Gaslight Movie Sara Ali Khan

Read Gaslight Movie Review 2023 with 😱 Horror and 👻 🎃Thrills Moments!

Gaslight (2023) could have been a good horror movie...but they decided to cast Sara Ali Khan and put a horrible twist in the finale ending.

All the other actors around her are actually freakin talented and nuanced actors, which made her look worse. Damn...this was so disappointing. Had me rooting for the antagonists.

Shocktober 6: Gaslight

While Gaslight falls into the sphere of a crime thriller rather than strict horror, that doesn't stop it from hitting some absolutely gut-wrenching, disturbing moments during its portrayal of the psychological abuse tactics that its title is now used to identify. The conclusion is fantastically cathartic, reassuring, and even empowering – but for anyone who has experienced (or even just observed) that sort of abuse I imagine it would also prove triggering. Overall, an extremely powerful film.

See my Shocktober 2023 movie list here.

Fannish Year Review - 2023

Thank you for the tag @enigmaticxbee !

1. Your main fandom of the year: the x-files, my one and only. really my only fandom for awhile now.

2. Your favorite film this year: barbie was on the only movie i saw in theaters and i loved it! i also really enjoyed smile, thought it was actually scary and sosie bacon was great.

3. Your favorite book this year: hard to pick! i finally read the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid and loved it. malibu rising by the same author was good as well. and i have some questions for you by rebecca makkai, which read like a true crime podcast.

4. Your favorite album or song this year: it came out in 2022, but stick season by noah kahan continues to be on played on repeat.

5. Your favorite tv shows this year: i enjoyed the new seasons of never have i ever, you, black mirror, and the handmaid's tale (not actually new, but the latest season). as for completely new to me - i really liked dopesick, jury duty, and search party!

6. Your favorite tumblr community this year: x-files is the only community i'm a part of lmao.

7. Your best new fandom discovery of the year: kinda lame but anytime i see new fans of txf on tumblr, i get excited :)

8. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year: the lack of hype around the 30th anniversay. not on tumblr - i loved everyone's gifs and contributions in september. but no mention from david and/or gillian? c'mon.

9. Your tv/movie boyfriend and/or girlfriend of the year: mulder&scully4eva

10. Your biggest squeeze moment of the year: just the fact that people keep writing fics for a 30 year show - i love reading them all. but special shoutouts to gaslight by @sisterspooky1013 and pause by @cecilysass - there were both suspenseful & entertaining stories that sparked a lot of interesting discussion and theories! thank you for posting chapter by chapter, it felt like watching the show.

tagging @cyb3rpeach, @mandalorianmuffin, @gingerteaonthetardis, @cutemothman, @pennyserenade, @bakedbakermom, @suitablyaggrieved

ARC Review: An Earl to Remember by Stacy Reid

4.5/5. Releases 8/22/2023.

For when you're vibing with... the 80s bonkers classic Overboard!, amnesia with a dash of the hero almost drowning, very hilarious confused rich man antics, and some.... really active sex for a man who just had a severe head injury.

Georgianna Heyford has heard tell of the Earl of Stannis's rakish behavior; but she can't afford give up the chance to cater his expensive yacht party. Unfortunately, a run-in with the earl (otherwise known as Daniel) goes horribly awry, and she's quickly fired... only for the earl to end up overboard, washed ashore, and with amnesia shortly afterward. The only person he recognizes is Georgianna; he just doesn't know how he knows her. In order to avoid a scandal (and perhaps get some sweet revenge) Georgianna claims the mysterious man is her husband... But the more time she spends with Daniel, the more she begins to wish it wasn't all a lie.

Stacy Reid knows how to write a fun, kinda bonkers, super sexy book--she throws caution to the wind and writes what she wants. I can feel the joy in the pages.

Quick Takes:

--I love Overboard!, a movie that is somewhat controversial today due to the premise being "Kurt Russell tells rich bitch amnesiac Goldie Hawn that she's actually his wife and makes her act as a servant to him and his horrible redneck children". I hate the Overboard! gender-flipped remake for many reasons, in part because it doesn't go far enough. This book is a nice middle ground. The gender flip is right here, and Reid wrings it out for all the humor it's worth, because it's honestly fun to see a fancy fuckboy look aghast at this woman's hovel and go "there is no.... way... I live.... here". (Daniel, I'm a huge fan of your work.) The power divide is also a lot stronger in this setting, because, while Georgianna is a gentleman's daughter, she's not doing super well financially and is basically a single woman acting as a guardian to these younger girls in the 1800s, a time in which she has little power and little way to make a living. Which in turn makes Daniel's comeuppance more deserving. It all makes sense, even if the premise is objectively wacky.

