Give me a fucking break “impressive” he didn’t read go fuckkkkkkk yourself lol

I stand by it 💁‍♀️

Really starting to rack up these #rejections from stuck-up #MediumPublications cosplaying as ‘real’ (to their minds: old-world, #printmedia, dead modes of #writing) #critics & #journalists 😆

Dan didn’t read. They weirdly never actually do, though they should!

1 way I know #GonzoCriticism is good…

#DianeMorgan, discussing #PhilomenaCunk on #LateNight, but also kind of giving the premise/thesis for #gonzocriticism and the whole #KCookandCatsCo ethos:

“I know what people want. I know [when something is] really dull and boring, and how to move it along.”

youtu.be/s8dDRItdjIY?...

#lol #comedy

No lie, this is really the philosophy underlying #gonzojournalism #gonzocriticism or any of the #gonzo shit *I* write certainly 😅

Love it or hate it (& tbh I’m utterly ambivalent; feel your feelings), no one else could ever have written 1 of my pieces 🤣

At #KCookandCatsCo, we find that valuable 😤

“It’s always been preferable to me to be thought of than not thought of, irrespective of the quality or specific content of those thoughts.” — moi 💁‍♀️

Go read it! Link in the bleet 🤓

If you’re wondering, ‘WHAT is this dude’s DEAL?!’

Well, firstly, I don’t love #dude 💁‍♀️🏳️‍⚧️

Secondly, this is pretty much my deal 😅

Go read it on #Medium: kcookandcatsco.medium.com/me-myself-ro...

#Gonzo #GonzoCriticism #FilmCritic #FilmSky #Film #RolandEmmerich #Moonfall

It was way more earnest and imploring — and giving way more ‘please, dad’ (though I didn’t give him the satisfaction of calling him that, ew; I barely do that for the guys I let fuck me) — than I reckon Mark Cook was accustomed to from me, and fair enough. I was kind of at my wits’ end. And to his credit, he immediately stopped berating me (which was, ultimately, what I was after, before discovering I was actually after an elusive, rare compliment from this dude who I’m so bizarrely-closely tied to) and gave a real answer, and since it was and remains (to my knowledge) the one time my dad ever sincerely said a nice thing about me with no qualifiers, or moral, puritanical, Aesop’s-Fables-style wrap-up lessons — like none of his usual, Bible-thumping, self-righteous, holier-than-thou bullshit — it hit pretty hard. Clearly. He gave me what I judge was an honest answer, and it rang true to me, and it, like… meant something to me, then and now.

He said, as closely as I can remember or approximate it: “You cannot stand to see someone get bullied. You will stand up for someone getting bullied, almost no matter what…” [and here, I'd argue, he was very tempted to divert down some judgmental rabbit holes, but, his-made-up-God bless him, he stuck the landing], “…no, no matter what, and I think that’s brave of you, and I like that about you a lot, man.” Oof, shit. I just wept now typing that out at a Panera Bread. Real bummer for those poor kids, too (who shouldn’t be staring at weeping adults) (mind your paninis, children, and let the ginger tragedy sob and write in peace).

Link is in the bleet — go read it!!

I do a lot of my #writing at #PaneraBread, & bc #GonzoCriticism, or #GonzoStyle, involves authorial intrusion & self-involvement, you better believe that’s reflected in the final product!

Here, I weep openly at #Panera in front of stunned children 😭

kcookandcatsco.medium.com/we-should-ca...

#lol

Just text. Go actually read the article!

Text: It’s a somewhat-common theme, and studying the phenomenon is the stated mission of one of my favorite film criticism podcasts, Blank Check with Griffin & David (shit, now I’m humming the theme, argh)(I’m like Eric Cartman is with Come Sail Away inre: to Blank Check's theme song; once I start, I have to hum the whole thing), and, though the blank check in question here bore only Emmerich's own signature, it was still, in the tradition of Blank Check, him at his most unrestrained — no studio notes or interference from money-men with bones to pick regarding his Creative Vision — and I think the end result is very plainly the most Roland Emmerich thing we’re ever likely to get.

Go read my article! It’s the link in the bleet (BlueSky tweets are called bleets, pass it on!)

@blankcheck.bsky.social #podcast gets a shoutout in this week’s #moviereview / entry into the #GonzoCriticism canon (that’s what it’s called; no one’s asked, lol), but that’s not unusual!

Both for BC to come up & for no1 to ask name of my #writingstyle 😆

kcookandcatsco.medium.com/me-myself-ro...

Just go read the article in the link 🤓

It’s important to me that you know I fucking HATE Kansas City, though, the worst city in the world.

