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Chris Klimek

@ctklimek.bsky.social
261 followers 68 following 177 posts

Semi-pro aesthete; less-pro athlete. Writing about theatre, movies, books, and ephemera wherever I'm welcome. Sweaty man, sweaty jokes.

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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
DIGGER is not the film I’d feared it would be; it reminded me of a number of Woolly Mammoth plays, particularly the one that inspired me to write this piece 13 years ago wherein I attempted a taxonomy of… spoilers. www.villagevoice.com/the-four-typ...
villagevoice.com
The Four Types of Spoilers and How Reviewers Should Handle Them - The Village Voice
Recently, Anne Washburn’s astonishing Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play wrapped up a sold-out run at Playwrights Horizons. I saw the show’s world premiere in June 2012 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company ...
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I was just thinking about how all those students in the audience for U2’s surprise 50th anniversary gig at Mt. Temple School in Dublin yesterday were like 3 years old when early Gen Z-ers were asking “What the fuck is U2 and why is it on my phone?”
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The summer my family got cable (and MTV), I asked for two cassettes for my birthday: NEVER LET ME DOWN and THE JOSHUA TREE. One of U2’s two best albums & one of Bowie’s worst, I would learn. My first favorite band stayed my favorite band. Heartened by all the videos from Dublin of U2’s 50th.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
U2 celebrating the 50th anniversary of their first rehearsal (today!) by playing the Dublin progressive school where they formed is almost as cool as when Bruuuce played a benefit at his old Catholic school in ‘96 and included his cunnilingus ode “Red-Headed Woman” (w/ spoken intro) in the set.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I loved the story Bono told on the Elevation tour about Joey Ramone asking to hear “In a Little While” on his deathbed; I cringed when U2 named a song after him 13 years later. But U2’s tiny sub-catalog of Ramones covers is good, and after 50 years, they’ve got a Ramones-length single of their own.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I’m on record in the Paper of Record calling the U2 album that ends with a lead vocal from Johnny Cash (ZOOROPA) their third-best, so I’m down with this Dolly Parton disclosure. I Will Always Love U2, to paraphrase.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I woke this morning from a nightmare that borrowed the plot of 25TH HOUR: I was freaking out on my last day of freedom before beginning a prison sentence. I’d like to chalk it up to the fact I’d seen Brian Cox in a play two nights earlier but it seems more sinister than that.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Amused that in downtown DC tonight, the Garth Brooks show at the hockey rink and the show play where Brian Cox is plays J.S. Bach are starting directly across F St. NW from one another at exactly the same time.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I don’t get pull-quoted much; I like to think that’s b/c I find full sentences to BREATHTAKING! and THRILLING! and also A TRIUMPH! But Signature’s MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG is As Good As the ‘23 Broadway one. (I’m paraphrasing myself now, from @citycastdc.bsky.social.) dc.citycast.fm/theater-revi...
dc.citycast.fm
In Signature Theatre’s 'Merrily We Roll Along,' Life Is But a Backwards Dream · City Cast DC
Matthew Gardiner’s production of the Stephen Sondheim musical rivals the Broadway revival.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I’m eavesdropping on a heroic @alamodrafthouse.bsky.social concierge who is trying to help a couple of walk-ups decide whether they should see TONY or COYOTE VS. ACME. They are unfamiliar with Anthony Bourdain. They are also unacquainted with Wylie E. Coyote and The Road Runner.