--I also really liked how this man had to like? Learn how to do basic household chores? Learn how to DAD in a sense? If there's one thing I enjoy in a historical romance, it's a rake who knows how to fuck but doesn't super know how to do much else. Daniel is not a competent hero to begin with (though he's not, like, a total buffoon either). He has to learn competence, and though I'm not typically one to get all hot and bothered by a man doing basic housework, in this book............ it does a number on you.

--I think that Stacy Reid is also right to basically put most of the fault on Daniel in this iteration. In the original Overboard!, both parties are at fault. Goldie doesn't pawn Kurt for some labor. Kurt gaslights her into being an unpaid housekeeper/nanny (as a prank! It's meant to be temporary but then he falls in love! It's fine!). Mistakes were made. Here, I think that Georgianna's options being much more limited make the heartache more... intense? Because like, yeah, this man's family is looking for him and he deserves to know the truth and so on. But really, she does not have a lot of solid choices here. So her guilt feels more impactful because while she's fucking up, she's a good person who doesn't want to hurt him, and you can feel her falling in love with him, and you know he's falling in love with her but he just! Doesn't! Know! And that takes you to a good angst city, despite the book being in many ways super fluffy and hilarious.

--I love an emotional fallout moment, and ooh, the emotional fallout in this one is delicious. There's pain. There's vengeance. There's trickery. There's some "I was half a virgin when I met you" feeling to it, which I love immensely. Like, dude, if you're gonna be all "she's not my wife", you probably need to, I don't know, stop calling her your wife. Except don't, because I'm living for it.

The Sex Stuff:

Stacy Reid writes a hot sex scene, especially when it comes to her heroes going down, because. The enthusiasm with which a Stacy Reid hero goes to town is truly something to behold. There's also really good dirty talk in this one, a nice mixture of tenderness and hardcore fucking, and like, the best sense ever that this dude is absolutely obsessed with her. Also, there's an excellent scene where he details exactly how he's going to fuck her, and proceeds to do just that. Gotta appreciate follow through. That's what happens when a man has to do work for the first time ever in his life.

I loved An Earl to Remember. It's fun, it's like candy, it's hot, it's a little crazy. It's what I want a Stacy Reid novel to be.

Thanks to Entangled: Amara and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A Helping Hand by Celia Dale

Review

Started May 28 2023

Finished May 30 2023

This is a short but excellent read. It’s a story that on a surface level seems to be one of kindness and the summary of it gives it this appearance.

Older couple Maisie and Josh Evens take a holiday after the death of their paying guest Auntie Flo who Maisie as a Nurse had been taking care of in her old age. While on holiday they meet Cynthia and her Niece (and her only remaining family member) Lena. Cynthia is almost eighty and Lena feels that she is a burden on her lifestyle. Hitting it off with Evens, they arrange for Cynthia to move in with them to fill the gap Auntie Flo left.

It sounds nice right. A good deed by a couple who want to help and fill an empty place in their home. Until you notice the pattern they seem to be repeating. Controlling and taking over Cynthia’s activities, belonging, and finances leaving her to waste away in their guest room.

This book had me glued to it. The sinister plot underlying the surface-level story follows throughout. You only ever get inklings of the plot Maisie and Josh are orchestrating until it is all too late.

Written from multiple perspectives I found myself empathizing deeply with some of them and feeling deeply uneasy with others. One of the sections features the Evens gaslighting Cynthia, convincing her she is too poorly to leave the house anymore. The moment is written from Cynthia's perspective and I found myself close to tears, feeling her confusion and frustration as if it was me this was happening to.

I won't say too much more but if you are a fan of psychological horror this is the read for you. Though it was written in the sixties it remains shockingly relevant to modern readers and could almost be set in a modern world, if not for the references to The Great War and the relatively young age of the old characters compared to modern life expectancy.

If you enjoyed the plot of the movie I Care Alot then I am sure you will enjoy this book. It follows the same idea of the usurping of the rights of the elderly.

This is a great read for anyone who, like me, has older family members who are on the more difficult side to be around. It was hard for me not to compare Cynthia to my own Grandmother- in some ways I feel I understand her better now.

