Jessica Ritchey
@jmritchey.bsky.social
Writer. Here and there. Patreon: patreon.com/coldtakesjmr
Yes! This is another good example, the kids look like kids, and the most beautiful of them is ultimately the most damned among them.
Casting in both Sinners and Companion really nailed it. The Long Walk too, but I can't be as analytic about it because the cast looked way too much like all the guys I hung out with in high school.
December 1, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Yes! This is another good example, the kids look like kids, and the most beautiful of them is ultimately the most damned among them.
Seriously, Disney spent a quarter of a billion dollars on Fantastic Four and the only thing that stuck with me is Hauser's gesture on "spread the butter."
Honestly this is a through-line too in faces that have stuck with me, Delroy Lindo's haunted stare in Sinners, Fantastic Four briefly twitching to life when Paul Walter Hauser sashays onscreen, Sophie Thatcher's crooked mouth in Companion, unconventional casting instead of Instagram conformity.
It's also constructive thinking about Glen Powell's lab grown leading man face bouncing clean off me and not carrying The Running Man to the finish line to Josh O'Connor's rumpled cuteness and stick out ears and you can't take your eyes off him. The wounded believer in a world of plastic Christians.
December 1, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Seriously, Disney spent a quarter of a billion dollars on Fantastic Four and the only thing that stuck with me is Hauser's gesture on "spread the butter."
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
Superman taking a moment to make sure the woman drove across the bridge safely. In this age of rabid cruelty it feels significant that the art that's cutting through the noise and the fog is about our responsibility to each other, and how we either meet it or fail to.
Like a strange through-line in what's sticking with me this year is movies that deal in different ways with the importance of caretaking, caretaking a community in Sinners, Finnes' doctor caretaking the dead in 28 Years Later, O'Connor trying to caretake people who absolutely do not want it.
It really threw me how a major part of the stakes is that O'Connor is good at his job, and what a tragedy it will be if he's not able to do it anymore. Like it caught my breath the phone call with the woman at the shop going from a joke to dead serious.
December 1, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Superman taking a moment to make sure the woman drove across the bridge safely. In this age of rabid cruelty it feels significant that the art that's cutting through the noise and the fog is about our responsibility to each other, and how we either meet it or fail to.
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
Like a strange through-line in what's sticking with me this year is movies that deal in different ways with the importance of caretaking, caretaking a community in Sinners, Finnes' doctor caretaking the dead in 28 Years Later, O'Connor trying to caretake people who absolutely do not want it.
It really threw me how a major part of the stakes is that O'Connor is good at his job, and what a tragedy it will be if he's not able to do it anymore. Like it caught my breath the phone call with the woman at the shop going from a joke to dead serious.
December 1, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Like a strange through-line in what's sticking with me this year is movies that deal in different ways with the importance of caretaking, caretaking a community in Sinners, Finnes' doctor caretaking the dead in 28 Years Later, O'Connor trying to caretake people who absolutely do not want it.
"FUNCTIONING WITHIN NORMAL LIMITS"
December 1, 2025 at 7:38 PM
"FUNCTIONING WITHIN NORMAL LIMITS"
Honestly this is a through-line too in faces that have stuck with me, Delroy Lindo's haunted stare in Sinners, Fantastic Four briefly twitching to life when Paul Walter Hauser sashays onscreen, Sophie Thatcher's crooked mouth in Companion, unconventional casting instead of Instagram conformity.
It's also constructive thinking about Glen Powell's lab grown leading man face bouncing clean off me and not carrying The Running Man to the finish line to Josh O'Connor's rumpled cuteness and stick out ears and you can't take your eyes off him. The wounded believer in a world of plastic Christians.
Wake Up Dead Man (2025). As somebody who grew up in a toxic faith but never really lost the urge to believe in Something this hit every last one of my skeptic-also cries when they see a beautiful stained glass window pressure points. Gothic and spikily funny. Craig and O'Connor are a wonderful team.
December 1, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Honestly this is a through-line too in faces that have stuck with me, Delroy Lindo's haunted stare in Sinners, Fantastic Four briefly twitching to life when Paul Walter Hauser sashays onscreen, Sophie Thatcher's crooked mouth in Companion, unconventional casting instead of Instagram conformity.
