Jonathan Lack
@jonathanlack.bsky.social
I'm critic, scholar, and podcaster Jonathan R. Lack, PhD. Follow my writing at https://www.jonathanlack.com. Links to podcasts and other socials at http://linktr.ee/jonathanrlack
The story is very much in the vein of Metroid Prime 2 so far (Samus discovers a seemingly extinct non-Chozo race who need her help and have left many clues and fun puzzles for her), and I’m digging it so far. The music immediately does a lot of heavy lifting making this world feel alive.
December 4, 2025 at 7:21 AM
The story is very much in the vein of Metroid Prime 2 so far (Samus discovers a seemingly extinct non-Chozo race who need her help and have left many clues and fun puzzles for her), and I’m digging it so far. The music immediately does a lot of heavy lifting making this world feel alive.
The technical heft and polish behind this game is immediately off the charts. Fantastic art direction, great visual quality, some of the best HDR I’ve ever seen in a game, *and* it’s running at a buttery smooth 120fps. It’s a full combo you don’t see much even on more powerful platforms. WOW.
December 4, 2025 at 7:18 AM
The technical heft and polish behind this game is immediately off the charts. Fantastic art direction, great visual quality, some of the best HDR I’ve ever seen in a game, *and* it’s running at a buttery smooth 120fps. It’s a full combo you don’t see much even on more powerful platforms. WOW.
METROID PRIME 4 makes an outstanding first impression. It is a jaw-dropping visual marvel - easily the most technically impressive game Nintendo’s made in the HD era - it plays beautifully, and it mostly nails the Metroid Prime vibe and atmosphere. I don’t want to put it down.
December 4, 2025 at 7:16 AM
METROID PRIME 4 makes an outstanding first impression. It is a jaw-dropping visual marvel - easily the most technically impressive game Nintendo’s made in the HD era - it plays beautifully, and it mostly nails the Metroid Prime vibe and atmosphere. I don’t want to put it down.
The NYT review of the Nuzzi memoir begins with their critic explaining how all Nuzzi’s myriad breaches of journalistic ethics would be worth defending if only we got a better book out of it in the end.
You can’t make this shit up. What a perfect encapsulation of the paper’s entire pathology.
You can’t make this shit up. What a perfect encapsulation of the paper’s entire pathology.
December 3, 2025 at 7:23 PM
The NYT review of the Nuzzi memoir begins with their critic explaining how all Nuzzi’s myriad breaches of journalistic ethics would be worth defending if only we got a better book out of it in the end.
You can’t make this shit up. What a perfect encapsulation of the paper’s entire pathology.
You can’t make this shit up. What a perfect encapsulation of the paper’s entire pathology.
Little behind-the-scenes glimpse of work on Japanimation Station’s Tomino-thon: an excerpt from my notes on XABUNGLE Episode 16, which has one of the absolute raddest moments in anime history.
December 2, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Little behind-the-scenes glimpse of work on Japanimation Station’s Tomino-thon: an excerpt from my notes on XABUNGLE Episode 16, which has one of the absolute raddest moments in anime history.
Democratic leadership is a parody of a parody at this point. My god.
November 30, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Democratic leadership is a parody of a parody at this point. My god.
Don’t talk to me or my son ever again.
November 23, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Don’t talk to me or my son ever again.
KIRBY AIR RIDERS is absolutely crazy. It feels like a weird little passion project indie game, but realized with the full weight of Nintendo’s resources. Sakurai got a Smash Ultimate-sized blank check and cashed it big time. Might be the medium’s first racing-game-as-auteur-statement.
November 23, 2025 at 1:34 AM
KIRBY AIR RIDERS is absolutely crazy. It feels like a weird little passion project indie game, but realized with the full weight of Nintendo’s resources. Sakurai got a Smash Ultimate-sized blank check and cashed it big time. Might be the medium’s first racing-game-as-auteur-statement.
Do you think Christopher Nolan ever lays awake at night, reflecting on how, no matter how many times he puts Michael Caine in a movie, he will never ever ever get a performance out of him that goes half as hard as THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL?
November 22, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Do you think Christopher Nolan ever lays awake at night, reflecting on how, no matter how many times he puts Michael Caine in a movie, he will never ever ever get a performance out of him that goes half as hard as THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL?
Low key can’t believe this is real, and exists, and I’m holding it. The original KIRBY AIR RIDE was such a big part of my childhood. Never even dreamed we’d get a sequel. So excited to give this a go.
November 20, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Low key can’t believe this is real, and exists, and I’m holding it. The original KIRBY AIR RIDE was such a big part of my childhood. Never even dreamed we’d get a sequel. So excited to give this a go.
Showing POM POKO to my Miyazaki/Takahata class tonight, and I've got a real banger of an opening presentation ready to go, including this very stupid slide that brought be an unreasonable amount of joy to make. (Yes, there's a spinning animation and audio of Mario saying "Tanooki!")
November 18, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Showing POM POKO to my Miyazaki/Takahata class tonight, and I've got a real banger of an opening presentation ready to go, including this very stupid slide that brought be an unreasonable amount of joy to make. (Yes, there's a spinning animation and audio of Mario saying "Tanooki!")
This MOANA film is not that. This is not a genuine, creative attempt to re-interpret a cartoon in live-action. This is just a dimmer, shittier cartoon, sometimes with actors cosplaying on a green screen. This is a bad Xerox of someone else's actual art. This fucking sucks.
November 17, 2025 at 11:59 PM
This MOANA film is not that. This is not a genuine, creative attempt to re-interpret a cartoon in live-action. This is just a dimmer, shittier cartoon, sometimes with actors cosplaying on a green screen. This is a bad Xerox of someone else's actual art. This fucking sucks.