Mini Movie Review

You Hurt My Feelings (2023).

Grade C plus.

A movie starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as an aging writer married to a mediocre therapist, with an underachieving twentysomething son. Okay, so the first thing I will say is that even though all of the characters in the movie seem to be canonically agnostic or Christian, it has a very Jewish New York feel to it. Like all of the characters, even the ones who go to church and volunteer at their local church, seem to have a very Woody Allen feel to them. That’s not a knock, it’s just confusing. If you wanna have stereotypically Jewish characters, it’s weird to have a character that talks and acts like Woody Allen, but who goes to church constantly and volunteers daily at their local church charity shop. It was purposeful enough that it almost feels like they were deliberately trying to not make the characters Jewish, which seemed ever so slightly problematic. It had a very Home for Purim feel to it, in reference to the movie within Christopher Guest’s 2006 movie For Your Consideration where an independent movie about a Jewish family reconnecting during Purim ends up being whitewashed until eventually it’s a group of Christians getting together for Thanksgiving. In any event, You Hurt My Feelings is basically just about nebbishy people whose problems come about because they are not assertive enough at establishing boundaries with others. As soon as they start doing that near the end of the movie, all of their problems start to go away. All of the characters kind of seemed a little bit whiny and in their own head, so the happy ending is that they finally get out of their own way. I didn’t really like the movie, but I did acknowledge that it told a story well to an extent, but it just feels like this is movie about middle-aged burnout that we’ve seen before. It didn’t really seem to be covering ground that the movie American Beauty didn’t cover back in the 90s. The characters were in a rut and then they got out of the rut. It serves to bring truth to that old axiom by Roger Ebert, that the difference between a good movie and a bad movie is half an hour. This movie was saved by the fact that it was only 90 minutes long.

Oh, I almost forgot! The reason why I liked this movie was because of the underachieving son, calling out his parents for constantly pushing this “potential” on him. Him complaining that he always felt like a failure, because they always hyped him up and implied that he could be amazing when he was really just mediocre. There is something toxic about being “supportive“ in this gaslighting way, where you’re brightsiding the person and not acknowledging reality. I really appreciated him calling out his parents for the fact that his life as an adult felt like it wasn’t good enough because the expectations was always on him being the best, and not just simply being happy and productive.

Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “Who To Believe” by Edwin Hill, Kensington Books, January 23, 2023

Wow! Edwin Hill, the Author of “Who to Believe” has written an intense, captivating, and intriguing thriller. This is a book filled with betrayals, suspicious motives, danger, secrets, gaslighting, and murder. I would love to see Edwin Hill’s “Who to Believe” in a TV series, or a movie, or perhaps a game like Clue. The genres for this novel are Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological thriller…

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Liner Notes (November 4th, 2023)

