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Indieweb Movie Club May 2026 announcement: Network (1976)
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Indieweb Movie Club May 2026 announcement: Network (1976)

May 3, 2026

Forgive the delay while I dithered whether to choose "Network" or subject you to a dizzying double-feature of "Resolution" and "The Endless", two little-known indie flicks (which I've only learned just this second were consecutive films from the same director and writer—do I know how to pick them, or what?) about desperate people traveling to remote locations in southern California where the time/space continuum doesn't work as expected.

I have decided to go with "Network", figuring mentioning the other two and leaving you to your own devices would be sufficient.

"Network" is my favorite movie, full stop.

This 1976 movie by Sidney Lumet ("12 Angry Men", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Serpico"), a pitch-black tragicomedy about a media conglomerate capitalizing on the unraveling mental health of one of its news anchors, predicted so many real-life media trends before they happened that it's astounding.…

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The Monster (2016)

Slightly-better-than-it-should be tale of a mother and daughter breaking down on a lonely road and stalked by a monster. There's nothing here the experienced horror fan hasn't seen before—yet, for an assemblage of vaguely familiar horror tropes, it's a skillful assemblage, and the direction makes it stand out beyond what it might have been. Not a great movie by a long shot, but much better than it should be, but it's got a touch slower pacing and a few more character-driven elements than a b-grade horror movie usually does, both always a plus to me. And, pleasantly, it gets better as it goes along—the third act reflects back positively on the first two, as it goes for a slightly more quiet, thoughtful climax than the loud one many other movies of this sort would have gone for, even if it still never strays far from genre cliches.

And even…

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Writing » Topical Writing » Reviews & Criticism
Literally <strike>Hundreds of</strike> Like A Thousand Capsule Movie Reviews
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Review Compendium: Literally Hundreds of Like A Thousand Capsule Movie Reviews

If you don't want to read the introduction you can skip straight down to the reviews.

Introduction

A number of years ago I started jotting down summaries of movies I've watched, just to keep track of what I'd seen. As the years went by, the list grew, and occasionally (but not often) I was moved to write more, until finally I wound up with hundreds of them, mostly very short summaries but occasionally a little more in-depth for movies I particularly liked or loathed. There's a brief section of favorites and honorable mentions, then below that they're indexed by movie title, click a letter to see the titles starting with that letter.

By the way: this list is extremely heavy, although not exclusive, with horror and science fiction films, because that's what I watch most.

A word about my terminology

As I wrote these reviews just for myself, I…

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