David Fear

@davidlfear.bsky.social

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Chief Film Critic at http://RollingStone.com. Obsessive. Compulsive. Disorderly. President of the Chishu Ryu Fan Club. NYFCC, NSFC, NSFW.

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A few hyperventilating words about ROAD HOUSE, the 'Cool Hand Jake' Gyllenhaal remake of the '80s cine-Velvetta cult classic; last night's SXSW Film Festival premiere; and why that screening is proof that MGM/Amazon should reconsider giving this a theatrical run ASAP.

‘Road House’ Is One Bloody-Knuckled Joy Ride of a Remakewww.rollingstone.com Update of the Patrick Swayze '80s cult classic is twice as goofy, three times as violent and a solid tribute to the art of bodily harm.

Reading THE PATH TO PARADISE, Sam Wasson’s book about Coppola making ‘Apocalypse Now, and it was noted that the IRL jungle they were shooting in for months on end was so hot ‘that the cocaine melted.’ This is ‘70s New Hollywood in a single sentence.

If @jasondashbailey.bsky.social invites you to be on A Very Good Year, 100% do it. Or even he doesn't invite you! Do it anyway! Just show up at Jason's house and demand to be on it! Slide into my DMs for his home address. PLOT SURPRISE: You'll hear my femur bone turn into a spaceship on the ep!

NEW EPISODE!!! @davidlfear.bsky.social, chief film critic and senior editor at “Rolling Stone,” joins us to discuss the wild year of 1968: the genius of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the majesty of “Once Upon a Time in the West,” and the stickiness of “Rosemary’s Baby.” buttondown.email/AVeryGoodYea...

MADAME WEB is the 'Cats: The Movie' of superhero movies. Thank you for coming to this press conference, I will not be taking questions at this time.

‘Madame Web’ Isn’t As Bad As You’ve Heard. It’s So Much Worsewww.rollingstone.com This Spider-Man spin-off —about a paramedic with arachnid-based psychic powers — is the 'Cats' of superhero movies.

The hottest new club in New York is THE PROMISED LAND. It's got everything: Love, death, revenge, potatoes, a precocious kid who swears, a goat, Mads Mikkelsen, a gleefully malicious villain, the Danish (not the pastry), a vintage Hollywood epic rush...

‘The Promised Land’ Gives Mads Mikkelsen the Big, Bloody Epic He Deserveswww.rollingstone.com A stand-off between an 18th century farmer and a toxic aristocrat is prestigious, bloody as hell, and a perfect showcase for the Danish star.

This opens Fri; one of the big discoveries at Cannes for me last year; and I can't say enough great things about Mia McKenna-Bruce's performance in this. A hell of a debut from filmmaker Molly Manning Walker. HOW TO HAVE SEX. Yes, the title is ironic.

‘How to Have Sex’: Three Teen Girls’ Spring Break From Hellwww.rollingstone.com A sensitive British coming-of-age film tackles the European equivalent of spring break (and the aftermath of sexual assault) with devastating results.

TÓTEM opened in NYC this weekend, will hopefully be coming to a theater near you ASAP, easily one of the best movies I've seen about death, life, childhood, birthday parties, families, and goldfishes named Nugget. Totally emotional, absolutely euphoric.

‘Tótem’ Is a Mexican-Cinema Masterpiecewww.rollingstone.com A young girl and her relatives celebrate the birthday of her terminally ill father in filmmaker Lily Avilés's drama about death, life, grief, and joy.

Sundance 2024: Sex, violence, surrealism, more sex, bodybuilding, bullets, full metal K-Stew, exploded noir tropes and gender lines that aren't blurred so much as obliterated. I'm not sure if the world is ready for the pulp delirium that is LOVE LIES BLEEDING.

‘Love Lies Bleeding’: Kristen Stewart’s Queer, Sexed-Up Noir Rocks Sundancewww.rollingstone.com A white-hot mix of queer love, violence, bodybuilding and bullets, this intense thriller left festival premiere's audience delirious.

