Darren Hughes
@longpauses.bsky.social
Occasional writer and film programmer with a day job. Cinema Scope, Filmmaker Magazine, MUBI Notebook. Artistic Director, FILM FEST KNOX. www.longpauses.com
Pinned
Important life update: we have two new fosters, and they're of the "can I get in your lap and purr?" variety. My children have named them Scoobert and Rudy. We hope to eventually get sibling three, also an all-black ball of fluff, who is recovering from surgery.
December 14, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Important life update: we have two new fosters, and they're of the "can I get in your lap and purr?" variety. My children have named them Scoobert and Rudy. We hope to eventually get sibling three, also an all-black ball of fluff, who is recovering from surgery.
I've been watching Reichardt movies for 20 years, yet I still spent the first half of The Mastermind frustrated because it wasn't the movie I thought it was. Once JB hits the road & I realized what the film *actually* is, I had a stupid grin on my face for the next hour & immediately started it over
December 14, 2025 at 6:02 PM
I've been watching Reichardt movies for 20 years, yet I still spent the first half of The Mastermind frustrated because it wasn't the movie I thought it was. Once JB hits the road & I realized what the film *actually* is, I had a stupid grin on my face for the next hour & immediately started it over
New movies are too damn long
December 14, 2025 at 2:20 AM
New movies are too damn long
I'm upgrading my home theater for the first time in more than a decade, which means I'm getting back into the physical media game. What are the must-have 4K releases? (My 80yo mother wants my Amazon wish list pronto.) So far it includes Rear Window, Blue Velvet, and Zombie/7th Victim.
December 12, 2025 at 2:13 PM
I'm upgrading my home theater for the first time in more than a decade, which means I'm getting back into the physical media game. What are the must-have 4K releases? (My 80yo mother wants my Amazon wish list pronto.) So far it includes Rear Window, Blue Velvet, and Zombie/7th Victim.
If anyone could help me see Henry Fonda for President, that would be great.
December 12, 2025 at 1:42 PM
If anyone could help me see Henry Fonda for President, that would be great.
I've told this story often, but after I interviewed Zhao Tao in 2016, I asked if I could take a photo for the piece. When I picked up my camera, she straightened her back, tilted her head slightly, looked down the lens, and became a movie star. It was the damnedest thing.
December 11, 2025 at 2:53 PM
I've told this story often, but after I interviewed Zhao Tao in 2016, I asked if I could take a photo for the piece. When I picked up my camera, she straightened her back, tilted her head slightly, looked down the lens, and became a movie star. It was the damnedest thing.
Over the weekend I read (and can highly recommend) Robert P. Jones's White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. It was comforting in way to read a rigorous statistical analysis of survey data that confirmed the anecdotal evidence of institutional racism around me.
December 11, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Over the weekend I read (and can highly recommend) Robert P. Jones's White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. It was comforting in way to read a rigorous statistical analysis of survey data that confirmed the anecdotal evidence of institutional racism around me.
I wish a piano would fall from a great height onto Jimmy Fallon.
December 9, 2025 at 7:22 PM
I wish a piano would fall from a great height onto Jimmy Fallon.
Reposted by Darren Hughes
Why do I see videos of these men failing to do a pull up like once a week
December 9, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Why do I see videos of these men failing to do a pull up like once a week
I just roasted a $6 chicken in my air fryer, and it was ten times better than my thanksgiving turkey.
December 8, 2025 at 1:30 AM
I just roasted a $6 chicken in my air fryer, and it was ten times better than my thanksgiving turkey.
Reposted by Darren Hughes
Best Music Score, Winner: Kangding Ray, SIRĀT
December 7, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Best Music Score, Winner: Kangding Ray, SIRĀT
Rereading To the Lighthouse for the first time in 30 years makes me want to start a middle-aged book club in which we read great novels that we could not possibly have understood when we first encountered them in college.
December 7, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Rereading To the Lighthouse for the first time in 30 years makes me want to start a middle-aged book club in which we read great novels that we could not possibly have understood when we first encountered them in college.
Does every know NO OTHER CHOICE is getting a one-day-only IMAX release on Monday? I'm happy to see Knoxville's screening is already more than half sold.
