Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Episode 137 -- Catching Up with the Cinema of Cancellation (Patreon)

Published:
2026-05-26 08:56:48
Imported:
2026-09

Downloads

Content

It's a case of the Patreon coming for the mothership! That's right, we're getting cancelly on main! In this episode, we decided to check in with two recent pieces of pop culture that arguably fit into our evolving canon of the "cinema of cancellation" -- the HBO show Rooster and Jonah Hill's new movie Outcome, starring Keanu Reeves. We'll be back with a new edition of TERF Island (you'll understand why it took longer once it's here) on Patreon soon, and an episode on the politics of "plagiarism hunting" on main!

Comments

Helen McCallum

Greg jenner a historian in the uk wrote a book on the history of fame called "dead famous" which traces fame and celebrity back centuries :)

Zoe

I only have a lovely story about Keanu Reeves...while he was filming The Matrix in Sydney he was in the line to buy groceries with my friend's mum, who was a tiny grey-haired ball of energy who had no idea who he was. She heard his accent and struck up a conversation with him, asking him why he was in Australia. He said it was for work and she said she hoped he got some relaxation time and then told him all the best snorkelling spots locally. At the end of the conversation she looked down at the weetbix he was buying, grabbed his bicep and told him "you look like a ten weetbix boy" before heading out to the rest of her family who had been watching the interaction in horror. She said he was a nice guy so I also hope I never find out that he isn't.

Joy

I do enjoy getting a peak into Adrian’s Seinfeld passion based on how often he references moments in Seinfeld episodes

Solomon Freilich Photography

My idea of engrossing is very different than Moira's I guess because I would not watch Ted Lasso while only half paying attention and on my phone. I really liked that show.

Bruce

I have to go back and watch Tar again, as in my memory of it, Lydia Tar was painted as quite the monster. Yes, her accusers are not depicted very positively either, but she seemed very worthy of some form of justified cancellation. But it's been a while and I only saw it once.

jalapeño chip

Im glad you brought up Sorry Baby as a point of contrast for this genre of films. While I do see the criticism about erasing the abuser from that film, it seems like an unfortunate tragic reality that often low level abusers, far from celebrity status, can just slink away into the corner (another university) and never face consequences. Also by not choosing to show repercussions, the film opts to show the viewer the victims experience (which seems to be missing from these other cancellation films). That being said maybe a campus sex-pest revenge slasher film would blow up the box office

Susanne Breckenridge

I mostly enjoyed The Rooster, but it definitely depicted a different reality from the one we live in. I loved the music, but then again, I'm old GenX, so it was made for me--but that's another way it's kind of out of time. By the way, Steve Carell has been doing some interesting dramatic roles recently, and he's been really good in them, even when the material isn't great.

Linn Leppert

I would love to know how you guys felt about “Vladimir” (the book and the Netflix series)?

Astraea

I would watch the fuck out of a campus sex-pest revenge slasher film.

Jennifer Lightweis-Goff

This is the not the first time a host has let out a paint-peeling laugh at the thought that antisemitism is real. Donegan said that *any* reference to antisemitism is clearly a reference to the crushing of pro-Palestine protest on campus.... which is only true if you know nothing about the 6,000 year history of Jews that preceded Israel. There are well-renumerated antisemites in government, in media, in sports, and beyond. To pretend otherwise is, truly, to get in bed with the right.

WGM

Sorry Baby immediately become one of my favorite movies when I saw it. It's such a good film - even feeling the tension Moira pointed too.

WGM

The closest thing I can think of that played it earnestly was... Maybe the Dragon Tattoo books?

Lauren

Keanu in Dracula defence squad! rise up!

Astraea

Follow-up: I haven't seen Sorry Baby but I just read a plot summary and...oof. "We can't do anything about this crime because the perpetrator no longer works for us" is, almost exactly word for word, something I have firsthand experience seeing universities do. The lengths they will go to in order to NOT punish someone, even in the face of crystal-clear evidence, genuinely keeps me awake at night. They are far more afraid of angering perpetrators than they are of their students being assaulted. IDK whether this is a good movie or not but it sounds like it absolutely nailed the cowardice and dehumanizing apathy that universities demonstrate toward their students.

Jenny

I find it hard to imagine that anyone would watch Tar and find their sympathies on Lydia Tar's side. Then again, maybe I don't know many people with institutional power. As someone who has been a member of relatively prestigious musical groups (concert and festival choirs), my feeling is that the film pretty accurately skewers the self-aggrandizement, abusiveness, and protection of power that permeate leadership ranks in much of the Western classical music world. I come away very unambiguously disgusted by all of that, and I'd think most viewers would too. What I feel to be the film's greatest failure is that it also has nothing but derision for music and culture OUTSIDE of the Western classical tradition. The ethnomusicology that opens the film, the unbelievably stupid confrontation with the student about Bach in the middle (seriously, no Julliard student would cancel Bach using those arguments), and the Monster Hunter concert at the end, are all presented on a spectrum between incomprehensible and laughable. With classical music hopelessly corrupted, and other music hopelessly unserious, the film is ultimately just purely cynical about the state of music-making as a social (institutional) endeavor. Which I find to be an even sadder statement than simply taking Lydia Tar's side.

jalapeño chip

I thought it was a good movie. Very well done - even with those torturous moments. Definitely I recommend it.

