Archive - Poetry in an Age of Missiles

Materialists (Celine Song, 2025)

On one hand, Celine Song’s sophomore feature repeatedly pulled me in through its lead actress, the always appealing Dakota Johnson.

Jul 7 •

Michael Clawson

June 2025

Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956)

A masterpiece from one of Classical Hollywood's finest dramatists.

Jun 24 •

Michael Clawson

Recent Highlights

Things I've enjoyed from my watching, listening, and reading... in a few pairings.

Jun 21 •

Michael Clawson

January 2025

My Year in Books

A loosely ranked list of books I read in 2024

Jan 20 •

Michael Clawson

The Best Music of 2024

According to Me

Jan 1 •

Michael Clawson

December 2024

“Blitz” is a film that’s easy to take for granted.

Dec 1, 2024 •

Michael Clawson

November 2024

The closest thing to last year’s schoolroom thriller “The Teacher’s Lounge” that 2024 has had to offer, “Armand” is a gloomier kind of parent-teacher…

Nov 11, 2024 •

Michael Clawson

October 2024

A film of expansive visual power, of so many rolling desert vistas and desolate townscapes coated in metallic gray, “Black Dog” depicts the…

Oct 3, 2024 •

Michael Clawson

Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn’s “Dream Team” is what you might call a “vibes” movie.

Oct 1, 2024 •

Michael Clawson

September 2024

Measures of a Funeral

Canadian filmmaker Sofia Bohdanowicz has spent the better part of a decade making short and medium-length films as a means of excavating her own…

Sep 27, 2024 •

Michael Clawson

“Red Rooms” is a striking departure in tone and atmosphere from the one other Pascal Plante film I’ve seen, 2020’s “Nadia Butterfly.” That movie, set…

Sep 21, 2024 •

Michael Clawson

Pictures of Ghosts

In “Pictures of Ghosts,” Kleber Mendonça Filho does for the Brazilian city of Recife what Terence Davies did for Liverpool in “Of Time and the City…

Sep 3, 2024 •

Michael Clawson

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