Brendan Hodges Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Brendan Hodges

what A.I. and maybe people don't get is Wes Anderson is always changing things up. some joked THE FRENCH DISPATCH was self-parody, but it explored multiple modes of storytelling and visual style new to his filmography. all these do is expose the limits of how people perceive him.

Brendan Hodges

POKER FACE is excellent. Less a KNIVES OUT rerun than a Rian Johnson-Tarantino riff in the best way possible, a murder mystery built around tête-a-tête dialogue, temporal hijinks and a brilliant Natasha Lyonne as Rian's take on a just-one-more-thing Columbo. I loved it. https://t.co/xX1PImqHSH

Out of stock

Brendan Hodges

it'll be even funnier if it's another example of Tarantino historical revisionism and ends with Kael seeing RESERVOIR DOGS in 1991 just after she retired, and talks to a young whippersnapper Quentin about his first feature film

Brendan Hodges

With ASTEROID CITY raves hitting, thinking about how Wes Anderson's style is weirdly overlooked for how he's actually always evolving it, dropping some hallmarks (slow-mo set to a needle drop) while picking up new ones (stop-motion), exploring new territory in nearly every film. https://t.co/dqwlc0wQl1

Brendan Hodges

Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN isn't as literally queer as THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, but it's one of the great queer texts specifically because of its metaphorical power in the book's relationships and situations. Literal gayness is only one of many ways to look at queer readings. https://t.co/ksJqAFMTRu

Brendan Hodges

Hillcoat is an abysmal choice for this. BLOOD MERIDIAN is notoriously hard to adapt, a novel of dense Biblical-style prose, full of nightmarish ultra-violence and painted on an epic, visually ecstatic canvas of blood. This needs a top-class talent like Eggers or Jenkins, period. https://t.co/FpNK90xhsw

Brendan Hodges

thumbing through Tom Shone's THE NOLAN VARIATIONS and Nolan (adorably) has a framed photo of him and Michael Mann in his private office from the 20th anniversary of HEAT screening. dude's rock etc https://t.co/jLJYg2WVCJ

Brendan Hodges

I know it's an absolute law of nature that Hayao Miyazaki is one of the greats, but let's say he was an unknown and these movies were made by different people: is PRINCESS MONONOKE more a work of "cinema" than KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE because it's more adult? Obviously not.

Brendan Hodges

the OPPENHEIMER press cycle just being Christopher Nolan continually spreading his man-love for Cillian Murphy is adorable and completely deserved https://t.co/KSn72oh76o

Brendan Hodges

I've said this, but Star Wars was the byproduct of a very odd man named George Lucas with highly specific fetishes, and once Star Wars stopped being about what was personal and instead Star Wars was "about" Star Wars, the series began to risk losing something. I want that back.