R. Emmet Sweeney Speaks + New Writing About Miyazaki and McQueen
Genre delights + The Boy and the Heron + Occupied City
Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,
It’s good to take a little break from the summary judgments of the year in movies, when it can sometimes feel like we’re cataloguing the year’s contents for storage so the next year can begin.
So on the latest episode of The Last Thing I Saw, I welcome back Blu-ray producer Rob Sweeney to talk about whatever he happened to be watching recently. He takes us down some cool alleyways in genre film but kicks things off with his most memorable film experience of 2023.
I’m also sharing two pieces of recent writing, which involved talking with a close collaborator of Hayao Miyazaki and with filmmaker Steve McQueen.
So this mailing might be the final one from me for this calendar year, but really who knows for sure what this affable loon will get up to next.
Thanks, dear supporters of The Last Thing I Saw!
Nic
THE PODCAST
R. Emmet Sweeney on Two by Twohy, Cannibal Corpse, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, Locked In
R. Emmet Sweeney is a DVD/Blu-ray producer for Kino Lorber and an “occasional film critic.”
Episodes of The Last Thing I Saw are also available at other podcast places such as Spotify.
RECENT WORK
For the release of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, I spoke with Studio Ghibli’s animation director on the film, Takeshi Honda, about their process and what defines Miyazaki’s style.
For my latest Air Mail piece, I interviewed Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and Bianca Stigter (Three Minutes: A Lengthening) about their panoramic film on Amsterdam during the Holocaust, surveying history while showing locations in the city today.
And since everybody shared such terrific list, once is not enough to share Screen Slate’s 2023 year-end Favorite First Viewings feature—now with entries from Jim Jarmusch and Sean Baker.
THIS CRITIC’S PICKS
Streaming selections.
Clockwatchers (Criterion) Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow
The Beasts (MUBI) Neighbors! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You Are Not I (Criterion) Sara Driver directs
Locked In (TUBI)
Asteroid City (Amazon Prime) It is, funnily enough, in fact good
Black Girl (Criterion) Good Sembene selection now playing
THE END
Here I may end with a song. “I keep in shape and do my physical fitness.”
ABOUT ME
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw! I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. Feel free to get in touch re: writing, editing, moderating, programming, podcasting, etc. by writing me at nicolas.rapold[at]gmail.com
Besides hosting the podcast, I’m a writer and an editor. My features, interviews, festival reports, and reviews are published in The New York Times, Screen Slate, Sight & Sound, Filmmaker, Air Mail, The Los Angeles Times, and W Magazine. (Plus dearly departed publications such as The Village Voice, Stop Smiling, The New York Sun, and The L Magazine.) For notes on my superfun programming experience, drop me a line.
On the editorial side, I worked as editor-in-chief of Film Comment magazine, where I was for 15 years in all. I assigned and edited both web and print, hosted The Film Comment Podcast and Talks, curated and hosted Film Comment Selects screenings, learned from brilliant writers, and wrote a lot, including interviews with Spike Lee, Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Pedro Costa, and Frederick Wiseman. Film Comment received the Film Heritage Award from the National Society of Film Critics.