iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It’s weirdly so un-lifelike it’s lifelike, like Loomer.

trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

With 50 mins left… Follow my Letterboxd to see the full week, reviews in alt-text. boxd.it/b3JeX #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched #FilmSky🎞

Backrooms. This movie reminds me of the Shining crossed with a video game. I’ve played games where rooms autogenerate and felt the existential dread evoked by feeling lost in an endless interior; the game Doom felt like this often. I’ve also visited furniture stores that can have vast showrooms with a similar effect. The choice of business is an inspired one. The film also reminds me of the Shining, because it’s about being trapped in a liminal, uncanny space. The liminal space sets between the public and the private, like at a Hotel, where you have a rented room, that promises privacy, but less ownership than a leased place. The public encroaches on the private creating an uneasy sense of being between and betwixt, a liminal space that the Shining captures so well. Backrooms also has this quality. The uncanniness of the space come from Freud’s take of the incongruence of the familiar and unfamiliar simultaneously, just like how furniture stores want you to imagine home setups, but the repetition of types of rooms and furnishings in a large showroom creates a bizarre effect, the juxtaposition of the homey against an industrial retail warehouse space. The dread this evokes Backrooms makes the most of in its MC Etcher Minotaur’s labyrinth.
2. The Masque of the Red Death. From a baby ballerina getting slapped, to a party of novels being forced to act like animals—this quirky Roger Corman period piece loosely adapted from Poe is among horror icon Vincent Price’s Shakespearean performance best.
3. Sinister II. Unfairly maligned, the story made sense and has well defined characterization, a good horror movie of its type that went down easy.
4. Obsession. A fairly unique horror movie that’s probably the best of the year besides my favorite, the Bone Temple. Obsession examines the nature of desire instead of just trauma. The monkey’s paw style wish that seemed to me to deliver something other than what was asked for.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Is it just me, or does Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen looks like Buster Bluth wandered into the background of an album cover shoot wielding a chainsaw?

The cheap trick album cover for Dream Police.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Ranking from me: 2.1.3. The third is ok. The other two slap.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

How she gonna become President when she needs to become speaker of the house for life? Think before you speak, Benny.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

As much as I believe in diversity, given the current Senate, I have to admit if we had a Senate of 50 Bernie Sanders, we’d have a better country. It’s the one time purity would seem a real value besides maybe also with FDA regulations.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

H uron O ntario M ichigan E rie S uperior We learned to remember the Great Lakes by the acronym, the mnemonic device Homes, but kids will remember it by Trump’s legacy when they recall he brought us S uperior H uron A merica M ichigan E rie

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Every episode also seemed like the same patter patterns, a collection of mouth sounds made using the same rhythm templates, punctuated by Peter Boyle going “Blaaah!”

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

So it runs in the family. Lindsey loved war, but he was wrong about national security, and nothing the late monster advocated, while supposedly being knowledgeable, made anyone’s life better ever.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The republicans call the left communists all the time while Trump literally brags about being friendly and less antagonistic towards the world’s most famous self-defining communist.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

My last 4 watched with 30 minutes left in the Devil’s Mouth. Follow my Letterboxd to see the full week, reviews in alt-text. boxd.it/b3JeX #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched #FilmSky🎞

The Odyssey, Nolan again beings verisimilitude to timeless fantasy, and retreads The Dark Knight Rises with the classical sword and sandal OG inspiration. Bruce Wayne has much in common with the tales of brave Ulysses.
Bonnie and Clyde—an American Odyssey that pushed cinema violence forward in a way Pauline Kael could approve.
City Lights. This movie has a lot of clever sequences, and uses sound for humor despite being arguably a silent film otherwise. The Charlie Brown adult voice makes fun of the mere idea of speaking. Chaplin masterminded it all; he even sang the score and had a composer notate his singing. The film provides the blueprint for even today’s comedies.
Masters of the Universe. The Male Barbie movie, it should have timed its release better with the Odyssey and made a go of another Barbenheimed— the Masterssey. Mattel studios formula seems to be taking the piss out of their properties while also celebrating and touching upon what people like; this take on the character while less deep than the Barbie movie in its exploration of gender, does have a theme about the main character using a non-toxic HR professional’s approach to masculinity to a world of barbaric fighting and high fantasy adventure.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

