Manohla Dargis

@manohladargis

Old hippie, tree hugger, childless cat lady, lover of animals and some humans, I write about movies for the New York Times. Member of the Times Guild, which is represented by the NewsGuild of New York.

2.185 Folgt24.664 Follower918 Posts

Website Website Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir manohladargis.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 8d

“Environmental and Human Health Impacts of Agricultural Pesticides on BIPOC Communities in the United States: A Review from an Environmental Justice Perspective” pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

The application of agricultural pesticides poses significant risks to farm workers and nearby communities due to pesticide drift during spraying or fumigation, volatilization into the air, contamination of household dust, and direct exposure for agricultural workers and their families [8,16]. Pesticides can contaminate water sources, including drinking water, through runoff and infiltration [1,8]. Numerous studies [4,16,17,18,19], among others, have documented the harmful effects of indiscriminate agrochemical use on both ecosystems and human well-being. A global survey on pesticide management in agriculture revealed that over 20% of countries reported major incidents of environmental pollution caused by pesticides

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 8d

enraging and appalling gift link 🎁 Uber’s Strategy for Fighting Sexual Assault Suits: ‘What Were You Wearing?’ www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/b...

The litigation has revealed a clear pattern: Uber's lawyers scour women's private communications, medical records, therapy notes and other sources for sensitive details, including other sexual assaults, childhood abuse and domestic violence. They grill the women about those issues, their sex lives and their behavior on the night of the incident.
In one case, Uber petitioned a judge to force a woman to turn over details about sexual abuse she experienced as a child by a family member and family friend. In another, Uber compelled a woman to undergo a psychiatric exam to investigate other sexual assaults she had reported. And in another, a lawyer for Uber asked a woman whether she had been wearing underwear on the night in question and if she had become "extra sexually active" after the Uber incident.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 10d

One thing I admire is that even as film critics like James Agee continued to praise “Birth” decades after its release, the NAACP kept up its fight against the movie. This is from 1947 (credit: LOC).

A black-and-white photo of a picket line outside a movie theater. One protestor carries a sign that reads “Birth of a Nation revives KKK.”

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 12d

The Vogue connection is an intriguing, er, thread. In 1994, Galliano’s struggling career was boosted by the Vogue journalist André Leon Talley and by its editor in chief, Anna Wintour, a Galliano supporter and currently the chief content officer and global editorial director for Condé Nast. After Galliano’s rants, Jonathan Newhouse, its board chairman, arranged meetings between the designer and Jewish leaders, as he explains in “High & Low,” which was coproduced by Condé Nast Entertainment. (Mark Guiducci, another Vogue executive, is its consulting producer.) It seems that the Guardian writer who in 2011 doubted whether Galliano would be able to “redeem himself” in his field never worked in fashion.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 14d

the skillet was cold the cat is voracious

A plump gray cat licking her chops while standing partway in a COLD iron skillet. The cat and the skillet are on a COLD cooktop and there’s an exhaust vent behind them.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 15d

Nice photo - but neither it nor the one of Pacino can top this.

Two men seated at a table. The man on the right is bearded and is seated before many microphones. Image is of the NYPD whistleblower Frank Serpico (accompanied by another man) testifying before the Knapp Commission in 1971.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 15d

Photo of a bearded white man. He has sunglasses pushed up on his thick hair. Image is of Al Pacino in the 1973 film “Serpico”

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 17d

Of battle, or will you establish friendship among both parties?"
Zeus, who marshals the clouds, replied to her in turn:
"My child, why ask me about this and question me in this way?
For did you not devise this scheme yourself—to ensure
That Odysseus would return and take vengeance on those men?
Do whatever you please. But I shall tell you what seems fitting:
Now that glorious Odysseus has avenged himself on the Suitors,

Let them swear a binding oath, let him reign as king forever, And let us do our part, too—let us force them to forget
How their sons and brothers were slain. And let there be friendship among them
Just as it was before, and let wealth and peace abound." So saying, he roused Athena, who'd been eager from the start;
She went off, flashing down along the crags of Olympos.
Now when his men had put aside their craving for honeyed food,
Noble Odysseus, who had suffered so much, began to speak to them:

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 17d

The community aka the families of the suitors, are (understandably!) very upset that their sons and brothers have been slaughtered. And this creates a problem for Odysseus as a ruler. They move against him but Zeus intervenes and Athena swoops down to manage things. It’s quite an ending!

