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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Cool to see my words in the KILL BILL: WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR blu-ray (even if the review itself isn't exactly a magnum opus).

A photo of Empire's review of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair by A.A. Dowd as it appears in the blu-ray booklet for the movie.

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Where I'm likely at with Nolan:

My ranking of Nolan's movies:
1. Oppenheimer
2. Memento
3. The Prestige
4. The Dark Knight
5. Dunkirk
6. The Odyssey
7. Interstellar
8. The Dark Knight Rises
9. Insomnia
10. Inception
11. Batman Begins
12. Tenet
13. Following

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

The movie just cleared its production budget in *three days.*

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Realized I never shared my favorite metal albums of last year! These were them:

1. Agriculture, The Spiritual Sound
2. Blackbraid, Blackbraid III
3. Dimscûa, Dust Eater
4. Imperial Triumphant, Goldstar
5. Deafheaven, Lonely People With Power
6. Cave Sermon, Fragile Wings
7. Messa, The Spin
8. Sex Germs, Whiplash
9. Oromet, The Sinking Isle
10. Veilburner, Longing For Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Good news: Schedule swap means I can now see Wayfarer too! Bad news: Was not privy to this addition!

A schedule showing that Torche played a show at this festival today at 3:45

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Lol, my phone has weighed in on the decision

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Prepare the Ground schedule is out, and I gotta say, the overlap is really bumming me out. Last year, it was staggered so I could see all the acts I wanted to see.

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Once had some cheeky fun with a capsule review where I danced around what this magnificent movie is.

The unforgettable power of Audition hinges partially on the element of surprise. So let’s tread lightly through the twists and turns of this sweet, gentle romantic comedy about a lonely widower (Ryo Ishibashi) who gets a new shot at love. Superhumanly prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike has made dozens of movies in the years since, but has he ever locked into a scenario as whimsically inspired as staging auditions for a fake TV show in order to find the woman of your dreams? It’s with the delicacy of countryman Kore-eda Hirokazu and the crowd-pleasing instincts of a Hollywood hitmaker that Miike engineers the meet-cute between his leading man and the demure, slightly mysterious ingénue (Eihi Shiina) who pricks his healing heart like a skilled acupuncturist. Their courtship is so swoon-worthy that it’s easy to overlook that it’s built on a scheme. Don’t lots of rom-coms step out on a limb of high-wire deception, with characters who put the wrong foot forward? Incidentally, if you’re new to Audition, skip the trailer above: It goes deeper deeper deeper into the film’s unpredictable plot than it should.

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Loving the task-oriented zombies in RESIDENT EVIL: REQUIEM.

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

They played it six days ago!

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

This is the lens through which I, a financially irresponsible millennial, see the world.

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Tired: WEAPONS is reminscent of MAGNOLIA. Wired: WEAPONS is an unofficial, supernatural AMERICANS sequel.

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

If anyone has room for one more top 10 list, here are my favorites of 2025:

The best films of 2025:
1. Marty Supreme
2. Eephus
3. It Was Just An Accident
4. No Other Choice
5. If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You
6. One Battle After Another
7. Splitsville
8. Sirat
9. Predators
10. The Long Walk

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

55. Insect Warfare, WORLD EXTERMINATION: youtu.be/AxatX-Ut3MA?...

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

"Especially Lisa! But especially Bart!"

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Like, how do you *not* form an amazing, eco-minded black metal band when you see this everyday?? (Photo taken during an Oregon jaunt this weekend.)

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Go to the novelty mini-golf place in the suburbs, and I will follow

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

How was the show? Dunno. Creamy.

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

I've contributed to another major Best Films of the 21st Century list that is going up soon, I think. This was the top of my ballot:

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Alex Garland, holding tight to the "Generally good reviews" title.

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

"Drop the RUNNER. Just RUNNER. It's cleaner."

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Digging through some old Time Outs, I found this very silly, one-page feature I wrote imagining James Bond in the hands of various big-name directors.

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A.A. Dowd @aadowd.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Wrote this about two weeks before Musk's galling comments about the "parasite class."

All that said, you have to wonder if the pointedly unsubtle Parasite might actually be a little too subtle for 2025. In a key scene, the Kims sit around, drinking the Park family’s liquor, enjoying the mirage of a life within the household they serve. “She’s rich, but still nice,” Mr. Kim says of his employer, to which his wife replies, with a snort: “She’s rich, therefore she’s nice.” Right now, though, the mask of niceness the obscenely monied often wear has slipped. As these words are written, and maybe as you read them, the world’s richest man is waging war on the middle and lower class in broad daylight — unlawfully destroying public services, hurting American workers to line his own pockets, slashing cancer research for kids. Him and his kind are monsters too broad for the broadest of satires, the kind Bong would be embarrassed to put in a movie. They’re parasites in the truest sense.

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