Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 4hRewatch: George Roy Hill's Slap Shot. One of those movies that suffers an odd fate: it's so funny that people don't notice it's a masterpiece of observation and construction. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The recent trend of notable directors crashing and burning thinking they can do arty musicals now because musicals are back again is trenchant. The theater kids do not care, my friends. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 29/09/2026"Her Private Hell instead pushes Refn’s aesthetic just about as far as it can go, stripping away complications and even reality itself as much as possible..." - new at Film Freedonia: filmfreedonia.com/2026/09/28/h... 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 28/09/2026New at Film Freedonia, I look at one of my favourite movies of the year so far, Nicolas Winding Refn's bloody, bitchy post-genre freak-out Her Private Hell: filmfreedonia.com/2026/09/28/h... 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Viewing: Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme. This was basically The Brutalist except good. Or at least more entertaining. 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 26/09/2026My hot take on that 100 Best 2000s TV shows list: almost all modern television is extraordinarily overblown in rep. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 26/09/2026All I know is if I hear "biopic" pronounced as "bi-op-ic" one more time I will rampage. 030
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Viewing: Matt Johnson's Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie. Clever and well-put-together, but finally more frantic than actually funny. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 25/09/2026"Schrader and Ormsby...made a firm choice that none of that suggestion and subtlety were for them. This was the 1980s, dammit, and people expected their dose of blood and tits." -- looking at Paul Schrader's Cat People at This Island Rod: thisislandrod.blogspot.com/2026/09/cat-... 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026New at This Island Rod, a look at Paul Schrader's Cat People, a remake that gave a horror classic a bloody, kinky, messy makeover: thisislandrod.blogspot.com/2026/09/cat-...thisislandrod.blogspot.comCat People (1982)The upsurge of interest in popularity for science fiction, horror, and fantasy cinema in the late 1970s and 1980s provoked a cyc... 131
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026I was watching Lady Snowblood but the disc hit a damaged patch. Drag! 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 23/09/2026*sniff* Vale Gary 'Angry' Anderson, sometime actor, often singer, total legend. In memoriam, my look at Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome: filmfreedonia.com/2024/02/12/m...filmfreedonia.comMad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) / Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Directors: George Miller / George Miller, George OgilvieScreenwriters: Terry Hayes, George Miller, Brian Hannant / Terry Hayes, George Miller By Roderick Heath The success of George Miller’s Mad … 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Viewing: John Farrow's The Hitler Gang. Impressive; dramatic licence here and there, mostly to make Adolf seem more of a phony, and episodic. But Farrow weaves in bits of excellent direction; material lets him go places Hollywood usually didn't dare. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Viewing: Marco Brambilla's Demolition Man. No, I don't know why I hadn't seen this before either. Some properly clever, witty satire delivered by an oddly good cast, although standard action-isms and clumsy direction hamper it. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Viewing: Will Gluck's One Night Only. Dear god, if ever a film needed to have been made by John Waters... 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 19/09/2026...Vale Gerrit Graham, comic and character actor extraordinaire. In memoriam, my old essays on Phantom of the Paradise... filmfreedonia.com/2012/02/03/p...filmfreedonia.comPhantom of the Paradise (1974)Director/Screenwriter: Brian De Palma By Roderick Heath Brian De Palma’s volatile career, whatever you might think of it, must be regarded as one of the most individualistic of American commercial … 110
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Viewing: Aleshea Harris' Is God Is. Audacious and stylish, darkly funny and emotionally gut-punching, but fell apart for me in its last act, like it wanted to have to entirely divergent morals at the same time. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Viewing: John Huston's The Roots Of Heaven. Uneven and verbose, but also thoughtful and rich, improves as it goes; agonising climactic scenes. Huston self-critique and semi-sequel to his Moby Dick. Hell of a cast almost all doing career-best work. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I can't believe the biggest controversy in current art vs politics is being fought out by the ginger minge and the Thrift Shop guy. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Rewatch: William A Wellman's Blood Alley. Has obvious dated and cringe elements, with a lot of star John Wayne's politics. And yet still one of my favourite Wellmans... 110
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Viewing: Nicolas Winding Refn's Her Private Hell. Umm, I kinda loved this. Would make an oddly perfect double bill with Allen's Shadows & Fog. Awesome Donaggio score. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Viewing: Kyle Balda's The Sheep Detectives. Charming, more thoughtful than expected, and Sebastian's heroic end was great. But I wished the mystery, humour the last act were all stronger. And that more of the sheep had something to do given the time delineating them all. 000
