Sarah Welch-Larson

@dodgyboffin.com

4252 Followers 562 Following

Tenderhearted sicko. CFCA member. I write about movies, feminism, theology, and sad men in space for Bright Wall/Dark Room and Seeing & Believing. The second edition of my book Becoming Alien is available now. dodgyboffin.com

Letterboxd last four watched: The Invite (2026), Possession (1981), The Odyssey (2026), and Mārama (2025)
An image of Edward James Olmos as Admiral William Adama in the Battlestar Galactica reboot. For the love of God, don’t network your sensitive systems and never give the robots your password
Sam Neill as executive officer Vasily in The Hunt for Red October. He’s in a black naval uniform, the camera is looking up at him from a severe angle from the floor, and he has a guarded but intense look on his face. This isn’t the role most people think of when they think of Sam Neill, but it was my introduction to him and I love this performance.
A text message exchange. Two texts from me: “There’s a guy in here in a red shirt, overalls, a mustache, and a camo baseball hat” “Ohio Mario” Followed by a text from my husband: “MariOH”
Sarah and her husband Josh, squatting with their hands pressed together and looking straight at the camera, which is resting on the ground. Behind the two is a giant metal bulb covered in rust and graffiti. It’s maybe thirty feet high? It looks bizarre, definitely a relic of the atomic age.
A Letterboxd grid. In order: Division (2026, James Paul Dallas, short) Forastera (Lucía Aleñar Iglesias) Revelations of Divine Love (Caroline Golum) Cuidadoras (Martina Matzkin and Gabriela Uassouf) Tropical Park (Hansel Porras Garcia) The Christophers (Steven Soderbergh) Blue Heron (Sophy Romvari) The Death of Robin Hood (Michael Sarnoski) Remake (Ross McElwee) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Nia DaCosta) Aanikoobijigan (Adam and Zack Khalil) EPiC: Wlvis Presley in Concert (Baz Luhrmann) Hokum (Damian McCarthy) The Drama (Kristoffer Borgli) Pillion (Harry Lighton) Disclosure Day (Steven Spielberg)
A framed painting of a xenomorph in watercolor and gouache, deep blue and black, all teeth and smooth alien lines.
A residential street, flooded well past the sidewalks on both sides. You can’t see the curbs because the water is too deep.
A cereal bowl full of autumn gold raspberries, held in front of a green garden full of lush plants. Seriously, there’s a full pint of berries in that bowl
A PSA at the back of a trade paperback book. The headline says “REMEMBER IT DOESN’T GROW ON TREES” above an illustration of a tree branch with three back teardrops labeled “OIL” coming off the branch. Under the illustration is another line that says “Energy conservation—it’s your chance to save America.” The PSA is credited to the Department of Energy, USA, and Ballantine Books
Bryan Cranston as Walter White and Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman in a promo image for Breaking Bad. They’re both in white Tyvek suits with gas masks on their heads, seated in camping chairs in the middle of the desert
Skeletor meme that says “I am fully focused and present”
A still from James Cameron’s Aliens. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is examining a pulse rifle, her shoulder up against the chest of Hicks (Michael Biehn), who’s been showing her how to use it in this scene. They’re both covered in sweat and you can tell that they respect and trust each other—there’s an easiness to how close she is to him. He’s wearing combat armor but she doesn’t think of him as a threat. The screenshot doesn’t show it but they flirt a little in this scene despite the fact that they’re unlikely to get out of their situation alive, and I think that’s both hot and neat.
A brown brindle dog curled up on a couch between an open laptop and an open notebook. I got up like 30 seconds ago and she’s already stolen my seat.
A brown brindle dog loosely curled up on a pillow on a couch. Her front paws are tucked up under her chin and one of her back paws is stretched out to meet her front paws. Her eyes are closed and she’s snoozing.
Bo Burnham seated at a keyboard, wearing sunglasses and bathed in blue light, laughing maniacally
A slew of tarot cards arranged to spell the words “DUMP HIM” in big block letters
Scene from Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker in which three men sit back to back in an empty room. It’s raining on them, though they’re indoors.
Jesse Pinkman in s2e5 of Breaking Bad. He’s crying on the phone and wearing a buckwild Volcom Stone hoodie covered in skulls and illuminati pyramids
A Benjamin Britten rose blossom, half cupped, with the yellow inside just peeking out of a screaming bright pink flower
A round flower vase, painted soft teal and brown, with a cave painting horse inspired by the horses of Lascaux on it. The vase has a trio of apricot-colored roses in it
A pair of Hopewell Little Buddy lager cans, eight ounces each
A Star Trek title generator card with the title “What yonder soul doth go hence, a brother???”
Letterboxd last four watched: Taxi Driver (four stars), the original Backrooms YouTube short (three and a half stars), Revelations of Divine Love (five stars), and I Love Boosters (four stars)
A Lady of Shallot rose blossom. The flower is a peachy orange shade that glows bright against green foliage
One bottle of ketchup, one bottle of relish, one bottle of gochujang, and four different bottles of mustard
Cat head bobbing gif
The characters from Spider magazine. Spider (a fuzzy little bug eyed spider), Sonya (a dragonfly), Sam (an orange caterpillar), Miro (a mushroom), Ophelia (a praying mantis), and Thistle (a flea, I think). They’re all hand drawn with ink and colored with watercolors
Three massive magenta peonies in a mason jar
A mason jar with three magenta peony blossoms in it
A neon pink peony beginning to unfurl, revealing yellow stamens at its center
