Alissa Wilkinson
@alissawilkinson.bsky.social
Critic @nytimes.com. Author AFTERGLOW (forthcoming), WE TELL OURSELVES STORIES (Liveright) and SALTY (Broadleaf). Teaching writing and criticism (Whitworth MFA, NYU XE).
Pinned
Can You Believe the Documentary You’re Watching?
www.nytimes.com
As basically anyone who’s talked to me since the summer knows, I’ve been working on this for months. Thanks to everyone who shared their insights. (I’ve got a lot more to say in the future, too.)
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/m...
I spatchcocked my turkey a different way today (essentially, cut it across the waist) and when I pulled out the bottom half, which cooks faster, I realized it looked like an AI’s idea of a turkey
November 28, 2025 at 6:21 AM
I spatchcocked my turkey a different way today (essentially, cut it across the waist) and when I pulled out the bottom half, which cooks faster, I realized it looked like an AI’s idea of a turkey
This was super fascinating!!
I am going to use this lovely post as an excuse to ask a question that has plagued my adulthood: is the idea of a “relish tray” a regional thing or is it just that my family didn’t do it? If someone asked me to bring one to a gathering i would have genuinely no idea what they meant
let's talk about relish trays! thanksgiving mvp, refreshing, balancing, and only occasionally turkeypomorphic. what's on yours?
November 27, 2025 at 2:19 PM
This was super fascinating!!
Would you like to know how slowly book publishing moves? I signed the final contract for this today
THRILLED to be back at @liveright.bsky.social with @giaquinta.bsky.social for my next book! I'm convinced that if we're to retain our humanity in the face of mounting technocracies and forces that want to make us into little atomized profit units, we've got to re-engage with big, bold, communal art.
November 27, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Would you like to know how slowly book publishing moves? I signed the final contract for this today
I am going to use this lovely post as an excuse to ask a question that has plagued my adulthood: is the idea of a “relish tray” a regional thing or is it just that my family didn’t do it? If someone asked me to bring one to a gathering i would have genuinely no idea what they meant
let's talk about relish trays! thanksgiving mvp, refreshing, balancing, and only occasionally turkeypomorphic. what's on yours?
November 27, 2025 at 4:55 AM
I am going to use this lovely post as an excuse to ask a question that has plagued my adulthood: is the idea of a “relish tray” a regional thing or is it just that my family didn’t do it? If someone asked me to bring one to a gathering i would have genuinely no idea what they meant
Reposted by Alissa Wilkinson
I cannot say I was expecting the new KNIVES OUT movie to be about how charismatic religious leaders who care only about power and division ruin everything, but here we are!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/m...
‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Review: Forgive Them, Father
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I cannot say I was expecting the new KNIVES OUT movie to be about how charismatic religious leaders who care only about power and division ruin everything, but here we are!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/m...
Reposted by Alissa Wilkinson
Reposted by Alissa Wilkinson
I spent this whole year promoting GANDOLFINI but ya know what I'm still pretty proud of FUN CITY CINEMA, my 100-year dual history of New York City and NYC movies: bookshop.org/p/books/fun-...
November 27, 2025 at 3:37 AM
I spent this whole year promoting GANDOLFINI but ya know what I'm still pretty proud of FUN CITY CINEMA, my 100-year dual history of New York City and NYC movies: bookshop.org/p/books/fun-...
I’m skittish about mentioning certain movies because I was introduced to the director once ten years ago
I assume journalists do this stuff all the time. Maybe more on the editorial side, but as a non-journalist, I don’t particularly care what part of the organization is tasked to do the consent-manufacturing. This assumption is based on my observations of journalism in the run up to the Iraq War.
November 27, 2025 at 12:25 AM
I’m skittish about mentioning certain movies because I was introduced to the director once ten years ago
Reposted by Alissa Wilkinson
If you haven’t watched my new comedy special yet, this weekend is a nice time to give it a shot! You can watch it with your parents if you have cool parents, and you can watch it with your kids if you have cool kids!
My new standup special Positive Reinforcement premieres TONIGHT at 8pm eastern time on Blonde Medicine’s YouTube channel. I’m really proud of this hour and grateful to all the people who helped make the special happen.
Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAvN...
Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAvN...
November 27, 2025 at 12:14 AM
If you haven’t watched my new comedy special yet, this weekend is a nice time to give it a shot! You can watch it with your parents if you have cool parents, and you can watch it with your kids if you have cool kids!
I haven’t even brought it up with my own spouse, and have decided not to unless it breaks into his consciousness
Do I try to explain the Nuzzi-Lizza situation to my in-laws at Thanksgiving dinner or do I just pass the stuffing and keep screaming in my own brain hmmmmmmm
November 26, 2025 at 11:56 PM
I haven’t even brought it up with my own spouse, and have decided not to unless it breaks into his consciousness
I published a book this year that is about Joan Didion and the movies! And really about American political culture.
www.alissawilkinson.com/didion-we-te...
www.alissawilkinson.com/didion-we-te...
November 26, 2025 at 9:48 PM
I published a book this year that is about Joan Didion and the movies! And really about American political culture.
www.alissawilkinson.com/didion-we-te...
www.alissawilkinson.com/didion-we-te...
