Radheyan Simonpillai

Film Critic at CTV's @YourMorning.
Pop Culture Columnist on @CBCRadio.
Contributor @guardian @globeandmail and more.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

Getting into negotiating identity through dance in a big epic conversation with Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Hasan Minhaj in Time Magazine, with exclusive photos to boot.

Best of the Best is on Netflix today.

https://t.co/GhLNDtBoOy

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@RdotChung He definitely woke up this morning on the wrong side of the bed.

[Britt Caron @briketysplit]

Stark differences in demographics from the photos of these 2 parties.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

If there's an Oliver, Olivier or Olivera Chow out there, please declare yourself before the next election.

[Toronto Man @MansToronto]

Brad is from the East end and no one likes him there #TOpoli

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

*Braedon. Autocorrect again.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

Brandon Chow coming in third is insanity.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@jtohen @colbyhall That wouldn't have proved anything since she only admitted that Billy handles all that. And he asked her to get Billy to ... unhandle it I guess.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

Spoiler: Loved You Can See Everything. But I'd like to see discussion, as I've been having privately with friends, about all the bros (Fielder, Oppenheim, A24) balking at Elizabeth Holmes potentially profiting from her story, meanwhile Fielder, another subject of the doc, does.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@CoreyAtad @zekemag18 @colbyhall That's actually the thing that makes me doubt my whole argument. 😅

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@CoreyAtad @zekemag18 @colbyhall I get all that. I loved that the movie exposed all that and still made room for some empathy. I really do love the movie as we've been saying for a week. I'm saying there was just one degree of kicking them while they were down that made me side-eye Fielder and Oppy.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@CoreyAtad @zekemag18 @colbyhall And it's the part where Oppenheim and Fielder get rich off that satisfaction that has been nagging at me, not the part where she doesn't get the money per se.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@CoreyAtad @zekemag18 @colbyhall Still don't. I don't see the need for knock on punishment when she's serving time for crimes that I see so many men get away with (including Elon, who the movie gestures to, and whose cars have killed people, and whose manipulation of the public has been devastating).

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@CoreyAtad @zekemag18 @colbyhall Totally accounting for it. Feel differently about how satisfying the turnabout was.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@CoreyAtad @zekemag18 @colbyhall Exactly. It's just little details in how he fights against it that makes me look skeptically at him, and the whole enterprise, possibly beyond the ways the movie intends. Again, I'm not certain of any of this. These were things I was interrogating on second watch.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@CoreyAtad @zekemag18 @colbyhall Oh yah. This is def where we see it differently. I definitely think Fielder turns the raw goods here into the most epic episode of his show.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@CoreyAtad @zekemag18 @colbyhall But enough so that she puts herself in these positions, and everyone's willing to play along with it.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@CoreyAtad @zekemag18 @colbyhall Like there's something about everything you're describing, the delusion of it all, to that makes me think she's unwell. Even [redacted] says it. And that doesn't excuse the crimes. But it does give me some guilt around the entertainment value of the film.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@CoreyAtad @zekemag18 @colbyhall She's also potentially unwell. And what's icky (and I say this while still loving the movie) is the game they make at the end of the profit-participation, how that becomes a goal as some way to feel leveraged against Holmes manipulations. It's great entertainment.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@jtohen @colbyhall One of the last thing he says to her is she could still give up the profit participation.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@CoreyAtad @zekemag18 @colbyhall Regardless of the circumstances (including who she is and her decision to have kids while facing prison time), a mother being ripped from her kids is a tragedy.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@zekemag18 @colbyhall I wrote this elsewhere, but it's icky the way the last act becomes that episode of Nathan For You (which is referenced in the movie) where he strings people along until they finally give up on receiving a rebate that was promised to them.

[Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad]

@zekemag18 @colbyhall Docs in general can be predatory (Possible Love is a great examination of this). In this case Fielder takes someone's tragedy, turns their story into his own social experiment, and games the whole conversation around the profit participation so we're rooting against the audacity.