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AdamLehrerUptown25 karma

Bret,

Two questions. One fun. One more serious. First of all, I want to say thank you for your literature and your cultural criticism. I don’t always agree with you, but I always find your perspective valid and it always shifts my perceptions to new kinds of awareness and thoughtfulness.

First, I loved your takes on your podcast of Paul Verhoeven’s ‘Elle’ and Ari Aster’s ‘Hereditary.’ In my mind, these two films are the most powerful, provocative, and subversive pieces of film art that this decade has afforded us so far. Do you agree with this assessment? What is your film of the 2010s if not?

Second, I have to get political here. While I believe some of your criticisms of the left are valid, I can’t help but feel that sometimes you are way too hard on the left and far too soft on the right. You talk about ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ on the left referring to those who have let Trump’s behavior and policies psychologically ruin them. But the fact stands, he is a truly horrific person with an anstronomical amount of power and his administration has been marred by historic levels of corruption and policies that have actually and literally fucked over peoples lives. And you could say, ‘all politicians are corrupt’ but that would still prove to be a false equivalence in the face of this degradation of the office. So is it not equally deranged for the right wing to deny totally and completely what we all see right in front of us? In my mind, the only good thing about Trump is exposing the mind boggling hypocrisy of the moralizing Christian Right?

Thank you again. And I would love to see you and Karyn Kusama team up on a Glamorama adaptation starring Charlie Hunnam as Victor. Just sayin’!