Authors — John Lopez
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Slow Your Roll: Can Durational Cinema Save Us?
You know the feeling: the algorithm catches you one lazy afternoon, and hours melt in the blink of an eye. You come to, dehydrated, achy, struggling to focus. Or at night, your couch sucks you in. You bounce from Netflix to Hulu to HBO, trying to find your “next show” or catch up on one that all the memes insist you simply have to watch. Instead, you start 15 minutes of three different series and two mid-’90s movies, then retreat to your phone. Before long, a sickly yellow fog buzzes behind your eyes—the undeniable mental vertigo of brain rot. The […]
by John Lopez on Apr 29, 2026 -
With His “Disrespectful” Remix of Pynchon’s Vineland, PTA Mastered the Art of Adaptation
Adapted Screenplay. It’s often an afterthought: an extra category on the Oscar ballot, an edge in your betting pool. Unlike the rest of the Academy, screenwriters get two shots at an award: one for original screenplay, one for adaptation. If you haven’t sacrificed your career to the cruel gods of screenwriting, “adapting” may seem less … impressive. Isn’t it easier to have a well-paved Autobahn to guide you, rather than hacking your way through virgin story wilderness? Can’t you just “cut-and-paste?” Do we need a whole other category for that? I’ll stop there before the WGA revokes my card. Every […]
by John Lopez on Jan 28, 2026
