Forrest Wickman

I spent months investigating a heinous crime: the wrongest bird in the history of cinema. Tonight the results of my investigation are in print for the first time. (🧵) slate.com/culture/2025/0…

Definitely making this for my Oscars watch party on Sunday.

me at Maya Rudolph’s Oh Mary

This is the close read of Bad Bunny’ Super Bowl performance that I wanted to read, from @jmrivera02. slate.com/culture/2026/0…

I swear I did nothing to force @Slate’s movie critic to put LISTERS on her list of the 10 best movies of 2025. slate.com/culture/2025/1…

“are you wearing the—“ “Elphaba’s sex cardigan? Yes, I am.”

@BirdBrklyn Consider female Ring-necked Duck? Hard to tell from your BOC photo, but that’s what I had with the young male yesterday, and I think I saw them together again earlier this morning, though admittedly I didn’t see the second one well.

Today in @Slate: CRITICISM'S BIGGEST STRAWMAN: Once & for all, here's what "poptimism" was & wasn't, and why people keep blaming it for everything they dislike in culture. Most recently the esteemed Kelefa Sanneh, often (wrongly) said to have started it! slate.com/culture/2025/0…

Picture books are not the same as when we were little. In many ways, they’re better. slate.com/culture/2025/0…

LISTERS is the real deal: the funniest, most horrifying movie I've seen since WEAPONS. @TheBirdist explains: slate.com/culture/2025/0…

An important scoop from @LouisStaples cc @PulitzerPrizes. slate.com/culture/2025/0…

@MsAnjaliB @DiscussingFilm I think this is what you’re looking for:

@DiscussingFilm On a scale of 1-10 how scary is it?

Zach Cregger’s ‘WEAPONS’ opens with $70M worldwide. • Budget was $38M • One of the biggest global openings for an original film in the past decade Read our review: bit.ly/WeaponsDF

If you, like me, frequently find your life ruined by a horror movie, you can find all of the other movies and shows we’ve rated here: slate.com/tag/scaredy-sc…

NOSFERATU also scored high in several categories (this was, of course, pre-thirst). slate.com/culture/2024/1…

Since 2019, @Slate has scientifically rated the scariness of nearly 50 different major horror movies, with charts. I'm not sure any movie has ever scored as high as WEAPONS. slate.com/culture/2025/0…

@CREID2852 @ditzkoff @TheDavidZucker @thelonelyisland We thought about this, and I think there may be something to it, but I think the strongest counterargument is that the genre’s commercial peak was in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, when the Austin Powers and Scary Movie films were making nine-figures.

@ForrestW @ditzkoff @TheDavidZucker @thelonelyisland Underrated reason why spoofs declined a lot after 1990/1993. The Simpsons learned to integrate pop culture jokes within the TV sitcom and elbow out spoof movies which by early 90s quality was declining.

The spoof movie was one of our most popular genres—and then, for years, it vanished. Who killed it? Det. @DItzkoff investigates, talking to original Naked Gun director @TheDavidZucker, new Naked Gun director Akiva Schaffer of @thelonelyisland, and more. slate.com/culture/2025/0…

@AlexParkerDC @chucktodd @ditzkoff @TheDavidZucker @thelonelyisland I'll tell you what I can say about the new Naked Gun: It was very funny and I laughed a lot.

@ForrestW @chucktodd @ditzkoff @TheDavidZucker @thelonelyisland That there were "rules" for the ZAZ movies is interesting, probably a lot harder to make than they seemed. Tho I remember Ebert said these were his least favorite movies to review, what can you say other than "It was funny and I laughed?"

@chucktodd @AlexParkerDC @ditzkoff @TheDavidZucker @thelonelyisland I can't say that that Van Wilder, specifically, came up in Dave's reporting, but the many other bad comedies of that era certainly did.

@ForrestW @AlexParkerDC @ditzkoff @TheDavidZucker @thelonelyisland I blame Van Wilder

@AlexParkerDC @chucktodd @ditzkoff @TheDavidZucker @thelonelyisland The contempt for Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer is ... bottomless, but David Zucker, at least, doesn't blame them.

@chucktodd @ForrestW @ditzkoff @TheDavidZucker @thelonelyisland Probably the endless "Scary Movie" sequels and spinoffs, each one exponentially worse in quality.

@ChaseMit @ditzkoff @TheDavidZucker @thelonelyisland Discussed at length in the piece!

@ForrestW @ditzkoff @TheDavidZucker @thelonelyisland …i mean it’s friedberg and seltzer, right