for the thinkers.

002 - OFFLINE ALGORITHM

An anti-scroll collection of newsworthy things we watched & read this week.

Primate: Nope spin-off?

"Overall, as far as slasher flicks go, it's not everyday we get one where the killer is a psychotic chimp"

SPOILERS: I have now also watched Twinless, James Sweeney's perfect crime.

An incredibly self-serious demon twink comedy, the film Michel highly recommended from Tribeca has finally made it to my eyeballs.

[ENG/ARB] Khartoum - Interview with Directors Rawia AlHag, Phil Cox, and lead subject, Khadmallah

When it premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival to resounding applause, the filmmakers knew that the audience were craving that sincerity. The film resists grand explanations, opting for stories that you wouldn’t see in the headlines.

001 - OFFLINE ALGORITHM

An anti-scroll collection of newsworthy things we watched & read this week.

ARCHIVE: F1: Boomer Propaganda

For the glossy Hollywood Treatment of the world's most glamorous extreme sport, Kosinski asks the question: Should we bring back Brad Pitt Blockbusters? (Spoilers: No, thanks.)

Stranger Things than Queerbaiting Have Happened (So why are we still doing it in 2026?) - SPOILERS

I personally clung onto my trust in the Duffer Brothers to deliver a nuanced exploration of this topic in Season 5 to produce one of the best written queer characters in television history. Instead, we were queerbaited.

Creators that will make you smarter in 2026

Editor's Note: This is a soft-pilot test of "Offline Algorithm", a new (separate) newsletter we're putting together at OBSCURAE to keep you updated and informed without the doomscroll. It may be a teensy bit more overtly political than you're used to us

The best films of 2026 (that we saw in 2025)

Watchlists at the ready, aficionados!

Behind Festival Season: A Volunteer’s POV

Come take a look at what really goes on behind the scenes of a film festival, and I’ll share my festival volunteer do’s and don’ts!

Analogue is in, so here's some offline inspo

From London-based book clubs to my friend's novel, I think we're all gonna benefit from a little analogue-ing of our lives in 2026. Here are some suggestions to get you started...

Charli XCX and the hierarchy of chasing cool

In a recent Substack post, Charli muses on cool as a protective mechanism around an artist's control and integrity, cultural miscommunication and facsimile, ubiquity and the concept of passionate creation. I want to propose that something deeper is at play.