Our fall issue is here! On the cover: Emily Blunt in DISCLOSURE DAY. For more on the essays, interviews, and reviews included in the issue, visit our website: www.cineaste.com
Will DiGravio
@willdigravio.bsky.social
researcher, fact-checker: extremism, conspiracies, US history critic: Paste, Time, etc. assistant editor, Cineaste PhD Candidate in Media Studies, University of Amsterdam The Video Essay Podcast views mine www.willdigravio.com
My favorite joke of all time is Mel Brooks telling Carl Reiner that Sigmund Freud was a great basketball player, but the reason it’s not remembered is because “he set up the shots.” Happy 100th birthday to the 👑 ❤️
John Ford’s Western, released on this day in 1962, wasn't merely a team-up of legends John Wayne, James Stewart, and Lee Marvin, @willdigravio.bsky.social writes. It was a pointed commentary on the stories America tells about itself:
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and the Lessons of American Myth-Making — Crooked Marquee
John Ford’s 1962 Western wasn't merely a team-up of legends; it was a pointed commentary on the stories America tells about itself.
crookedmarquee.com
Hiroshi Shimizu @outskirtsmag.bsky.social, John Akomfrah @ Brooklyn Rail, Robert Vas @prospectmagazine.co.uk, Jonathan Rosenbaum @chicagoreader.com, new @cineastemagazine.bsky.social … Did You See This? www.criterion.com/current/post...
“Even in this fleeting moment, one sees the seeds of what would come to define Kelly’s greatness on screen: an ability to maintain a regal air while offering a deep, relatable humanity,” @willdigravio.bsky.social writes of Grace Kelly’s film debut in ‘Fourteen Hours’: buff.ly/XHs44M7
crookedmarquee.com
“To watch Garbo is to understand what Hitchcock meant he called silent movies the purest form of cinema,” @willdigravio.bsky.social writes. “Each glance and movement seems to convey something about the complexities of Garbo’s character.”
crookedmarquee.com
At just 20 years old, Greta Garbo sailed from Sweden to the United States to film “Torrent,” the first of three pictures released in 1926. In the words of one prescient newspaper writer, “Miss Garbo is scheduled for stardom.”
crookedmarquee.com
This is my full 50-page statement to Gov. Pritzker's "Illinois Accountability Commission," trying to explain comprehensively the depth of corruption, culture, and training problems within ICE and CBP. I hope you'll at least consider scanning through it: drive.google.com/file/d/1y0im...
IAC-Testimony.withlinks.pdf
drive.google.com
Great new episode of The Video Essay Podcast from @willdigravio.bsky.social featuring @jirianger.bsky.social thevideoessay.com/jiri-anger-o...
The Video Essay Podcast - Jiří Anger on 'Towards a Film Theory From Below'
thevideoessay.com
For Millennium Film Journal, my thoughts on three found footage films from this year’s Prismatic Ground: millenniumfilmjournal.com/los-angeles-...
Prismatic Ground: Los Angeles, The Mills, and A Moon - Millennium Film Journal
Read this review of Prismatic Ground by Will DiGravio.
millenniumfilmjournal.com
Thank you, Will! And yes, pre-order here! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/768052...
Five Bullets by Elliot Williams: 9780593833704 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
From CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams, a revelatory account of how one man, four teenagers, and a struggling city collided over race, vigilantism, and public safety . . . exposing the fault...
penguinrandomhouse.com
Will DiGravio@willdigravio.bsky.social · 11mo agoFor nearly two years, I worked as the researcher on @elliotwilliams.bsky.social’s new book, FIVE BULLETS, a history of “subway vigilante” Bernie Goetz, his trial, and 1980s NYC! It’s as timely as it is captivating! Pre-order here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/768052...
For nearly two years, I worked as the researcher on @elliotwilliams.bsky.social’s new book, FIVE BULLETS, a history of “subway vigilante” Bernie Goetz, his trial, and 1980s NYC! It’s as timely as it is captivating! Pre-order here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/768052...
reminding myself that every extra freelance gig is one step closer to paying off my student loans/buying an eames lounge chair
It’s not a sports documentary until an interviewee says the subject was “playing chess while everybody else was playing checkers”
should be mandated in every classroom throughout our great land
“It is in the final scene, in which Lloyd’s character completes a dashing run to win the big game, where the film distinguishes itself as a masterpiece’,” @willdigravio.bsky.social writes of ‘The Freshman’: crookedmarquee.com/with-pure-gu...
