bradley babendir
@therealbradbabs.bsky.social
writer (the baffler, the boston globe, bright wall dark room, etc) & photographer
In this week’s issue of Check Book, I answered 22 reader questions. Topics include my favorite Kirby games, the Blank Check team as Arsenal squad members, my favorite albums of the year, the joy of opening and closing Criterion’s World of Wong Kar Wai box set, and ::Cher voice:: mycareer.
Check Book: JJ's Mailbag
Your favorite fired guy answers your burning questions
open.substack.com
thrilled to share this odyssey review round-up with contributions from @milesklee.bsky.social, @kithaggard.bsky.social, @mtzero.bsky.social, tyler malone, rachel, me, and sarah healy! open.substack.com/pub/thisisan...
The Odyssey Review Round-Up
Closing out our series on Christopher Nolan!
open.substack.com
guy saying "i'll guess i'll just leave then" over and over at increasingly high volumes while everyone at the party ignores him
Donie O’Sullivan@donie.bsky.social · 3d ago"I am not going to be in the same party with Hasan Piker ... if he becomes a force in the Democratic Party, I am out of here," James Carville says on Fox this morning. Reminder: The Left Insurgency airs tonight on CNN at 8p ET.
thrilled to share this odyssey review round-up with contributions from @milesklee.bsky.social, @kithaggard.bsky.social, @mtzero.bsky.social, tyler malone, rachel, me, and sarah healy! open.substack.com/pub/thisisan...
The Odyssey Review Round-Up
Closing out our series on Christopher Nolan!
open.substack.com
no no erik it's okay. movie good, poem good.
Erik Hane@erikhane.bsky.social · 5d agoGotta recant on this sadly. Instead of discussing the movie or the work itself, odyssey talk quickly just devolved into metacommentary about one review and the responses to that review, which is the most boring, tedious, and Bluesky route possible. time for everyone to shut about it now
gonna be reviving the newsletter soon with a new, more manageable publishing schedule: one essay/review/thing per week + one Reading, Watching, Listening update will start off free for the time being; paid subs eventually /w two pieces a month free (+ all Reading, Watching, Listening free)
Just Atad | Substack
Personal musings by Corey Atad, a writer from Toronto. Click to read Just Atad, by Corey Atad, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.
justatad.xyz
darling, funny, illuminated poet lieke marsman died on june 3rd in paris. this is a very difficult read but yes, putting it here.
from On Another Planet They Can Save Me - Asymptote
from God, PerhapsI don’t remember much from the day I was told that I was terminally ill. The one thing I do recall clearly is that I threw myself rather dramatically to the hospital floor,...
asymptotejournal.com
my friend @kenanorhan.bsky.social's wonderful book 'the renovation' is on the longlist for the booker prize! if you're curious about it, check out my interview with him from earlier this year!
An Interview with Kenan Orhan
Newsletter recipients,
thisisanewsletter.substack.com
What you have to consider about the Emily Wilson review is that she's coming at the movie from the perspective of a classics academic, so while there might not be the level of formal and industrial knowledge we expect of typical film analysis, she does bring a healthy amount of straight-up racism.
this is why i do find myself being almost endlessly forgiving of the clunky writing in a lot of nolan, cameron, spielberg, etc movies. audiences have really demonstrated a profound need! wish it wasn't so but, well...it is!
Corey Atad@coreyatad.com · last wk.hilarious to see people complain about dialogue that's too on-the-nose and then immediately demonstrate that they didn't understand the apparently too on-the-nose dialogue at all
people are having a very different reaction to the emily wilson thread than i am having lol
doesn't really have anything to do with if the movie is good or bad, but at my matinee screening today there was a dad with his teenage daughter and they had both recently read the odyssey and before the movie they were talking about what they liked from it and i think that's very cool!
the final essay in our series on the films of christopher nolan is up! sarah healy on the virtues and shortcomings of his best picture-winning biopic, oppenheimer!
