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Helen O'Hara

@helenlohara.bsky.social

12K followers 210 following 1.5K posts

Film journalist, author, podcaster, broadcaster, etc. Empire's Editor-at-Large. If you would like to give me work, have a look at helenohara.com

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 7h

Omg this may be the greatest idea I've ever heard.

iucounu @iucounu.bsky.social · Oct 17

a funny thing that Marvel and Martin Scorsese could do is, he could take over the Stan Lee role of old guy who does cameos in every movie, so, you know, Captain America gets punched through a wall and there's Marty walking his little dog and he tuts 'Oh, for chrissake, *superheroes*' and so forth

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

Pretty much yes!

Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

I guess? But also I don't know that the discussion of the exact shape of the whale spade/sword things ultimately contributed to my understanding or enjoyment

Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

That's very true. I think what frustrated me here was how much I enjoyed the adventure bits and even Ahab's railing against fate etc, and how everything seemed to stop dead to talk about ironmongery instead.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

I'd agree except that I enjoyed Dracula quite a bit. I also appreciated but did not love Heart of Darkness.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

Haha, very true. And there's definitely romance there if you choose to see it.

Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

INTERESTING. But again, I'd like more on that and less on knots and on the history of writing about whales and also I have notes on the chapter where he explains all the reasons why people say whales aren't fishes and then goes, yeah but it swims so it looks pretty fishy to me.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

Beautifully put! Someone I read described it as Hawthorne getting really excited to tell you everything he learned from his whaling buddies and his reading and that's true too. It's kind of charming almost! But also I wanted the adventure stuff.

Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

That's fine! It's baked in there. But naively I was expecting more of a Jaws structure here. Or a Wrath of Khan. Just to name two examples that directly lift from it.

Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

Hope you enjoy / enjoyed!

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

Yes I am a philistine obviously and should care more about knots. But the vivid bits are so vivid that I just wanted more of them.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

I just finished reading Moby Dick for the first time and I do have some notes. Like, maybe the title character should appear before the 95% mark? Because while it's obviously really exciting to have *two* chapters discussing the colour white, a slightly less rushed denouement might also be fun.

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Reposted by Helen O'Hara

RiotGrlErin @riotgrlerin.bsky.social · 2d

celebrities as lord of the rings characters: thread

Doja cat in a dress the same shape as the eye of Sauron.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

We are a land of saints and scholars.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 2d

The alt text!

Reposted by Helen O'Hara

THE NERVE @thenerve.news · 2d

🔗 Read the full piece

www.thenerve.news/p/stewart-le...

Stewart Lee: The thugs have taken my flag. So I’ve taken theirs

What do you do with a lot of cheap banners hanging from motorway bridges once you’ve torn them down?

www.thenerve.news

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 2d

RIP to Diane Keaton. Not only a woman who made extraordinary films but someone who always seemed to be exactly herself, and to be enjoying the experience very much.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 3d

What

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 3d

Interested in your response. I tried it for the first time last week as it happens and found it moderately stressful.

Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 3d

If anyone needs me I'll be reapplying all my eye makeup after #Hamnet. Absolutely beautiful and devastating.

Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 4d

Exactly! I can't believe we continued the conversation after that.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 4d

Gorgeous film, incredible subject in John Davidson, and stunning performances from Robert Aramayo and young Scott Ellis Watson.

Empire Magazine @empiremagazine.bsky.social · 4d

"Sweet, funny, and unusually moving."

The true story of Tourette’s activist John Davidson is brought to the screen in the heartfelt comedy-drama I Swear – in UK cinemas today.

Read the Empire review: www.empireonline.com/movies...

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Reposted by Helen O'Hara

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 4d

Skateboard

xkcd.com/3152/

4-panel comic. (1) [person in the sky unpacks skateboard from parachute bag] I guess this is on me. I should really keep my skateboarding gear and my parachutes in different-looking bags. (2) [person looking down at skateboard as they fall] (3) [person falling wile holding skateboard in one hand and phone making “beep beep” sound in the other] (4) (person still falling with skateboard, now talking on phone] Hello, Pro Skate Parks LLC? I’d like to place an extremely expedited order for a 600-foot halfpipe.

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Reposted by Helen O'Hara

Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 5d

Pope Leo is spitting.

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

Leo questioned a world where the wealth of the elite grows
"exponentially" while many "millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings." He also criticized "ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation,"
with false promises "that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty."

Leo described a "new tyranny," which shuns any kind of oversight and where the economy is structured "in such a way that sacrifices are demanded of the masses in order to serve the needs of the powerful." The poor, he wrote, are only allowed "drops that trickle down."

The pope openly challenged "prosperity theology" and called Christians to the practice of giving charity. "It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility," he wrote.

Popular movements that challenge "the empire of money," invite people to take on the cause to combat poverty alongside the poor, instead of on their behalf, and "make history," the pope said. It our duty, Leo said, to "make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve."

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 5d

So sorry, Sam.