The Absolute Hell of Watching a Movie at the Alamo Drafthouse in 2026 by David Ehrlich
From at least the moment I saw a photo of a full auditorium of moviegoers attending a premiere screening of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou while wearing matching red beanies, I thought of Alamo Drafthouse as providers of the ideal modern theatrical experience. Although I’ve rarely attended showings at any of the links of their chain, I routinely favored theaters — Cinebarre in Asheville, North Carolina; Flix Brewhouse in Madison, Wisconsin — that were clearly built on the same model. As is apparently inevitable in our mildewing form of capitalism, any good, consumer-focused business must be destroyed, and so it has gone with Alamo Drafthouse. Most notably, the longstanding ethos of attentive reverence in the theater has been shunted aside in favor of structures that basically demand people tinker around with their cellphones during a film. Writing for IndieWire, David Ehrlich makes a damning case against what Alamo Drafthouse has become.
Tony Dokoupil Is the Face of the Bari Weiss Revolution at CBS News. Will He Survive It? by Aidan McLaughlin
The destruction of CBS News, either through ineptitude or malice, continues apace. Writing for Vanity Fair, Aidin McLaughlin focuses on the particularly pathetic flailing of Tony Dokoupil since he was elevated to lead anchor of the newscast that stood as the definitive statement on the nation’s affairs when Walter Cronkite held the post. That was a long, long time ago. The piece includes plenty of spiky details about Bari Weiss’s confident ignorance in mismanaging the news division.
The Jackson estate can’t hide Leaving Neverland from those who’ve already seen it by Tim Grierson
Director Dan Reed won an Emmy, a BAFTA, a PGA Award, and many other trophies for Leaving Neverland, his 2019 documentary that gave voice to survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of Michael Jackson. Less than a decade later, the acclaimed work is nowhere to be found on U.S. streaming services that otherwise have no shortage of salacious, real-life storytelling. Meanwhile, a new biopic about Jackson that is reportedly so reverential that it redefines hagiography is cruising to a record-shattering opening weekend at the box office. Tim Grierson writes about the cultural injustice in this article published by AV Club.
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