iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eric Beltmann @ericbeltmann.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

BREAKING: Things are spiraling on USS Abraham Lincoln.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 01/08/2026

I started getting followed by some "film festivals" and "writing festivals" and thought "oh, these are cool!" Then I looked a little closer. They're all part of a network that preys on writers, charging us for reviews, and feeding our stuff into slop generators. So I made a list.👋🏻🖕🏻😠

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Eric Beltmann @ericbeltmann.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Just now I was curious about soundtracks that have used Fleetwood Mac's "I Don't Want to Know." I Googled "i don't want to know fleetwood mac which movie soundtracks?" and AI responded with sarcasm of the first rank. Well-played, robot. Well-played.

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Eric Beltmann @ericbeltmann.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

BREAKING: Christopher Nolan announces his next film for Universal will be an adaptation of James Joyce's "Ulysses." The tentative release date is Bloomsday, 2029.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

It is genuinely bizarre that we’ve become acclimatized to right wingers throwing a tantrum every time a black person (particularly a black woman) is cast in something, but are also supposed to pretend that this is not racism but related to some other substantive concern.

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Eric Beltmann @ericbeltmann.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Sometimes when I'm scurrying about my brain presses play on "Fletch Theme" to score my movement and it's both comforting and hilarious.

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Chris Yogerst @chrisyogerst.com · 18/07/2026

“Triumphalist history, which is exactly what the Trump White House demands, cannot tolerate nuance, ambiguity, complexity. These elements of real history — dare we say truths about human experience — always spoil the party and the military flyovers” David Blight 🔥

nytimes.com

Opinion | Why Trump Can’t Leave the Smithsonian Alone

The Trump White House and its history police want us all to live in their chosen bubble, immune from instability or perceived disorder.

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Jason Scott @textfiles.com · 03/07/2026

I'll summarize this: Mamdani asked NYers to keep air conditioning at 78 degrees. A wave criticism hit online. A MSNBC broadcast pointed out the US Department of Energy recommends that 78 degree figure. Immediately after, the US Department of Energy deleted 6,000 web pages related to energy saving.

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Kateration @kateration.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

We went to see a movie and this annoying couple just continued to have a full blown, normal volume conversation through the first 5 minutes of the film until I said, loud enough for them to hear, “Jesus Christ, shut the fuck up.” And they promptly shut up.

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Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

If the "takeaway" of a film is widely misunderstood, who is to blame, the filmmakers or the audience? For instance, if Marines watch Apocalypse Now and cheer the destruction and come away thinking Kilgore and Kurtz are awesome, are they media-illiterate, or did the movie fail in some basic way?

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

I wrote about DISCLOSURE DAY, and I found myself sympathetic to it. It's desperate, and that is not a word I usually use with Spielberg. It's a film about faith from someone whose belief in images has been shaken. www.patreon.com/willowcately...

a still image from Disclosure Day of Emily Blunt holding a device that is emanating light.

I am something of a Spielberg agnostic, because I have always found it difficult to find myself and people like me in the collective “we” that his populist films frequently spoke to. Critics whom I respect have challenged me on this position before, and while I admire Spielberg the stylist, it is Spielberg the emotional manipulator, whom I have found trouble navigating. There are certainly exceptions (I hold A.I.: Artificial Intelligence in very high regard), but his humanism can have limits of recognition. It would perhaps be easier to welcome his sweeping awe if he had not been synonymous with the idea of what movies were when I was maturing. It is somewhat ironic that I have warmed to him somewhat after the movie-going public began to turn their back on him, considering him an out of touch old man around the time of Bridge of Spies. I have found his late period work to be curious in his disarticulation, confusion and frustration with how film culture has passed him by. I found much to admire in the old fashioned charms, and aggressive implementation of his many talents in West Side Story. It was fascinating to watch him negotiate his place in history and come to the conclusion that perhaps cinema is not enough to build a life on in the autiobiographical therapy of The Fabelmans. In that manner, I think anyone who loves movies can get swept up in the collateral damage of his findings.

