ptklein
@ptklein.com
Film historian and cultural critic. Movie theaters, cinema spaces, and filmgoing cultures. Radically optimistic. Writing at www.howtoreadmovies.com, Metro Weekly, Film Atlas, and elsewhere. Cohost @ColdWarCinema.com. He/Him/His.
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ptklein
@ptklein.com
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“Some day this country’s gonna be a fine, good place to be…Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come.”
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
Not at all the point, but this dumb motherfucker taking up the mantle of “walkable communities” is so absurd. Even if this mouthbreathing sack of soiled diapers got out of his SUV, the weight of his boots would make it nearly impossible for him to goosestep through a neighborhood, let alone walk it.
we call that going full goebbels
xcancel.com/StephenM/sta...
xcancel.com/StephenM/sta...
January 16, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Not at all the point, but this dumb motherfucker taking up the mantle of “walkable communities” is so absurd. Even if this mouthbreathing sack of soiled diapers got out of his SUV, the weight of his boots would make it nearly impossible for him to goosestep through a neighborhood, let alone walk it.
Spending my weekend digging through an archive in a nearly 90 year old movie theater 🎟️ I am living my best life right now
January 16, 2026 at 7:02 PM
Spending my weekend digging through an archive in a nearly 90 year old movie theater 🎟️ I am living my best life right now
Reposted by ptklein
“Some day this country’s gonna be a fine, good place to be…Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come.”
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
January 15, 2026 at 2:29 PM
“Some day this country’s gonna be a fine, good place to be…Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come.”
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
No, YOU spent nine hours on a train to go to the movies
January 16, 2026 at 1:16 AM
No, YOU spent nine hours on a train to go to the movies
Nine hours on the train today how many hot dogs should I have
January 15, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Nine hours on the train today how many hot dogs should I have
“Some day this country’s gonna be a fine, good place to be…Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come.”
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
January 15, 2026 at 2:29 PM
“Some day this country’s gonna be a fine, good place to be…Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come.”
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
Reposted by ptklein
New episode is live!
This week the squad welcomes Aspen Ballas to help us discuss John Ford's THE SEARCHERS (1956). We unpack the ideological underpinnings of the western genre itself, and demonstrate how it is operating in Ford's masterpiece. Check it out!
coldwarcinema.com/s2-ep-10-the...
This week the squad welcomes Aspen Ballas to help us discuss John Ford's THE SEARCHERS (1956). We unpack the ideological underpinnings of the western genre itself, and demonstrate how it is operating in Ford's masterpiece. Check it out!
coldwarcinema.com/s2-ep-10-the...
January 15, 2026 at 1:52 PM
New episode is live!
This week the squad welcomes Aspen Ballas to help us discuss John Ford's THE SEARCHERS (1956). We unpack the ideological underpinnings of the western genre itself, and demonstrate how it is operating in Ford's masterpiece. Check it out!
coldwarcinema.com/s2-ep-10-the...
This week the squad welcomes Aspen Ballas to help us discuss John Ford's THE SEARCHERS (1956). We unpack the ideological underpinnings of the western genre itself, and demonstrate how it is operating in Ford's masterpiece. Check it out!
coldwarcinema.com/s2-ep-10-the...
“Vertical video is a format of necessity that rewards users’ inattentiveness…Instead of making something worth the mild inconvenience of rotating a phone, posters go for whatever is safest, easiest…It’s a design choice that sacrifices artistry so users don’t have to use their wrists.”
Looking at Instagram on a Desktop Solved All My Problems
“The medium is the massage”
www.watchingtogetheralone.com
January 15, 2026 at 1:06 PM
“Vertical video is a format of necessity that rewards users’ inattentiveness…Instead of making something worth the mild inconvenience of rotating a phone, posters go for whatever is safest, easiest…It’s a design choice that sacrifices artistry so users don’t have to use their wrists.”
One of these days my gate won’t exist and who’s gonna look like an idiot for always checking first then, huh?