Aaron

I 100% agree with you. I know the hosts are smart people and I'm just some guy, but I can't understand why they keep insinuating that the movie is soft on the main character, or that it casts her in a sympathetic light. I think the movie clearly establishes that she is an absolute freak, and that the only real admirable quality she possesses (an earnest appreciation for classical music demonstrated by that scene of her returning home) has been all but washed away by her narcissism and sexual pathologies.

Nina V~

i always joke that he's perfect in that role bc jonathan harker is pretty much a himbo wife guy (affectionate!)

Murphy

I'm going to admit, (don't take my smart-lady card, please) I enjoyed the Rooster. I laughed. And I can watch Danielle Deadwyler do anything. I just love the way she delivers lines. "Bumbling" in an idyllic setting seem to set a scene for me to not analyze it as much as I normally do. Another "movie" pod show idea: I just watched Running Man (so close to being good, but confused-ideology and dialogue terrible). I felt Hunger Games did a much better job doing the basic same plot. But I feel like the gender difference in these 2 leads, and the show was stark. And Hunger games got some of the community aspect, that is so important in a repressed society. Running Man was making small little gestures to the "union man" star, but he was more like a individualistic ("toxic masculinity") guy relying on smart "survivalist-style" who were all men. I was yelling at this show.

A Felt

I watched the first episode of Rooster with my relatively normie family and we all disliked it— support for Adrian’s theory that the general public is just not buying these cancel culture stories anymore.

Jeanne H-B

Yes, Jenny, I agree. I recall a very sad conversation I had decades ago with a man who had spent most of his life in important orchestras, traveling the world. When he stopped playing pro, he stopped playing at all. It wasn't perfectionism or arthritis or boredom that made him put down the violin. It was trauma, years of abuse - that he was told was a gift! - at the hands of conductors, managers, and others. The joy of his life, the incredible work of years to mastery, were so bound up with the abuse. I have heard similar tales, and worse, in the years since, and all of them suffered in silence.

Dead Sleep: True Crime for Bedtime Podcast

I once asked guy at Hollywood DMV if he had celebrity stories and he said most actors skip the line but Keanu Reeves came in for license renewal and waited patiently while reading a book.

Astraea

So this may seem very random, but: if you're interested in stories about the importance of community for survival, I highly recommend looking up Blair Braverman's podcast work. She was a guest on a few episodes of You're Wrong About, and she just started her own podcast called "What to Carry, What to Burn." Her thesis in general is that community, being with people, and holding on to "frivolous" human things (art, games, jokes) are as important or more important for surviving awful situations as any specific skills, like hunting etc. (Basically that the masculine-man, aggressively individualistic model of survival is some serious bullshit, if you look at actual survival stories.)

Meghan

If you're open to the book version of this, it's Layne Fargos's They Never Learn!

jalapeño chip

Whoa had no idea it was based off a book! I’ll check it out

mrakobesiye

Gagging for the Lenasode!!!

Laura

I'm still enjoying the episode but I wanted to pop in with my televised (xanax? valium? I've never taken either) recommendation: Gardeners' World on BritBox. It's incredibly soothing to watch people talk about plants and gardening. It's been on tv for over 50 seasons, so there is a lot of it.

Lu

Finally, someone else acknowledges how weird and cringe the Bach scene was. I felt like it went over a lot of non-classical musicians heads. To me it felt so so wrong and out of touch. I left a similar comment when Moira and Adrian were discussing Tar before, but that scene was obviously made by someone who has no knowledge of music universities. It looked like a caricature of a campus sjw student. What I think would work in Tar better is if they were discussing a living contemporary composer who writes atonal music. Let me see Lydia Tar defend that and not just play Bach's prelude with slightly different dynamics and raised eyebrows.

Murphy

love this! I'll check it out. Thanks!

Kate Julien

I’m autistic and think Rooster is trying to portray Steve Carrell’s character as autistic rather than as someone who is still trying to grow up. Doesn’t mean his awkward behaviour like the dance are excused by that, but I think it’s an important lens through which to analyze that character and his interaction with students and his colleagues.

