Ritesh!
LightNews LightNews
banner
riteshwriter.bsky.social
Ritesh!
@riteshwriter.bsky.social
7.2K followers 870 following 8.1K posts
రితేష్

Writer and Critic. (He/She/They)

Bylines at PanelxPanel, Polygon, TCJ

Local Biryani connoisseur, Comics oddball, and Football freak.

My work/contact info: https://riteshbabu.net/
Posts Replies Media Videos
riteshwriter.bsky.social
Okay, yeah, this is definitely on his 'Must Do' list now.

It's been added to The Artist Rock Era docket.
“It was the most inspiring thing anyone has ever said about me,” Johnson, 53, tells me on Oct. 31. We’re speaking for a second time, after meeting before the film’s release, to reflect on the experience of “The Smashing Machine” being out in the world. Nolan’s praise wasn’t novel; Johnson says friends across the industry have come up to him to laud his work, and that Matt Damon, in particular, told him, “In what we do, we’re lucky enough, sometimes, to make a film that endures.” But the setting and the timing of Nolan’s words touched him deeply. “Once it started to sink in, I was having an out-of-body experience,” Johnson says. “I was sitting next to my wife” — singer Lauren Hashian — “and I grabbed her hand so hard, and she squeezed my hand back.” Afterward, backstage, Hashian insisted that he “actually speak, like a human being,” to Nolan. “I just gave him the biggest hug and the biggest kiss on the cheek,” Johnson says. “All I could say was ‘Thank you.’ And he said, ‘I meant what I said. You were heartbreaking, and the best performance of the year.’ I gave him another hug. That was all I could muster.”
November 13, 2025 at 8:33 AM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
He's 100% angling for a Nolan movie.
The comments were widely picked up, in part because they went against conventional wisdom: The screening was on Oct. 5, the Sunday of “The Smashing Machine”’s opening weekend, and when the film launched to an underwhelming $6 million in 3,300 theaters, many Oscar-race prognosticators left it for dead. But what hasn’t been widely known is that Johnson himself was sitting in the audience at the DGA, hearing an already-legendary director sing his praises.
November 13, 2025 at 8:32 AM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
The new Rock profile in the trades opening like this is frying me.

