Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
@benverschoor.bsky.social
Professional Dilettante. Pretends to release things under Pyrexia Productions. Co-host of the Mise en Screen podcast. Writes film and other media criticism at
http://cinema-purgatorio.ghost.io
http://cinema-purgatorio.ghost.io
Pinned
"I disapprove of you destroying the country, but I will defend to the death your ability to do it" ~ Voltaire, probably
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
"If nothing ever really goes away, it's also true that bad times can be survived and outlasted, sometimes through heroic acts of resistance and refusal but mostly in the ways that people generally survive and outlast things, which is by being stubborn and keeping at it." defector.com/make-yoursel...
Make Yourself At Home | Defector
I started going back to the 1970s last winter because I was convinced everything and everyone else was, too. This was not a good time, and I was very much Not Having A Good Time in it; in retrospect,…
defector.com
December 5, 2025 at 8:16 PM
"If nothing ever really goes away, it's also true that bad times can be survived and outlasted, sometimes through heroic acts of resistance and refusal but mostly in the ways that people generally survive and outlast things, which is by being stubborn and keeping at it." defector.com/make-yoursel...
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
in the movies this is the screensaver on the computers at the world’s most evil company
December 5, 2025 at 7:03 PM
in the movies this is the screensaver on the computers at the world’s most evil company
At what point does the rest of the world tell FIFA to eat shit and form an alternative global soccer org? They're making up prizes to give to the guy who has antagonized literally every other participant nation!
December 5, 2025 at 8:49 PM
At what point does the rest of the world tell FIFA to eat shit and form an alternative global soccer org? They're making up prizes to give to the guy who has antagonized literally every other participant nation!
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
Resurrection let's goooooo
The 2025 SFCS nominees for BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:
📽️ FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS
📽️ FRANKENSTEIN
📽️ THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME
📽️ RESURRECTION
📽️ SINNERS
📽️ FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS
📽️ FRANKENSTEIN
📽️ THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME
📽️ RESURRECTION
📽️ SINNERS
December 5, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Resurrection let's goooooo
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
Love that out of nowhere RESURRECTION inclusion. So cool!
The 2025 SFCS nominees for BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:
📽️ FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS
📽️ FRANKENSTEIN
📽️ THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME
📽️ RESURRECTION
📽️ SINNERS
📽️ FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS
📽️ FRANKENSTEIN
📽️ THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME
📽️ RESURRECTION
📽️ SINNERS
December 5, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Love that out of nowhere RESURRECTION inclusion. So cool!
Is this just a repurposed press release with no editorial clean-up, or is the Hollywood Reporter really just Like This?
December 5, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Is this just a repurposed press release with no editorial clean-up, or is the Hollywood Reporter really just Like This?
Ay, cute film (derogatory). Feels like a movie 'about Japan' made by Americans for Americans, baffling for a writer-director who spent the first 17 years of her life in Japan.
On this week's episode @benverschoor.bsky.social and I disagree on Hikari's latest feature film: Rental Family. It is a cute film (complimentary) that I view as an empty man becoming more full by participating in life rather than observing.
miseenscreen.libsyn.com/episode-21-r...
miseenscreen.libsyn.com/episode-21-r...
Mise en Screen: Episode 21: Rental Family
Rental Family is the latest feature film by Hikari, cowritten by herself and Stephen Blahut, starring Brendan Fraser as a struggling American actor living in Japan who stumbles into a job working for ...
miseenscreen.libsyn.com
December 5, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Ay, cute film (derogatory). Feels like a movie 'about Japan' made by Americans for Americans, baffling for a writer-director who spent the first 17 years of her life in Japan.
Modern-day Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? where George and Martha have developed AI psychosis from creating their son in ChatGPT
December 5, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Modern-day Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? where George and Martha have developed AI psychosis from creating their son in ChatGPT
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
We're lucky to have the Saturn version so excellently translated (MSX2 Snatcher translation is real rough), but it's a pity non-Japanese speakers will probably never get the original PC-98 version of Policenauts, which has fantastic pixel art at a higher resolution than the subsequent cel animation
December 1, 2025 at 7:04 PM
We're lucky to have the Saturn version so excellently translated (MSX2 Snatcher translation is real rough), but it's a pity non-Japanese speakers will probably never get the original PC-98 version of Policenauts, which has fantastic pixel art at a higher resolution than the subsequent cel animation
*rubs chin in Freudian*
still waiting for intelligent longform cultural criticism with psychomarxist explanation of the "everything is butthole" logorrhea in the AI space
December 2, 2025 at 8:10 PM
*rubs chin in Freudian*
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
If a man personally implicated in war crimes can remain atop the Pentagon, why would he stand by and risk his freedom should Vance (or Trump again) lose the 2028 election?
And unless Bradley sees the inside of a brig, the message to USSOCOM's chain of command is that no action is impermissible.
And unless Bradley sees the inside of a brig, the message to USSOCOM's chain of command is that no action is impermissible.
Pete Hegseth And Adm. Mitch Bradley Belong In Prison
The South American boat strikes are plainly murders. Now we have the names of the murderers. Do we have the political will to lock them up?
www.forever-wars.com
December 1, 2025 at 6:08 PM
If a man personally implicated in war crimes can remain atop the Pentagon, why would he stand by and risk his freedom should Vance (or Trump again) lose the 2028 election?
And unless Bradley sees the inside of a brig, the message to USSOCOM's chain of command is that no action is impermissible.
And unless Bradley sees the inside of a brig, the message to USSOCOM's chain of command is that no action is impermissible.
Caught this on TCM just now. We used to spend vast resources building giant structures in order to blow them up, now we just pour drinking water on ones and zeroes.