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Vulture @vulture.com · 28/08/2026
If you think being wanted for murder is going to derail or even delay Reacher’s quest for justice, think again.
vulture.com
Reacher Recap: An Ear for an Eye
If you think being wanted for murder is going to derail or even delay Reacher’s quest for justice, think again.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
At the risk of overhyping things, I’m prepared to say that THE DOG STARS is easily the second-or-third-best movie Ridley Scott has made in his eighties. (No, I do not mean “since the eighties.”) washingtoncitypaper.com/article/7907...
washingtoncitypaper.com
I Have Bad News About The Dog Stars’ Dog Star
Ridley Scott’s skilled tradesman phase continues with this existential thriller about the dogged persistence of hope in a ruined world.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Tim Curry did two runs at the National in the 80s, one of them warmup of the AMADEUS that played 3 years and saw him nominated for a Tony. As would happen at the Oscars, that production’s Amadeus lost the Best Actor prize to its Salieri. For @citycastdc.bsky.social: dc.citycast.fm/theater-revi...
dc.citycast.fm
Tim Curry’s D.C. Performances, Remembered · City Cast DC
The beloved actor’s turn in the title role of ‘Amadeus’ at the National Theatre was a local highlight in a varied and quirky career.
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Norm Eisen @normeisen.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
VICTORY: Karen Attiah wins her case against Bezos' Washington Post An arbitrator has now ruled that no fortune is big enough to buy the 1st Amendment. She is REINSTATED @democracydefendersfund.org is proud to rep her w/ @wbng.org in this landmark fight
nytimes.com
Washington Post Ordered to Rehire Fired Columnist Karen Attiah
An arbitrator ordered the newspaper to reinstate Karen Attiah, who was fired after posting about “white men who espouse hatred and violence” following Charlie Kirk’s killing.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Ms. @jenchaney.bsky.social brought me to an Olivia Dean concert in Baltimore and the last time I was surrounded by so many hot people I was in fucking Iceland
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Maybe this wasn’t the place to brag (?) about my diverse collection of DC-based media 1099s or say “by my troth,” but what my latest round of @vulture.com REACHER recaps preSUPPOSES is… maybe it was? www.vulture.com/tv/reacher/
vulture.com
Reacher — TV Episode Recaps & News
The latest tv recaps and news from Reacher.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
My credit-watching habit predates the trend of the post-credits scene by decades. Usually I just want to soak in the score. But I did read in Starlog magazine in the late 80s that at the end of the ALIENS credit scroll, you hear the sound of a facehugger scurrying around. Big Jim’s little joke.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
THE INVITE isn’t really a RASHOMON-style conflicting-accounts movie, but seeing the former immediately before the latter tonight really did enrich both films.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Circa 2007-2011, the then-Paper of Record sent me to Glen Hansard solo, The Frames, The Swell Season, and a Markéta Irglová solo gig where the 9:30 staff took away my date’s knitting needles, noting they’d collected several pairs that night already. All those shows were different, and all great.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
My dad spent his entire four-decade career working for the Federal Highway Administration. My youthful rebellion now extends into middle age as I head to the DMV to renew my license… on a bicycle.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
With DUNKIRK, OPPENHEIMER, & now THE ODYSSEY, Nolan has kept the mid-July date he first claimed with THE DARK KNIGHT while convincing a mass audience to embrace formally innovative, thematically challenging material. This is his GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL: the one that wins over the last of this skeptics.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Thirty goddamn years ago, when POP, the U2 album we’ve all (mostly come around on, was stiffing, The Discourse was that U2 should write songs with big, infectious choruses again. I dig “Street of Dreams.” Wish Bono could break his lyrical sloganeering habit (like he did on POP!) but whadayagonnado?
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
OVERHEARD at Wolf Trap recycling bin, post-Lizzo w/ the NSO. “I think we should adopt the English pronunciation: ‘AH-loh-min-EE-um.” “Just because you banged a British dude ONE TIME—“ “I was more than one time!”
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Sean Redlitz @theredlitz.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
One more podcast rec for any new or longtime PRISONER fans: @ctklimek.bsky.social & @ghweldon.bsky.social’s outstanding A DEGREE ABSOLUTE!, offering an excellent and in depth overview of the series, more of McGoohan’s oeuvre, and works by others it influenced. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
podcasts.apple.com
A Degree Absolute!