Robert Altman's POPEYE is a 'live-action' version of a cartoon. That's a movie that's actually looking at comic-strip/animated source material and creatively thinking about how to do it with real people and sets. Same with Warren Beatty's DICK TRACY, or the 2002 SCOOBY-DOO. That's cool. That's fun.
November 17, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Robert Altman's POPEYE is a 'live-action' version of a cartoon. That's a movie that's actually looking at comic-strip/animated source material and creatively thinking about how to do it with real people and sets. Same with Warren Beatty's DICK TRACY, or the 2002 SCOOBY-DOO. That's cool. That's fun.
We should all be talking more about just how great the PREDATOR BADLANDS score is. So rare to even have *good* scores in big franchise films today, let alone ones this impactful and memorable, *let alone* ones that sound like they are part of the mise-en-scene, inseparable from the film’s world.
November 17, 2025 at 11:23 PM
We should all be talking more about just how great the PREDATOR BADLANDS score is. So rare to even have *good* scores in big franchise films today, let alone ones this impactful and memorable, *let alone* ones that sound like they are part of the mise-en-scene, inseparable from the film’s world.
Forgot I'd put this one in the wallpaper rotation, and it made my day when it came up. God CITY THE ANIMATION is so good. @seanthechapman.bsky.social took a clinically insane number of screenshots and they have absolutely upgraded my desktop game recently.
November 13, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Forgot I'd put this one in the wallpaper rotation, and it made my day when it came up. God CITY THE ANIMATION is so good. @seanthechapman.bsky.social took a clinically insane number of screenshots and they have absolutely upgraded my desktop game recently.
Absolutely jam-packed PURELY ACADEMIC podcast coming tomorrow, where we review *all* the games, talk big Doctor Who/One Piece/Halo news, and do my favorite Monthly Ten to date, in which Taylor Swift non-listener Sean Chapman imagines 10 Shakespeare inspired-Swift songs. It's bonkers.
November 13, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Absolutely jam-packed PURELY ACADEMIC podcast coming tomorrow, where we review *all* the games, talk big Doctor Who/One Piece/Halo news, and do my favorite Monthly Ten to date, in which Taylor Swift non-listener Sean Chapman imagines 10 Shakespeare inspired-Swift songs. It's bonkers.
Mamdani is going to implement Char Aznable law. New Yorkers will be required to do something extremely wicked.
November 9, 2025 at 3:20 AM
Mamdani is going to implement Char Aznable law. New Yorkers will be required to do something extremely wicked.
November Criterion sale means at last my Wes Anderson collection is complete again (now with some 4K discs!). Amazing cover art on both of these, and there are full large posters of both inside (separate from the liner notes!). The Isle of Dogs one is by Katsuhiro Otomo! Excited to hang them up.
November 7, 2025 at 7:06 PM
November Criterion sale means at last my Wes Anderson collection is complete again (now with some 4K discs!). Amazing cover art on both of these, and there are full large posters of both inside (separate from the liner notes!). The Isle of Dogs one is by Katsuhiro Otomo! Excited to hang them up.
My SHIN GODZILLA 4K set arrived from the Godzilla store. This is a recreation of the Japanese 4K deluxe set, and it’s super cool to have. My favorite part so far is the insert that very precisely lists the extremely granular changes made between theaters and home video.
November 7, 2025 at 4:17 PM
My SHIN GODZILLA 4K set arrived from the Godzilla store. This is a recreation of the Japanese 4K deluxe set, and it’s super cool to have. My favorite part so far is the insert that very precisely lists the extremely granular changes made between theaters and home video.
Colorado has an absurd state constitution that requires all taxes be put to a vote, which means it's extremely hard to raise revenue. But measures LL and MM directly aimed at the wealthy, with clear ballot language explaining who would pay. Both passed in a landslide - there's a clear lesson here!
November 5, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Colorado has an absurd state constitution that requires all taxes be put to a vote, which means it's extremely hard to raise revenue. But measures LL and MM directly aimed at the wealthy, with clear ballot language explaining who would pay. Both passed in a landslide - there's a clear lesson here!
The margin of victory in Virginia and NJ are much much bigger than any polls were predicting. NJ was polling within a couple of points and Virginia was high single digits. In reality NJ is 12-13 points and Virginia ~15. Some of the biggest polling misses in favor of Dems in the Trump era.
November 5, 2025 at 4:13 AM
The margin of victory in Virginia and NJ are much much bigger than any polls were predicting. NJ was polling within a couple of points and Virginia was high single digits. In reality NJ is 12-13 points and Virginia ~15. Some of the biggest polling misses in favor of Dems in the Trump era.
—Wants a Nobel Prize
—Also wants people to suffer
—Wants to add outrageous taxes for no reason
Power from CHAINSAW MAN has the same politics as Trump
—Also wants people to suffer
—Wants to add outrageous taxes for no reason
Power from CHAINSAW MAN has the same politics as Trump
November 3, 2025 at 6:56 PM
—Wants a Nobel Prize
—Also wants people to suffer
—Wants to add outrageous taxes for no reason
Power from CHAINSAW MAN has the same politics as Trump
—Also wants people to suffer
—Wants to add outrageous taxes for no reason
Power from CHAINSAW MAN has the same politics as Trump
Was trying to find when we last had a World Series game 7 go to extra innings, and wound up with the most spectacular, hilariously wrong AI overview of all time.
This is the first AI generated work I would happily call “art.”
This is the first AI generated work I would happily call “art.”
November 2, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Was trying to find when we last had a World Series game 7 go to extra innings, and wound up with the most spectacular, hilariously wrong AI overview of all time.
This is the first AI generated work I would happily call “art.”
This is the first AI generated work I would happily call “art.”