A new Soderbergh, a drama about music scenes & shenanigans late '80s Bay Area (aka my teen years), docs on Eno and Devo, not one but two K-Stew-in-love movies, not one but two Justice Smith-discovers-secret-networks joints... lots to see at Sundance Film Festival 2024

The 20 Most-Anticipated Movies From the 2024 Sundance Film Festivalwww.rollingstone.com From a double shot of Kristen Stewart in love to the definitive Devo documentary — the hottest tickets at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

It's 2024. A variation of a deadly virus spreads throughout the globe. A self-proclaimed dictator incubates homegrown fascism in the U.S. The fight for freedom rages on various fronts. There is a but a single course of action left in this dystopia: Bring back Ska one final time.

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David Fear

Here's to a Happy 2024. But first, a look back at 2023, including my Top 10 films of the year, reflections on the writing I did, and some thoughts about the mindset I'm trying to cultivate.

Best of 2023: The Top 10 Movies of the Yeartimgrierson.blogspot.com Every time I go to a film festival, I try to make sure to take a moment to appreciate that I'm there: "I'm here at Cannes ." "I'm here at Su...

Wrote reviews. Went to Cannes for 1st time in 11 years. Interviewed people onstage from Paul Simon to Billie Eilish to Wim Wenders. Wrote a book. Drank cocktails. Sent Kid to college. Had steak dinner w/ the Film Criticism Avengers™. Thanks 2023. You were a fine last year of Western Civilization.

"This movie is not a document. It's not a history lesson. It's a warning." Had a long conversation with Jonathan Glazer, one of my favorite filmmakers, about making THE ZONE OF INTEREST.

‘It’s Not a History Lesson, It’s a Warning’: Inside the Making of ‘The Zone of Interest’www.rollingstone.com The ‘Under the Skin’ filmmaker opens up about his decade-long journey making a film about Auschwitz — and why this harrowing drama is about right now.

In which @sepinwall.bsky.social and I shout out some of our favorite TV and movie performances from 2023. One last year-end list to help you with holiday viewing, last-minute moviegoing and appearing extra-smart to your friends and neighbors.

The 20 Best TV and Movie Performances of 2023www.rollingstone.com From Sarah Snook’s final season of ‘Succession’ to Lily Gladstone’s courage in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ these are the performances that wowed us.

"[The title] suggests that truly knowing your fellow humans is to dream the impossible dream. By the end, the movie has contradicted itself in the profoundest of ways. Such attempts may be the only thing that really matters." One last 2023 masterpiece, coming in white-hot: ALL OF US STRANGERS

‘All of Us Strangers’: Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott’s Ghostly Love Story Will Break Your Heartwww.rollingstone.com This romance between two men — as one man comes to grips with the ghost of his past — is designed to leave you devastated in the best ways imaginable.

“He might not be pretty, but at least he’s vulgar” — Anna Karina on Jean-Paul Belmondo

Now Playing: Sara Driver's SLEEPWALK. As always, mid-1980s Ann Magnuson FTW.

It’s funny how the ever growing threat of a fascist dictatorship will turn you into a single-issue voter.

Now playing: MADONNA OF THE SEVEN MOONS (this is one gloriously/seriously fucked up Gainsborough movie)

It's a scathing satire, a family drama, a perfect showcase for one of our greatest working actors, a character study, a food-for-thought buffet and a flipped bird to a blinkered, incurious industry. Mainly, AMERICAN FICTION is just fucking amazing. It opens today in select theaters/wide on 22nd.

‘American Fiction’ Is a Scathing Satire, a Family Drama, and an Absolute Triumphwww.rollingstone.com Writer-director Cord Jefferson’s debut is a take-no-prisoners satire, a tender family drama, the perfect showcase for Jeffrey Wright — and a triumph.

I swear to God — if REBEL MOON doesn’t feature the most rebellious moon I’ve ever seen I’m going to start a fucking riot.

