an affirmation of life and a tender testimony of humanity... i'm still crying and i have nothing really to say that this doesn't say better without words or sound. it's a charming, thoughtful, and determinedly aesthetic series of portraits that celebrate and recognize the beauty in every day lives. the beyond-life-size portraits tower over the villages they are imposed upon; the subjects are captured with such vulnerability, such power, so much love. you can say the same about JR to…

an argument for and an example of how nobody's life—nobody's humanity—is a justifiable price for a work of art. i found the comedic stretches to be funny in a comforting way. not comfortable, but comforting; it's affirming, in an admittedly selfish way, to see familiarly painful experiences reimagined into a neat joke. but Gadsby turns away from the comedy, she abandons humor all together, she renounces stand up and stands firmly before the trauma that grounds her self-deprecating routine. for…

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,…