iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 15h

Once Upon a Time in the Middle East is both a hopeful and incredible war picture. It is rousing and galvanizing as much as it is heartwarming and heart-wrenching.

therewerenogodsleft.com

Once Upon a Time in the Middle East

A hopeful and incredible war picture

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I had the pleasure talking with Xenia Patricia over Zoom to discuss Filipiñana. Our lengthy conversation touched on everything from the oppressive look of manicured golf courses and approaches to capturing the truth with a camera to Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s time on the set and lens choices.

therewerenogodsleft.com

How to Make Images Hot & Evil Golf Courses: An Interview with Cinematographer Xenia Patricia on Filipiñana

"Don't take everything at face value: look beyond the box."

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The more I think about it, the more I think I'm right about John Wilson and The History of Concrete: he is the Jonas Mekas for the age of enshittification.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Over the weekend I cracked my head open and had to get stitches. I also watched Melania. I'd rather crack my head open again than rewatch whatever cinematic atrocity that was.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Over the weekend I cracked my head open and had to get stitches. I also watched Melania. I'd rather crack my head open again than rewatch whatever cinematic atrocity that was.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Watching the Emmys the way they were meant to: reruns on Chinese social media apps.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

By sharing their own account with the world, the author raises his middle finger one last time, an affirmation that Salman Rushdie will never be silenced. On Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie

inreviewonline.com

Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie — Alex Gibney [Review] | In Review Online

A new film review of Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, directed by Alex Gibney, for film review site In Review Online.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Hope is as deranged as the hell of The Garden of Earthly Delights and as caffeinated as George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. It is one of the best films of the year.

therapidian.org

Korean alien film ‘Hope’ answers film-loving prayers

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I didnt have very many good things to say about the 2026 Grand Rapids Film Festival.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I've thought hard about it and I think, if push came to shove, I'd preserve the music of Gracie Abrams over the films of JJ Abrams.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Filipino filmmaker Rafael Manuel leverages every ounce of this inherently class-charged symbolic oppressiveness in his scoldingly politically observant debut feature film Filipiñana.

bostonhassle.com

REVIEW: Filipiñana (2026) dir. Rafael Manuel // BOSTON HASSLE

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I wrote about six shorts from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival Short Tour's stop in Grand Rapids this week. I generally preferred the non-award winners to the award winners.

therapidian.org

Sundance Shorts makes pit stop in Grand Rapids

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Am i the only one who didnt know Jia Zhangke helped produce Filipiñana?

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Why is it impossible to sign up for Weibo if you dont live in China?

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I talked with Andrius Blazevicius, director of How to Divorce During the War, about an in-world film shown on the TV, queerness in Lithuanian cinema, the “cold” visuals of a Baltic winter, a frustrating interaction with a committee from the Lithuanian Film Centre, and much more.

inreviewonline.com

The Way We Are Living: A Conversation with Andrius Blazevicius on How to Divorce During the War | In Review Online

A new interview with filmmaker Andrius Blazevicius, director of How to Divorce During the War, for film review site In Review Online.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

inreviewonline.com

The Way We Are Living: A Conversation with Andrius Blazevicius on How to Divorce During the War | In Review Online

A new interview with filmmaker Andrius Blazevicius, director of How to Divorce During the War, for film review site In Review Online.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Yeon Sang-ho just rocks. Colony is the second-best zombie film Yeon has made thus far. And that may not sound like the most urgent praise, but it is also just the second-best zombie film.

therapidian.org

Can’t-miss Korean zombie film ‘Colony’ now playing

"Train to Busan" Director Yeon Sang-ho is back with another zombie movie. "Colony" is now playing in theaters across West Michigan.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

This is the most important thing you'll read anytime soon.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Six days until the start of Political Documentary: A Guided (Online) Film Club! Please consider joining us. Discounts available on a case by case basis.

therewerenogodsleft.com

Political Documentary — A Guided Film Club

Six online meetings exploring political documentary with film studies PhD candidate Garrett Hartman Strpko and film critic Joshua Polanski.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The future already looks bleak at times. It may get bleaker yet if our most humanistic artists continue to capitulate to their humanism.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Political Documentary — A Guided Film Club Meeting 1: Documentary & Political Definitions Meeting 2: Left Wing Agit-Prop Meeting 3: Right Wing Propaganda Meeting 4: Baltic Documentary Meeting 5: Wartime Meeting 6: Palestinian Documentary

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Just now learning Letterboxd removed the Jon Bois docs. They remove those--real capital-C cinema that appear in Sight and Sound polls--and yet they are still adding TV? Make it make sense.

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Foz Meadows @fozmeadows.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I recently watched Iron Man (2008) for the first time in over a decade, and it's a real lightbulb moment to realize that every executive, business bro and tech guy currently obsessed with using ChatGPT or Claude or whatever thinks they're like Tony Stark talking to Jarvis

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Letterboxd is down as much as it's up at this point.

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Corey Atad @coreyatad.com · 08/08/2026

the thought of "bluesky" making a movie makes me wanna declare cinema illegal, without even a purge day, just no more movies at all and people can't watch old ones anymore either, it's over

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Are there any critics that have seriously and intelligently engaged with Kdramas anywhere? Who is doing this?

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

If it werent for how good looking Monica Barbaro is, I probably would have walked out of One Night Only. The Little Caesars of movies about sex ual connections at the box office right now.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I dreamed about Jia Zhangke directing a bio pic of Xi Jinping's time in Iowa.

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Joshua Polanski @joshuapolanski.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

New logo for my site! www.therewerenogodsleft.com

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