This year started, middled, and ended pretty low for me, and I’m a pretty sunny and power-through person who generally ends up propping up everyone else. But here are some things that I am grateful for.

Perhaps you would like to hear me and the objectively hilarious @joshgondelman.bsky.social and @samthielman.com talk about it back in the depths of pandemic-induced delirium. Well! You’re in luck! I think (if this link works.) open.substack.com/pub/yammpod/...

Some of you have never seen one of the most successful independent movies of all time (God’s Not Dead) and it shows

Having actually been to this Andrew Peterson concert many years ago (which is lovely), this is hysterical

The movies have been so rank the last couple of years that when I see people lining up to buy tickets I sometimes think that the movies aren’t drawing an audience—they’re inheriting an audience. People just want to go to a movie. (1980)

When I left the premiere I did say, well, I appreciate that Rian made all these upstate Catholics basically Southern Baptists. On the other hand, I know a lot of trads (mostly converts) who sound like this, so maybe it’s just 2025

I cannot believe how bummed out I am by Cafe Gitane closing

He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

I was talking about this the other night with some friends. It scares me

In 2023 I became obsessed with videos of dads in cargo shortswaiting in parking lots during Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. So when she came to town, I grabbed a camera and headed down to talk to them. I thought it'd be funny. It turned out to be something else entirely.

And to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die. He was unable to. He still walks among us, cursed to remember in a world where everyone has forgotten. He’s out there now, just beyond the light your lantern throws,

my family has changed Xmas Eve/Day dinner plans at least 3 times over the past 10 days, with many menu permutations, and despite my repeated, urgent pleas to just let me know what’s happening when I get there and the info becomes actionable I have been kept abreast of every. single. development

Okay, so my husband nonchalantly mentioned “book nooks” to me a couple weeks ago and I was like, what? And he was baffled that they hadn’t been advertised relentlessly to me on my various feeds, as they were on his. Frankly, I am too? Seems like a failure of algorithming

So few reviews of MARTY SUPREME engage with what I thought was the whole entire point of the film that I’m going to be very curious to see what gets written after people start seeing it

If you saw the cut feature on Rama Duwaji and are tempted to go cut your hair immediately, consider this your reminder to call your oldest friend and talk it out first

You want to grow as an artist, but can't afford to get an MFA. Where else can you turn? Artist Commons is a year-long, online development program jam-packed with lectures, workshops, and feedback on your work specifically designed to help you grow your art practice. Learn more👇

I attempted to buy home delivery of a certain newspaper for my mother, who lives in Albany, New York -- the capital of the state -- and apparently they ... just don't get home delivery there?

Mount Sinai is once again playing chicken with its patients' lives and health

My plan has been to finally get the traveler’s notebook I have been wishing for since wandering around the notebook stores of Amsterdam this summer once my book advance came in, as a little treat. It did, yesterday; today I discovered Traveler’s Company appears to have discontinued their covers

Had more than one person tell me they wanted to hear "a Catholic commentary track for WAKE UP DEAD MAN," and it was a fun excuse to rewatch the movie with my Jesuit friend JRod as we talked about how this thing feels from the perspective of young clerics currently immersed in theology studies.

🎊 variety.com/2025/film/ma...

This would also have to presuppose that she does not read hard news reporting, which, I guess

I honestly think the real Millennial cringe thing is the idea that Millennials are supposed to care what Gen Z thinks about us? Why? Where did this come from? When I see women of my cohort on social media trying to wear the "right" jeans I want to die of embarrassment www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/o...

I have filed my LAST REVIEW OF 2025

Really pleased to see my interview with Library of America about my book WE TELL OURSELVES STORIES and what Joan Didion has to say about Hollywood and American politics on LoA's end-year round-up:

oh, wow

Last Christmas, my grandfather died and my Mom got covid on the same day, so we spent the holiday in town for the first time ever, and this was one of two movies we saw that day. It was, honestly, a perfect Christmas, 10/10 would do again.

🚨JOB ALERT🚨 Enjoy writing clever headlines and assigning one-of-a-kind stories? Have an eye for detail and a knack for turning rough copy into sparkling prose? We're looking for another editor to join our small but elite team covering New York City news and culture: hellgatenyc.com/hell-gate-is...

And The Plague! If you can see The Plague, go see The Plague!

Forgot to post this over the weekend but: Come for the TV recommendations, stay for me absolutely eating it on the first third of the quiz podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Sick to death of people claiming Die Hard isn’t a movie. There are several clues that it definitely is: It’s 130 minutes long and full of actors It has a beginning a middle and an end It has a soundtrack The aspect ratio is consistent of other movies of the era

Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:

A friend told me yesterday he went to the 4DX version but, alas, no face fire.

Pound/dollar for pound/dollar, the good people can do in buying and wiping out debt (especially medical debt!) is astonishing, and it baffles me that more people with very medium amounts of wealth don’t do it when it would mean so much to people who are drowning

It was nice to live through the era of incessant photos, but it’s also nice to throw a party for forty or so of the best people in the world and emerge with just one photo to post and a lot of good memories just for you all

He could beat Jake Paul and Andrew Tate

This tweet made it possible for me to enjoy this song

Extremely pleased whenever I know I did this

This essay by the author of a recent well-reviewed book about Tolkien starts modestly and then stabs you with a Morgul-blade halfway through, where you are pinioned by a twist in the telling. You may never recover. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...

Alt text version. Thanks for sharing Harry.

I have a ✨ paperback cover ✨

Since I stopped being part of any voting body, I have stopped receiving screeners and swag from any film companies, but my husband went to Pandora tonight and on the way out someone handed him these, and now they are mine (he has not seen the movie yet)

This saga is giving me major flashbacks that I really do not need right now

Norman Bombardini strikes again

This reminds me that I saw TITANIC for the first time in 2017 (even though I am exactly the age of most TITANIC fanatics), and wrote about it eight years ago today. It's still my best answer for a perfect Hollywood movie. www.vox.com/culture/2017...

I had a feeling

The title of BREAKDOWN: 1975 is not doing it any favors, but I would show it to an introductory film class, at least. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/m...

"I don't like movies that *rely* on 'CGI'" is a ridiculous thing to say. "Nouvelle Vague" (2025), directed by Richard Linklater, visual effects by CGEV. youtu.be/1p0G-lGZkL4?...

Paul Feig loves a martini, and other observations about THE HOUSEMAID: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/m...