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Gypsy with Naomi Watts has been canceled after one season-- I haven't watched it yet, but apparently it ended on a cliffhanger, so whoops there, creators

Teaser trailer for Wormwood, a drama series (though one scene looks like documentary) from Errol Morris about the shady history of the CIA.

Cameron Swift wrote:Teaser trailer for Wormwood, a drama series (though one scene looks like documentary) from Errol Morris about the shady history of the CIA.

It is about evenly split between dramatic recreations and a more traditional documentary style, and it is pretty incredible.

Morris takes the ominous sense of dread and foreboding that he's long been able to conjure with expert overlaying of imagery, sound, and voiceover, and cranks it up until the dial falls off. Infused with psychedelia and paranoia, he investigates the opppressive crush of a single tragedy on a son and his family, and parallels it with the slow-motion, only half-realized moral tragedy the country as a whole has been undergoing for the past 70 years.

Wormwood feels like a culmination and extension of Morris' stylistic concerns, with multitudes of split screens, repetitions, and reexaminations, all in service of a quixotic attempt to reach truths that are both unknowable and tantalizingly close. The recreations are what really separates this from his prior work, and the cinematography and imagery in these sections were stunning, second only to the amazing soundtrack as the standout technical elements of the film.

I was apprehensive about spending the first 5+ hours of Telluride on something that will be probably the most widely available of all the offerings here in a few weeks, but watching it with its creator and subject, all in one sitting, was a unique and powerful experience.

Trailer for Long Shot, a short doc premiering at Telluride.

I'm definitely biased as I'm friends with the creators of this one, but I'm unbelievably proud of them and elated that this is finally being released after 5+ years of arduous work on their part. And good on Netflix for giving an avenue for shorter films like this to be widely seen.

I'm surprised HBO didn't get on this.

Marvel's The Punisher. Maybe one of the best trailers I've seen in a while.

I started rewatching Lady Dynamite and from the very first scene the first episode has been heavily cut and edited. I don't know if they did it to the whole series, but now I don't even feel like watching it to find out. The series is not available on physical media, which makes it worse.

Is this the first case, or has Netflix done this to other series as well?

I just discovered that the 2016 season of Shin'ya Shokudo / Midnight Diner is on Netflix. I found this sort of by accident, because Nobuhiro Yamashita (Linda, Linda, Linda)has directed some of the episodes over the years since this started (2009) -- Joji Matsuoka seems to have directed most episodes, however.. As far as I can tell, none of the earlier seasons are available.

This really is a charming show, very low key -- and featuring lots of cooking of delicious looking food. Seen 4 episodes so far -- and was delighted to see young Korean actress KO Ah-sung (little sister in Host) show up in episode 4. Jo Odagiri seems to show up somewhere (at least briefly) in all the episodes.