Weekly Roundup #17, 2026

Welcome back to a bumper edition of Joel’s film blog! This week I have been on rare form, seeing eight movies in the cinema (with a few more out of bounds) and taking some photos I’m really proud of!
This is also the first week in which my new business cards have been handed out, so hello to any readers who I crossed paths with in person. I’m also debuting new alliterative headings, starting with…

Movies

Monday 13ᵗʰ April - Father Mother Sister Brother (2025, ★) & Piccadilly (1929, ★★★)

I think sometimes an artisan passes the point where he should have handed on the tools to his apprentice, and this is certainly true of Father Mother Sister Brother. Partly an extended Rolex commercial, the action centres around a bunch of white people who have abandoned their parents (as they tend to do) and two mixed race kids who talk like they’ve never met eachother before. Every line is cardboard, and that’s coming from someone who likes Jarmusch’s style. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about it is the acting talent being wasted on these scenes—though I do have to doff my cap to the costume and makeup department, who somehow managed to make Cate Fucking Blanchett look dowdy.

Followed this up with a very intriguing look into the Big Smoke’s illustrious past, Piccadilly. We ended up watching the silent version rather than the talkie conversion (ie the flop and not the hit); but Rachael, who is an expert in these matters, assures us we dodged a bullet as the conversions are all wick anyway. This film is really valuable as a document of how racial integration happened (or didn’t) way before the Windrush, and indeed the audience had some scholars in the audience from a really cool project called the Mixed Museum (mixedmuseum.org.uk). What really stayed with me though, is how Shosho’s independence and sexual emancipation is completely eclipsed by the spectre of male violence. It makes me wonder if I’m doing enough to abjure that power as a genderqueer AMAB person: I know I sometimes see it in other people’s eyes…

Thursday 16ᵗʰ April - We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021, ★★★) & An Unmarried Woman (1978, ★★★+♥)

I don’t have too much to say about We’re All Going to the World’s Fair; I watched it out of a completionist urge having seen TV Glow and going to see the new Schoenbrun film (which has an even more long and unwieldy title!). I thought it depicted online relationships in a really nuanced and compelling way; unfortunately, all that knowledge wasn’t quite cinematic. At least one of these stars is because the nonce reminds me of DDL.

Ran straight from the PCC to the Nickel to catch Agnė Qami introduce An Unmarried Woman. Reader, I liked this so much that I had to invent a new classification: for a film that I would return to because it elucidates something I haven't seen another film even approach. It's not ★★★★★, but it's better than a ★★★. Some would say it's ★★★★, but some would be wrong! Think of it as like a 2.i.
Anyway, the film; it's tender without being mushy, it shows passion and desire in a way that escapes cliche, and it has a reawakening of feeling that made me want to start dating again (but only by going to loft parties in downtown 70s New York and starting screaming fights with art critics). Seek it out!

Friday 17ᵗʰ April - The Drama (2026, ★★★+♥) & Jules et Jim (1962, ★)

I felt similarly about The Drama; not necessarily on an emotional level, but a technical one. I would love to see a breakdown, à la Nerdwriter, of the scene with the big reveal. It does this really interesting thing where it starts with opposing two shots across the table, then moves into tighter telephoto closeups as the secret is revealed, and then only moves back to a wider shot once everything has really fallen to shit. Also, there’s a sex scene that kicks off the last act that is one of the hottest things I’ve seen in a while; actually, the sex throughout is very strong.

So from one romcom to another… and if The Drama is suffused with the casual misogyny of our era, Jules et Jim is drowning in its era’s misogyny. There’s one scene where they introduce a woman as conforming to an ideal because she never speaks – “pure sex”, they joke. It turned my stomach. And I’m sure this film probably invented montage or whatever, but boy is it pleased about that—and boy does it overuse it.

Saturday 18ᵗʰ April - Secret Ceremony (1968, ★★★) & TERRORISM the TERRORISM land TERRORISM of TERRORISM common TERRORISM disgrace (2026, ★★★★★)

Secret Ceremony was part of a weird Elizabeth Taylor double bill at the Nickel; sadly I couldn’t stay for the second feature (presented on VHS!), but this one was odd enough for a whole evening. Amnesia, mistaken identity, incest–it's one of the films of all time.

The film I cheated on Ally to run across town for certainly wins title of the week: TERRORISM the TERRORISM land TERRORISM of TERRORISM common TERRORISM disgrace. A piece of agitprop that seems to aim to inform as much as provoke, TERRORISM the TERRORISM land TERRORISM of TERRORISM common TERRORISM disgrace is presented as a 16mm negative projection without sound, with a lipreader at a lectern reinterpreting the staged interviews, and a table of activists on the right being prompted by the interviewer to read directions on how to organise for Palestine and evade the police. I don't know when it will be restaged, but if you see it, seek it out!

I followed these great options up with a sleepover at Bede’s, where we watched Sharknado (nuff said) and M3GAN (surprisingly good). Not in a cinema, so I'm not rating them, but I will be looking forward to the further sequels in both series...

Musings

I've been doing a lot of clubbing recently, and it's been a hell of a time blagging my camera past the bouncers. Do you know what a professional camera is? Cause they don't! Anyway, I've gotten some really cool photos out of it: if you're here from the Arca night (or you want to see some amazing queer fits) check out my album I've uploaded.

Music

Lone’s album has been floating around for a week or two, and I keep returning to this blissed out, semi-ambient number. I hope you enjoy it too!

Until next time...
Joel

PS: my ceanothus is in bloom, for everyone who’s been following since the first issue!