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Blake Simons

@blakethinks.bsky.social
504 followers 390 following 233 posts

🎥 interview evangelist, 2026 Daiwa Scholar ✍ romance, japan, animation, queer at BFI, IndieWire, Variety, The Japan Times, and more Contact: blakesimons97(at)gmail(dot)com muckrack.com/blakesimons

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The Film Stage @thefilmstage.com · 24/09/2026
Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! is a true crowdpleaser that carries the rarest maturity about sex, love, grief, and allowing yourself to take life one step at a time. Read @blakethinks.bsky.social's Critic's Pick review: thefilmstage.com/sundance-rev...
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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I *hate* this "digital divide" framing for AI; even libraries marshal it to justify their "AI literacy classes," ensuring all have "access" for self-actualization and economic opportunity. Maybe instead some folks are sufficiently literate, and they're instead choosing *principled refusal*.
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bakoon @bakoon.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
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Lost In Cult @lostincult.co.uk · 15/09/2026
Over 40 years of cutting edge cinema. Introducing our (Post)[Culture] premiere, Archive: Shinya Tsukamoto 🎞️ 400 pages. Limited extras. Signed by Tsukamoto himself. Only 500 signed copies available! 🔗🔻
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Steven Sloss 🛸 @stevensloss.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Takao Okawara's GODZILLA 2000: MILLENNIUM, the film that kicked off Godzilla's Millennium-era and ushered the King of the Monsters into the 21st century, recieves its long-awaited UK premiere at the Barbican on 30 Aug (encore screening on 22 Sep) 🧬 🎟️: www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/202...
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Josh Slater-Williams @jslaterwilliams.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
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Justin Decloux @declouxj.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I was today year's old when I learned there was an Expendables-esque film that came out featuring a ton of retired Nikkatsu Roman Porno actresses called Fujin Volleyball: Mama's Attack (2003)
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Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Over at @lwlies.com, I reviewed CASTRATION MOVIE III.II, a trans film with something for everyone
lwlies.com
Castration Movie Chapter iii.ii: Junior Ghosts – Premorphic Drift…
Louise Weard’s sprawling trans anthology gets its most accessible entry yet with Chapter iii.ii, a bracingly honest, handheld study of a fractured…
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Little White Lies @lwlies.com · 25/08/2026
Louise Weard’s sprawling trans anthology gets its most accessible entry yet with Chapter iii.ii, a bracingly honest, handheld study of a fractured relationship. Castration Movie Chapter iii.ii review: lwlies.com/reviews/cast...
lwlies.com
Castration Movie Chapter iii.ii: Junior Ghosts – Premorphic Drift…
Louise Weard’s sprawling trans anthology gets its most accessible entry yet with Chapter iii.ii, a bracingly honest, handheld study of a fractured…
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Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
“Wise, kind, and playful about sex and cinema, Schoenbrun’s elastic, open-hearted feature wants us to get out of our heads and enjoy the ride” Blake Simons reviews Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, in UK cinemas tomorrow. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
bfi.org.uk
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma review
The American director’s third narrative feature explores the relationship between the spectator and the spectated with a meta story of a young director who has been tasked with reviving a cult horror ...
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Josh Slater-Williams @jslaterwilliams.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Waiting for one of the coolest interviews I've ever done to be published this week
Scott Pilgrim prematurely waiting for a just ordered Amazon.ca delivery at his door
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priscilla page @priscillapage.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
followers/mutuals who've worked in physical media: have you ever heard of a blu-ray label paying their contributors with *just* a contributor blu copy, not actual $? is this a thing? I don't want to be messy about it but I was just informed after I wrote and submitted an essay and it feels...bad
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Jon Cartwright @jon.gvg.io · 19/08/2026
What
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Joey Weiser @joeyweiser.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
the entire Chinese internet has embraced what's basically a work of outsider art; a terribly animated film about a cow's dream made by a mother-son team and distributed by a former interior decoration company. It's now made millions at the box office.
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Josh Slater-Williams @jslaterwilliams.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
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Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Toei is 70! Happy birthday Toei! Coincidentally, they've launched a new in-house animation production brand, Eterna. I spoke with them about it for @cartoonbrew.bsky.social
cartoonbrew.com
Toei’s ETERNA Animation Debuts With ‘Foxing: Kitsuné-Tsuki’
Director Takeru Shinozuka and producer Yoshihide Moriyama discuss Toei’s new label for original filmmaking and developing new anime talent.
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Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I spoke with Suzu Hirose, in a career-spanning interview for @japantimes.co.jp She reflects on working with Hirokazu Kore-eda, Lee Sang-il, Shunji Iwai, and Hideki Noda; the differences between stage and screen acting; and the power of period dramas
japantimes.co.jp
Suzu Hirose is ready to ‘step into the unknown’
The 28-year-old actor looks back on her formative experiences with some of the most acclaimed contemporary Japanese directors.
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Alan Allport @alanallport.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
If your Python be Palin Or Idle, clean sailin’ If your Python be Cleese Or Gilliam, jeez.
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EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
12. Beyond anything about the film as a film, it was a terrible and entirely unnecessary choice to film the Trojan Horse sequence in occupied Dakhla, Western Sahara, without the consent of the indigenous population.
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EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
10. Whatever one thinks of the film as a work of art, it's doing some good in the world, by generating big conversations, bringing new audiences to the cinema, and new readers to ancient literature. I hope it helps save the humanities.
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Jayce @jayceb.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
The fact that he’s so dripped out lmao