😂😂😭😭
The Rock had won over Christopher Nolan. The “Oppenheimer” director, hardly known for making effusive public comments, was interviewing Benny Safdie about his new film “The Smashing Machine” at a Directors Guild of America screening in Los Angeles. Nolan gushed over Dwayne Johnson’s portrayal of MMA fighter Mark Kerr. “I think it’s an incredible performance,” he said, calling the portrayal “heartbreaking.” He went on: “I don’t think you’ll see a better performance this year or most other years.”
November 13, 2025 at 8:25 AM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
This basically sums up why I cannot tolerate a second of Superhero fare or indeed much of its sibling American fare, at this point.
Our current stories of political violence index all these aspirations, allowing us to imagine that a new civilized order is in the offing, if only the right sort of force can be (temporarily) applied. The perennial American delusion is that purgative violence can be used to restore our blamelessness, our purity. And many people all over the world — surrogate bandits and Comanche — have suffered for it. As Sontag noted in her 1966 essay, it was once possible to “jeer, sometimes affectionately, at American barbarism and find American innocence somewhat endearing.” But that was before the American empire held the planet’s “historical future in its King Kong paws.” It is incredible that a country so idiotic and prone to neurotic excess has managed to keep the world in its meaty grasp for so long, fondling it like Lennie with his mouse. America has made the world pay for its priggish delusions of sanity. It will surely make the world pay for its nervous breakdown.
November 13, 2025 at 12:25 AM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
JEREMY DOKU, YOU ARE UNBELIEVABLE
November 9, 2025 at 5:57 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
😌😌😌
Cherki is a dying breed of player, particularly now he’s been transferred to a Premier League which has moved away from off-the-cuff dribblers and towards set-play schemes. As a stocky playmaker who rarely sprints and often reduces the game to walking pace in an increasingly breakneck sport populated by iron men, Cherki’s timing of arrival into English football is where the dichotomy lies. But the stylistic clash is also beautiful. “He is the kind of player fans want to see. He is fun to watch,” says Clichy. “The main quality Rayan has is that even when he is not performing to his best, he can still be decisive. This is the secret. “You have certain players — I was one of them — that to perform at my best level, I had to go to bed early, drink well, eat well, and prepare properly. If I didn’t feel 100 per cent physically, you would see it in my game. I would have to play differently. With him, even if he is 70 per cent, he will deliver, even if he is 50 per cent and ill, if you find him around the box, he will give an assist or a goal.”
November 8, 2025 at 5:31 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
True ✅
Manchester City and Liverpool are responsible for the highest quality Premier League fixture ever. City’s 2-1 win at the Etihad in January, 2019 was peak Pep Guardiola versus peak Jürgen Klopp. Arguments can rage between supporters of Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea about the drama of Sir Alex Ferguson taking on Arsène Wenger, or José Mourinho taking on the world. Their meetings made for brilliant entertainment. But for pure footballing excellence, City v Liverpool was the zenith of the rivalry between two elite teams and coaches – a duel between the best team in the world with the ball, and the best team in the world without it. It was the first and only time the two most accomplished teams on the planet were neck-and-neck for the Premier League title. English football had reached a new standard of sophistication with false nines, hybrid full-backs and centre-halves playing more like midfielders.
November 8, 2025 at 5:08 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
Every single British Invasion mf just provokes this response honestly:
edward said's phone number being dialled
November 6, 2025 at 3:53 AM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
I'm cackling.
Ganesh chose me the first time I visited India when I felt compelled to buy a little statuette I carried around for years. I speak directly to Ganesh, often via a statue in my study, and hear his replies in my head, in a warm, funny and loving Indian accent. Ganesh supplies inspiration and direction to the work, and I always make a dedication to the god before writing and public speaking. Ganesh is the scribe of the Hindu gods, of course, and has connections with all the other gods of communication, magic, and speed.
November 5, 2025 at 11:15 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
CHERKI!!!
Rayan Cherki kneeslides in front of the ground with his arms outstretched
November 5, 2025 at 9:52 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
Remembering a modern classic
a close-up shot of a man's eyes a man wreathed in shadow fights while the sky behind him is ignited in red a black man with white hair meditates in front of candles white text on black background reading SALOUM
November 3, 2025 at 6:32 AM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
The typographic equivalent of:
bland white rice and unseasoned chicken
November 2, 2025 at 12:59 AM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
Trying Home at the Horizon, and I swear to god, I will never know peace from this font.

Every time I see it, I'm just put off from even bothering further with the comic.

I don't get manga lettering's obsession with it.
a kid in school being invited for a party, and turning it down in Watabe Taiyo's Home at the Horizon
November 2, 2025 at 12:54 AM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
SEAN DYCHE, MY GOAT, I KNEW YOU HAD IT IN YOU.

I NEVER LOST FAITH.
Nottingham Forrest 2-1 Manchester United
November 1, 2025 at 4:18 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
Can't help but think of this.

Mourinho was spot on:
October 31, 2025 at 7:18 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
Whenever I see people asking for advice on 'how to become a comics writer', I just think of this:
Adam Silver with the quote GET READY TO LEARN DRAWING BUDDY.
October 31, 2025 at 4:31 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
I was literally talking to a friend about these books yesterday as I went through the Fanta catalog, so seeing this official announcement drop is delicious.