Lydia Hswe

This feels like an especially bad faith reading. There is literally never a point in the episode when they “laugh at the thought that antisemitism is real”. Donegan also does not say *any* reference to antisemitism is about pro-Palestine protests, Daub says that *this specific* line is likely in reference to that, and then Donegan (rightly) points out that in recent years antisemitism is frequently used as a pretext for silencing non-antisemitic anti-zionist speech. We’ve seen this demonstrated time and time again by Jonathan Greenblatt and the ADL, among others. I’m not trying to be nitpicky here, but your description strikes me as a gross mischaracterization of what actually happens in the podcast.

James Talley

Seems I'm the only one to have been sucker-punched by Adrian's Clive Cussler reference. Still not entirely recovered.

G Northway

please !! cover “Vladimir”!! Before the first episode was over I thought ‘I need to know what Moira & Adrian think asap’

Jessica

As a hard core sci fi & fantasy fan, I love it when a reality other than ours is depicted. What pisses me off to no end is when our current reality is portrayed as something other than it actually is, which is pretty much the definition of propaganda.

Zosia M

Friends, I’m ready to empty out my savings account so I can pay Moira to watch and discuss Industry. It’s incredible television. It’s all gas, no brakes. Absolutely no fluff, no filler, entire season worth of material put in a single episode. The themes are dark, the show is unbelievably fun. Most importantly- smacks of gender. And class. And race.

Helidon

As a Marcuse scholar, I was happy to hear his concept of repressive tolerance getting a shoutout! It's such a useful concept, and yet so frequently invoked only in right-wing circles to mischaracterize leftists as crypto-authoritarian wokescolds who want to cancel anything fun or freethinking. I was wondering if you have read A.J.A. Woods' new book on the Cultural Marxism Conspiracy or have any thoughts about the Frankfurt School's function in the paranoid right-wing imagination, especially when it comes to Marcuse, who seems to be the puppet master of the sexual revolution in their minds.

Connor Coleman

My read of the Juilliard scene has evolved to being much less about Bach, but about Tár’s own anxieties about her legacy. She knows she has talent, and she desperately wants to be considered among those she idolizes. And she’s also a woman - she’ll always have the qualifier “female” or “woman” next to any of her accomplishments - a gender she so desperately wants to shed, but also weaponize selectively so she can get ahead. And she also knows that she has skeletons in her closet. I read this scene as her confronting dissent and critique of Bach so aggressively because if Bach can be “cancelled” and his accomplishments laid low, who is she? Will she not be found out? So, she has to make sure that this “generation” as exemplified by this one student doesn’t question “the canon” and the men or at least “gender less people” who made it that she so desperately wants to be a part of.

Bea

Man, how good would an episode on Seinfeld be. Would love to hear Adrian geek out about it.

James Hultgren

This may be a little out of scope for you but I’ve recently rewatched “God’s Not Dead” and watched for the first time the fourth (halp) movie in that series, and it’s really interesting as a sort of dendrochronology of the radicalisation of evangelicals: the first movie (pre-Tromp) is so blatantly propaganda, but you can see how they were still figuring out their talking points and had to obfuscate a bit more… by the fourth movie (post-Tromp), it’s so much more blatant. What really got me on this rewatch is that the first movie credits end with a list of legal cases “where university students and campus ministries” that “inspired” the movie… and the first three listed were all cases where a student was anti-queer (one was a counselling student who said that if a queer young person came to her for help, she would refer them to a conversion therapist)… which isn’t even remotely a theme of the movie! I think it’s interesting to see media that is made by and for the faithful, partly because it’s so funny (they are, fundamentally, badly made in every respect), but also because it’s edifying to see what they tell each other when we’re not around. Anyway, in case you haven’t seen enough terrible movies..! Maybe we could do a Patreon watch-party to make it more bearable 🤪

Laura Cullen

I don't think I need to defend Ted Lasso or feel ready to defend Rooster after just one episode, but as what Peter and Michael would call a PoADHD, I definitely need to watch them more closely than she describes. I initially watched (most of) the first two seasons of Ted Lasso VERY quickly when I had a one-week trial of Apple TV, and when I returned to the series later, I had to rewatch those episodes because I didn't retain/process them well the first time at all. And when I was watching the first episode of Rooster last night, I had to rewind a couple times when my attention drifted to my phone or something similar because I could tell I was missing things that might be relevant.

Solomon Freilich Photography

I'm an extremely bad multi-tasker so I'm not in the habit of trying except with podcast listening and chess.

beebah in boston

I loved Carell in The Big Short. Not that recent but still.

sistertotherain9

Helidon is correct, but also, nobody laughed at that line. The closest laugh was later, about the whole scene being presided over by a picture of Kanye West.

MARIA PRAMAGGIORE

Keanu in Always Be My Maybe (Ali Wong) is peak deliciousness. We are agreed : he must be protected. Mostly he’s not great (My Own Private Idaho is an exception) but we love him anyway.