I hope everyone had a good week this week. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here. If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here. A Few Things * This will probably be another shortish newsletter. It’s a slower music week, and it’s the time of the year when there’s not much happening in the music world, and I have a lot of family commitments. It’s nice to take some time off and enjoy my favorite time of the year though. It’s wild to think that next week will be Hannah and my fourth wedding anniversary. The plan is to relax a little, have some nice meals, and get some things done around the house to prepare for the holidays. In Case You Missed It * Review: Taking Back Sunday – 152 * Review: Boys Like Girls – Sunday At Foxwoods * Green Day Announce 2024 Tour * Anberlin Share Matty Mullins Vocal Clip * Major Labels Trying to Stop Artists from Re-Recording Songs * Taking Back Sunday Play Fan Wedding * Brian Fallon Reviews Every Gaslight Anthem Album * The Gaslight Anthem Perform on CBS Saturday Morning * 20th Anniversary Edition of ‘Take This To Your Grave’ * Albums in Stores – Nov 3rd, 2023 Music Thoughts * Things I enjoyed that came out yesterday were the final Atreyu EP, creating a nice 12-song album that leans more into their pop side but works for me this time of year. And Spiritbox also released an awesome EP that continues their hot streak. * My week was spent between the current releases (Blink-182, Gaslight Anthem, Taking Back Sunday) and revisiting some albums that always feel great in November (Matt Nathanson, Patrick Droney, anything Ace Enders touches). The Stats: Over the past week, I listened to 36 different artists, 45 different albums and 443 different tracks (479 scrobbles). And you can follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm. Entertainment Thoughts * From the very first one to the latest, I’m a sucker for all the Mission: Impossible movies. I enjoyed Dead Reckoning, but I did feel like it was hurt by only being a “part one.” There are some great action scenes and set pieces. But not quite up to the level as my favorites from the franchise on first watch. * We did a bunch of Halloween movies last week: Talk to Me was the best of the bunch, The Blackening was a lot of fun, and Suitable Flesh was weird. * Whenever I think I’m about to just cancel Netflix they release something that pulls me back in. Currently, that’s Bodies. The first four episodes have pulled me in. Curious to see where it goes. Random and Personal Stuff * Next week’s project is to get the bedroom track lights fixed. The power supply for them died, and of course, they don’t make it anymore. After talking to a few electricians, they all think the whole system probably needs to be replaced because of how old it is (like 15 years?), and they don’t make anything compatible anymore. So my “this shouldn’t be too annoying to fix” project became a “this is going to be absolutely obnoxious” project real fast. Ten Songs Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days. * Spiritbox – Ultraviolet * The Beatles – Now and Then * Sigrid – Borderline * Blink-182 – Turpintine * Taking Back Sunday – Juice 2 Me * The Gaslight Anthem – The Weatherman * Patrick Droney – We Got Old This Year * Matt Nathanson – Soundtrack * There Will Be Firewords – Smoke Machines (Summer Moon) * Paint it Black – Dominion This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music. Community Watch The trending and popular threads in our community this week include: * NFL Gameday Week 9 * Nutella vs. Cookie Butter * Kevin Drew – Aging (November 3, 2023) * MGMT – Loss Of Life (February 23, 2024) * FOOTBALLHEAD – Overthinking Everything (March 1, 2024) * Tour Prediction and Speculation Thread * Video… https://chorus.fm/features/articles/liner-notes-november-4th-2023/

Yesterday, I was looking up different PSA posters for a vague fanart idea.

A while ago, I drew a trio of El fanart that I was planning to attach to the meme "gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss", because apparently, I'm having way too much fun making fun of her and there's no other way I want to draw her anymore. My blog reflects a pretty odd progression of going from indifference about El, to annoyance with her fanbase, to frustration with her choices as a character, to finally accepting that I probably dislike her now. (Which is a shame, because I wanted to get into her ship with Khalid.)

My blog also reflects an odd progression from a dedication to only posting about the things I love and positive fandom sentiments, to becoming comfortable with expressing things I dislike (which I attribute to YouTube movie reviewers being far too entertaining when they talk about bad movies), to this point now where I've allowed myself to dislike characters and post about my dislike of certain characters. It's so odd, reveling in my own solo fan negativity. But it is fun to just dump on fictional things sometimes; I can admit that now.

So since I can't draw El without feeling it's worth it without also drawing Claude and Dima, I was thinking of making it into a set of "gaslight gatekeep girlboss", "manipulate mansplain malewife", and "live laugh love". Just to complete the meme. But I never got around to finishing it.

But lately, I've been watching the Netflix Nimona 2023 movie, while noticing all the worldbuilding in the background's propaganda posters. And now I'm wondering if I could turn that half-finished El fanart into a propaganda poster or if I should start some new sketches. It might be interesting to make propaganda posters for each of the 3 major countries in Fodlan. But I think I'd just feel gross if I drew a poster, glorifying El and the Adrestian Empire's colonizing war. But if it was in the style of a propaganda poster whose perspective which history has deemed demonstrably wrong, then the irony of the text trying to glorify El, would probably save it for me. I don't know why, but even though I prefer not to draw El, and I have avoided drawing her for the most part, every once in a while I just wish I could draw something that makes fun of her. I guess self-expression through drawing can't be helped.

But again, I'd feel better about wasting time/effort drawing El, if I draw Claude and Dima too, for a full set of Lords---and also so I could spend more time drawing House Leaders that I actually like. lol So I began to wonder what "propaganda posters" would be appropriate for Claude and Dima? Recently I was reminded that one of the most common jokes in the Claude fanbase is that, despite all his self-proclaimed devious scheming, all he wants to do is end racism and foster multicultural acceptance. So Claude's posters should definitely be PSAs about multicultural diversity, acceptance, and anti-racism. That's the type of "propaganda" that would represent Claude. lol So I spent yesterday reading this article about "A Brief History of PSA Posters", but I really want to look at more examples. The funny thing is that a lot of anti-racism PSAs that I remember, are usually not posters, but videos. Like the reminders of what to do when you see hate crimes/violence against the Asian community, because of all that pandemic blame unjustly shifted onto Asians.

