It is September 1994, and attractive twenty-somethings like to drink coffee. They sit on orange couches and share edgy non-sequiters about sex and dating. White, upper middle-class Manhattan is an infinite backdrop of Woody Allen neurosis and shiny haircuts. This is the vibe of Friends, NBC’s hot new Thursday night sitcom, one that substitutes the…
Ben Affleck’s chin in Gone Girl In a movie all about blissful romance turning deathly sour, it is Ben Affleck’s chin-dimple (or “face-ass” in Chandler Bing lingo) that winds up personifying the major themes of the entire movie, Rosamund Pike’s Amy Dunne noting on their first meeting Nick’s “villainous chin”, an appendage he covers up…
Azealia Banks’ Instagram is plastered with the familiar comments section prerequisites for any young, attractive female with a record deal. “QUEEN!!!”, yells one. “Yaaaaas bitch!”, screams another. Then there are fellow Instagram users like ilumi_boy, whose response to a photograph of Banks holding a coconut reads, “If I’m white can I listen to your music?…
On October 10, a former child star wandered through a busy Los Angeles airport, her iPhone clutched tight to her ear, eyes peeking out from behind a pair of expensive sunglasses, tiny frame wrapped in an immaculately styled designer ensemble. Only this wasn’t an ordinary flash-bulb assault by the paparazzi. The woman’s recent fame was…
There once was a time when the fastest way to discover a weirdo in your ranks was if, when driving past a horrible accident, someone in the vehicle requested that the car slow down so they could gawk at whatever’s splattered across the roadside. Now, via the burgeoning voyeurism of mainstream media, we’ve all inadvertently…
In 2013, screenwriter Mike White spoke to the AV Club about the cancellation of his HBO series Enlightened, and how it’s harder than ever to mount television that lacks ‘noise’, ‘noise’ being stunts and shocks and things scandalous enough to make you tweet about it while you’re watching. The shows on the opposite end of…