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Betty was one of the most generous people I had the privilege of interviewing. An extraordinary person who lived an extraordinary life.

Celebrity drama as discourse can be useful to help us unpack together what are really cultural problems playing out in particularly visible people’s interpersonal relations. It’s the worship of them when we forget they’re just like us & contribute to enriching them that’s the issue.

My latest essay @vulture.com is a performance review focused on Rose Byrne. Dig it. www.vulture.com/article/rose...

My latest essay @vulture.com is a performance review focused on Rose Byrne. Dig it. www.vulture.com/article/rose...

I wrote about Rob Reiner: www.vulture.com/article/rob-...

“The science is endangered now, just like the whales.”

This is just one example, but this story is the perfect example of why mediocre white guys are against DEI and this is the “American Dream” they’re trying to preserve. This is the “western culture” they want to protect, and anti-discrimination laws and policies destroy that.

Worf in dad jeans and a shark shirt directing DS9 is the timeline cleanse you didn’t know you needed 🖖

Tokyo Godfathers is now available to watch on the Criterion Channel ❤️

“We’ll just have to make more indies!” is a statement made by people who absolutely do not understand how tough indie film financing is right now 🫠 (See my post about FLESH OF THE GODS being unable to find financing; the recent Variety article about the impossibility of indie producing as a career)

I was in a ridiculous meeting once where the goal was to define what a franchise meant for Netflix films. I have never wanted to hurl myself into the ocean more than during that meeting. I think they bought WB so they can inherit proven franchises instead of doing the work of developing them.

the issue here, especially with TCM, is more than half of its programming came from the Turner, and later WB, library. If you remove the network from the library, how is it going to afford to license 100% of its programming?

Remembering legendary and influential, Oscar-nominated film editor Dede Allen, on her 102nd birthday, famous for her work on films like The Hustler, Bonnie and Clyde, Dog Day Afternoon, and Reds, and collaborations with Arthur Penn, Sidney Lumet, Robert Wise, Elia Kazan, and George Roy Hill.

“When participants used ChatGPT to draft essays, brain scans revealed a 47% drop in neural connectivity across regions associated with memory, language, & critical reasoning. Their brains worked less, but they felt just as engaged—a kind of metacognitive mirage.”🧪

“Political prescription isn’t the point; teasing out the humanity of these people is.” An incredible critique by @angelicabastien.bsky.social’s via @vulture.com that looks at the faults of ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER without negating the agency of its Black actresses.

Finally. My big 2800 word essay about One Battle After Another and its black women characters is live. www.vulture.com/article/blac...

Stop whatever you're doing and START procrastinating...by listening to the latest Reading Writers. It's a really fun one, with the scintillating Lauren Michele Jackson. Expect talk of dirtbag women protagonists, Alexander the Great, and hot cheetahs. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...

Some thoughts on a new movie I really love. letterboxd.com/angelicajade...

"In the conception of shows like “Succession” and so many others, the wealthiest are their own worst enemy. But anyone outside their exclusive, robber baron bubbles — people who might pose a serious challenge to their power structures — is apparently of no narrative interest."

one of the best movies ever made

This piece is so honest and astute. I immediately subscribed to the newsletter after reading this.

@angelicabastien.bsky.social thank you, for the madwoman archetype 🤗 Rereading #bitchplanet, deriving #strength and focusing my #anger

I’ve got a newsletter coming out tomorrow for my The Feminine Grotesque column about the horror film “The Ugly Stepsister”. I hope y’all enjoy it.

NEW: @propublica.org investigated the Chicago apartment raid where kids were zip-tied and citizens detained for hours. They find: - NONE of the arrested were criminally charged - NO evidence the building was "filled with TdA terrorists." - ZERO legitimate reason for DHS to rappel from a Blackhawk.

