Alissa Wilkinson
@alissawilkinson.bsky.social
Critic @nytimes.com. Author of WE TELL OURSELVES STORIES (paperback out now!), SALTY (2022), AFTERGLOW (forthcoming). Teaching at NYU XE.
I’m gonna be an annoying Brickbro and tell you how I use mine, in this thread
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 4h agoIt’s tough breaking a phone addiction. The Brick physically locks you out of distracting apps, making it harder to mindlessly scroll. nyti.ms/4ggnoqi
This may or may not be written by AI but it has the quality that powers similar writing, which is that halfway through the sentence it’s clear these are just thought-shaped words (It’s actually worse if it’s all human-written, to be clear)
Dave Karpf@davekarpf.bsky.social · 7h agoStarting to read the Zuckerberg essay and this is SUCH a weird/clunky passage. They absolutely paid some consultant to sort through “types of philosophy,” and he’s just declaring which categories he selected.
What’s crazy about this is that the most common chatbots (Claude, ChatGPT) have things they routinely refuse to do if you ask; it would not be hard to disable these functions/prompts either but they are thus far apparently not doing it? I’m confident most of these students are not savvy
Dana Goldstein@danagoldstein.bsky.social · 17h agoIt seems like it would be ideal if there were *not* so many stories to report on the explosion of academic misconduct www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/u...
woof. A substantial amount of this has to be the increased illiteracy around denominations (which is very much on purpose) but still, this is in some cases a real made your bed situation, others political, others geographic
Robert Downen@robertdownen.bsky.social · 9h agoWe are ~15 years away from the possible collapse of numerous American Christian denominations.
Friends, my brother is asking if anyone has any fancy integrations or modules they use in Scrivener, especially for plotting / writing / exporting non-linear stories?
Watching the first episode of Silicon Valley and the first person you hear is Kid Rock
The first Costco opened in my hometown (the capital of New York State) and apparently the power went out within five hours
I keep thinking about this. It is by now the height of critical laziness to say “this movie feels like it could have been written by AI” and nobody really should do it but sometimes lazy is true
Alissa Wilkinson@alissawilkinson.bsky.social · 5d agoyou'll never guess what production company is behind this
you'll never guess what production company is behind this
I actually picked up an extra assignment this week (and then filed early because I was on vacation!) just to make sure I got to write about this lovely film www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/m...
‘Late Fame’ Review: Lost Poet, Found Again (Gift Article)
Willem Dafoe stars as a former poet charmed by a group of would-be young artists.
nytimes.com
Big Jane Schoenbrun fan over here, deeply enjoyed this film, which is, despite what you may have been told, something quite other than a slasher www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/m...
‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ Review: Gushing With Desire (Gift Article)
Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson star in an exhilarating tale of a filmmaker rebooting a problematic slasher franchise.
nytimes.com
Instagram served me a goofy little post suggesting that calling someone “mon pain” has become a big compliment in France and a French friend DMed me
I used to write about movies for a Christian audience so it’s been mildly funny to see people exploding over classic texts being deviated from the way they did about Bible epics
"Nolan’s film is not a misbegotten attempt to modernize a classic—it is a deft and purposeful reflection of America in this moment, seen through the glass of mythological metaphor." Jeff Yang writes about THE ODYSSEY and the “people from the sea.”
The People from the Sea: How "The Odyssey" is About America
A reading of Christopher Nolan's blockbuster as a commentary on the current state of America.
rogerebert.com
I don’t buy megaplex tickets enough (I know, I know) to join AMC Stubs AList but my husband recently introduced me to the Popcorn Pass and let me tell you something folks: THAT is worth every penny when you go to a lot of all-media screenings lol
One thing we had not realized (or maybe remembered) was that Patrick Page had ruptured his Achilles tendon (uh, somewhat ironically I guess) and did the whole thing in a boot dressed up to make him look semi-mechanical
Alissa Wilkinson@alissawilkinson.bsky.social · last wk.The pro shot of Hadestown is delightful
Weirdly I have been reading three different books this week (two of which are galleys) and all have had extended riffs on the Odyssey
I didn’t want it updated to modern sensibilities, just wanted a random new character whose consciousness is modern to provide exposition and explain everything that I don’t understand
Aaron Bady@zunguzungu.bsky.social · last wk.lol
This movie will present many challenges to me, a person with tryptophobic issues
Every Film Now@everyfilmnow.bsky.social · 2w agoFirst look at Alexander Skarsgård as the wicker husband in ‘WICKER’. The film follows a lonely fisherwoman who asks a local basket maker to weave her the perfect husband out of wicker. #Wicker #AlexanderSkarsgård
This is what I wrote that doc AI thing about last year. Like, who even is sitting around deciding the benefits outweigh the consequences for these things? What possible malformation of intellect can cause that
Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social · 2w agoNew from 404 Media: Google Earth has introduced an AI feature that lets anyone fabricate completely bullshit satellite images. In our own tests, we added a “bomb blast and crater” to an area of Los Angeles. This is a misinformation time bomb, will 100% be abused www.404media.co/google-earth...