Superman taking a moment to make sure the woman drove across the bridge safely. In this age of rabid cruelty it feels significant that the art that's cutting through the noise and the fog is about our responsibility to each other, and how we either meet it or fail to.
Like a strange through-line in what's sticking with me this year is movies that deal in different ways with the importance of caretaking, caretaking a community in Sinners, Finnes' doctor caretaking the dead in 28 Years Later, O'Connor trying to caretake people who absolutely do not want it.
It really threw me how a major part of the stakes is that O'Connor is good at his job, and what a tragedy it will be if he's not able to do it anymore. Like it caught my breath the phone call with the woman at the shop going from a joke to dead serious.
December 1, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Superman taking a moment to make sure the woman drove across the bridge safely. In this age of rabid cruelty it feels significant that the art that's cutting through the noise and the fog is about our responsibility to each other, and how we either meet it or fail to.
Like a strange through-line in what's sticking with me this year is movies that deal in different ways with the importance of caretaking, caretaking a community in Sinners, Finnes' doctor caretaking the dead in 28 Years Later, O'Connor trying to caretake people who absolutely do not want it.
It really threw me how a major part of the stakes is that O'Connor is good at his job, and what a tragedy it will be if he's not able to do it anymore. Like it caught my breath the phone call with the woman at the shop going from a joke to dead serious.
December 1, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Like a strange through-line in what's sticking with me this year is movies that deal in different ways with the importance of caretaking, caretaking a community in Sinners, Finnes' doctor caretaking the dead in 28 Years Later, O'Connor trying to caretake people who absolutely do not want it.
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
Wake Up Dead Man (2025). As somebody who grew up in a toxic faith but never really lost the urge to believe in Something this hit every last one of my skeptic-also cries when they see a beautiful stained glass window pressure points. Gothic and spikily funny. Craig and O'Connor are a wonderful team.
November 30, 2025 at 3:23 AM
Wake Up Dead Man (2025). As somebody who grew up in a toxic faith but never really lost the urge to believe in Something this hit every last one of my skeptic-also cries when they see a beautiful stained glass window pressure points. Gothic and spikily funny. Craig and O'Connor are a wonderful team.
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
Yes, nothing says "thrilling climax" like watching Dracula struggle in a hedge in a way that suggests this is why you don't wear a cape when you go berry picking
Is that the one where they bring in the new lore that vampires are weak against hawthorn (ie. the same thorns used to make the Crown of Thorns), and Christopher Lee’s Dracula is stopped in the climax by a THORNY HEDGE?? 🤨
December 1, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Yes, nothing says "thrilling climax" like watching Dracula struggle in a hedge in a way that suggests this is why you don't wear a cape when you go berry picking
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
February 1987 Commercials : 155s
December 1, 2025 at 6:00 PM
February 1987 Commercials : 155s
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
OK so it's dark and rainy and I feel like this story should be shared. The movie Grace Of My Heart is a sort of 'film á clef' loosely based on Carole King's life, interpolating a fictional romance with a character based on Brian Wilson. Musical director J Mascis said they HAD TO use a theremin...
Allison also told an absolutely fucking great Beach Boys anecdote (from Grace Of My Heart soundtrack recording sessions) which would on its own make this one of the great Q&As
December 1, 2025 at 5:33 PM
OK so it's dark and rainy and I feel like this story should be shared. The movie Grace Of My Heart is a sort of 'film á clef' loosely based on Carole King's life, interpolating a fictional romance with a character based on Brian Wilson. Musical director J Mascis said they HAD TO use a theremin...
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
Monthly Halloween 29
December 1987
December 1987
December 1, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Monthly Halloween 29
December 1987
December 1987
Yes, nothing says "thrilling climax" like watching Dracula struggle in a hedge in a way that suggests this is why you don't wear a cape when you go berry picking
Is that the one where they bring in the new lore that vampires are weak against hawthorn (ie. the same thorns used to make the Crown of Thorns), and Christopher Lee’s Dracula is stopped in the climax by a THORNY HEDGE?? 🤨
December 1, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Yes, nothing says "thrilling climax" like watching Dracula struggle in a hedge in a way that suggests this is why you don't wear a cape when you go berry picking
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). One of my least favorite terrible Hammer films, because nothing with this many ideas cooking in the background of it, Thatcherism as vampirism, urban planning as urban horror, Alan Moore's The Professionals, should be this exhausted and DOA.