It’s possible. It’s also true Gore got the most votes. It’s arguable if he could have done anything after Bush v Gore. Sen Boxer tried and Gore did acquiesce. I’m not so sure Gore had much choice. I’m more mad at the right for stealing power than mad at Gore.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I don’t fully agree Gore lost, but otherwise, it checks out. Centrists say McGovern lost because he was too left, yet these losses centrists frame as the fault of leftist spoilers and non-voters. Yet Bill needed a 19 million vote rightwing spoiler in Perot to beat HW. Hardly =s centrists forever.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

There’s truth to that. It’s also likely Sammie may never have self-actualized, and though the vampires were drawn to his talent, maybe they would still need to feed; Delta Slim seems a worthy talent. Sammy might have missed seeing his cousins one last time and learning a lesson. 🤷‍♂️ I loved Sinners

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Defund the police maybe came from the same branding department that came up with your excellent examples, though, right? The right controls the mainstream media. It’s laughable that the right tricked folks into thinking the media’s leftwing because of employees when the owners always leaned right.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

!!!!Happy Juneteenth!!!! …our newest federal holiday, but the celebration originated in Texas on this date in 1866. When the right acts like it’s a new, made-up thing, I ask, “is that so, Fatso?” Then play this: youtu.be/HqPfSWEFMtc?...

youtu.be

"Juneteenth Jamboree" - Fatso Bentley

YouTube video by oobleckboy

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

There’s a hate campaign? I can’t wait!

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Good choice. RM was a short story master, but I love HH. Stephen King called it the greatest haunted house story ever written; you see the influence in the Shining and I.T. Quick read with well-rounded characters, a great plot and better dialogue than the movie. I read it every 3 Halloweens or so.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

If I hadn’t read Hell House, the book that inspired The Shining, I would have liked the movie more, even though Richard Matheson (I am Legend, Twilight Zone) adapted the screenplay from his book. A studio needs to remake it and restore Bastards’ bog. The novel is film-able in a way it wasn’t then.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

I will now try to research how this works, or am I foolish to believe it’s real and not someone playing a synth out of view or a recording? That’s amazing, and I need to know more. Does anyone who knows have a link for me?

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

A round up of beloved celebrity cameos wouldn’t be complete without you, Al.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Just make sure it’s a fully grown Beluga.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Try calling information on your banana phone.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

VP Harris lost my repeat vote when she didn’t order an audit of the election.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Don should thank fellow Republican Bob for helping him avoid accountability like any other MAGAt enabler. My take during RM’s great-white-hope/knight years was that the Dems made a mistake trusting a R’s integrity narrative. The Rs scream “unfair” if/when a D special investigator investigate(d) a D.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

I needed to cleanse the palate after I ate something rancid on the night of the full worm 🪱 moon. 🌕 Alt-text for mini-reviews. Follow my Letterboxd to see the full week: boxd.it/b3JeX #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched #FilmSky🎞

Big Trouble in Little China. John Carpenter’s Action-Comedy-Horror hybrid that combines low fantasy, tales of Taoist Magic immortals, and Kurt Russel’s John Wayne impression (as Jack Burton) to create a singular masterpiece that maybe shouldn’t work, but entertains front to back.

The Rock. Perhaps Michael Bay’s best work, I revisited this along with Face/Off and Con Air recently. This held up for me due to its stellar cast and sound story. It’s 90s action at its best that puts Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, and Ed Harris to excellent use. The bio-weapon scene at the top is an especially savvy and effective character introduction for Cage that helps raise the stakes for the entire movie.

Sonny & Jed. Sunny! ☀️ Sunny! Sergio Corbucci ended his Spaghetti western career with one of his best, a two hander between my favorite actor, Tomas Milian, and the great Susan George, who’s also remembered as the young wife in Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs. There’s a really great meta-scene of Milian digging in to a plate of spaghetti for Corbucci to make a meta statement about the spaghetti westerns he helped define, second only to Leone (albeit many prefer Corbucci). Telly Savalas plays an antagonist whom nonetheless rides the western hero horse (being lawful evil if not lawful good) and pursues our outlaw couple as a blind bounty hunter; their showdown scene in a corn silo is one of the best in all of Westerns. Sonny and Jed’s relationship exemplifies the Hegelian master-slave dialectic, if that’s not too obtuse—point being it’s a satisfying arc that could inspire many a term paper or critical essay. But more than that, it’s fun.

