3/10 Considering how long I’d been meaning to watch it, The Neon Demon was a big disappointment. It’s a good example of how a movie can have individual elements to create something special—dazzling cinematography, some decent performances, a cool electronic score by Cliff Martinez—yet fail on the most basic level of telling a coherent story or having characters who act like human beings. The film is directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, who also created the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Mary Laws and Polly Stenham.

It recently came to my attention that not only was there a nudist campground and beach in the Pine Barrens from the 1930s to the 1980s, but it was founded by a Baptist minister who “became the leader of the nudist movement in America,” according to the linked article in the Philly Inquirer (paywall). The ruins remain, on private property, by an owner who hopes to revive it as an RV Park (clothing required, as far as I can tell).

At this point, Betsey Brown is probably known best for her breakthrough lead role in Dasha Nekrasova’s The Scary of Sixty-First, a wild, manic performance that feels just as possessed as the character she is playing. Brown is also known for collaborating with her brother, Peter Vack, who has acted alongside her from a young age as well as directed her in his own directorial debut, Assholes. Now, Brown is making the rounds with her own first feature, the aptly titled Actors that casts her and Vack as themselves engaged in what she calls “a race to depravity”.

Welcome to Born Free Press, a fortnightly newsletter delivering a free-range collection of interesting stories for interested people. Currently focusing on quirks and curiosities from the UK’s history. For anyone who’s lived in London for a while, the sight of men and women dressed in black outfits heavily adorned in buttons is not uncommon – although certainly impressive. As spelled out on their backs, they are the Pearly Kings and Queens of London.

Yi Yi (2000)  Dir. Edward Yang Ranking: #90 (tie) Previous rankings: #119 (2012) Premise: Yi Yi follows various members of the Jian family, middle class residents of Taipei, during a dramatic stretch between a wedding and a funeral. The wedding, which opens the film, is between the reckless, high-spirited A-Di (Chen Hsi-Sheng) and his pregnant bride Xiao-Yan (Shushen Xiao). While returning from a mid-reception trip to McDonalds with his son Yang-Yang (Jonatahn Chang), N.