A lot of these anti-racism or pro-multiculturalism PSAs have a very cartoony, stylized art style. So the contrast between my growing ideas about Adrestia propaganda posters being very serious, jingoistic, with realistic art styles and severe tones, versus Leicester propaganda posters being mostly cartoony PSAs...It's silly. And maybe that means I really should do the project. lol

But what would Faerghus "propaganda posters" be about? And should they represent Dimitri's personal ideals or the ideals reflected by Faerghus's actions as a whole nation? Because those western Faerghus nobles were so concerned over losing power, that they orchestrated the Tragedy of Duscur, just because King Lambert wanted to make some progressive changes and NOT conquer Duscur. I think that as a Dimitri fan myself, I'd want a poster that reflects Dimitri's good, personal ideals.

But why aren't I affording that to El fans in this project? Because this project idea is for me, and I want to make fun of her. LOL

I should also read this: "Public Service Advertising and Propaganda" by Project Muse

70 New Works in (Goncharov 1973) by ksixjs

============= Links

Play the game See other reviews of the game

============= Synopsis

Browse 70 new works of Goncharov (1973) fanfic. Fake fics you can't read for a fake movie you can't see.

============= Other Info

70 New Works in (Goncharov 1973) is a Twine (Harlowe) piece, submitted to the Goncharov Game Jam.

Status: Completed Genre: Unreality, Meme, Meta

CW: AO3 tags (some are n s f w, but that's AO3 for you)

============= Playthrough

Played: 3-Sept-2023 Playtime: around lost track... but it's now long :P Rating: - /5 (no rating) Thoughts: Gaslight, Gatekeep, Goncharov

============= Review

70NW is essentially a one page game emulating the (in)famous fanfiction website Archive of Our Own, listing Goncharov fanfics - texts unavailable to you aside from their tags and blurb. You can click on different elements to filter the 70 fics into smaller groups.

While you can't technically read each of those fanfics - ironic, considering you can't really watch the movie either - the elements of each fic may give enough to infer what they could be about. From the title, to the blurb, or the tags including different characters, themes, content warnings, or story structure. Many will refer to specific scenes or motif of the "movie", or a specific ship. Some fill the gaps the movie didn't cover, some deep dive into non-canon territory. Some take the alternate universe approach, others have crossovers (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Turnabout Clocktower)

The "game" both makes fun of the meme itself with the deranged theories that sparked during the craze and of fanfic websites like AO3 with its as deranged tags and fanfics (honestly). Even though I never really frequented these fanfic sites, the game does a pretty good job at takes their likeness (a more yellow-ish coffee stain background might have been too on the nose...), as well as the representing the deluge of fanfics submitted to those websites soon after the meme took over Tumblr (there are over 300 of them right now on AO3).

Out of all 70 non-fic, The fruit vendor didn’t deserve this?? was my favourite. When is the crossover with the Cabbage man of ATLA planned?

eARC Review: Last Girls Standing

A HUGE thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS: In this queer YA psychological thriller, the sole surviving counselors of a summer camp massacre search to uncover the truth of what happened that fateful night, but what they find out might just get them killed.

Sloan and Cherry. Cherry and Sloan. They met only a few days before masked men with machetes attacked the summer camp where they worked, a massacre that left the rest of their fellow counselors dead. Now, months later, the two are inseparable, their traumatic experience bonding them in ways no one else can understand.

But as new evidence comes to light and Sloan learns more about the motives behind the ritual killing that brought them together, she begins to suspect that her girlfriend may be more than just a survivor—she may actually have been a part of it. Cherry tries to reassure her, but Sloan only becomes more distraught. Is this gaslighting or reality? Is Cherry a victim or a perpetrator? Is Sloan confused, or is she seeing things clearly for the very first time? Against all odds, Sloan survived that hot summer night. But will she survive what comes next?

RELEASE DATE: 8/15/2023

See my full review under the cut!

Before I start my review, I need to disclaim what probably goes without saying: there are MASSIVE trigger warnings in this book for trauma survival, violence survival, child abuse, child abandonment, cult activity, cult violence, blood, gore, and probably more I can't remember off the cuff. Readers are encouraged to proceed with caution.

