Shirley as an Excellent Page-Turner of a Movie

Speaking from experience, the process of being a writer is an utterly strange one. One would like to imagine it's easy as just sitting down at a laptop and typing away at keys that magically produce the next great American novel. Instead, it's all about patience, trial-and-error. You'll write yourself into many dead ends. Distractions creep in easily. You might spend just as much time worrying about if you're doing enough writing as you actually do the writing. The process of writing is ultimately rewarding but boy does it have its strange effects. If the new Josephine Decker movie Shirley is any indication, author Shirley Jackson, the writer behind The Haunting of Hill House among other works, could attest to that.

Assassination Nation Is An Imperfect But Admirably Ambitious Middle Finger To The Patriarchy

If nothing else, Assassination Nation has its finger very much on the pulse of all corners of internet culture and how it impacts people, particularly my generation. It was borderline strange to hear a major theatrically released motion picture actually reference internet slang like #NotAllMen or see teenage characters engage in conversations rife with meme references or have a story that recognizes how much bigotry can be found on social media websites like Twitter. Writer and director Sam Levinson has clearly decided to make an ambitious treatise on how internet culture can amplify already existing toxic societal behaviors towards women that's fascinating to watch but sometimes stumbles in execution.