"Some have said that Glazer’s film is a reinvention of the Holocaust movie, but that’s glibly giving this masterpiece short shrift. It’s a work that forces you to reexamine how we’ve processed this chapter of history and restores a proper sense of ungraspable horror." THE ZONE OF INTEREST

‘The Zone of Interest’: Jonathan Glazer’s Chilling Holocaust Movie Is a Masterpiecewww.rollingstone.com 'Under the Skin’ director Jonathan Glazer turns what could have been another look at Nazism into a profound statement about the evil men still do.

Entering 2023, Marvel had a slate of high-profile sequels, a big TV-event limited series, some spin-off shows and a bright new star as their tentpole villain. Exiting 2023...well...um... A brief look back at Marvel's terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad year.

Marvel Studios’ Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Yearwww.rollingstone.com From onscreen pile-ups to offscreen scandals — looking back at how the blockbuster company nearly destroyed their MCU cash cow in 2023.

Angry Lizards. Aliens. Vampires. Religious-cult psychopaths. Entitled rich people. No, I'm not describing the U.S. Senate — they're the all-stars of the 10 BEST HORROR MOVIES OF 2023, and while not as scary as Congress, these movies are guaranteed to thrill, chill and fuck you up in a big way.

10 Best Horror Movies of 2023www.rollingstone.com From a lo-fi haunted house masterpiece to the big-budget return of Godzilla — it was a good year to be terrified at the movies.

You wanted an Apocalypse Karen? Julia Roberts is happy to oblige... LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND hits Netflix on Fri. Also, Mahershala Ali is God, but you knew that already.

‘Leave the World Behind’ Is the Ultimate Apocalypse-Karen Moviewww.rollingstone.com Julia Roberts freaks the f*ck out over the end of the world in director Sam Esmail’s disaster-thriller, co-starring Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali.

Behold, your new favourite movie (sexed-up satirical Prometheus-myth wide-angle-lensed cinema du Ruffalo-cad division): POOR THINGS, in which a one Emma Stone makes a strong bid for being the greatest actor of her generation. Hits theaters Fri. See it.

‘Poor Things’: What If Emma Stone Was Frankenstein But Feminist and Horny?www.rollingstone.com The actor outdoes herself in Yorgos Lanthimos’ brilliant take on the Prometheus myth brimming with satire, female empowerment, and sex — lots of sex.

A lo-fi Canadian horror flick, a big-budget epic from our greatest living filmmaker, jaw-dropping directorial debuts, a double feature of guys *and* dolls (respectively) — it was a very good, very fucking weird year at the movies. The 20 Best Films of 2023

20 Best Movies of 2023www.rollingstone.com From historical tragedies to raucous raunch-coms, 'Oppenheimer' to 'Barbie' — our picks for the best films of a very good year at the movies.

We need to talk about how fucking brilliant MAY DECEMBER — and specifically Charles Melton is... (ignore the headline, I did not write it)

‘May December’: Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore’s Twisted Tabloid Scandalwww.rollingstone.com The ‘Far From Heaven’ duo and Natalie Portman turn the story of a Mary Kay Letourneau type and a movie star into a brilliant, heartbreaking melodrama.

I knew I should not have loudly HUZZAH-ed the death of Henry Kissinger the night before, b/c waking up to Shane McGowan's passing, surprise or not, was a stone cold bitch... Rest in peace, playing 'Bottle of Smoke' and 27 other tunes in perpetuity, my man...

Shane MacGowan: 15 Essential Songswww.rollingstone.com 15 Essential Shane MacGowan Songs

'AMERICAN SYMPHONY is a music doc. But it's also a love story, a look at the personal toll that illness takes, a testament to leaps of faith and a testimony to the idea that living isn't a passive act in the best or worst of times.' On Netflix now.

‘American Symphony’: Jon Batiste Gave Us the Best Music Doc of the Yearwww.rollingstone.com The singer-musician-composer writes his magnum opus while his wife battles cancer in a moving ode to love, creativity, and the art of survival.