Now, let's get to my take:

I came into this book expecting something of a fun summer slasher, but that's not what this book is.

Ever leave a horror movie thinking: okay, that was fun, but if this were real the Final Girl would be super messed up...how do you deal with surviving after?

Dugan deserves an immense amount of credit for crafting a narrative around a character who is suffering from a deteriorating mental state in the aftermath of trauma. Because Sloan is so unreliable, the reader is constantly torn between thinking she's jumping at shadows and suspecting she's being gaslit. It's a masterclass of character development that has the reader hanging on to the last page, desperate for the answers!

I wish the ending lived up to its promise. Not because the answers are disappointing, but because so much is left unanswered.

The story basically set up two outcomes: either Sloan was right to be suspicious, or sometimes trauma survivors have to come to grips with the idea that horrific things can happen to us for no reason.

Somehow, we ended up getting a worse, third path: repeating cycles of violence with no clarity as to the mysteries we were set up for.

As a reader, I was also left deeply troubled by the implications of telling a story about a deteriorating, repeatedly traumatized person that basically ends with her being destroyed by what happened to her and taking other people down with her. You don't always have to leave readers with a happy ending, but this one leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

I'd give this book 2.5 stars for the plot. I round up to 3 for Dugan's demonstrable skill in the craft of writing.

Gaslight Movie: Review | Release Date (2023) | Songs | Music | Images | Official Trailers | Videos | Photos | News

GASLIGHT is the story of a daughter and her missing father. Mishri aka Meesha (Sara Ali Khan) returns to her hometown in Gujarat to meet her father (Shataf Ahmed Figar) after years. Meesha can’t walk and had separated from her father after a tragedy in the palace and also after…&nbspher father remarried. As soon as Meesha returns, she’s welcomed by her stepmother, Rukmani (Chitrangda Singh).…

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LONGFORM (4000 Words+)

How TIFF Lightbox Became a Money Pit, CB, 2024

Canadian TV’s Superficial Diversity, Walrus, 2022

Wonder Women, Hazlitt, 2020*

How the Internet Killed Feminism, Jezebel, 2019

The Fred Rogers We Know, Hazlitt, 2018

Under the Hollywood Gaslight, Hazlitt, 2018

The Evolution of Sarah Polley, Hazlitt, 2017

 Sofia Coppola's Eternal Becoming, Hazlitt, 2017

Same New Archie Andrews, Hazlitt, 2017

Adrienne Shelly Will Take You There, Hazlitt, 2016

John Hughes’ Women, Hazlitt, 2016

Winona, Forever, Hazlitt, 2016

Alanis in Chains, Hazlitt, 2015**

The Secret History of Flashdance, BuzzFeed, 2014

ESSAYS (Research-Based)

Why the Toronto Arts Are Crumbling, Local, 2024

The History of That CK Ad, NYT Magazine, 2024

Gerard Butler’s Camp Masc, NYT Magazine, 2023

The Visible Man, Baffler, 2020

Very 80′s Fairytale: 16 Candles, Arrow Films, 2019

Tokens of Appreciation, The Baffler, 2018

The Fugitive Still Won't Quit, Atlantic, 2018

Vanity Foul, Baffler, 2018

No Filter, Baffler, 2018

Who Decides What’s ‘Sexy’?, NYT Magazine, 2018

The Whiteness of Holiday Movies, Walrus, 2017

The Personal Essay Isn’t Dead, Walrus, 2017

Everybody Hurts: MSCL’s soundtrack, Hazlitt, 2016

FEATURES (Interview-Based)

