It’s one of the most traditional grandes against a team that feels it has matched or surpassed those traditional teams on the field and off. América and Tigres will play for the Liga MX title. The teams actually haven’t battled for a trophy that often, but there was a spate of title games between the two teams that make them feel like viejos conocidos. T… ncG1vNJzZmiflamwsLrCmpqanpWZe7TBwayrmpubY7CwuY6pZrKnpWKuqK3Ip2SapZWntqStjK2goKqVqHqntc2dZLCZqQ%3D%3D

I really love this film, as did those I watched it with. However, it's very much not made in a mainstream way, despite its mainstream production values, so it will never have a mass audience. I think the problem is that its main character is the sort of sensitive artist who most people will just not feel kinship with, plus it has an "outdated" 19th-century worldview. I'm glad that it was completed and released - truly a miracle.

Sometimes these newsletters come to me like a flash. I read or see something during the week, or connect two new dots in my own consciousness, and know: ah, that’s the dispatch for the week! But sometimes I get to Monday or Tuesday and I’m starring at the blank screen thinking I don’t have much to say, at least anything coherent and worthy of your precious time. In these moments, I try to take a breath and just let something come through.

As I was leaving Monday night’s press screening, I turned to the fellow critic walking next to me and mentioned how I thought the movie we’d just seen could easily be interpreted through a lens of Zen Buddhism, as an epic journey through delusion, suffering, and realization all the way to enlightenment. “Funny,” he replied. “I thought of it as a Catholic film. It’s all about grace.” So, yeah, we were talking about “Barbie” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2, in theaters Friday).

Well, I divided this essay into two parts because the first was getting too long, and now I think the second is twice as long. But that just means it’s twice as interesting. Then the report on the amazing incompetence of Sam Bankman at running FTX came out, and that was topical, so I wanted to publish my comments on that immediately. But I think I must publish this as hot on Bankman’s heels as his creditors because I want to hand it out in class tomorrow to talk about next week.