Sign in

Robert Joseph

@robertgjoseph.bsky.social
422 followers 531 following 318 posts

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communication at the University of Dayton. Focus on cinematic geography, American independent cinema, mediations of hell and the apocalypse, and other things. On Letterboxd at boxd.it/iB7b.

PostsRepliesMedia
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Favorite first time viewings of films in August: The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946) Nirvanna the Show the Band the Movie (Matt Johnson, 2025) Phantasm (Don Coscarelli, 1979) Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (Quentin Tarantino, 2004)
000
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Favorite first time viewings of films in July: You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine (Michael John Warren, 2025) Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937) The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan, 2026) After Life (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1998)
100
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Favorite first time viewings of films in June: The Long Walk (Francis Lawrence, 2025) Disclosure Day (Steven Spielberg, 2026) Open Your Eyes (Alejandro Amenábar, 1997) I Knew Her Well (Antonio Pietrangeli, 1965)
010
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Favorite first time viewings of films in May: Nightfall (Jacques Tourneur, 1956) The Golden Coach (Jean Renoir, 1953) Who Killed Teddy Bear? (Joseph Kates, 1965) Obsession (Curry Barker, 2025)
100
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
m.youtube.com/watch?v=qro7...
m.youtube.com
PLAN NINE: "Your Stupid Minds! Stupid! Stupid!"
YouTube video by drdarkeny
000
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Happy Mother’s Day from Grubby’z
010
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Don’t forget Tales from the Crypt (1972)!
000
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Angus Main @angusmain.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
The ape man at the beginning of 2001 chucking a bone in the airCut to a bottle of cerveza crystal beer spinning in the air
12111
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
This one was a tough read.
010
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Gotta be Chopping Mall. The original is fun but by no means an untouchable sacred cow of 1980s cinema. Revisiting the film’s proto-AI anxieties in the context of the decline of communal social spaces would actually be dope.
110
Reposted by Robert Joseph
violet allen @blipstress.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
RIP Baudrillard, you would've loved The Devil Wears Prada 2 hiring a real artist to create an image in the style of AI slop.
224036
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Twin Peaks The Wire Mad Men Better Call Saul Arrested Development (S1-3) Breaking Bad 30 Rock Andor Firefly Deadwood The West Wing I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson True Detective (S1) Band of Brothers Ken Burns’ The Civil War
000
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Favorite first-time viewings of films in April: Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, 2013) Project Hail Mary (Phil Lord and Chris Miller, 2026) Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould (François Girard, 1993) India Cabaret (Mira Nair, 1985)
100
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
This is the way.
000
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Curb Your Malthusiasm @manucleardevice.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
The Wachowskis built 1.5 miles of highway for their Reloaded set piece, got 300 some cars from GM that were not deemed to be road safe for consumers, and after filming one of the five best car chases in cinematic history, recycled all that material into affordable housing in Mexico
3648431162
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
I’m thinking about how in 20 years—basically the span of my adult life—my country went from voting rights as a consensus so popular no one dared voted against it, to this.
010
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I didn’t know about this. Kim!
000
Reposted by Robert Joseph
ReadJack🇺🇸 @readjack.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
The Columbine massacre was on this date in 1999. Instead of energizing our country to get gun violence under control, it kicked off a new normal. One of the best explanations ever of journalism's destructive impact on mass shootings came from Roger Ebert in his review of Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant.”
2851351789
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Sophie Bee @pogform.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Genuinely the funniest needle drop I’ve ever seen in a movie
627384
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Without stating your age, post your favorite film released the year you turned 18.
010
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
“Yeah, I miss the real. Recordings from back then sound like a pile of dogshit. How about it Sammy? You still got the real in you?”
000
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
When you just did your experimental cinema lesson in Intro to Film #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched
140
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Corey Atad @coreyatad.com · 17/04/2026
this is fucking unreal stuff from Noah Wyle on the magic of The Pitt. www.gq.com/story/noah-w...