December 6, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Does every know NO OTHER CHOICE is getting a one-day-only IMAX release on Monday? I'm happy to see Knoxville's screening is already more than half sold.
A line of peace might appear
if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,
revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses . . .
if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,
revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses . . .
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
December 6, 2025 at 2:15 AM
A line of peace might appear
if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,
revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses . . .
if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,
revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses . . .
The FIFA prize is perfect because Trumps's a big dumb baby who gets to feel like a real boy and literally everyone else gets to point at him and laugh.
December 5, 2025 at 7:39 PM
The FIFA prize is perfect because Trumps's a big dumb baby who gets to feel like a real boy and literally everyone else gets to point at him and laugh.
One of the best venues in Knoxville only books the very worst music. Like, I assume it's their business model. "There is a huge audience in Knoxville for shitty music; we will meet that need."
December 4, 2025 at 3:43 PM
One of the best venues in Knoxville only books the very worst music. Like, I assume it's their business model. "There is a huge audience in Knoxville for shitty music; we will meet that need."
I don't know if the world will get any better when all of the Boomer politicians finally go away, but I'm really looking forward to that day.
It's become normal now for high-level political figures to argue that an entire generation was brainwashed through fake videos into mass anti-Israel political mobilization by TikTok. Complete conspiracy thinking, rooted in zero evidence, based on nothing
Hillary Clinton blames TikTok and “totally made up” videos for young people’s views on Israel and Palestine.
She says social media influenced “not just the usual suspects” but also “young Jewish Americans who don’t know the history and don’t understand.”
She says social media influenced “not just the usual suspects” but also “young Jewish Americans who don’t know the history and don’t understand.”
December 4, 2025 at 1:39 PM
I don't know if the world will get any better when all of the Boomer politicians finally go away, but I'm really looking forward to that day.
Last night, as the middle school choir was quietly preparing to sing their second carol, a kid in the audience loudly barfed. The choir soldiered on. Meanwhile the kid stood up, walked past them, and continued barfing into his own shirt. I should be better than this, but that shit was *hilarious*.
December 3, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Last night, as the middle school choir was quietly preparing to sing their second carol, a kid in the audience loudly barfed. The choir soldiered on. Meanwhile the kid stood up, walked past them, and continued barfing into his own shirt. I should be better than this, but that shit was *hilarious*.
Our generation was born in the final years of that anomalous five-decade period between the New Deal and Reaganomics when America made *some* effort to manage the ravages of capitalism. Some of us (myself included) believed for a while that's what America would always be. Nope!
The true Gen X reaction to being lauded as the "greatest generation" would be to narrow its eyes suspiciously and mutter "whatever" when asked about it
(gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/t...
(gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/t...
Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation?
www.nytimes.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Our generation was born in the final years of that anomalous five-decade period between the New Deal and Reaganomics when America made *some* effort to manage the ravages of capitalism. Some of us (myself included) believed for a while that's what America would always be. Nope!
The timing of this comment is a bit tacky, but It Was Just an Accident reminded me why I never much cared for Panahi in traditional narrative mode. It's just not a well-made movie, and the last 20 minutes are especially bad.
December 2, 2025 at 2:59 PM
The timing of this comment is a bit tacky, but It Was Just an Accident reminded me why I never much cared for Panahi in traditional narrative mode. It's just not a well-made movie, and the last 20 minutes are especially bad.
Michel Picolli! www.imdb.com/name/nm06815...
December 1, 2025 at 5:06 AM
Michel Picolli! www.imdb.com/name/nm06815...
Thought I’d found one this morning but when I submitted the order it was immediately cancelled.
Eyes Wide Shut orders cancelled at two B&Ns, giving up my inquiries, I was too slow
November 30, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Thought I’d found one this morning but when I submitted the order it was immediately cancelled.
Always fun to look up random pre-Code actors.
November 30, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Always fun to look up random pre-Code actors.
Watching To Have and Have Not, which if remade today would star Ryan Gosling and a really hot 19yo, I guess. Maybe Bill Murray in the Walter Brennan role?
November 29, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Watching To Have and Have Not, which if remade today would star Ryan Gosling and a really hot 19yo, I guess. Maybe Bill Murray in the Walter Brennan role?