$The Fabelmans seemed like it probably should have been Spielberg’s final notice to the pictures. What else could he possibly say that he hasn’t already said before? Disclosure Day arrives from this strange place of epilogue. It’s a naive picture. Time has clearly moved on, but in flashes he reminds us why he was synonymous with American films for the better part of forty years. Much of this is a chase picture, and only George Miller is better at handling a chase. Within the shadow of The Fabelmans, Disclosure Day’s plea for a collective reckoning with the meaning of images having the power to pull us together into an empathetic cosmos between us all, seems a like a prayer. Like he’s trying to find his faith in cinema born anew in an alien sci-fi mode he is intimately familiar with. Whether he’s successful is entirely in the eye of the beholder, which speaks to the wide array of opinions about the quality of this film. I find myself in the strange position of being a believer in this particular version of Spielberg, who doesn’t know how to address our fracturing through any other means than through a belief in images. There’s a contradiction bubbling under the surface Disclosure Day. A cynical optimism. Something desperate, which is not a feeling I usually associate with Spielberg. Even more surprising, I felt caught up in the “we”, because I was unexpectedly blindsided in how it made me reckon with my own lapsed faith in God, and in people, and how that disconnect was born through childhood trauma. Movies aren’t therapy, but I guess Spielberg and I think of them that way sometimes.$

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Milton Lawson @citizenmilton.com · 12/06/2026

Since we're ranking Spielberg films, here's my incomplete ranking, using the Key & Peele format

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Ken Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I am a strict “shut up and dribble” guy about exactly one subject: Tom & Jerry. Tom and Jerry should be chasing each other around a kitchen and that’s it. They should not be friends. They should not have a supporting cast. They should not be in French Revolution times.

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Walter Chaw @mangiotto.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Stoked for this PERSONA reboot.

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Erin Maher @theerinmaher.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Saw someone being offended because they are young and they shouldn’t have been expected to see RAIDERS because “it’s old.” Man, when I was 19 I had seen so many old movies, and I had to work for it. There could not be an easier time in history to pick up on seeing an “old”movie.

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Nicole Chung @nicolechung.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

"83% of LLM users could not quote a single line from essays they had written minutes earlier. When the LLM group was forced to write without AI in a follow-up session, their brain activity did not bounce back to baseline; the researchers coined the term 'cognitive debt' for the lingering deficit."

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Walter Chaw @mangiotto.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

For me, I think Inde Navarrette will and should be a star. I think the things that are good and interesting about this bottom-heavy, exhausted masterplot are entirely due to the wisdom of her performance. Entirely. She's the moral rudder. The ship isn't seaworthy, but the rudder is unerring & true.

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Qasim Rashid, Esq. @qasimrashid.com · 25/05/2026

The people who have spent centuries depicting Jesus Christ, a real brown Palestinian Jew, as a blond haired blue eyed white guy, are upset that a film depicts Helen of Troy—a fictional person—as a Black woman They are upset that another film depicts Snape—also a fictional being—as a Black man 1/2

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JR Radcliffe @jrradcliffe.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Oh so this is the "I will spot you some early wildness before I harvest your souls" Misiorowski.

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Adam P Knave @adampknave.com · 19/05/2026

When you realize you HAVE danced with the devil in the pale moonlight.

michael keaton as batman looking surprised

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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

All the developers 404 Media talked to were excited to try using LLMs at work at first, or were at least curious about them. Their feelings about the tools, based on their personal experience, are now overwhelmingly negative. AI is rotting their brains www.404media.co/software-dev...

404media.co

Software Developers Say AI Is Rotting Their Brains

“It's making me dumber for sure.”

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Eric Beltmann @ericbeltmann.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Who was that guy having too much fun at that midnight screening of the 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival? Here's the answer, along with my top five of the festival. @mkefilm.bsky.social

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Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Beginning to think Kubrick is staging these assassination attempts but demanding more takes

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Eric Beltmann @ericbeltmann.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Most days my son, who attends school where I teach, uses my car in the middle of the day. On Thursday, I found my returned car oddly angled in the parking lot. Then I looked at my texts.

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Eric Beltmann @ericbeltmann.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

The 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival @mkefilm.bsky.social is at its midpoint but hardly slowing down. Check out these under-the-radar picks for the remaining days. This year you can find my fest pieces in area Conley Media newspapers, and online at Greater Milwaukee Today. Link in comments.

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Eric Beltmann @ericbeltmann.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

The 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival @mkefilm.bsky.social started today. Check out the retro program! This year you can find my fest pieces in area Conley Media newspapers, and online at Greater Milwaukee Today. Link in comments.