My article! Go read it, Jesus, its like pulling teeth with you fuckin people 🤦‍♀️

#GonzoCriticism (it’s what I call it; no one’s asked) means the #author — here: me, Kay Cook — is a present & active character in the story… AND that it IS a #story, even though THIS is ostensibly #filmcriticism.

Can’t it be more??

I think so!🤓

kcookandcatsco.medium.com/me-myself-ro...

#FilmSky

Screenshot of text: “I don’t specifically recall this (nor do I, as the black sheep of the Cook Family, have access to any old family photos), but apparently, I wore (literally) nothing but superhero pajamas — like, as my day-to-day clothing — until I was seven years old.”

Screenshot of more text: “Literally and figuratively — in every sense — I lived in the Superman getup.”

Medium story: “‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ | Superman (2025) Movie Review”

If asked, I’d call my style #GonzoCriticism, which SOME have characterized as self-indulgent, navel-gazing or narcissistic.

I just think it’s inauthentic & stiff to divorce myself from the story — especially since I grew up in #Superman jammies 🤓

kcookandcatsco.medium.com/the-greatest...

#critic

Screenshot of text from a Medium story: “One thing that is certainly, verifiably true — and is a story I’ve heard over and over again in my post-childhood years (which is most of them, now) — is that one of the first movies I ever watched on my own was The Little Mermaid. It’s one of the Movies That Made Me, and it’s arguably part of, like, my origin story. Ariel was my idol, a complete aspirational hero(ine), and as a young redhead, myself, who too felt alienated and out-of-place, yet fascinated by people and society and culture, I identified with her hard.”

More text: “So hard that I couldn’t even bear the thought of watching her die. Which is evidently what I thought would surely happen when Ursula [spoiler alert] grows game-changingly enormous in the third act of that film. Imagine a fatter, camper Stay Puft Marshmallow Squid with a crown and a trident. My mother discovered me stopping the VHS right as it got to that point, and rewinding it to the start again, so I could immediately start to rewatch all of the happy moments of Ariel’s life on film up to the point where she was (surely) to perish. I mean just LOOK at this big, brassy broad [photo of Giant Ursula Kaiju]

“Would you ever in a million years think they’d beat her? They do, though. They drive a fuckin boat into her. Sorry, a ship. They drive a fuckin ship into her. Boat might not’ve done it. A clever trick! And for perhaps months, I had no idea. Since I knew how to work the VCR on my own (I’m talking I was, like, three years old), I got to the point I screen capped above, and then would apparently just dip out and start over again. Run it back. And my mom estimates I had done it many times before she noticed (yes, thank you for your question: that is absolutely, unequivocally an indictment of her parenting, but one that hardly registers, given the rest of her track record), and gently suggested that I could watch it, and it would be okay.”

Promotional image for OP’s Medium story; “In Aid for What | Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) Movie Review”

#GonzoCriticism means that the stories of these #films are inextricably tied w/ the story of myself & my identity.

It also means we get fun stories from my weird #childhood, like when I wouldn’t finish #TheLittleMermaid bc I was too scared 😆

kcookandcatsco.medium.com/signalgate-i...

#FilmSky

Screenshot of text from Medium story: “My own, personal I Think You Should Leave” “It pains me even now to recall this (like, frfr 😅), but perhaps the first ‘hard conversation’ I ever had to have in my life revolved around my love for this IP and its accouterments.

Medium story: ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ | Superman (2025) Movie Review from K. Cook & Cats, Co.

If anyone asked (and no one ever has), I would describe my style as #GonzoCriticism 🤓

Like my idol #HunterSThompson, I am rarely absent from my stories, and often centrally positioned, bc that’s how it is in my head 😅

Have you heard my #Superman story? 🤔

kcookandcatsco.medium.com/the-greatest...

That’s #gonzocriticism, baby 😎

It’s artificial and false to act like our personal biases don’t enter into play; I’m just open and transparent about them.

You don’t have to read them, but you should. They’d do you some good, open your mind a little, expand your horizons 🤓🐈🐈‍⬛🐈🐈‍⬛

#FilmCritic #FilmSky

That’s #gonzocriticism, baby 😎

It’s artificial and false to act like our personal biases don’t enter into play; I’m just open and transparent about them.

You don’t have to read them, but you should. They’d do you some good, open your mind a little, expand your horizons 🤓🐈🐈‍⬛🐈🐈‍⬛

#FilmCritic #FilmSky

They say write what you know, and all I really know is what I remember happening to me.
So I’m always a character in my reviews ( #GonzoCriticism!), because that’s the only way I can be sure I’ll find a story worth telling.
Read my #moviereview for #TheDamned on Medium:
medium.com/@iamkaymiche...