Reposted by Roderick HeathRoderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 13/09/2026New on Film Freedonia, I look into Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights", a would-be edgy and stylish take on an oft-adapted but eternally mistreated classic: filmfreedonia.com/2026/09/13/w...filmfreedonia.com“Wuthering Heights” (2026). Director / Screenwriter: Emerald Fennell By Roderick Heath Given the sheer volume of prior adaptations for film and television, any new version of Emily Brontë’s single, great novel Wuthering Hei… 001
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Viewing: David Robert Michell's The End Of Oak Street. Nice try but oddly muffled, not entirely working as either Spielberg cover band or rowdy indie deconstruction. Boy, DRM sure loves those master tracking shots, huh? 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 14/09/2026To misquote an old phrase, cheques have many fathers but bills are always orphans. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Quick, there's a very mid '90s movie that hasn't had a legasequel yet! 030
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Any other popular films of 2026 you want me to rip a new ass for? I'm here all week. 001
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 13/09/2026New on Film Freedonia, I look into Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights", a would-be edgy and stylish take on an oft-adapted but eternally mistreated classic: filmfreedonia.com/2026/09/13/w...filmfreedonia.com“Wuthering Heights” (2026). Director / Screenwriter: Emerald Fennell By Roderick Heath Given the sheer volume of prior adaptations for film and television, any new version of Emily Brontë’s single, great novel Wuthering Hei… 001
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Viewing: James Whale's Green Hell. Lumpy but interesting: part Indiana Jones, part half-hearted romantic melodrama, part brotherhood-of-heroes throwback to Journey's End for Whale, with flashes of unexpected emotional depth and visual mystique. Gorgeously made. 110
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Me, starting to watch Godzilla Minus Zero trailer: Meh, I dunno if I'm up for another of these, but let's take a look... *hints of Ghidorah* You magnificent bastards. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Still very much part of the auteurist remake of a sci-fi/horror classic run with Carpenter The Thing, Kaufman Body Snatchers, and Cronenberg The Fly. Wouldn't see such a thing now. We'd get crap TV director #51748 or a sophomore indie brat with a wide angle lens. 031
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Rewatch: Paul Schrader's Cat People. Interesting mess in a way that's representative of Schrader's cinema; little visual coups throughout but never comes together persuasively. Kinski ideally cast but the confused take on the story hampers her. 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Does anybody actually watch any new movies? 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Viewing: Boots Riley's I Love Boosters. Riley has some sort of genius in him, but his energy and ideas are so copious they trip each other up. In other words, a total mess, and yet might still be one of the movies of the year. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 09/09/2026I'm certain all Trump's cabinet and their subordinates were chosen for their ability to maintain a shit-eating grin especially when being confronted with evidence of their incredible incompetence. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Rewatch: MST3K - Angels Revenge. It's a shame this film is godawful, because in theory a movie about a bunch of urban women warriors taking out drug lords and humiliating neo-nazis is cool. 020
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 08/09/2026To mark the 60th anniversary of Star Trek's debut, here's an essay I wrote a few years ago on the two pilots and the first screened episode: filmfreedonia.com/2020/07/07/s...filmfreedonia.comStar Trek: The Cage / Where No Man Has Gone Before / The Man Trap (TV, 1964-66). Creator: Gene Roddenberry Directors: Robert Butler / James Goldstone / Marc Daniels Screenwriters: Gene Roddenberry / Samuel A. Peeples / George Clayton Johnson By Roderick Heath As a boy in Texa… 031
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Viewing: Gregg Araki's I Want Your Sex. Not sure this added up to much - a sort of day-glo Sunset Blvd lampoon with more dildos - but it's funny and hot and Wilde and Hoffman are off the charts. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Ram is a truly great album very much because it leans into its own burned-out, half-baked, day-after-the-hard-day's-night randomness. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Viewing: Dylan Meyer's The Wrong Girls. Loved this; Repo Man-ish vibes in places. Cast has a blast. Only demerit: overlength. 020
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Viewing: Gore Verbinski's Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die. Starts well, with a hard, mean edge to the satire that had me thinking Lindsay Anderson, but like all Verbinski it gets exhausting and overblown. Great work from Rockwell and Richardson tho. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Man, the ever-growing greatness of this. The Great American Movie's Evil Twin. 110
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Rewatch: George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead. "Logical...logical...logical..." 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Rewatch: Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1934 take. You know, this Hitchcock bloke might be going places. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 02/09/2026...Vale Jean-Paul Rappeneau. One of the last of a breed of classy, witty, elegant French cinema talent. Loved Cyrano, Bon Voyage, That Man From Rio. 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Rewatch: Freddie Francis' They Came From Beyond Space. Fun, solidly made sub-Quatermass sci-fier with a solid plot and camp and kinky over-and-undertones it's impossible to tell are deliberate or not. 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Here's an idea for a terrifying new horror film: Night of the Living White Fox Wearers. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 02/09/2026No, YOU'RE just lazying around watching old MST3K episodes! 020
