The Time Peter Capaldi Made a Short Film About Franz Kafka

  If you’re familiar with Peter Capaldi, it’s probably through one of the iconic roles he’s played: the brilliantly profane Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It and In the Loop, perhaps, or his just-commenced run on Doctor Who. (Right about here is probably where I tip my hat in the direction of his work on Torchwood: Children of Earth.) I hadn’t been aware that Capaldi is also a filmmaker — an Oscar-winning one, in fact, for a 1993 short that he wrote and […]

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A Cinematic Take on Amelia Gray’s “AM/PM”

As someone who’s long admired Amelia Gray’s fiction, from her debut collection AM/PM to her surreal, visceral novel Threats, I was very curious to hear that there would be a short film based on two of the former’s stories. From what I can tell from the trailer, it looks like the film incorporates the book itself into its plotline. Interest: definitely piqued. And speaking of the trailer, you can check that out below.

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Juliet Escoria’s Brion Gysin-Inspired Short Film For “The Other Kind of Magic”

We’re tremendously excited to read Juliet Escoria’s collection Black Cloud, out on Civil Coping Mechanisms this April, given Escoria’s penchant for haunting, visceral fiction. Given that one of the stories featured in the collection, “The Other Kind of Magic,” first appeared here last year, we’re especially eager to check it out. Now, Escoria has made a short film inspired by (a remixed version of) this story; you can watch it below.

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Tom Hanks Likes Your Bookshelf

I don’t know exactly what film it was that tipped me off that Hollywood had run out of good ideas; I believe it may have been the 21 Jump Street film that actually turned out to be pretty funny, but then I recall seeing the trailer for the 2005 film remake of The Dukes of Hazzard, and telling myself that the well had run dry in Hollywood. It’s so bad with these remakes that it is at the point where I can’t remember […]

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Father Yod’s Cult of Personality

  There’s been a recent crop of cult fiction books like Justin Taylor’s The Gospel of Anarchy and Fiona Maazel’s Woke Up Lonely, to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Scientology-influenced movement called “The Cause,” in his 2012 film The Master, that has started popping up. Even though these works undoubtedly deserve your attention, you really can’t beat the real thing, especially when it comes to cults. You get plenty of that with the new documentary The Source Family.

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The Reading Life: The Terrible Poster for What Maisie Knew

I want to apologize publicly to all the strangers I have run into on the street while texting someone, emailing someone, or not paying attention to traffic lights, where I was going, or really anything that isn’t my phone. It’s a problem I have: I’m a multi-tasker, for lack of a prettier word. I am a sucker for appliances with several uses—it chops and it dices! I like combination exercise classes—it’s yoga and it’s rock climbing! When I cook, I […]

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