Indeed it do
Film critic at Slate; co-host of the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast; repped by the Cheney Agency; member NYFCC. Camera Man, my book on Buster Keaton, is out: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Camera-Man/Dana-Stevens/9781501134203
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Indeed it do
When we were naming our daughter, I remember saying about names that seemed too cute or girly, "how will that sound if she grows up to be, like, a judge?" Turns out it sounds perfect.
Doing the Dougie = virtually indistinguishable from promoting the miasma theory of transmission
Keep walking
Ahhh I wish I would be there to see this! Love the idea of a theater taking on one Shakespeare play a year for 34 years.
I had just finished saving a baby raccoon from drowning when, unrelatedly, a piano fell on my head, but chill out, I'm fine (disregard all future press releases claiming the contrary).
I lol'd.
Beware the Thane of ... well, all the thanes tbh! What is the production?
Perfection (though the likeness falls apart a few lines later with "he was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.")
That take was out of left field but it has some validity! & definitely is a takeaway that would serve me personally as someone incapable of saying no to houseguests...
You'd think if cops did one thing well it would be cover up powerful men's encounters with sex workers. Up there with Candy Crush in Policing 101.
I've seen that supposition but even in that case this is a sucky cover-up! Like what is the scenario it's trying to avoid, exactly?
It's genuinely nuts. No matter what the actual circumstance was, in what world did someone think this was a better idea than a press release saying he had been in a car accident & was recovering in the hospital? (& the fact it ends with "this is the only authentic press release" is its own baffler.)
Tulsi: “You say foreign malign influence like it’s a bad thing”
& this is how I find out you're having a kid. Mazel!!!
I've been waiting for a solution to the problem of ... going to the store shelf with bananas on it and picking up a bunch of bananas.
Very plausible
Hometown pride
If you don't already know @bcmerchant.bsky.social's newsletter, bloodinthemachine.com (or his exceptional book by the same title), start w/ this week's post on the role of ChatGPT in a teenage boy's suicide. Not handwringing or doomy. Clear-eyed & essential. www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/a-500-bill...
In 4K at home with your kids who specifically requested that movie is a very high-value viewing modality!
YESSSSS
Some people just don't value good hydration.
Sorry to hear that. If it makes any difference I don't think any of us felt interrupted -- I know I had plenty to say and got to say it. But the fact he and I were in studio together and the other two were remote may have made it harder for them to jump in--which is on me as the host of the episode.
I have a very specific response which is that I agree with that and thus ... have never seen it! I keep missing chances to see it projected because I'm out of town or otherwise occupied. But I have this screening on my calendar & I plan to finally watch the one Kubrick movie I have yet to see.
I don't know where you live, but if you're in or near NYC, the Paris Theater is showing this in 35mm on September 20th! Which is no reason not to watch it tonight. (& as for them picking it--that's just quality parenting ; )
If you do listen you will see that I agree to one half of that!
We sort of have an argument about it! Everyone else liked it more than I did, though I agree it's an original & ambitious movie that's fun to watch and fun to talk about.
she looks nothing like him
This week's Culture Gabfest was really fun to record--the original panel was back w/ our favorite guest host, Wesley Morris, talking about Weapons (including a separate spoiler-filled segment on the ending), Highest 2 Lowest, & the "performative masculinity" pseudo-craze: slate.com/podcasts/cul...
@darthbluesky.bsky.social, it is urgent that you see this post.
Fetch the horse-deworming paste, stat!
So many of us will miss your voice there so much. But will keep reading you wherever you publish. Enjoy TIFF!
Ned Flanders & family
JD Vance asking to be invited into a city feels really on the nose after Sinners
The brain of the person who wrote this is a whooshing void.
Already following your Insta so I will keep an eye on your feed!
Is the whole family going? I love this & may need a dedicated newsletter about the Larsen's Scottish adventures.
Also Ralph Lauren is a well-known donor to Democratic causes? But go ahead and type some words in any order, FT!
This sounds like such an amazing adventure! I'm assuming you already know the small-but-brilliant oeuvre of Bill Forsyth?
One of the CDC heads resigning is a scientist whose title is "Director of the Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases." AKA the person in charge of public health in the face of novel viruses like Covid, someone with decades of practical experience in the field. To be replaced by ... 🤡❓
So many adults have to fail a child before he ends up 10 years old telling CNN about the mass shooting he lived through this morning
Is the challenge to distinguish whether or not Melania is AI?
I think its problems exist at the script level. Many individual scenes are very well-written--the development of several characters goes way beyond what the average horror movie attempts to do--but it's not clear what the story overall is about or what it's trying to say about fear, grief, evil etc.
Hey, it produced Shakespeare 🤷
I actually disagree that it's lazy or a King ripoff (though he is a clear influence.) I think it's an original and ambitious movie that experiments with the horror genre in some exciting ways, but I think it loses that originality & for me its scariness/suspense as the story unfolds.
*chuckles begrudgingly*
I mayo may not abide by that rule.
I was just thinking that if I heard this said on TV about my child after losing them to gun violence, I would pursue actions that I should best not post about online.
a huge point that decorum-obsessed Democrats are missing is that everyone I know is literally boiling with rage 24/7 watching their country fall to fascism and desperately want to hear a politician acknowledge that and say "I am also angry"
Karma's a relaxing thought
An incurable case of gnarly mitts
Approved ✔️
the thing I love about Zohran’s campaign is that instead of “this place fucking sucks and I alone can fix it” his message is “being a New Yorker rules, we live in the best city in the world, let’s make it even better together” show some damn pride in the places you want to govern
I just now hit a plot dwvelopment like that in Daniel Deronda, lmao. Like, why would they both just happen to be passing through Genoa at the same…never mind, it’s a great book.
www.artofthetitle.com/title/too-ma...
