thanks to my voraciously reading 5-year-old, I have recently discovered my most lame-dad-coded opinion: the Captain Underpants books are Bad, Actually

Chalk me up as conflicted about IS GOD IS

Not the most revelatory list, since all three are on the Guardian 100, but oh well: The Remains of the Day Middlemarch War and Peace

You will live a much richer and happier life if you embrace the idea that people are not just pretending to have different tastes than you out of spite

the "bespectacled anime character whose mild facade belies his ability to flex his enormous muscles and make his suit explode into shreds" look

I was shown ODD MAN OUT about ten years ago and was flabbergasted that it doesn't receive the same sort of attention and instinctive reverence as other cinephile must-sees. If I'm feeling spicy, I'd pick this over THE THIRD MAN as Carol Reed's best film.

Good morning. I profiled Amy Wallace, the only sibling of David Foster Wallace. I don't think you need to know much about David (or his work) to understand how his sister saw him — and how he loved her.

This hit me so hard this week.

Star Wars got worse when they forgot Leia is supposed to act like she’s from His Girl Friday

Dunno how "hot" of a take this is (it feels pretty self-evident to me), but here goes: The individual who deserves the lion's share of credit for the success of Star Wars is John Williams, and it's not particularly close

Every spring I end up writing a pan and a rave in the same issue for Seeing & Believing. This week's edition is that issue:

Today is Indie Bookstore Day! Be kind to your booksellers today. Otherwise, may you be cursed with your favorite series being printed in varying trim sizes, and may all of your novels at home be magically updated with a book-to-film movie poster cover, with a sticker you can’t pick off.

One of the best things about having kids is they absolutely do not care what you think you’re no good at. Doesn’t matter if you long ago decided you can’t draw. They just want you to draw with them. Maybe you’ll discover you’re a little better than you thought, maybe enjoy it even though you suck.

Soderbergh's two films on Che Guevara are criminally underseen. Most biopics that take the "dramatization of Wikipedia bio" approach are terrible, but Soderbergh (true to form) makes it work. Even more interesting is how the two films work equally well whether viewed in isolation or as a single unit

the procrastinator prepares for a manic burst of “productivity” to spare the ego

For your Sunday morning: two movies I loved about knowing and being known

hell of a thing to witness American brain drain happening in real time

And now the lion's playing drums And the drums are made of dragons And the dragons see the tiger And the tiger turns pink And the lion opens a restaurant And it is very successful And the menu is delicious And the restauraaaaaant Is made entirely of bees

JD Vance, converting to the Catholic Church because he wants to tell people they're doing Christianity wrong: "yes, hahaha, yes!!!" JD Vance, being told by the Catholic Church that he's doing Christianity wrong: "well, this fuckin sucks. what the fuck"

Highly recommend this theatrical experience if at all possible for you. Besides being a typically excellent Herzog doc, it's one of only three films where I found that the 3D measurably enriched the experience. (The other two: GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE and CORALINE)

Trump is running an interesting experiment in how many self-identified Christian Americans have actual religious commitments and how many are just into it because it provides a means for the socially defensible expression of bigotry bsky.app/profile/bria...

I don't remember seeing an image of Earth before that captures the (thin, fragile, tiny layer of) atmosphere so clearly. I mean, look at that.

Muriel Rukeyser, always but especially today. Full text at www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47657/...

I turned up my nose at these books when I was the target demographic, mostly because the basic premise and the cover design were so easy to ridicule. Then as a HS senior I read one during downtime at my book-shelving job at the public library, and uh ... way better than I expected

Adulthood is a hard case to make to someone who's not already bought in. Wondermark #1583; Groan Up

Becoming increasingly clear that employers are having trouble enticing writers to use AI (because it is a clumsy and unethical technology for writing), so many employers are opting for a brute-force approach (by cranking up the workload until AI slop is the only way for writers to keep up).

As it was prophesied by dinosaur comics some 20 years ago, we have finally gone back to the moon, and we did not forget the chicks this time

not a joke, not a drill: we've hired a new film critic! www.avclub.com/film-critic-...

🧵

Bumping my Testament of Ann Lee review now that the movie’s streaming. If you missed it when it was in theaters: welcome. Come join us.

Pope Leo on Palm Sunday: “This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood’ (Is 1:15).”

Colbert is one of the few big-name talents who, in my opinion, actually understands Tolkien's work and ethos (NB: Peter Jackson et al. do *not* understand them), so this news makes me feel a bit like Sam Gamgee watching Frodo succumb to temptation at the Cracks of Doom

Me, emerging from the depths to report that the button over at the publisher for my book has flipped from "preorder" to "buy" It's Becoming Alien (second edition) publication day!

Every picture of ICE agents in airports is just this again

Chuck E. Cheese in 2026 feels like an AI hallucination of itself

Kurosawa on watching Solaris with Tarkovsky

*E.T. theme intensifies*

he's Frodo sailing into the West, and we are all Sam Gamgee

"So long and thanks for all the heat-lamp hot dogs"

Colin Farrell voice: And then I thought, maybe that's what hell is. All eternity, spent in fookin' 2020.

New on our homepage this morning: a valuable, clarifying primer from @julieingersoll.bsky.social on Douglas Wilson, the pastor-theologian who has spent decades building a postliberal empire in Moscow, Idaho. Tolle lege: www.thebulwark.com/p/douglas-wi...

Broke: Star Wars predicted all of this. Woke: Dune predicted all of this. Bespoke: The Silmarillion predicted all of this.

For the lazy Sunday crowd, @dodgyboffin.com has a review of THE BRIDE! Sarah knows her filmic Frankensteins, so listen up: seeingandbelieving.substack.com/p/the-bride?...

Few voices in the culture and media landscape are irreplaceable. MZS is irreplaceable. Not just a clever, cutting, and insightful critic, but a champion of other writers and artists in so many ways big and small. Do yourself a favor: buy from his bookstore. Buy a lot. Read, read, read: mzs.press

very enjoyable diversion here, in case you need one youraislopbores.me

"why did you become a writer" because no one gave a shit about my special interests growing up. now i make them everyone else's problem. next question

As always

A video essay from Kogonada about Richard Linklater and the Before trilogy that never doesn't hit hard, slows down your brain a little, and makes you cry in the good way