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In solidarity with today's ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA blackout, MinnMax is donating $1 to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota for every share of this Bluesky post for the next hour.

Brilliant.

Y’all might not appreciate it, but it took him 87 moves and 14 hours to get here

Merry Christmas from Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet

@mattzollerseitz.bsky.social The local university museum had an exhibit of pulp cover paintings. Fairly certain this is a detail from the Frazetta they had on offer; truly an excellent exhibition.

Unironically, genuinely getting scared by how difficult it is to create a parody of capitalism that isn't immediately outclowned by actual capitalists.

It's too long for Bluesky & I refuse to compromise. So here's a screenshot with the words in the alt-text.

The sweetheart deal was the US was the global leader in technology, medicine, culture, finance and textbook science, winners of the space race and first to build a bomb to compete with the sun, and able to use colleges as soft power. In exchange, no one pretended Megan McArdle was fun at parties.

J. D. VANCE: We need to end DEI. MONKEY’S PAW: (raises one finger)

- A partisan plan to stack the Supreme Court - Ill-fated whistleblowers - Billionaires directing policy - The president directing the FBI not to investigate a scandal that implicates him - “It’s like the Gestapo in there.” - “Fucking P.B.S.” THE PELICAN BRIEF (1993) may as well be THE EPSTEIN FILES.

Just consume one more piece of bad news. A wafer-thin piece of bad news. Go ahead, what could go wrong. It's wafer-thin.

I keep reading the Fandango listing for The Sound of Music’s 60th anniversary screening as The Sound of Music Goth Anniversary like there’s a goth version of the musical I hadn’t heard of and it’s celebrating its anniversary

It’s a terrible bill. It will literally kill people. The most vulnerable among us will suffer as the wealthiest benefit. It’s perverse. I wish there were something I could do. But alas, I am only a U.S. Senator from Alaska whose “no” vote would kill the bill. So I voted yes. You get it.

Four crisp panels.

When Jarvis Cocker covers R.E.M.

@faceyouhate.bsky.social I have a — bear with me — video game recommendation: Immortality. I say it’s a video game; it’s just a virtual editing bay, watching clips of three lost movies. Barry Gifford is a co-screenwriter. It’s an essential entry in a microgenre I know activates us both.

The real enemy of this administration is cosmopolitanism. Whether in Los Angeles or South Africa, multiracial pluralistic democracy is a threat to them because it means their “us or them” model of the world is wrong. So they stir up trouble on purpose and gleefully lie.

Beguiled by this. It’s not even near beer, “just” carbonated water/tea, but with assertive hops presence and legit head. I’ve never done carbonated tea, and the absolute lack of body is a huge headfake when you sip. Flavor is in that same uncanny valley as any canned soda water, but: I’ll buy again.

@mzspress.bsky.social Customer service inquiry -- can you please chat me?

Qualitative difference between bsky and Twitter: There was a murder-suicide on my son’s campus last night. Bsky has news about it but zero results when searching either decedent by name. Twitter has tons of “news” results for either name — many of which lead to “your computer has a virus” scams.

wife: how was guarding the two paths today, honey? guard: [looking away] fine wife: did something happen? guard: [tearing up] no wife: would the other guard tell me something happened?

@jrobertlennon.com I made it to page 60 of HARD GIRLS before I got the joke of the title — very nice.

The BBC has created an alibi for Agatha Christie.

I check the little screen, I check the big screen, I check the watch screen, I check the tablet screen. I check the screen that reminds me of the good times, I check the screen that reminds me of the better times.

Asking the real questions.

Historians: Quibbling Over Exact Definition Of Concentration Camp Sign Of Healthy Society

SHANGHAI BLUES: Pure melodrama, gorgeously restored. Evokes classic Hollywood with its “backlot” vibe, quality gags and clever complications. Walks and talks like a tearjerker but never quite quacks like one — slight miscalibrations in pace and plot (but not performance). #wifilmfest

BREAKING GLASS: Amazingly, the lead in this new wave musical was a competitive gig, who then got to write the songs that define it. Impossible to imagine this Thatcher-era paean to nonconformity without Hazel O’Connor’s songs and galvanic screen presence. #wifilmfest

MOTEL DESTINO: An exercise in why certain story templates work — what knobs can be twisted on POSTMAN? Sympathy for husband? Possibility of throuple? What if wife doesn’t backstab? What if there’s no murder? What if it’s set at a sex hotel? Good & sleazy, but more sleazy than good. #wifilmfest

TWO WOMEN: Sorry to report that 14 years after TAKE THIS WALTZ, Canada’s wife satisfaction problem remains unaddressed; here, two couples struggle to stay the course. Each scene works, but the ending could have reversed polarity with equal credibility, so … does it have credibility? #wifilmfest

THE SHROUDS: Kassel’s dental appointment/bad date twofer at its start acknowledges the movie’s off-putting essence. Despite thinking I was onto its Cronenbergundian wavelengths from the jump, I was unprepared for its reality-shredding conceit. Need to sit on whether it’s deep or trite. #wifilmfest

COCKSUCKER BLUES: Absolutely lives up/down to its reputation — hedonists hoist by their direct cinema petard. Tour tedium punctuated with genuine shocks, assembled in a(n intentionally?) non-illuminating way; muddy sound contributes to its fugue. Stevie Wonder collab is truly ecstatic. #wifilmfest

MILK PUNCH: A lost transmission from the passed-away analog world, set in the Madison I moved to 30 years ago. Three hand-to-mouth non-strivers get 12 hours of wish fulfillment, and two settled suburbanites get unsettled — gentle* comedy, lovingly observed. #wifilmfest (*Give or take the title.)

FLORENCE: Last year I saw a concert by a ‘90s-one-hit-wonder-no-longer-making-new-music. It was truly great, for reasons legitimate and nostalgic. This short doc about such a band ably addresses both reasons, serious about musicians’ gifts and lives, and what lies at the end of 30 years. #wifilmfest

@discountcompost.bsky.social My Tulsa-era grandmother is looking to liquidate some vinyl — more or less what you'd expect, very well kept, for each title eBay prices range from $5 to $30. From your thrifting, is there local appetite for this to justify anything other than putting it on the curb?

🐸🐸🐸🐸🩸

Ed Brubaker @seanphillips.bsky.social — just read HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY and pretty sure it's my favorite of your standalone single volumes. All your gnarliest preoccupations, beautifully wrought, and a proper ending. @thatjacobphillips.bsky.social's work grabbed me from page 1, perfectly realized.

In Violet Lucca's excellent new book on Cronenberg, Viggo Mortensen wrote a wild foreword in which he quotes Armond White discussing Dreyer, drunkenly makes fun of Paul Haggis and finishes up with a lyric from an X song.

Today we published an essay by the late, great film scholar David Bordwell, written for my book on Asteroid City. This is the last work David published prior to his death last year. It is an honor to have him in these pages.

WordleBot!

Trying to leave the hellsite for good — maybe I'll even put up a profile pic.

@danchaon.bsky.social Cosmic coincidences: Last night my bedside stack finally offered up SLEEPWALK; afterward, on social media, I saw a belated birthday appreciation of Jonathan Banks. Realizing I couldn't recall any young Banks performances, I popped in 48 HRS. And who do I encounter? Billy Bear.