Glorious Odysseus, who'd endured so much, caught him up.
Once Laërtes had caught his breath and pulled himself together,
He spoke out in reply, addressing him with these words:
"Father Zeus, truly you gods still exist on great Olympos If the Suitors have really paid for their heedless insolence!
But now a dreadful fear afflicts my heart-what if all°
The men of Ithaka were to descend on us right away
And spread the news through the cities of the Kep-hallêníans?"

But Rumor went through the city bringing the news everywhere,
Telling the tale of the Suitors' dreadful death and doom.
All at once the people heard it and gathered from hither and yon,
Moaning and groaning in front of the gates of Odysseus's palace.
The families carried their corpses out of the palace and buried them;
The Suitors from other cities were returned to their own homes,
Stowed aboard swift-running ships for the seamen to bring back.

If we fail to take vengeance upon the murderers of our sons
And our brothers. For me, at least, life would have no sweetness—
No, I would rather die right away and be among the dead.
But let us go, before those men can cross the sea without our knowing."
His words. As he shed a tear, pity seized all the Achaeans.
Now the godlike bard and Médôn° came upon them and drew near
After leaving Odysseus's halls, once sleep had released them both.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 17d

Another **SPOILER ALERT**: Among many other things, McDaniel discusses the notable differences between the Odysseus in the poem and the one in the film. Here, for instance, is the *poem’s Odysseus* (from Daniel Mendelsohn’s translation)

And then you must wash down the beautiful chairs and the tables
With water, using sponges dotted with thirsty holes.
And then, once you have set the entire house to rights,
Bring the female slaves out of the strong-built Hall
To a place between the roundhouse and the flawlessly built courtyard fence,
And then run them through with your swords' long blades until you strip
The life away from them all and they forget about Aphrodite, To whom they had surrendered when they trysted with the Suitors."

Telémakhos, sensible lad, began to speak to them then:
"Let the death that I inflict on these women not be a clean one!
For they poured upon my head an endless stream of insults
ー
And on my mother, too-while they were sleeping with the Suitors."
His words. Then he took a cable from a ship with its blue-painted prow.
Once he'd fastened it to a pillar, he strung it around the great round-house,
Stretching it high above so their feet wouldn't reach the ground.

Just as when some thrushes with their slender wings, or some doves,
Go crashing into a snare that's been set inside a bush
As they're heading to their nests-but a loathsome bed welcomes them:
So did the women hold their heads all in a row, and the nooses
Went round the necks of them all so they'd die a most piteous death.
For a time, their feet went on twitching; but not for very long.
Then they brought Melánthios in through the doorway and the courtyard.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 19d

HER

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 19d

Anna May Wong and Marlene Dietrich in “Shanghai Express” are definitely in contention

A b&w image of two astonishingly beautiful women sitting in a train car. (Specifically the image shows Anna May Wong and Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg’s 1932 film “Shanghai Express.”)

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· 20d

Movie friends (and everyone else)! This is about how AI bots crushed the vital movie website the numbers.com and how it’s working to come back. Thank you @stephenfollows.com for reporting on this. stephenfollows.com/p/what-just-...

Like every data-rich site, by early
2026 The Numbers was being hammered hard by Al bots scraping its pages over and over at an industrial scale. Bruce says that only 10% of their traffic is from humans browsing the site, with the rest coming from Al bots and automated traffic.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Jul 4

🇺🇸🧵

a celebrated COMMUNIST manifesto entitled "The Declaration of Independence" will be read to the people. It was written by a certain SOCIALIST named Thomas Jefferson….
The gist of the Declaration is contained in the "self-evident" clause. It is Justice, Reason, Truth. It is Socialism. For every man having the self-evident and inalienable right to the means of living has the right to receive the FulL product of his own labor, his proportionate share of all the natural advantages of the air, land and water, and his proportionate equal share of all the means of life created by past and dead generations and left by them here when they died, and now held by the thieves, robbers, nobles and tyrants of the world.64

