Dana Stevens
@thehighsign.bsky.social
Film critic at Slate; co-host of the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast; repped by the Cheney Agency; member NYFCC. Camera Man, my book on Buster Keaton, is out: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Camera-Man/Dana-Stevens/9781501134203
Pinned
It’s the Movie That Could Finally Get Adam Sandler His Oscar Nomination. It Left Me Teary.
George Clooney’s Netflix movie seems at first like autobiography, but it’s really about someone else.
slate.com
Jay Kelly, which releases today on Netflix after a brief run in theaters (welcome to the future of all movies! 🙃), is Noah Baumbach's bittersweet tribute to Hollywood, w/ George Clooney & Adam Sandler as a movie star in a late-career tailspin & his long-suffering manager: slate.com/culture/2025...
Reposted by Dana Stevens
this is more or less why we still have basic cable, if tcm doesn't cough up the a+ goods twister is almost definitely on somewhere
I honestly don't want to make dinner to Netflix sludge, I want to make dinner to some middling 90s movie where if I look up I'll see great production design or Joan Cusack give a line reading they should teach in schools.
December 9, 2025 at 4:40 PM
this is more or less why we still have basic cable, if tcm doesn't cough up the a+ goods twister is almost definitely on somewhere
Reposted by Dana Stevens
Excellent film history thread from @moviessilently.bsky.social, as usual
The ”Women fight for Conrad Veidt” slogan was very real and used to market the formerly German, newly-minted British film star, recently released after being detained by the Nazis
December 9, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Excellent film history thread from @moviessilently.bsky.social, as usual
If you all will allow me a three-years-post-publication book boast, my beloved acquiring editor @rakeshsatyal.bsky.social just spotted this on Instagram. Anne Hathaway is reading & recommending Camera Man? 👠
@thehighsign.bsky.social hope lots of people have sent this to you already but just in case
December 8, 2025 at 11:30 PM
If you all will allow me a three-years-post-publication book boast, my beloved acquiring editor @rakeshsatyal.bsky.social just spotted this on Instagram. Anne Hathaway is reading & recommending Camera Man? 👠
Daniel Plainly-correct-view
Daniel Day Lewis came out of Instagram retirement to show support for Paul Dano. King shit.
December 8, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Daniel Plainly-correct-view
Reposted by Dana Stevens
Morning walk with Nutmeg
December 7, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Morning walk with Nutmeg
Reposted by Dana Stevens
a new jersey-based christmas tree delivery service called Spruce Bringsteen
November 11, 2025 at 3:22 AM
a new jersey-based christmas tree delivery service called Spruce Bringsteen
The opening of this email from Netflix about their acquisition of Warner Brothers does not have me feeling super-confident about how they will treat the classic film archive now in their care. "Franchises" like ... Casablanca? Which is the single classic movie mentioned in a list of TV shows & IP?
December 6, 2025 at 7:23 AM
The opening of this email from Netflix about their acquisition of Warner Brothers does not have me feeling super-confident about how they will treat the classic film archive now in their care. "Franchises" like ... Casablanca? Which is the single classic movie mentioned in a list of TV shows & IP?
Reposted by Dana Stevens
Jay Kelly, which releases today on Netflix after a brief run in theaters (welcome to the future of all movies! 🙃), is Noah Baumbach's bittersweet tribute to Hollywood, w/ George Clooney & Adam Sandler as a movie star in a late-career tailspin & his long-suffering manager: slate.com/culture/2025...
It’s the Movie That Could Finally Get Adam Sandler His Oscar Nomination. It Left Me Teary.
George Clooney’s Netflix movie seems at first like autobiography, but it’s really about someone else.
slate.com
December 5, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Jay Kelly, which releases today on Netflix after a brief run in theaters (welcome to the future of all movies! 🙃), is Noah Baumbach's bittersweet tribute to Hollywood, w/ George Clooney & Adam Sandler as a movie star in a late-career tailspin & his long-suffering manager: slate.com/culture/2025...
A few small beers all around!
December 5, 2025 at 10:11 PM
A few small beers all around!
Jay Kelly, which releases today on Netflix after a brief run in theaters (welcome to the future of all movies! 🙃), is Noah Baumbach's bittersweet tribute to Hollywood, w/ George Clooney & Adam Sandler as a movie star in a late-career tailspin & his long-suffering manager: slate.com/culture/2025...
It’s the Movie That Could Finally Get Adam Sandler His Oscar Nomination. It Left Me Teary.
George Clooney’s Netflix movie seems at first like autobiography, but it’s really about someone else.
slate.com
December 5, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Jay Kelly, which releases today on Netflix after a brief run in theaters (welcome to the future of all movies! 🙃), is Noah Baumbach's bittersweet tribute to Hollywood, w/ George Clooney & Adam Sandler as a movie star in a late-career tailspin & his long-suffering manager: slate.com/culture/2025...
Reposted by Dana Stevens
Red Lobster never released a commercial with a jingle that went “Shrimply having a wonderful Fishmastime.” That’s why they went bankrupt.
December 5, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Red Lobster never released a commercial with a jingle that went “Shrimply having a wonderful Fishmastime.” That’s why they went bankrupt.
