$TeVe MaCfArLaNe (℠)

Thanks everyone who came out to MoMA over the past weeks for our Tarsem retrospective. Apparently we had 2,500+ audience members across 14 screenings, most of which had intros or Q+As (planned and otherwise.)  Tarsem was a dream to work with: hilarious, endlessly resourceful, generous, patient, kind, flexible, and (especially for such an A-lister) just astonishingly unpretentious. Chaotic good, the total opposite of a diva. A self-described "prostitute in love with his work."  It was a huge honor to organize his first-ever monographic retrospective; I hope North American distribution is forthcoming for his most recent feature 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘑𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪, a surprising departure made nevertheless with Tarsem's signature visual pizazz (yet somehow never in a distracting way.)

Happy May Day and all strength to the workers. This month at @spectaclenyc , you'll have four chances to watch Pennsylvania filmmaker Tony Buba's masterpiece 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘬: 𝘈 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘣𝘰𝘸𝘭 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘺 (1988), one of the greatest (and funniest) documentaries ever made about the decline of American labor; Tony will be doing Q+As on May 15 and May 19. On my blog, I've republished a feature about Tony's life and work I originally wrote in 2018 for a website that no longer exists; link in bio.

In Kaizō Hayashi’s first English language interview with Steve Macfarlane from our Spring 2026 issue, the celebrated Japanese director discusses his recently restored “Maiku Hama” trilogy, originally released in the 1990s, that pays homage to 1950s detective films. Hayashi tells Macfarlane about being a licensed private detective and the fashion trend his films inspired. For our Spring issue launch, we have partnered with Metrograph to host a screening of Hayashi’s “The Most Terrible Time in My Life” (1993) with an extended introduction by Macfarlane and a reception celebrating our Spring 2026 issue afterward on Sunday, March 29. BOMB Members can activate a free, thirty-day Metrograph Membership, giving you discounted tickets to this screening and others. Find out more on your My Benefits page or subscribe and join today. Members receive immediate access to our Spring issue in print and online. Follow our link in bio to read Hayashi and Macfarlane’s full conversation. Video: Kaizō Hayashi, “The Most Terrible Time in My Life” (1993), courtesy of Kani Releasing.

@bradneely is coming to New York! See him on FRIDAY MARCH 27TH at @wordbookstores in conversation with @dimension______tide And on Saturday at @soi128 MoCCA Arts Fest!

friday march 27, 7pm at WORD (Greenpoint), i'll be joining Brad Neely for a reading, discussion, and signing of 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙘𝙨. New from NYRC, 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙘𝙨 collects Neely's webcomics—inventive mashups of historical figures, fairy tales, wildlife, and absurd gag setups, making for some eye-blasting and truly laugh-out-loud cartoons. Beginning at the dawn of the new millennium, the animator Brad Neely materialized as one of the funnier voices on the internet. Youtube hits like the foul-mouthed George Washington, his demented audiobook retelling of Harry Potter in Wizard People, Dear Reader, and the alarmingly prescient Adult Swim TV show China, IL (starring the voices of both Greta Gerwig and Hulk Hogan), all reveal how Neely captured a kind of freewheeling online spirit that is fading fast. During this ascent, Neely was also quietly mastering another form, the webcomic, where he spliced together historical figures, fairy tales, wildlife, and absurd gag setups into truly laugh-out-loud cartoons: hungry bridge trolls ready to devour local “chappies”; Caesar’s real killer (Jeffrey); the Boo-Boo Maker; limousine werewolves; superheroes trying and failing to rescue Christ; and more eye-blasting thrills. Gathered here for the first time along with Neely’s reflections about his work, 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙘𝙨 is a portal into a truly individual creative mind, and a snapshot of some of the best days for webcomics. BRAD NEELY is a writer and comic artist best known for his underground Harry Potter spoof, Wizard People, Dear Reader; his work on television series such as China, IL; and his webcomic series, Creased Comics. His first novel, You, Me, and Ulysses S. Grant, was published in 2024.

"Dreams are such strange phenomena— how we can see our dream world and also see reality. I used to write my dreams down, but they fade as soon as you open your eyes, so I gave up on that a long time ago. It’s hard to say if they’re references for my creative work, but I am encouraged as a filmmaker by my capacity to dream. The fact that I still can dream tells me that I can still make films. Some of those dreams might influence my work, and films are like dreams in and of themselves. The more that a film is like a dream, the more successful it is as a work of art." 💣 NOW AVAILABLE AT NEWSSTANDS EVERYWHERE 💣 the Spring 2026 issue of @bombmag is here, and one of the artist conversations listed on the cover is my talk with Japanese writer-director Hayashi Kaizō. This is Hayashi-san's first ever interview published in English, focusing primarily on his 1990s trilogy of films that reimagine Mickey Spillane's pulp detective antihero Mike Hammer as the bumbling "Maiku Hama", played by Masatoshi Nagase. I first screened the trilogy, which consists of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 (我が人生最悪の時, 1993), 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘵 (遥かな時代の階段を, 1995) and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘱 (罠, 1996) at Spectacle a long time ago; since then they have been gloriously restored and are now available in 4K via @kani.releasing , and all three will play Metrograph this month. link to order in bio; the intv is PRINT ONLY for now but will go online in June*; catch me at the BOMB issue launch March 29 at Metrograph, where I will introduce a screening of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦. very happy with how this turned out - huge thanks to BOMB Managing Editor Tyler Considine for shepherding it thru, and @uchi.yama for her tireless work as interpreter. * i am also happy to send a PDF for the unemployed/underpaid

