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Things We Hate and Love Online This Week

It’s our weekly verdict on things that exist (Léa Seydoux) things that do not (Paul Schrader’s AI girlfriend), and things that fall somewhere in between (“EsDeeKid”).

By Adam Christopher Smith

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Welcome to Rated and Slated, the column that is terminally online so you don’t have to be.

I’ve always suspected that me and Léa Seydoux would have a lot to talk about.

This week, Léa told an interviewer how she kind of fell into acting because “the only way I found to exist was to have my image printed on a film.” I pretty much ended up in journalism for the same reason: I needed to see my name in print to know I was real. The only difference is, the proof of her existence is movies like Blue Is the Warmest Color, while all I’ve got is a book of decaying cuttings from newspapers, which are gradually going out of print.

unless you’re French, it’s near impossible to describe this to anyone. this is the Gallic version of seeing someone go full Super Saiyan. https://t.co/VVy9HnPxuY— Adam Piron (@adam_piron) May 19, 2026

unless you’re French, it’s near impossible to describe this to anyone. this is the Gallic version of seeing someone go full Super Saiyan. https://t.co/VVy9HnPxuY

But maybe existence is overrated anyway? After all, we’ve got award-winning directors like Mathieu Kassovitz predicting that “in two years, nobody will care if actors are AI or not.” And writing has now reached the stage of reality collapse where books about truth in the age of AI contain quotes that were… made up by AI.

It’s hard to know what to believe anymore, but God knows it’s a boom time for opinions. So here are some things that I’m glad exist. And some others that I wish didn’t. If, indeed, any of them can be said to be real.

THE RESURRECTION OF CINEMA

Massive walkouts from the new Nicolas winding refn movie at Cannes… we have never been more back pic.twitter.com/jHtTLB3sHn— ً (@helenshivered) May 18, 2026

Massive walkouts from the new Nicolas winding refn movie at Cannes… we have never been more back pic.twitter.com/jHtTLB3sHn

Nicolas Winding Refn claims that cinema is being resurrected, as going to the movies is the only thing that can bring us together in these harsh and peculiar times. That’s bad news for Chelsea footballer Cole Palmer who just revealed that he hates going to the cinema because the “TV is too big.” Well mate, find the largest screen you can and strap yourself—Her Private Hell is going to be your own personal salvation. Early online reviews are calling it “as vacuous and idiotic as any film can possibly be”; “Refn delivers [a] flaccid piece of coffee-table fetishism, drenched in neon-slop aesthetic”; “best watched under the influence and no other way.” Son, are you ready for your new life as an aesthete?

BEING A SINCERE, PASSIONATE WRITER USING TECHNOLOGY TO EXPLORE........

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