@Scarequotes
He/him. Moviegoer, movie lover. Handy on a pub quiz team.
Banger of a piece by Emily St. James, with this great final line: "I don't need The Simpsons to be good, but I think some part of me will always need it to exist."
The first time The Simpsons could have ended
Our new series on great TV episodes of the 21st century begins with a would-be series finale.
episodes.ghost.io
I've been wondering just why Jay Kelly was a misfire since I saw it, and this is a great analysis of the movie and Noah Baumbach's career that mostly answers the question.
Did Success Spoil Noah Baumbach?
The director is at his best when he’s depicting men who resent the world for not recognizing their genius.
vulture.com
Never really thought about the erotic nature of typewriters before, so this was illuminating. And a good take on Secretary.
Secretary and the Erotic Nature of the Typewriter
"Two lonely people have come together through a love and desire that’s unique thanks, in part, to the typewriter."
typebarmagazine.com
The obituary Adams deserves.
I have no mouth and I must scream at Black people: Scott Adams, 1957-2026 - The Comics Journal
The creator of Dilbert has died, Scott Adams, June 8, 1957 - January 13, 2026
tcj.com
“You learn that movies are not best viewed in 20-minute increments, but you learn they can be. You hope no director you ever interview reads this paragraph.” Been a while since I was watching movies holding babies, but this is truth.
washingtonpost.com
I didn't expect that there was much more to say about Dorothy Stratten, but this piece — particularly the last few paragraphs — pull it off.
Forgotten Star Dorothy Stratten Almost Lived the Hollywood Fairy Tale. It Ended as a Horror Story.
Peter Bogdanovich, Bob Fosse, and Hugh Hefner all loved her, in their own ways—for better and worse. This reexamination of Stratten’s life, rape, and murder casts a new light on the angel who was a centerfold.
vanityfair.com
As someone who deliberately eats less meat and enjoys vegan meals, it's interesting to see the pendulum swing back towards meat. (I do enjoy meat, just like being deliberate about it.)
How Veganism Got Cooked
Plant-based eating was supposed to be the future. Then meat came roaring back.
grubstreet.com
Some surprising choices, which means it’s an interesting list.
CBC Arts Presents: The 50 Greatest Films Directed by Canadians
Near, far, wherever you are — these directors have shaped not only Canadian film but the entire art of cinema around the globe.
cbc.ca
"We’re foie gras ducks being force-fed escapism." Friction can be good, actually.
In 2026, We Are Friction-Maxxing
In the face of technologies that sell us escapism at every turn, we need to build up tolerance for “inconvenience.”
thecut.com
Far more than just a book review — a deep dive into affection for Judy Garland.
Bee Wilson · Two Pins and a Lollipop: Judy Garland’s Greatness
To be a Garland fan is to have the illusion that you can save her from the wounds of the world, even as her voice and...
lrb.co.uk
Missed this dive into something I've been curious about since seeing the movie: How'd they film all that table tennis in Marty Supreme?
How ‘Marty Supreme’ Got Table Tennis Right
The director Josh Safdie had a personal connection to 1950s players, but he also enlisted professionals to choreograph the action and employed a visual trick.
nytimes.com
I’m not wired to be obsessive like this, but I’m grateful for those who are.
Someone Has To Save The Film And TV That Studios Won’t | Defector
HBO had a series of legendary stand-up specials in the 1990s, and one of the best of those came from a performer who was not a comedian. Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants was incredibly funny, but Jay was a magician, although that seems not quite right. The press material for the special, which first…
defector.com
Yeah this question strikes deep and is something I've heard a lot of variations on lately.
How the hell are you supposed to have a career in tech in 2026? - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
anildash.com
I love a good top 10 list but also appreciate how annoying they can be.
Why critics have a love-hate relationship with top 10 lists - Poynter
Reducing a year of culture to a handful of honorees leads to agita — and, one hopes, appreciation
poynter.org
Love to discover new nuances in one of my Favorite movies. Gorgeous analysis.
There Is No Mary Problem in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’
George’s vision of his wife without him is essential to the film, but critics continue to miss its true—and profound—meaning.
thebulwark.com
Provocative in the "hey, that's a really great point" sense of the word.
Bilge Ebiri: “Why Terrence Malick Is the Most Influential Director”
Bilge Ebiri explores filmmaker Terrence Malick’s vision of grace and his far-ranging influence on American cinema.
yalereview.org
"While I don’t want to pick a fight with the most powerful person in the movie business, that fact leads us towards a controversial but inescapable conclusion: Avatar is an animated movie."
The Truth About the Avatar Movies That No One Wants to Accept
James Cameron and his stars are desperate to convince the world that these movies aren’t “cartoons.” Why bother?
slate.com
Very vicious, even more amusing.