David Lynch’s Thinking Room, FT Mag, 2024

Cory Michael Smith, GQ, 2023

The Movies Never Got Over Gekko, FT Mag, 2023

Actors Seeking Direction, NYT, 2023

Where Did Cliffhangers Go? FT Magazine, 2023

Valley Girl, Like, Deserved Better, Atlantic, 2023

Marlee Matlin Rights the Past, L.A. Times, 2023

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Movie, Atlantic, 2022

Severance’s The You You Are, Vanity Fair, 2022

Deep Water’s Sexless Thrills, Toronto Star, 2022

Animal Filmmaking’s New Era, Ringer, 2022

Diana Without Diana, LARB, 2022

Susie's Popping Curb Wardrobe, Gawker, 2021

Welcome to the Juliaverse, Grub Street, 2021

Hollywood’s Thai Cave Machine, Defector, 2021

Coronavirus & the Influencer Bubble, Vice, 2020

Reality Bites' Perfect Gen-X Irony, Atlantic, 2019

They Speak Gilmore, Don’t They? Hazlitt, 2016

Saving Nelvana, Harper’s, 2015

BEST OF DEFECTOR

On Space and Voice in Art, December 29, 2023

On Prescriptive Morality in Art, October 27, 2023

On the Unaffordability of Concerts, July 4, 2023

On Indie Cinema as Genre Cinema, May 10, 2023

On Television and its Endings, March 24, 2023

On the False Equivalency of AI, February 20, 2023

On Lists, December 15, 2022

On TV’s Vibes Cartel, July 20, 2022

PROFILES

Bilal Baig, Maclean’s, 2022

Meredith MacNeill, Walrus, 2021^

Michael K, Jezebel, 2018

REVIEWS

Abbott Elementary, American Prospect, 2022

Love & Anarchy, Defector, 2021

Collective, Defector, 2021

The Investigation, Defector, 2021

The Power Notebooks, Gen (Medium), 2020

COLUMNS

Pipe Wrench, June 2021-April 2022

“Cold Comforts,” Defector, June-December 2021

Longreads, October 2018-May 2020

^45th National Magazine Award nominee (2022) *Best Canadian Essays 2021 (Biblioasis, 2021) **39th National Magazine Award nominee (2016)

Liner Notes (October 21st, 2023)

Just a quick one this week. If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here. Thank You! This week’s newsletter is going to be a quick one. Over the past few weeks I’ve been using my free time to write a review of Blink-182’s new album, One More Time…, and I published it yesterday. With all my extra mental energy going into that, I need at least a week to recoup and give my writing muscles some time to recover. I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for all the kind words sent my way over the past few days in regards to the review. I won’t have time to go thank every person individually, but please know I read your words and they touched me. I’ve always known this band resonated with people and to see that reflected by so many, and how many people connected with what I wrote, means so much to me. Thank you. When I sat down and started writing I quickly knew I wanted this to be my defining piece about the band. I’ve written about them for years, reviewed a lot of their albums in various forms, but never wrote the piece about what they mean to me (and so many others), and I wanted to give that a shot. I wanted that to exist in the world. In the end, it’s probably my favorite thing I’ve ever written. As I said on a few social media posts: My whole thing, from the start, is that I’ve wanted to treat this genre seriously when no one else did. I hope you can relate. If not with this specific band, to one that’s changed your life. Thank you for reading! And for subscribing to this newsletter. I’ll be back soon! Lots of other great music coming up to write about: Gaslight Anthem, Taking Back Sunday, KC Rae! And all the stuff from the past few weeks that came out while I was head down finishing the review: Menzingers, awakebutstillinbed, Boys Like Girls, Callous Daoboys, Marvelous 3, Citizen, and others I’m probably forgetting. In Case You Missed It * Review: Blink-182 – One More Time… * Blink-182 – The Zane Lowe Interview * Blink-182 Unveil Album Cover * Alkaline Trio Announce New Album * Motion City Soundtrack Announce ‘I Am the Movie’ Tour * When We Were Young Set Times * Blink-182 – “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got” * Taking Back Sunday Reissue Two Albums * Albums in Stores – Oct 20th, 2023 Music Thoughts The Stats: Over the past week, I listened to 23 different artists, 28 different albums, and 310 different tracks (465 scrobbles). Here is my Top 9 from last week, and you can follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm. Community Watch The trending and popular threads in our community this week include: * NFL Gameday Week 7 * Alkaline Trio – Blood, Hair and Eyeballs (January 26, 2024) * 2024 NFL Draft * Rolling Stone’s 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time * Mannequin Pussy- I Got Heaven (March 1, 2024) * Tour Prediction and Speculation Thread * Video Games : Game Harder JFG Edition * Men’s Soccer (Football) Thread * Nintendo * 2023-2024 NFL Season Thread The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by Jason Tate in the “Blink-182 – One More Time…” thread. Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here. Subscribe to Our Newsletter Sign up for a free weekly newsletter full of thoughts on music, entertainment, technology, and other cool stuff. Your email address stays completely private. --- Please consider becoming a member so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/features/articles/liner-notes-october-21st-2023/