Weekly Roundup #19, 2026

Sometimes the best films are the friends we made along the way 🥹

Two audience members grabbing eachother and dancing. — They're rotating, the crowd moves in parallax.

Welcome back to the film blog! I frontloaded this week with stuff cause I have a packed bank holiday weekend of extracurriculars (and if you’re reading this on Sunday or Monday: hell yeah brother). One of those things was the gig you can see in the GIF above and below: Prostitute at the MOTH Club. It was a blast, and as I think you’ll agree, the photos turned out just fine.

Someone losing themselves in the moment, to the joy of the people around them.

More on that later. For right now, though...

Movies

Three people moshing at the Protomartyr gig.

Monday 27ᵗʰ April - Rose of Nevada (2025, ★★★★★) & Breathless (1983, ★★★★★)

I was really looking forward to Mark Jenkin’s most recent film, having been lucky enough to be in the generation that saw Bait in cinemas. Rose of Nevada is a film entirely about that generational luck; the luck to be among the last of a Cornish fishing industry, and most crucially, the unluck to be the last generation to be able to do anything about climate change.
Yes, reader, it’s another climate banger following in the footsteps of Enys Men; and I think people are somehow missing this, because I had two reporters describe it to me as “ambient” and slow (in a bad way). That’s missing the point. The film is (light spoilers ahead) about being stuck in a situation you can't escape; as it begins, that’s poverty, but after he time travels (or is it a parallel universe?) it becomes the extractive logic of always going out for one more haul, one last catch, until the boat starts coming apart at the seams. This is an essential piece of watching, and I thoroughly recommend it to everyone reading. 5★.

I then spun around to watch a film I’ve already blogged about; Breathless. But whereas before I had been watching the sauceless, Fr*nch original, this time around it was the zany, super-saturated 1983 remake by Jim McBride. It trades all of the originality and inventiveness of the original for a boatload of Hollywood technique: cranes and dollies where before things were handheld or out the window of a car.
And you know what? It's better!! It's more enjoyable to watch and I haven’t seen it ripped off by a million other people. And the colour palette is so juicily full of ultra-vibrant reds and pastel greens; it's like a high 1950s Technicolor look. There’s also really cheeky reinventions of scenes from the original, like the cops missing Jesse by seconds cause he was in a highway underpass. It’s a lot more fun, so if you can only watch one, watch this. (But you should watch both.)

Someone with AMAZING hair at the Protomartyr gig.

Tuesday 28ᵗʰ April - Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010, ★★★★★★)

Yes, you counted them right—six stars for one of my favourite movies of all time. (It’s my blog, I make the rules 😜) It's been maybe 6 years since I saw this last, and I don't know how many years since I saw it on the big screen, but wow, there are so many little details this film is packed with that I never noticed before. Like the catchlight on Knives’ being replaced by a hand-drawn star, or the right audio channel getting crushed after the speakers are destroyed in the Roxie fight.
But the thing I really came away noticing that the character with the most developed character arc is Knives Chau. (I was going to say I haven’t seen her in anything since, but she’s been working!) Ramona’s basically flat as a character, and Scott basically has a common-or-garden Hero’s Journey. But Knives really discovers a sense of self worth for herself, and that’s really beautiful to watch.
And yes, the final act’s pacing is a bit all over the place. But I don't care; this film means so much to me, and it was so central to my childhood, that I have to give it all six stars: ★★★★★★.

Someone whose hair has replaced their face.

Wednesday 29ᵗʰ April - Exit 8 (2025, ★★★)

This was alright, but I fear the narrative structure (while interesting) was a little tacked on. I had a chat with someone who actually played the game and they said it had none of the fertility crisis stuff in it. Look, I'm a sucker for the decline and fall of reproductive civilisation, but even for me it came on a bit strong.
I did really admire how the movie doesn’t explain anything about its switch into using video game logic; it just picks up the ball (controller?) and runs with it. I can't wait for the long Jacob Geller/Second Wind video essay comparing the two mediums (~~I’m sure this already exists; link it in the comments if you’ve seen it~~ ~~indeed it does!~~ actually it doesn't compare the mechanics to the cinematography, so stay on the lookout).
Fundamentally though, I wrote in my notebook that about half an hour from the end (and this was a nice tight 90'), nothing was happening. Perhaps because it’s honouring the tropes of the anomaly game, there are long stretches of this film where nothing happens. And that’s... cool, but it doesn’t move me.

Musings

Someone bewildered at the Protomartyr gig.

There is a secret bonus film that I went to this morning, but I haven’t included it as it started at 23:30 on Saturday. Also, I’ve already logged it this year! But do I have thoughts on it..? The film is perhaps the primary example of a midnight movie: The Rocky Horror Picture Show. On Valentine’s Day, I saw it alone; this time around, I went with a group of friends. And that’s maybe the thing I want to focus on the most.

I actually meant to write this section on the ride home, but I was having too much fun riding around in Vince’s vintage Volvo (say that five times fast). Friends are great! And it’s great how some friendships just blossom over time when you give them space and love and sunlight. And I love these queer cinema nights for all the potential to connect; with the random couple next to me who had never seen it before, with the parts of yourself that you don’t normally display in public (and a big shoutout to the latex clad Rocky here), and of course with the people you love.

Whatever your view on riotously queer cinema, I think community is best understood as a verb; as something you do repeatedly, that teaches you about yourself. At the best of times, that’s what cinema does for me. And what better segue could there be to tee up our next Meetup?

Meetups

Someone whose hair is almost escaping them.

North By Northwest—Prince Charles Cinema, downstairs at 17:05 on the 10th

This is being presented from an exciting new 70mm projection! We’re in row G, come and join us!

Music

These two are new cuts from Sega Bodega‘s latest project. It’s a lot more guitar-y than pop-y, but it feels really elegant and the visuals are AMAZING. Will be keeping an eye on if this tours!