Reel Talk #12 w special guests Fatboi Sharif and Child Actor is going down on Saturday, July 25th at Loudmouth in Brooklyn. We’ll be screening David Lynch’s 1977 directorial debut Eraserhead, followed by an interview and audience Q&A revolving around it and the duo's great new album Crayola Circles, out now via Backwoodz Studioz. Doors open at 6PM, film starts at 7PM. Tickets are $15 online via Posh (or you can pay me directly via Cash App, Zelle, Venmo, or Apple Pay if you know me like that) and $20 the day of, at the door. Sharif and Child Actor will also have merch for sale, so come ready to support the artists. Reel Talk operates on sliding scale admission, which means this event is pay what you can. I want these movie nights to be accessible to everyone, but please pay what you’re able. If you're in the tri-state, hope to see y'all there!

My guest this week is Chicago-based video game developer, activist, founder of NuChallenger, and creator and director of beat-em-up game Treachery In Beatdown City, and its recent sequel, Beatdown City Survivors, Shawn Alexander Allen. We spoke about Sinners, I Love Boosters, Tim Burton’s Batman movies, video game movies taking themselves too seriously, a brief history of their time working at Rockstar Games, founding NuChallenger, incorporating rap culture into video games, and the process behind incorporating Backwoodz Studioz rappers into Beatdown City Survivors, available now on Steam and Game Pass. Come fuck with us.

Beatdown City Survivors is available on Steam and Xbox Game Pass. Follow Shawn on Instagram and Twitter: @shawndoublea. Follow NuChallenger on Instagram (@nuchallengerinc) and Twitter (@nuchallenger) and check out their website to keep up with all things NC.

Reel Notes stands in solidarity with American immigrants against ICE and the oppressed peoples of Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Tigray, and Haiti. Please consider donating to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, The Palestinian Youth Movement, The Zakat Foundation, HealAfrica, FreeTigray, and/or Hope For Haiti. Protest, fight back, and fuck the system.

My first book, Reel Notes: Culture Writing on the Margins of Music and Movies, is available now, via 4 PM Publishing. Order a digital copy on Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram (@cinemasai), Twitter (@CineMasai_), TikTok (@cinemasai), Letterboxd (@CineMasai), and subscribe to my weekly Nu Musique Friday newsletter to stay tapped in to all things Dylan Green. Follow Hearing Things at hearingthings.co or @hearingthingsco on all social platforms.