iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

This Epic New Movie Is Considered The Odyssey’s Rival for Best Picture. I’m Not So Sure.

La Bola Negra is a 2-hour-&-40-minute long epic that follows three queer men in different eras of Spain's history as their life stories intersect w/ the country's history of fascism & homophobia. It's overstuffed & maximalist, but gorgeously made & intermittently brilliant: slate.com/culture/2026...

slate.com

La Bola Negra has everything, including a showstopping number from Penélope Cruz, but I’m not convinced that’s entirely a good thing.

5476 47

This Epic New Movie Is Considered The Odyssey’s Rival for Best Picture. I’m Not So Sure.

slate.com

La Bola Negra has everything, including a showstopping number from Penélope Cruz, but I’m not convinced that’s entirely a good thing.

5476 47

& ps--that flamenco scene was incredible, one of my favorite parts of the movie & definitely the highlight of that storyline.

100 1

Makes sense that that would be the movie referenced, since Lorca figures largely in this one, less as a character (though he briefly appears) than as a presence in Spanish literary history.

100 1

Does it ever do any movie a favor to talk about it in terms of its Oscar chances? Probably not, but it's true that this one, along with Dune 3, is the title considered most likely to get a best picture nom alongside The Odyssey. Headlines be headlines!

210 2

Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 13/10/2026

No--I saw that movie so long ago that I don't remember it. Was the reference you're referring to the flamenco scene?

100 1

Reposted by Dana Stevens

One student found a handwritten note above “The Whiteness of the Whale” chapter—a transcription from the book review in the London *Leader*: this “chapter…should be read at midnight, alone, with nothing heard but the sounds of the wind moaning without, and the embers falling into the grate within”

114921 149

Reposted by Dana Stevens

Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 13/10/2026

Me, walking into @illinoisrbml.bsky.social to inspect the spread @caitcoker.bsky.social has out for my class’ visit Me: Wow a 1st American edition of *Moby Dick* in which someone pasted newspaper articles about whaling & reviews of the book Me: do we know who pasted these? CC: um, Herman Me: 🤯

1039793 397

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Never let being a completely unqualified nullity stand in your way!

0150 15

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

All this and losing the fuck plane too

070 7

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Thanks to your post I just got a ticket! This is close to where I live & it sounds so fun.

120 2

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

If they're serving the food pictured in that stock photo, I'm all for the decline of dinner parties...

1120 12

Reposted by Dana Stevens

Sam Adams @samadams.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

just have to lean into the cliché that when people ask me what they should see right now my answer is "you should really check out this 11-hour Russian documentary"

717930 179

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

If corrosion was occurrin’/ you can’t blame the urine CASE CLOSE

21269 126

You must give us endless financial & environmental resources, plus all published material from human history at no cost, so we can continue to develop our endumbening machine!

0100 10

He kind of breaks down under the stress in that wood-chopping scene, but it is not a breakdown that makes him easier to sympathize with! It's a tough balancing act that I think the film, especially his performance, pulls off very well.

Ha! As I think Richard said at one point, it's as if the movie is suddenly turning around and pointing at the viewer going "see, it wasn't SUPPOSED to be funny, dumbass!"

140 4

Yes, I read up on this some in writing the review, but had not seen this summary. Thanks.

It's not the easiest film to watch, for sure, and it didn't blow me away like the director's also hard to watch masterpiece 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 4 Days did. But I appreciated how seriously it took both sides of the real-life case it examines, & I agree the acting, direction & cinematography were 🤌.

The Filmmaker Behind One of the Best Movies of the Century Is Back With Another Harrowing, Provocative Thriller

Cristian Mungiu's Fjord, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year, is a thorny, rigorously unsentimental exploration of the culture clashes that can come in the wake of immigration, starring the always-great Renate Reinsve & an unrecognizable & superb Sebastian Stan: slate.com/culture/2026...

slate.com

This year’s masterful Palme d’Or winner exposes the contradiction at the heart of liberalism.

4342 34

Thanks so much! I loved doing this show & hope to be a guest on it again (& I really miss taping the SCG every week as well...)

Not like it's hard to get me behind a mic! But I'm glad this was my first one since the (obligatory dabbing of single tear) end of the Culture Gabfest.

040 4

Thanks for listening! We had a blast recording it.

Are you kidding, I'm so glad we disagreed! A three-way pile-on would have made for a boring episode. And I liked that Richard was generous toward the movie's outsized ambition while also being willing to riff w/ me in mocking parts of it.

480 8

"Digger" ??? (With Dana Stevens)

I felt very lucky to be invited on this week's Critical Darlings to discuss Digger--both bc it's a great podcast (the sister show of the justly beloved Blank Check) & bc while Digger was an ordeal to sit through, it is a delight to write & talk about. @alisonwillmore.bsky.social @rilaws.bsky.social

pod.link

Listen to "Digger" ??? (With Dana Stevens) from Critical Darlings wherever you get your podcasts!

5584 58

I had a very colicky and screamy baby who did benefit from being swaddled when she was really little. I remember the fun of bundling her up like a burrito, but I had forgotten this reflex of stretching their arms the minute it's unwrapped. 😍👼

I cannot & will not stop watching this minute of pure joy.

1283 28

Thanks for reminding me that this podcast ep has now published and that I should post the link on here! I'm glad there are a lot of different responses to this movie, and as I hope I got across in our convo, I am glad it exists in the world. I just never want to have to sit through it again!

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Thanks & sorry you can't make it!

000 0

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Thank you so much! Love the idea of being read/listened to on the train.

120 2

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Thank you! This was an experiment we were doing with an eye to recapping future shows. Thanks for the very kind words and please know we miss doing the show too! <3

030 3

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Ugh, missing a question mark there, but I’m not going to repost all that including the pic, so there you go.

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

That pic I have seen, apparently from the same session. How have I celebrated today I guess just by wearing one of my many Buster T-shirts & answering the couple of nice posts I’ve gotten here from people about my book, including, I just now saw, one from you!

Me. A middle-aged white woman in a pink headscarf & a white T-shirt with a photo of the older Buster Keaton on it, holding a clapboard that says “31st Annual International Buster Keaton Society Convention.”

220 2

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I have seen many, many photos of BK but never this one! Where did you find it? Thanks for posting.

130 3

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Just when I thought you couldn't be cooler than when you won the Swiss watch-calibration contest...

1481 48

You are in my favorite museum in the world right now! Keep the pics & commentary a'comin'...

180 8

Touching grass on the root side

I will pass that on--I'm sure if some institution (bookstore, cultural center, etc.) invited her she would consider going! She's been traveling a lot to promote the book this fall.

Why so--because you'd like to hear us discuss this movie? It would have made for a lively segment for sure. I am going on the Critical Darlings podcast to talk about it next week, if that helps! Anyway, thanks for the nice words. I miss doing the show every week too.

Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I'm going on the Critical Darlings podcast next week to talk about Digger & one of the questions I want to pose to the group is: what was he trying to accomplish by making those scenes so obviously non-theatrical? Like, who is meant to be seeing the world that way? (In Synecdoche it's obvious who.)