Two Nights Playing With Fire At Patrick Mahomes And Travis Kelce's Steakhouse | Defector
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As celebrity restaurant mascots, athletes offer a tidy sense of vertical integration: Why not supply the very calories they need to expend on the field? I’m surprised there are so few successful models. We have all mostly forgotten (or agreed not to talk about) George Brett’s restaurant in Kansas City, Brett…
defector.com
I've sung "Jingle Bells, Batman smells" for years — long before The Simpsons covered it — but never thought much about the variety of lyrics in this folk song.
Jingle Bells (Batman Smells): an incomplete festive folk-rhyme taxonomy
Gather round the fire, everyone, and let me tell you a story. It has everything you could want in a Christmas blockbuster: superheroes and villains, a car crash, children singing, a mystery to solv…
loreandordure.com
Jeffrey Zeldman on an aesthetic preference for indifference (or cruelty).
Jeffrey Zeldman Presents Accessibility is a human right, cruelty a human wrong. - Accessibility
Once more for the folks in the back. Calibri is easier than Times New Roman for folks with certain visual disabilities to read. That’s why the Biden Administration chose Calibri for their digital communications: to include more people and make life just a wee bit easier for the disabled. And who in their right mind could […]
zeldman.com
Hollywood wants hits — if they're the right kind of hits.
The Hit Hollywood Didn’t Want - The American Prospect
Ryan Coogler’s bloodsucker blockbuster is all about Black creative freedom. No wonder the industry saw it as a threat.
prospect.org
Lots of doom and gloom about moviegoing and movie theaters surviving, but there's interesting stuff going on outside the big chains.
Can Music Box CEO Brody Sheldon, a second-generation movie buff, build a mini-empire of historic theaters?
As many movie theaters struggle, Chicago’s Music Box is expanding into Minnesota and adding a third screen in Lake View. “We seem to be doing something right here,” Sheldon says.
wbez.org
Clear advice. Lots of experience, and some of it may be wisdom.
Ben Kingsley Still Gets Nervous in Front of a Camera
The most acclaimed actor of his time talks about why he changed his name, the sublime moments from action to cut, and the differences between Gandhi and Lear.
esquire.com
Casey Johnston doesn’t just want you to strength train, she has tips for strength training your mind.
how to read more
from someone who actually struggles
shesabeast.co
“It was striking to realize that a) a century ago I might well have died; and b) the cost of maybe saving my life was three hours in the ER and $4.16 worth of antibiotics.” A reminder that things don’t just improve. People make them better — and can make them worse again.
By Charles C. Mann
Our ancestors built grand public systems to conquer hunger, thirst, darkness, and squalor. That progress can be lost if we forget it.
thenewatlantis.com
“Art should be automatically radical,” says Stellan Skarsgård.
Stellan Skarsgård and Robert Reich Tell Us How to Escape the Political Doom Loop
The Swedish actor has a grim perspective on the state of the world. We called in Robert Reich—the academic, author, and former politico—to give hia pep talk.
culturedmag.com
Best thing I’ve read yet on One Battle After Another, one of the year’s great movies.
Black Actresses Are Carrying One Battle After Another
Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, and Regina Hall propel the film’s most conflicted ideas, for better and worse.
vulture.com
Adversarial poetry
Poets are now cybersecurity threats: Researchers used 'adversarial poetry' to trick AI into ignoring its safety guard rails and it worked 62% of the time
Hacking the planet with florid verse.
pcgamer.com
Fascinating though horrible.
How right-wing superstar Riley Gaines built an anti-trans empire
The swimmer tied a trans woman for fifth. The MAGA industrial complex took care of the rest.
motherjones.com
Any interesting storytelling technique can turn into an overused trope.
Death to the Penultimate Flashback Episode
Why do so many shows keep making episodes that feel like unnecessary homework?
vulture.com
Came out last year, came across my feed today.
Gene Tierney and the pitfalls of being 'the most beautiful woman in movie history'
Film star Gene Tierney was worshipped for her looks – but they were also a poisoned chalice. Nearly a century on, has the way we consider beauty changed all that much?
bbc.com
Amazing to take a moment to appreciate the scale of the returns industry.
We Bought a 450-Pound Mystery Pallet Packed With Returned Goods From Amazon and Beyond. Here’s What We Found Inside.
Pallets of overstock, returned, and undelivered-mail packages are an indicator of just how much stuff there is in the retail ecosystem.
nytimes.com
Siskel and Ebert were formative for me, This is a great overview of some of their many high points.
The 50 Best Siskel & Ebert Reviews
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the most famous film critic do ever, here are 50 of their best reviews.
screencrush.com
This is the good kind of true crime story.
The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob
The feds knew him as a prolific bank robber. But the bearded man who eluded them for so long was not who they imagined him to be. And absolutely no one expected the story to end the way it did.
texasmonthly.com
Great interview with Robert Englund about decades of Freddy Krueger.