Join us on Sunday, March 29 at 5:30 PM at Metrograph to celebrate our Spring 2026 issue! BOMB and Metrograph present a special screening of celebrated Japanese director Kaizō Hayashi’s “The Most Terrible Time in My Life” (1993)—an homage to gangster and detective films of the 1950s. The screening will open with an extended introduction by BOMB contributing editor Steve Macfarlane, who interviews Hayashi in our spring issue. After the 5:30 PM film screening, join us for a reception in the Metrograph lobby to celebrate BOMB’s Spring 2026 issue. First drink is on us! Our launch is open to the public, but BOMB Members can take advantage of an exclusive offer for discounted tickets by signing up for a free month of Metrograph’s Membership program. Follow our link in bio for more information about this event, to subscribe and join to BOMB, and to purchase your tickets. Image credit: Masatoshi Nagase as Maiku Hama in Kaizō Hayashi’s “The Most Terrible Time in My Life,” 1993. Courtesy of Kani Releasing.

Saying goodbye to my friend AJ Tigner, who died yesterday in Seattle. Since last fall, AJ and I had been working pretty intensively on a new screenplay, because we had wasted too much time and I still "owed him" a better movie than the last one we made together (IYKYK...) He and I had never lost touch over the preceding 20 years, but to be suddenly trading script ideas, jokes and inspirations on a daily basis felt right - overdue - like we were teenagers again. In the best way. AJ was also aggressive in keeping me on-task, which I think we all know is essentially impossible. I took this photo (35mm, tres hipster) in our sophomore year of high school. From the very early days I knew he and I would collaborate on something great and he would be the reason it was great. Time flies—or to cite another cliché (which AJ would get tattooed in later years), "𝕾𝖔𝖑𝖆𝖒𝖊𝖓 𝖒𝖎𝖘𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖘 𝖘𝖔𝖈𝖎𝖔𝖘 𝖍𝖆𝖇𝖚𝖎𝖘𝖘𝖊 𝖉𝖔𝖑𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖘..." 💔

𝗧𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗺 Apr 24–May 3, 2026 Nearly a decade after making a big small-screen splash with the video for R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” (which took home a whopping six MTV Music Video Awards), Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, best known by the mononym Tarsem, took the film scene by storm with his 2000 feature debut 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘦𝘭𝘭, an insinuating, operatic serial-killer thriller starring Jennifer Lopez and Vincent D’Onofrio that heralded the arrival of a major new auteur. Next came 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭 (2006), a sweeping, romantic fantasy-drama set in 1910s Hollywood, developed (and self-financed) by Tarsem over a 16-year period. Dreamlike, terrifying, and made almost entirely without the use of CGI, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭 (which listed David Fincher and Spike Jonze among its producers) immediately acquired cult-film infamy. Tarsem’s subsequent takes on the sword-and-sandal epic (2011’s 𝘐𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘴) and the tale of Snow White (2012’s 𝘔𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘔𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳) revealed a mischievous attitude toward well-trodden mythologies, while expanding his signature talent for jaw-dropping widescreen visuals, aided immensely by his long-standing collaboration with celebrated costume designer Ekio Ishikawa. This first-ever retrospective of Tarsem’s work includes his six feature films, culminating in the United States premiere of 2023’s 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘑𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪—a passion project for Tarsem, and his first Punjabi-language film. He will be at MoMA to present these features alongside a selection of the music videos and commercials—including “Losing My Religion” and the 2004 “We Will Rock You” Pepsi ad starring Beyoncé, Pink, and Britney Spears—that cemented Tarsem’s reputation as one of the most idiosyncratic stylists working in moving images. Organized by Dave Kehr, Curator, and Steve Macfarlane, Department Assistant, Department of Film.

🍿✍️🗯️ 𝙉𝙀𝙒 𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙄𝘾 🗯️✍️🍿 tonight the Cashiers du Cinema geniuses (@fathers_puka_shells.exe and @david_crdza ) kick off a fabulous series at @bamfilmbrooklyn , featuring different tales of the agony and the ecstasy of being a cinema worker. in conjunction, they've got a piping-hot new zine, to which I've contributed a two-page confessional mini-comic about Guiseppe Tornatore's 𝑪𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒎𝒂 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒐 (a movie I hate!) and growing up during the heyday of Blockbuster/Hollywood VHS rentals. Here's a small taste - but the only way to grip the whole thing is IN PERSON at BAM. See you at the movies + THEY SAVED BIDEN'S BRAIN coming soon!

for @screenslate i wrote about some films by Amos Poe, the originator of "No Wave Cinema" (if not NYC independent cinema at large) and someone I considered a friend, who died on Christmas Day 2025 after a long struggle with cancer. "Amos Poe and No Wave Cinema" runs thru January 25 at @metrograph ; link in bio

Installation photos from “El presente es el futuro: The Videos of Sarah Minter”, Curated by Emiliano Rocha Minter and Fernando Llanos with Steve Macfarlane. Open through Dec. 14 at @variousartistsnyc 19 Essex St., NYC @el_llanos @dimension______tide @zenithfoundation @garret.linn.benitez