Screened the first episode of Mussolini: Son of the Century in class today and I cannot speak highly enough of its gargantuan soundscape. I don't know that I have it in my to rewatch the series given the world, but it is a truly enormous piece of television. Luca is unbelievable.

Oh, oh! I've been waiting for this one.

Pixar Knows It’s Running Out of Ideas, and That’s Okay The once-mighty Pixar has not been generating culture-defining megahits like it used to. The modest and charming ‘Hoppers’ probably won’t change that trend, but your kids will have fun with it.

The once-mighty Pixar has not been generating culture-defining megahits like it used to. The modest and charming ‘Hoppers’ probably won’t change that trend, but your kids will have fun with it.

Pixar Knows It’s Running Out of Ideas, and That’s Okay The mostly fun Hoppers is like Avatar with a bit of The Wild Robot thrown in. It can’t live up to Pixar’s greatest triumphs, but, really, what can?

With the derivative but amiable HOPPERS, Pixar seems to admit it’s running out of ideas. www.vulture.com/article/hopp...

Airport hit too

Long before he was the chief film critic for “Rolling Stone,” David Fear discovered “Guide for the Film Fanatic” at the mall bookstore, and it became “my Bible, my Torah, my Quran.” We discuss the genius of Mel Brooks’s #YoungFrankenstein https://www.oneheatminute.com/guide-for-the-film-fanatic

(pounding on table with fork & knife) woke 2! woke 2! woke 2!

I appreciate that one of the only things nearly everyone who follows the league agrees upon is that Lu Dort is a chicken shit punk ass that everyone hates.

Somebody Turn the Lights On It is perhaps silly to expect anything resembling integrity or creativity from a movie called ‘Scream 7,’ but this one is more tiresome and cynical than most. Not to mention darker.

It is perhaps silly to expect anything resembling integrity or creativity from a movie called ‘Scream 7,’ but this one is more tiresome and cynical than most. Not to mention darker.

Somebody should turn on the lights, literally and figuratively. Williamson, as many know, came onboard after two sets of directors departed the project. Along the way, Scream 7 became a source of controversy when Melissa Barrera, who had starred in the two previous entries, was fired over social-media posts critical of Israel in the wake of its invasion of Gaza. Soon thereafter, her co-star Jenna Ortega also left, and some organizations are now boycotting the release. But through it all, one thing remained clear: Scream 7, for whatever reason, had to be made. Think about this for a second. It didn’t matter if the directors bailed, if the stars were fired, if the script had to be completely redone and new actors and plotlines brought on. The film had to happen. Not because someone had a story to tell, or characters to develop, or ideas to explore, or a new twist to throw out there. No, there was simply a franchise to maintain and a title with a number that needed a movie with a release date. The first Scream skewered Hollywood cynicism. The latest embodies it.

I love it when @bilgeebiri.bsky.social goes for the jugular.

www.vulture.com/article/scre...

Farihah Zaman Appointed Artistic Director Of Prestigious True/False Documentary Film Fest The True/False Film Fest's new artistic director will be Farihah Zaman, according to an announcement by the nonprofit Ragtag Film Society.

This is great, great news.
deadline.com/2026/02/true...

Somebody Turn the Lights On The first Scream skewered Hollywood cynicism. The latest, Scream 7, embodies it.

SCREAM 7. You’ll find more charm and creativity in the most middling FINAL DESTINATION set piece. www.vulture.com/article/scre...

Film Festivals Have Always Been Political Film festivals have always been political, no matter which officials pretend otherwise. Just look at the winners of the 2026 Berlin Film Festival.

Film festivals have always been political, no matter which officials pretend otherwise. Just look at the winners of the 2026 Berlin Film Festival.

Film Festivals Have Always Been Political No matter who pretends otherwise. Just look at the winners of this year’s Berlinale.

Some thoughts on the Berlinale, on film festivals as political spaces, and reviews of YELLOW LETTERS and SALVATION, the two films by Turkish directors that took Berlin's two top prizes. www.vulture.com/article/film...

The Answers Issue 2026 Your questions are our command.

I love the @wcp.bsky.social answers issue!

Lots of useful stuff here, like what's going on with the National Guard and the Georgetown gondola, plus a grab bag of other stuff like relationship advice and where to find underground sex clubs.

Ok, that last part is useful, too.

They beat a blind refugee who speaks no English for failing to obey police commands he could not understand. Then instead of apologizing, they charged him with possession of a “weapon”—HIS WALKING STICK. Then they dumped him miles from home without notifying anyone, after which he was found dead.

You're gonna be rich! RICH!

I interviewed Roblox's head of parental advocacy for Vulture about safety on the platform 👀

Anybody need anything from the bodega

This is a huge deal, and the number of people I see pooh-poohing this as just a loss to a supposedly elite group sucks. A) most of the jobs that disappeared were the working-class ones; B) bye bye not just to local coverage but to arts, sports, everything that’s not tech/biz/politics/opinion/advice

I can't get over this number: in 2007, there were 360,000 newspaper jobs. Now, there are 80,000. "My local paper sucked!" Sure. What sucks even more? The void. "I get all my news from the Guardian!" No, the Guardian doesn't report on your town council, your school board, local cops.

The murderers of the news are many, chief among them vulture capitalists, big tech, & neoliberal political hacks. But also playing our part were those who wanted other people to labor for us for free, or wanted to replace news with indignation loops. We are complicit. I count myself in this number.

This rules.

It wasn’t playing in competition.

A Great African Director Makes a Triumphant Return Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars is a movie as bewitching as its title.

SOUMSOUM, THE NIGHT OF THE STARS, the latest from the great Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, premiered at Berlin this week. A beautiful film. www.vulture.com/article/revi...

How an Embittered Brit Decimated the Washington Post Inside Will Lewis’s disastrous attempts to revitalize the paper.

must-read from @charlottetklein.bsky.social on the disastrous Will Lewis tenure at @washingtonpost.com nymag.com/intelligence...

I made this very same point on one of the few podcasts I've appeared on. We were talking about MILLER'S CROSSING and BARTON FINK, and watching those movies again made me think "Turturro is amazing and no one ever points that out anymore."

More praise for @noahsegan.bsky.social’s new movie!

Tom Morello Spreads the Gospel of Judas Priest in Berlin Something exciting often happens when musicians make movies about other musicians, like The Ballad of Judas Priest.

Went a little personal with this one... On Tom Morello and Sam Dunn's THE BALLAD OF JUDAS PRIEST. www.vulture.com/article/revi...

Genuinely I am in a “fuck everything” mood today but this is a small bright spot.