibly can. And having the courage to be singular; to not care what others think of you (the ultimate freedom.)
Lessons, lessons, all the life lessons. I still think about the gift of this film, months after I was immersed in it.
I left the cinema … cleansed.
Feb 17, 2025
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idc if I’ll use it maybe 5% of the time, I like to know it’s there!! Plus you’ll look so twee when you pull out a piece of hardware nobody has thought of in like 10 years
Apr 1, 2024
Seeking shelter in my catholic elementary school that has a cathedral inside the cathedral. Riding a Disneyland dark ride through every home I lived in as a kid. Driving down a highway that I understand to be inside of the Infinite Jest cover. Seeing a Tarantino movie about my friend in a theater that’s part-Pantheon part-hospital from Silent Hill 2.
Usually nothing really happens, I’m just sitting or walking around watching everyone else exist. They almost always feel melancholic/stilted, but I really enjoy it! I try and draw them in my dreams note if I can remember once I wake up
Mar 29, 2024
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Can (and often do) gush about these for hours. Katamari Damacy is the most fun work of art you will ever engage with, wears its pop art influences on its sleeves and we're all better for it. Bloodbourne turned me from a distant FromSoft admirer to a boots on the ground freak. I think about starting a NG+ run at least once a day (it's been a year since rolling credits!). Hollow Knight is the best metroidvania by a very wide margin, have never beaten the final boss over the span of 4 playthroughs because the idea of it ending is too sad. Gorogoa is the only puzzle game I've enjoyed with no caveats, really wonderful gameplay and style!
Mar 26, 2024