Octopus Reading List #1: "Porno Popcorn Buckets"

Here’s a novel idea: a series where I talk about what I’m reading and listening to, like books and film writing and news items and podcasts and what have you. Not always new stuff per se, but stuff that’s generally new to me. The series will generally release every Monday, barring, for example, a holiday (such as yesterday), in which case I will push it to Tuesday. I hope you enjoy.

Here’s what I’m reading and listening to.

• I just got two new books in the mail, and thrillingly, both are by A.S. Hamrah: Last Week in End Times Cinema collects Hamrah’s column of the same name, while Algorithm of the Night is a collection of film writing from the past few years. I’ve just started reading the former; the latter is a follow-up to an all-time favorite of mine, The Earth Dies Streaming. Standout quote from End Times Cinema: “the problem is the audience, who, research doesn’t show, is presumed to have bizarre longings for things like novelty drinks, porno popcorn buckets, party rooms, video game arcades, virtual reality headsets, and ziplines”.
• I’ve also started reading Melissa Anderson’s The Hunger. Anderson is the author of an excellent book on Inland Empire, so I’m excited to read more of Anderson’s work.
• Speaking of Hamrah and Anderson, both were featured on the Los Angeles Review of Books podcast.
• Speaking of LARB, I read an interview with Louise Weard ahead of finally watching Castration Movie.
• I haven’t listened yet, but: God Awful Movies has released an episode on Face/Off. No word on if they are changing their name to God-Damned Awesome Movies.
• David Hudson at Criterion Current has a sizable, though not exhaustive, breakdown of films to expect in 2026. Highlights from Hudson’s piece for me: new films by Quentin Dupieux, Jane Schoenbrun, and Anna Biller. Lowlights for me: Nolan’s The Odyssey (nope) and the Tarantino/Fincher/Pitt collab The Adventures of Cliff Booth (nope nope nope).
• Speaking of Anna Biller, I’m late to this but I had no idea the Love Witch and Viva filmmaker had written a novel. It’s called Bluebeard’s Castle, and while I haven’t started reading it, it’s near the top of my want-to-read list.
• In the first issue of This is Cinématographe, the journal released by Vinegar Syndrome sub-label Cinématographe, Robert Daniels has a piece very accurately titled “Girl 6 is Spike Lee’s Lost Masterpiece”. The whole issue is good, but I love Girl 6, and the film deserves to be un-lost.
• I just now reread Will Tavlin’s n+1 article “Casual Viewing: Why Netflix Looks Like That”, and it’s still worth a read.
• I’m excited for Boots Riley’s film I Love Boosters later this year, as well as his announced adaptation of Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play.
• I’m always a bit baffled by the notion of good or bad movie years, and this article doesn’t convince me I’m wrong to be. Also any argument that includes American Beauty as a positive seems flawed to me.
• I am depressed after reading this article on film studios and merchandising framed around the Marty Supreme Wheaties box. I now have to live with the knowledge that someone has coined the term “kidults”.
• Cinemark is apparently hosting a Bring Your Own Bucket promotion, where you can bring any object and they’ll fill it with popcorn for $5. Can I bring an empty Marty Supreme Wheaties box? Or a porno popcorn bucket?
• Director Béla Tarr, maker of films like The Turin Horse and Damnation, has died. Whatever you do in his honor, do it in a long take.

Let me know in the comments what you’re reading or listening to.