In 2026 we push back against tiresome 'ironic' rep cinema laughers. We get it, you are 'above' the movie.

I’m underwhelmed at the lack of There Will Be Blood gifs today. It’s a layup, guys!

Since today National Society of Film Critics announces its awards, it would be the ideal time for national and regional critics’ groups to formally state that we will no longer consider Netflix films or other streamers’ content that hasn’t received a 45-day exclusive theatrical window.

I am so sick of SINNERS fans. It’s a movie about vampires. The vampires are core to its themes. IT’S A HORROR MOVIE. And it’s NOT above other horror movies. You just haven’t seen enough of them to know how emotionally and thematically deep the genre goes. Watch more horror.

So proud to be part of this amazing regional critics group and stoked at all the love for “The Testament of Ann Lee”!

In today’s The Pamphleteer, Nashville ✰ ✰ ✰, I discuss how slimzim’s suit against the Knoxville Orchestra could be a culture war turning point. pamphleteer.co/post/james-zim…

Jerod penned a great piece in the Pamphleteer this afternoon about slimzim's lawsuit. You've seen him on Megyn Kelly, you've read about it on Twitter, now get it from The Pamphleteer.

In the “The Week in Culture,” Bradley Cooper makes a divorce dramedy, a chimp goes apeshit on Gen Z, M.L. Rio proves her latest novel is required reading, and Swedish pop takes over the new year. open.substack.com/pub/culturally…

This can’t be legal.

Hamnet isn’t about healing; it posits that artists can’t heal because that void is central to their process. It’s a populist movie about channeling grief into the act of creation and accepting the mysteries of the universe. No wonder the legacy critics are after it.

I don’t know man. I feel like One Battle After Another, Sinners and Hamnet are all great movies that don’t deserve any of this online trashing. It feels forced

we always say we want our favorite directors to be successful but then they have a big movie and we’re forced to see morons engage with art they’ll just never understand

We posted rest in peace to the creator of the comic strip Dilbert. We received so much hate towards us and him, due to his political beliefs. We knew nothing of his beliefs, and frankly, it doesn't matter. He made a great strip, he died of cancer, it's sad, and rest in peace.

We used to judge people for clapping in between movements of classical pieces. Now, some of you stop awards movies 29 minutes in to order to post hot takes. We ain’t coming back from this as a culture.

Time for a social media Bugonia.

If you told me in 2004 that there would one day exist a robust popular discourse about Thomas Pynchon and Paul Thomas Anderson, I would have thought the country had become a very sophisticated and wonderful place full of supple arguments and learned interlocutors. And yet…

In today’s The Pamphleteer, Nashville ✰ ✰ ✰, I discuss SONG SUNG BLUE, Tennessee filmmmaker Craig Brewer’s must see musical ode to the working class. pamphleteer.co/post/the-tenne…

Bleak statement

In the Week in Culture, Ralph Fiennes pulls double duty, Gus Van Sant returns, Amanda Seyfried is a prophet, Mark Twain gets a new Tome, Tell Me Lies is tawdry heaven, and The Cribs still have it. open.substack.com/pub/culturally…

Aspiring Film Twitter doesn’t understand that a review really has little to do with opinion. It’s about reading a film—judging it by its intent and how it reflects its culture. That’s it. Slow, boring, woke, based, etc. have no place here.