Morad
@aghamorad.bsky.social
Train Dreams reminded me of just how dearly I miss Terrance Malick’s films, but it is more than that. So sublime and simple and beautiful. Sometimes all you need is this kind of simplicity. You and the beauty taken for granted that surrounds you.
boxd.it/c01tDJ
boxd.it/c01tDJ
A ★★★★½ review of Train Dreams (2025)
Maybe its because I watched it in my favorite available movie medium, my beloved Quest 3: as large as a cinema screen you won’t get anywhere in Iran, or the West nowadays I guess since (from what I’ve...
boxd.it
December 10, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Train Dreams reminded me of just how dearly I miss Terrance Malick’s films, but it is more than that. So sublime and simple and beautiful. Sometimes all you need is this kind of simplicity. You and the beauty taken for granted that surrounds you.
boxd.it/c01tDJ
boxd.it/c01tDJ
Another Letterboxd post, because I’ve begun to miss being the movie critic I used to be. (Not that I was any good).
boxd.it/bZw603
boxd.it/bZw603
A ★★ review of Jay Kelly (2025)
How timeless is Wild Strawberries that it gets made and remade and interpreted and reinterpreted decade after decade and yet nothing seems to quite capture its magic? Jay Kelly has charm, because Cloo...
boxd.it
December 10, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Another Letterboxd post, because I’ve begun to miss being the movie critic I used to be. (Not that I was any good).
boxd.it/bZw603
boxd.it/bZw603
Part Two of books I’ve read this year that I highly recommend—especially, especially if you want to fall into an even bigger pit of despair just for the heck of it.
December 9, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Part Two of books I’ve read this year that I highly recommend—especially, especially if you want to fall into an even bigger pit of despair just for the heck of it.
Books I’ve read this year that I highly recommend—especially if you want to fall into a big pit of despair just for the heck of it.
December 9, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Books I’ve read this year that I highly recommend—especially if you want to fall into a big pit of despair just for the heck of it.
Watched again, though relegated to the muck of Letterboxd. I have a proper essay on Panahi’s awful film, but no Western outlet will touch it; they don’t even respond. His warped, think-tank approved politics are clearly protected. “Don’t fuck with the Golden Goose.”
letterboxd.com/aghamorad/fi...
letterboxd.com/aghamorad/fi...
A ★ review of It Was Just an Accident (2025)
Semi-drunk viewing with best friends, dad, and girlfriend. Girlfriend, as usual, peaced and went to sleep early. Dad tried to watch, but instead decided to only half-watch to scroll news about Frank G...
letterboxd.com
December 9, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Watched again, though relegated to the muck of Letterboxd. I have a proper essay on Panahi’s awful film, but no Western outlet will touch it; they don’t even respond. His warped, think-tank approved politics are clearly protected. “Don’t fuck with the Golden Goose.”
letterboxd.com/aghamorad/fi...
letterboxd.com/aghamorad/fi...
Mom and Pishi the Cat.
December 7, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Mom and Pishi the Cat.
This entire chapter in Ohler’s Blitzed reminded me so much of Iran today. The poorer we get and the more isolated, the more drugs and hedonism take the place of everything else. The dance of death.
December 7, 2025 at 3:57 PM
This entire chapter in Ohler’s Blitzed reminded me so much of Iran today. The poorer we get and the more isolated, the more drugs and hedonism take the place of everything else. The dance of death.
Another round of Panahi's impeccable brand of self-mythologizing dressed up for Oscar season.
“It Was Just an Accident” filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who was sentenced to one year in prison in absentia in Iran today, makes an appearance at the 35th Gotham Film Awards in NYC.
Read the full story: https://bit.ly/48MeEEE
📸 Getty Images
Read the full story: https://bit.ly/48MeEEE
📸 Getty Images
December 5, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Another round of Panahi's impeccable brand of self-mythologizing dressed up for Oscar season.
All the art and literature that inspired you being half-CIA psy-op is the most dejecting goddamn realization in the world. We were better off not knowing anything.
December 5, 2025 at 1:34 PM
All the art and literature that inspired you being half-CIA psy-op is the most dejecting goddamn realization in the world. We were better off not knowing anything.
In 1930, Dos Passos began deconstructing the very idea of capitalist America from the bottom-up. A difficult, sometimes downright tiring, but utterly brilliant masterpiece.
December 5, 2025 at 11:44 AM
In 1930, Dos Passos began deconstructing the very idea of capitalist America from the bottom-up. A difficult, sometimes downright tiring, but utterly brilliant masterpiece.
Publishing has changed so much since during my young/idealistic years. Email pitches were responded to; on social media you could find new friends and peers; there was always a chance you might get read. Now, it seems, we just scream into the void, and more often than not, there’s not even an echo.
December 5, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Publishing has changed so much since during my young/idealistic years. Email pitches were responded to; on social media you could find new friends and peers; there was always a chance you might get read. Now, it seems, we just scream into the void, and more often than not, there’s not even an echo.
Didn't expect a Letterboxd rant after Panahi's latest, but here we are. Selling the West a mirror reflecting exactly what they want to see of Iran isn't art; it's artfulness. I appreciate the hustle, but can never appreciate the result and consequences.
t.co/nB3PV1n8Vw
t.co/nB3PV1n8Vw
https://letterboxd.com/aghamorad/film/it-was-just-an-accident/
t.co
November 23, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Didn't expect a Letterboxd rant after Panahi's latest, but here we are. Selling the West a mirror reflecting exactly what they want to see of Iran isn't art; it's artfulness. I appreciate the hustle, but can never appreciate the result and consequences.
t.co/nB3PV1n8Vw
t.co/nB3PV1n8Vw
Joseph Brodsky, from AGNI (Issue 43, 1996).
October 26, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Joseph Brodsky, from AGNI (Issue 43, 1996).
John Dos Passos, from New Masses (1927).
October 25, 2025 at 8:31 PM
John Dos Passos, from New Masses (1927).
Betty White; the treasure she is.
October 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Betty White; the treasure she is.
John Berryman, from His Toy, His Dream, His Rest (1968).
September 29, 2025 at 9:12 AM
John Berryman, from His Toy, His Dream, His Rest (1968).
Thomas Pynchon knew.
September 28, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Thomas Pynchon knew.
The best book I’ve read this year. Structurally, it sets the standard every historian should aspire to. Out of his glut of detail, Caro doesn’t just recount Robert Moses’s rise and fall; he shows what power is and, more importantly, why it grips people.
September 27, 2025 at 10:34 AM
The best book I’ve read this year. Structurally, it sets the standard every historian should aspire to. Out of his glut of detail, Caro doesn’t just recount Robert Moses’s rise and fall; he shows what power is and, more importantly, why it grips people.
Nick Flynn, from Some Ether (2000).
September 27, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Nick Flynn, from Some Ether (2000).
Started the day with Pynchon’s Vineland, ended with Weir’s The Mosquito Coast. Both circle the same truth: you can flee, you can dream up Eden, but the rot comes with you. Read one, watched the other. Now left with the rotten knowledge that every escape builds another trap. That trap is man.
September 26, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Started the day with Pynchon’s Vineland, ended with Weir’s The Mosquito Coast. Both circle the same truth: you can flee, you can dream up Eden, but the rot comes with you. Read one, watched the other. Now left with the rotten knowledge that every escape builds another trap. That trap is man.
