Sophie from That Final Scene
@thatfinalscene.bsky.social
Writing about how films and tv shows often understand us better than our therapists. Yes, I will make you watch Woman Under The Influence.
Support indie writing by subbing to my Substack 🔻
thatfinalscene.com
Support indie writing by subbing to my Substack 🔻
thatfinalscene.com
Sean Baker followed me after I diagnosed why cinemas are actually dying, and now I just published my solution: transforming movie theaters into cultural gyms.
Here's the blueprint I just wrote:
Here's the blueprint I just wrote:
inside the wild plan to turn movie theaters into fitness centers for your brain (+ a filmstack challenge)
A radical blueprint on transforming our dying theaters into cultural fitness centers. And a Filmstack Challenge!
www.thatfinalscene.com
May 29, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Sean Baker followed me after I diagnosed why cinemas are actually dying, and now I just published my solution: transforming movie theaters into cultural gyms.
Here's the blueprint I just wrote:
Here's the blueprint I just wrote:
Reposted by Sophie from That Final Scene
A really great read on the death of cinema. Looking forward to reading the solutions. Well-researched. open.substack.com/pub/thatfina... @thatfinalscene.bsky.social
the death of cinema & how to bring it back to life (part 1)
I paid £20 to watch someone scroll through pasta recipes during a r*pe scene, and that's not even the worst part of going to theaters in 2025.
open.substack.com
April 16, 2025 at 9:17 PM
A really great read on the death of cinema. Looking forward to reading the solutions. Well-researched. open.substack.com/pub/thatfina... @thatfinalscene.bsky.social
How Wall Street manipulates TIME ITSELF to escape accountability: These are the lessons from MARGIN CALL that explain every financial crisis you've lived through.
what you're risking while watching elon musk risk tesla
When billionaires can't escape mathematical reality, we all learn what we've actually mortgaged.
www.thatfinalscene.com
March 27, 2025 at 3:46 PM
How Wall Street manipulates TIME ITSELF to escape accountability: These are the lessons from MARGIN CALL that explain every financial crisis you've lived through.
ADOLESCENCE is terrific. Television doesn't get better than this. I know it's easy to hate on Netflix when so much of their content is garbage, but they sure as hell earned my monthly subscription with this one.
March 14, 2025 at 12:29 PM
ADOLESCENCE is terrific. Television doesn't get better than this. I know it's easy to hate on Netflix when so much of their content is garbage, but they sure as hell earned my monthly subscription with this one.
I tried to create a mathematical formula to identify "underrated" directors and accidentally proved why the whole concept is flawed.
did i just invent the formula for underrated directors?
A term that reveals more about us than the directors we apply it to.
www.thatfinalscene.com
March 13, 2025 at 6:34 PM
I tried to create a mathematical formula to identify "underrated" directors and accidentally proved why the whole concept is flawed.
After watching the latest episode of THE WHITE LOTUS, I’m calling it a frustrating season. If water guns is the plot device we get by the half-season mark, then we no longer have a slow burn. We have a no burn.
Even if the finale is a bloody massacre, it doesn’t make the journey worth it.
Even if the finale is a bloody massacre, it doesn’t make the journey worth it.
March 11, 2025 at 5:38 PM
After watching the latest episode of THE WHITE LOTUS, I’m calling it a frustrating season. If water guns is the plot device we get by the half-season mark, then we no longer have a slow burn. We have a no burn.
Even if the finale is a bloody massacre, it doesn’t make the journey worth it.
Even if the finale is a bloody massacre, it doesn’t make the journey worth it.
Reposted by Sophie from That Final Scene
jeremy strong, kieran culkin, and the cost of caring too much
open.substack.com/pub/thatfina...
open.substack.com/pub/thatfina...
jeremy strong, kieran culkin, and the cost of caring too much
On visible ambition and the mortifying ordeal of being too earnest for your own good. When did effort become our culture's ultimate ick?
open.substack.com
March 7, 2025 at 9:32 AM
jeremy strong, kieran culkin, and the cost of caring too much
open.substack.com/pub/thatfina...
open.substack.com/pub/thatfina...
🧵 The Oscars just crowned Kieran Culkin, but I can't stop thinking about the reaction shots: Jeremy Strong's face told a story about how we treat people who show their hunger vs. those who make success look effortless.
Let's unpack this... (1/14)
Let's unpack this... (1/14)
March 6, 2025 at 4:27 PM
🧵 The Oscars just crowned Kieran Culkin, but I can't stop thinking about the reaction shots: Jeremy Strong's face told a story about how we treat people who show their hunger vs. those who make success look effortless.
