Be Careful Before You Judge Me for Laughing at the Movies
I always kind of hoped I might go viral on film Twitter—just not for the reason it ended up happening. I wish it was for my freelance writing instead of as part of the discourse about respectability politics around how audiences behave at the movies.
If you’ve ever attended film screenings for members of the press in New York City, you might have heard my easy-to-identify cackle (developed as a result of my autism and past speech therapy sessions) that sounds like a cross between Spongebob SquarePants’ best friend Patrick Star and a hyena.
Several critics, filmmakers, and industry stakeholders have told me that my rambunctious intonation is the pulse of this current moment in NYC film culture—and that it makes filmmakers enthusiastic about the reaction to their work, like when Ari Aster said my laugh “needs to be in his sound library.” At a recent talk with Todd Haynes at New York Film Festival, you could probably have made a drinking game out of spotting my distinctive laugh.