Check out my profile of The Daily Show's Michael Kosta, an essential member of the best cast on late night television today. We talked about his on-stage persona, empathy and comedy, and his stellar new memoir, LUCKY LOSER: For @pastemagazine.bsky.social: www.pastemagazine.com/tv/michael-k...
Michael Kosta: An Empathetic Jock Ready to Spoof Our Time
Comedian and The Daily Show correspondent Michael Kosta is a man of many talents, as his television success and new memoir more than show.
pastemagazine.com
Check out my profile of The Daily Show's Michael Kosta, an essential member of the best cast on late night television today. We talked about his on-stage persona, empathy and comedy, and his stellar new memoir, LUCKY LOSER: For @pastemagazine.bsky.social: www.pastemagazine.com/tv/michael-k...
Michael Kosta: An Empathetic Jock Ready to Spoof Our Time
Comedian and The Daily Show correspondent Michael Kosta is a man of many talents, as his television success and new memoir more than show.
pastemagazine.com
Very excited to have been apart of this story, but perhaps even more happy to have my academic freedom at Boston University.
Long Lead@longlead.com · last yr.After the twin disasters of the massacre in Myanmar and the 2016 election, social media undergoes a reckoning in the halls of Congress… until a novel virus uncorks a global pandemic and a contagion of hoaxes, conspiracies, and lies online.
Very honoured and deeply grateful: to have been elected yesterday as one of the new Fellows of the @britishacademy.bsky.social, an institution I have loved since it funded my PhD study many moons ago.
The British Academy@britishacademy.bsky.social · last yr.The British Academy has elected 92 new Fellows in 2025 – a higher number than in previous years due to new Fellowship places for candidates whose research spans more than one discipline www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/agm-wel...
The sole subject of my late night column @pastemagazine.bsky.social: the cancellation of Stephen Colbert and the house that David Letterman built. www.pastemagazine.com/tv/the-late-...
Late Night Last Week: Stephen Colbert & the Consolidation of Corporate Power
The biggest news in the world of late night last week was the firing of Stephen Colbert and the coming death of the Late Show franchise.
pastemagazine.com
The sole subject of my late night column @pastemagazine.bsky.social: the cancellation of Stephen Colbert and the house that David Letterman built. www.pastemagazine.com/tv/the-late-...
Late Night Last Week: Stephen Colbert & the Consolidation of Corporate Power
The biggest news in the world of late night last week was the firing of Stephen Colbert and the coming death of the Late Show franchise.
pastemagazine.com
“For the last five seconds, we all lay there, quietly waiting for what seemed an eternity,” Edward Teller recalls in this @politico.com excerpt abt the Trinity explosion, 80 years ago this week, from my new oral history of the Manhattan Project & the atomic bombings. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
'Great Enough to Blow Any City Off the Map’: On Site at the First Nuclear Explosion
The men who set off the nuclear age tell the tale in their own words.
politico.com
“The layering of images, combined with the cartoon-like set design, achieves an effect that is a blending of worlds: half-real, half-animation.” @willdigravio.bsky.social on the beloved Kelly-and-Jerry dance sequence in “Anchors Aweigh”: crookedmarquee.com/gene-kelly-j...
My thoughts on the best (and worst) moments in late night TV (so far) this year! For @pastemagazine.bsky.social: www.pastemagazine.com/tv/late-nigh...
The Best (and Worst) Moments in Late Night Television This Year (So Far)
Paste Magazine is your source for the best music, movies, TV, comedy, videogames, books, comics, craft beer, politics and more. Discover your favorite albums and films.
pastemagazine.com
Today I start a 6-month sabbatical, where my goals are to disengage from academic politics (after chairing our Faculty Council for the past tumultuous year), wander about Europe as much as possible, and write a book / make video essays about media reflexivity. Like this! youtu.be/69Kmz4PzEHs
The Video Essay About The Show: Trailer
YouTube video by Jason Mittell
youtu.be