I love this so much.
"Ever since Fantagraphics was founded in 1976, we’ve sought out graphic works that are imaginative, daring, and aesthetically compelling," the editors wrote in a statement, adding that Takumigraphics's launch is aligned with the publisher's "vital editorial mission." Though Fantagraphics mostly published English-language cartoons for the first 30 years of its existence, the press has expanded its offerigns in the last few decades, making its first serious foray into manga in 2010. As a part of Takumigraphics, Fantagraphics will continue its partnership with Mangasplaining, a publisher that serializes original comics on Substack and collaborates with print presses, like Fantagraphics, to put them in book form. Takumigraphics will begin in the world of Japanese comics, but its catalog will eventually expand beyond manga, the editors said. Future titles will include comics by authors from Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, and other Asian countries. The editors hope that homing this wide-ranging work under the roof of one imprint will highlight the shared aesthetic and visual language that many comic artists in the region share, something that they "believe readers will recognize and appreciate." In Japanese, the word "takumi" refers to excellence or ingeniousness, as well as a person who embodies those qualities. The editors said they feel the word "exemplifies the aesthetic caliber of the books that will comprise this imprint—works of mastery and vision."
October 30, 2025 at 4:40 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
That Rayan Cherki game man...

Every time he gets the ball, I lean forward.

The kind of special player wherein you just *believe* something will happen, wherein you expect to be surprised--and you are.

Getting to watch him under Pep after KDB, as his successor, is the greatest gift.

A magician.
Eden Hazard's face, with the quote saying 'I got my joy back'
October 29, 2025 at 10:05 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
The Bald Man Theory is unbeaten.
Takehiko Inoue drawing Miyamoto Musashi from Vagabond
October 29, 2025 at 1:55 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
Time to see what new depravity Silicon Valley's pumped out.
I Tried The First Humanoid Home Robot. It Got Weird. WSJ. Youtube thumbnail showing a woman with some dipshit robot
October 29, 2025 at 1:45 AM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
Just finished the latest MangaPlus One-shot-- Hungry Like A Beast by Kento Kokeniwa.

Rough around the edges, but I really, really liked it.

One of the stronger one-shots I've read from their curation thus far.

Also has much better lettering than some of their recent output, which helped.
from Hungry Like A Beast by KENTO KOKENIWA, showcasing two people talking. One says 'Talent is...inescapable dissatisfaction. Without doing it...you can't live properly.' From Hungry Like A Beast by KENTO KOKENIWA, A pianist, a drummer, and a bassist are playing. Text reads 'I don't mind if people call it hopeless self-indulgence'.
October 28, 2025 at 3:54 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
Once again thinking about this
DEADLINE: You’re 80. Do you still have that fire to get right back behind the camera and get the next one going? SCORSESE: Got to. Got to. Yeah. I wish I could take a break for eight weeks and make a film at the same time [laughs]. The whole world has opened up to me, but it’s too late. It’s too late. DEADLINE: What do you mean by that? SCORSESE: I’m old. I read stuff. I see things. I want to tell stories, and there’s no more time. Kurosawa, when he got his Oscar, when George [Lucas] and Steven [Spielberg] gave it to him, he said, “I’m only now beginning to see the possibility of what cinema could be, and it’s too late.” He was 83. At the time, I said, “What does he mean?” Now I know what he means.
October 28, 2025 at 12:54 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
The D.Gray-man Artbook news has me flashing back into the body of Teen Me right now.

That very first D.Gray-man Hallow OP...I was enraptured...
October 27, 2025 at 9:20 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
My soul is full, the air feels better, I'm levitating.

We've never been so back.
UPDATE on the future of "Otoyomegatari" and "Go With The Clouds North-by-Northwest": A new manga publisher named 'Yukiwarisou' has been founded and will release both series going forward. Both manga were put on hiatus in early 2025 after Kaoru Mori & Aki Irie stopped serializing in Kadokawa's Aokishi magazine. The new manga publisher will also publish some other Harta/Aokishi authors going forward like Ootsuki Ichika (Piccolina) and Yasubara Moe.
October 27, 2025 at 6:30 PM
riteshwriter.bsky.social
Thinking about them.

Aoashi being about coaches constantly pondering how to develop youth players, discussing 'teaching' vs 'coaching', really just made it super special, particularly in its context of Youth Club Programs as harsh meat-grinders.
Aoashi by Yugo Kobayashi, showing two coaches talking about the players AND coaches as being immature A coach advises another on how he should just loosen up and trust himself, saying whatever he believes. And that a team that follows their coach is a good one.
October 27, 2025 at 6:17 PM