Let's unpack this... (1/14)
Let's unpack this... (1/14)
🧵 The biggest plot twist in Severance isn't in the show itself: it's that we're paying Apple $9.99/month to critique capitalism while they laugh all the way to the bank. Lumon isn't fictional—we're living it. And I can't stop watching. (1/14)
March 4, 2025 at 4:22 PM
🧵 The biggest plot twist in Severance isn't in the show itself: it's that we're paying Apple $9.99/month to critique capitalism while they laugh all the way to the bank. Lumon isn't fictional—we're living it. And I can't stop watching. (1/14)
As Severance Season 2 expands its puzzle box, I've identified four potential futures for the show based on other prestige TV trajectories. The path it chooses will determine whether it becomes a masterpiece or cautionary tale. A thread on narrative evolution and institutional entropy 🧵 (1/10)
February 27, 2025 at 7:13 PM
As Severance Season 2 expands its puzzle box, I've identified four potential futures for the show based on other prestige TV trajectories. The path it chooses will determine whether it becomes a masterpiece or cautionary tale. A thread on narrative evolution and institutional entropy 🧵 (1/10)
The times are bad but true crime docs are still good
February 24, 2025 at 10:38 PM
The times are bad but true crime docs are still good
everyone tells you to find your voice but no one warns you about the moment you actually hear it echoing back from 15 different unpublished newsletter drafts
February 18, 2025 at 6:01 PM
everyone tells you to find your voice but no one warns you about the moment you actually hear it echoing back from 15 different unpublished newsletter drafts
The discourse on Captain America is frustrating.
Fuck escapism. We've drowned in it.
Our brains have pickled in it. Mass culture has dissolved into a gruel of green screens and sky portals.
Demand better. Use your wallet, your voice. Art deserves our full engagement. Anything less is surrender.
Fuck escapism. We've drowned in it.
Our brains have pickled in it. Mass culture has dissolved into a gruel of green screens and sky portals.
Demand better. Use your wallet, your voice. Art deserves our full engagement. Anything less is surrender.
February 14, 2025 at 2:44 PM
The discourse on Captain America is frustrating.
Fuck escapism. We've drowned in it.
Our brains have pickled in it. Mass culture has dissolved into a gruel of green screens and sky portals.
Demand better. Use your wallet, your voice. Art deserves our full engagement. Anything less is surrender.
Fuck escapism. We've drowned in it.
Our brains have pickled in it. Mass culture has dissolved into a gruel of green screens and sky portals.
Demand better. Use your wallet, your voice. Art deserves our full engagement. Anything less is surrender.
🧵 After watching Mad About the Boy at a press screening last week, I realized something: we've forgotten how to be genuine losers anymore. A story about Bridget Jones at 51 and the death of authentic failure (1/14)
February 13, 2025 at 5:10 PM
🧵 After watching Mad About the Boy at a press screening last week, I realized something: we've forgotten how to be genuine losers anymore. A story about Bridget Jones at 51 and the death of authentic failure (1/14)
remember when we thought the worst case scenario was gerard butler having to save the white house
February 11, 2025 at 5:52 PM
remember when we thought the worst case scenario was gerard butler having to save the white house
Because if Chaplin could find humor in 1940, perhaps we can find perspective in 2025. My latest essay is for paid subscribers because some thoughts need room to breathe.
Enjoy a free preview inside 📽️
Enjoy a free preview inside 📽️
a fantastic time to talk about fascism in cinema
Finding comic relief (and maybe solutions) in how cinema has handled humanity's darkest chapters. For paid supporters, because some thoughts need room to breathe.
www.thatfinalscene.com
February 6, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Because if Chaplin could find humor in 1940, perhaps we can find perspective in 2025. My latest essay is for paid subscribers because some thoughts need room to breathe.
Enjoy a free preview inside 📽️
Enjoy a free preview inside 📽️
some of my favourite films are literally just about people sitting in rooms having conversations that change their lives forever
February 1, 2025 at 6:56 PM
some of my favourite films are literally just about people sitting in rooms having conversations that change their lives forever
Reposted by Sophie from That Final Scene
Fantastic read on what it truly means to be “greatest film ever” and why that distinction can never *truly* be quantified, but humans will try anyway
🧵 On four delusions keeping us from experiencing art: a story about our desperate need to turn feelings into data (1/15) 📽️
www.thatfinalscene.com/p/who-decide...
www.thatfinalscene.com/p/who-decide...
who decides the greatest film ever made?
An investigation into our industry's grand delusions.
www.thatfinalscene.com
January 31, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Fantastic read on what it truly means to be “greatest film ever” and why that distinction can never *truly* be quantified, but humans will try anyway
Reposted by Sophie from That Final Scene
So much here applies to the book world:
“Cultural canonization operates like an exclusive country club - one where the membership committee keeps insisting they're working on diversity while somehow managing to admit people who look remarkably like themselves.”
“Cultural canonization operates like an exclusive country club - one where the membership committee keeps insisting they're working on diversity while somehow managing to admit people who look remarkably like themselves.”