December 1, 2025 at 2:16 AM
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). One of my least favorite terrible Hammer films, because nothing with this many ideas cooking in the background of it, Thatcherism as vampirism, urban planning as urban horror, Alan Moore's The Professionals, should be this exhausted and DOA.
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
Tonight's rewatch: STALAG 17. A Christmas film if ever there was one, with Holden exuding pure movie star through the sleaze. Wilder keeps it silly for so long that you wonder if anything is going to happen, and then suddenly, it becomes thrilling. One of the great face movies—everybody has one.
December 1, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Tonight's rewatch: STALAG 17. A Christmas film if ever there was one, with Holden exuding pure movie star through the sleaze. Wilder keeps it silly for so long that you wonder if anything is going to happen, and then suddenly, it becomes thrilling. One of the great face movies—everybody has one.
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
I named my fists Strong Floor and No Ceiling because I like getting beaten up.
I named my fists Blast and Hardcheese because you can put your faith in them.
I named my fists Chekhov and Gun because you know they're coming but you don't know when
December 1, 2025 at 3:52 AM
I named my fists Strong Floor and No Ceiling because I like getting beaten up.
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
I named my fists Blast and Hardcheese because you can put your faith in them.
I named my fists Chekhov and Gun because you know they're coming but you don't know when
i named my fists Rodgers and Hammerstein cuz theyre always in my own little corner
December 1, 2025 at 2:49 AM
I named my fists Blast and Hardcheese because you can put your faith in them.
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
This They Might Be Giants TONIGHT SHOW performance of "Birdhouse In Your Soul" from 1990 remains firmly lodged in my noggin thanks to the Tonight Show Band's full commitment and Doc Severinsen's incredible trumpeting... It took an already great song and made it transcendent.
August 23, 2025 at 8:44 AM
This They Might Be Giants TONIGHT SHOW performance of "Birdhouse In Your Soul" from 1990 remains firmly lodged in my noggin thanks to the Tonight Show Band's full commitment and Doc Severinsen's incredible trumpeting... It took an already great song and made it transcendent.
I named my fists Blast and Hardcheese because you can put your faith in them.
I named my fists Chekhov and Gun because you know they're coming but you don't know when
i named my fists Rodgers and Hammerstein cuz theyre always in my own little corner
December 1, 2025 at 2:49 AM
I named my fists Blast and Hardcheese because you can put your faith in them.
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). One of my least favorite terrible Hammer films, because nothing with this many ideas cooking in the background of it, Thatcherism as vampirism, urban planning as urban horror, Alan Moore's The Professionals, should be this exhausted and DOA.
December 1, 2025 at 2:16 AM
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). One of my least favorite terrible Hammer films, because nothing with this many ideas cooking in the background of it, Thatcherism as vampirism, urban planning as urban horror, Alan Moore's The Professionals, should be this exhausted and DOA.
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
Radio by Lester Beall for the Rural Electrification Administration (1937)
November 30, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Radio by Lester Beall for the Rural Electrification Administration (1937)
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
Brainy Baby Left Brain 2001 VHS (Rough HQ Restoration) : 1715s
December 1, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Brainy Baby Left Brain 2001 VHS (Rough HQ Restoration) : 1715s
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
Appointment With Fear (1985). A bullshit supernatural slasher flirts with some arresting ideas only to end up the kind of film that rightly gets credited to an Alan Smithee.
November 20, 2025 at 4:37 AM
Appointment With Fear (1985). A bullshit supernatural slasher flirts with some arresting ideas only to end up the kind of film that rightly gets credited to an Alan Smithee.
Reposted by Jessica Ritchey
The Running Man (2025). Lukewarm word of mouth made me enjoy it at first more than I was expecting to but it's a floating series of concepts, point of view characters and phases of project development that never knit into a cohesive whole. The best Running Man movie of 2014.
November 24, 2025 at 1:39 AM
The Running Man (2025). Lukewarm word of mouth made me enjoy it at first more than I was expecting to but it's a floating series of concepts, point of view characters and phases of project development that never knit into a cohesive whole. The best Running Man movie of 2014.