Dana Stevens
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thehighsign.bsky.social
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
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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
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
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
Reposted by Dana Stevens
Morning walk with Nutmeg
December 7, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Dana Stevens
a new jersey-based christmas tree delivery service called Spruce Bringsteen
November 11, 2025 at 3:22 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?
December 6, 2025 at 7:23 AM
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
A few small beers all around!
Happy Friday to you guys
December 5, 2025 at 10:11 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...
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
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
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.
December 4, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Dana Stevens
Great piece by a great critic:
December 4, 2025 at 6:46 PM
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
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
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
Surprise win for a great actor in a fantastic movie!
BEST ACTOR: Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
December 2, 2025 at 5:32 PM
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
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
4:20 but for pie
November 30, 2025 at 9:22 PM
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
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.
November 30, 2025 at 8:19 PM
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...
November 30, 2025 at 3:07 AM
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
Maestro (2023)
November 27, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Dana Stevens
My absolutely favorite artwork for today, capturing the holiday more poignantly than any other: Alice Neel, Thanksgiving, 1965
November 27, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Dana Stevens
American Movie is my reset button whenever I feel I don't have any drive or passion anymore, Mark Borchardt's singular ambition despite everything (including common sense) telling him to stop is infectious and never fails to set me back on track. Takes place on thanksgiving too so points for that
What movie are you most thankful for? (not necessarily your favorite!)
November 27, 2025 at 5:36 AM