jorge

One of the things I try to write about is Severance's obsession with explaining and connecting every puzzle, but i think the show wants to explain the wrong things. This season brings race in -- but then refuses to do or say anything about it and it's relation to labor (see Gemma & Milchick)

Severance finale came out. Read my review on @thenation.com :

www.thenation.com/article/cult...

The Workplace Nightmares of “Severance” The appeal of the Apple TV+ series is how it dramatizes our alienation from labor.

The workplace nightmares of Severance not only dramatizes our alienation from labor but how capitalism alienates us from ourselves.

Very excited that this cluster is out in the world. 🙏🏼

The Empty Thrills of Alfonso Cuarón’s “Disclaimer” Why did the great Mexican filmmaker make a soapy thriller?

I did review Alfonso Cuaron's television show -- a show that wants to be a soapy thriller but gets bogged down in voiceover and didacticism.

www.thenation.com/article/cult...

I find it so funny when people are like, “I like Lin-Manuel Miranda, I just wish he weren’t so corny.” Like, what do you think the #1 requirement for a composer of musical theatre is.

dear god

The decadent evil guys are all effeminate and the real men are sweaty and muscle-y.

This is exactly the kind of chosen boy storytelling that Dune 2 thought it was critiquing

I watched Gladiator II last night.

The good: Ridley Scott can still direct the hell out of an action sequence -- all the gladiator battles are sick. Denzel is indeed as much fun as everyone is saying.

The bad: The storytelling does not seem to have advanced in 24 years. Everything is shorthand.

Time to check in on my little friends at Meerkat Manor

Having finally caught up with industry (devastated)... what tv show should i start?

Best of the 2020s so far:

What's going on over here?

What’s Missing From “Dune: Part Two” While Frank Herbert’s original series was about the dangers of messianism, Denis Villeneuve’s rendition wields ambivalence like a secret weapon in its effort to avoid the tough questions.

Is Dune about The Chosen One, or a critique of chosen one narratives?

I wrote about how the movie's built-in ambivalence doesn't lead to greater complexity, and lets viewers off the hook instead.

www.thenation.com/article/cult...

"Unlike the flat landscape of a traditional western, the horizon in [Killers of the Flower Moon] is not an unbounded space of American freedom. It is hedged in by the upward sprays of oil and the stark verticality of oil rigs."

I reviewed the new Scorsese www.thenation.com/article/cult...