After Shows Podcast · Series · Critics Chris Klimek and Glen Weldon both loved the late-60s British sci-fi series "The Prisoner" in their formative years, but they haven't seen it in a long time and t...
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Last night I revisited GANGS OF NEW YORK. Hadn’t seen it since ‘02, but a tale from a time when America’s political corruption & hierarchy of racial grievance was out-and-proud felt apt. It’s a mess: vibrant (a)historical detail & DDL’s most porcine performance dressing up a thin story. But worthy.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
The official fireworks show on the Mall started at 11:59 pm, which is unusual. The amateur neighborhood fireworks will continue until probably 4 a.m. and resume tomorrow night, as is standard. Columbia Heights, DC, baby.
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Glen Weldon @ghweldon.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
You know THE PRISONER just dropped on the Criterion Channel, yes? If you’re thinking about checking it out, or a rewatch, let me and @ctklimek.bsky.social and just a whole bunch of great guests walk you through its singular weirdness, episode by episode. podcasts.apple.com/dk/podcast/a...
podcasts.apple.com
A Degree Absolute!
After Shows Podcast · Series · Critics Chris Klimek and Glen Weldon both loved the late-60s British sci-fi series "The Prisoner" in their formative years, but they haven't seen it in a long time and t...
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Ross Bratin @rbratin.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
So excited to see that The Prisoner is now streaming on the Criterion Channel! Love the show and enjoyed listening to @ctklimek.bsky.social and @ghweldon.bsky.social podcast on the show: A Degree Absolute. Hopefully more people will now check out this wild show!
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
When I pointed out on social media a few months back that as an ineligible-for-the-union 20-year freelancer, I had a Style staffer’s worth of bylines for WaPo in 2025 for $17,075 & no benefits, their standards editor told me I was banned from contributing further. I don’t even get the solidarity.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I did a Sean Connery obit back in 2020 I was proud of, but I’m ashamed to admit I never saw THE OFFENCE (Sidney Lumet, 1973) until last night. Tough sit, but the darkest, most vulnerable Connery performance I’ve seen, and among his best. Christopher Nolan cited it as a favorite.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Garry Marshall’s DISCLOSURE DAY is that anything
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
We each observe DISCLOSURE DAY in our own way. Mine is to join @filmspotting.bsky.social to create a combative yet insightful new pod wherein experts @mgtwspace.bsky.social & @jenchaney.bsky.social argue the superiority of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS & E.T., respectively. www.filmspotting.net/episodes-arc...
filmspotting.net
Close Encounters of the Third Kind vs. E.T. | Movie Death Match — Filmspotting
E.T. phone his lawyer?
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
DISCLOSURE DAY is the first of the long-waited would-be blockbusters of the summer to deliver the goods. It’s a conspiracy thriller / road movie with all the scale you’d hope for but with the intimacy Spielberg has always brought to his grand entertainments.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
It’s adjudicatin’ time! Two of the smartest women I know argue the relative merits of Spielberg’s classics about extraterrestrial ambassadors on our brand! New! Show! We took the critical insight of Filmspotting Original Recipe & added the primal thrill of bloodsport to give you MOVIE DEATH MATCH!
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Jen Chaney @jenchaney.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Fellow critic and friend @ctklimek.bsky.social is hosting a new podcast called Movie Death Match, a spin-off of @filmspotting.bsky.social, and I got to be on the first episode arguing that E.T., my favorite movie, is better than CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, another great movie. Listen! omny.fm/shows/filmsp...
omny.fm
Close Encounters of the Third Kind vs. E.T. | Movie Death Match - Filmspotting
E.T. phone his lawyer?
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
It’s adjudicatin’ time! Two of the smartest women I know argue the relative merits of Spielberg’s classics about extraterrestrial ambassadors on our brand! New! Show! We took the critical insight of Filmspotting Original Recipe & added the primal thrill of bloodsport to give you MOVIE DEATH MATCH!
