CULTURE

Footer Column 2

Footer Legal

Footer Main

Nav Bar

OTHER

SPORTS

Subscribe, at any level, to play

Thanks for your interest in Defector Crosswords!

Become a subscriber today to get unlimited access

Thanks for reading!

Plans start at $8/month.

Subscribers enjoy unlimited, ad-free browsing.

Register to continue

Or click here to subscribe for unlimited, ad-free access!

Our gift to you: This year's post is unlocked. Register your email to get even more free articles.

Welcome to the 2025 Hater's Guide!

Just register your email:

This blog is free to read.

This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

Defector

Defector Staff

Children watching a movie at the Bankside Film Theatre in London, UK, 27th July 1973. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Defector At The Movies

What’s The Worst Movie You’ve Ever Watched In A Theater?

<p>Nicholas Russell is a writer from Las Vegas.</p>


Nicholas Russell

Gross distressing AI image of the disparate threads of the American flag wrapping themselves into the shape of Civil Rights marchers, like something out of John Carpenter's The Thing.

Arts And Culture

Darren Aronofsky’s AI Videos Are A Fitting Tribute To America, I Guess

Emily C. Hughes

Diabolical Motherhood

Sarah Borus

Summer Is For Baseball, Hot Dogs, And Watching A Bunch Of Horny Teens Get Murdered In The Woods

‘Backrooms’ Doesn’t Quite Capture The Weirdness Of The Originals

Mark Asch

Charli XCX Is Firmly In Her Cinephile Era

Israel Daramola

US actor Jaafar Jackson poses for photogaphers as he arrives on the red carpet for the world premiere of the Michael Jackson biopic "Michael" at the Uber Eats Music Hall in Berlin on April 10, 2026.

‘Michael’ Is The Most Cynical Attempt At Biopic Myth-Making Yet


<p>Corey Atad is a freelancer writer based in Toronto with an unhealthy Air Bud obsession.</p>


Corey Atad

Interviews

Steven Soderbergh And Ed Solomon Talk About Their Best Collaboration Yet

Annie Geng

‘The Drama’ Has More Going For It Than A Provocative Twist

<div class="PostFooter_wrapper__Msc__">
<div class="Container_contentWidthWrapper__RL4A5">
<div class="PostFooter_inner__ikvxo">
<div class="PostBylineRiver_wrapper__2QH_p">
<div class="PostBylineRiver_authorWrapper__6ThRc">
<div class="PostBylineRiver_bio__xKPxl">
<p>Robert Rubsam writes fiction and nonfiction. His work has appeared in the NYT Magazine, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Baffler, and Liberties. He is a contributing writer for Commonweal Magazine.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="Container_contentWidthWrapper__RL4A5">
<div id="coral_thread" class="Embed_wrapper__vD_40">
<div>
<div id="coral" class="coral-width-gt-xs coral-width-gte-xs coral-width-gt-mobile coral-width-gte-mobile coral-width-gt-mobileMax coral-width-gte-mobileMax coral-width-gt-sm coral-width-gte-sm coral-width-lt-md coral-width-lte-md coral-width-lt-lg coral-width-lte-lg coral-width-lt-xl coral-width-lte-xl" data-nosnippet="true">
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>


Robert Rubsam

Lewis Pullman and Danielle Brooks announce the nominees for Original Score

The Academy Missed Some Of 2025’s Best Film Scores

Hannah Seo

What Should Recorded Musicals Do?

Where Is Cinema?: An Interview With A.S. Hamrah

Rafaela Bassili

Sara Jane Moore, the woman who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford, is shown as she leaves San Mateo County prison en route to San Francisco where she is to to appear in the US District Court, October 28th 1975.

‘Suburban Fury’ Is Strange, Blinkered, And Very Compelling

Patrick Redford

Podcasts

Where Does ‘Marty Supreme’ Rank Among Recent Sports Movies?

Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931) experimenting with the first motion picture machine. B/W photo,1905.

Year In Review

The Best Things We Saw In 2025

Kelsey McKinney

a woman with brown hair wearing a jacket leans forward in the back of a car

Everything I Remember About ‘Ella McCay’

‘Train Dreams’ Is Afraid Of Its Own Shadow

‘Bugonia’ Makes A Crash Landing

<p><a href="http://www.ddavisla.com"><span style="font-weight: 400">David Davis </span></a>is the author of <i>Wheels of Courage: How Paralyzed Veterans From World War II Invented Wheelchair Sports, Fought for Disability Rights, and Inspired a Nation</i> and <i>Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku</i>. He lives in Los Angeles.</p>
<div></div>


David Davis

Marty Reisman, holder of 18 International and US National table tennis titles, and author of the 1974 book "The Money Player" in which he described his life traveling the world, playing high-stakes matches. Reisman won the 1997 United States National Hardbat championship. Now at age 77, he is probably the oldest person ever to win an open US national title in a racquet sport. (Photo by Neville Elder/Corbis via Getty Images)

Table Tennis

The Real Marty Supreme

oscar isaac as frankenstein gazes up at his creature on a cross

Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’ Is Flawed Because His Creature Is Not

In ‘Die My Love,’ Motherhood Is A Mad Mad Mad World

Kelly Reichardt’s Labors Of Love

Vikram Murthi

Jafar Panahi Returns With The Masterful Revenge Drama ‘It Was Just An Accident’

Soraya Roberts

Diane Keaton’s Solo Act

Lauren Theisen

A movie theater, closed for a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, advertises its reopening on March 12, 2021, in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York

Movie Theater Popcorn In New York City, Ranked

movies