“I’ve spent my life studying my profession & I’ve come to feel that one lifetime is not enough. When it works well there is something shamanistic about it, but in order to invite that, for lack of a better word, inspiration into your life requires a tremendous amount of discipline” HBD Ethan Hawke

One of my kids requested more Hitchcock films in our diet so we just watched NOTORIOUS and I can't believe I hadn't read this Criterion essay from @angelicabastien.bsky.social until now: www.criterion.com/current/post... Great piece on a great movie!

Like every time I think I understand the depths of depravity of American slavery, I see another story that seems like beyond the worst of any horror writer’s imagination

Has anyone worked up the net worth of Cuomo’s parents vs Mamdani’s? Why does this weird narrative of a professor and a filmmaker as wealthy elites continue? Do they think Mira Nair made Marvel films or something?

i had a great double feature halloween movie night with friends last week and got to introduce them to this banger. long live the queen, tiffany valentine boxd.it/bAmqxB

Outstanding: The Magnificence of Tony Todd in "Candyman" (1992) and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1995) by @angelicabastien.bsky.social angelicabastien.substack.com/p/the-magnif...

🎙️ON AIR: We're talking with music critic Kelefa Sanneh and pop culture critic @angelicabastien.bsky.social about why traditional criticism should endure, even when everyone has a platform. ❓Where do you turn for reliable reviews? 📻 Listen:

A short post with a fun Letterboxd horror list of what I am watching this season. angelicabastien.substack.com/p/a-wild-let...

There’s a lot in here that deserves a pull quote, but this is the most egregious. I need people to recognize the gravity of the situation here in Chicago;

"she recounts anecdotes about long-dead colleagues as if they happened yesterday. There’s the one about Marlon Brando, who called her, out of the blue, to ask where she’d got her chin done" omg, love her always and forever

Loved this piece www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

RIP Jane Goodall. I feel like it's shortchanging her legacy to focus only on her work with chimpanzees when her compassion extended to ALL animals. One of the best ways you can honor & continue her legacy is to incorporate more plant based meals into your life. ❤️ news.janegoodall.org/2017/04/28/w...

Your girl has a limited edition newsletter about stardom, through history and beyond just Hollywood, @nymag.com. I’m getting into the art, the gossip, and just how a star becomes legend. Here’s the announcement, subscribe today! www.vulture.com/article/new-...

the authoritarian techbro cult wishes to subjugate humanity - the good news is that these are pathetic creeps and we can beat them

I'll be moderating this Brooklyn Bookfest panel with novelists @jasondiamond.bsky.social, Denne Michele Norris and @katiekitamura.bsky.social. I hope you can join us.

If you have opportunities to get out and do things with others, jump at the opportunity: meetings, classes, social events, etc... Get out and be with other people. It's essential. If virtual is more convenient, then take advantage of those opportunities to be with other people.

In case you missed it, Monday was my last day at Rolling Stone, and for the time being, I'll be doing all of my reviewing, recapping, and other TV analysis at my newsletter. I hope you'll consider subscribing:

Would anyone ever explain to him he’s wasting six hours a day of his life and he’ll never get back?

Watching Paul Newman and Robert Redford act together is one of the most supreme cinematic delights. I wish they made more (and even better) movies together. What amazing, kind, politically astute dudes.

Chicago is a major frontline, both in terms of what's happening on the ground, right now, and what's permanently happening in the right-wing imagination.

I've been thinking a lot about the body in film as a site of cultural ideals and sensuality. Also been thinking a lot about what it means to write embodied criticism as people seem more and more disconnected from their own bodies and each other. These ideas run through my Movies That Fuck column

My latest is an interview with director Bing Liu about his film “Preparation for the Next Life” www.vulture.com/article/prep...

I’m on crazy pills, apparently. Hats off to Ezra Klein for virtue signaling with his whole pimply ass out without any shame. Let’s be clear, Kirk was not our era’s most effective practitioner of persuasion, he was an activator for the bigotry and hate that was already thriving in people’s hearts.