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Eric D. Snider @ericdsnider.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I'm sure it's because I was a film critic for 21 years and went to a movie theater 2-5 times a week and getting treats every time was untenable, but I do not understand people who think $20 in concessions is "part of the cost of moviegoing." You can bring your own! Or not eat! You don't have to eat!

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Eric Beltmann @ericbeltmann.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Some thoughts about the 2026 @mkefilm.bsky.social Festival, which kicks off April 16. This year you can find my fest pieces in four local Conley Media newspapers and online at Greater Milwaukee Today. Link in comments.

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🏳️‍🌈 Ms. Marya E. Gates 🦩 @oldfilmsflicker.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

I think one of the reasons so many films today don’t hit emotionally like they should is so many films shot digitally just do NOT use film grammar well anymore. Film is a dying language. This is a close-up in a 1922 Elvira Notari film. She cuts in close so we feel this woman’s sadness viscerally.

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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

I can't recall a time when more talented reporters and writers on movies and culture who have real skill and knowledge are struggling to find a foothold. We live in an "Everyone's an expert" era. But everyone isn't. Editors: Please take a chance on folks you haven't tried before. Read their clips!

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Eli Valley @elivalley.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Everybody's asking

r/criterion
•
7m ago
isaiah_ad

How will the upcoming economic depression effect the Criterion sale?

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Movies Silently @moviessilently.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

There were tiny kids in the audience laughing their little heads off at 99-year-old comedies and I don’t think there’s a stronger recommendation than that

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Noel Murray @noelmu.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Isn't it fun to watch teams trade clutch buckets in the final minute of a basketball game without stopping for timeouts or for referees to fuss over where to set the clock?

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Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Least aware religious fanatic I’ve ever seen.

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Dr Sean Travers @seanjetravers.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

When you choose the movie and everyone hates it

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Andrea Robinson @andrearobinson.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

No one will ever convince me that having thousands of open hands between the patient, the doctor, the medicines, and the facilities needed is "smarter business."

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Scott Tobias @scotttobias.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

A truly excellent @kphipps3000.bsky.social rumination today on video stores, inspired by Alex Ross Perry's VIDEOHEAVEN and the Criterion Channel VHS series. Not a nostalgia piece, but a more clear-headed remembrance of a bygone era. (Also free to read!): thereveal.film/ghosts-of-vi...

thereveal.film

Ghosts of Video Stores Past

The Alex Ross Perry documentary ‘Videoheaven’ and an accompanying Criterion Channel series explore our sometimes fraught relationship with videotapes and the stores that rented them.

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Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

The martial arts scenes in It’s A Wonderful Life were a key influence on The Matrix

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Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Paramount getting rid of Warner Brothers’ woke movies

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Morbidly a Beast ↗️ @mike-steaks.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Look at the mask on the far right. Kubrick knew.

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Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

‘Diane, 11:30 a.m., February 24th. Entering the town of Twin Peaks. Move out of the way of my gun, Diane.’

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David Noll @david.noll.org · 21/02/2026

Incredible opinion. It holds that the common ICE tactic of jumping out of an unidentified rental vehicle and seizing suspected noncitizens while masked violates the Fourth Amendment because the *manner* of the seizure is incompatible with a free society governed by the rule of law.

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Yvalarevolution⁷ @yvalarevolution.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

I think i'm a book snob. I have a lit degree, read the classics and settled on a modern american lit focus. Most of the books I read and loved for my degree were old, tightly written and well told. Every time I try to read current fiction, my brain spends the entire experience rewriting the book.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Sometimes very hard not to feel like the rest of the country has abandoned Minnesota. We STILL have ICE everywhere. Our schools, businesses, and economy are in profound crisis. But without Bovino here throwing tear gas, much of the country seems to not care at all what’s being done to us.

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Eric Beltmann @ericbeltmann.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Listen, it's not my favorite genre, either. But imagine being so myopic that you can't set aside your personal music preferences for a mere 15 minutes and find a way to recognize the joy, pageantry, artistry and patriotism in a superstar's labor-of-love performance. That sounds so... miserable.

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Mickey Kuhns @mickeykuhns.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Father confronts ICE after they chase his daughter home…

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Lydia Polgreen @polgreen.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

The execution of Alex Pretti is playing so badly because you can look at his actions and life story - his last act was helping, boy scout, athlete, health care worker to veterans - and compare those to the men who killed him and know which you would want to be your son, brother, father, uncle.

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