Post by Jason Bailey / Redsky

People truly will just say any damn thing to any damn buddy on the World Wide Web huh

Some rando in my DMs of the app I primarily use for pictures of my children: Re: your article on the re-discovered movie, “The Night of the Jugglers” (NY Times 7/31/25) While I appreciate your presentation of a significant movie that was lost, I am perplexed and troubled by your opening paragraph. There’s the use of “great NY movie” (“great, gritty” in the online title). For the portrayal of “sleazy authenticity,” “grime and desperation of a city in free-fall”, that there is a “pantheon” of greatness in these portrayals. U thin ut’s very important that we get this history right because it impacts us all today. I believe what is needed is to get out of the passive voice of “the city was lost to crime and mayhem”, and he into the active voice: The factors A,B,C,D, etc., were the powerful forces that perpetrated these problems. This genre of movies certainly has actors who portray some of the symptoms of our problems, and heroes who helped to treat these symptoms. they portray “street” crime, but not the underlying “white collar” or “business” crime. There must be a very complex web of money and bad actors. I’m just scratching the surface. We have a crucial mayoral election approaching and some of the very powerful forces love to traffic in these stories of the 1970s. Me: I wrote an entire book about this topic. I was given 850 words to write about this movie. Bye

aug 29, 2025, 11:03 pm • 38 1

Replies

The “I’d like to register a complaint with your manager” vibe to these sorts of comments is wild. The Yelp/Goodreads ethos, but in your Insta DMs, for some reason.

aug 29, 2025, 11:12 pm • 5 0 • view

This is some *certifiable* shit.

aug 29, 2025, 11:13 pm • 1 0 • view

“Perplexed and troubled”? OK, guy.

aug 29, 2025, 11:09 pm • 3 0 • view

“U thin ut’s very important that we get this history right…” but hits send before checking spelling.

aug 30, 2025, 5:33 pm • 1 0 • view