There's a wide variety of types of malignant actors in the Trump administration, a taxonomy of ways to inflict harm on the common good. But RFK Jr strikes me as a unique type among the lot, a (less-qualified) Josef Mengele bent on turning his fantasies about bodily suffering into our lived reality.
rfk jr wants to kill your kids, it’s really that simple.
Kennedy’s Methodical 2-Decade Quest to Dismantle Vaccine Policy
www.nytimes.com
December 4, 2025 at 7:41 PM
There's a wide variety of types of malignant actors in the Trump administration, a taxonomy of ways to inflict harm on the common good. But RFK Jr strikes me as a unique type among the lot, a (less-qualified) Josef Mengele bent on turning his fantasies about bodily suffering into our lived reality.
Reposted by Dana Stevens
Great piece by a great critic:
December 4, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Great piece by a great critic:
I looked at my "Bluesky Harvest" & was pretty happy w/ the results--the word cloud suggests my time here is not as crabby & politics-focused as it sometimes feels. Also I was further toward the "offline" than "online" end of their "touch grass" spectrum, so that's good. Still: more culture in 2026!
December 4, 2025 at 12:37 AM
I looked at my "Bluesky Harvest" & was pretty happy w/ the results--the word cloud suggests my time here is not as crabby & politics-focused as it sometimes feels. Also I was further toward the "offline" than "online" end of their "touch grass" spectrum, so that's good. Still: more culture in 2026!
Reposted by Dana Stevens
life is long and i've seen a lot of things come and go but i will not stand for the rehabilitation of the ron howard grinch. motherfucker i was THERE in the theater. i was there
December 2, 2025 at 9:03 PM
life is long and i've seen a lot of things come and go but i will not stand for the rehabilitation of the ron howard grinch. motherfucker i was THERE in the theater. i was there
This is about halfway there now. Let's fully fund it by 6pm ET.
A mom in Portland has been separated from her child since June bc ICE kidnapped her. The only thing standing between her & her baby right now is a $7,500 bond. There's 5k to go. PLEASE let's do this. Many hands make light work. This is literally the reason for the gd mfing season gofund.me/3e980d9d3
Donate to Help us get an asylum seeker released from ICE detention, organized by CLEAR Clinic
Our client Lorena (pseudonym) is a single-parent asylum-seeker w… CLEAR Clinic needs your support for Help us get an asylum seeker released from ICE detention
gofund.me
December 2, 2025 at 10:08 PM
This is about halfway there now. Let's fully fund it by 6pm ET.
Surprise win for a great actor in a fantastic movie!
BEST ACTOR: Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
December 2, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Surprise win for a great actor in a fantastic movie!
Reposted by Dana Stevens
be the bitch doing something yourself that you want to see in the world
there’s a scene in the new documentary where Elizabeth Taylor is talking about the stigma of AIDS and how she got involved in the movement and it’s fucking everything
December 1, 2025 at 8:54 PM
be the bitch doing something yourself that you want to see in the world
The pure, almost awe-inspiring punchability of Mike Johnson's face
Trump literally phoning it in when the GOP House margin is razor thin.
"She hates Christianity" -- Trump rants on Mike Johnson's phone at a Van Epps rally
December 1, 2025 at 7:36 PM
The pure, almost awe-inspiring punchability of Mike Johnson's face
4:20 but for pie
November 30, 2025 at 9:22 PM
4:20 but for pie
Reposted by Dana Stevens
Since Hamlet was Shakespeare's longest play, maybe it's fitting that my review of Hamnet, Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's great biofictional novel, is 2000+ words. In the words of the mopey Danish prince: "Anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing." slate.com/culture/2025...
This Year’s Other Oscar Front-Runner Is Here. I Have Tragic News.
It’s based on a beloved, bestselling novel—and it butchers it.
slate.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Since Hamlet was Shakespeare's longest play, maybe it's fitting that my review of Hamnet, Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's great biofictional novel, is 2000+ words. In the words of the mopey Danish prince: "Anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing." slate.com/culture/2025...
One of those permanently underground filmmakers that every generation has to dig deep to discover for themselves. Criterion has a bunch of his films up this month.
The late, great French filmmaker Jean Eustache was born on this day in 1938. A look at his small but mighty body of work: crookedmarquee.com/rediscoverin...
Re(dis)covering Jean Eustache — Crooked Marquee
The late, great French filmmaker is in the spotlight on the Criterion Channel.
crookedmarquee.com
November 30, 2025 at 8:19 PM
One of those permanently underground filmmakers that every generation has to dig deep to discover for themselves. Criterion has a bunch of his films up this month.
They are betting AI will replace us. Make them lose the bet.
The markets are staying afloat right now on the hope that AI will destroy American workers. What a bleak thing.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/b...
November 30, 2025 at 3:07 AM
They are betting AI will replace us. Make them lose the bet.
Reposted by Dana Stevens
Bong Joon Ho hit me up for the squad you legend deadline.com/2025/11/bong...
November 29, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Bong Joon Ho hit me up for the squad you legend deadline.com/2025/11/bong...
Maestro (2023)
November 27, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Maestro (2023)