Post-rehab, Zac Efron started an INSANE workout & diet routine to help him cope w the challenges of staying sober. He's since acknowledged this was its own type of unhealthy behavior, and regrets taking it that far. Framing this as a before (good) and after (bad) is really gross.
Sad news: I was one of the casualties of Criterion’s layoffs. Super proud of my work there - and we’ve still got some writing goodies in store coming soon! - but let a girl know if you’ve got any leads on editorial gigs in the worlds of film, books, theater, and beyond!
The Barbie stuff is what happens when half-inspired overworked journalists need to come up with baity awards think pieces that gesture at a narrative that’s much more serious than the facts themselves, and the terminally online running with it to a horrific, delusional extent.
Rotten Tomatoes has always been an embarrassment to the profession; the certified critic designation, the equivalent of a participation trophy; the grading format, a total sham! It weaponizes the illusion of “diverse voices” against basic standards of good criticism. Burn it!
For the new issue of
@SightSoundmag
, I talked to Aubrey Plaza (!!) about Black Bear, the power dynamics of working with your s/o, playing slutty characters, and much more. It’s easily one of the funnest interviews i’ve ever done.
Birds of Prey was ehh fine & fun & (thank god) isn't something blindly aiming for prestige. however, I want to personally thank Cathy Yan for never coming close to a moment as nauseatingly empty and baity as that Avengers "girl power" moment in Endgame.
*Gulps*
@Criterion
asked me to write the essay for their release of Céline and Julie Go Boating. You could say it’s one of the greatest honors of my professional career😳💅
News! Today was my first day as associate web editor
@Criterion
, where I'll be working with the wonderful
@wenyeowchan
to spice up The Current. Yes, I am glowing rn💅🥲
My 21 y/o brother is convinced superhero movies have been performing poorly because more and more people are “catching on” that they’re “actually embarrassing”
You go into Blonde hoping for a bit of *problematique* spiciness and all you get is the most boring and rudimentary pro-life misogyny. These guys can’t even get provocation right smh….
This says a lot about the state of modern criticism, RT as a third party mediator of criticism, the kinds of outlets/platforms for criticism that are surviving in our dying industry.......and it says absolutely nothing about the quality of movies.
Tired: Scorsese comparing superhero movies to amusement parks
Wired: Rossellini likening audiences to babies only capable of consuming premasticated food
when will Danny McBride get his big dramatic breakout movie like Sandler with PUNCH DRUNK LOVE or Carrey with ETERNAL SUNSHINE. he is a honestly a terrific actor, and I am ready for it.
The same people demanding that movies be 90 minutes long are the same ones complaining about sex scenes that don't "advance the plot." This impulse is anti-art, sorry it's the truth.
If you've been working through the
@criterionchannl
erotic thrillers series, then this one’s for you: behold my deep-dive into the origins of the genre and its deliciously vulgar reinvention of the femme fatale.
Happy to be back in the
@criterion
pages🖤
Celebrities keep their images so straightjacketed and Hollywood gossip has become so anemic that this minor Don’t Worry Darling drama has somehow created an air of fascination around a film that looks painfully generic…
For
@thebafflermag
⚡️I wrote about PYW (groan) and MeToo movies in context: featuring notes on Hitchcock’s Marnie, the regressive politics and return to gender essentialism of the most “important” feminist objects, and a new kind of stock character..
It’s a sad time for French film culture. Squelching critical discourse w/ the buyout of Cahiers one day, awarding national prizes to rapists the next, under that cherished, tired old guard guise “judge the art not the artist.” im certain those voters consider their choice *brave*
Found my childhood movie ticket stash from mostly 2005-2007 and I remain astonished by my mother’s blasé attitude w/r/t “age appropriate” screenings. In all seriousness, thanks mom!
Taking a little moment for Todd Haynes and the entire cast of May December, Andrew Scott, Fallen Leaves, Zac Efron. Voted off the island but still the winners in my heart . . .
This level of fraught and messy in a contemporary celebrity who is simultaneously being awarded and legitimized……….Will Smith bringing back the meaning of star power
Here I am (looking gravely serious in my author pic and) writing about why "feminist" as yardstick for quality is increasingly fraught.
@guardianopinion
I’ve been researching/thinking about/agonizing over Delphine Seyrig for the past ~6 months, so this is a big one for me. On *la divine* and Akerman’s Golden Eighties for
@Criterion
🧡
One of my most enjoyable writing projects in recent memory. And what an honor to go in on the only superheroes worth acknowledging: Michelle, Maggie, and Anita🖤
Our amazing new edition includes:
• A new interview with actor Anthony Wong
• A new interview with film critic Samm Deighan
• An essay by
@bealoayza
• New covers by
@alicexz
and more!
We could reinforce the idea that criterion is the premiere canonical tastemaker and hope that long-neglected titles get added. Or we could divest ourselves, at least in part, of that idolatry and turn to the many, many small distributors already doing the work!
I’m a fan of it getting dark early: no glare on the TV screen, more quality time with the moon, more womblike. I was born in the darkness, you could say I was molded by it..
guys...i wrote about being a shitty dancer, watching MIAMI VICE, and realizing that Sonny Crockett is the man of my dreams. my first piece for
@thecut
!
I could listen to
@anyataylorjoy
say "me lo morfé" all day 🇦🇷🥰
here, she shares how her Argentine roots have shaped her, and what she learned from playing the role of Beth Harmon on The Queen's Gambit.
Loving the Cillian Murphy episode of WTF. Not because it’s satisfying but because Maron’s doing backflips, brandishing his charisma, throwing prompts like ninja stars and Cillian’s got nothing but Music Guy Thoughts and platitudes. Mystique preserved, yearning increased.
Well
#Us
was much more ambitious than I expected. And dense. One things for sure, there’s no moment of rest. The ladies dominate the show: LUPITA, Shahadi Joseph, and Elizabeth Moss are excellent.
#sxsw
#sxsw2019
My first cover story for
@CinemaScopeMag
✨ is a spicy interview with Alice Diop on Saint Omer, the question of artistic universality, and the exasperating experience of dealing w certain pockets of the French media/pop culture as a Black filmmaker. Voila👇