Angelica Jade Bastién

🙏🏽

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.

“Political prescription isn’t the point; teasing out the humanity of these people is.”

An incredible critique by @angelicabastien.bsky.social’s via @vulture.com that looks at the faults of ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER without negating the agency of its Black actresses.

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.

“The Black women of the film are lightning rods for the most forceful conversations the film can bear, and it’s thrilling to watch them embody what Anderson’s script can only loosely hold.” www.vulture.com/article/blac...

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.

Finally. My big 2800 word essay about One Battle After Another and its black women characters is live. www.vulture.com/article/blac...

I saw Sentimental Value at the wonderful Music Box theater in Chicago. Where I stay posted up.

I hope you enjoy it or at least it leads to some interesting reflections.

Setting the House on Fire: Lauren Michele Jackson on Nettie Jones’ Fish Tales Podcast Episode · Reading Writers · 11/12/2025 · 56m

Stop whatever you're doing and START procrastinating...by listening to the latest Reading Writers. It's a really fun one, with the scintillating Lauren Michele Jackson. Expect talk of dirtbag women protagonists, Alexander the Great, and hot cheetahs. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...

I loved this book and I love my friend, Lauren. I totally missed this and must listen now.

A ★★★★ review of Sentimental Value (2025) A few stray thoughts. I’ll be writing about the film for my newsletter but I wanted to put something in this space too. -I don’t have a sister and I have no relationship with my father. So this film d...

Some thoughts on a new movie I really love.
letterboxd.com/angelicajade...

Of course. I hope you've been well, friend.

"In the conception of shows like “Succession” and so many others, the wealthiest are their own worst enemy. But anyone outside their exclusive, robber baron bubbles — people who might pose a serious challenge to their power structures — is apparently of no narrative interest."

one of the best movies ever made

This piece is so honest and astute. I immediately subscribed to the newsletter after reading this.

@angelicabastien.bsky.social thank you, for the madwoman archetype 🤗

Rereading #bitchplanet, deriving #strength and focusing my #anger

My next newsletter will be a free piece available for anybody to read. It's a review of DIE MY LOVE.

Thanks! Lemme know what you think when you watch it. The tapeworm part of the ending is WILDLY GROSS.

The Feminine Grotesque No.2: The Ugly Stepsister (2025) and What Women Mean When We Say Beauty Is Pain It’s a gross, aesthetics-obsessed treatise on beauty as currency and trap for women. I may not love the movie but I can't stop thinking about it.

My latest newsletter gets into The Ugly Stepsister (2025), a grimy and grueling horror film that gets at the heart of the obsession with beauty women are compelled by more honestly than other recent films of this ilk. open.substack.com/pub/angelica...

I def think it’s way more interesting and honest than The Substance when it comes to how women relate to each other within patriarchal constraints.

I’m mixed on it but I found it fascinating and haven’t stopped thinking about it.

I’ve got a newsletter coming out tomorrow for my The Feminine Grotesque column about the horror film “The Ugly Stepsister”. I hope y’all enjoy it.

NEW: @propublica.org investigated the Chicago apartment raid where kids were zip-tied and citizens detained for hours. They find:

- NONE of the arrested were criminally charged
- NO evidence the building was "filled with TdA terrorists."
- ZERO legitimate reason for DHS to rappel from a Blackhawk.

“I’ve spent my life studying my profession & I’ve come to feel that one lifetime is not enough. When it works well there is something shamanistic about it, but in order to invite that, for lack of a better word, inspiration into your life requires a tremendous amount of discipline”

HBD Ethan Hawke

One of my kids requested more Hitchcock films in our diet so we just watched NOTORIOUS and I can't believe I hadn't read this Criterion essay from @angelicabastien.bsky.social until now: www.criterion.com/current/post...

Great piece on a great movie!

Absolutely.

Like every time I think I understand the depths of depravity of American slavery, I see another story that seems like beyond the worst of any horror writer’s imagination

Has anyone worked up the net worth of Cuomo’s parents vs Mamdani’s? Why does this weird narrative of a professor and a filmmaker as wealthy elites continue? Do they think Mira Nair made Marvel films or something?

A ★★★★ review of Bride of Chucky (1998) And this is when I fell in love with the Chucky franchise. Hot Topic coded like a motherfucker. I mean that with love. Much to be said about how much more fun Chucky and his franchise are when it goes...

i had a great double feature halloween movie night with friends last week and got to introduce them to this banger. long live the queen, tiffany valentine boxd.it/bAmqxB

The Magnificence of Tony Todd In honor of the actor's passing I wrote about his tremendous and remarkably different performances in "Candyman" (1992) and the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" 1995 episode "The Visitor".

Outstanding: The Magnificence of Tony Todd in "Candyman" (1992) and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1995) by @angelicabastien.bsky.social

angelicabastien.substack.com/p/the-magnif...

When Everyone’s a Critic, Who Should You Trust? | KQED We talk to pop culture critic Angelica Jade Bastién and music critic Kelefa Sanneh about why traditional criticism should endure, even when everyone has a platform.

🎙️ON AIR:

We're talking with music critic Kelefa Sanneh and pop culture critic @angelicabastien.bsky.social about why traditional criticism should endure, even when everyone has a platform.

❓Where do you turn for reliable reviews?

📻 Listen:

A Wild Letterboxd List for Horror Lovers If you're a paying subscriber you get to check out this private Letterboxd list I made of what I am watching for this year's spooky season and beyond. Enjoy.

A short post with a fun Letterboxd horror list of what I am watching this season. angelicabastien.substack.com/p/a-wild-let...