Watch List Weekly Recap 1/12/24

Movies, music, and bad awards shows, among other subjects.

Watch List Weekly Recap 1/12/24

This is the Friday recap of Ty Burr’s Watch List postings for the week. If you’d like to cut down on in-box clutter and receive this weekly email ONLY, please go to your account page and under “Email notifications” uncheck every box except “Weekly Digest.” If you’d prefer to not receive it at all, uncheck just “Weekly Digest.”


Did I send this to the Weekly Recap folks yet? I can’t remember. If so, here it is again. Watch this space.

Whither the Watch List in 2024?

Ty Burr • Dec 31, 2023

So you may be wondering what I’m going to do about Substack’s “Nazi problem,” at least as it concerns this newsletter. It’s a good question and I don’t have a definitive answer yet. But I will soon — either shortly before I head off to the Sundance Film Festival in mid-January or shortly after I return — and I’m asking you to bear with me while I research my options...

Read full story →


Awards 🏆

One Good Film, One Dire Awards Show

Ty Burr • Jan 8, 2024

I’m not sure what was more discombobulating about last night’s Golden Globes: The fumes of flop-sweat visibly rising from the evening’s host, an alleged comedian named Jo Koy; the sight of talented actors grimly reading bad comedy bits off a teleprompter; or the striking lack of acceptance-speech nods to politics, strikes, AI, the Middle East, or anything having to do with the world outside the bubble of the Beverly Hilton. ...

Read full story →


Good Movies 📽

Of White Whales and Witch Hunts

Ty Burr • Jan 10, 2024

Ken Russell’s “The Devils” (1971, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐) is one of the great white whales of home video, never released on DVD in this country and available for on-demand streaming only in occasional random blurts — in 2010, it came and went on iTunes in three days. But now the movie can be found on the Criterion Channel as part of a ...

Read full story →


Music 🎸

Playlist Madness: Byrds v. Fairport

Ty Burr • Jan 12, 2024

I’m taking the day off from movies and instead detouring readers down a musical cul-de-sac, with some musings on the egotistical futility of music management followed by a pit fight between two folk rock pioneers.

Read full story →


Comments? Please don’t hesitate to weigh in.

If you enjoyed this edition of Ty Burr’s Watch List, feel free to pass it along to others.

If you’re not a paying subscriber and would like to sign up for additional postings and to join the discussions — or just help underwrite this enterprise, for which the author would be eternally grateful — here’s how.

You can give a paid Watch List gift subscription to your friends —

Or refer friends to the Watch List and get credit for new subscribers. When you use the referral link below, or the “Share” button on any post, you'll:

  • Get a 1 month comp for 3 referrals
  • Get a 3 month comp for 5 referrals
  • Get a 6 month comp for 25 referrals. Simply send the link in a text, email, or share it on social media with friend