gave myself a headache thinking about how form fits content—the overindulgent, overly saturated decadence of this (as a film) is a marvel to look at, but also directly in conversation with the political games being played by the utmost elite (in the film). watching Abigail, Sarah, and the Queen dance circles around each other is thrilling: they're sensual, seductive, scheming every word, each touch. there's ducks being raced for fun, fruit being thrown at naked men, and no one knows…

a masterful, reverent demonstration and reminder that life does not fluctuate between moments of joy, success, triumph and moments of loss, heartbreak, and defeat. life is everything, all at once: it’s new life and death, trust and betrayal, fire and song, forgiveness and ingratitude, ash and seawater. this is a memory of another life, lived sensitively, gracefully, compassionately.

Cuarón’s Roma is more than a glimpse into Cleo’s life—this film stares unflinchingly into the mirror of the every day. we see…

dear you,

as of tonight, there are 500 of you.

back in middle school, i used to write letters to an online friend named ellie. her real name was laura, but she went by ellie. sometimes i called her larry, as a joke, and she called me tyler, as a joke.

she had so many names that when we started writing letters to each other, like bonafide pen pals, i'd address them "dear you" -- because sometimes, even when i…

this is a writer's workshop wet dream. this is a well-studied, well-executed narrative paradigm of what good writing does.

the exposition is kept to a minimum. the reality of this world is established quickly, but Krasinski does so efficiently and affectively. the physical and life-threatening stakes are marked from the get-go, as are the emotional stakes, which ultimately end up being even more terrifying and tension-inducing than the former.

there's any number of "plant and pay-offs," which are all satisfying,…