ben kaye
@thebenkaye.bsky.social
what he’s typed will be a window into his madness | writes about movies, theatre | bylines: Cine-File, Chicago Reader, The Spool, Newcity Stage, possibly you????? | chicago-based (they/he) - thebenkaye.com https://benkayewords.org https://boxd.it
still trying to get better about posting my theater reviews on here, so here's me on The Gift Theatre's current production of Marina Carr's MARBLE. I really liked it! www.benkayewords.org/review-marbl...
REVIEW: Marble, with The Gift Theatre.
For much of the 2000s and 2010s, The Gift Theatre resided in a 50-seat storefront in Jefferson Park, their ever-growing ensemble packing into taught quarters to craft sprawling dreams and visceral rea...
benkayewords.org
a pretty major get for Dropout; practically the entire work of Don Hertzfeldt is now streaming on their website, with his latest film "Paper Trail" premiering there this September. wild stuff! www.polygon.com/dropout-don-...
One of 'Adult' Animation’s Greatest Cult Classics Is Officially Joining Dropout
Don Hertzfeldt hive rise up
polygon.com
Opinion | Darth Vader: In Defense of the Destruction of Alderaan
Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis@jeffjarvis.bsky.social · yesterdayShameful: The #BrokenTimes hands David Ellison op-ed space rather than challenging his bullshit pap and propaganda about journalism with the receipts he has already delivered at CBS. That would be journalism. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...
if I ever taught film criticism lesson one would be “you being smarter than the movie is not interesting to anyone”
Emily Wilson's piece on Christopher Nolan's THE ODYSSEY for the LRB went viral and was received very positively by many — but not by virtually every film critic I know. For @animusmagazine.bsky.social I wrote about why: animus-magazine.ghost.io/a-tale-as-ol...
A Tale as Old as Time
Emily Wilson’s piece on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey evinces an archaic perspective on cinema’s value as art
animus-magazine.ghost.io
Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.
feel like it's getting tense around here so just a reminder that movies are good and cool :)
it would be pretty weird if Emily Wilson and Christopher Nolan, who have wildly different skillsets, backgrounds, goals, and media, interpreted the same source text in the same way
“that’s not how i imagined it” has gotta be the most useless common criticisms of screen adaptations. if you want your imagination on screen, go make the thing yourself
There's not a word of context about how, for instance, crime during the first 6 months of Mamdani's term is at an all-time low. This piece has a purpose; it is to bar Mamdani from calling Netanyahu a war criminal on the grounds that it encourages random crime. It is indefensible nonsense.
some words from me on James Benning's TEN SKIES for @cinefilechicago.bsky.social. playing this monday evening at the Siskel Center!
i have fully embraced and accepted my Gonzo/Fozzie Bear/Lew Zealand identity, and I hope you all will too.
Moss Lawton @ Midsummer Scream #667@dinolich.bsky.social · 2w agoif you had to pick three muppets to represent you (not your three favorites) who would you pick? greater henson canon counts. I think I'd go Gonzo, Rizzo and Uncle Deadly.
having fun imagining the data analysts over at Hulu wondering why the hell streams for IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE have skyrocketed this week.
based on the trailer alone, i'm predicting this will deploy "She Used to Be Mine" in an emotionally cataclysmic fashion the likes of which we've never seen.
Don’t Say Good Luck | Sunny Sandler | Official Trailer | Netflix
YouTube video by Netflix
youtu.be
It seems to me that the critic’s task should be to help people see more in the work than they might see without him. That’s a modest function, and you don’t need a big theory for it. (1962)
i think if I never see the trailer for AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY, i’ll have lived a good life.
shoutout the chucklefuck pundit who insisted once that “environmental racism” was a nonsense term
Reuters@reuters.com · 3w agoElon Musk's xAI has installed more than double the number of gas turbines than it has publicly acknowledged to power its Colossus 2 data center project, without federal permits, and the pollution is hitting predominantly Black neighborhoods the hardest reut.rs/4bIghEm
You can and should point out that police killing people daily is the "norm" in America. But that doesn't mean you *accept* the normalization of this violence and the way some people rush to smugly point these things out contributes to collective fatigue. Your horror has been stolen from you.
The fact that J.K. Rowling successfully bullied Amnesty International into taking down a report that accurately called out her attack on trans people, especially trans women, is so repulsive and such a display of the power of her money, and her choice to put her vast fortune behind persecution.
Amnesty removes report that called JK Rowling's centre 'anti-rights'
Amnesty International UK has removed a report which labelled JK Rowling's sexual abuse crisis centre Beira's Place as "anti-rights".
thepinknews.com
thank you thank you thank you thank you !! We’ll have a proper update (and a stretch goal) tomorrow, but until then: thank you, your support truly means so much to us. www.kickstarter.com/projects/mus...
Muscle Distribution@muscledistribution.bsky.social · last mo.We’re restoring four underseen and largely unavailable films, including two that have been out of circulation for decades and never released on home video — and we’re looking for your support. Check out the @kickstarter.com campaign here: www.muscle-distribution.com/kickstarter
Here is Graham gloating about "killing all the right people." Just in case you see anyone try to do the whole "we should have decency for the dead" nonsense.
this needs *less than $5,000!!!!* to reach its goal! donate today if you haven't already!
Muscle Distribution@muscledistribution.bsky.social · last mo.We’re restoring four underseen and largely unavailable films, including two that have been out of circulation for decades and never released on home video — and we’re looking for your support. Check out the @kickstarter.com campaign here: www.muscle-distribution.com/kickstarter