Silver Streak 1976 Train crash scene
YouTube video by Movie clips channel
youtu.be
December 2, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Caught this on TCM just now. We used to spend vast resources building giant structures in order to blow them up, now we just pour drinking water on ones and zeroes.
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
I have come to the idea that we have to collectively, brutally, ritualistically kill Target just to show capital that we truly aren’t fucking around.
December 1, 2025 at 7:39 PM
I have come to the idea that we have to collectively, brutally, ritualistically kill Target just to show capital that we truly aren’t fucking around.
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
I wrote much of this several months ago, about Ezra Klein's response to the Kirk assassination, and then never ended up publishing it, but I think this UO "controversy" is a such a perfect example of how TPUSA et al actually advance conservative power that I decided to revive and rewrite it.
What Liberals Can Learn from Charlie Kirk
Over the last few days, if you’re active on political media, you have probably seen references to the “controversy” over a student’s failing grade on an essay at Oklahoma Un…
nathangoldwag.wordpress.com
December 1, 2025 at 10:27 PM
I wrote much of this several months ago, about Ezra Klein's response to the Kirk assassination, and then never ended up publishing it, but I think this UO "controversy" is a such a perfect example of how TPUSA et al actually advance conservative power that I decided to revive and rewrite it.
I was just the other day reading about Keith Haring and thinking about how so many art scenes were decimated by AIDS.
Today is World AIDS Day.
“An awareness day is not a strategy” is the US government's rationale for not publicly acknowledging World AIDS Day for the first time since the inaugural WAD in 1988.
#WAD2025
“An awareness day is not a strategy” is the US government's rationale for not publicly acknowledging World AIDS Day for the first time since the inaugural WAD in 1988.
#WAD2025
December 2, 2025 at 2:15 AM
I was just the other day reading about Keith Haring and thinking about how so many art scenes were decimated by AIDS.
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
Been working for a while on my Policenauts write-up, and it's finally done! Everything you would want to know about the only Hideo Kojima game never to get an official localization, and the development of his cinematic approach just before Metal Gear Solid blew up
Policenauts: The Future is Unwritten
"Consider how determined space is to keep us out."
cinema-purgatorio.ghost.io
December 1, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Been working for a while on my Policenauts write-up, and it's finally done! Everything you would want to know about the only Hideo Kojima game never to get an official localization, and the development of his cinematic approach just before Metal Gear Solid blew up
Been working for a while on my Policenauts write-up, and it's finally done! Everything you would want to know about the only Hideo Kojima game never to get an official localization, and the development of his cinematic approach just before Metal Gear Solid blew up
Policenauts: The Future is Unwritten
"Consider how determined space is to keep us out."
cinema-purgatorio.ghost.io
December 1, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Been working for a while on my Policenauts write-up, and it's finally done! Everything you would want to know about the only Hideo Kojima game never to get an official localization, and the development of his cinematic approach just before Metal Gear Solid blew up
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
Shame on me for falling for this, I guess, but this combination of misleading UI, a TOS that offers no refunds, and no real customer service to speak of, should be illegal. Screengrabs of my attempt to get my money back and then to speak to an actual person below, but tl;dr: fuck QR Code Generator.
December 1, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Shame on me for falling for this, I guess, but this combination of misleading UI, a TOS that offers no refunds, and no real customer service to speak of, should be illegal. Screengrabs of my attempt to get my money back and then to speak to an actual person below, but tl;dr: fuck QR Code Generator.
Shame on me for falling for this, I guess, but this combination of misleading UI, a TOS that offers no refunds, and no real customer service to speak of, should be illegal. Screengrabs of my attempt to get my money back and then to speak to an actual person below, but tl;dr: fuck QR Code Generator.
December 1, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Shame on me for falling for this, I guess, but this combination of misleading UI, a TOS that offers no refunds, and no real customer service to speak of, should be illegal. Screengrabs of my attempt to get my money back and then to speak to an actual person below, but tl;dr: fuck QR Code Generator.
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
and you know what? these students should also be judged, and judged harshly for this. running to the admins and state legislators and the press because you got a fairly earned failing grade on an assignment is and should be seen as a mark of extremely poor character. it makes you a very bad person.
the primary thing that TPUSA provides to young conservatives is a blueprint for weaponizing the abject cowardice of university administrators against individual teachers and instructors, and university admins should take a long look in the mirror and think about what that says about them
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
November 30, 2025 at 9:02 PM
and you know what? these students should also be judged, and judged harshly for this. running to the admins and state legislators and the press because you got a fairly earned failing grade on an assignment is and should be seen as a mark of extremely poor character. it makes you a very bad person.
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
You really have to read this thread. The genius of Tom Stoppard, the fragility of memory, the magic of theatre — and the glorious stubbornness of a researcher who would not stop.
Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.
November 30, 2025 at 2:42 PM
You really have to read this thread. The genius of Tom Stoppard, the fragility of memory, the magic of theatre — and the glorious stubbornness of a researcher who would not stop.
One of my favorite theater experiences ever was Tom Stoppard's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre in London. A Soviet dissident is put in an insane asylum with a cell mate who believes he is conducting an orchestra--which is onstage, playing music composed for the play. 1/?
November 30, 2025 at 1:33 AM
One of my favorite theater experiences ever was Tom Stoppard's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre in London. A Soviet dissident is put in an insane asylum with a cell mate who believes he is conducting an orchestra--which is onstage, playing music composed for the play. 1/?
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
Pete Hagueseth. We should make it a thing.
Hagueseth
Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.
November 28, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Pete Hagueseth. We should make it a thing.
Reposted by Ben "Jammin'" Verschoor
It is happening again.
November 27, 2025 at 8:29 PM
It is happening again.