I wrote about these delusions and what we might gain by letting them go. Read & subscribe here: (15/15) www.thatfinalscene.com/p/who-decide...
who decides the greatest film ever made?
An investigation into our industry's grand delusions.
www.thatfinalscene.com
January 30, 2025 at 10:44 PM
So much here applies to the book world:
“Cultural canonization operates like an exclusive country club - one where the membership committee keeps insisting they're working on diversity while somehow managing to admit people who look remarkably like themselves.”
“Cultural canonization operates like an exclusive country club - one where the membership committee keeps insisting they're working on diversity while somehow managing to admit people who look remarkably like themselves.”
🧵 On four delusions keeping us from experiencing art: a story about our desperate need to turn feelings into data (1/15) 📽️
www.thatfinalscene.com/p/who-decide...
www.thatfinalscene.com/p/who-decide...
who decides the greatest film ever made?
An investigation into our industry's grand delusions.
www.thatfinalscene.com
January 30, 2025 at 7:27 PM
🧵 On four delusions keeping us from experiencing art: a story about our desperate need to turn feelings into data (1/15) 📽️
www.thatfinalscene.com/p/who-decide...
www.thatfinalscene.com/p/who-decide...
Reposted by Sophie from That Final Scene
When I was a kid I always thought that movies had to wait years to film when they wanted to show a child character flash forward into their adult self. I thought they'd literally sit there and wait for the actor to get 10 years older 😂
January 28, 2025 at 6:31 PM
When I was a kid I always thought that movies had to wait years to film when they wanted to show a child character flash forward into their adult self. I thought they'd literally sit there and wait for the actor to get 10 years older 😂
Reposted by Sophie from That Final Scene
#SaveThePCC
Some of you may have read about the situation regarding our new landlord wishing to add a new redevelopment break clause, with only 6 months notice to our lease.
For now, we're simply asking you all to share & sign the petition below;
you.38degrees.org.uk/p/princechar...
Some of you may have read about the situation regarding our new landlord wishing to add a new redevelopment break clause, with only 6 months notice to our lease.
For now, we're simply asking you all to share & sign the petition below;
you.38degrees.org.uk/p/princechar...
Save The Prince Charles Cinema
The iconic Prince Charles Cinema in London’s West End future is under serious threat!
We are beyond disappointed that our landlords Zedwell LSQ Ltd and their ultimate parent company Criterion Capital...
you.38degrees.org.uk
January 28, 2025 at 10:14 AM
#SaveThePCC
Some of you may have read about the situation regarding our new landlord wishing to add a new redevelopment break clause, with only 6 months notice to our lease.
For now, we're simply asking you all to share & sign the petition below;
you.38degrees.org.uk/p/princechar...
Some of you may have read about the situation regarding our new landlord wishing to add a new redevelopment break clause, with only 6 months notice to our lease.
For now, we're simply asking you all to share & sign the petition below;
you.38degrees.org.uk/p/princechar...
When I was 6 I thought all slow motion scenes were filmed by having actors move really slowly, and now I'm re-watching Tarkovsky's Mirror thinking maybe my childhood self was onto something
January 28, 2025 at 6:15 PM
When I was 6 I thought all slow motion scenes were filmed by having actors move really slowly, and now I'm re-watching Tarkovsky's Mirror thinking maybe my childhood self was onto something
Reposted by Sophie from That Final Scene
As a long-time fan of Homer’s Odyssey, I support this analysis.
Growing up with Homer in Athens taught me things about Odyssey that no online discourse could touch.
From divine sound design possibilities to why the "women problem" in Nolan's work might finally meet its match - I wrote a deeply personal piece about what many miss with this adaptation:
From divine sound design possibilities to why the "women problem" in Nolan's work might finally meet its match - I wrote a deeply personal piece about what many miss with this adaptation:
everything i need from nolan's odyssey (an extremely greek perspective)
Three thousand years of Greek inheritance, and all it took was one IMAX camera to make me question who stories really belong to.
buff.ly
January 26, 2025 at 7:29 PM
As a long-time fan of Homer’s Odyssey, I support this analysis.
Reposted by Sophie from That Final Scene
One of the best things I’ve read in a while. David Lynch is very deservingly loved. #DavidLynch
David Lynch didn't just make films. He made furniture. Not as art, but as a practice of being.
In his workshop, the mythical director spent hours perfecting joints with the same obsession he brought to his nightmares. 🧵 (1/12)
www.thatfinalscene.com/p/david-lync...
In his workshop, the mythical director spent hours perfecting joints with the same obsession he brought to his nightmares. 🧵 (1/12)
www.thatfinalscene.com/p/david-lync...
david lynch made his own furniture
An emergency tribute to the artist, to the extraordinary human.
www.thatfinalscene.com
January 26, 2025 at 11:45 PM
One of the best things I’ve read in a while. David Lynch is very deservingly loved. #DavidLynch