*Psst* Anne Hathaway Prefers Being Called Annie (Pass It On)

Last Sunday I was having lunch with Bella. We were discussing Verity which we had seen the week before when SHE BLEW MY FREAKING MIND. “Did you know Anne Hathaway prefers to be called ‘Annie’?” she asked as if she wasn’t disrupting an assumption I had been operating under for twenty-five years. I said, “Well I hear other actors and directors call her ‘Annie’ in interviews all the time but I presumed that was just a close friend thing.” “No,” Bella said, “she actually prefers ‘Annie’ to ‘Anne.’ She wants people to call her Annie. She said so in an interview.” I was stunned. Of course I believed Bella but I needed to see/hear this for myself. So I looked up the interview as soon as I got home and she was right – Anne Hathaway prefers to be called Annie. By everyone! Since our lunch, I’ve been telling literally everyone I run into and I figured a blog post would help me cover more ground ;D. So here we are!

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Can We Talk About the Taylor Swift Backlash?

On Friday, 25 September 2026, Taylor Swift delivered unto the world The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore in the form of four additional tracks that weren’t part of last year’s album (which spent an impressive twelve weeks at the number one spot on the Billboard 200 and absolutely destroyed the records for biggest opening sales week[1]). The songs are “Patient Zero,” “Pink Clouding,” and “Babylon,” with “Cleveland!” rounding out the set. As happened when The Life of a Showgirl itself came out…suddenly everyone lost their minds! Taylor Swift is certainly a cultural figure who generates BIG REACTIONS but the reactions to The Life of a Showgirl and these new encore tracks particularly fascinates me. I’ve been pondering it for a year now and I thought it would be fun to chat about it. Please feel free to let me know what you think below, too!

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Before Sunrise and One Scene That Changed My Life

I’ve had the idea for awhile to start a li’l series where I explore not a film in its entirety but a single scene within a film which had a profound effect on me. While I wasn’t sure when I was going to start this series (I’m ever the “mood writer”), I always knew with which film it would begin. The only place I could start is Before Sunrise. Written by Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan and directed by Linklater, Before Sunrise was released in 1995 and starred Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as Jesse and Céline, two twenty-three-year-olds who meet on a train in Europe. Céline is heading home to Paris but, when their train stops in Vienna, Jesse convinces her to get off with him and wander the city until his flight back to America leaves in the morning. It is one of the most profoundly beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Few films mean as much to me as Before Sunrise. So let’s look at one scene (of many!) in this film which changed my life.

Note, no major/ending spoilers will be discussed ;D.

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Is Batman Cooler Than I Think He Is?: A Batman Day Reflection 2026

I make no secret of the fact that I don’t really “get” Batman. When it comes to superheroes, I think he’s pretty overrated. One of the earliest posts on this site was a confession that my deep, dark comic book secret is how I don’t see the appeal of Batman. I left Batman off my Mount Rushmore of Comic Book Superheroes. I wrote a piece on how NO ONE would ever choose to be the dour Batman instead of the groovy Iron Man. The critically and fan-acclaimed The Dark Knight Returns is one of the worst comics I’ve ever read. Heck, I even did a whole piece on how Batman’s an asshole because he has active plans for taking out all his Justice League friends. So yeah, I’m not a “Batman guy.” I never have been. But for the last few months I’ve been wondering…is this really true? Or is this a bit of revisionist history? Am I misremembering my relationship with the Caped Crusader? Is Batman cooler than I think he is?

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Five Hulk Movies I’d Like To See In The MCU

Speaking about the possibility of a solo Hulk movie Destin Daniel Cretton, who just directed Mark Ruffalo as Dr. Robert Bruce Banner/the Incredible Hulk in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, noted, “Mark has a few pitches. They are pretty good.”[1] Yay! (It’s worth adding every. single. site. cites Variety for this quote but no one has the original interview and I can’t find it either so take it with a grain of salt.) Now Mark Ruffalo has also said, “I want to just make one thing perfectly clear today: A standalone ‘Hulk’ movie will never happen. Universal has the rights, and for some reason, they don’t know how to play well with Marvel. And they don’t want to make money.”[2] Oh no! But that interview was nearly a decade ago. So yay again! Anyway, all this cinematic Hulk talk has me musing on what I’d like to see if ol’ Jade Jaws ever gets his own solo film again.

