You Tilt When You Should Withdraw

"What a pair we make, huh? Both trying to hide who we are, both unable to do so. Your men love you. If I knew nothing else about you, that would be enough. But you also tilt when you should withdraw... and that is knightly, too." — Prince Edward, A Knight's Tale

A few months ago, a dear friend lovingly told me that she'd never met anyone who fought harder to stay in our industry. I'd laughed at it then, already stressed out of my mind but unaware of how much worse things would get both personally and professionally.

It's odd, talking about entertainment and the trivialities of individual strife while the President of the United States of America threatens genocide on social media. Still, as some of you may have noticed, if you wait for the right time to send a newsletter in our current day and age, you will find yourself weeks removed without having shared a thing. When said newsletter is a part of your job (that some kind people even pay you for) that's not really an option.

Last week, I visited the Gardena Cinema for the first time. I immediately fell in love, though that's probably a story for another time. Still, if you're in the L.A. area — make the drive.

I was there to see A Knight's Tale, a film that I have adored since 2001 and will continue to be enamored by 'till I am no longer on this mortal plane. What I love about revisiting old favorites is, when they're real good, something new will strike you each time. Maybe you missed it the first hundred times you watched it, or perhaps you're just in a spot in your life when something hits you harder than it did before.

For me, that was Prince Edward's line about tilting when you should withdraw. Everywhere I turn, smarter, more talented women than I are leaving or trying to leave our limping industry. Journalism — political, pop culture, and everything in between — has been struggling for some time, only to find itself more broken than ever in 2026. It's dire, and I can't fault anyone for trying to find something safer. That doesn't mean it doesn't break my heart, though.

Women have been fighting to have our voices heard in the pop culture (hell, any) space for as long as I've been a part of it. Many of us clawed to get where we are or were, and made sure to bring others along with us as we did. Now, the spaces we fought to build are shrinking at a breakneck pace and there once again seems to be no space for women at the table. Everywhere you turn, women and people of color are finding themselves laid off in droves will the same straight white men are able to maintain their staff positions. No hate toward individuals — I love a good many of those straight white men — but the systemic issue is undeniable. It's a tale as old as time that manages to sting even worse as the meager progress we achieved starts to slip through our fingers.

And so there I sat, in a gorgeous theater built in the '40s sitting next to one of my best friends with a bucket full of snacks sitting on my lap and tears streaming down my face as Prince Edward delivers his stupid little line in a campy little movie that never should have worked but is beloved by many. I couldn't not think of my friend's remark about fighting to stay where I am any more than I couldn't help but think about all of the bright, brilliant women making career shifts to stay afloat.

The fact is, I worked my ass off to get where I am, and I'm not going anywhere (not that there's anywhere to go, anyway). I hope that, perhaps, some of my sisters and nonbinary siblings might eventually consider the same. I don't want a pop culture space owned by nothing but straight white men. We've had it, it's boring as hell, and I have no interest in returning to it.

And so I will tilt, when I should withdraw.

In spirit of that, I come to you after a week of moderating for the recently released Faces of Death. I've moderated plenty over the years, but this is the first time I've had the opportunity to do 5 Q&A's in a row with the same team for the same film in such a short span of time. The challenge of keeping it fresh without offering a bunch of repeat questions while still keeping each new audience engaged was harder than I expected, but welcome. Q1 was dire in ways that I've already discussed and others that I'll never be able to articulate, so it was nice to find myself with a bit of a puzzle to crack.

Faces of Death almost didn't get released, and the team (Isa Mazzei and Dacre Montgomery pictured above, as well as Barbie Ferreira, Daniel Goldhaber and the rest of the crew) fought like hell to make it happen. Which is to say, get your ass to a theater if you can.

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