HeyJaredThe Normal Newsletter
My name is Matt Erspamer, and I'm normal. I'm a writer, stinker, and movie lover who lives in Seattle.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
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- Sep 30, 2026
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- Jul 10, 2026
Latest issues
‘Chronovisor’ review: Metaphysical media (opens the original)
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Jack Auen and Kevin Walker’s Chronovisor is one of the most unclassifiable films I’ve seen this year. It’s also one of the strangest and best. This is a film where a real scholar plays a fictional one, and her character’s obsession stands in for the directors’ own. And Chronovisor so successfully blurs the line between truth and fiction, between uncovering a historical conspiracy and succumbing to one, that after finishing it, I felt like buying a corkboard and some string and laying it all out
Reviews: ‘Primetime’ and ‘The Joyless Economy’ (opens the original)
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Primetime"You see how this looks, right?” Robert Pattinson delivers this line in the pitch-perfect used-car-salesman-meets-amateur-detective cadence of To Catch a Predator’s Chris Hansen early on in Primetime. I also thought it to myself several times in the theater, as the movie’s overly saturated, sepia-tinged images got in the way more than they added unique visual luster. But Primetime is still squeamishly propulsive and energetic, with performances to match. The most pleasant surprise of al
‘Resident Evil’ review: Requiem for a scream (opens the original)
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A scream is a terrible thing to waste. Throughout Resident Evil, Austin Abrams gives a delightfully skittish twist to his character, a medical courier named Bryan, that is at war with the shoddy script. Abrams’ spontaneous shrieks, gasps, and general cowering are easily the highlight of Zach Cregger’s take on the legendary survival-horror franchise. The director doesn’t seem to know what he has, because he makes the wrong tonal choices over and over again. Despite a game lead and brief but well-
Short takes: ‘Lust’ and ‘School for Defectors’ (opens the original)
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Before I dive into these reviews, some good news! I am once again covering this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, which kicks off next week on Thursday, Oct. 1. Ahead of the festival, I’ve been able to get some screeners to help guide people toward (or away from) certain films. I’ll also plan to write a preview of what I’m looking forward to for films that aren’t available to screen ahead of time. With that out of the way, here are my first two reviews for this year’s VIFF; one I rea
Stop telling me to get a cat (opens the original)
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I know that I do not want children. I was put on this Earth to hang out, write, and go to the movies. These things fulfill me, and I have no desire to complicate that dynamic. People who know me know this about me. Before anyone could ask when the subject came up, I used to blurt it out. When I was 25, it felt defiant and a bit transgressive; now it feels like second nature. “I’ve never had the desire to raise a kid. Mozzarella sticks for the table?” But the farther I stretch into my 30s, the le
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