@thehighsign.bsky.social
Film critic at Slate; co-host of the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast; repped by the Cheney Agency; member NYFCC. Camera Man, my book on Buster Keaton, is out: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Camera-Man/Dana-Stevens/9781501134203
RETVRN (though actually the destruction of all that rolling stock is kind of alarming to watch!). I love that one of the trains is named "Old Man Depression."
OK but that one landed though
How is he holding the cards with both hands driving the car?
That works too
I don't remember Sam's reply but I know I chose to marry Wagner, get down w/ MBJ, & reluctantly send Sensei to that dojo in the sky (on the flimsy reasoning that he was so at peace with himself that maybe he would be OK with it?)
Happy birthday! Funeral Parade of Roses
Hope you enjoy! Every time someone asks me about the movie I try to steer them toward reading the book first--it's SO good.
Hope they read & were shamed by @moryan.bsky.social's scathing open letter (but that would assume they can feel shame): www.moryan.com/an-open-lett...
ICYMI: @thehighsign.bsky.social weighed in on Timothée Chalamet's comments about the importance of movie-going vs. streaming for the future of the industry, plus the social/political meaning of the two Best Picture frontrunners.
www.wnyc.org/story/oscar-...
Thanks! I always love going on this show--Brian's questions are great and the callers tend to have smart things to say.
Going on @thebrianlehrershow.bsky.social at around 11:30 am to talk about the state of the Oscar race, kicking off with a discussion of Timothée Chalamet's recent viral disses of opera & ballet. Listen live at WNYC.org.
Thanks, Angie!
Highly recommended jag (& the books I would start with are already right there in the piece)!
Because the Slate search feature doesn't work well for older articles, I'll often Google my name plus a movie title to remind myself if I've reviewed something. I would say close to 1/3 of the time, the top AI result either attributes my writing to someone else at the site or their writing to me.
I needed this today. So sick of even the most basic search query immediately bringing up multiple facts that are simply wrong. Just let me do my own *(*^A%ing research! Go away!
A more than valid day's worth of things. So sorry for your loss. 💜
They just tweeted it out!
I would say in the case of both book & film Hamnet is not guilty on that score. The child is a significant character--whole sections of the book take place in his consciousness--& the little boy who plays him in the movie is sensational.
As the essay gets into, the film is _way_ less successful than the book at maintaining the mystery of the connection between Shakespeare's life (what little we know of it) & his work. As a movie critic I am far from always thinking the movie is worse than the book, but in this case? Read the book.
Thanks! In the book it's clearer--because you're hearing the Agnes character's thoughts--that he has basically switched places with Hamnet by taking the part of the ghost. But you're right, really the ending is about the power of art to transmute our experience into something new & be changed by it.
Thanks, Corey! I really recommend reading the novel, however you felt about the movie. It's phenomenally good & all those moments of magic realism feel completely earned.
Many thanks!
I wrote something--4000 words' worth of something!--for the Yale Review about Hamnet the book, Hamnet the movie, & the riddle of representing Shakespeare's life on the page & on the screen.
Yes! The shape is kind of a throwback to 100 years before.
1910 Poiret design that I would happily wear to a formal event in 2026. That embroidered sash—so whimsical! And the sheer jacket over the stripes!
His name is Statler?! 😭
Happy happy! Hope you have a great day & a year in which all those goals--even writing three new songs!--are achieved.
Like the 160 schoolgirls. They surely held that false belief.
She’s the entire Village People
Give the people their goose