Blood of the Werewolf’s Claw. One of the worst movies I’ve seen. I watched three werewolf movies on full moon night (March 3rd). This was the worst of the three. And the lunar eclipse hid behind rain clouds so I didn’t even seen the worm moon turn red. Doggie dung.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

During one of these movies, I treated myself to a Martin & Lewis shake (which likely cost more than $5 even without labor). Alt-text for mini-reviews. Follow my Letterbox to see my full week: boxd.it/b3JeX #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched #FilmSky🎞

1. The Northman. One of the most cinematic movies ever made, which plays like a compressed GOT season. Nicole Kidman plays a 10th C 20.
2. Pulp Fiction. Check out the big brain on Brett, but it’s Phil LaMarr best known for his voice work, who really loses his head. It’s so weird in the credits Kathy Griffin plays herself.
3. Boogie Nights. I remember the change over to the 80s being a bigger tonal shift, the movie going from fun to sad. The effect remains but it’s less pronounced somehow now that I’m middle aged and have seen more of the world.
4. Grimsby. Donald Trump getting AIDS raised the star rating a 1/2 star right at the end. Some jokes I noticed Cohen had recycled from SNL “Celebrity Jeopardy” misreading “therapist as “the rapist” or the Ace Ventura Rhino scene that gets one-upped by a line-up of ejaculating elephants. SBC still takes comedy further in the shock factor than anyone besides maybe Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Happy Ki-Ki-Ki…Ma-Ma-Ma… Day. Now watching: Heart ❤️ 👀 Eyes Alt-text for mini-reviews. Follow my Letterbox to see my full week: boxd.it/b3JeX (The best film I watched this week of the 10 others besides my last 4 reports: Shogun Assassin). #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched #FilmSky🎞

1. Caught Stealing. Raised by Baseball obsessive, I developed an allergy to the game; yet it plays such a minor role in this excellent thriller that balances Aronofsky’s humor, style, and love of the disgusting to make one of his most popcorn friendly, crowd pleasing movies. It’s somewhere between his style and Paul Thomas Anderson’s aesthetic.
2. I love Sorcerer. This under-appreciated Friedkin thriller has a more taut plot, but plenty of great Friedkin shots; it’s short, fast, never bores, and plays out as the best cat and mouse story (often a drag) I’ve seen. Benicio Del Toro may win an Oscar this year, but performances like this show how under-appreciated he is. Tommy Lee Jones has played this kind of character before, which may hurt the film, but never as convincingly. The Hunted has outstanding verisimilitude.
3. My Bloody Valentine. A classic 1981 slasher from their heyday made in Canada that manages an intriguing mystery and plenty of slasher kills. The police work and town’s need to put on a Valentine’s Day dance (not a thing) after years of not being a thing due to a tragedy, strain credulity; yet it’s an entertaining movie of its kind with plenty of fun for those with an antenna tuned to this fuzz-prone frequency.
4. Friday the 13: Part II. A quirky 81 slasher watched on a Friday the 13th in February which would freeze over crystal lake; this film takes place in 1984, set 5 years after the first, as that’s another Friday the 13th with a July. From Alice to Ginny, it’s got a quirky charm and 2 of the best kills—wheelchair and window—that makes it my favorite of the series, especially with Jason’s “the Town that Feared Sundown” Bag-head design. I watched the Fear Fest Joe Bob presentation.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

The power goes off and the alligator gates release. I joke desire the conditions there being a real life horror movie that needs to stop yesterday. This will go down as a dark chapter in American history.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

4 Werner Herzog Produktions with his best Fiend (who’s thankfully now the evil dead). Alt-text for mini-reviews. Follow my Letterbox to see my full week: boxd.it/b3JeX #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched #FilmSky🎞