Enter Boogeyman: Robert Englund on a life of Nightmares on Elm Street • Journal
With a gruesome new 4K box set of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise hitting shelves, Brandon Streussnig sits down with Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, to look back on the inimitable…
letterboxd.com
I love little cultural mysteries like this.
Why two tiny mountain peaks became one of the internet’s most famous images
The humble ‘broken image’ icon has a rich backstory – one connected to early web design, camera culture and our timeless urge to find meaning in the landscape.
theconversation.com
Word of the Year started as a lark and is now a small industry. Stefan Fatsis on how WOTYs win the honor.
Choosing the Word of the Year is No Easy Feat
Thirty-five years ago, the late English professor Allan Metcalf had an idea. “I was thinking that Time magazine has its Person of the Year,” he told me, “and why can’t we do for words what Time did…
lithub.com
Big year for Richard Linklater. Good to hear him talk about it.
New Waves and Blue Moons in Richard Linklater’s Latest Era • The Austin Chronicle
It’s rare for a filmmaker to have two films out at the same time, especially one of the prestige of Richard Linklater, and especially two that took him so far out of his literal comfort zone. Both Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague (which premieres on Netflix this Friday) were filmed outside of the U.S., in […]
austinchronicle.com
It’s Word of the Year season (yes, even though its early November). Fun as it is to see the big players jockey for press, it’s even cooler to see nuanced, thoughtful takes like this one not just selecting a word but analyzing what the whole WOTY process means and is good for.
The 2025 Etymology of the Year
"Fascism" is a challenging word for a challenging moment, and its origins may bear lessons for us.
mashedradish.com
Anger is an energy.
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
statnews.com
I first read this in March, but someone on Bluesky ran into this again today. I love this story.
How a glitch in an online survey replaced the word ‘yes’ with ‘forks’
Dating back to at least early 2023, a bizarre and alarming technical glitch started popping up in some organizations’ online surveys and forms.
pewresearch.org
Via Laura Olin’s newsletter. “Smash and grab jobs happening across the city nearly simultaneously. But the things being stolen aren't jewels, they're lives.”
What I Need You To Understand, Notes from Chicago in Late October | dansinker.com
dansinker.com
I don’t throw a lot of parties anymore, but this is a pretty fun overview of ways to make them successful.
21 Facts About Throwing Good Parties
Parties are a public service; here's how to throw them.
atvbt.com
History of an early example of Munchausen by Internet.
The Curious Case of Kacyee Nicole — Switchboard Magazine
In 1999, the early internet felt like a digital frontier—and few stories capture its innocence and deceit like the saga of Kaycee Nicole. Written in cinematic detail, this longform feature traces how a Kansas teenager’s blog about battling leukemia captivated an online community before unraveling into one of the first major internet hoaxes. Through the intertwined journeys of early web pioneers—John Halcyon Styn, Saundra Mitchell, and MetaFilter founder Matt Haughey—the story revisits the dawn of online intimacy, the birth of blogging, and the emotional fallout of a lie that defined the internet’s coming-of-age.
switchboardmagazine.com
James Gunn and his progressive take on superheroes. Love this deep dive.
James Gunn’s American Project
He is few critics’ idea of a respectable auteur, but his work is more consistently progressive than any other comic-book material today.
vulture.com
As a lifelong Stephen King fan, I appreciate this dive into his recent run of works involving one character, Holly Gibney, and how she relates to women in King’s earlier works.
Stephen King will never be done with Holly Gibney
Stephen King will never be done with Holly Gibney
avclub.com
Great piece overall that ends in a gem of a last paragraph.
One app, 60 men, 26 dates: my adventures in alt-right dating
There’s no question that we’re living — and looking for love — in contentious times, where extreme political ideologies have all but divided parts of the dating pool. Or have they?
cosmopolitan.com
As a longtime word watcher I think “goon” and its derivatives is a strong candidate for Word of the Year, and probably has a lock on Most Outrageous.
The Goon Squad, by Daniel Kolitz
Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation
harpers.org
Vince Gilligan is really really good at making TV shows.
Vince Gilligan Is Breaking Good
The creator of 'Breaking Bad' talks about leaving bad guys behind in 'Pluribus,' a sci-fi epic with an unlikely hero.
time.com
Nerdy deep dive into a terrible psychiatrist from two classic horror movies? I’m in.
The Casebook of Dr. Louis Judd, Terrible Psychiatrist
thought that I was done writing about terrible people for the year. But I need to ponder just one more, Dr. Louis Judd. Judd is a supporting character played by Tom Conway in two RKO horror movies: Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (USA, 1942) and Mark Robson's The Seventh Victim (USA, 1943). Dr. Judd while suave,…
culturalgutter.com