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christa lee @ohpoorpup.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
The more you explore the history of anime, manga, Japanese games history, the more you are confronted with the fact that MANY of the forms’ most potent innovations sprang out of and could not have existed without pornography. It’s integral to and inextricable from these histories
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Sean T. Collins @seantcollins.com · 18/07/2026
Loss, but it's Leland Palmer finding out about Jacques Renault's arrest and hospitalization from Sheriff Truman and Doc Hayward
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Alan Woke 2 @mrpostsgood.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Reads like he did it
Independent:
Comment: After the killing of Ann Widdecombe, Count Binface is suddenly a lot less funny
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Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
I spoke with John Waters for the BFI We discussed Italian dubbing, trans representation, Criterion canonisation, and the death of exploitation cinema
bfi.org.uk
John Waters on restoring Hairspray and Desperate Living: “The mistakes are part of the charm”
His biggest popular success and one of his darkest comedies are arriving in the Criterion Collection at the same time. We spoke to Waters to hear why “The very fact that Desperate Living is in 4K is f...
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Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
I found out in the early hours of the morning that Tony Rayns has passed away. I first saw him speak when he introed Mountains May Depart at BFI LFF 2015. The tectonic plates of my brain shifted that evening. Tony was massively inspiring to what I do, how I do it, and why I do it. Rest in peace.
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Josh Slater-Williams @jslaterwilliams.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Close enough, welcome back Yukio Mishima
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Rose Schmits @roseschmits.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Head of the EHRC really did just say Phrenology will help solve the issue of transgenders in society
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Julian Singleton 🎃👻 @juliansingleton.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Are you a film critic who... - Has lived in Austin for 6+ months? - Write 2+ reviews of 300+ words (or 5+ original minutes of video) per month for a non-personal outlet? - Have been publishing for 6+ months? Come apply to be an @atxfilmcritics.bsky.social member! Open through 7/31 😁
static.klipy.com
Jr NTR's Mass Action in RRR
ALT: Jr NTR's Mass Action in RRR
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Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
In 2014, Nagisa Isogai graduated with THE LUST OF ANGELS, a striking genre riposte to the normalisation of train gropers Nine years later, she returned with POLAR NIGHT, a sapphic drama about a vampire art teacher and the women in her orbit I spoke with her for the Substack:
desperatelyseekingsubtitles.substack.com
Leave a Trace: Nagisa Isogai on ‘Polar Night’ and ‘The Lust of Angels’
An anthropologist of colliding emotions explores her distinct and defiant cinema
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Tom O @vgtomo.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
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juan barquin @woahitsjuanito.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Was just informed by @snydel.bsky.social that Ordinary Life, which I wrote about here and was previously unavailable, is now streaming until July 22nd on Festival Scope, courtesy of Annecy!
festivalscope.com
Festival Scope | Annecy International Animation Film Festival for Film Lovers
<br> Explore a curated selection of films from the 2025 edition! <br><br> ###### → Free ###### → 23 June - 23 July ###### → Available in selected countries ###### → Limited Tickets <br><br><br><br> [<...
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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
oh my god this is my marriage
a text exchange between, one assumes, wife and husband. She asks him "have you seen the cats bowl?" He replies, in jocular fashion, "I didn't know they could!" Years of exhausted and long-suffering grimness undergirds her reply: "i'm so sick and fucking tired of you"
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Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
For @japantimes.co.jp, I spoke with Yukiko Sode, Yukino Kishii, and Tadanobu Asano about adapting Mieko Kawakami's ALL THE LOVERS IN THE NIGHT to the silver screen
japantimes.co.jp
‘All the Lovers in the Night’ film adaptation brings ‘unstable beauty’ to the screen
During the Cannes Film Festival, director Yukiko Sode and actors Yukino Kishii and Tadanobu Asano reflected on the process of bringing Mieko Kawakami’s novel to life.
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Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
A little bit of Annecy from me: I spoke with WE ARE ALIENS filmmaker Kohei Kadowaki for @cartoonbrew.bsky.social His debut is a visceral hybrid of rotoscoped and traditional animation. We discuss structural rhythm; blending the personal and universal; similarities to Kore-eda's Monster; and more
cartoonbrew.com
'We Are Aliens' Director Kohei Kadowaki On Mixing Techniques
Kohei Kadowaki discusses blending rotoscoping with traditional animation, crafting emotional realism, and the influences behind his debut feature.
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Angie Han @ajhan.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
with all due respect to Leviticus (a very good movie!) the biggest scare of all was realizing that I am now “Mia Wasikowska is old enough to play the mom of a teen” years old
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Rob Dunson, Collateral Beautician @wormsgreenrealm.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
it's so fucked up that during one of the best moments in Disclosure Day I kept thinking about this
"Puss in Boots: The Last Wish shows what a panic attack can feel like. Here's why that's important." An image from Puss in Boots shows the titular cat having a panic attack. This is a page on CNN Entertainment
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Aaron Gerow @dengerow.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
News is finally out that the one-of-a-kind film artist Kanai Katsu passed away on April 22. He was a pioneering indie filmmaker, so we were proud to bring him to Yale in 2009 to show Mujin retto and Good-Bye. RIP. www.sankei.com/article/2026...
Cover for the DVD set The World of Kanai Katsu, featuring on the right a picture of Kanai, an old man with a beard, wearing a floppy beret.
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pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Hollywood agencies are searching JAV Titles for short stories and ideas that could be turned into movies following the success of 'Backrooms'
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Jyoti Mishra @jyotimishra.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Well, that was a fucking ride.
A cropped screenshot of an article section titled "Gary Larson cartoon incident" from a Tumblr page. The text describes a controversy involving a Far Side cartoon and Jane Goodall. 

