FanFare

I love making fun of movies. I love turning a piece of criticism into a piece of entertainment. I love pointing out a plot hole that makes a superfan write me an angry e-mail. I love turning my unsophistication into a tool. I love being hyperbolically, cathartically angry for no reason. I love being flippant and careless and earnest and meticulous all at once. Shit, Actually is inspired by a series of essays I started at Jezebel, in which I’d rewatch successful movies from the past to see how they hold up to our shifting modern sensibilities... What do we do now with beloved cultural works that don’t hold up?
posted by The corpse in the library on Dec 8, 2020 - 12 comments

The Silence: A Novel by Don DeLillo is a very short novel that imagines a world in which technology has gone dark; it's WWIII or maybe not, there's no real explanation. Einstein is relevant, so is the Super Bowl. It takes place in 2022, and there's no mention of Trump or Covid, even though apparently someone tried to shoehorn one in. It's a very small puddle, but very deep. [more inside]
posted by chavenet on Oct 22, 2020 - 1 comment

Margerit Sovitre did not expect to inherit the Baron Saveze’s fortunes—and even less his bodyguard. The formidable Barbara, of unknown parentage and tied to the barony for secretive reasons, is a feared duelist, capable of defending her charges with efficient, deadly force. Equally perplexing is that while she is now a highly eligible heiress, Margerit did not also inherit the Saveze title, and the new baron eyes the fortunes he lost with open envy. Barbara, bitter that her servitude is to... [more inside]
posted by happyroach on Jun 30, 2019 - 9 comments

So with only a few days left in Pride Month, would anyone want interested in some fanfare posts on fantasy/SF featuring GLBTQ protagonists? Mainly I want to do posts on Dreadnaught: Nemesis and Dreadnaught: Sovereign. Other books I've read recently include Fire Logic The Murderbot Diaries Daughter of Mystery Does anyone else have any recommendations?
posted by happyroach on Jun 27, 2019 - 11 comments

Sorry if this has been asked before, I don't visit FF much. I see there's a "most commented in the past 7 days" feature but there is one for all time, or the past year? My taste likely overlaps with most mefites so I'd be interested in the most popular shows/movies. Or is there some other way to do "if you liked THIS then you'll like THAT"? [more inside]
posted by AFABulous on Mar 25, 2017 - 7 comments

I'm noticing something interesting which is that a lot of the first few posts in a thread tend to be something like "This is a spoiler-free description of whether or not this thing is worth watching"; People will go into a thread about a thing they've never watched to get a sense of whether or not the thing is worth watching and find spoiler-free reviews there written by other people who also do the same thing. I think this is an interesting observation & maybe something we want to support officially, because spoilers should be frankly assumed in general. [more inside]
posted by bleep on Jan 14, 2017 - 14 comments

Brian Droitcour is a professional art critic, and a Yelp user. In 2012 he started using the popular review site to post his reactions to galleries and museums, using a distinctly un-art world-y voice. This week, Brian sits down with TLDR to talk about art, online criticism, parties and his unusual project.
posted by bq on Mar 7, 2015 - 2 comments