Now Playing in an Inbox Near You

It’s alive!

After much planning and workshopping, my new movie review newsletter has officially launched. That might be a confusing sentence to read in an already existing movie newsletter, but there are a few crucial differences. The first is that Movie Brief will be a weekly endeavor rather than an occasional one. The second is that it’s a joint venture between yours truly and Optimism, whose know-how in the email world vastly exceeds my own and gives me great confidence in the project’s future and potential.

Speaking of the future, expect this space to essentially be quiet for the time being. Rather than be oh so sad about that, subscribe to Movie Brief in order to hear from me more often than you do now. You’ll receive a list of my 25 favorite films of all time as well as a weekly recommendation of a new movie to watch — first up is Alien: Romulus, which I obviously loved:

How viewers react to Alien: Romulus will partly depend on how they responded to Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017). Fede Álvarez, late of Don’t Breathe and Evil Dead, ditches the grand ambitions and lore-heavy philosophizing in favor of a return to the industrial, working-class vibe of the first film. This is a good thing. The eponymous creature has been described throughout the series as a “perfect organism,” and while Romulus has its flaws — namely the same overreliance on fan service and callbacks that has come to define franchise fare in recent years — its barebones approach makes for a gritty return to form.

Thanks so much for being part of Film Occasionally, and please be a part of Movie Brief as well. With all the work that went into it before a single email was sent, I’m happy to say that it’s now playing in an inbox near you.