Elizabeth Cantwell

I know everyone is feeling something similar right now, but it is SO bizarre to have to flip from watching videos of military troops beating citizens to, like, washing dishes and grading papers

this got me

Both films are about daughters who have to find a way to be who they are inside despite what their fathers think they want for them.

The Hours and Candyman are on constant rotation for me. So perfect.

That movie has some GENUINELY scary scenes. The seance really messed me up.

It’s all for you!

Totally in the realm of possibility!

Once again pondering what scary movie to ambush my kid(s?) with this October … we always do a classic monster movie but I’d love to push the 12yo just a little more. He’s done Poltergeist and Jaws and Evil Dead II and Terminator (not horror but totally horror adjacent) …

WHO did it, CNN? Actice voice, please.

"They're trying to convince people they can't do the things they've been doing easily for years - to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies - to write that for you." We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, "that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won't know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can't do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat. People are already doing this. You won't have to process grief, because you'll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via AI video call every day. One of the ways it's going to destroy humans, long before there's a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people." - author and filmmaker Justine Bateman from a piece by Emine Saner for the Guardian

Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman on generative AI

I know the school I teach at my not be a great test case (private, in LA) but when I told the kids today that I’d seen One Battle After Another and loved it, MANY of them said they had also either just seen it or were seeing it this weekend. Seems like a good sign for the youth and for the movies!

the best

maybe part of it is that they know the youth are more susceptible to unnecessarily buying merch and to attending overpriced concerts at any cost?

Got momentarily sad in the shower this morning thinking about how incredible Philip Seymour Hoffman would have been as a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club

Finally saw ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. Holy shit what a
MOTION PICTURE.

Postseason Kiké is not disappointing!! Also I absolutely love that Halloween season and baseball postseason happen at the same time, it’s all of my favorite things

Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times

Going into a unit on theories of labor/critiques of capitalism so we started watching Modern Times today and I do not regret to inform you that several teenagers called it "genius" and many laughed out loud.

Classic.

Thanks for reading!

Slap Shot (1977): The Courage To Teach One could criticize Reggie Dunlop (Newman), “player-coach” of the Charlestown Chiefs in George Roy Hill's chaotically raunchy Slap Shot, for a wide variety of character flaws & professional failings—b...

Posting again for the evening crowd. Maybe put on “Right Back Where We Started From” while you read.

Thank you to @carriecourogen.bsky.social and @chadperman.bsky.social for the very helpful edits AND to @garymillsfineart.bsky.social for the incredible art!!

p.s. I believe today is the last day to watch this on Netflix! If you’ve never seen it … maybe tonight is the night.

Thanks for the kind words!

Thank you, Todd! That means a lot!

I took probably too many words here to grapple with Paul Newman’s supposedly favorite role, Reggie Dunlop; what it means to be a good teacher; what it means to try to succeed in America; and how to subvert the systems that want to keep us down. Give it a read?

"some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily execute civilians" says today's New York Times, continuing their long tradition of whitewashing fascism

Absolute all-timer sentence in today's @nytimes.com

One of fascism's core operating strategies is to create a society of informants

I mean yes this is funny, but the fact that these unconstitutional stormtroopers are so directionless that they literally stand around waiting for random nonwhite delivery guys to bike past them is just pathetic. No mandate, no mission, no clue. Just racism.

A house decorated for Halloween with spider webs, orange lights, gravestones, and skeletons

Okay the house reflects my inner spirit now so I’m feeling as good as can be

this was one of the things that made me want to marry @ifyoucantwell.bsky.social