(& thanks for your very nice words on our show. Honored to be something that alleviates the current awfulness for you. <3
I read that too. Dan will be much missed as a writer/editor/general mastermind of weirdness at Slate--but as he makes clear, he's far from done with the place! I'm excited for him to focus on writing books, as he's proven he's great at doing. & he'll continue to appear on the Culturefest for sure.
Also: I meant to say Late Spring, not Early Spring. Both are very good movies, but Late Spring is one of Ozu's greatest & stars the two actors he most loved to work with, Setsuko Hara and Chishu Ryu.
Good to know! Also if you subscribe to Criterion, there is currently tons of Ozu on there along w/ quite a few good documentaries/extras about him.
Two good ones to start with (accessible, widely available, among his masterpieces) would be Tokyo Story or Early Spring.
They were both classics that are easy to find: Donald Richie's Ozu: His Life and Films and Paul Schrader's Transcendental Style in Film.
People don't even get a chance to see his silent work much anymore, since retrospectives tend to focus on the postwar stuff. Criterion has a lot of work from both eras available. I will say that my personal favorite Ozu is a silent that I didn't get to write about in this piece: I Was Born, But...
I can't remember which Ozu we talked about--was it Tokyo Story? (& thanks for listening to/ remembering Flashback!)
I am vastly underqualified to write such a book--first off I don't know Japanese, nor much about the country's culture (though I've been there & absolutely loved it: slate.com/culture/2015... But thanks for being interested in me writing another book at all!
Thank you for reading & for putting out the word!
This was a piece where the research was 5x more voluminous than what ended up on the page. I watched over a dozen Ozu movies, watched documentaries on him, read two entire books, & had the pleasure of interviewing superfan Jim Jarmusch (who said correctly that Ozu's magic is impossible to describe).
This film is incredible. I actually saw it when the restoration (shown on three screens at once, like the original) toured the US in 1981--I was a freshman in HS. Thanks for letting me know about the Blu-Ray. Now to wait for my book rec to come in...
I don't claim more than a Lay understanding of the legal issues.
Sour cream and bribes, I mean chives, is this something
As well he should!
Behold my Oscar. Just want to run my hands through his expertly crafted Romantic-era wig
Can't imagine a pair of curators I'd rather have on this film series. Flagging some of the dates on my calendar right now.
📌
Always happy to see posts from @restaurant-bot.bsky.social & @roadside.xor.blue.
For real though--could this uncharacteristic utterance mean that he's been told his health is worse in some way? Why is the world's least introspective man talking about this at all?
Many people are saying
Tiny Tim's all "take your goose & shove it"
Attention must be paid!!
The release for now is tiny, but this will play at the NY Film Festival in the fall & presumably get a nationwide release after that.
A shame Cait's been cutepilled
Not sold out but pretty crowded, & basically spellbound for the entire running time.
Right? I just got out & I know I’m going to go to bed tonight thinking of all those people & what they are doing now, if they’re OK. Really hope this gets a wider release so everyone is able to see it.
In between the two halves of a showing of the 5+-hour doc My Undesirable Friends, about the clampdown on free speech & human rights in Russia around the time of the invasion of Ukraine, & it really is all that. Truly a stunning achievement in on-the-ground guerilla filmmaking, & brutally relevant.
I think, as @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social was posting earlier, it has more to do w/ the general hollowing out of local journalism & the summary of search results w/ AI. Which is obviously deeply interwoven with the fuckery of all these idiots in power, in tech as well as government.
A central pillar of Chicago’s vibrant film culture, a reliably smart critic with a deep knowledge of & love for cinema (& theater, the beat he started out on), & a wonderful colleague & friend. If you care about art in your city, read & support your local critics, because our species is endangered.
Hey there, NYC classic Film fans! When was the last time you saw a classic film at the Thalia? My Silent Clowns Film Series is bringing silent movies back to this historic repertory cinema in September. www.symphonyspace.org/events/silen...
Fear of the woke mobs who are stifling their freedom of speech, duh
one guy even tried to give us a sandwich
Everything But the Girl's Bodily Autonomy
Directed by Mike Nichols in his Broadway directing debut!
Many people are saying
Ha, thanks! That is to this day the most clicked-on and responded-to piece I've ever written, both by those who agree & those who are outraged that I'm impugning their beloved foot robes. But I stand by my belief that wearing them in a busy urban setting is gross.
These are my slides that I wear at the beach or to the pool:
It's also on YouTube in what looks like a high-quality version: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKBN...
[looking at the gettysburg address] “that sign won’t stop me because i can’t read”
Therein lies a tale... slate.com/human-intere...
Yes, it's a very ancient shoe form that's appeared in many cultures!
A friend who knows of my distaste for flip-flops sent me this story about the recent discovery of a Roman mosaic from the 4th century CE featuring the cursed footwear (scroll through for bonus mosaic of Roman babes in bikinis!): allthatsinteresting.com/sicily-ancie...
Buying my tickets for next week thanks to your excellent piece!