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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

My final, supersized TIFF dispatch is now live on Decoding Everything! I wrap up the festival and its major awards, reflect a bit on my humbling experience this year, and give reviews of personal faves POSSIBLE LOVE, CLUB KID, and TENDER LOVING CARE, alongside other notable titles.

decodingeverything.com

TIFF 2026 Dispatch #3: 'Club Kid', 'Possible Love', the People's Choice Awards, and other highlights

Stephen David Miller concludes his coverage of the 51st annual Toronto International Film Festival.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I was mixed at best on the new Rachel Morrison movie LOVE OF YOUR LIFE, but I do want to thank her for making Fleetwood Mac’s “Seven Wonders’ my official festival jam.

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David Chen @davechen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Always love it when @sdavidmiller.bsky.social goes long on the Toronto International Film Festival. Today at Decoding Everything, Stephen breaks down some much anticipated films, including INK and WILD HORSE NINE. Read/susbcribe www.decodingeverything.com/tiff-2026-di...

decodingeverything.com

TIFF 2026 Dispatch #2: Ink, Elsinore, and Wild Horse Nine

Stephen David Miller continues his coverage of the 51st annual Toronto International Film Festival.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

My favorite genre of iPhone app is “used to do one thing extremely well & everyone used it, spends a decade piling on inexplicable redesigns and features, now barely does that one thing.” Venmo, Ultimate Guitar. I don’t understand what motivates this self sabotage, but I love it.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

My second TIFF dispatch is now live on Decoding Everything! I cover Danny Boyle’s disappointing INK, Andrew Scott’s incredible performance in ELSINORE, and my favorite film of the festival so far: WILD HORSE NINE.

decodingeverything.com

TIFF 2026 Dispatch #2: Ink, Elsinore, and Wild Horse Nine

Stephen David Miller continues his coverage of the 51st annual Toronto International Film Festival.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Gift to my future self this Friday: Every time I get an email I don’t care about, I’m taking the extra few seconds to unsubscribe rather than just swipe it away.

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Helena Fitzgerald @hellafitzgerald.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

this is excellent

stigmatizing Rowling’s weaponization of childhood not only requires personal withdrawal for most people, it necessitates something much more difficult: being a giant fucking killjoy. You should tell people discussing the show that you’re not watching it, and why, and you should let yourself openly cringe at your sister-in-law’s Harry Potter tote bag, and you should bring up unprompted that the onslaught of legislation against trans people makes you sad and angry, presuming it does, and you should do this because, not despite, the fact that it will make you look annoying as hell and may make everyone present uncomfortable. (You probably won’t even get the kudos of looking like a cool ally, because you’re still ultimately talking about Harry Potter. Sorry about that.)

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Free Atlantic op-ed template! Title: Progressives Must Reject X Outline: * X is a leftist who criticizes Israel [1 par] * Certainly, criticizing Israel is lorem ipsum. However, many [no citation] fear X is antisemitic [1 par] * We must reject antisemitism [6 par] * Ergo, we must reject X [1 par]

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Adele M. Stan @addiestan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

This story isn’t getting nearly enough attention. Trump regime wants to jail him for 5 years. Has implications for all of us. "U.S. Citizen Who Deleted Phone’s Data Says His Prosecution Puts Privacy at Risk” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/u...

nytimes.com

U.S. Citizen Who Deleted Phone’s Data Says His Prosecution Puts Privacy at Risk (Gift Article)

Samuel Tunick, who faces a felony charge for deleting his phone’s data during an airport customs search, called the government’s peering into people’s private lives “creepy.”

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Patrick Cosmos @veryimportant.lawyer · 22/08/2026

[drunk as hell trying to remember joanna newsom's name] natalie harp

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

It’s been months since I caught TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIAMSA in a sleep deprived stupor, so my memory is hazy. But I’m surprised I haven’t seen much written about its relationship to camp — specifically, the way that performance can be a way of owning “otherness.”

