This week’s newsletter is on the remarkable, tragic, Kay Sage: https://open.substack.com/pub/sabinastent/p/tommorow-is-never?r=ceu&utm_medium=ios
Newsletter: Tommorow is Never
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Favourite First Time Watches – January 2025
Four films per month, from any year. If I can be logged on Letterboxd, it is eligible for inclusion.
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)
“You won’t see that in Sight and Sound!”
Being John Smith (John Smith, 2024)
I could have watched another hour of this.
Part of “Being John Smith”.
CONDO hosting Tanya Leighton, Berlin & Los Angeles. On at Kate MacGarry until 15 Feb.
Babygirl (Halina Reijn, 2024)
Sweeter and warmer and funnier than I expected! I’m relieved to see it is indeed part of the “Eyes Wide Shut” universe, and I very much enjoyed Nicole’s loose-fit baby blue cashmere jumper.
A Quiet Place: Day One (Michael Sarnoski, 2024)
Apocalypse priorities: your cat and getting a pizza. I found this surprisingly emotional and profoundly moving – anyone who saw Quinn in “Dickensian” all those years ago knows the power of his tear-filled eyes. And Lupita – dragging her exhausted body from safe place to safe place over the course of the film – is, of course, extraordinary.
You can follow me on Letterboxd here: https://boxd.it/6CT7
Newsletter: Duality
This week’s newsletter is about Frida Kahlo and a certain image from “The Substance”: https://open.substack.com/pub/sabinastent/p/duality?r=ceu&utm_medium=ios
David Lynch
“I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath.”
David Lynch, who passed away mere days ago, would have been 79 day. He’ll eternally be the maestro of the beautiful, the surreal, and the terrifying 💙
Newsletter: Art on Display
My first newsletter for paid subs is up and live! It’s something I wrote a while back – unseen by everyone but a faculty – about Damien Hirst’s For the Love of God (2007), how art is displayed, and how we consume in galleries: https://substack.com/home/post/p-154261863?source=queue&autoPlay=false
Newsletter: New Stars
A newsletter for the new year: https://open.substack.com/pub/sabinastent/p/new-stars?r=ceu&utm_medium=ios
My Top Twenty Films of 2024
Once again, you didn’t ask, and once again, I deliver: my Top 20 Films of 2024 – loosely ranked! – of titles to appear on the UK’s official FDA release schedule from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024. The complete list is also up on my Letterboxd, but here it is for your perusing pleasure (starting with my favourite):
- Red Rooms (“La chambres rouges”), Pascal Plante, 2023.
- Witches, Elizabeth Sankey, 2024.
- Our Body (“Notre corps”), Claire Simon, 2023.
- Dahomey, Mati Diop, 2024.
- The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer, 2023.
- A Different Man, Aaron Schimberg, 2024.
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, George Miller, 2024.
- Close Your Eyes (“Cerrar los ojos”), Victor Erice, 2023.
- Evil Does Not Exist, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, 2023.
- Sing Sing, Greg Kwedar, 2024.
- Hundreds of Beavers, Mike Cheslik, 2022.
- The Beast (“La Bête”), Bertrand Bonello, 2023 [above].
- All We Imagine As Light, Payal Kapadia, 2024.
- Juror #2, Clint Eastwood, 2024.
- Conclave Edward Berger, 2024.
- Monster, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2023.
- Timestalker, Alice Lowe, 2024.
- Monkey Man, Dev Patel, 2024.
- My Old Ass, Megan Park, 2024.
- Trap, M. Night Shyamalan, 2024.
Sabina Stent 