“It’s a couple of things that work beautifully in concert. First: no music. Audiences are so sophisticated, but what they’re not accustomed to is not being told how to feel,” Wyle says. “You take all that out and it forces a level of engagement where you’re now looking for clues within the frame of the screen, which forces you to look up from your phone. And I think that is extremely engaging, especially to young viewers who aren’t accustomed to being asked to participate in a nonpassive way in the viewing experience.“Second point, shooting it with almost exclusively 50-millimeter or 65-millimeter lenses, which is the most comparable to the human eye—and only shooting from the point of view of a human being that’s present in this space. There are no cameras on gurney wheels going in the hallway. There’s no cameras on the ceiling looking down from a God point of view. You are limited to the perspective of a participant. You can look away, but you can’t leave, and it becomes an endurance test for you to stay on your feet as long as we’re on our feet. Which [brings me to my] third point: real time. Real time has an aggregate sense of tension that you don’t get in any other form of storytelling. What happened before is happening now, and these two things are going to add up to the next thing. And if we throw more ingredients into this cooker and keep ratcheting it up, it’s going to pop.”Wyle makes eye contact for his next point, delivering it with a Robby-esque matter-of-factness. “Fourth point: The election went the other way,” he says with a shrug. “We could have been a really good show with a lot of nice things to say in a perfectly normal Kamala Harris universe. And instead we became almost a beacon of hope and humanity in an alternative universe. But in the midst of that, fifth point—this is essentially competence porn. You’re watching really smart, dedicated people do what only they know how to do at a level that you don’t know how to do it, and you’re so fucking glad that they’re there doing it, and compartmentalizing their own stuff to put your broken pieces back together. You’re so reassured by knowing that there are people out there that laugh and joke and have the ability to lock in like that.”
1270581674
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
“pissholes in the snow”
000
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
As someone who always wanted to go to a Drafthouse but never lived in proximity of one pre-pandemic, this is a dark read www.indiewire.com/features/com...
indiewire.com
The Absolute Hell of Watching a Movie at the Alamo Drafthouse in 2026
Once America's most promising movie theater chain, the Alamo Drafthouse has become a QR-coded symbol of corporate enshittification.
000
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
A great American movie!
010
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
I hadn't seen this before. This is pretty remarkable. Earth and Moon in one NASA photo. ht @astrokatie.com
Earth and Moon from DSCOVR NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite captured this unique view of the Moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth last month. This view shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the moon that is never visible from Earth. Ian Regan processed this version of the image to account for the Moon's motion. NASA / NOAA / Ian Regan
2228665190
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Adam Mallinger @bitterscriptreader.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Sterling K. Brown explains the streaming economics of why we don’t get more eps
291868502
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
I got lots of problems with these people but one of the biggest complaints I have is none of them know any of the pop culture references they keep using in memes. This guy literally threw the detonator out the window so no one would die
1014859738
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Favorite first-time viewings of films in March: Atlantic City (Louis Malle, 1980) City of Hope (John Sayles, 1991) Of Time and the City (Terence Davies, 2008) Heat Lightning (Mervyn LeRoy, 1934)
110
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
“I accuse my parents!”
000
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
It Happened One Night
000
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Peter Labuza @labuzamovies.com · 25/03/2026
"The overwhelming use case for AI video generators continues to be what it has always been: people making porn, nonconsensual sexual imagery, disinformation, and low-effort slop at scale." www.404media.co/disneys-open...
404media.co
Disney's Sora Disaster Shows AI Will Not Revolutionize Hollywood
It turns out when you try to serve slop on a product people pay for, no one wants it.
0155
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
“Quentin Tarantino was plagiarized-” I’m gonna stop you there
000
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Chopped Unc Skeleton @colonelnemo.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
If Sinners came out in the 90s there would be an SNES and Genesis game that would be made by totally different developers. The Genesis version youd play as Smoke and you’d have a gun and in the SNES version you play as Preacherboy and you fight vampires with your guitar
353071522
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
In honor of the Oscars tonight, here are the ten Best Picture nominees ranked with Arrested Development scenes. 1. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
101
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
In honor of the Oscars tonight, here are the ten Best Picture nominees ranked with Arrested Development scenes. 1. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
101
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I feel seen www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
theguardian.com
‘I wish I could push ChatGPT off a cliff’: professors scramble to save critical thinking in an age of AI
As AI has upended the way students learn, academics worry about the future of the humanities – and society at large
000
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Ned Raggett @nedraggett.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
And now I'm just spelunking around and here's this Facebook post by Kaleb Horton from September 2017. It was three months after MTV dumped its freelancers. I'm sure it would have been a piece there; instead he posted this on FB just to have it written out: Toys 'R' Us as societal microcosm.
Facebook post from Kaleb Horton, September 18, 2017:

