iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The first—and likely last—time my dissertation research has been helpful was when I corrected @davidlsims.bsky.social and @jjdotbiz.bsky.social put it in the Blank Check newsletter

I want to end this week's dossier section with a shout out to Alex Thompson, who wrote his PhD dissertation at Ohio State about the history of legacyquels. In this week's episode, the boys considered whether The Color of Money might be the first big Hollywood legacyquel, but in Alex's research, he pinpointed 1947's The Sin of Harold Diddlebock as the pioneer of the form. In that Preston Sturges-directed movie, silent film comedian Harold Lloyd reprised the role he played in 1925's The Freshman. Unlike Color of Money, however, the film was not a great success for its director or legendary star, as it was quickly pulled from circulation by its producer Howard Hughes (more on him in December) before reappearing in re-edited form in 1950 as Mad Wednesday, also to lackluster results. The film had been Lloyd's first feature in nearly a decade, and though he did not die until 1971, it was also ultimately his last.

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I wrote about Teenage Sex and Death, Cube 2: Hypercube, and Twilight Zone: The Movie to think about millenial media consumption habits. Contains an explication of why I found that one scene with that one song so moving and fun. alexsthompson.com/bce/an-omniv...

alexsthompson.com

An Omnivore’s Diet: Jane Schoenbrun’s Millennial Taste, and Mine — Alex S. Thompson

In Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma , Jane Schoenbrun’s phantasmagorical slasher-cum-orgasm-comedy, Hanna Einbinder’s Kris laments her childhood: “I think I watched too many movies at a young age...

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I have decided it is very rude of the Apple doc about the UConn Women’s Basketball team to rush through my years there watching Maya Moore and company kick some fucking ass on the daily. Like 30 seconds were spent on ‘06-‘10. Cater to me better!

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gita “the formalist” jackson @xoxogossipgita.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I’m going to see this in theaters and I will scream the whole time cause he is in a WHALE

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I’m two thirds of the way through a triple feature at the movies. Tony is a wonderful Bildungsroman with a great cast. The Rivals of Amziah King is a must see if you like little movies with big impact. Hoping Camp Miasma rounds out a lovely day at the pictures

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Micah @rincewind.run · 12/08/2026

that’s fucking right

Peggy Flanagan wearing a protect trans kids shirt

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Peter Labuza @labuzamovies.com · 10/08/2026

This is someone who never had to work before grad school, never move around multiple times following a series of postdocs, never once adjunct a single class, all to tell us that he knows the real horrors of academia because he once heard a land acknowledgment at a conference.

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.

static.klipy.com

Night Of The Hunter

Alt: Night Of The Hunter

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

More dissertation-turned-blog, this time with a categorization that I couldn't find time to actually put in the dissertation! If you ever wondered why some legacyquels were, for lack of a better word, deeper than others, I might have the answer for you! alexsthompson.com/bce/elegiac-...

alexsthompson.com

Elegiac Sequels: From Reverent to Revisionist — Alex S. Thompson

Part 2 of the ongoing blogification of my dissertation on what I call elegiac sequels, aka legacyquels. In this part, I begin to talk about a spectrum on which elegiac sequels lie based on the stance ...

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Sure, or amazing. Really important to figure out why each movie gets its premature designation, and who gives it out. Are racists on X declaring The Odyssey a woke money grab the same as people complaining about the umpteenth Marvel trailer looking the same as all the rest? No, and with imp. diffs!

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

My biggest question with Doomsday is whether or not they’ll let Marsden do what he has consistently done during his current hot streak and be incredibly charming and charismatic or if they’re gonna lock him into what 2000-Marsden was doing (nothing)

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

If you read his latest collection of short stories you will see evidence of an old man terrified of getting “cancelled”

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Michael @michaelklamerus.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

if you have your own physical media collection, you can do your own version of the Criterion Closet where you stand in your basement by yourself and saying "oh wow, In the Mood for Love, what a film" to absolutely no one

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Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

"With Lander's victory in NY-10 and Stevens's refusal to trade Jaylen Brown, it truly was a Brad day." - lede for a newspaper article relevant to me and like twenty other people

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Blogged about my experience watching Diabolique and the difference between the howcatchem genre and a ghost story. alexsthompson.com/bce/diaboliq...

alexsthompson.com

Diabolique and Columbo and Ghosts, oh my! — Alex S. Thompson

A short essay about Diabolique (1955), genre, twists, ghosts, and Columbo.

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Danielle H @danielleceltics.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

They are giving Janelle the Jayson Tatum treatment

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

The Hugo Gonzalez +/- has returned

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

It’s absurd that they can’t correct this during a break like checking if a shot is a 3 or a 2

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Love to see Tatum go end to end. He’s playing phenomenal basketball

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Gonna start posting some of my favorite pictures I’ve taken with in themed threads. Here’s the first two entries in “Pictures of People’s Backs” Part 1

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Hope Mike White is getting residuals from this. Weird to have characters from The Emoji Movie as your mascots all these years later but I guess someone has to do it

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

You really gotta save your challenges for the egregious shit the Thunder do as the game goes on. Can’t challenge small stuff early in case you lose and are stuck watching the bullshit calls

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

I always like the Oscars, even when they suck (and they were very good this year). It’s nice to watch a thing that celebrates art and entertainment, even more so in a world that seems to want to kill the parts of you that think and enjoy things

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Sinners cinematography win is cool. Really wish half the movie wasn’t underexposed, tho

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Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Wish I could help with this but I don’t pick the headlines, that’s an editor’s job. I also don’t write the story because I’m not that Alex Thompson

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

I swear every play was pretty. On the defensive end too

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Everyone needs to stop watching baseball and start watching basketball, a sport with no current controversies or recent AI use

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Derrick White is having fun playing basketball again. League fucked

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Please look at what Eddie House is wearing tonight #Celtics

Eddie House wears a black cowboy hat and black suit and shirt

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Dumpuary has officially become Raduary thanks to The Bone Temple. Hard to find a year when the movies kicked off this hard. 28 Years Later remains one of my top 5 movies of last year. This one is better.

media.tenor.com

a man in a purple jacket is asking are you ready

ALT: a man in a purple jacket is asking are you ready

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

I think another part of why the “wine moms” were denigrated was because of their earnestness in their beliefs and opposition. That got called cringe, but earnestness is really the only valuable response to fascism, an innately insincere form of politics

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Look, I can talk about the mixed feelings I have about the PhD I completed over a year ago. I get to bring that up. It’s mine. You do not get to denigrate the work I did because we don’t share political commitments. That’s an asshole move and if you really have a PhD I’d hope you’d understand that

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

I hope the people who dogpiled on me because someone else confused me for a person with the same name as me tell all their friends about the time they dunked on that guy from Axios with the cat profile picture and no links to Axios articles in his history

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

There’s a rot in the MAGA base when they cannot see their leadership’s flaws, including how they work for the rich instead of the majority, and understand any criticism of the leadership as an attack from outside rather than a critique from within. This is a post about the democratic base

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Alex Thompson @alexthompson.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Once again fighting with the dumbest people in my mentions for the same old reason

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Tom Westerholm @tomwesterholm.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

There’s basketball, and then there’s podracing, and this is both.

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