Who Identifies with the Bomb?: Sarah Healy on Oppenheimer
From "Don't Try to Understand It. Feel It." A This is a Newsletter series.
thisisanewsletter.substack.com
very proud of the series we've done on the film's of christopher nolan and all the writers who have contributed! plenty to read there if you're curious, and we'll have tons of reviews of the odyssey that will get into all this! thanks for looking into it!
Archive - this is a newsletter
Full archive of all the posts from this is a newsletter.
thisisanewsletter.substack.com
Aaron Stewart-Ahn@badideas.bsky.social · 3w agoScintillating intellectual discourse from a guy with a 7 year old substack about Chris Nolan movies no one cares about, and instead offers this over any political pov on The Odyssey, a 3000 year old txt about corruption that led to civilization collapse at end of the Bronze Age, oh and slaves
you can read it this way like you can walk into traffic: it's not very smart but if you're an adult i guess nobody is gonna stop you.
Aaron Stewart-Ahn@badideas.bsky.social · 3w agoWithout any spoilers my real hot take on Chris Nolan’s Odyssey is that morally and ideologically by the end it could be read as a conservative apologia & fantasia about ending MAGA once and for all. Pattinson’s Antinous gives serious Stephen Miller vibes.
'oppenheimer, oh-pen-heimer, no matter how you say it, they know i'm jewish' 'i've messed around on boats'
tweety fish@sifu.tweety.fish · 3w agowhat are peoples' favorite big laughs in nolan movies
so excited to share this expansive essay by tyler malone on the dark knight trilogy for our newsletter series on christopher nolan's films!
BAT-ening Down the Hatches in the Face of Ideology: Tyler Malone on The Dark Knight Trilogy
From "Don't Try to Understand It. Feel It." A This is a Newsletter series.
open.substack.com
this is why the minions locked you in a glass box, george
George Lucas Says AI Makes Filmmaking ‘Easier’ and ‘There’s Nothing You Can Do About It,’ Criticizes Hollywood for Giving Fans Too Much Power
'Star Wars' creator George Lucas is against test screenings and focus groups in Hollywood but says AI can make moviemaking easier.
variety.com
very grateful for the opportunity to contribute to another cool newsletter series from @therealbradbabs.bsky.social !!
Attacked by the Future: Matt Zazzarino on Tenet
From "Don't Try to Understand it. Feel it." A This is a Newsletter series.
thisisanewsletter.substack.com
very happy to share this essay on tenet and the legacy of its bizarre covid release by @mtzero.bsky.social for our newsletter series on christopher nolan!
Attacked by the Future: Matt Zazzarino on Tenet
From "Don't Try to Understand it. Feel it." A This is a Newsletter series.
thisisanewsletter.substack.com
thank you jannik sinner! for beating zverev, you can take one round of steroids and i won't hold it against you.
can we get sinner some mid match steroids. you gotta beat zverev man. you have to.
they should make a new card for soccer that’s not red or yellow and maybe it could have cool art on it and it was collectible maybe lots of different ones and players could collect them or trade them
the first good joke beer name any craft brewery has ever come up with
Elizabeth Spiers@espiers.bsky.social · 4w agoBrooklyn craft beer packaging goes hard
not only do i like godzilla, i unreservedly endorse all of his behavior
Keith Harris@usefulnoise.bsky.social · 4w ago"Leftists don't actually like Godzilla" — a thing I had to read today because there's an internet.
Good one from @slangsonsports.bsky.social: Here's the all-time list of players to go 20-20 before their team's 95th game in a season... Pete Crow-Armstrong: 2025-26 Alfonso Soriano: 2002-03, '06 Jose Canseco: 1988, '98 Bobby Bonds: '69, '73, '77
for the newsletter's nolan series, i wrote about dunkirk and tenet, his two most experimental films: thisisanewsletter.substack.com/p/the-plains...
The Plains of Pure Cinema: Bradley Babendir on Dunkirk and Tenet
From "Don't Try to Understand It. Feel It." A This is a Newsletter series.
thisisanewsletter.substack.com