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Gary Larson cartoon incident

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 In 1987 Gary Larson published a Far Side cartoon of two chimpanzees grooming, in which one discovers a blonde hair and says, "Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?"[127] The Jane Goodall Institute called the cartoon an "atrocity" in a letter drafted by its lawyers to Larson and his syndicate. Goodall, who was in Africa at the time, later found the cartoon amusing.[128] 

She went on to name it her favourite depiction of herself in pop culture.[129] Larson offered profits from sales of a shirt featuring the cartoon to the Jane Goodall Institute.[130] 

Goodall wrote the preface to The Far Side Gallery 5, detailing her version of the controversy.[131] She praised Larson's creative ideas, which often compare and contrast the behaviour of humans and animals. 

In 1988 Larson visited Goodall's research facility in Tanzania.[128] While there, he was attacked by a chimpanzee named Frodo.[127][132]
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Dan @ufovictim.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
🚨 Your blokes are doing fuck all! 🚨 Activate your blokes to keep them hearty. 🚨 To activate a bloke, right-click and assign them to a pint.
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Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
In a lengthy new interview for the Substack, I spoke with Shōgun star Shinnosuke Abe about MIRRORLIAR FILMS, a Japanese short film anthology project you ought to know about.
desperatelyseekingsubtitles.substack.com
Short, Sweet, and Steady: Shinnosuke Abe talks MIRRORLIAR FILMS
The Shōgun star discusses MIRRORLIAR, the Japanese film industry’s short film secret weapon
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Blue Heron Farm @blueheronfarm.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
My salads bring all the boys to the yard
Large tortoise firmly ensconced in his burrowLarge tortoise making his way up and out of his burrowLarge tortoise peeking between the plastic curtains of his houseLarge tortoise taking a chomp out of a beautiful salad
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Fruit and Bug Administration @waxwing.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
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Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Grim!
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Louise Weard @weard.moe · 12/06/2026
tl;dr Castration Movie Chapter iii.ii Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage is its own movie as a sort of Castration Movie Part 2.5 and Anthology iii. Year of the Hyaena is its own unique movie coming in 2027.
I also wanted to give an update for the release date of Anthology iii. -- as of right now it looks like we will be pushing it back to 2027. I want it to build on the momentum of Chapter 3.2 and there's some great scenes we have left to film, so I'll be shooting for the next several months to get it to perfection. Once again, if you pledged for the online premiere ticket, tune into the Discord as there will likely be the random chance to see some test screenings of certain sequences as I work on it. We are currently planning to split Chapter 3.2 Junior Ghosts-Premorphic Drift out as its own movie (consider it Castration Movie Part 2.5) as Anthology iii. is pushing five hours without it and the story flows better this way as we are moving a planned arc from Anthology iv. into Anthology iii. This feels like the best way to present the overall story of Castration Movie and it means there will be more movie sooner. Our anticipated release date for Anthology iii. is now early 2027, so Chapter 3.2 will be having it's full release in the Fall.
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𝔾𝕆ℝ𝔸ℕ @gorangligovic.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Love following gaming news. My other interests include deep paper cuts and drinking troughfuls of dysentery water
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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
We were interviewed by Criterion about the New Trans Cinema movement and our series highlighting trans filmmakers that we programmed on the Criterion Channel. www.criterion.com/current/post...
criterion.com
Charting the Rise of Trans Filmmaking with Caden Mark Gardner and Willow Maclay
The curators of a showcase of trans directors now playing on the Criterion Channel discuss the work of these trailblazing artists, who have brought new layers of nuance and insight to cinematic depict...
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Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
For @japantimes.co.jp, I unpacked Japan's Country of Honour moment at this year's Cannes Film Festival, speaking with the leading lights of the industry. Online below, and in today's paper
japantimes.co.jp
Japan’s Cannes moment signals a new global push
Tao Okamoto made history at Cannes, while Japanese filmmakers and producers looked ahead, embracing collaboration as the future of the industry.
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