Tim Robinson as the motorcycle alien from I Think You Should Leave, grasping his head and gaping in awe at something offscreen
An ad in The Onion for AMC Theaters. The tagline reads “eat a bucket of corn in the dark”
A newly planted peach sapling in the morning light. It’s roughly five feet tall and slender and its branches are covered in joyful looking thin green leaves
A page from Trigun Maximum #63. Wolfwood and Vash sit on a sofa out in the open air, drinking liquor together. Wolfwood’s in bad shape, having just barely scraped his way out of a fight that lasted a good half-dozen issues at least.
Illustration by Tony Stella: Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley asleep in a cracked-open cryosleep pod.
The Burger King logo, but instead it says the Culver's motto: "A better pound of beef makes a butter burger better."
Burger King logo but make it Loss
Julianne Moore on the red carpet at the Met Gala in a long black dress, one strap falling off her left shoulder in an homage to Sargent’s portrait of Madame X. She’s wearing her hair in an updo with a red lip and a feather-trimmed shawl, and overall the look is very safe for the Met Gala, but at least it looks good.
Sarah dressed as Vash the Stampede: blonde spiky wig, round orange sunglasses, long red overcoat. She’s making a finger gun at the camera
Letterboxd last four watched: Trigun (1998), Mother Mary, The Devil Wears Prada 2, and The Devil Wears Prada. All four posters feature the color red
Panels from Trigun Maximum #43. Wolfwood shoots a rubber band at Vash.
Facebook post from Doc Films at the University of Chicago: Due to distributor issues, REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE (Caroline Golum, 2025) will now screen Sunday, May 24 at 2PM. Please note that our originally scheduled screening on Sunday, Apr. 26 has been cancelled. Based on the first surviving example of a book written in English by a woman, this film is adapted from the memoir of 14th-century mystic Julian of Norwich. In this crowdfunded movie, director Caroline Golum explores themes of love, religious ecstasy, and revolt, resulting in a period piece that imagines the life of a woman we know almost nothing about.
Two-page splash page from Trigun Maximum. Wolfwood and Vash are fighting back to back. There’s rocks and debris and sound effects flying everywhere.
A splash page from the opening of Trigun Maximum #35. Nicholas D Wolfwood is seated on top of a barrel, one leg drawn up near his thigh. As always, he’s wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette and looking cool as hell.
A Facebook notification that reads “Your camera just got smarter. The new Meta Al app understands and interprets your photos.”
Rhubarb crisp in a bowl with a little vanilla ice cream
The inside of a McNuggets box advertising “the Huntrix Meal,” along with a note that says “tell the Saja Boys Huntrix don’t miss” along with the demon hunters’ signatures
Oreos with Marvel branding on the package. They’re called “Stuf of Doom: A Twist of Power”
A metric ton of green rhubarb in a sink waiting to be washed
Three books: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, and Alien Phenomenology Or What It’s Like To Be A Thing by Ian Bogost
A panel from Trigun Maximum. Vash and Wolfwood trudge through the desert, dying of thirst, wacky grins on their faces
Vash the Stampede from the Trigun 98 opening credits, about to fire a gun
A page from Trigun Maximum. Wolfwood drives a motorcycle across the desert, his cross slung across the back of the bike. Vash is seated happily in a sidecar. He’s eating donuts.
A panel from Trigun Maximum in which the upper floor of a hotel explodes. Down on the street, a background character who kinda looks like Beaker from the Muppets stands in shock, his eyes bugging out
A lithops plant in a small pot and half a dozen packets of seeds
A box full of books: Becoming Alien by Sarah Welch-Larson
SARAH WELCH-LARSON Foreword by Matt Zoller Seitz BECOMING ALIEN SECOND EDITION The Beginning and End of Evil in Science Fiction's Most Idiosyncratic Film Franchise On the cover there are two dippy bird toys drinking from a class.
clean slate @PleaseBeGneiss Me: *pulling clothes out of the dryer* everything seems dry One balled up sock: lawd l am dewy
Endorsements on the back of the book: "Sarah Welch-Larson is an exhilarating writer-thoughtful. playful, pointed, informed-and these sharp close-reads of the Alien films accomplish the impossible: they unity a seemingly tonally and thematically disparate group of movies, and have something new and vital to say about one of the most discussed franchises in modern cinema." -JASON BAILEY, author of Gandolfini: m, Tory, ard the Life of a Legend With Becoming Alien, Sarah Welch-Larson has crafted a compelling and enlightening study of the Alien franchise, rich with detail and acuity. Welch-Larsons skillful prose weaves together criticism with a deeply human and personal perspective, and in doing so weaves together the fractured films themselves. You'll want to savor every page of Becoming Alien's profound insights as it encourages and challenges you to think more deeply yourself. -CARRIE COUROGEN, author of Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood's Hidden Genius "As they've evolved, the Alien films have helped us think about the human desire for progress and profit at the expense of others in ways that reflect our reality. In her second edition of Becoming Alien, Sarah Welch-Larson continues her exploration of these themes in ways that movie fans, theology enthusiasts, and anyone who appreciates smart culture writing will find enlightening—and maybe even a little frightening. —ABBY OLCESE, author of Films for All Seasons SARAH WELCH-LARSON is a film critic interested in feminist theory and theology, sad men in space, and stories about agency, creation, and androids. She lives in Chicago with her husband, their dog, and about two dozen houseplants.