Will Sloan
@willsloanesq.bsky.social
Modern-day folk hero. For a good time, call willsloan.ca
If you write a book, you will receive millions of AI-generated emails offering to promote it. They are all, without exception, fascinated to look beyond Ed Wood's established reputation, considering him as an maverick independent who crosses the boundary between high and low art.
Digger is a good example of how reception affects perception, because the message "art can't speak truth to power" coming from a two-time Oscar-winning director and the most famous movie star ever only feels subversive when their movie turns out to be the biggest flop of all time
Shane Gillis... tired of his tentative "I'm a bad widdle boy" body language onstage. He probably thinks it defuses "offensive" material, but it just fails whenever he's not performing to an audience of his Patreon subscribers. Just say your #problematic jokes and own them!
I'm pretty deep in my 30s and not once have I ever questioned that Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot are living beings who think and have feelings. People tell me that they are puppets and I just don't know what to say to those people.
A movie's reception is very important to its meaning. Monsieur Verdoux, Freddy Got Fingered, Southland Tales, etc are all made more interesting because audiences rejected them. But for me personally, Digger - a movie by the director of BABEL!!! - really puts this to the test.
I remember there was a great episode of SModcast from, I dunno, maybe 2009 wherein Kevin talked about learning about the Six-Day War for the first time. It was during the production of Cop Out. Someone should try to find that. My contribution to October 7 discourse.
Watching Old Groucho on The Dick Cavett Show. He's really upset about the musical "Oh! Calcutta!" and is going off on a long, joke-free riff about disliking dirty movies and plays. He predicts there will be a resurgence of clean movies and plays. Tepid applause from the audience.
A lot of people lamenting the Paramount/Warner merger and fearing David Ellison's control over the media are forgetting that we have three secret weapons at our disposal, currently lurking high up in the Warner water tower.
I've been enjoying Hackney Diamonds by the Rolling Stones lately. Last week I put it on and my significant other said, "Hey, this is pretty good, what is this?" and I'll cherish her stunned reaction when I told her.
This is really important. From a 1970 issue of Screw Magazine, here is a review of an erotic play starring one “Sylvester E. Stallone." Al Goldstein describes Stallone's penis as "not so immense or threatening as to make you insecure readers not take your wives"
Digger looks poised to flop but I don't see what's so notable about that. Movies lose $100 million every week now. Nothing matters.
Very exciting news out of Hollywood today. Warner Bros makes great movies. Paramount makes great movies. Put them together... well heck, it's simple math that movies are going to get twice as great.
Though he bestrode the narrow world like a Colossus throughout the 2000s, George W. Bush is seldom seen or remarked-upon nowadays - a victim of wilful amnesia among the American public. And in the cultural sphere, the exact same is true of Jay Leno.
The New York Times’ coverage of Iraq in the aughts, then Gaza and trans issues in the 2020s has made the world a manifestly worse place anyone who works for it should be at least intellectually honest about that.
Al Goldstein's rave review of Carolee Schneemann's experimental film classic FUSES in Screw Magazine
These movies came out within two weeks of each other and nobody noticed or cared.
Watching Sylvester Stallone's New York Times interview. He comes across very thoughtful, self-aware, and even humble. He claims he's now "anti-war" and that the perception of him as a conservative is wrong! Anyway I'm just going to pretend I haven't seen all the accounts he follows on Instagram...
"Homosexual Citizen" column from issue #14 of Screw Magazine containing what is believed to be the first-ever use of the term "homophobia" in print.
Scanning the NY Times "Best TV of the 21st Century" ballots. Drew Carey voted for The Prices is Right which I think is cool.
I contributed a few words about my TIFF experience to this annual wrapup: inthemoodmag.substack.com/p/tiff-2026
TIFF 2026 Round-Up 🎥 Part 1
In The Mood's contributors share their highs, lows, gripes, and gossip from this year's festival... plus, save the date for our launch party in Toronto 🍿
inthemoodmag.substack.com
