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Vaughn Swearingen

March 2025 Roundup

March 2025 Roundup

A great enough month of watching films that it was difficult to narrow down the best new discoveries into a neat list. Honorable mentions include Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia, Norman Jewison's Fiddler on the Roof, and all 14 films included in my third annual birthday celebration marathon.

February 2025 Roundup

February 2025 Roundup

I should have finished this sooner. Let's not talk about it. Will my March article come out in a reasonable time? Stay tuned to find out. Though it would have been nice and neat to start a monthly roundup post last month, there's no time like

Broken Rage: Monsieur Hulot's Hitman

Broken Rage: Monsieur Hulot's Hitman

Takeshi Kitano's films work so well not just because he's so good at balancing levity with sincerity, but because the way he balances them is so wonderfully subversive, always managing to find new ways to escape whatever expectations you might have of him or the genre

Japanuary 2025: Shared Cinema Special

Japanuary 2025: Shared Cinema Special

To celebrate the 5th annual Japanuary Challenge, I got together with my friends Ben and Jack to discuss a selection of the weirdest, wackiest, and best Japanese cinema they've watched together over the years. A few clips had to be removed due to rendering issues. A full list

I'm Thinking of Spoiling Things: Nosferatu // Anora

I'm Thinking of Spoiling Things: Nosferatu // Anora

Wouldst thou like to live moustacheously? Rumor has it that this is the call that the mysterious Count Orlok answered in order to be granted such a magnificent and bushy 'stache - the only downside of which was an immortal existence of demonic suffering and an insatiable thirst for

Japanuary 2025: Reinventing Cinema

Japanuary 2025: Reinventing Cinema

When I decided to participate in Ben's first Japanuary challenge in 2021, I didn't join with the expectation of following any kind of structure or engaging with the community. I just stumbled across a post about the challenge and decided it was as good an excuse

The Brutalist: Industrial Exploitation

The Brutalist: Industrial Exploitation

Brady Corbet's film is an immense work documenting an immense work, taking on the form of its subject as a formalist monolith, a slab of grim reality that renders the weight of its expression.