Some Like It Hot
One of the greats.
One of the greats.

One of the greats.

One of the greats.

Brian Murnion is a filmmaker, creative director, poet, and self-proclaimed intellectual scrub from Billings, Montana. He spends an unreasonable amount of time obsessing over the connective tissue between music, film, literature, and whatever else seems culturally or aesthetically significant at any given moment. His curation process is equal parts curiosity, fixation, and blind luck, driven by the irrational hope that brilliance is hiding in plain sight somewhere in the chaos.
9 SHORTLISTED FILMS(In No Particular Order) The Big Short(Adam McKay, USA – 2015) Roma(Alfonso Cuaron, Mexico – 2018) Certified Copy(Abbas Kiarostami, France/Belgium – 2010) The Skin I Live In(Pedro Almodóvar, Spain – 2011) The Town(Ben Affleck, USA – 2010) Locke(Steven Knight, UK – 2013) Blade Runner 2049(Denis Villeneuve, USA – 2018) Parasite(Bong Joon Ho, South…
I love this time of year—when Cannes is in full swing, and a slate of new films are competing for the coveted Palme d’Or! There are many promising films this year to keep your eye out for (just to name a few):
120 Beats per Minute (France) dir. Robin Campillo
The Beguiled (USA) dir. Sofia Coppola
Happy End (France, Germany, Austria) dir. Michael Haneke
Redoubtable (France) dir. Michel Hazanavicius
L’amant double (France) dir. Francois Ozon
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (UK, Ireland) dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Birth follows a woman who is preparing to move on with her life after her husband’s death, when a ten-year-old boy appears and calmly insists that he is her husband reincarnated. I first saw this film in 2004, alone, late at night, at the Lagoon Theater in Uptown, Minneapolis. I remember wondering what sort of…
We lost a truly great actor yesterday. Memory eternal Philip SH. Here’s a scene from Magnolia. This moment alone accelerated my interest in film production. I remember watching this scene for the first time back in the day, and I think of it often.
Criterion is releasing a box set of three films by the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini and starring Hollywood’s Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli, Europe ’51, and Journey to Italy. These are remarkable films–highly recommend Journey to Italy, a film about a husband and wife whose marriage begins to disintegrate while traveling near Naples. A masterpiece film in Italian cinema.
Here’s a rolling selection of modern films that I’m working through. Several of these titles are available to rent or buy online and some have yet to be released. I’ll update as I come across more titles. FILMS I WANT TO WATCH: Beyond the Hills (2013) Dir. Cristian MungiuRomania Museum Hours (2013) Dir. Jem CohenAustria, USA Upstream Color (2013)Dir. Shane…