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I’d love for a progressive critic of “Woke 1.0” to explain which positions exactly they want to disavow. Meaning the substance behind certain movements, not the fact that the internet doesn’t interpret language in the spirit it was meant & in hindsight you wish your slogans had been better crafted.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

The president is refusing to spend taxpayer money assisting Americans suffering from natural disasters solely because their states didn't vote for him. I know there are a thousand scandals at the moment, but this one deserves some more oxygen at every level.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

In a world where LLMs can trivially update documentation, why is it that every major product on the planet has Support and FAQ pages which reference menus / buttons / tabs that have been renamed or no longer exist?

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

For every 10% improvement in technology, people get 50% lazier in their dependence on it. This is the curse of AI—tools which have clear uses (faster software dev & research loops, processing unstructured data) but have instead become an excuse to outsource creativity, attention, and thought.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

With the release of TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA, I hope the world will finally understand why I’ve been listening to Counting Crows’ “A Long December” on repeat for the last 3 months

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

One funny thing about timezones is that everyone seems committed to saying "Pacific Standard Time" or "Eastern Standard Time" when scheduling meetings, even during Daylight Savings months. The only reason we all aren't late to 50% of calls is that Google is smart enough to ignore clear instructions.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Putting it in my will that when I die, I want everyone in my life to do a Facebook post tagging me and 12 random other people saying “I can’t believe he’s gone…”

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

It is funny to see marketing materials frame "this note-taker works without making its presence known to anyone else in the meeting!" as a perk, rather than a major privacy issue which presumably violates the spirit (if not the letter) of two-party consent laws in most states.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Odysseus at an open mic: “Everybody’s talking about this lettuce recall, but I can’t recall a damn thing since I started eating LO-tus. Lotus. Cyclospora outbreak? I broke out of a cyclops area years ago— talk about shitting your pants! Anyway that’s my time. Tip your waitstaff, they might be gods.”

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Just saw FJORD described in a festival sneak preview as an “irresistible thriller.” I’m a big fan of FJORD, and can’t wait to revisit it. But I really hope that isn’t the marketing direction they choose to go with, because people are going to come in with *wildly* mismatched expectations.

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“james adomian” @jadomian.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

New Improv 4 Humans!

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

In 2014, Nolan made a film arguing that love was the one truly universal force. At the time, I mocked it as corny, sentimental nonsense. In 2026, Nolan made a film arguing that the most important shared myth is that of universal empathy, of compassion at 70mm IMAX scale. I teared up on the subway.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I’m no prude, but they’re blasting pop music while boarding this flight, and the frontman very clearly just sang “make me hard, make me cum”. Sir, families are present!

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Someone’s baby (who was nowhere near me) let out a shriek while we were lining up for this flight out of O’Hare, and an elderly woman immediately turned around and shot me the dirtiest look. Can’t tell if she thinks it’s my baby, or if she somehow thinks I AM the baby.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Randomly stumbled across this gem at the start of today’s Seoul -> San Francisco -> Chicago travel marathon. I’m pretty sure a solid 10% of the listens are mine. youtu.be/8BKVMUZb3W4?...

youtu.be

I Do Mine

YouTube video by Debt Club - Topic

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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 07/07/2026

"His wife has said that he relied on an inhaler for asthma, but ICE agents rejected her attempt to give them the device when he was taken into custody."

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Landed in Seoul & went to a pork place for lunch. Delicious, but I could still feel it in my arteries 8 hours later. I resolved to have a light dinner. I find a spot that specializes in octopus, seafood iconography everywhere, and point at random at the menu. They bring me a giant plate of pork.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I think it's actually good and normal that I need to log in to HP.com to use my own scanner

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

As a time traveler from 1997 who is too shy to ask for help, I’m grateful that airlines insist not only on offering me busted wired headphones, but forcing them upon me for the duration of my redeye.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

The most exciting wrinkle on the last flight was the couple reading The Babylon Bee while wearing N95 masks. A combination of signifiers I’ve never seen before!