1. Klaus Kinski portrays a Brazilian gangster turned Cracker Cobra Verde who ruins the life of his plantation owner employer who didn’t know he’d invited an outlaw home; dispatched on a suicide mission to restart the slave trade the British ended (and enforced the prohibition of), Cobra succeeds in enslavement, and sets himself up as a bush king; it’s a complicated critique of colonial ills.
2. Fitzcarraldo. While I prefer Aguirre that has a shorter runtime without a wasted frame, only a filmmaker of Herzog’s ingenuity would match the determination of his character and actually move a massive boat over an Amazonian mountain to jump rivers. The real tribes people make the film too. I find the Opera stuff a little hard to take as it’s hard to believe headhunters would be slotted by the sound of a victrola record over the loud river. Still, it’s another masterpiece with a fraught shoot due to intense naturalism; yet I believe Herzog could have even moved the mountains.
3. Kinski as a soldier driven mad by the establishment; it’s Herzog and Kinski’s shortest collaboration, yet also a long time for what’s a cinematic murder ballad. I found the dialogue confusing but it ends strong.
4. Nosferatu the Vampire. Herzog pays homage and improves upon FW to make the best vampire movie ever made. The timing of Kinski’s movements and exhausted anger driven madness make the most believably sociopathic Count Dracula rendition of them all. The man was a monster, but a genius at capturing a captivatingly evil presence. I admire Herzog but find Kinski talented albeit loathsome. Luckily, he’s dead so I watch these in good conscience knowing Klaus reaps no reward.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

You should publish the name and email. The racist deserves public exposure.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

I wanted to love this movie, especially since Matheson adapted his novel, but the book has too many great ideas the movie didn’t adapt I had a hard time appreciating what remained. I should revisit the movie with adjusted expectations. A remake could do the book justice.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Isn’t her origin story whining that the NYTs pushed back on her ridiculous BS so she quit then lied that the paper fired her because she wasn’t “woke enough.” How embarrassing to kiss her butt after that!

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

My last 4 watched, with a middle 2 from Mr BIG. Alt-text for mini-reviews. Follow my Letterbox to see my full week: boxd.it/b3JeX #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched #FilmSky🎞

My last 4 watched on Letterboxd.
1. Johnny Mnemonic. Set 3 years ago, in a cyberpunk future steeped in Orientalism, Keanu first honed his Clint Eastwood impression. It’s an interesting mix of floppy discs and prescient futurism concerning the “data wars” and other good guesses. Henry Rollins plays the other Spider not in Avatars and Ice T, the Ice killa as heavenly resistance.
2. the Magic Sword. A lose retelling of St George and the Dragon by Mr Big. Basil Rathbone as the evil sorcerer opposition, and Dr Frank from 2001: a Space Odyssey (Gary Lockwood) as Sir George; he’s playing 20, was 23 and looks like he’s going on 47. Estelle Winwood as George’s witchy adopted mom steals the show; it has a low budget charm for 1962 albeit it was behind the times even then, low-budget.
3. The Last Drive In edition of The Spider also directed by the Magic Sword’s Mr Big. It’s an entertaining Tarantula/Them rip off, a nature strikes back eco horror pic that even has a Rocksploitation reanimation, a sub-genre by the 80s, or more recently “Dead Ant.”
4. Train Dreams. See Letterboxd for my thoughts. It’s a great neo-western steeped in naturalism that takes full advantage of the dreamlike nature of cinema. I now how 2 best picture nominees to see, Hamnet and Sentimental Value.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Catherine O’Hara was the funniest comedian alive, a genius. I loved her WTF interview. Her “uh-oh” when being asked about college made me laugh so hard, as did Beetlejuice I&II, the Guest movies, A Nightmare Before Christmas, Home Alone, After Hours, Wild Robot, Wyatt Earp… youtu.be/6eMyUyOgSHw?...

youtu.be

WTF with Marc Maron - Catherine O'Hara Interview

YouTube video by theflyby

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

I love that picture. I’ve seen her and heard her in so many projects, but that’s cool to see her in her early years.

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trwesterman.bsky.social @trwesterman.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Did you write Superman history or superhero history?

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