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Dug the retrospective rockumentary IRON MAIDEN: BURNING AMBITION. Pretty sure Maiden superfan Javier Bardem has more screen time in this than he did in SKYFALL.
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PaulLev @paullev.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Enjoyed @ctklimek.bsky.social's @npr.org story about @amazingstories.bsky.social and its 100th publication anniversary! www.npr.org/2026/04/24/n... my 1st pro-pub was in Amazing Stories Feb1993, had 3 more pub'd there in late 2010s, & will have brand new time travel story in 100th anniv issue
npr.org
Before sci-fi was everywhere, this pioneering magazine championed 'scientifiction'
The name didn't stick. The fan communities did.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
On THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2, a 21st century, 20-years-later sequel that still follows the 1980s comedy sequel playbook. Big CROCODILE DUNDEE II energy here, is what I’m telling you. washingtoncitypaper.com/article/7851...
washingtoncitypaper.com
It’s Back to Square One in The Devil Wears Prada 2
In this sequel, journalism is in worse shape than fashion, but the film’s faith in the super-wealthy is a bit much.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
If you see one Anne Hathaway movie this weekend, let it be MOTHER MARY: washingtoncitypaper.com/article/7846...
washingtoncitypaper.com
When I Find Myself in Times of Trouble, Mother Mary Confounds Me
In David Lowery’s possibly supernatural two-hander starring Anne Hathaway as a troubled pop star, Michaela Coel gets the upper hand.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
SUPERMAN (1978) and SUPERMAN (2025) are both more credible journalism movies than THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 (2026)
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
DEEP WATER is a movie where a shark takes down a helicopter, but it also has some unrealistic stuff like boomer characters willingly sacrificing themselves so younger folk can survive
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Todd Vaziri @tvaziri.com · 08/04/2026
a frame from the movie total recall where a character keeps repeating "two weeks"
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Just got a press release about a new movie starring Jon Voight and directed by Bryan Singer, two men who’re both more employable than I am, evidently.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
I wrote about The Life of Chuck (Norris) — the karate champ turned Bruce Lee heel turned VHS king turned immortal meme turned MAGA clown who counted to infinity, twice — for @the Atlantic. www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
theatlantic.com
Chuck Norris Played Too Good a Bad Guy to Stay One
Before he became an avatar of manly hyperbole, he held his own against Bruce Lee.
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Jonathan L. Fischer @jonfischer.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
In The Atlantic, a Chuck Norris appreciation that will PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE from @ctklimek.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
theatlantic.com
Chuck Norris Played Too Good a Bad Guy to Stay One
Before he became an avatar of manly hyperbole, he held his own against Bruce Lee.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Had to pause the Chuck Norris piece I was working on to go see (stage) HAMNET @shakespeareindc.bsky.social. Haven’t felt like such a voracious goddamn cultural omnivore since the day I recorded the ROAD HOUSE episode of PCHH… immediately after interviewing Suzan-Lori Parks.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Was just reminded of the preteen era when my VHS-renting pals and I would diss movies we disliked by saying they “had no plot” and/or were “unrealistic,” as though everything should foreground narrative and be written, designed, and performed in a realistic style.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
On the Drew Goddard-adapts-a-1st-person-Andy Weir tip, THE MARTIAN is the obvious comparison, but PROJECT HAIL MARY felt more like a cuddlier version of Danny Boyle’s terrific, underseen SUNSHINE to me. Or maybe the INTERSTELLAR that Spielberg would’ve made. washingtoncitypaper.com/article/7813...
washingtoncitypaper.com
Project Hail Mary Boldly Goes…
…where Interstellar, The Martian, and others have gone before. But a knockoff that can hold its own in such company is a major achievement.
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Chris Klimek @ctklimek.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
I’m choosing to infer from some of these dumb takes that SINNERS has activated a whole new cohort of cinephiles… which is a great thing that only adds to Coogler’s historic achievement! And God willing, the man has another 40-plus years of great movies in him. Everybody wins.
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