January 14, 2026 at 8:15 PM
One of these days my gate won’t exist and who’s gonna look like an idiot for always checking first then, huh?
Reposted by ptklein
Y’all just ask for the @ptklein.com x @midwestache.bsky.social special! 🐓🌭
January 14, 2026 at 1:54 AM
Y’all just ask for the @ptklein.com x @midwestache.bsky.social special! 🐓🌭
Good morning to everyone fighting the good fight
__
The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin, 1940)
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The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin, 1940)
January 13, 2026 at 2:03 PM
Good morning to everyone fighting the good fight
__
The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin, 1940)
__
The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin, 1940)
Need my go go juice (gay guy iced coffee)
January 12, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Need my go go juice (gay guy iced coffee)
Still here, tbh
Escaping *the existential horror of this prolonged assault on democracy by American fascists* with some heavy squats and Sabrina Carpenter
January 12, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Still here, tbh
Reposted by ptklein
Fact check: true
January 11, 2026 at 3:01 AM
Fact check: true
“Seeing more and feeling less
Saying no but meaning yes
This is all I ever meant
That's the message that I sent
I can’t give everything away”
★
Saying no but meaning yes
This is all I ever meant
That's the message that I sent
I can’t give everything away”
★
January 10, 2026 at 1:57 PM
“Seeing more and feeling less
Saying no but meaning yes
This is all I ever meant
That's the message that I sent
I can’t give everything away”
★
Saying no but meaning yes
This is all I ever meant
That's the message that I sent
I can’t give everything away”
★
Raise your hand if you’re a Columbus oomf
January 9, 2026 at 11:39 PM
Raise your hand if you’re a Columbus oomf
I am struggling today. The vibes, as they say, are rancid. So, I’m taking this moment to remind myself, and maybe others, that one can be informed without scrolling, to consider one’s physiological responses to the feed, and that it’s okay (good even) to log off. Put on some Bowie and breathe.
January 8, 2026 at 4:12 PM
I am struggling today. The vibes, as they say, are rancid. So, I’m taking this moment to remind myself, and maybe others, that one can be informed without scrolling, to consider one’s physiological responses to the feed, and that it’s okay (good even) to log off. Put on some Bowie and breathe.
Tin soldiers and Donald’s coming
We’re finally on our own
This winter I hear the drumming
A mother dead in Minnesot’
Gotta get down to it, ICE is cutting us down
Should have been gone long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?
We’re finally on our own
This winter I hear the drumming
A mother dead in Minnesot’
Gotta get down to it, ICE is cutting us down
Should have been gone long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?
January 7, 2026 at 11:12 PM
Tin soldiers and Donald’s coming
We’re finally on our own
This winter I hear the drumming
A mother dead in Minnesot’
Gotta get down to it, ICE is cutting us down
Should have been gone long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?
We’re finally on our own
This winter I hear the drumming
A mother dead in Minnesot’
Gotta get down to it, ICE is cutting us down
Should have been gone long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?
Wake Up Dead Man is somehow still playing at my local cinema should I go see it a fourth time y/y
January 7, 2026 at 9:56 PM
Wake Up Dead Man is somehow still playing at my local cinema should I go see it a fourth time y/y
Refilling my salt cellar like
January 7, 2026 at 1:53 PM
Refilling my salt cellar like
Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio kind of morning
January 7, 2026 at 1:05 PM
Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio kind of morning
Tonight on the Big Screen, Kurosawa’s new-to-me Throne of Blood:
January 6, 2026 at 11:56 PM
Tonight on the Big Screen, Kurosawa’s new-to-me Throne of Blood:
Reposted by ptklein
every fascist intellectual is nothing more than an adolescent pseud with faux gravitas whose output is sophomoric fanfiction the sole purpose of which is to rationalize fascist barbarism
January 6, 2026 at 4:31 PM
every fascist intellectual is nothing more than an adolescent pseud with faux gravitas whose output is sophomoric fanfiction the sole purpose of which is to rationalize fascist barbarism
Reposted by ptklein
