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Helen O'Hara

@helenlohara.bsky.social

12K followers 210 following 1.4K posts

Film journalist, author, podcaster, broadcaster, etc. Empire's Editor-at-Large. If you would like to give me work, have a look at helenohara.com

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 12h

Exactly! I can't believe we continued the conversation after that.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 16h

Gorgeous film, incredible subject in John Davidson, and stunning performances from Robert Aramayo and young Scott Ellis Watson.

Empire Magazine @empiremagazine.bsky.social · 16h

"Sweet, funny, and unusually moving."

The true story of Tourette’s activist John Davidson is brought to the screen in the heartfelt comedy-drama I Swear – in UK cinemas today.

Read the Empire review: www.empireonline.com/movies...

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Reposted by Helen O'Hara

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 1d

Skateboard

xkcd.com/3152/

4-panel comic. (1) [person in the sky unpacks skateboard from parachute bag] I guess this is on me. I should really keep my skateboarding gear and my parachutes in different-looking bags. (2) [person looking down at skateboard as they fall] (3) [person falling wile holding skateboard in one hand and phone making “beep beep” sound in the other] (4) (person still falling with skateboard, now talking on phone] Hello, Pro Skate Parks LLC? I’d like to place an extremely expedited order for a 600-foot halfpipe.

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Reposted by Helen O'Hara

Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 1d

Pope Leo is spitting.

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

Leo questioned a world where the wealth of the elite grows
"exponentially" while many "millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings." He also criticized "ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation,"
with false promises "that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty."

Leo described a "new tyranny," which shuns any kind of oversight and where the economy is structured "in such a way that sacrifices are demanded of the masses in order to serve the needs of the powerful." The poor, he wrote, are only allowed "drops that trickle down."

The pope openly challenged "prosperity theology" and called Christians to the practice of giving charity. "It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility," he wrote.

Popular movements that challenge "the empire of money," invite people to take on the cause to combat poverty alongside the poor, instead of on their behalf, and "make history," the pope said. It our duty, Leo said, to "make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve."

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

So sorry, Sam.

Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

Oh v good. And yes, I have been known to ruin bath mats etc

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 1d

Alea iacta est: me as I apply my home hair colour.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 2d

The start of the #LondonFilmFestival today seemed to come as a shock to both Picturehouse Central, home of the first press screening, and the BFI's website, but we got there and I thoroughly enjoyed #WakeUpDeadMan. It may be my favourite of the lot? It's certainly up to snuff.

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Reposted by Helen O'Hara

Chibdm @chibdm.bsky.social · 4d

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 4d

I have like eight now, tops. Mostly New Yorker articles I'm definitely gonna finish reading.

Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 4d

Finished a piece of work, closed 34 open tabs. I've never felt so alive (since last time).

a poster that says i am a golden god with a swimming pool in the background

ALT: a poster that says i am a golden god with a swimming pool in the background

media.tenor.com

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 5d

Honestly astonishing achievement, well done

Reposted by Helen O'Hara

Deanna Kreisel 🌱 @doctorwaffle.substack.com · 8d

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins:
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
(Not sure if I spelled that right)
What immortal hand or eye
Could fashion such a stripy guy?
What the hammer that hath hewn it
Into such a chonky unit?
Did who made the lamb make thee,
Or an external franchisee?

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 5d

Hey film fans! Julia Roberts' Venice jumper covered in Luca Guadagnino is now for sale, at a mere $1100! twinship.com

Twinship

twinship.com

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 7d

I just saw a TV ad for #ISwear, and god bless the trailer cutter, who had their work cut out to avoid any swearing (it's wonderful, go see it). youtu.be/oeWqQN3snCU?...

youtu.be

Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 7d

She seemed like an absolute gem and Hyacinth Bucket was one of the great comic characters. RIP.

ianVisits @ianvisits.co.uk · 7d

In memoriam...

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Reposted by Helen O'Hara

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 9d

One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."

A few days after this cartoon was published, my syndicate received a very indignant letter from someone representing the Jane Goodall Institute.
Not only did my syndicate and I both get read the Riot Act, there was a vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner.
I was horrified. Not so much from a fear of being sued (I just couldn't see how this cartoon could be construed as anything but silly, but because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to pri-matology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way.
Before I had a chance to write my apology, another complication arose.
The National Geographic Society contacted my syndicate and expressed a

desire to reprint the cartoon in a special centennial issue of their magazine. My editor, aware of what had just occurred, declined, explaining why.
Apparently, whoever it was that sent the inquiry from National Geographic was shocked. They told my editor that "that doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know." They did some checking themselves, and an interesting fact was eventually discovered: Jane Goodall loved the cartoon. Furthermore, she was totally unaware that any of this "stuff" was going on. Some phone calls were made, and the cartoon was not only reprinted in the centennial issue of National Geographic, but was also used by her Institute on a T-shirt for fund-raising purposes.
I've since had an opportunity to visit Dr. Goodall at her research facility in Gombe. It's a wonderful place (sort of like right out of National Geographic).
"To refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp is inexcusable even by a self-described 'loony' as Larson. The cartoon was incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgment of running such an atrocity in a newspaper that reputes to be supplying news to persons with a better than average intelligence. The cartoon and its message were absolutely stupid." —Excerpt from the above-mentioned letter that started the ruckus

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Reposted by Helen O'Hara

Halloween name @bootsmcgoot.bsky.social · 9d

"i just use it to generate ideas"

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 9d

It's like this story picks random cards from a deck marked "things Helen likes" and then just mad libbed a movie out of them.

Empire Magazine @empiremagazine.bsky.social · 9d

David Harbour is joining Pedro Pascal for #Behemoth!, the latest movie from Andor creator Tony Gilroy.

The movie, reportedly about a cellist, is due to start shooting later this year in LA.

Read more: www.empireonline.com/movies/news/...

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Reposted by Helen O'Hara

Cezary Jan Strusiewicz @ostrichson.bsky.social · 9d

I enjoy a well-thought-out, rule-based magic system in fiction as much as anyone, BUT I also think that we should give more props to what Terry Pratchett did in the Discworld books, where it was less about rules and more about vibes and, more importantly, what fit a given story the best.

🧵

Discworld: A disc-shaped world atop 4 elephants atop a giant turtle flying through space.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 9d

Rainbow this morning at dawn. Taking this as a good omen for the day of my first London Film Festival screening.

Some nondescript trees beside a railway track, behind which a pale but distinct rainbow rises into the sky. Very keen eyed people might spot the foot of a second, wider but paler, rainbow to the right.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 10d

Oh no

Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 10d

A kind interpretation but as good as anything else I guess!

Reposted by Helen O'Hara

Wendy Xu @wendyxu.bsky.social · 11d

"single-use plastic of the mind" had me GAGGED

But a still graver scandal of AI— like its hydra-head sibling, cryptocurrency-is the technology's colossal wastefulness. The untold billions firehosed by investors into its development; the water-guzzling data centers draining the parched exurbs of Phoenix and Dallas; the yeti-size carbon footprint of the sector as a whole—and for what? A cankerous glut of racist memes and cardboard essays.
Not only is the ratio of Al's resource rapacity to its productive utility indefensibly and irremediably skewed, Al-made material is itself a waste product: flimsy, shoddy, disposable, a single-use plastic of the mind.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 10d

I don't think so! I literally looked up her swimsuit collab to see if she generally wore suits that way, and nothing.