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Currently halfway through a brutal layover in DC (involving a cab transfer from Reagan National to Dulles) and am *just now* checking BlueSky. Very disappointed in myself for not taking a detour to view the peeling paint on the green reflecting pool.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

POWER BALLAD. Ok, so John Carney isn’t going for originality. He just wants to pluck at heartstrings via dad music, and the thinnest narrative glue it requires. But as Paul Rudd serenaded me in an empty theater in San Juan, in a mix that didn’t sound even remotely diegetic, did I cry? You bet I did!

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

As someone with multiple international trips scheduled over the next few weeks, I will be incredibly annoyed if the Trump admin shuts down customs at SFO to make some halfassed point about border security. Not the worst thing they’ve done by a long shot, but I reserve the right to complain.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

I cannot overstate the influence PERSEPOLIS had on me. My first experience of world cinema as empathy machine. My first time seeing animation as a complex dramatic medium. Began a shift in my view of history & power that has only snowballed since. RIP, Marjane Satrapi. You were one of the greats.

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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Their new girlfriend is women

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

I’m intimately familiar with the inner workings of LLMs, and their genuine use in, e.g. building software or sifting through mountains of data. Yet I’ve never even been tempted to use them to write. The principle feels obvious: If you sound like everyone else, why should anyone bother to read you?

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David Chen @davechen.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

For the past week or so, @sdavidmiller.bsky.social has been publishing his now-annual dispatches from the Cannes Film Festival at Decoding Everything. They are engrossing travelogues and have great movie reviews. Check'em out (and subscribe for free) www.decodingeverything.com/cannes-2026-...

decodingeverything.com

Cannes 2026 Dispatch #3: The Palme d’Or-Winning 'Fjord' And Other Festival Highlights

Stephen David Miller wraps up his coverage of the Cannes Film Festival with reviews of Fjord, The Black Ball, The Beloved, and Orange-Flavoured Wedding, and a recap of the Closing Ceremony Hello agai...

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

My third and final Cannes dispatch is now live! I contemplate the tensions that make this festival so addictive, review FJORD alongside other personal favorites (THE BLACK BALL, THE BELOVED, ORANGE-FLAVOURED WEDDING), and recap the Closing Ceremony. www.decodingeverything.com/cannes-2026-...

decodingeverything.com

Cannes 2026 Dispatch #3: The Palme d’Or-Winning 'Fjord' And Other Festival Highlights

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Narrator: They were almost immediately proven wrong

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Spending the waning moments of my 37th birthday at the courtyard bar of the Hotel Martinez (aka “The White Lotus Cannes”, my splurge stay for the night). Delirious, as always, after a grueling festival schedule. Extremely happy, as always, that I’ll get the chance to do it again next year.

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

FJORD is a really great movie and in my top 3 or 4 of the competition personally. But I had zero belief it had a shot at winning the Palme!

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Cannes Palmarés predictions that will almost immediately be proven wrong

Last Minute Palmarés Predictions
• Screenplay: ***Fjord***
• Actor: Swann Arnauld, ***A Man Of His Time***
• Actress: Renate Reinsve, ***Fjord***
• Director: Pawel Pawlikowski, ***Fatherland***
• Special Jury Prize: ***The Black Ball***
• Jury Prize: ***Fatherland***
• Grand Prix: ***Minotaur***
• Palme d'Or: ***All Of A Sudden***

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Stephen David Miller @sdavidmiller.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Before the festival ends in earnest, I’m back with another dispatch! I talk HOPE, HER PRIVATE HELL, PAPER TIGER, MINOTAUR, and those silly, misleading headlines about an AI-generated feature film. Will return for a ton of reviews I missed + the awards ceremony soon.

decodingeverything.com

Cannes 2026 Dispatch #2: No, An AI-Generated Feature Film Did Not Premiere At Cannes (And Reviews Of Things That Did)

Stephen David Miller gives his second update from the Cannes film festival, including a brief detour into the new AI-generated movie Hell Grind and reviews of Her Private Hell, Hope, Minotaur, and Pap...

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