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Where to Start Reading Hulk Comics For The First Time – My Comic Advice

The Hulk has always been one of Marvel’s most important characters, a central part of their cultural footprint. The Incredible Hulk followed Fantastic Four at Marvel! Created before Spider-Man! As Danny Fingeroth notes in his biography The Amazing Story of Stan Lee: A Marvelous Life, “Even at the time, magazines like Esquire had a sense that these characters were an integral part of the current conversation. It named Spider-Man and the Hulk as two of the ‘28 People Who Count’ on college campuses in its September 1965 issue.”[1] One of the reasons comic book movies took the world by storm is they often feel “more approachable” while the world of comics can feel overwhelming if not overtly unwelcoming to new readers. When you have decades of continuity and hundreds of stories where do you begin?!?  The truth is there are plenty of entry points for any character and the Hulk is no different. There is no “right” way to do this. There are lots of paths to loving Hulk comics and they’re all good! If it works for you, yay! That makes me happy :). But, as this is my comic advice, I think these are the best places to begin for all the monster horror and psychological deconstructions of the Incredible Hulk!

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day Spins a Beautiful Web of Relationships

I think it’s fitting Spider-Man: Brand New Day came out two weeks after Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Two new adaptations of two of western literature’s most enduring characters sharing the screens at movie theatres across the world feels right. In fact, when I saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day at my local theatre on Thursday July 30th, it and The Odyssey were literally the only films playing on their sixteen screens that night! And the evolution of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man does make this feel like a new adaptation. This is no longer the same Spider-Man who swung into the MCU with Captain America: Civil War in 2016. I join the chorus saying this is the most Spider-Man Spider-Man we’ve seen in the MCU and I love it! I had so much fun at this movie! But it’s brightest spots weren’t the superheroics for me but the quiet moments between the characters. In that, the film also aligns with the best Spidey comics.

Note, SPOILERS for Spider-Man: Brand New Day follow but nothing about the film’s ending or twists will be discussed.

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Penelope, Odysseus, and You!: Questions of Love and Longing in The Odyssey

Like everyone in the U.S. who contributed to its $123.5 million opening box office or around the world with the global opening of $263.7 million,[1] I saw The Odyssey last weekend. Christopher Nolan’s latest epic was always going to hold a special place in my heart. When I was in middle school, I feel in love with Greek mythology (thank you Xena and Hercules). Studying those ancient myths (followed by the Norse ones (thank you Thor comics)) was my first step towards the religious studies major, teacher, and scholar I’d become! Naturally then I remember how excited I was to read The Odyssey in tenth grade! While I was incredibly excited to see the film, I found my experience of it to be the inverse of what I remember from reading The Odyssey as a kid. Thinking on all this led me back to a few questions I’ve been pondering since I left the theatre. Can you help me sort them?! Maybe! Let’s try.

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Reflections on Avengers: Doomsday‘s Full Length Trailer and Official Art

I was playing around with a piece reflecting on the Avengers: Doomsday art Andy Park shared on social media back on 11 July. As the last film he led as Director of Visual Development at Marvel Studios before being laid off he noted, “This illustration commemorates that journey & reveals the characters & their looks for the first time.”[1] So there was reflection fodder there! But it’s been a busy month (fun busy ;D) so I never got around to finishing it before BOOM the first full length trailer arrived on 20 July! Now there is even more reflection fodder! What do we think? Are we excited? Over it? Will this resurrect the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Will it reset/reboot the MCU? Will it be a return to form or the hugely expensive final nail in the MCU’s coffin of cultural relevancy? Let’s chat!

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Spawn Year One: Exploring the Birth of the Archetypal ‘90s Antihero!

It is all but impossible to explain to someone who wasn’t reading comics in the ‘90s what it was like when writer/artist Todd McFarlane debuted Spawn. It became the flagship book of Image Comics, the only independent comics publisher to rival the “Big Two” (Marvel and DC), and it felt like everything changed about the comic scene overnight. All of a sudden Spawn was the hottest character around…but I never read a single issue. So with my reading Spawn Year One – from Spawn #1 (May 1992) through Spawn #9 (March 1993) – I was psyched to see if I was missing out! I nicked this title from Frank Miller’s iconic Batman: Year One where he gave the Caped Crusader a darker, grittier origin. We love reimaginings of our heroes’ origins almost as much as Marvel and DC love producing them. But I’m fascinated by their original origin – who were they when they first burst onto the scene? What feels familiar? What feels different? Here I examine the literal year one of a character and it’s time for Al Simmons/Spawn! Reading Spawn’s first adventures I couldn’t help but wonder if they could live up to the hype…

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