My Instagram feed has decided to show me the Texas dad who goes around trying all kinds of different world cuisines and the guy who has recently discovered the greatest works of classic literature at the same time, and it is heartwarming as hell
November 26, 2025 at 8:23 PM
My Instagram feed has decided to show me the Texas dad who goes around trying all kinds of different world cuisines and the guy who has recently discovered the greatest works of classic literature at the same time, and it is heartwarming as hell
I did kind of want to headline this "Let Us Proclaim the Mystery of Faith" but that was both too long and a little *too* cheeky
I cannot say I was expecting the new KNIVES OUT movie to be about how charismatic religious leaders who care only about power and division ruin everything, but here we are!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/m...
‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Review: Forgive Them, Father
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I did kind of want to headline this "Let Us Proclaim the Mystery of Faith" but that was both too long and a little *too* cheeky
I cannot say I was expecting the new KNIVES OUT movie to be about how charismatic religious leaders who care only about power and division ruin everything, but here we are!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/m...
‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Review: Forgive Them, Father
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I cannot say I was expecting the new KNIVES OUT movie to be about how charismatic religious leaders who care only about power and division ruin everything, but here we are!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/m...
This was recommended to me by a friend and it's terrific
bookshop.org/a/6775/97805...
bookshop.org/a/6775/97805...
God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning
Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning
bookshop.org
November 25, 2025 at 7:56 PM
This was recommended to me by a friend and it's terrific
bookshop.org/a/6775/97805...
bookshop.org/a/6775/97805...
I was just wondering yesterday if this was happening and thinking how many people’s Thanksgiving would get wrecked by AI
NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving.
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet -- And Thanksgiving Dinner
Food bloggers see traffic dip as home cooks turn to AI, inspired by impossible pictures
www.bloomberg.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:00 PM
I was just wondering yesterday if this was happening and thinking how many people’s Thanksgiving would get wrecked by AI
Oh, just realized it’s almost the best time of the year: when I dig up the playlist of creepy medieval Advent hymns that @clivethompson.bsky.social and I collaborated on years ago because it’s the only acceptable music to listen to for most of the season!!! Get excited folks
November 25, 2025 at 4:39 AM
Oh, just realized it’s almost the best time of the year: when I dig up the playlist of creepy medieval Advent hymns that @clivethompson.bsky.social and I collaborated on years ago because it’s the only acceptable music to listen to for most of the season!!! Get excited folks
good movie alert
Niche post for critics and movie-awards-season nerds: Don't sleep on The Plague, a superb, excruciatingly tense American debut film--not horror, but in its way terrifying--about being a 12- or 13-year-old boy among other 12- or 13-year-old boys. Opens next month; it's haunted me since I saw it.
November 25, 2025 at 4:10 AM
good movie alert
If you’ve been around evangelical twitter a while you know that certain sorts of guys saying “leggings” is engagement bait, but when this is the engagement I can’t say I mind
A friend who teaches theology shared with me a post about CS Lewis's Mere Christianity, which discusses foundational Christian logic across denominations. It reminded me of Dale's tweet below, and I wanted to share some thoughts here regarding modesty and respectability, which are often hot topics.
November 24, 2025 at 12:53 PM
If you’ve been around evangelical twitter a while you know that certain sorts of guys saying “leggings” is engagement bait, but when this is the engagement I can’t say I mind
Reposted by Alissa Wilkinson
Looking forward to this. We're watching “Train Dreams” tonight. Beautiful review by @alissawilkinson.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/m...
‘Train Dreams’ Review: Life, Understood in Reverse
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Looking forward to this. We're watching “Train Dreams” tonight. Beautiful review by @alissawilkinson.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/m...
A movie that takes place where you’re from
November 23, 2025 at 5:40 PM
A movie that takes place where you’re from
It took me a while to catch what it said
'Cause I had to match the rhythm of his belly with my head
"Jesus Saves" is what it raved
In a typical tattoo green
He stood on a box in the middle of the city
And he claimed he had a dream
'Cause I had to match the rhythm of his belly with my head
"Jesus Saves" is what it raved
In a typical tattoo green
He stood on a box in the middle of the city
And he claimed he had a dream
Oh, thunder only happens when it's rainin'
Players only love you when they're playin'
Say women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
You'll know
Players only love you when they're playin'
Say women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
You'll know
November 23, 2025 at 5:21 AM
It took me a while to catch what it said
'Cause I had to match the rhythm of his belly with my head
"Jesus Saves" is what it raved
In a typical tattoo green
He stood on a box in the middle of the city
And he claimed he had a dream
'Cause I had to match the rhythm of his belly with my head
"Jesus Saves" is what it raved
In a typical tattoo green
He stood on a box in the middle of the city
And he claimed he had a dream
I have been teaching for many, many years, and over those years many, many things have changed, but one thing has remained unfailingly true: if I plan a field trip or site visit as a central element of the course, that place will absolutely close for renovations for the duration of the semester
November 23, 2025 at 4:12 AM
I have been teaching for many, many years, and over those years many, many things have changed, but one thing has remained unfailingly true: if I plan a field trip or site visit as a central element of the course, that place will absolutely close for renovations for the duration of the semester
After some thinking/reading I'm going to do a bit of a twist on this recipe this year (mostly adding some liquid)
cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019...
cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019...
November 22, 2025 at 10:13 PM
After some thinking/reading I'm going to do a bit of a twist on this recipe this year (mostly adding some liquid)
cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019...
cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019...