New York

omg

What a mess. I’m sympathetic to what Sorry to Bother You has to say about the intersection of capitalism, exploitation, and racism, but all of its statements, like all of its jokes, are blared from a megaphone and continue long after their point is made. Its amateur-hour vibe is far more tedious than charming, its gonzo satire is self-conscious, and its progressive politics are undercut by its lone female character functioning primarily as a trophy.… See more →

At the Sleep show. It smells like Otto’s jacket.

There’s a helluva story here, but this documentary is more interested in entertaining than enlightening, and at least one of the conclusions it draws is downright insulting.

Hello, I am a seasoned veteran of all manner of deranged horror films, and I watched most of this through my fingers.

For whatever reason, horror is having a moment of sustained critical cachet, with a growing list of scary movies receiving praise for emotional resonance, thematic richness, and/or excellence of execution that transcend the genre’s usual stale jump scares. Hereditary seems keen to get in on the action, offering a sophisticated layer of fraught family drama atop a pulpier horror foundation; its familiar depictions of unraveling psyches and things going bump in the night are shaped… See more →

A Quiet Place centers on a family living in a not-too-distant future in which vicious aliens with hypersensitive hearing have wiped out much of the world’s population. A little over a year into the invasion, after losing their youngest child (of three) to the creatures, they have another child on the way. In a world where silence is absolutely crucial for survival, a newborn baby is the ultimate liability, and while we’re privy to the… See more →

Someone finally made the meditative arthouse thriller the Pizzagate crowd has been waiting for.

The Generate conference made its annual visit to New York at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea from April 25–27. This was my second Generate, and unlike my first one (in 2014), it was a single track, which I much prefer.

Donna Lichaw: Story First: Crafting Products That Engage

Donna is the author of The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love. She applies her experience as a filmmaker to helping people take a narrative approach… See more →

Wes Anderson’s films are all effectively stop-motion animation, and part of what I find off-putting about most of his live-action work is the resulting reverse-uncanny-valley effect. I had been over his schtick for years by the time Fantastic Mr. Fox came out and made me realize that the world of proper animation is where Anderson belongs. Isle of Dogs is a welcome return to that place.

I spent the past few days at the 2018 edition of SND’s annual conference, held this year at the New School in New York City. Along with my colleagues Hannah Fresques, Lucas Waldron, and Sisi Wei, I helped lead a workshop called Visualizing Complicated Investigations, and I spent the rest of the conference taking in 17 sessions of various shapes and sizes. Here are my takeaways.

John Maeda: Design in Tech

Less meaty and… See more →

This movie has everything: police slapstick, domestic slapstick, courtroom slapstick, office slapstick, and most importantly, several exquisitely staged set pieces overflowing with thoroughly mind-blowing action. Jackie Chan may be the most committed entertainer in the world, and Police Story is among his finest endeavors.

Listen (shh) to what the flower people say
Aahhh
Listen, it’s getting louder every day

Projects

Since 2011, working with A Book Apart was my way of contributing to the design community while my own direction as a designer was uncertain. Over the course of 2016, as my new job at ProPublica restored my enthusiasm for design, I wanted to get back to working on my own projects and sharing what I learned in the process. Making time for that meant something had to give, so after producing the paperback/PDF… See more →