The Filmic 5: You Seem Pretty Sad For A Cinephile Edition
Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley
I. Film Tech Nostalgia Making Me Happy This Week
It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you are the Gen X parent of a Gen Z daughter, you have been gleefully exposed to two brilliant discoveries: the pop genius of Olivia Rodrigo and this generation's unabashed affection for Gen X nostalgia.
In the wake of the release of Rodrigo's marvelous and critically acclaimed third album, YOU SEEM PRETTY SAD FOR A GIRL SO IN LOVE, I was thrilled to discover that while Olivia has certainly cemented herself as THE voice of THAT generation, she may also just be the contemporary artist most tethered to Gen X through a shared cultural connective tissue- exemplified perhaps most greatly by the first video from the album, DROP DEAD.
Enjoy this behind the scenes look via our friends at Frame Set as they chat with cinematographer Todd Banhazl to break down this project shot entirely on vintage BetaCam, VHS, and MiniDV cameras. Via Frame Set, "...Todd shares why the team wasn't chasing nostalgia, but the unique beauty these formats bring to faces, movement, and atmosphere. They discuss preserving interlaced motion, lighting for low-resolution cameras, filming at Versailles with director Petra Collins, the resurgence of lo-fi imagery, and why the industry's pursuit of realism may have gone too far."
Bravo, O- I know this former BetaCam director felt the dreamy rush of his film school days...Enjoy the full video and experience the most talked about album of the year for yourself. It spoke to the sad, precocious, pop-punk girl in ME, and I hope it speaks to the sad, precocious, pop-punk girl in YOU.
II. Curation Announcement I'm Most Excited For This Week
III. Most Compelling Film Writing I Read This Week
The reductive take that the late Japanese director Yoshihiro Nishimura was little more than arterial spray and outrageous splatter is to miss one of contemporary horror's most inventive filmmakers. This excellent essay by film critic and friend Michelle Kisner for The Cultural Gutter traces the biopunk and posthuman cultural currents flowing beneath the mutant flesh and blood geysers, revealing a body of work far richer (and definitively stranger) than its cult reputation would suggest.
Read "Blood Geysers and Biopunk: The Gory Films of Yoshihiro Nishimura" HERE
IV. Film Podcast I Definitely Didn't Cry During This Week
Fair warning: I did NOT have "getting emotional over a Jennifer Lopez podcast appearance" on my 2026 cinephile bingo card. Yet this wonderful episode of Films To Be Buried With manages to be funny, insightful, deeply human, and, at least for this listener, unexpectedly moving.
You can always tell when an interviewer and their subject have deep, authentic chemistry (enjoy their playful bit discussing THE EXORCIST), but did I ever imagine that I would be shedding a tear flying down US-36 at five in the morning as J-Lo describes falling apart in front of her father during a screening of the Brazilian drama I'M STILL HERE? Not for a single moment...and that is precisely what makes it great.
Oh, and MY answer to "What is the sexiest film of all time?" It's easy...
V. Film Product Placement Purchase That Changed My Life
There is a particular kind of "cinephile sickness" wherein a legendary film object somehow lodges itself permanently in your memory and simply refuses to leave. One such item for me was that Bavarian Blackwing 602 pencil defiantly dangling from Hooper's mouth in Jaws- a tiny, throwaway character detail that somehow communicated intelligence, curiosity, and competence (and dare we proffer a sort of academic effortless cool?) more effectively than an entire page of dialogue.
Naturally, I proceeded to invest a comically unreasonable amount of both time and money into the pursuit of what many consider the greatest pencil ever manufactured. Before long, I found myself reading about discontinued graphite formulas, collector markets, and the peculiar mythology that has transformed a humble writing instrument into a genuine cultural artifact.
Did I eventually track down a cache of authentic Blackwing 602s manufactured by the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company between 1934 and 1988? Does a shark hunt off Amity Island?
While the original pencils beloved by John Steinbeck and Chuck Jones may have been discontinued, their newest incarnations can be found at blackwing602.com. Tell 'em Hooper sent you.
Jack Hanley is a film scholar, podcaster, and critic based in Boulder, CO. He is a programmer with the Chicago Underground Film Festival, Slamdance's Indies Awards, and the Boulder International Film Festival. He is one-half of Blindspotting: A Film Discovery Podcast, founder of the Reel Horrors Short Film Festival, and a member of the Denver Film Critic's Society. Find him at Kinophilia on Medium and at HanleyOnFilm.com