God bless Michael Shannon. '“I’m sure anybody who’s associated with promoting and selling this movie to the world is going to be horrified by everything I’ve said in this interview,” he agrees. “But I don’t really care.”'

THREAD. A collection of photos I have taken of scarecrows I have stumbled across during walks in the British countryside over the last fifteen years.

In a rare case of Substack notes usefulness, I just learned that Sarah Kendzior (author of They Knew and a brilliant writer) got bounced from Bluesky. What the hell? new @sarahkendzior.bsky.social

just want to add, as a side note, that I find the “; &” to be a weirdly inspired punctuation combo. it has more of a musical value than a grammatical one.

I’m on a fun little hot streak of being artistically inspired by completely unexpected things. Such a great feeling.

PARIS, TEXAS. You watch a movie like that and you thank whoever or whatever you usually thank for things for the existence of movies.

The Rehearsal : autism :: The Chair Company : ADHD

"Like an ancient cyborg culling through the ruins of a post-apocalyptic planet (twitter, derogatory), Joyce Carol Oates recently fired her full-power death ray at aspiring trillionaire Elon Musk."

PARIS, TEXAS. You watch a movie like that and you thank whoever or whatever you usually thank for things for the existence of movies.

The Rehearsal : autism :: The Chair Company : ADHD

I’m stress-buying cheap used art books. It’s not the best response, but it’s certainly not the worst.

mamdani is going to impose mississippi masala law. everyone will have to watch his mother's movies and realize how much we've undervalued her at the expense of white female filmmakers who fit more easily into our understanding of "feminist cinema" or whatever.

agreeing to make a terrible deal while your main opponent is quite literally being boo'd on live tv by an entire stadium of people is the kind of political instinct you'd normally only find in a 3 week old dead goldfish

Democrats, coming off a historic national protest against fascism and a country-wide electoral sweep:

I’ve never been afraid of flying, but I really don’t know if I’ll ever get on another airplane again.

Yeah :D

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death. Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written." Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating. 🧪🧬🧫

right?

I havent read such a banger of an essay in a very long time. This is so well-written!

I love these movies so much.

Not-quite-sober Tubi nights will convince you of all kinds of things. “I should write a book about this,” for instance.

The rumors are true.

It’s hard to believe but there was a cartoon about an immigrant mouse and it was seen as totally fine and not controversial and not woke because it was an aspirational and nice thing about America that people could come here and find a better life

here is my story about how Zohran's focus on community amid the loneliness epidemic helped young people connect their politics to an organizing infrastructure, that interviewed ZM, and does not use the NYT's framing of "they don't know how to make friends" :-) and also ran 4 days before NYT's lol

Them: Zohran is a socialist (extremely derogatory) Zohran: Eugene Debs motherfuckers

This is incredibly important: we must frame tonight as a resounding victory — an electoral landslide, a mandate from the universe itself and as a repudiation of MAGA, of Trump, and of vichy democrats we must be relentless, we must not shut up

[bursts in door] never forget that Dick Van Dyke once got rescued by porpoises after he drifted out to sea on a surfboard

I find baking competition shows very soothing, and one of the contestants on the season I just started is a British woman who owns a bakery in Texas and is an ordained minister AND a licensed private eye. We don’t need Jared Leto movies, we need a TV show about her.

If you are a cis woman who has experienced even one day of menopause and you don’t show total solidarity with the trans community, I will personally show up on your doorstep to kick you in the shins and hide your gender-affirming meds.

I want to be extremely fucking clear that you don’t get world-class writing and reporting on marginalized communities without HIRING MEMBERS OF THOSE COMMUNITIES TO DO IT

No better way to hear this news, 10/10 experience

Yesterday was my dad’s birthday, the fifth(!!) since he died and the first since my mom died. I’ve been cuddling with my cats and watching movies he loved. It’s helping. I hope y’all can find at least one small moment of joy today. Please tell your loved ones how much they mean to you.

One of the few remaining reliable sources of commentary on the state of American politics has been destroyed.

I want to see Rachel McAdams in an Elaine May movie.

Good morning, gang! For @nytimes.com, I had the immense honor of writing about the legacies of Drew Struzan and Renato Casaro, and how their near-simultaneous passings mark the end of an era for movie poster art. Gift link, no paywall: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/m...

Happy Halloween, kids! 🎃

Rewatched THE EXORCIST and it confirmed my boy Friedkin as the current record holder for the director who most frequently makes me throw my hands up in mock exasperation as I marvel at yet another shot where he’s just fucking reveling in being a virtuoso. Gtfo with that brilliant eye, come on.

People ask if I have any horror movie recommendations and I'm like yeah I recommend you watch horror movies every day

Black and white CinemaScope is the best CinemaScope.

Time to touch some literal grass. I’m repotting all my indoor plants today and I’ve been looking forward to it all week, which is how you know I’m officially middle-aged.

This song, and this performance in particular, always makes me cry for slightly different reasons each time. The pure, unbridled joy of making and sharing and giving yourself over to art that matters to you — art made by brilliant, messy, weird, striving humans — my God, what could be better?

The process is the fun part.

It’s fascinating how much home video shaped my experiences with movies. Because of the way Disney released it, I’ve seen the second half of this film countless times and the first half exactly once.

I had a very stressful day, so I’m having a nostalgic Halloween evening.

The only truly ethical response that a self-described artist can make. Anything else is a betrayal of one's colleagues.

I was far too old for Blue’s Clues and thus have no problem with my massive crush on this man, which has only increased after seeing this video.