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Jun 26

now trending

Three bare-breasted women skirts covered in mud standing before a wall with some greenery on it. Their image is framed in purple.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Jun 23

The California state flag, which shows a Grizzly on a patch of green above the words “California Republic” and a red stripe.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Jun 21

In 2023, the EPA fined Lineage Logistics — which owns the cold-storage facility that’s burning in Los Angeles — for “Alleged Chemical Risk Prevention Violations.” refindustry.com/news/market-...

image shows this text: “EPA says the company failed to correctly document the worst-case scenario in its risk analysis, failed to comply with accidental release prevention requirements, and failed to document emergency response coordination with local authorities”

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· May 16

seriously confused by this congregation, which will soon enter this huge theater at Cannes to watch “Sheep in the Box,” the latest from Kore-eda

Rows of mostly empty movie theater sets, many with white signs designating who will sit where.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· May 16

The great Annie Ernaux is here at Cannes for the premiere of the film “A Girl’s Story,” based on her book! What an honor to be in the same room with her.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· May 6

A stern-looking man looks at the camera with a building behind him. This is the actor Alan Ritchson, who plays the title character in the show “Reacher.”

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Apr 15

Gift article! www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

“Why is it that the most vocal cheerleaders of generative A.I. are always the hackiest motherfreakers around? You expect studio executives to say things like “it’s going to revolutionize content” and “from a bottom-line standpoint it’s inevitable” and “I’ve finally found an instrument as cold and empty as myself,” but you’d hope that an artist would have more self-respect.”

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Apr 11

watching “Banshee”

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Apr 10

Happy Frances Perkins (remembrance) Day! FDR’s Labor Secretary and the first woman to serve as a cabinet secretary. We owe her much. francesperkinscenter

A yellowish image of a woman (Frances Perkins) in a hat and a fur-collared coat above the words: “The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.”

When, in February, 1933, President-elect Roosevelt asked Frances Perkins to serve in his cabinet as Secretary of Labor, she outlined for him a set of policy priorities she would pursue: a 40-hour work week; a minimum wage; unemployment compensation; worker’s compensation; abolition of child labor; direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief; Social Security; a revitalized federal employment service; and universal health insurance. She made it clear to Roosevelt that his agreement with these priorities was a condition of her joining his cabinet. Roosevelt said he endorsed them all, and Frances Perkins became the first woman in the nation to serve in a Presidential cabinet.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Apr 7

And it’s delicious!

A bald animated man in a red tie and green vest looks at a bit of moon-cheese on a cracker in an image from Nick Park’s charming short movie “A Grand Day Out.”

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Apr 2

Oh, come on — it’s empowering to be exploited!

Some text describing a job open at StyleCaster, which is owned by Penske Media. The text reads “It's all About You…PMC's comprehensive benefits package is thoughtfully designed to support every aspect of your life, empowering you to thrive both personally and professionally.”

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Mar 28

“for Trump and MAGA, then dangled that CNN—whose parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is also on the brink of being acquired by Ellison—would soon follow. The chairman of the agency that must approve those very deals was, in effect, announcing that the federal government was approving mergers to consolidate the news media under friendly ownership.
“And he’s not the first administration official to weigh in on the matter. Trump has repeatedly praised Ellison and his billionaire father Larry Ellison as “great’”

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Mar 20

Highly recommended especially for its fantastic New York locations, including St. Mark’s Place circa late 1959/early 1960. The NYT ran an item on the production: www.nytimes.com/1960/10/02/a...

A man in a fedora and coat stands on a street - St. Mark’s Place - in front of some business in this image from the hardboiled film “Blast of Silence.”

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Mar 20

A man stands holding a sword above his head while next to a woman. They’re both posed in front of an orange backdrop with the title “Titanic” above them.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Feb 25

from Feb 19 abc7.com/post/doj-joi...

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- The Trump administration Wednesday moved to join a lawsuit alleging that Los Angeles Unified School District discriminates against white students under its decades-old desegregation policy.

Brought by the 1776 Project Foundation, a Billings, Montana-based conservative group, the federal civil rights suit contends the district's allegedly racially discriminatory policies systematically disadvantage certain students based on the racial makeup of their schools.

Manohla Dargis@manohladargis· Feb 25

what are you watching?