Fin: Why I’m on Bluesky- and sticking with X too

Also: The CCA Documentary Awards, a documentary nobody wants, Lena Dunham’s FTX, Bridget Jones’ Peacock, and more from this week’s notes column.

Through some combination of Trump winning the election and the realization that Elon Musk would serve as his right-hand man, it’s been a huge two weeks for the Twitter/X alternative Bluesky. In one 24-hour period this week, Bluesky added over a million users- including most of the people I know and follow online, including the bulk of what used to be called “Film Twitter.” 

I joined Bluesky earlier this year — follow me here if you don’t already – back when you still needed an invite code. I’ve been spending a bit more time there lately, especially now that so many of my mutuals are posting there now. I’ve also set up a Bluesky account for the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, of which I am the co-founder and social media manager. 

But I’m not ready to give up on X completely, and I’m planning to spend time at both for the foreseeable future, here’s why. 

There’s a lot, to be clear, to like about Bluesky. The vibe feels a lot like early Twitter, in that it’s a bit of a smaller neighborhood, or rather a collection of them. I can follow a lot of the people who aren’t on Twitter anymore who I missed, while the “Starter Pack” thing is a fantastic innovation; X’s innovations tend to make it worse and not better.

I like that Bluesky isn’t openly hostile to outbound links, the way X and Facebook are. (Bluesky, with its new users, also tends to crash occasionally, and I joked they should bring back the Fail Whale for such occasions.) 

I also really appreciate a lot of the things that Bluesky doesn’t have: Horrifically bad ads. Nazis. Violent street fight videos. Racist and antisemitic screeds by assholes I specifically remember being deservedly banned from the old Twitter. AI slop. Long, gross threads about the glory of Rhodesia. And perhaps most importantly, content by people I don’t follow, and stuff served to me that I didn’t ask for and I’m not interested in. 

These algorithms that don’t do the job they’re supposed to, is something that’s not only ruined Twitter/X but also Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. And that starts with Elon Musk- I have to be greeted by his latest dumb thoughts every time I log on, even though I don’t follow Elon and never have. Doesn’t he have five companies to run, as well as a fake government agency? 

That said, I’m not ready to give up completely on X, for a simple reason: There are just more people on there, and more kinds of people. And from a film discussion standpoint, it’s still where the action is (well, there and Letterboxd.) 

For instance: The movie Emilia Perez landed on Netflix yesterday, after a theatrical run that lasted a few weeks. It’s a terrible, ridiculous film, and I knew people would be making fun of it as soon as it was widely available. X is where those discussions happened, where I knew I could search “Emilia Perez” and find some hilarious commentary. Bluesky might get there eventually, but it’s not there yet. 

I’ve also found, in the Elon era, that the key to X is Lists. Make lists of the people you want to see, and you can for the most part bypass the bad stuff. 

The other issue with Bluesky? It seems to be, at this point, filled entirely with liberals, including a disproportionate amount of journalists. Yes, I am both, and it’s good to be surrounded with my people. But luesky, in its present incarnation, is a bit of an echo chamber, and while a land of no one right of center certainly has an appeal to some, such cloistering might not be the healthiest thing, in the immediate aftermath of liberals being on the receiving end of an election blowout. 

Will Bluesky be the “liberal” social network and X the “conservative” one, in the tradition of MSNBC and Fox News? We’re heading in that direction, I fear. 

So yes, call me platform-agnostic for now. 

Among the Documentarians 

I went up to New York last weekend for the annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards, which are fast becoming one of my favorite nights on the annual awards calendar. 

Documentary filmmakersa and producers are just fascinating people and a completely different type of person than everyone else in the entertainment industry. I’ve gone to this show for three years now and I don’t think I’ve ever been seated next to people who weren’t absolutely fascinating. 

In traditional CCA fashion, the winners were a pair of celebrity-focused docs, with Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story and Will & Harper tying for best documentary honors — you can read my reviews of both films here — with Super/Man winning in all six categories in which it was nominated. The also-fantastic Sugarcane, headed to Hulu next month, won for best political documentary and best true-crime documentary. 

Probably two-thirds of the presenters and winners said something about either the awards show being a healing experience after last week’s election or pointing out the importance, now more than ever, of documentary filmmaking. Speaking of which…