Toys R Us is probably going out of business this year.
I'm fascinated by the collapse of retail, because what it really signifies is the collapse of the 20th century. 
The reason I pushed to profile guys like Harry Dean Stanton, Merle Haggard and Chuck Berry, was that writing about them is a way of writing about the 20th century, and how different it was from where we are now. How shockingly different, in retrospect. The migration out of the south, the descent of the Dust Bowl, which was a Biblical plague; the millions of people who were killed during World War Two. Monoculture, and the idea that a great episode of a television show would be seen by *half of all people.*
The arrival of flight, and the end of horses. Homes without electricity. Coming of age without computers, without television. Listening to the radio for entertainment. 
The 20th century was a long time ago and it's a ghost now. It's a ghost you see in the places you wouldn't expect. It's seen in towns that were bypassed by the freeways, the dusty little towns out west that still have old diners and motels and payphones. It's seen in the places that we left, places where mines shut down, places where tourist attractions died off. 
It's seen in Bakersfield with Buck Owens' Crystal Palace and it's seen in Roswell, which stubbornly maintains the relics of the '90s UFO boom. Things like that won't be around forever. Someday owners will die and towns will burn and they won't be rebuilt. And it's difficult to suss out what those things are, because they're on roads, physical and metaphorical, that we no longer travel.The ghost sightings happen in stupid places, unexpected places, and uncool places. A few months ago, I went with Marie to the Toys R Us on Victory Blvd. in Burbank, which still looks exactly like it did in Back to the Future in 1985 somehow. It's not nostalgia that you see there, it's just a customer base and economic model that's aging and won't be around a lot longer, and it's *boring.* There's no reason for anyone to ever go to Lancer's, the little diner by that Toys R Us. Because it's not good. People go there out of tradition, and old habits. 80 and 90 year olds go there.
We were lining up for a Nintendo, which is still a hard thing to keep stocked in stores. Toys R Us was actually the best place to obtain one, because it's no longer a place children beg their parents to take them to. When we went in, wham, there it was. The ghost of 1996. I was 8 years old, for a fraction of a second. The feeling wasn't nostalgia, it was a kind of temporal dislocation. A confusion. But it wasn't an immaculate 1996, it was a fading 1996. It was lonelier than I remember it. It's time for Toys R Us to go out of business. It was time ten years ago, fifteen.
There are reasons to be nostalgic about the 20th century. We weren't plugged into so many wires, so many screens. We were a little bit closer to the process of manufacturing and agriculture than we are now. We made more things by hand, and our goals as people were uniquely audacious and driven by mad, desperate power that was temporary and had to end. 
But the 20th century was hopelessly cruel and soaked in blood. The 20th century gave us flight, but it also gave us bombs that can end the world and Richard Nixon and his evil sidekick Kissinger and it gave us new mutations of slavery and race and class subjugation and it gave us useless, disgusting monuments to Confederate slavers and traitors and cowards. It gave us President Trump, who wouldn't exist today without New York City's collective cocaine addiction in the 1980s.
I want to find the ghosts, not because I miss the past -- the good old days can't return because they're imaginary and what you really miss is youth and if you're lucky a warm feeling of safety -- but because I don't even know what things we'll lose, or when we'll lose them, or how long we have to document them. I know ghosts when I see them. Toys R Us for the mundane side and the Salton Sea for the widescreen wasteland side. But I have absolutely no idea how many there are.
I figure people go first, then places. Those are the things we have a limited time to physically document and historically examine and preserve on film. The ideas will go away much slower, and some of them may be eternal, like cold wars. But those are a lot less fun because you don't get to drive to them.
9738198
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
I may have gone off the I Think You Should Leave deep end with this discovery…
010
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Favorite first-time viewings of films in February: Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini, 1965) At Land (Maya Deren, 1944) Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier, 2025) The Addiction (Abel Ferrara, 1995)
100
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Next thing they’re going to say to keep your thermostats set to 55 degrees at night
000
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
The first major administrative decision this regime made was letting Taylor Sheridan—the one showrunner your conservative dad knows by name—walk to Comcast without a counter-offer.
101
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
I just watched a film lost for over a century on my phone. It’s not all bad out there!
152
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Westerns & the Old West @davidlambertart.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
The Searchers (1956), directed by John Ford Twin Peaks (1990-91), created by David Lynch & Mark Frost
19229
Reposted by Robert Joseph
Trevor Henderson 🍉 (commissions closed) @slimyswampghost.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
every shot-on-video, made-with-a-camcorder horror movie that's just some teenage friend group fucking around in the woods with some fake blood and a monster mask contains more artistic merit, human joy and creative light than anything AI has ever made or will ever, ever make
1338881075
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
#LastFourWatched trends: serial killers, animal sacrifice (real and simulated), and stylish cops #LetterboxdFriday
050
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Including two Maya Deren shorts, and two (vastly different) stories about the experiences of pets #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched
180
Robert Joseph @robertgjoseph.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Love to see a professor of civil discourse conduct himself like the abusive card dealer played by Billy Bob Thornton in Tombstone
000
Reposted by Robert Joseph
WeRateDogs @weratedogs.com · 10/02/2026
we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad
9633120013636