Or the year I raced to the end — Whew. Wow. 2019 was a wild year for me on the movie front. I had intense periods of engagement with film, film criticism (at least in the Twitterverse), and film podcasts. On the other hand, I also had loooooooong periods of complete detachment from all of those things either because…

This is not a recipe — I knew as soon as I saw the recipe that I had to make them. Had. To. Make. Them. I have been extremely privileged the last few years in that the only meals I very much had to cook were certain holiday meals that the family expected (like whatever quiche…

Quentin Tarantino almost gets it totally right At his very best, Quentin Tarantino leverages his encyclopedic knowledge of all corners of cinema and cinematic conventions into movies structured around innovative narrative strategies, filled with quirky characters spouting iconoclastic dialogue punctuated by visceral moments of violence. He makes it work even…

My parents made sure I watched the jubilant dismantling of the Berlin Wall on TV, “This is important,” they said. And they were right. …

The one with Elle Fanning — Teen Spirit is a vibe, an experience, powered by the sonic grace of some of the foremost pop music operators in the world and the visual grace of a riveting performance, songs included, by Elle Fanning and a talented creative team led by cinematographer Autumn Durald. The title refers to…

A faint glimmer of light in a dark timeline — It happened by accident, as my favorite discoveries on Twitter tend to. I can’t even remember how I saw a tweet from Ian Dunt, the editor of politics.co.uk, Parliament watcher, and host of the Remainiacs podcast. It’s not difficult to discern where Dunt’s inclinations lie: his tweets are full to…