A dozen years ago, my friend Blake Gopnik and I launched Strictly Critical, a spirited Siskel-and-Ebert-style video series (minus the facile thumbs up/thumbs down ratings system) in which we debated art and its most important issues to our little hearts content—while consistently disagreeing, sometimes agreeing and most often agreeing to disagree.
In December of 2025, we revived our once regular exchanges in front of a live audience at the Ringling College of Art + Design. That debate, fed by what one interlocutor described as “hard and opposing positions on topics and works of art, but with a fun energy and mutual respect,” proved to be a straight shot of polemical epinephrine. Strictly Critical was thus reborn—on Substack: a place for hammer-and-tongs-style written exchanges, videos, audios and livestreams about the art and issues we very much care about.
To subscribe, simply click on the button below. To become a paid subscriber—we run up big costs on espressos and the occasional G&T—and you’ll get access to a beaucoup exclusive content.
Go ahead. You know you want to.
